Moving forward

I can feel your heart racing, you need to breathe Nightmare spoke into my mind. My body seized as shadows crawled upward. Darkness began to creep into my eyes. I've only felt this way one other time, when Nightmare engulfed me. "Breathe you need to calm down", it said taking on the same form.

Looking into it's eyes I asked, "How can I? The one person in this entire world that I trust with my life just compared me to Anderson and Armstrong." Nightmare's brow furrowed before answering, "You were acting out in anger which is never a good thing. I saw what Hannah did through your eyes and then I saw how you treated her. She deserves to be punished. The how and severity of that is not up to you to decide. Hannah is one of us, we all need to decide on what to do with her together."

It stood within arms length of me now. "Everyone here has put their trust in you. You're the one that freed them, you gave them hope. They need you to lead them right now." Nightmare took my hands into its, "You and I have to talk with the others. We need to figure out a way to protect them. I'm going to let you go now, relax and take a deep breathe."

Opening my eyes to see I was still in Anderson's room. My body had turned back to being normal. Walking back to the monitor room where Alexia and Mat were talking until they saw me come in. "Hey guys", I said. Neither one of them answered, "When Hannah comes back with Anderson all of us need to talk. Where's Anya?", I asked. Hearing a disembodies voice say, "I'm in the electrical system checking to make sure there are no threatens enabled for a breakout." Lifting my head to the ceiling I said, "When your done come back so we can all talk outside." Alexia asked, "Does everyone include Hannah?" Looking at her I replied with, "Yes, she's one of us." Mat said with a raised eyebrow, "Funny that you call Hannah one of us while you've been treating her like the guards treated you." Inhaling deeply I said, "I know and that's inexcusable. Which is why I want all of us to talk outside once her and Anderson come back."

Hearing the sound of footsteps stopping by the threshold I turned to see Anderson followed by Hannah. "Back in the chair", I ordered Anderson. Before she could protest I had my shadows take hold of her. Looking to Hannah I said, "We're going outside to talk." Frighten she looked from me to the others. Alexia said, "The others should be back by now." Getting closer to Anderson I said, "When we come back you've got a lot to answer for."

Leaving her in the chair again I walked out of the room while the others followed behind. I caught a glimpse of Anya leaving the monitor to get dressed. Taking no offense to the gesture I heard Nightmare say I wouldn't trust us either. Rolling my eyes as I took the first step outside to see everyone talking to one another as the rest of us came into view.

Ed took a few steps away from the crowd to take a good look at Mat and I. "What's eating you two?", he asked. We looked to one another before I said, "We'll get to that later. Right now I need to know if anyone found anything." "There's nothing wrong with the island and from what I heard all the scientist and guards are in the main building now", Ed told me. "That's a relief, before we begin can everyone hear me?", I took a few steps back before asking loudly. They all nodded.

"Ok, does everyone remember why Hannah is currently wearing a Maximum security collar?", I asked. They all nodded again. "She will continue to wear it until we all come to an agreement on whether to take it off or not. That decision will not be taken lightly, it needs to be a unanimous one. If it takes days, weeks, months, or even years we all have to agree on the decision before enforcing it." They all looked to one another murmuring before nodding.

"With that the first thing we need to do is figure out how far Armstrong should be from us. We'll start by asking the guards if they know anything along with Director Anderson. There's no telling what Armstrong will do once he gets to land. Second we need to prepare for the worst. Whoever has pockets deep enough to fund this island will not take us overthrowing the guards lightly. On a side note, if anyone here knows how to fight step forward." Ben and two other young man came followed by two young women. "Do any one of you remember or know enough to teach the rest of us?" They all to think before shaking their heads. I continued with, "Third we all need to know how to fight. Forth does anyone here have any special conditions that need to be met to survive on a day to day basis? Raise your hand while stepping forward. No shame will be brought to you."

Everyone looked around with worried looks. I instructed, "Alright everyone form into a line, give each other some space, and close your eyes." Once everyone followed my orders I asked again, "If anyone has specific needs raise your hand. As of right now I'll be the only one who knows. We can discuss those needs in a private area when and if you're ready." Five out of 18 people raised their hands. After taking a good look to remember their appearance I said, "Those of you with your hands raised can lower them now."

With their hands down I said, "Everyone open your eyes now." They looked to me, "I'm going to tell you all everything I know that happened on the night of September 13, 2013. If you don't remember that specific night it was the one that changed all of our lives. To start off I'll need to show you something that may scare you. I only ask that you all keep an open mind and continue to listen."

I began to seep into my own shadow to prevent ripping my clothes. As I rose to my full length for all of them to see me for what I truly look like I heard some gasps. Opening my eyes to see everyone looking back at me with fear either in their eyes of displayed on their faces. They were all looking at my black wisp of a body with a pair of red slits for irises to distinguish my face. "It's still me", I told them softly. "I can control and become shadows, astral project, I can also communicate with Nightmare." Some gasped at hearing that fact while the others were stunned in place.

"Listen to me carefully, the night that we were all turned into the beings that we are now one of them attacked me and my parents on our way to the hospital. My mom was in labor with my baby brother." I had to take in a deep breath to keep my voice from shaking. "It started off as a clear night which turned into a thunder storm in a matter of minutes. We were making the turn to the hospital when something big came out of nowhere in the middle of the road. My dad tried to swerve out of the way thinking it was an animal. It attacked through the windshield. The car flipped over and I lost consciousness.

"By the time I woke up it had tried to bond with my parents in vain. Before I could do anything it saw me and entered through my eyes. The next thing I know I'm waking up in the hospital blinded with Aunt Patty otherwise known as Director Anderson by my hospital bed." Hearing everyone murmur under their breathes I continued, "Once she found out I was no longer human I ran for my life. I stayed off her radar for over 10 years. Her people eventually found me recently, they brought me here, and now we're free."

There was a brief moment of silence as everyone was processing what I said. "How did you unlock the collars?", Hannah asked from the end. Looking her way I said, "That's an excellent question. What Anderson didn't know was that while I was on the run for so long I learned everything I could about my new power. Does anyone hear know what astral projecting is?" Some of them shrugged others did a kind of motion with their hands. "Astral projecting is basically having an out of body experience. This form that I'm in resembles it almost completely. I can astral project when I'm asleep or in a deep undisturbed meditative state.

"Once I saw the general lay out for the main building through the vents. I told Mat and Ed my plans for all of us to escape this morning. When the riot first started Ed and I went to the Maximum area while Mat went to do crowd control for the main one. We were at the monitor room when Nightmare made it's appearance. Ed was able to go into the room to keep Anderson from running. I faced Nightmare on my own in my astral form.

"Nightmare took on the form of my late father. When I tried to attack it Nightmare engulfed me whole. Ed, Mat and Alexia can testify to that." Everyone looked to them as they all nodded in agreement. "It took me to what I can only call the void. There was nothing in it's purest form: no sound, no feeling, not even sight. I thought I had died and went to Hell.

"While I was in there Nightmare appeared to me in the form I'm in right now to talk. It showed me what happened that night from it's point of view. Have any one of you ever asked what those things were and why they attacked us?" They all shrugged and murmured under their breathes. "The things that attack all of us that night are what mankind has named aliens." Some grasped others looked at each other in disbelief. I continued, "They didn't come from outer space. They came from another dimension. For a short period of time on that night a rip was made between our realms. The few that made it through that tear needed a host to survive. They could only successfully bond with a select few of us. Everyone that died from not being able to properly bond with those things became one combined being. That thing attacked me and my family." Ben asked, "You said you mom was in labor. Did she have your bother in that moment when it attacked your family?" Looking his way I answered, "I was getting to that. No, she didn't give birth. That thing killed my dad first, my mom next, then it turned to my unborn brother and me. It split itself off to enter me through my eyes, I don't know what it did to my brother."

"There's a reason why Nightmare didn't kill me when it had the chance just a few hours ago. While I was engulfed by it we bonded properly due to the fact Nightmare is my unborn brother." They were all too stunned to think. "What are you saying?", Eric spoke this time. "I'm trying to say that I personally have everyone's abilities that died that night along with everyone hear. I'm not just Z, I'm also Nightmare."