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. 743Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZJwdxxpp2l
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. 743Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaiFnIiEJoP
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.743Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuUGthkyUmH
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.743Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYYT7Wo4nRx
“Do you feel anything?” he asked, walking towards Apollo. 743Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvOvoUYIZPE
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.743Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡokDWgvpe30
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. 743Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuFfEjUDSpo
“No, I mean about her. Do you feel her presence, is she awake yet?”
“I don’t know.” 743Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE6mySTqvNO
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.743Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0cBTzF9bQV
“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.”743Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5bB8k8DSS6
“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?743Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTImSN8BibT
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.743Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTxbsZ15cN1
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?743Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZshmDMhvVW
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“You are linked Apollo,” replied the man. “You will always have the ability to know what is happening to her.”743Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ99zRqEsb7S
“But how?”743Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkWFbHCwB2B
“I cannot explain that to you yet, I can only tell you that you will understand when it happens.”743Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoHCSy3bqeO
“And then what?”743Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOvlAQQ5ggK
“And then we set out to find her, before someone else does.”743Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIGBE3juFvY
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.”743Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzh871bBdlf
***
One eye opened, and then other.743Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡB9IQPB6ezD
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It was so dark.743Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡABA7Ao4os6
