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“WAKE UP!”

Beta woke up with a start, the voices in his head ceasing, except this time he had no recollection of what they had said. He looked up to see a drenched head-to-toe Matrix shaking him. Drops of water landing on his already wet face. “Man, you sleep like the dead,” the wet Stak said, leaning back up.

“Where are we?” Beta asked, no emotion in his voice.

“America! We actually made it! How the hell did we make it?” He began to chant. “U.S.A! U.S.A! U.S.A!”

“Stop that,” Hershey’s voice bit as he sat on the sand. Luckily, his horns were still sunken into his skull somewhere. Suddenly, all thought came back to Beta and he rubbed his forehead. He remembered the sea creature carrying them from the boat, and then he remembered them sneaking onto another boat. He also remembered getting caught on said boat and the whale having followed them, ready to try somewhere else. He remembered a lot of whale and a lot of boats, also a vague pie memory, but he wasn’t sure how it fit in.

“Where’s the orca?” Beta muttered, standing up on the sand and feeling woozy from the lack of food on their journey and the ache of being on the constant edge of catching hypothermia.

“She went back into the ocean. Pretty sure she’s okay.” Matrix pulled Beta farther from the water, the tide coming in just then and hitting Beta’s freezing legs. It was cold still. “Alright, I’ve got legs,” the independent Perna argued, getting to his feet. As he did, his eyes adjusted to the bright sun and—

Beta looked around at all of the vacationers on the beach, split into those trying to ignore them or those showing their open concern. Either way, it felt like they were all staring. Matrix was still smiling when Beta pulled him to the side. “Where exactly are we?” Beta asked, paranoia boiling in his blood and warming his frozen limbs.

“Uh…” Matrix looked around too, blinking a drop of water out of his eye. He turned back to Beta and shrugged. “A beach?”

Beta squinted at him like he was idiotic and shook his damp head. “I’m going to…find…something,” Beta announced. He walked away from the shoreline, cringing at how hot the sand was. Beta wandered over to the beach-side restaurant, a whole patio stretching over the shore. There were wooden planks holding it up—ones Beta leaned on—and a wooden fence that separated the beach below it from the restaurant’s open patio space. He grabbed on to the fence, standing on his tippy toes and calling out.

“Hey.” Beta acknowledged the woman just walking away from a table. She turned to him and Beta could see the initial shock on her face.

“Wow, nice contacts. Is it hard to see in there?” the woman asked, pretending to look deep into his eyes as she walked over. Beta raised an eyebrow. “Sorry?” He was openly confused, which made her confused. He touched the skin under his eyes and then remembered the color stained there. Unlike heartbeats and need for food, Beta’s big, sienna brown eyes had not been restored. “Oh, right. Uh, yeah, a real pain. It’s a daily struggle. Anyway, are there any good hotels that we could stay in near here?”

“Uh, yeah. There’s one on the edge of Regional street, it’s about a mile from here. There are places closer but most likely they’re full or crowded. Here.” She flipped to a new page on her pad and started writing. After she was done, she ripped the sheet off and handed it to him. “That’s the address.” The woman smiled.

“Cheers. Um, another thing. Where am I…exactly?” Beta asked.

“Um, you mean what beach?”

“No, I mean what state.”

The woman looked at him strangely before answering. “Miami, Florida?”

“Oh! Of course. Thank you again.” Beta turned and jogged away before the lady could respond.

But as he ran, a cry from behind made him turn back around.

He wished he hadn’t.

“What are you doing!?” the older woman cried as the waitress Beta had just spoken to dug savagely into her lobster dish. “Get off!” But as the woman tried to push her off, the waitress grabbed her by the collar and shoved her out of her seat. That was when Beta turned right back around, walking a bit faster toward his travel friends.

It couldn’t have been me…Beta told himself, looking down at his shaking hands. It was too…intense. It was too…real.

Beta shoved his hands in his pockets, but that didn’t stop his newly active heart from racing.

His power was growing stronger.

“Elias…I think I’ve heard that name before.”

Matrix glanced over at Hershey as he lied in the sand a few feet away; the Stak clutched the stolen phone to his ear angrily. “Yeah that’s because he’s the one,” Matrix said, walking past vacationer after vacationer. “The one who ‘got away’ per say. The one that no one talks about.”

Nwoye exhaled through the phone and Matrix stopped walking. “What,” he said, so wrapped up in the conversation that he hadn’t noticed Hershey leaving his sandy spot and walking toward him. “Matrix, if it’s really who you say it is you need to find them…”

Hershey paused right behind Matrix, seeing the phone and frowning.

“…and put a hole in their chest so them and I can have a little chat.”

“Who are you talking to?” Matrix jumped at the sound of Hershey’s voice and turned around. He hung up the call and cleared his throat, staring at the now blank screen to ponder his response. “My cousin,” he lied, wiping his sweaty forehead. “I thought maybe he’d let us stay with her but…no luck.” Hershey just nodded, wanting to ask more questions but choosing better of it.

Beta reached Hershey and Matrix, looking much more frantic than when he had left. “Hey, guys.” The two friends just awaited his words. “I think…maybe we made the wrong choice here.”

“What do you mean?” Matrix asked, straightening his back involuntarily. Hershey knew what was coming.

“I mean…I think…Maybe leaving Plato wasn’t a great i—”

“Let me stop you right there,” Matrix said, putting a hand up. “Before you go on I think you should consider the fact that there is no ‘we’ when it comes to the decision to come down here. There’s just you, and two friends that risked their lives to help you. And saying that you regret it is the equivalent of saying that you are a selfish prick who didn’t give two shits about who got hurt while he decided to go on a wild goose chase for his destiny. So, with that in mind, and with the illusion that maybe you’re a slightly decent person…by all means continue.”

“Excuse me.” The three boys turned to a man on the beach with a fuzzy chest and an even fuzzier expression. “Do y’all need help in any way? Should I call up someone?”

Hershey spoke then, feeling unapologetically guilty for being the youngest. Beta sighed as the Nat answered. “No, sir. We’re fine, thank you. We’re just going to walk back to our hotel room.” Beta nudged them and pointed to the shops along the bay. They started walking away from the tanned man; Beta stopped and turned back to him in the spur of the moment. “And just so you know, we’re all well over 18. I know we look young, but we’re not, alright sir?”

“Actually—”

“Dead years count, Hershey,” the Perna muttered. He dragged Hershey away before he could respond, Matrix coming up from behind to follow. “Did you actually find a hotel?” Hershey asked and Beta nodded. “And how are we paying for said hotel?”

Matrix pulled out a leather wallet, opened it, and showed off a wad of cash and a credit card. “We’re good.”

“Stealing is wrong.”

“Yeah, well, so is wearing stripes in any scenario but people, for some reason, still do that.”

The friends just laughed and moved on.

“I call the shower first!” Matrix practically climbed over Hershey and bolted to their hotel room’s bathroom.

“No one was fighting you for it, mate,” Beta reassured, plopping down on the bed farthest to the left. Walking in for the first time, Beta was surprised at how clean it was. Not that he wasn’t a very clean person, he just always held a respect for hotel cleanliness. The wallpaper was green, stripes running down it. There was half a wall separating the space with the two beds, bathroom, T.V., and horrible-view window from the space with the sofa couch, closet, microwave, and mini-fridge. The beds were covered in rough comforters, but Beta didn’t care about the scratchiness. Before he could relax, Matrix shook him, stirring him once for good measure.

“Oh no you don’t. We’re gonna strategize…well actually I’m going to take a shower and then we’re gonna strategize.” Matrix went back into the bathroom and Beta knocked out for as long as he could before Matrix’s loud voice stifled his sleep.

“Hey guys! Can you run out and get me some new clothes? You know, some that don’t have blood and water and sweat on them,” Matrix asked.

“Hershey,” Beta muttered, half his face covered with bedding and dust.

“Already ahead of you. I got some while you were asleep,” Hershey said, walking past Beta to get to the bathroom door.

“While I was asleep? Did you wish them here?” Beta muttered back.

“No, you’ve just been sleeping that long, and Matrix has been in the shower that long.” Hershey set them in front of the door and Matrix cracked it open, snatching them.

“Yes! Blame me for being disgusting!” he yelled back through the door. Hershey just nodded, watching T.V. on the other bed.

A few minutes later, Matrix came out refreshed, and Beta woke up back in order. “Okay, better,” Matrix said, wearing an ‘I love Miami!’ shirt. His nose crinkled. “Although you two smell like a homeless person’s foot.” He sat next to Hershey and snagged the remote.

“Dude!” Hershey cried out but Matrix ignored him and turned off the T.V.

“Maybe it’s just me, but last time I checked we have just a few murderous Syncs on our shared ass and Beta’s destiny to fulfill,” the Stak uttered.

“Well we don’t exactly know if they’re murderous,” Beta said under his breath. Matrix just bit his lip and gave him a death glare. “Alright, alright. I get it.” Beta sighed and scratched through his dirty hair. “But what exactly are you asking me to do? We’re in Florida, right? So we catch a train or somethin’ and head to Illinois where Elias is. I mean do you not want to go?”

Matrix couldn’t help the release of pressure in his stomach when Beta said it. “Okay but how are we supposed to do that when we have Syncs, literally, everywhere?”

“We don’t know for sure if there are Syncs everywhere and how badly they want to get to us. As for my destiny, I’m sure whatever Elias has planned will do fine.”

“Okay co—”

“Wait wait wait,” Hershey said, standing up. Matrix’s eyes shut as Hershey stepped forward, silently cursing his friend’s insane need to help. “So we’re just going to blindly follow your little friend up to Illinois?”

Beta turned to Hershey and shrugged. “Well, I mean, why not.”

“Yeah, what else do we have to go on?” Matrix said, ganging up on Hershey as well. “Besides, this Willow chick can probably help us figure out what to do about the Syncs.” Hershey’s eyes shifted from one to the other, and he crossed his arms defensively.

“O-Okay but why?” Hershey stammered, raising his eyebrows. He turned to Beta for an answer. “Because the voice in your head says so?”

Hershey awaited a response, but Beta seemed to have zoned him out. He was staring at Matrix’s hand. “I don’t think it’s just a voice,” Beta whispered, walking over to Matrix. Matrix’s face was hot when Beta lifted his hand up to his own line of sight.

Matrix blinked and then squinted at the image printed on his skin. “How—?” He started but Beta cut him off by showing him the same tattoo that appeared on his neck the day they had left.

An octagon with a raindrop inside.

Matrix turned to him and looked at the one on his neck. “When’d you get a tat of—?”

“I didn’t, and I’m assuming neither did you,” Beta said, walking over to Hershey. Hershey stopped him before he could look him over. He lifted up his shirt and they all froze.

“I have…no idea where this came from,” Hershey said. There lied the tattoo on Hershey’s stomach, right above the belly button. “Anyone else feel violated?” Hershey looked down at it himself. “Me maybe more than anyone else?”

“Beta why the hell are we all marked with your birthmark?” Matrix asked, turning to him.

Beta shrugged. “I’m not sure, but I think it’s a message to me from Elias.”

“A message of what?” Hershey asked, covering his stomach.

Beta stuttered over his words, not wanting to freak them out. “Connection, between the three—or four now—of us. I honestly think it was a term of endearment.”

Hershey grinded his teeth. “It…claimed us?”

Beta’s eyes widened. “No, no! It’s a good thing. It means you’re officially a part of my journey! Elias marked me once I agreed to this as well.”

Hershey sighed, rubbing his eyes. His mouth fell open and then snapped shut again, thinking twice. “Guys,” Beta said, although the excitement in his voice had fallen.

Hershey swallowed, looking away from Beta. “Maybe you were right, maybe we shouldn’t have come down here in the first place.” Beta and Matrix’s heads snapped toward Hershey, not used to him speaking his mind at the peril of other’s emotions.

But this wasn’t Plato anymore.

This wasn’t “Hershey” anymore.

And that night, Beta thought about that exact notion…and it was those thoughts that led him to be paid a very much unwanted visit.

Beta felt his mother’s body lingering and got out of bed, stepping out into the hallway where it followed swiftly much like a phantom. He stalked toward Elias once the door was shut, his red eyes becoming darker for the first time. “What did you do to them?”

It took a while to respond, but did eventually. “It was necessary.”

“Why?”

“Because they’re part of it too.”

“I dragged them into this! I’m the one who brought them to Earth!”

Elias stepped closer. “No, you didn’t. They made their own choice to get on that spaceship. You didn’t force them to do anything, Beta.”

Beta bit his lip, squeezing his eyes shut. “Elias.” Beta clenched his fists. He was ready to scream, ready to pull his hair out, but Beta realized it was no use. He unclenched his fists and let them fall back to his side. “Hershey is right…we should’ve never left.” Beta shook his head, avoiding eye contact with his mom. “We’re never going to be safe again.”

Elias sighed and placed a hand on Beta’s shoulder. Its voice echoed through Beta’s head. “You will be safe again, after all of this is over…I promise you. But I could’ve gone into anyone else’s head, and I chose yours. Because you’re the only one I’ve been able to find that thinks like me. The symbol helps me find you and help where help is needed. Your friends are a part of this too, whether they wanted to be or not. Now I urge you, take my instructions and go. The decisions are left to you, as they always have been.”

His mother disappeared like a bat going through a cloud of smoke, and Beta was left alone. “Yeah…” Beta closed his eyes. “I’m starting to think that’s the problem.”