THE GIRL I USED TO KNOW

Zev looked back, vividly remembering his past with the Ocean he knew, biting his lip as he got angry with himself for being vulnerable in front of a girl. There was a lot of background noise, as if life wanted to dramatize his existence even more, he wanted peace, he wanted silence, but above all he wanted to say what he needed to expel.

"You and I used to go out together, as a couple but I ruined it, I ignored your feelings that afternoon in the meadow, you went with the best intentions and I always with my loser attitude," he lowered his gaze, "I left you there and at night you said you had an accident, I didn't believe you, I thought you were doing it to get my attention…"

Zev was about to break down in tears. Ocean was still alert with the annoying sound waves echoing in her ears.

"Some time later I found out that this had been true, I saw you in the distance in a wheelchair but apparently now you're fine, you're still better than me in any way, even now you have incredible power, you can literally control fire and I-I don't know how to do anything other than be an asshole," he stopped to change his expression from sad to uncomfortable, "in fact, you already have a better partner, someone who is up to you, you have the man you always wanted, someone who would run after you from you, do you think I didn't notice that he followed us? And not because he doesn't trust you, but because he cares about you, that's what you expected of me and that I could never fulfill."

His voice broke, spilling a sea of tears down his hot cheeks and swollen lips. Ocean went over to slap him, even knowing that she was the least likely to do so.

"Sorry, Ocean!" He exclaimed forcefully, "I understand that you're angry and that you tried to forget me, that's why you faked amnesia when we met again. I understand that you want to pretend we never had contact, I understand that your friendly attitude has turned aggressive."

"I didn't pretend, I had never really seen you," she said in a neutral but sincere tone.

"Don't lie anymore, I know I wasn't the best boyfriend but don't tell me you don't know who I am, most nights I dream of everything we spent together, all the good things and even though I don't want to admit it, I miss that."

Ocean gave a subtle lopsided smile that soon turned into a laugh, Zev took it badly but didn't complain, for him her mockery seemed the least he should receive from him and for the damage caused.

"I'm not the girl you used to know," she crossed her arms.

"I already know it! You have changed but if that change is for the better you are within your rights."

Ocean slapped him again.

"You don't understand, do you really?"

Zev shook his head. Ocean relaxed her posture and moved closer to him.

"Zev you…"

She got so close that for a moment he thought she was going to kiss him.

"You are the traveler."

Ocean's gaze was difficult to decipher, so much so that no emotion could be distinguished, Zev for his part was shocked by the black-haired woman's words. The traveler's theory that Evander told him turned out to be accurate and he began to put the pieces of the puzzle together.

The earth maze was Barret's loop and he was able to get them out of there, otherwise the group of rescuers would never have noticed that they were inside, now they were in a totally different and more dangerous loop.

Another point was that he was able to get out of the control of the killer song the first time he experienced it, there was also the dreaming part.

"I'm not the Ocean you knew, I must be her but from another dimension and you don't belong here, you broke the Community loop, who the hell are you?" She coughed to give way to other words, "now I understand why she felt angry towards you, I guess we have an "I" from different dimensions, having hurt the Ocean of your dimension I could feel it and that's why I want to hit you every time I see you... well you did wrong because you came to a dimension where no one has pity no one."

Zev had no comment on her word so he kept quiet.

"I don't promise you anything, but I'm going to put aside the anger I feel for you a bit, I only do it because it doesn't belong to me but to the other Ocean, she has to solve that, besides, I'm in a beautiful relationship because Evander and I were born for each other and you won't be able to change that here."

The loop made quite an allusion to its name, among the noise the sound that Zev's heart made when breaking with Ocean's confession was heard. When things calmed down, Zev looked for a way out of there, he remembered that the sound can be broken so he had several ideas that he shared with Ocean.

"How fast are you on the ground?" he asked.

"Not much, if I were in a high place, like in a tree, I could spread faster."

"I was planning to dig into the ground and run at high speed so that I could break the sound and get out of here, if we exceed the speed of sound waves…"

"No," she interrupted.

"What...?" He looked at her, confused.

"If you do, the community will know we're here and they'll come for us, we should hide underground and wait for the girl to deactivate the loop herself," she frowned.

"But what if she doesn't?"

Ocean thought about it some more but had no idea, so she demanded that they both wait. They dug a hole in the ground and hid there. There was no notion of time so they could have been there for hours or days, even months but the hope that it would end was still there.

"If you say that Evander was coming after us, he should already know that we were dragged into the loop. If it takes a long time, I know that he will save us, kill the snipers and then demand that the girl release us…"

Strangely, Zev felt better, he would even appreciate it if Evander appeared as a hero and rescued them, but soon the loop disappeared causing the sounds to diminish to the point of leaving completely and remaining in total and well-deserved silence.

Evander was indeed nearby, while they were in the loop, he went to investigate the area where The Community was and discovered that the girl felt tired and sleepy, in addition to having exceeded the limits of her power, so much so that she had no voice and she had to recover, their mission had failed.

Once the community left, Evander hurried back to where Zev and Ocean should be. Upon arrival he found them coming out of the dirt hole, the girl was happy to see him, he was there, just as Zev had said.

"Are you alright?" he asked them.

They both nodded despite the severe pain in their ears. They just wanted to get out of there.

"Aren't you cold, Ocean?" he asked, since she was the only one who wasn't wearing a garment to cover up from the bad weather.

"I'm always hot" she replied referring to her power, which was true, her temperature was above that of the others.

"Let's get out of here."

Evander carried Ocean in his arms while he put Zev on his shoulders, so many sounds had exhausted them physically, they both slept while he carried them back to the truck.