Chapter 2

Echo gets a boyfriend...
Touche, Oliver, touche
and he gets us lost in the forest.

{Echo}

I left my brother where we appeared and walked away towards the market. There were weird stuff on the stands, which I would love to know what these people used them for, but I thought it would be weird asking.

The oldest people were wearing strange clothes, but I liked them. I don't really know why, but they were cool. Looking at the jars on the stands a guy came hanging upside down in front of me.

«Dammit!» I yelped.

«Hey beautiful.» the guy said.

«I don't know you.» I replied.

«Well, that's too bad, isn't it? I'm Felix.» he extended his arm.

«Echo.» I said and shook it.

«You have a name as beautiful as yourself.»

«And you are a huge flirt.»

«Only when it comes to you.»

«That's weird. If I was back home I would be called a freak.»

«Back at your home people must be nuts.» he said and landed on his feet.

«That's what they would say about you.»

«And why is that?»

«For one, you would be talking to me.»

«But you're not home, are you?» he smirked and that's when I met the one. Yeah, I know, a little forward, aren't we? Just wait until the end of the story. You will then see I am not exaggerating at all. «So where are you from?»

«Away from here.» I replied.

«I'm not from around either. I come here once a week with my cousin.» we had started walking around.

«Where are you from?» I asked him.

«Away from here.» he smirked.

«Touche.»

After a while we ended up sitting on the side of a fountain. I don't normally trust people. Man, I barely trust my brother, but for some reason I trusted Felix. I believe at hate at first sight, because it is my everyday life. I only like my brother, Alfred (even though I was never able to look him in the eye again after the whole shapeshifter trouble) and, even though I hate to admit it, my mom. Yeah, she acts like I am a nutcase, but deep down I love her. And back then, this guy showed up out of nowhere (quite a lot like me, really) and I suddenly trusted him. And no, it is not because he flirted with me.

From the moment we went to Imyrth things started getting weirder and weirder. First off, the compass had stopped working. Secondly, it didn't feel like it did back home. The air felt different and everything looked strange.

«So your mom hates your guts?" he asked. It had been around forty minutes.

"Yeah, I guess you could say that.» I replied.

«Echo! What the hell are you doing?» I heard Oliver shout.

«Socializing.» I replied in a bored kind of way and went back to complaining about my mom.

«Since when?» my brother asked shocked.

"Shut up, I'm talking." I yelled and the rest is history.

We were sitting in a cold cave arguing.

«Oliver, I don't want to go home!»

«Just stop being so selfish! Mom just lost dad, you can't stay here!»

«Think again about why and how she lost him, then talk to me!»

«Can you both shut your mouths?» Felix and Celine's voices thundered in the cave.

«Fine.» I grumbled. Oliver was being a little unfair. I mean, nobody would miss me if I stayed behind. I had just found an escape and he was trying to force me back home. We had just found another dimension, was he not excited at all?

After around an hour in silence Felix and Celine started muttering to each other. I couldn't make out what they were talking about, but it looked serious.

Yeah, of course it was serious. We were being hunted down and we didn't even know why. That queen must have been more of a nutter than me.

«Everyone get up. We're leaving.» Felix said.

«Felix stop being stupid and listen to me! We can't just waltz out of here and go at my parents', what if we get tracked?» Celine argued.

«We won't! It is our best shot for now. It is far from downtown and we have nowhere else to go. If we leave now we will be there by dawn.»

«But we must go back home!» Oliver said and glared at me.

«Is the compass working yet?» Celine asked.

«What?» I asked and looked at the compass.

«Is it working?» she repeated.

«No. How did you know?»

«I just did. Whenever you use the necklace, the compass stops working because it needs to recharge. Traveling to another worlds uses up a lot of energy, don't you think?»

«And you thought of saying so now? You know, for a random girl we bumped into you seem to know a lot about what's going on.» I argued.

«Echo, I don't think this is the time for you to become all aggressive." Oliver said.

"So now that you know you can't go home whenever you want, you are okay with it. This is just unfair. Leave me alone, Oliver.»

«We need to go. However things are, you can't leave Imyrth until the compass recharges. Would you like to stay here and lose every chance of going home by being caught, or trust us and get out of this?» Celine said and I opened my mouth to reply, but Oliver didn't let me talk.

«We're coming.» he said.

«Oliver Sean Waters, you'd better remember the day you didn't ask for my opinion, you hear me?» I told him and we all got out of that cold cave.

[Oliver]

Echo was pretty mad. To the blind eye she seemed bored, but I knew better. When she is bored she is loud (when isn't she loud?), but now she was quiet and that meant bad news for me. Not that it happened any time soon. She gets you when you least expect it in the most unexpected way, so I have to say I wasn't very impressed by her revenge.

We will get to that later.

The four of us were walking in the woods, Felix leading the way.

«Felix, are you sure you know the way through the woods?» Celine asked for the hundredth time.

«Of course I do! Have I ever gotten us lost?» he asked innocently but shut up after she fake coughed.

«When haven't you gotten us lost in the forest? That's why we started going through the city.»

«Remind me, why we are going through the woods again?» I asked.

«Because they are after you, so the guards have probably set camp at the street to the country. There will be less of them around here.» Felix replied.

«Yeah, I am not so sure about that.» Echo said and pointed at a light in the distance.

«Great...» Celine muttered.

«We will go around.» Felix said and Celine glared at him.

We kept walking after that. It was a long trip, and I really don't get why. Probably because Felix was the one leading the way, but who am I to judge him?

Echo was walking ahead with him, while I was behind with Celine.

«Your sister is a bit... strange.» she said.

«She is good once you get to know her. I am nearly there.» I laughed.

«That's not what I meant. It is obvious she is bottling up whatever it is she is feeling. When she can't take it anymore she will explode.»

«I know she is not as tough as she looks, but she is tough enough to stand up to our mom, which is enough.»

«What's wrong with your mom?»

«It is complicated... Echo was never the obedient kind of person and always had a mind of her own. She questioned everything and mom didn't like that. It seemed abnormal to her, so she has been suggesting we lock Echo up in a psychiatric center, which sits well only with mom herself. You seem to be reading people very easily. How come?»

«Practice. My parents worked at the market a few years ago, so they had to see what people liked in order to persuade them to buy anything. I was to take up the family business, so I worked with them. Then someone robbed dad, which didn't end up for him and he ended up in the hospital. He is okay now, but it is too late to go back to work.»

«Sorry to hear that.» I said.

«Nah, it's okay. We moved away from downtown, which is pretty cool, and we have a farm at the countryside.» she replied.

We kept talking. I don't know why, but I trusted her, it was her cousin I didn't really like at first. I could hear Echo and Felix whispering from in front of us, but I couldn't make out what they were talking about. Not that I cared or anything.

«How much longer do we have to walk?» I asked Felix.

«How should I know?» he replied. «Oh, right. I'm not sure, it is quite far and--» he started, but Celine interrupted him.

«Just admit that you got us lost!» she said exasperatedly.

«Fine, I got us lost! Happy now?»

«Not quite!» Celine replied.

«Guys, knock it off, someone might hear us.» Echo said and they both grumbled. After that we kept walking, hoping that Felix would find the way before we got caught.

It was already dark, so it was nearly impossible for both to happen, but you never know.

«We will never make it if we keep walking now. It is too dark.» Celine said.

«We can't camp! We are in the middle of the forest, and it's not like the guards are in our favor!» Felix argued.

«Well, we have no choice. I'll go get some firewood.» Echo said. For her to say she will go do something rather than lie down on the ground and wait for us to do all the work, it is definitely an improvement.

«Stay out of trouble, will you?» I told her and she groaned.

«Shut up, I'm older.» she replied.

«No, I am. Mom says so.»

«I told you, mom hates me, are we really going to go through this conversation again?» she said and walked away.

Celine went to get leaves so we could sleep, Felix went to look around for guards and I stayed behind so we don't get lost, which was stupid.

And did I tell you? Camping isn't really my thing. It never was, and after Imyrth I never went camping again. All in all, I hate camping and the mosquitoes love me.

While I was looking around, I heard Echo scream.

That girl can't stay out of trouble.