It's been ten days since everyone had to explain their cards and abilities. After that, we needed to practice and train.
Lately, James' theories about our unexplained nightly displacements have been steadily validated. Each midnight, we find ourselves transported elsewhere, only to awaken the next morning back in the exact same locations we originally were. This unsettled our parents, who filed missing persons reports after we failed to answer our phones one night. We had to do a lot; I mean a lot of explaining.
For Thomas, Maxwell and myself, we remain oblivious to these nightly journeys until the abrupt feeling of being teleported back washes over us. The strange experiences themselves show no signs of stopping anytime soon.
We lack any scientific explanation for how this teleportation occurs. There is no proof, no evidence - it simply happens, an uncontrollable event that we are powerless to comprehend or influence. As James would assert, we are left grappling with an abundance of unanswered questions and unsubstantiated theories about the enigmatic situation we've become embroiled in.
We tested the theory of being together in the same room at that abandoned corner store, and it worked. But we all woke up in our bed with the reverse teleportation. So, we made sure to be a couple of feet away from each other at all times, with a maximum group size of three. But their seems to be an activation of sorts, we Theories first, we need to all together, second, we need to all be touching or linking hands in some way, then we will be teleported to the mist realm, by our own choice, only once a day though.
Another thing we checked off, was the time limit, six hours each shift, then back to normal
The third theory we haven't proven yet was checking how we got home in our beds. We recorded it at the abandoned shop and went back the next day to retrieve the footage, but the phone was lost. We couldn't figure out that theory yet. It was perplexing and nerve-racking, so we tried to stay clear away from that subject.
We do most of our communication through texting, from the group Maddie named Party of misfits.
Lately, I've been able to at least hold eye contact and talk normally to Maddie. We both came to an agreement that this dimension represents a new life, a new chance. So we restarted our friendship, wanting to know each other. I know we can't change the past, and we definitely can't forget it.
One day later in the future, we're going to have that talk about the past, and I definitely dread it. It might end the friendship that I painstakingly tried to rebuild. But James is right - life happens, shit happens. I don't like using foul language as it isn't really appropriate, but I've been letting myself go these past couple of days.
Damn it! I've been influenced by those four men. I can only shake my head at that. Ellie, you can do better.
James has been taking records of everything, "testing the limits", he says. More questions answered, I guess. It's just demanding.
I don't say my secret to the team; I don't tell them I see that man in the middle of the table or the vision I had before I hit James. I want to, but it seems like if I did, I'd be appointed the strange one in the strange group, like I was abnormal even in the abnormal group, which scares me. I feel everybody in the gang, which James calls it, is keeping a secret, not telling the others.
Thomas doesn't talk to me. Khaza looks out for me when the gang goes into a disagreement, though I can tell he kind of blames me for all of this, saying to the others it was something to do with me. I get it, I just don't like it. At least say how you feel about me to my face instead of behind my back.
Maxwell knows about my past with Maddie, so he is also uncomfortable talking or making plans with me. But he isn't mean, I can see he is conflicted on which side to take, with the matter of Maddie and I. He doesn't want to take any side since we are all in a dangerous environment, but I know he always take his cousin's side.
James has been busy making next steps of action. Without him, the gang would have been in shambles. He looks out for everyone, but he does something weird, not in this realm, but in the real world. I don't have memories of the gang in the real world except them inviting or texting me. I get confused when I don't have my full set of memories; only once I have a full mind can I truly understand what half of the text messages mean. It's frustrating, literally living two different lives.
Yet James also sits next to me in class when I'm clueless, and he isn't, and hands me a box every school day. I open it, and it reveals flowers and a small paper, always saying "Be better", "Be yourself", along with simple uplifting quotes. I've collected at least eight of them, which I keep near my bed. It isn't often I have daily gifts, so I treasure them. Only until I enter the mist realm do I remember he spoke those words to me.
While back at the main base we call the Fortress of Oblivion, but it's just a tavern, we see each other every night. And boy, do I get jealous of the ones that remember, since they can cram homework and study as they have six extra hours, while there are pros and cons to remembering what happens.
Not a lot has happened with the interior of the place, only that Thomas was the main contributor to its fortifications. Using one of his skills called Forging of the World, one of his class skills allows him to reshape any inanimate object and reforge it into metal or steel. For example, taking dirt and turning it into marble made of steel. But that wasn't all; using mystic units, he can create what he envisions in reality, making a blade out of thin air by using mystic units as a medium to conjure iron material. So Thomas made barbed wire fences, and using wood and iron, we created more secure window barricades.
The future plan James was talking about was expanding it further, reaching the trees or around the tavern to create space or a farm to use the soil and dirt to plant trees or something.
James is wanting to make a living here. I don't entirely reject that idea, but that doesn't mean we can live like this. We need to make sure everything goes back to normal.
I hate being hated because I was strange or odd, so my long-term goal which I wish was short term was to get out of here and stop all this strangeness. Yet Maddie and James haven't even continued the game yet; none of us have. That campaign has been paused for nine days straight. This isn't how we can stop all of this; we need to find the source and finally find our freedom, have e lost that sight, are we content staying like this forever, well I'm not.