Two icy blue eyes stared up at a grey metallic ceiling, the pupils at their centre dilated wide in the dim light of the room. 807Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWwUA6s8kwv
Apollo sat up on his bed as a rushing sound filled his ears. He stuck his little finger into his left ear to try and alleviate the noise, wiggling it around vigorously. What a strange sensation, he thought. How would he get used to all this? The light. The sounds. The feelings. All the stuff in his head. It was all was so overwhelming. 807Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNT4wfjAgae
A shadow appeared at his feet, stretching from the square of light that shone through the window of his cabin door. With a subtle click, the door opened, and a tall thin man entered. Apollo winced as he switched on the light, a bright white dome that bulged from the ceiling above, like a milky zit.807Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9bJYF188sA
The man was very pale, his skin much lighter than Apollo’s. His hair too was drained of colour, straight and thin on the top, slicked backed in a poor attempt to cover his scalp.807Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJBDW22YPOM
“Do you feel anything?” he asked, walking towards Apollo. 807Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ73Za30m4i2
The man was tall but thin, his body framed in an old grey suit, stained in places with flecks of food that made him look both rough around the edges and dangerously angular at the same time, like an old rusty knife.
“Hungry. Very, hungry” Apollo replied quickly.807Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxdhnE4H8hk
The man sat next to Apollo on his bed and stared into his eyes. The man too had blue eyes, only not as brilliant as Apollo’s. 807Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYfUismqkWJ
“No, I mean about her. Do you feel her presence, is she awake yet?”
“I don’t know.” 807Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX73yR6DbhX
After he’d woken up it’d been the first thing the man had asked him. Where is she? Do you know!? His voice had been urgent. Apollo hadn’t known what to say. He’d woken up in the dark and the cold. He was confused and hadn’t known where he himself was, let alone where whoever she was.807Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE81nTjrjaL
“You will know,” he said, standing up. “When she wakes up. She’s going to be confused and overwhelmed, just like you were. Except I’m not going to be there to help her like I was for you. But you will feel her soon, Apollo. Just like you feel your hunger. Only fainter… for now.”807Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8uc830eGqm
“I will feel what she is feeling?” The man had told Apollo this before, but he still did not understand. How could he feel what another person felt?807Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4fM3LIx53X
It was true, he could guess what the man felt. Not that he could put it into words. It was a kind of a knowledge. An understanding of what was going through his thoughts, boiled down into a feeling of his own. If Apollo had tried to pin it down at that moment, then perhaps he would have said tiredness or anger but also determination and hope too. But for Apollo such words didn’t really capture how these feelings danced around each other. Instead he had come to think of what he sensed as more akin to a colour. Colours were more exact. Blurred, but nuanced in their description.807Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPNgMGNCq30
But understanding what the man was feeling was reliant on seeing him. How was he supposed to know anything about a girl he had never even met, or even seen?807Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡh1iUilQk6h
807Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXT5neH5Uyt
“You are linked Apollo,” replied the man. “You will always have the ability to know what is happening to her.”807Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPx20StZH5g
“But how?”807Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡh7HXoGPVXH
“I cannot explain that to you yet, I can only tell you that you will understand when it happens.”807Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI9vXoGOJAU
“And then what?”807Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlJpH0oEeez
“And then we set out to find her, before someone else does.”807Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYKlzK4OUgT
The man smiled at Apollo and held out his hand. “Come,” he said, abruptly. “Let’s eat. I’ve something I think you’ll like. They used to make it back in the old days, it’s called beans on toast.”807Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxCfLAKS4cc
***
One eye opened, and then other.807Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLsZUQG0fNw
807Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡisFXKXVwrv
It was so dark.807Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnf0JjAfkW2
