Cricket opened his eyes to find that he was facing the ceiling. For a moment, he panicked - where was he? But after blinking a few times, he vaguely remembered Opal, the kind young doctor, helping him through the halls back to his room. She had laid him on his cot and left without a word, and Cricket must have drifted into a dreamless sleep.

The more Cricket tried to wake himself up, the more he realized how foggy his mind was. He couldn't remember where he had been beforehand or what had happened to him. He knew that he must have been taken out of his room by one of the doctors, but when and why? What had they done to him? Why couldn't he remember any of it? 

And why did his whole body feel heavy, like he was weighted down? 

Slowly, Cricket tried to push himself up into a sitting position. His body disagreed with him, and pain flared up his arms and chest. Groaning, he went limp against the cot underneath him, closing his eyes and gritting his teeth in pain. 

Why did everything hurt?

Cricket must have dozed back off into a hazy sleep, because when he opened his eyes again, the room was dark. For a moment, he thought that someone had put something over his eyes and was dragging him through the halls, but a few seconds later his eyes adjusted to the darkness. His head was still swimming, which was causing the uneasy, swaying feeling even though he was stationary. 

Suddenly, Ember's voice broke the silence. "Cricket? Are you there?" Her words were barely a whisper, but Cricket jumped like she was right next to him. 

With much effort, he managed to turn his head toward the sound of her voice - and was met with empty space and the wall a distance away. Sadly, Cricket sighed and closed his eyes, not bothering to turn his head back. Just moving it had taken so much strength, strength that he didn't have. 

"Cricket?" Ember said again from the other side of the wall, her voice shaky and worried. "Cricket, if you're in there, please answer me. I want to know if you're okay. Please." 

Swallowing against his dry throat, Cricket opened his mouth to reply. "I'm here," he said hoarsely, his voice scratchy like he'd been screaming for hours. "I'm here," he said again, louder this time so she could hear him.

Oddly, Ember's gasp was loud enough for Cricket to hear even though he wasn't near the wall. "Oh my gosh," his friend breathed, her voice trembling. "Oh my gosh, you're there. Cricket, they took you away yesterday... I thought you were never coming back..." 

"I'm here," Cricket repeated, trying to keep his voice reassuring even though he didn't want to speak. He wanted to close his eyes and go back to sleep, but he knew had to be there for Ember.

"Are you okay?" Ember asked quietly, her voice full of dread. 

Cricket hesitated, wondering how to answer. Everything was hurting with a dull, aching pain; his mind still felt foggy and inaccessible; he was more tired than he'd ever been after a visit to the scientists; and he just felt... wrong. 

"I think so," he said instead. "I'm just... really tired." At least that part was true. He wanted to tell Ember, but in truth, even he didn't know what was wrong with him. What he did know, he didn't want to tell his friend in fear of worrying her. 

"Okay," Ember said, her voice dubious. 

When Cricket woke up again, he was strong enough to sit up. When he realized this, he sat up so fast that he almost flung himself off his cot. Pain shot through his body and dizziness through his head, and he slammed his eyes closed against them. 

When the pain and lightheadedness subsided, Cricket opened his eyes and glanced around him. He was in his room, sitting up on his cot, and the lights were on above him. There was a plate of untouched food by the doorway, but it looked old and unappetizing. 

Suddenly, Cricket realized that there was a furry tail draping down the side of the cot. For a few moments, Cricket didn't really comprehend as he stared at it in confusion; and then, he registered that the tail was his. 

Cricket screamed and scrambled backward as if he could get away from it, falling off his cot and crawling back frantically. Pain again sailed through his chest and head, but he didn't react this time. 

"Cricket?!" Ember's voice abruptly yelled from behind him, and Cricket whirled around to find that he was near the wall that separated them. 

He couldn't respond. He could only stare at the tail, the one that was twitching across the floor frantically in reaction to his panic. Confused and frightened, Cricket lifted his hands to study them - and found that they were covered with dark brown fur and tipped with sharp claws. 

Another scream rose in his throat, but he clamped his mouth shut and stared at his hands as if they weren't his own.

But they weren't. 

Were they? 

He didn't have furry hands. He wasn't an animal. This was a dream. Cricket was a human! What was wrong with him? Why did he look like this? What had they done to him?!

"Cricket!" Ember cried again, her voice frantic and hopeful. "Cricket, are you awake?" 

For a bit, Cricket could only open and close his mouth. He wanted to answer her, to tell her that he was here and okay; but he couldn't look away from his hands. And was he really okay? 

Finally, he found his voice. "I-I'm here. I'm awake." He was shaking like a leaf, and his voice was too.

"Oh, thank the stars above," Ember exclaimed, her voice breaking with relief. "You're awake. You're awake." 

Confusion was what made Cricket look away from himself, though he didn't really have anything else to peer at to answer his questions. His eyes found the wall where Ember was undoubtedly sitting, but he couldn't see her. 

"Wh-What?" he stammered, trying to keep himself calm. He didn't want Ember to realize that something was wrong. He didn't want to tell her. How could he tell her when he didn't even know himself? 

"Cricket, you haven't answered me for three days!" Ember said, but her voice didn't have any sort of accusation in it. It just held worry and relief. "After you got back the first night, you didn't wake up. I mean, you said you were really tired... But I didn't think you'd sleep for three days." She laughed a little.

Cricket's spirits immediately lightened, even though he was shocked and confused. Ember was still there with him, which meant that everything would be okay.

But what was Cricket? 

~

Cricket's memory was interrupted by a bloodcurdling scream tearing through the air. As his eyes flew open, his heart leapt to his throat and he threw himself off his cot with a jerk. He slammed painfully onto the floor, but he was immediately sitting up without paying much attention to the already forming bruise on his arm. Since his mind was still half asleep, he couldn't tell where the scream had come from - his room or somewhere else. 

Gasping, he frantically spun around in a circle, his eyes having already adjusted to the darkness. When he found nothing but his overturned cot in the room, he took a long breath and forced himself to calm down.

Until another scream made him jump again, the voice shattering the silence and slicing like a knife. Squeezing his eyes shut, Cricket lifted his hands and clamped them over his ears, bringing his knees to his chest and curling forward. He should have been used to screams like this - almost every other day, someone voiced their pain, trauma, or anger - but whenever a prisoner did this, Cricket didn't sleep the whole night. 

As another shrill wail cut through the halls, sudden realization hit Cricket in the gut like a sledgehammer. 

The screaming was coming from Ember's room. 

Cricket threw himself to his feet, spinning toward the wall separating him and his best friend. Terror gripped his heart in its icy hold, causing his stomach to twist in panicked pain as he rushed toward the wall. He slammed his fists repeatedly into the solid barrier, frantic tears stinging his eyes. 

"Ember!" he screamed desperately, pounding on the wall to get her attention, to realize that she was okay, to hear her, anything. "Ember!! Ember, answer me!! Please, Ember, stop it! Ember!!" As he struck the wall over and over again with the sides of his hands, he realized that it was cracking and crumbling. 

Cricket paused only for a moment before stepping back and slamming his knuckles into the barricade. Anger - for Ember's sake - and determination - he would take down anyone that had the audacity to hurt his best friend - took over his fear, and he threw as much force as he could into his punches, ignoring the pain in his knuckles. 

Before he could break through the wall, he heard the familiar bang of Ember's door opening sharply. Frantic terror gripped him again, and although he wanted to break through the wall, he chose to stop and listen. If anything happened, then he would collapse the wall and rush to his friend's aid. 

"What are you screaming about, blasted girl?" a male voice demanded from the other side, and Cricket recognized the voice as the fierce guard named Kory Robinson. Kory was a harsh young man, one that Cricket hated more than feared. He was haughty, grumpy, and arrogant in almost everything he did. If anything annoyed him even in the slightest, he saw to it that the annoyance was punished or silenced. 

If he was the one who answered Ember's screams, there was sure to be trouble. 

Ember's voice grew louder and more intense. Cricket's terror held him frozen in place so that he could only listen.

"Shut up, would you?" Kory yelled angrily at the shrieking girl. His command was followed by a sharp crack and something falling to the floor. Ember's voice paused for a moment, but she resumed her wailing with more panic and gut-wrenching emotion. 

"What is wrong with you?" snapped Kory, and Cricket realized that his voice was lower to the ground, meaning he was probably leaning over Ember. "For heaven's sake, just shut up!" Another crack silenced Ember's screams, but once more, she voiced her anger and fright afterwards. 

Unbridled fury rose in Cricket's chest. Kory was beating Ember. 

Big mistake. 

Just as he pulled back his fist to begin pounding the wall again, Ember's screams suddenly cut off. Panic and rage struck his heart, but before Cricket could begin attacking the barricade, Kory's voice rose in a grunt of surprise. It was followed by a heavy thud that sounded like a body collapsing to the floor. 

Cricket's worry and wrath for his best friend blinded him momentarily, and before he realized it, the wall in front of him was crumbling away at his feet. Dust whirled through the air, obscuring Cricket's view of the room in front of him; but after a few moments it settled again.

And there she was. 

~

All right, second chapter!!

I finally updated this one!!

For a while, I kinda just forgot about it... 

Hehe, sorry to those who were possibly expectantly waiting for an update...

BUT I DID IT!!

And it's gonna go doooowwwwn-

Thanks for reading the next chapter of Free!

I hope you enjoyed!!

P3ac3!!!~~~