Astray

Chapter 2

I feel like I'm being carried by waves. My body feels strange, like there's no gravity holding me down. I can't feel my arms or legs. Something happened to me. My mind goes blank again.

The ground beneath me was rough and it took me a few moments to realise I was lying on gravel. What the hell happened? Where am I? The world was blurry, but every time I blinked it became more and more clear. I slowly sat up, leaning on one of my arms. My head was pounding, and I became aware of something hot oozing down the side of my face. Instinctively I reached my hand up to my forehead to find that my head was bleeding. The memories started to flood back, and I remembered I wasn't alone. I swivelled around to see Suzie a few feet away from me. I crawled over to her and tried to her awake. "Suzie, Suzie wake up".

Suzie wasn't responding, but after a couple rougher shakes she started to stir. She looked tired but as she started to become more aware she looked dazed and confused. "Where am I" She asked.

"I-I don't know" I stammered.

"Poppy? Where's Chad? Is he ok?" She asked me.

I was kind of hoping he had died but no. He was a bit further behind Suzie. She started to sit up, turning to Chad. She crawled to him and started to shake him away. "Piss off Mom" He muttered.

"It's me, Chad. It's Suzie."

"Huh?"

Chad was also becoming aware of his surroundings, and he saw Suzie. They exchanged words but I wasn't listening. I stood up as I was taking in the whole world. Everything was strange. The trees were all dead or had fungus growing on them. We were sitting on the remnants of an old tar road that was torn up. There were 3 buildings that were cracked, falling apart and had all kinds of vines growing on them. The world we were in was barren. There was a moon, no that wasn't right, there was a dark grey blue sun that made the sky look like a dark stormy day. Chad and Suzie finally stood up beside me and they also took in all the scenery. I looked over at them and they both seemed to be alright. "Holy shit! What is this place?" Chad said.

I opened my mouth to make a snarky comment when we heard a loud crash of what sounded like thunder coming from behind us. We all jumped and turned around to face the noise to be met with a large creature. This thing was at least 50 feet tall and was as black as a moonless night. Its head was in a 5-point star shape, and it had teeth as sharp as samurai swords, not to mention they were massive. The claws on it matched the teeth, but longer. It had three long legs and a body like a spider. But the thing that stood out about it (apart from its incredible size) was the glowing eyes. These eyes were rhombus shaped and dark red. It obviously had seen us because its head was twitching to the side and its teeth were clacking together. We all stood frozen until it screeched at us and started to run forward. This creature wasn't very fast but its strides were long. I grabbed Suzie's arm and started to run. Sadly, Chad caught up to us and we just ran. The ground was cracked, making the task of running away even harder. Oh yeah, just to let you know I hate P.E. especially running. My legs were burning but the adrenaline kept me going. We ran across an empty grass field, listening to the sounds of the monster following us behind, but we didn't dare to look back. We made it to the edge of the forest and bolted inside it. The monster halted and snarled. It looked like it wasn't going to enter but we didn't take our chances and ran further into the forest. Once we finally stopped running to one, catch our breaths and two, because the monster didn't seem to be following us anymore Chad piped up. "Holy shit! What the actual fuck just happened? What was that thing?"

"How the hell would we know Chad?" I sighed. "The only thing I do know is that us being wherever the fuck we are right now is all you fault, you dumbass!"

Chad puffed out his chest and his elbows bent, getting ready for a fight. I could see a large stick out the corner of my eye that I could beat him with. Before he got close to me Suzie stepped in between us, with her hands up saying "You guys, chill out ok? It's no ones fault, ok? We just need to figure out how to get back home."

"Oh my God are you serious? It's your fault too! I never wanted to go with you but you guilt tripped me into this!" I said, my voice rising.

Suzie looked at me with confusion and hurt. "Wha-What do you mean Poppy?"

"What do you think I mean! You pressured me into going with you cause your scared!"

This time Chad was the one looking confused and hurt. Suzie's face was red with either embarrassment or anger or guilt, I honestly couldn't tell. We all stood there in silence, just staring at each other. "Why were you scared Suzie?" Chad asked, all the arrogance gone from his voice.

"I-I-"

"Wait did you hear that?" I said turning to my left. Everyone was quiet listening to the silence. Chad's assholeness had returned because he scoffed right when there was a scuffle. It sounded like there was someone shuffling to us.

"Wh-who's there" My voice wavered.

The shuffling sounds kept growing closer until I could see a figure. I reached down to grab my stick, but it was so rotten it just broke apart in my hands. As the figure crept closer, we started to slowly back up, expecting another monster. It was lucky when the dark figure emerged into the weak beams of light, that it was an old woman. She had shoulder length, scruffy, silver hair. She had a stick in one hand with a goat's skull hanging off it, as well as some herbs in an old, battered bag. In the other hand she held a beaded necklace. The necklace looked like rosary beads, but the cross had an extra spike out the top and it looked as though it was made of thorns weaved together. The woman tilted her head and a slow, but sweet, smile spread across her face. We stood in silence just staring at this elderly woman. She stared right back.

"Hello...children." She spoke with a scratchy voice.

"Who are you?" Suzie asked, obviously very cautious after what we had just encountered.

"Why I'm this forests guardian...my children. My name is Rivka." She introduced herself.

"Where are we? What are those massive..." I made a gesture with my hands because I didn't know what those things were.

"My child...how could you not know about the NightWatchers? Dear Diron! What cave have you been tucked away in?" She asked, with an almost outraged tone.

"We're not from here! Dumbass over there touched something that exploded then sent us here!" I shouted out of frustration. "It was some stupid ass crystal".

"Was it magenta?" Rivka asked, any hint of friendliness vanishing from her face.

"Y-yeah. How did you know that?" Suzie asked.

"Ilos. He is the creator of the NightWatchers. He has two magenta eyes that look like crystals." Rivka said. "I don't know how that got you here, but I have a feeling I can find answers to help you."

"How?" I asked, scepticism creeping into my voice. We don't even know this woman. For all we know she could be a psycho murderer.

"There is a small village close by. Follow and I'll show you ...my children" Rivka's warm smile was back and she was gesturing for us to follow her.

"How do we know we can trust you?" I asked.

"You don't...my child". This time her smile was starting to feel chilling.