EIGHT

Chelsea slowly cracked her eyes open. If she had opened them any faster she would have gotten the worst headache in the world. Her sight was a little blurry which indicated that she had lost her glasses.

From what she could see, she was on an a beach. She was lying down on something. Scratch that, she felt the rise and fall of muscle beneath her. She sat up and focused her sight, only to see she was sitting on top of-

"Justin!" She tumbled off, her heart racing for different reasons. Not far from where Justin lay, Nate was sprawled on the sand also. In a way, she was glad she was first to wake up. She pulled herself to her feet and checked both their vital signs. Steady. She sighed in relief.

After about five minutes of trying to gather her thoughts, she began thinking on how she'd be able to see. Her backpack was missing and her spare glasses was inside. She sat cross legged beside Justin.

"I wish you were awake you dumb arse." She looked him over and noticed his left fist was clenched, holding her glasses. She took them and put them on quickly. If he wasn't laying lifeless on the ground she'd have hugged him.

He was out cold she reminded herself, with a grin, she planted a small kiss on his cheek. "You were actually useful for once."

She got up and went on with her exploring. They were on the beach of a small island surrounded by other small land forms. The air was tinged with the smell of sea breeze and storm clouds hovered above the blocking out most of the sun.

She found her backpack further down the shore. As she was returning she met Nate alarmed but awake. She dropped the bag and basically tackled him in a hug.

"Thank goodness you're okay." They exclaimed at the same time. She cast a glance at Justin.

"Why is it taking him eternity to wake up?" She was more furious than worried now. Here they were needing him and he was observing his beauty sleep.

"I think he deserves the rest. While you were passed out, he dragged you along. Once we got to this beach he gave you CPR and made sure you were breathing before he collapsed out of exhaustion."

She stared from him to Justin, bright red that the guy had actually given her CPR maybe including mouth to mouth. Right now she felt like a selfish brat. "I... I didn't-"

He tapped her shoulder. "Let's see if he will wake up. For our sake."

Justin did wake up.

"Where am I?" He stared at them. "Who are you guys?" He was studying them with a confused gaze.

Chelsea blanched. They were so dead. If Justin had lost his memory they were so finished.

Soon he began laughing. "Got you guys good didn't I?"

She flushed bright pink and punched him. "You idiot. We're in the middle of nowhere and you still have the mind to make jokes."

"Its what I do." He said taking of his shirt, the thing was soaked wet and with the current wheather wearing wet clothes won't help.

Nate did same and Chelsea couldn't help but blush a noticeable shade of red but she didn't turn away shy. "Why are you two dummies taking off your shirts. You want me to go blind?"

"We don't want to catch our death of cold do we Nate?"

"Nope."

They say near death experience brings people closer and she was watching it happen first hand.

"Can you two quit being nice to each other. I'm feeling more sick by the minute."

They grinned at each other and began chasing her. She ran not wanting to come in contact with either of them. But after a while, they pinned her down.

"Aren't you going to take off your own shirt too?" Justin asked dryly.

"Yeah the wheather's pretty cold." Nate added.

"I'd rather freeze, you imbeciles, now quit fooling around."

Now they were sure everyone was okay, Justin began to explain about the storm dimension and where the closure key could be found. Apparently, there were caves beneath the islands.

"But there are also monsters." He put in. He turned to Nate. "This is your journey from here."

"You can't be serious? This is all still too new for me."

"We can't afford to lose anymore time. If the pirates come-"

"Did you just say pirates?" The other two asked.

Justin wasn't going to lure them into some false hope of safety. "Yes. And not just normal pirates, monster pirates."

"I need to think." Nate said, his voice a rasp.

"Justin quit-"

"Don't call my name on this one Caves." He got up. She knew he only used her last name when he was mad. "If you had just told him on the first day just like you were meant to, I would have prepared his mind towards it-"

"Hey Justin stop yelling at her." Nate flared.

"Don't try me-" he bit his lip to keep himself from saying something he might, no, 'will' regret.

"Four days isn't enough to prepare anyone for anything no matter how simple. Don't blame her."

"This isn't your junior league practice aqua lad. Get it into your skull. Its the fate of this stupid human race."

You're human. She thought but something about him just spoken otherwise. Instead she said in a low voice. "Or you just want us to get this over with because of your stupid reward."

He looked taken aback at first then sighed. "I look that selfish don't I?" No one said anything. "I'm going to get wood for a raft."

Again nothing was said. He left the beach, heading into a small forest far from them. Nate shivered in anger and walked further down shore. Like he had said. He needed to think. And was not in a chatty mood.

Chelsea sat by the ocean, letting the tide brush her feet and occasionally into her shorts. She began to ponder over her last discussion with Father Time. She looked at her backpack. Only if the smoke screen could turn back time.

Once she had grown tired of sitting on her own, Chelsea went to look for Nate. Justin would not bother to pay attention to her and she did not want to be ignored.

Nate saw Chelsea coming. A welcome sight, he wasn't used to being this dreary. His gaze had been momentarily fixed on the steely gray mass of ocean. Something told Chelsea these islands were the only land in the dimension.

"How was it?"

She gave him a quizzical look. She didn't understand the question.

"When you first heard of this whole Keeper thing."

Her mind drifted back. She explained she had been scared and as she retold the tale of her first month of training, she realised something. She was a selfish, lucky, idiot. Lucky because she had actually trained for all these things but selfish because she didn't do what was right because she just wanted to relax.

"Nate, being a Keeper is the hardest yet simplest job in the world. " she looked at him a smile playing about her lips. "Anyone can do it as long as their heart is in the right place. I can tell yours is."

She went on. "Its just... things won't be normal. That's why your family's there, they know so, it would be easier."

"No one in my family knows."

"Your dad knows." She said remembering he had told her that he lived with his dad and his mum had died while he was younger. "The car accident or plane crash or disease he said that killed her, is a lie." She was nearly crying herself but this was the truth.

He sniffled.

"Our parents, the Keepers, they'd want us to take on the battle head on. They didn't die in vain did they?"

He straightened up. "They didn't."

Just as they were about finishing their discussion, Justin appeared some feet away. He called them to follow him into the forest. He had found something.

They both gawked. They were looking at a perfect row boat, in the middle of a deserted island.

"Something's not right." Chelsea called after the boys who were already pushing the boat off the shore. They didn't listen.

"Are you coming Caves?" Justin was more spirited now.

She ran through her bag once more. She slipped the smoke screen into her pocket with Majesty. She worried when she didn't find her mum's journal. She wondered if she had left it back on the Clara but she couldn't have. She was confused. Nate called her name now.

She trudged towards the boat, soaked to the skin. They helped her in. Justin sailed them out a little further. He had deduced a theory. He looked down into the choppy waters and pointed Nate.

"Down there, are a lot of underwater caves with air banks. The key is in there somewhere." Justin put both hands on both Nate's shoulders. "You're the only one with the lung capacity. Are you ready."

"This is pretty much suicide." He sighed.

"Count youself lucky. We've faced worse." Chelsea scoffed.

Nate waved, took in a deep breath and dived in, the boat rocking in his leave. Justin and Chelsea had nothing much to say to each other at this moment.

She continued looking after Nate, who's form was being followed by a few others. Sea creatures. She didn't know what they were exactly but one thing was sure, Nate couldn't take them all. By now Justin had noticed too.

Chelsea began taking off her shirt, revealing her cobalt blue thin cotton vest. She glared at Justin not to stare but that was only half of what he was doing. He was also trying to stop her. Her glasses fell off.

"Chelsea don't."

"I'll be back." She slipped from his hands and jumped into the water. It was icy cold at first but she adapted quickly. Her eyes adjusted and she was holding in a lot of oxygen. She pulled majesty out and pressed battle mode.

It was as if the blade had drawn the attention of the beasts from Nate. The three figures came towards her. She found footing on some stable rocks and stood poised. Now the party could really begin.

She swiped at the first fish monster with its scaly silver face and over large gills. She struck it on the shoulder and dodged out of the way as another one tried to tackle her.

She hated fighting in the water, it made everything feel like slow motion plus, her lungs were aching for air. She slashed and shoved and kicked, leaving irreparable damage. Where these instincts were coming from, she didn't know. But goodness knows she loved it. She stared at the two dead things floating in the pond, then she realized, there should be three.

From behind she was grabbed and slammed into a large boulder. It felt as if the air had been knocked out of her, Magesty fell. Before she could recover, she was pinned against the rocky. Ice cold scaly hands pushed into her throat. She struggled, her eyes burning from sea salt could still make out the appearance of her attacker.

She kicked but it was futile. She could feel her body seizing up. No oxygen and she was getting strangled. What a way to die.

Suddenly the hands dropped from her throat, she saw the creature fall to the ground. Someone grabbed her and pulled her to the surface. The rain scented air felt like medicine to her lungs and her whole body. She turned to Nate.

"Thanks."

"I should be thanking you." He saluted and dived down again meaning he hadn't found the key.

Justin pulled Chelsea into the boat and hugged her.

"Dude?!"

"For you to get warm. Don't go thinking the wrong way."

She wanted to say something but nothing came out.

"No remark?"

"None that I can think of." She shot back

They both laughed. She pulled away. "Thanks for, you know."

He handed her back her glasses. Now she could see clearly she snapped her fingers.

"Hey my eyes are up here."

He merely grinned and they turned back to the water. It was getting darker now. No sign of Nate. Two minutes stretched to five. Five stretched to to ten. And when it reached fifteen, chelsea grew frantic.

Unfortunately, they could do nothing about it because another problem had just presented itself.

A looming figure which they had not noticed was coming towards them. The thing pushed through the light mist that had formed. The outline suddenly became clearer, more familiar.

It was a ship. Not any day old ship. A pirate ship. Mast, cannons and all that came with it.

Chelsea felt her blood run colder than it already was. She didn't know when she had taken Justin's hand but she did. He held hers too.

A loud scornful voice echoed of the ship and seemed to continue endlessly.

"I AM CAPTAIN ROUGE AND YOU ARE NOW MY PRISONERS! ESCAPE IS FUTILE!"