Collision - Alyx D. Vacca (best reads of all time txt) 📗

of sturdy oak with gold and silver embossed in intricate designs around the edges and twined around the legs. There was a canopy bed that looked like it could easily fit five people plus me. The sheets were made of blue silk and the thick blanket was of a soft fabric that I had never seen nor heard of. Sheer blue tuel covered a thick deep purple velvet canopy. The wood was most likely from some distant land in Treah, because I had never seen it before. And mind you that was just the bedroom. I skipped describing the rooms I passed coming in here. But I tell you that it is probably more luxurious than anything that you live in usually.
The next day I had a hard time getting out of that bed. It was the best sleep that I had ever had! But up I got, I had to hurry so that I would not miss breakfast and Tobi. I hoped that I could talk to him. I dressed, brushed my teeth and flew out the door, running my fingers through my hair as I went. I went down the stairs through the hall that the messenger had brought us through yesterday. Up some more stairs, and to the queens' rooms. Where I stopped and gasped for breath before standing up straight and knocking. This time Karim answered the door and grinned when she saw me. "Well come in!" She said moving aside to let me through the door. A Tobi, a large and very excited Tobi, came bounding over and swept me up in a bone crushing hug. As I squeaked my protest Kate and Karim laughed. When Tobi finally let go of me (and I wont lie and say that I did not not like being held by Tobi) I looked around and realized that two of us were missing. "Where is Henry and Cole?" Kate grinned. "There is no need for pretenses with us, we know that Cole is in reality the infamous Riah Moreo. You would think that she would choose a less obvious name, but maybe she was suffering from a lack of imagination that day." "You are not going to arrest her are you?" I asked, worried. Kate shook her head as Karim answered, "Of course not! Why would I do that? All she was doing was trying to get enough money to live a comfortable life. And Henry's family is very rich, they have money to spare. And she never took anything from people who were not super wealthy." "Why did you say that her name made her obvious? I mean, I get Moreo. That is not a very common name. But Cole?" Kate answered before Karim could jump in and give a long and romantic story, which I know she would have. "Her middle name is Nichole." "Ah!" "I see!" We said, sagely. "So..." I said. "Did I miss breakfast?" Karim laughed, "Nope. Just about to start." Tobi led the way, he was always hungry. "Yay! Food!" He bound to the table and sat down and started to pile food onto his plate. He must have gotten to know Kate and Karim better because he was much more at ease with them. We all laughed as waited impatiently for them to sit down so he could eat. We all sat down so that he would quit looking like a sad puppy. He dug in immediately. As we ate we talked about just about everything, until Kate suggested that we go outside and play Cricket. "How do you play Cricket?" Everyone turned to stare at me. I guess that Treah, or at least Sra, is like some places in Europe in that everyone knows Cricket. They explained the rules and me and Kate, who was on my team, lost horribly. "I do not think that Cricket is really your game," Tobi said,covering a laugh. I did not blame him, I sucked at the game. "I have never been that good at games that need hand-eye coordination." Tobi cocked his head to the side questioningly. He looked like he was imitating a bird. "But you are really good at archery. What do you mean you do not have good hand-eye coordination?" I shrugged, "It has never worked that way for me, I might be good at archery but anything else I just can not do. It's kind of annoying."


"There was once a dog named cuso and his mater was a tater and his pappy was always happy and little willy down the road liked to ride his bicycle and do things. He liked to watch English movies and read English books, and his favorite games were Cricket and the English Football. He was on a soccer team and often invited his friends over to play Cricket. His parents thought that his obsession with England would make him move there, and they did not want their little willy to go anywhere, so they devised a plan. A plan to make him like America! They enrolled him in Baseball and Basketball, they had him watch American Football on television and they canceled all of the English channels and all the Cricket get-togethers. When Willy found out about all of this he was furious! He called up his friend Eli (Who was obsessed with Hungary) and together they made their own plan to make his parents realize how great England is. When they put their plan into action it worked a little too well. Soon the whole family was packing up and moving to England! Eli tried to get his family to realize just how great Hungary was but they had been forewarned by a mutual friend what had happened to to Willy's parents. They swore to each other and to themselves that they would never move to Hungary. And so they did not. The End," I read. "Who wrote this?" I asked holding up a leather bound journal. "Give me that!" Kate grabbed the book from my hands and sat on it. "Do not go around reading things that do not belong to you!" "Sorry," I said, ashamed. "I did not think that it was anything that important, or that anyone would mind." Kate sighed, "I guess it does not matter that much. That is just my practice journal, all the stories and stuff are just some stuff thrown together in three or so minutes. My finished works or my works in progress are on that shelf over there," she said, pointing to a bookshelf in the corner that held a total of maybe ten books. "As you can see," Kate continued, gesturing at the shelf I was standing next to that was over flowing. "I spend more time practicing writing than actually writing the stuff I plan on going anywhere with. Anyways, let's go and find the others, they seemed to have disappeared." "Can I read one of your books?" I asked her. She stopped and said, "No." Without even looking at me. Had I offended her? Did I finally find the boundary and stepped over it by accident? "Sorry," I said quietly. I can not tell if she heard me or not, and I am not sure if I wanted her to.
I am lying in my room. The bed is soft. Something is going on. I feel it, but I don't want to figure out what it is. I miss Tobi. And I miss my parents. Henry I see every day for an extended amount of time, but right now I miss him too. And Riah. I do not get what is going on. I feel like I am never going to see any of them ever again, but I know that is not right. I am lonely. I am lonely for no reason. Where is everyone. I looked at the clock, it says 1:57pm. They are probably sleeping. I need a reason to stay here. My life was put on hold for the Tournament but now I want to go back to school. I want something to happen. I want something sad, or happy. Anything that makes me feel as if I am actually alive. I feel dead, but my pulse is still going. My heart is pounding and my lungs are breathing. But it is not me doing those things, my body does those automatically.
The next day I was feeling better, but I still did not feel as if my life had a purpose. I decided that I would talk to Karim, I think I needed to talk to some who was passionate about whatever she did. As I walked down the hall to go to talk to Karim, Tobi came running down the stairs and did not even stop when he saw me. Instead as he ran past me he reached out and grabbed my wrist and pulled me along with him. "Tobi! What is going on? Where are we going?" He did not answer. I dug my heels in and pulled him to a stop. "Tobi! Answer my questions!" He turned and glared at me and tugged at me again without saying anything. "TOBI!" I heard a rush of footsteps coming from behind us. People were chasing us. Suddenly I forgot all of my questions and started running, Tobi right behind me. We ran all the way to the gates at the White House before I realized that what I had no idea what I was running away from and whether it would make me a national, or even a global, criminal. "Tobi, before we go any farther, I need to know what happened and who we are running from." He looked at me and then looked away. "Tobi?" He was making me nervous, he had not said a single word since... All of today he had not said anything. When he had grabbed me he would have said "Come on" or "Hurry", or something. Tobi is very verbal. "Tobi just say something!" He looked at me and smiled sadly and shook his head. Was he saying that he could not talk? Tobi could not talk? Just then I saw who was chasing us. They were Allen and the other guard, plus what looked like fifty more. Tobi did not just tug this time he pulled me through the gates just as they went under lock-down. I followed him dazed, before I almost got hit by a car and realized that Tobi had gone crazy and was pulling us through the street recklessly. I took over and pulled him over to the side of the road. He bent down and started coughing up blood. I knelt next to him and made him look at me. "Tobi, what happened." Just as he started coughing again before he could cover his mouth or look away I saw. He was not coughing up blood, blood was poring from his stump of a tongue. Some one