My Last Breath (Book one of The Portal Series)

A Night Out, More Like A Nightmare. CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Later on in the day after bidding a goodbye to my uncle, we sit around deciding what we want to do for the rest of our evening. Uncle Marek left to meet up with the Guard to take them to Earth. He informed us he would be gone a few days because he wanted to make sure the men had everything they needed.

"Ellie..." Luke starts, "Would you mind if I brought you and your friends out to explore Provence?"

My friends? To be cometely honest, I'm not sure who they are to me. We haven't talked this whole time being here on Elyria. We've been so busy taking everything in and getting comfortable that we haven't had a second to think about friendships. After all, I'm not really sure if I can depend on the two girls yet.

Eventually I respond, "We can."

Personally the freedom of going where we please this evening will be refreshing but I am unsure what things I would like to do.

"I'm gonna go find the girls and see if they'd like to go," Luke runs off up the stairs with a peppy grin upon his lips.

I wait and listen in on the conversation. The girls are in one of the bedrooms together, making me conclude that they don't know what to do with their free time being away from imprisonment.

They quietly agree with Luke that it would be nice to have him show them around. I hear them both stand and begin to follow him, while Lynn questions, "Is it just us and Ellie going?"

Luke stops in his tracks and whispers, "Yes, I'd rather not have Koda come with us." He still sounds angry regarding Koda and his actions.

"Why not?" Lynn asks.

"I don't want to talk about it and I don't want to talk to him."

A minute later the three of them are descending the staircase like the conversation never happened. I keep myself quiet until we get shoes on, "Luke, why didn't you invite Jane?"

He looks around the room almost stunned, "She-she's going to meet with her tutor very soon, but I'd rather not discuss with her how I feel about Koda right now. Really I'm angry at him. And I know Jane would start ranting to me."

I only nod back at him.

We meet my grandparents on the front porch who sit in white rocking chairs. Little Jarin keeps them company, playing with his blocks by the porch swing.

While Luke announces that he's taking the three of us out Jarin begs to come along. From hearing him do the same when his mother left for work and later on when his dad said goodbye for his travels to Earth, I assume he does this often.

"Not today Jarin, we might be out late." Luke sounds annoyed but still says goodbye to him even as he runs off the porch and down the sidewalk to follow us.

"You'll come back tonight Ellie?" The little boy beams up at me curiously.

My stomach drops, making me remember that to him I have been gone for years.

"Of course!" I smile back.

The young boy waves goodbye and I turn back around to catch up to the rest of the group. Only a few yards from the house, with Luke leading the way Estelle asks with a whisper, "Where are we in the universe compared to Earth?"

"I always believed we were in a separate universe than Earth is. That's more of a question to ask Koda or Jane. We have some equipment to look into space but we've never sent anything up there because we don't have the technology."

Estelle is dumbfounded, "Aren't people curious?"

"Not as much as you'd think," Luke responds. "Our culture believes that the gods created this planet for us only. There are Elyrians from Provence that specifically look into the events on Earth and use that in our society to learn lessons. We are not supposed to use Earth and it's people for our own benefit. We use our own planet to our advantage, nothing more. It is sort of frowned upon to want to search for other planets in the sky because of our access to Earth. This is one of the biggest reasons why Elyrians and other creatures do not accept humans, because they are from Earth."