II
This Is Real
Don’t Give Up
Samira ploughed through the snow as fast as she could, unsure what exactly she was going after.
All she wanted was to find James as soon as possible, although she knew that that would be practically impossible to do.
None of them knew where Sabrina had taken him, nor whether or not he was even still alive.
All they could do now, is continue ploughing through the thick pack of snow and dark night, and try to get off the mountain as quick as possible.
“Sam, where are you going?” Bella woke the eighteen-year-old from his thoughts.
Samira had been walking ahead of the others since the moment they’d reunited with Thomas and had started to travel across the mountain.
She hadn’t spoken a word since; she just needed some time alone with her thoughts.
When Samira refused to reply to Bella, the teenager took a sprint forward and grabbed her friend’s shoulder. Samira simply shook the hand off by making a sharp movement with her shoulders and continued walking.
Antonio wanted to shout at her, but Bella prevented him from doing so.
“Let’s just leave her be for a while,” she decided, with her eyes locked on Samira.
“She’s over-concerned about James and his whereabouts. Just as we are, but- we’re just-”
She couldn’t find the words for it, and corrected herself. “You know what Samira’s like.”
Bella looked at Antonio and Thomas. “We just need to make sure she doesn’t leave our sight or does anything stupid.”
Samira was too deeply concentrating on her own thoughts to be able to pay attention to her friends’ concerns. All her thoughts were with James; she was busy trying to figure out where her brother could’ve possibly disappeared to.
That girl... From what Thomas had told her, as soon as James had started to become hesitant and no longer wanted to go with her, she... Just...
She... Hypnotized him? That was how Thomas had described it. At least it meant that James wanted to make the right decision. He’d almost managed to get away from that witch. If only...
Samira stopped walking and sighed. She looked up, and stared blankly into the distance.
It was hopeless.
James was gone, and Samira had no idea where he was. The world they were in was so immensely huge, that the chance they’d ever find him again was impossibly small.
It was over.
It was all over.
Suddenly, it was as if Samira’s legs refused to even move. They buckled, and Samira simply just moved along. She didn’t do anything to prevent it from happening.
The sun was coming up, and Samira did nothing but just simply stare at it.
She didn’t want to continue. James was gone.
She didn’t want to finish this quest without James. She didn’t want to go back home without James.
She didn’t want to live without James.
Hopelessness overtook her while the tears burned behind her eyes. It could end quickly. She could just run a few miles, to the edge of the mountain, and throw her off the edge.
If that was what it’d take for her to find James - and probably also her father-, she’d do it.
“Samira! Are you all right?”
Samira didn’t turn around. She didn’t want to. All she could was sit there, on her knees, staring at the rising sun.
It was hopeless.
“Samira!”
Thomas ran over to her, carefully approaching her.
The brown-haired teenager knelt in front of her, and looked at her.
“Samira,” he said, in a calming tone, but also sounding quite determined. ”It’s not over yet. We’re going to find him before the Master does. I promise.”
He looked her in the eye, and smiled; he carefully brushed a few loose strands of hair out of her face. Samira had taken out her braid, and didn’t care to braid it again.
“Listen,” Thomas said, while slowly moving his face towards Samira’s. “I’m not giving up on you, or on your brother. But there’s one thing I know for sure; I’m never letting you go again.”
His face proceeded to come closer to hers, while he carefully drew her near with two fingers underneath her chin. His lips sought hers as his eyes closed, eventually finding them and gently kissing them.
The kiss he’d been waiting for three years. He’d finally got it. Thomas had always known Samira liked him, but he was afraid she’d lost interest - she’d had about two boyfriends in the past four years, but it never worked out. As if she’d been waiting for him.
His eyes slowly reopened as he gently pulled away from Samira.
“Thomas,” she breathed, before throwing her arms around his neck. Thomas hugged her back.
“I love you,” she whispered to him.
“I love you too,” he whispered back.
They didn’t care that Bella and Antonio were watching; after all, the only way the two teenagers seemed to react to the scene that had unfolded itself in front of them was “finally”, and “It’s about time”.
Samira and Thomas slowly let go of each other, both smiling broadly. “Thank you for pulling me out of the pit I was in,” Samira said. “I was kind of having a tough time back there,”
“You’re welcome,” Thomas winked at her before standing up and yanking at Samira’s arm.
“Now get up!” he shouted, while pulling her up. “Get up, get up, get up! We’ve got to hurry, if we want to find James before the next sunset! If we find him before sunset, he’ll probably even be still alive!”
Samira chuckled. “You’re right, Thomas,” she said. “We mustn’t give up hope yet. He’s probably found a way to escape from that girl and is out there somewhere, looking at us.”
As she spoke, she wiped the snow off her skirt and looked at Thomas.
“Do you want your bag back?” she asked, while gesturing at the shoulder bag she was still holding on to.
“Yes please,” Thomas replied, while Samira handed over the bag.
“I was very careful with it,” she said. “There’s important stuff in there, so I didn’t want to damage it.”
“Of course you were careful,” Thomas said, while hanging the bag over his shoulder. “The important stuff is the reason I didn’t want the Warlock Spirits to have it in the first place.” As he spoke, he dug around in the bag, trying to find the map. “I guess no one’s hungry due to this situation we’re stuck in at the moment?” he said, checking.
All three of his friends shook their heads.
“To be honest, I’ve got to make a confession,” Antonio said.
“I’m pretty worried about James. I’m afraid he’s got himself in some kind of trouble again...” he mumbled. ”I mean – he’s a smart kid and all, but he’s really gullible.”
“We all are worried about him, Antonio,” Bella said, while patting the broad-shouldered nineteen-year-old on the shoulder – although she had to stand on her toes to be able to do that. “And we all know he’s in trouble. And that’s the reason we’re going to find him.”
And so they continued walking. There wasn’t really anything left of the usual laughter or fun conversations they used to have while travelling now James was gone, however.
James, being the optimist, was usually the one to make all the jokes and cheering up the others. He always stuck around with Samira and her friends, despite the fact that they were all older than he was.
He knew how to keep everyone’s tempers down, the chins up and the hope strong.
Now he wasn’t there, they’d have to do it all by their own. Until they’d find him, of course.
Samira felt guilty for some reason. Perhaps it was the fact that he was the one who’d always looked after James and had sworn to protect him.
And Sa
mira felt like he’d been failing this mission since the moment they were brought to Lunaria, into this terrible nightmare.
Samira felt like she had failed to protect her brother multiple times. Her brother.
Her little brother.
She’d failed to save him so many times, from so many things.
She couldn’t save him from Mordred in the Twilight Forest, not from the Fairy Flu, not from Sabrina.
Every time, someone else had to jump in and clean up the mess. And that while Samira had been the cause for one of those events to happen.
But this time, Samira wasn’t going to let it happen that way. No, this time, she’d be the hero. She’d be the one to save James this time.
Whatever it’d take, she’d save him.