Two icy blue eyes stared up at a grey metallic ceiling, the pupils at their centre dilated wide in the dim light of the room. 654Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjAdzjZFkOU
Apollo sat up on his bed as a rushing sound filled his ears. He stuck his little finger into his left ear to try and alleviate the noise, wiggling it around vigorously. What a strange sensation, he thought. How would he get used to all this? The light. The sounds. The feelings. All the stuff in his head. It was all was so overwhelming. 654Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcZfm7nH90c
A shadow appeared at his feet, stretching from the square of light that shone through the window of his cabin door. With a subtle click, the door opened, and a tall thin man entered. Apollo winced as he switched on the light, a bright white dome that bulged from the ceiling above, like a milky zit.654Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFsP1vJIAxM
The man was very pale, his skin much lighter than Apollo’s. His hair too was drained of colour, straight and thin on the top, slicked backed in a poor attempt to cover his scalp.654Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOuLwxr1eVV
“Do you feel anything?” he asked, walking towards Apollo. 654Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDd1knBFN5W
The man was tall but thin, his body framed in an old grey suit, stained in places with flecks of food that made him look both rough around the edges and dangerously angular at the same time, like an old rusty knife.
“Hungry. Very, hungry” Apollo replied quickly.654Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8VnjSdTLJf
The man sat next to Apollo on his bed and stared into his eyes. The man too had blue eyes, only not as brilliant as Apollo’s. 654Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3D4FsQ3h7A
“No, I mean about her. Do you feel her presence, is she awake yet?”
“I don’t know.” 654Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN0cmEIIcr2
After he’d woken up it’d been the first thing the man had asked him. Where is she? Do you know!? His voice had been urgent. Apollo hadn’t known what to say. He’d woken up in the dark and the cold. He was confused and hadn’t known where he himself was, let alone where whoever she was.654Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLeYYKE3mzb
“You will know,” he said, standing up. “When she wakes up. She’s going to be confused and overwhelmed, just like you were. Except I’m not going to be there to help her like I was for you. But you will feel her soon, Apollo. Just like you feel your hunger. Only fainter… for now.”654Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3Qezp3S2pM
“I will feel what she is feeling?” The man had told Apollo this before, but he still did not understand. How could he feel what another person felt?654Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd7Xiq9Yrr3
It was true, he could guess what the man felt. Not that he could put it into words. It was a kind of a knowledge. An understanding of what was going through his thoughts, boiled down into a feeling of his own. If Apollo had tried to pin it down at that moment, then perhaps he would have said tiredness or anger but also determination and hope too. But for Apollo such words didn’t really capture how these feelings danced around each other. Instead he had come to think of what he sensed as more akin to a colour. Colours were more exact. Blurred, but nuanced in their description.654Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3V9xwH2glW
But understanding what the man was feeling was reliant on seeing him. How was he supposed to know anything about a girl he had never even met, or even seen?654Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxnfdLu5rMU
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“You are linked Apollo,” replied the man. “You will always have the ability to know what is happening to her.”654Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLqwztFNxPM
“But how?”654Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxLxGB8ImSz
“I cannot explain that to you yet, I can only tell you that you will understand when it happens.”654Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwPixSmeP6K
“And then what?”654Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7cIhFtw4Ne
“And then we set out to find her, before someone else does.”654Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOQVjdR3r2t
The man smiled at Apollo and held out his hand. “Come,” he said, abruptly. “Let’s eat. I’ve something I think you’ll like. They used to make it back in the old days, it’s called beans on toast.”654Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaCZNLsOOD3
***
One eye opened, and then other.654Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0xB4bf3ld2
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It was so dark.654Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7ZRaLbldgi
