8. Why Here

A collective murmur of voices was the first sound Eadon heard. Once the white light had cleared and her eyes had adjusted, she found that she and her friends were crammed in a bathtub display shower.

“Where the hell…” Mary glared at the small confinements, annoyed to have to be sharing a tight space with three other people.

The group clumsily made their way out of the shower.

“Why are we in Ikea?” Eadon asked looking over at J.C hoping for the answer.

“Don’t look at me, I have no idea. I don’t control where we go I just help us get there; and apparently where we need to be is… Ikea?”

“I heard that they were having a massive sale on doorknobs and lampshades. Apparently Bobo the clown is supposed to be here, too. It looks like everyone in town came,” Elijah said as the group scoped the scene; their eyes sweeping over familiar faces.

“Huh… alright then. Let’s walk around and see who or what we need to find,” J.C took the lead and everyone followed closely behind.

Just as the group started to immerse themselves into the depths of Ikea, the power went off. Shrieks of surprise are let out all around them and the loud locks of doors enclosing the shoppers send fear into people’s hearts.

“Well. Looks like we figured out why we were sent here,” Mary sighed with a touch of annoyance in her voice.

7. One Year Later

11:32 a.m.

Thirty more watch ticks and it’ll be 11:33. Almost there, Eadon thought to herself. Her legs burned with each new pump of energy that she focused into her strides to help keep pace with her other three companions who were sprinting through the forest.

“Keep up! We’re practically there. And when we do get there, we have to act fast. We’re late,” J.C McAdams yelled behind him from the front of the group. He was the fastest of the four and, among other reasons, was why he liked to consider himself the leader. Eadon remembered when she first met him in the cavern. It had been over a year, and looking back, she couldn’t believe how little she had known then.

“Guys, look up.” J.C was slowing his pace down to a jog, and the others followed suit. Mary Everling pushed her choppy black hair from her face to look. “Damn.” Eadon and Elijah Adams followed her and J.C’s gazes. A giant, intensely colored, translucent rainbow was practically thirty feet above them. Barely ten feet in front of them through the trees, it seemed as the rainbow actually touched down to the ground.

At an even paced jog, the group followed the rainbow to its end in the middle of a clearing in the forest.

Eadon hunched over trying to catch her breath. I got to work on my cardio, she thought. “Oh come on,” Mary smirked, “it wasn’t that bad. At least you were able to keep up this time.” Eadon narrowed her eyes, she hated when Mary did that.

“Guys. It’s time.” J.C had that determined look on; the one of a leader, Eadon noted. She slowly nodded her head and took one last, shaky breath. The four formed a diamond around the rainbow’s end. It was a simple ritual but it had taken a lot of practice to make it simple. Eadon had been the group’s missing piece and once she had mastered her part as well as everyone else could, the ritual became like clockwork.

It began with Elijah connecting everyone through emotions, creating the strongest form of empathy ever felt by any human. Then Mary linked everyone’s minds making all their thoughts transparent to the others. Eadon’s turn was next. She used her newly discovered skill to lift everyone, including herself, off the ground and into the air, making them feel weightless to the world. J.C finished the ritual with a flash a white light, the same light that had sent Eadon to Mab. Within a millisecond, the group was no longer suspended in the forest’s air and the rainbow had disappeared.

6. Coorperation

"Wha-who are you?"

"Well, Eadon, until we're certain you're who we think you are, the answer to your question is classified."

"Look. I don't know what freaky cult you guys are in, but this is definitely kidnapping and you need to let me leave because I know my mom is worried about where I am."

"Trust me, she's not." Eadon turned to look at who owned the new voice. A girl with short, choppy black hair who was maybe a year younger than Eadon matched her gaze. Her certainty scared Eadon. Did her mom really not care about where she was?

"Cut it." Eadon looked back at the boy. "To prove if you're who we hope you are, you have to go visit Mab at Ikea."

"Who now? And who's to say I'm going to corporate?"

"You'll corporate," the girl practically sneered at Eadon. "Trust me."

~~

One minute Eadon was in the cavern but in the next, she was alone and blinded by white. After a moment of adjusting to the new light Eadon took in her new surroundings. The ceiling of the building was high and everything was a clean white giving it a pristine look. Eadon realized she was in Ikea.

I have to find Mab. 

Eadon had yet to visit the town's Ikea, she hadn't a clue where she was going but was following some odd gut feeling that told her which lefts and rights to turn.

Mab.

Eadon had never seen this person in her life, but she knew this was who she was looking for.

"Mab?"

They turned from whatever they were cooking on one of the Ikea model stoves.

Where you allowed to do that? Eadon wondered.

Mab was slightly startling upon first glance. They had thick makeup on and wore concealing clothes and gave Eadon a thin, toothless smile.

"I think I'm supposed to find you ... but I'm not sure why."

"Tell them that you're who they seek."

"That's it? I feel like I should've gotten more than that like some sort of prophecy that had multiple meanings."

Mab just stared at Eadon.

"You are who they seek. That is all. Why add complexity to simplicity?"

Before Eadon could think of a clever response her surroundings disappeared once again.