The Lake

It was twilight. The skies were dimming and the stars were starting to come out. It was a beautiful night, but Calden Hawke didn't take any notice. He felt tired, weak, and his stomach churned uncooperatively. He sat down in some malnourished grass by the lake, his head pounding and throbbing. Images of the past couple of days invaded his brain. He didn't want to think about them - - he was too tired to think.

He eventually gave into his exhaustion and laid down in the grass, closing his eyes. He didn't sleep, though. He was too tired to sleep. It felt as if someone was dancing on his brain, an annoying pressure behind his eyes, and to top it all off, he ached all over. Perhaps he was getting sick, or perhaps those forty years he spent asleep in the lotus hotel were take their toll on him.

Either way, he was miserable. He felt like a fish out of water. Being a soldier trying to return to civilian life was hard enough... But having to do it, forty years out of place? It was agonizing. He missed his own time period. He missed the simplicity of it all, back before cell phones and the Internet. Back when people could actually be trusted. Granted, some things remained the same: the clothing and hair style was still just as hideous. Shows like Doctor Who were still on the air, and even Star Trek was still around (he had to admit, he quite liked The Next Generation and the two new movies.) But more than anything, he missed the people he used to know. He missed his family, and his friends. The people he had once grown up with had long since forgotten him. They'd moved on with their lives. They'd grown up. Most of them had families on their own by now.

It was hard to identify the emotion he felt deep in liver or his kidneys... But after a long while, he finally realized what it was: loneliness.

Calden closed his eyes. He had a funny feeling in his insides: he felt empty, and at ached. It ached so much he wanted to cry. He wanted to scream. He felt all choked up on pins and needles, shards of glass etching their way into the very core of his bones. There was mounting pressure in his chest and behind his eyes - - he thought that his head might suddenly explode.

Cactus pins pricked at his eyes. He thought of his mother and he felt the balloon in his sternum burst. He let out a loud, mournful wail, from the very depths of his soul. He felt the entire world shatter around him. H. Stood up on shaky legs and screamed curses at the stars.

Diane walked in.

Aang entered.

diane saw a boy walk in

wrong place oops delete this pls

diane left