Writer Games: Pending Secrets

Task Three - Dancing With the Dead - Female Entries

Jana Monaco

*DID NOT HAND IN*

Chloe-Marie De La Fuente

*DID NOT HAND IN*

Felicia Reynolds

*DID NOT HAND IN*

Shyen Ann Brooke

"Hey."

A voice, a far-away voice, was the thing that woke her. The tendrils of sound poked her brain, causing a chain reaction throughout the girl's body, and with a startled gasp Shyen Ann jerked back to life. Water dripped in thin, trickling streams down her body, its coldness equivalent to that of a slippery snake's. For a few heart-stopping seconds, her vision blurred so that everything around her was a meaningless blob of colors. However, thankfully, her eyesight returned to normal relatively quickly, and Shyen Ann looked around for the source of the voice that had awoken her.

Turns out, she did not have to wait long. Sitting in front of her, crisscross-apple-sauce style, leaning against the smooth grey walls of the building, was another girl. Another girl with pale skin that seemed even paler now that it was glistening with water, and dark brown hair that stuck to all sides of her face. She seemed exhausted, like Shyen Ann was – chest heaving, shoulders hunched – but her eyes maintained a type of childlike mischievousness.

When she saw Shyen Ann staring at her, the girl cracked a lopsided smile, and said, "I'm Melody. Melody Rupert."

She stuck out her hand, but Shyen Ann didn't take it. Instead, the fourteen-year-old decided to be more cautious, and instead asked suspiciously, "Why did you save me?"

"Would you have rather I left you in the waves to die?" Melody answered back sharply, tilting her head to one side, as if emphasizing her question. When Shyen Ann didn't answer – to be honest, it was because Melody had a point – Melody got up and heaved Shyen Ann to her feet. Once standing, Melody dropped her smile and her voice took on a sterner, more somber tone, "Guess not. Now, tell me, Shyen Ann," the older girl paused, before saying, "Do you want to live?"

"What?" Despite the fact that a nerve-racking mixture of distrust and fear still gnawed at her stomach for Melody, Shyen Ann knew that running away would be the worst thing she could do right now. If Melody didn't kill her, her weakened state and lack of weapons would result in her death sooner or later. "Of course I want to live," she shook her arm free of Melody's grip and instead placed both hands on her hips, sort of in a commanding motion. "Are you implying something?"

"Actually, I am," Melody's lips curved up into a smile once more, though something about it sent chills down Shyen Ann's back. "I've observed you since the Bloodbath. Though you did nearly die, I was impressed by the struggle you put up."

"Wait," Shyen Ann held up a hand, mind whirling. "Are you complimenting me?"

"I'm doing more," Melody replied, and through the light of the sun, Shyen Ann could see the girl's eyes twinkling. "I'm offering you to be in an alliance. And," the nineteen-year-old lifted a dainty finger when Shyen Ann opened her mouth to speak, "Before you decline, I suggest looking out of the window."

She nodded towards an open window a few feet from where the two girls were standing, and for the first time, Shyen Ann realized that there was a scrawled graffitied number beside the window in navy blue, which messily read 'Floor 25'. A question rose up her throat, but Shyen Ann forced it down. Melody's words had awakened a type of curiosity inside of her, and she forced her feet to carry to the cement panel, and look down to the grounds below.

What she saw made her gasp.

Instead of the endless ocean, there was nothing but dry land. She could clearly still the sides of the building all the way down, glistening with leftover seawater that trickled down its sides. At the bottom, where the ocean floor used to be, was nothing more but a vast stretch of desert, dusty sand that disappeared into the horizon. There wasn't even a tumbleweed, for god's sake! What the hell? She turned back to Melody, her question written clearly all over her face, who just shrugged and said, "I don't know what happened either, but look closer."