Rain's Story

On the highest floor of the clock tower, Kimchi sat steadily breathing by the barred door.
"tic tic tic tic tic tic." Kimchi repeated until a familiar tome struck through the tower. She tried to keep from smiling as she counted them off. One by one, different parts of the tower resonated in the same warming tones. Kimchi drank in each one until the final one stopped vibrating.

"Nine tomes! Nine o' clock! On this Monday." Kimchi fluttered over to the framed calendar page hanged carefully next to her makeshift nest. Surrounded by a carefully drawn circle was today's date; the day that her and Helena decided to finally gather back the other kids. According to plan, Helena had started approximately thirty minutes ago. Meanwhile Kimchi would out and prepare the imaginaries for the reunion. Kimchi froze as she realized her excitement was wasting precious seconds.

"Maintenance check. No time for malfunctions today." Kimchi hurried through her normal morning routine of polishing and oiling, but spent the saved seconds inspecting every gear in the clock tower. Twice. Kimchi counted the tics on the base gear, and stopped it 3 times before being satisfied that it was on tempo. Before flying away, Kimchi closed her eyes once more just to be sure. tic tic tic tic tic tic "Perfect." Kimchi smiled flying up to her closet.

Kimchi landed with a thud and quickly scurried to the pile of supplies she had prepared the previous night. As she walked she checked the clock on her wing. On schedule, as usual. Kimchi looked over the pile at her feet. Laid out on a plaid blanket, was a oil can, a metronome, a scrap book and a scrawled out land schedule. Kimchi ear twitched. Surely she planned to pack more than that. Kimchi compiled a quick list of supplies before scouring around the orderly room to find them. She had planned extensively for this ever since the first time Helena suggested getting the gang back together. She had planned right down to which imaginary she would visit first. She threw a scarf around herself. She would visit basil last for safety reasons and while she would love to visit Caddie next. Kim paused a moment before throwing some custom fitted snow-tires over her back. Caddie could be...unpredicatable especially If E got involved. And there was no way she could plan for visiting Rain. Rain had a way of dismantling even her most carefully laid plans. Some part of her longed to see each of them, but still Kimchi shivered at the thought how she would eventually have to face them. No she would visit Jack first. Experience would tell that he was the most reasonable of her friends. If anything he would be helpful in helping her persuade the others. Or protecting her from them.

"No no no." Kimchi darted toward her bag to distract herself from the dark thought. She bundled up the blanket and shortly admired her bindle. Her friends were corrupted admittedly, but not dangerous. On her way out of the room she passed her sword. A long, double edged minute hand with a donut handle. Jet black, pristine, and (despite her meticulous cleaning) telling of the last time she used it. Today was a day to be prepared , she reason shoving the blade carefully into the bindle. She flew up to the top of the tower and undid the top hatch.

She could see almost every realm from up here. This is really happening. she thought her happiness and enthusiasm returning.
"Don't worry everyone! The kids are coming," She took off and began flying toward Cyratana's castle. "And I am too!" She yelled back over her shoulder.

Rain
"I'm walkin' on sunshine, oooh," a bright, cheery voice sang. "I'm walkin' on sunshine, and don't it feel good!" Rain was skipping along, singing at the top of her lungs. Where had she heard this song before? She kept singing, the question bouncing around in her head as she turned a corner and bumped into someone. She abruptly stopped singing, staring down at whatever creature had blocked her path. It was a small dog-like creature, but it's fur was bright blue. She smiled a bit. More creatures had inhabited her realm after her Dreamer had called it empty. Her smile dropped, now glaring at the creature in front of her. She remembered where the song had come from now. Her dreamer's world.

"River," she hissed the name, not in anger but as if saying it actually hurt her. Ever since the girl had stopped talking to her, nothing was right. Sending the dog a glare, she picked it up by the scruff of its neck and carried it to the edge of the hovering land. Her world had once seemed whole, but now was cracking and broken. Cliffs were everywhere, dropping off into nothingness. She didn't even know what was at the end of the nothing, if there was an end. The dog whimpered in her grip. Rain blinked, looking at the poor creature and the cliff, for a moment feeling horrified at her previous action. She had been about to toss the thing off. Why?

Startled, she took a step back, before remembering that the creature only existed because of River. And River was gone. How dare it stay when the reason for its existence had abandoned it? In a split second, the cold deadliness in Rain's eyes was back as she swung her arm and tossed the thing off into the abyss.

"Sayonara!" she yelled, her voice happy as every despite the coldness in her eyes. Feeling pleased, Rain wiped her hands off on her pants and went back to strolling through her land. She was bored now. Boredom wasn't right. Frowning, she tilted her head, looking around. Oh, I know! she thought, eyes widening. I can sing a song! That's always fun.
Without a second thought, Rain began to sing again, completely forgetting her actions in the past few minutes. "I'm walkin' on sunshine, oooh!"

~~~~~~
Nathan
Being at school on time wasn't really something he did anymore. So now, standing in the hallway, he wasn't sure what to do. Locker. That's where people usually go. He started to walk to where his locker was, before realizing he didn't remember what number it was. Even if he could just spot it by memory, he had no idea what the combination was. He hadn't used his locker all year.

"Wonderful..." he muttered, standing off to the side and out of the way of the mass of students roaming the halls. He still felt awkward. He considered just walking back out the way he came, but what good would that do? Sighing, he wandered off, trying to find something to occupy his time. When did classes start? There were a lot of students now, so it had to be soon. Hugging the wall, Nathan made his way to the school library. As expected, no one was there. Nathan actually sighed in relief after settling in a chair in the corner of the library, hiding away from the world. The librarian was no where in sight, and he'd rather keep it that way. While he was sure as hell used to being scolded, he liked to avoid it when possible.

Nathan leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands. He wasn't even sure what he was doing anymore. He felt constantly numb and bored, yet did nothing to change it. It was like having a war inside him, one side demanding he do something and the other stopping him from even trying. Why was he even doing this anymore?

His thoughts drifted to his old group of friends, and how much they'd changed. He kind of missed them. No, he really missed them. But for some reason he couldn't bring himself to talk to them. Things felt different now than when he was younger. Nathan knew why, but he didn't want to think about it. Instead he wondered where the others were, what they might be doing. Sabrina was probably surrounded by people who adored her. Helena and River probably kept to themselves, like he did. He felt kind of bad for them though. While for the most part he had inflicted his solitude on himself, he was pretty sure that wasn't the case for them. Then there was Aaron, who seemed to be as goofy and bold as he used to be. Though Nathan did notice something was off with him whenever he saw him.

Frowning, Nathan realized he'd been paying a lot more attention to his old friends than he realized. He thought he'd ignored them completely, cutting them out of his life. But some part of him must still be attached, because he seemed to remember little things about them that he noticed without even realizing it.

Suddenly the bell rang, causing Nathan to look up from his slouched position and get up. For once, he was going to go to class on time.