The rest of the week went by far too quickly. It was already Saturday, and Arius and Jaida were preparing for their return journey. They had already packed what they wanted to take with. All that was left was for them to catch the train. Arius didn't want to have to fly them back over, since it was such a long distance. Luckily, Mr. Carlson had been able to afford two first class train tickets for them. He was happy to make the arrangements.They were currently at the train station, waiting for the train to come. They weren't going to miss it this time. Mr. Carlson was making sure of it. He was there with them, waiting to see them off on their long journey home. The train ride would take until mid afternoon tomorrow. They'd have to go through the night, so Mr. Carlson had made sure that they'd be accommodated for."Well," he began. "I guess this is it." The train was just pulling up into the station. "Have fun at school, and tell your mom I say hi.""I will," responded Jaida with a smi

The day progressed somewhat normally. Everyone was talking about their Christmas break, the presents they got, and the places they went. Jaida spent most of her time answering questions. Apparently a lot of the school knew about her trip to the hospital, and everyone had about five million questions to ask her about it. For her, it was a little hard telling the story. After all, she had to leave Arius out of it since no one knew that he had gone with her. She was praying that she had told the same story to everyone who had asked. There didn't need to be contradictions in such an altered event.School came to a pretty quick and easy end, and the students were happy not to have too much homework. After all, it was their first day back from their break. Everyone was just getting back into the school spirit. It wasn't right to rush straight into the learning process just yet. Even though they didn't have any homework, Jaida and Arius wer

School seemed to drag on forever on this day, and finally, to both Jaida and Arius' dismay, it was now sixth hour. After this, they'd have to meet up with Nero and head through the gate. This was a very nerve racking thing, even for Arius. He kept thinking about the trip, about what could happen by taking Jaida to his world. He was so distracted that during their work time, he was caught staring out the window by Mr. Owens. The teacher quickly realized that Arius was stressing about something.   "What's wrong?" he asked in a whisper, his voice almost getting drowned out by the other students. Arius glanced quickly at Jaida and then back to his teacher. "Come on, Arius. We're all in this together now. You can tell me things."   "I guess…" he trailed off, deciding that it would be nice to tell someone about his

"Arius?" Jaida questioned, making sure she wasn't hallucinating. He just sighed a bit and stood up, offering her his hand. She cautiously took it, and he helped her to her feet.   "Sorry," he said. "I forgot to mention how gate traveling works."   "It's okay," she told him, her head spinning a bit. "I'm fine now." She looked around a little and quickly realized that they were one member short. "Where's Nero?"   "He went on ahead," Arius explained as he shoved his hands into his pockets. "Now let's get going, but stay close, alright?"   "Okay," she said, falling into step beside him as he began walking. Jaida already knew she wouldn't be able to keep

Arius snarled a bit in disgust before returning his eyes to Jaida. She was still rubbing her shoulder, as if trying to hide something from him by keeping it covered. She had a few tears in her eyes and looked to be on the verge of crying. It was then that Arius noticed the faint smell of blood. He saw a few red stains on Jaida's school uniform, mainly around her shoulders. His glare grew so dark that it gave new meaning to the phrase "looks could kill." His eyes quickly went to the three remaining yet retreating Deslyans.   "Which one of you did this?" he asked threateningly. He looked to their claws, and he quickly saw that one of them had red tips on his nails. Arius pushed past the other two and grabbed the one who had used his claws on Jaida.   "I'm sorry!" he quickly apologized, fearing for his life. "I had no idea she was with you, honest! I promi