The Colonies #1

Chapter 3

“How?” He demanded, standing up to his impressively tall height. I shrugged, looking curiously around.

“I sunk through the quicksand after you did?” I told him. “You thought I wasn’t smart enough to realize that you’ve been sneaking off every night to come to this-this place?” I spit the words.

“I didn’t think that!” He snapped.

“Then what aren’t you telling me,” I looked around at the curious faces. Thomas let out a sigh.

“Uh, can I tell you somewhere else?” He asked. I looked around, my eyebrow raised.

“Let me guess. There’s a whole civilization down here, and the quicksand is a portal to both worlds?” I put my hand on my hip.

“Your getting there,” Tom said as he turned around and snapped his fingers. Two of the six soldiers stood up and walked over to me. I backed away.

“Tom?”

“Take her to the cellar,” Thomas ordered.

“Thomas!” I said louder as the guards kept coming closer and closer. I looked around the wooden room and found a door. I ran over to it and yanked it open. I was met with the wonderful smell of wildflowers and honey. I ran out and started running through the valley filled with pine trees. I saw a little village in front of me.

My orphanage dress flapped around my shins as I ran. My lungs burned, but I kept going. I had to get away from this place.

“May, stop!” Thomas called out from behind me. But I didn’t stop. Was he really my friend in the first place, should I really trust him if he kept this secret from me this whole life.

I was so confused. What just happened back there? When I met Thomas when he was nearly seven, he was a scared and broken boy with no family. His emotions used to be all over the place. He would be happy some days, depressed others. If someone used to go do something to anger him, he would hold grudges for months. But then he snapped out of it. It was like a crab coming from its shell. He was a new person.

But I never expected him to keep this big of a secret from me.

I must have not been paying attention because someone lunged from one of the tree and grabbed my arms, yanking them behind me. Thomas.

“What. How?” When I looked back, I saw that he was way behind me.
I thrashed and flailed in his grip, managing to break through. I made it about two steps before Thomas slammed his horrible, leather and steel booted foot on my ankle.

“Owwwwww!” I screamed, clutching my throbbing foot to my chest. “What was that for!!” Thomas never harmed me before either.

He and another guy grabbed my arms and half carried half dragged me through the forest grass. The ankle throb decreased a little as they brought me to the stone and dark wooden building I just tried to escape from.

I glared at Thomas the whole way as they opened the door and dragged me into a cellar. Thomas grabbed a key from his leather pocket and unlocked a fairly decent, dark cell. They plopped me on my feet and pushed me inside.

I rolled my eyes at Tom as he locked it. He tried his best, trying not to glance at me. But I knew Tom. He would feel pretty bad about this. Not telling his best friend of thirteen years that he lived two different lives.

Thomas and the other guard with dark blue eyes walked away. I heard the door shut behind them . They were just going to leave me here? Without answers? Not on my watch. I looked around the cellar and found a small pile of crumbly stone in the corner.

I walked over there, limping slightly on my hurt ankle. I’m guessing it’ll feel better by tomorrow. I pull hard on the rocks and nearly topple over as it releases.

I hobble over to the cell bars and frantically start banging on them. “I WANT ANSWERS!” I scream, my voice cracking a little as I continue screaming the words.

“SHUT UP, YOU LITTLE GIRL!!” A males voice somewhere in the cell next to me screams.

“YOU SHUT UP, HOW ABOUT YOU FIGURE OUT THERE IS TWO WORLDS!!!” I scream back.

This isn’t probably the best solution to get answers. But I was seriously so confused. The first thing you know is that you're sinking through quick sand and are probably going to die, and then you fall into a different world with your best friend as one of the civilians!

“May, actually shut up. We could hear you from upstairs.” Tom came strolling into my view. His armor was discarded, and he wasn’t carrying a sword. He was wearing a flowey elbow length tunic and black work pants, his dark brown hair pulled into his usual shoulder-length ponytail.

I gave the bars a single blow with the ruble and sat down on the ground, purposely acting like I wasn’t paying attention as Tom repeatedly said my name over and over again.

“I know this was unexpected,” Tom said with a sigh. I kept my gaze away. “anddddd,” he dragged out the word, “Your mad at me aren’t you?”

I didn’t say anything.

“Yup, definitely mad.” He looked down at his shoes, then sneaked a glance at me. “You can at least look at me and stop pretending that you aren’t listening!”

I said nothing. I looked anywhere except him.

“Fine. I know you're mad at me. We share big secrets like this. Remember when you told me you would find crickets and put them in Mistress Connies' bathroom?” he chuckled, then stopped. “But this is way bigger than that, isn’t it?”

He knew that already, and I could tell. He sat down on the ground right outside the cell bars, his back to me. We waited in silence for a while before he spoke.
“This is going to sound confusing, so keep your ears open,” he joked. I glanced at him as he looked back. “Ha! You're finally looking!!” He pumped a fist in the air.

“Get on with it,” I mumbled. He made a silly, serious face and set on with the explanation.

“Let me tell you about this, er, place. Or whatever you want to call it.” He turned back to me and started fidgeting with the cell bars. “We call this place The Colonies.”

He stopped, probably expecting me to say something, but a giggle came out of my mouth instead.

“The Colonies?” I laugh. He nods his head slightly. “Why The Colonies?”

“Don’t ask me,” He sighs, his serious face crumbling.

“It could have been called Dimesion or the portal to mortals,” I told him. He shrugged.

“The Colonies isn’t a Dimesion. It’s a world that is technically millions of light years away, but the portal that you fell through transported you all that way. Which is impossible for humans.” He added seriously.

I shrugged the words off. But then I realized what he said.

“When you said that falling through the portal is impossible for humans. Does that mean I’m not human?”