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More whispering in a language I don’t recognize, but somehow still understand The words burst forth anxiously The darkness fades, and the world I’ht I have to squint to see A e open roo the walls

"I--I don’t knoent wrong," a voice says, clearly shaken

The roo and wide, the size of a football field The acrid smell of sulfur burns my nostrils, makes my eyes water The air is hot and stuffy And then I see theures shrouded in shadows, oneeven froot away I don’t kno"

I move forward I feel the sort of calm that sometimes co can really hurt you Step by step, nearing the growing shadows

"All of the with three piken and two krauls," the s hands beside the larger man

"We had them We were about to--," comes the voice, but the other cuts him off He scans the air to see what he’s already sensed I stop, stand motionless, and hold my breath And then he finds me A shudder runs up my spine

"John," soer figure comes towards me He towers over me, twenty feet tall,like the others’, but cut short instead His skin is tan Our eyes stay locked as he slowly approaches Thirty feet away, then twenty He stops ten feet short My pendant grows heavy and the chain cuts into rotesque, purplish scar

"I’ve been expecting you," he says, his voice level and calht arm and pulls a sword fro its shape while the metal turns nearly liquid The wound inthe battle in Ohio, screaain I fall toti about," I say in a language I’ve never spoken before

I want to leave immediately, wherever this place is I try to rise, but it’s as if I’round

"Don’t you?" he asks

"John," I hear again froadorian doesn’t seeaze that holds my own I can’t look away

"I’m not supposed to be here," I say My voice sounds watery Everything di else

"I cana figure eight with the sword, leaving a stark white streak hanging in the air where the blade passes through And then he charges, his sword held high and cracking with power He swings, and it comes down like a bullet, ai I can do to stop the blow froain

My eyes whip open Two hands grip me hard by the shoulders I’m covered in sweat and out of breath I focus first on Sa over me, then on Six, with her stark hazel eyes that so beside h I just woke her, which I probably did

"What was that all about?" Sa the vision dissipate, and I take in s The roo in the sa fro beside me, and neither she nor I have left this place since we arrived, relying on Sam to head out for food and supplies A shabby motel room with two full beds off the main street in Trucksville, North Carolina To rent the room, Sam had used one of the seventeen driver’s licenses Henri created for me before he was killed, and luckily the oldTV to study the photograph Situated on the northwestern edge of the state, the inia and Tennessee, a location chosen iven the extent of our injuries But our wounds have slowly healed, and our strength is finally returning

"You were talking in a foreign language I’ve never heard before," Sam says "I think you adorian," Six corrects him "And even a little Loric"

"Really?" I ask "That’s totally weird"

Six walks to theand pulls back the right side of the curtains "What were you drea about?"

I shake , but I wasn’t dreauess, and they were about them We were about to have a battle; but I was, I don’t know, too weak or confused or so at the TV "What?"