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. 775Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3hv94TrTdZ
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. 775Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyHmgQUvF2j
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.775Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgkJLzOTIo4
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.775Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMikyxE6wz5
“Do you feel anything?” he asked, walking towards Apollo. 775Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7ZVF1zkSyR
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.775Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡagSBX5VKEv
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. 775Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCw0L6VC3E9
“No, I mean about her. Do you feel her presence, is she awake yet?”
“I don’t know.” 775Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAsOux5N9Ou
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.775Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUv96K0xJR3
“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.”775Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡstfNsK1XtL
“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?775Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡevpaQn74Fv
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.775Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcXUdT1f1Gc
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?775Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaU451Q3QD5
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“You are linked Apollo,” replied the man. “You will always have the ability to know what is happening to her.”775Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlsiLJU0FVd
“But how?”775Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5akG9z08YW
“I cannot explain that to you yet, I can only tell you that you will understand when it happens.”775Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfNrHF3tAlm
“And then what?”775Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcmWsZdpexf
“And then we set out to find her, before someone else does.”775Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmai2MBbi6K
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.”775Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUe3gp3uChB
***
One eye opened, and then other.775Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuQjMD9wX6H
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It was so dark.775Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡniYDgFCo46
