Echko

His grip on my hand tightened. When I looked down I realized his hands were shaking.

"Tell me. Please." He whispered but in this quiet room everyone heard it.

"Someone had to stay behind. I can't remember what for but I was adamant that it was me."

I know he knew where I was going with this. "This blue guy-"

"Varryn" Diego whispered, "His name is Varryn."

He looked at me like he was daring me to object but I somehow felt it that he was right. The guy was named Varryn.

I nodded, "He kept telling me he should stay behind but there was a group behind him objecting."

The room felt cold and suddenly I didn't want to tell them the rest.

"Please." He begged and I took in a deep breath.

"He knocked me down and ran for it."

Silence.

"So is he alive?" Quinn asked.

"I don't know. I can't remember what was happening."

Diego looked…. I don't know like he wasn't here but far away. He pulled away from me, "I have to go to the island. I have to look for him."

Sean sighed, "You can't just rush there. You'll get yourself killed."

I froze, "Wait I thought the program did the top ten students but there's eleven of us?"

It was not the best distraction but I really was curious. This island sounds bad and I don't want my best friend to go.

Raj is the one who finally answered, "Yeah Aleister snuck on the plane because Rourke is his father but then we learned that he was made in a lab-"

"Raj!" Sean snapped for him to be quiet.

I frowned, "This is too much. What happened to our guide?"

I couldn't recall her name because she was all chipper and annoying so I tuned her out and went to sleep.

Raj picked right back up, "So she turned out to be evil and we got captured by Aleisters father but I guess she had a change of heart thanks to some sweet words you said and she helped us escape but died doing it. Oh yeah and she killed-"

"RAJ!" Estela and Sean snapped.

Craig shrugged, "I don't see the problem, she needs to know."

Michelle stepped closer to me, "Maybe we should go over everything so that you know."

Diego shook his head, "We are wasting time. We need to go the island."

Jake grabbed him by the shoulder, "What if she remembers something that happened later? What if she managed to save him?"

Aleister agreed, "Besides if we fly out there what if there's no island? The island hasn't been seen for five years."

Sean looked shocked, "Have you been checking?"

All eyes turned to Aleister who looked a little red now. Grace grabbed his hand and spoke for him, "We've been sending a plane out. The first year we went about once a month and then once every six months until finally just once a year. We owe a lot to Echko and we have the resources to do it so we did."

They kept searching for me?

"Why didn't you tell me?" Spoken so softly by Jake that my heart ached for him and I grabbed his hand. He squeezed back.

"We didn't want to get your hopes up."

Jake squeezed my hand and I looked at both Grace and Aleister, "Thank you." They nodded at me.

Zaraha of course stopped the heartfelt moment, "So now what?"

We all looked at around the room but my eyes locked onto Quinns. From the look in her eye we had the same thought.

"It might take a lot of energy out of us but when we got close earlier I had a memory. Maybe we could reenact that and get another memory?" I suggested as I stepped slowly closer to Quinn.

The closer I got the more pain I could feel in my temple. She took a step towards me and everyone around watched silently.

I reached for her hand as she did the same. The second our palms touched it was like a great unknown force was trying to push us apart. The force was so strong the others could feel it and started yelling for us to separate.

"NO HOLD ON!" I yelled at Quinn as we interlocked our fingers.

The second we locked our other hand together the force knocked me out and the last thing I remember seeing was Quinn falling backwards.