The Calling of Time

Revelations

We listened, or at least, I did. Presumably he was listening too. The scuffling went by outside, and suddenly a black shape flitted past the crack in the door. He stiffened, and his grip tightened around me. I was holding my breath now, trembling violently.  There was a soul sucker outside. It was crossing the front lawn.

We were like statues locked together. I had no idea who this stranger was, but in that moment we were united by fear, and if that…that thing came in, I knew we would fight together. We would try to protect one another. We were human, it was…a monster.

There was no more movement from the front lawn, and at last the stranger released me. The fear receded a little. The soul sucker had passed by. I turned to see who had grabbed me, who shared the dim shelter of the mansion with me, and my heart stuttered in alarm when I saw him.

From the way his cheek had brushed mine I’d thought he was a boy, not much taller than me. Now I knew he must have been crouched down, hunched over behind me. He was tall, over six feet, with tangled blonde hair that brushed his broad shoulders. It was difficult to make his face out in the shadows. He was…big.

Automatically the scythe went up in front of me, and I took a step backwards. My voice came out shaky. “Who are you?”

He put his hands up. “Woah, calm down. Don’t…don’t do anything crazy with that thing. Look, my name is Jai. I’m not going to hurt you.” He took a step back. “ Sorry I grabbed you like that, but I wasn’t sure if you’d give our position away.”

I lowered the scythe a little bit. Did I let myself trust him?  The world was chaos, and I was no idiot. I’d read Lord of the Flies for English last year. I knew what happened to people when all order was lost. They turnd into monsters, no better than the soul sucks. Now that the danger had passed…or rather, now that the soul sucker had passed, I was rethinking the whole “fight for each other” thing.  I had no idea who this guy was.

Maybe it was best to move on. To head for my patch of forest.

But when I reached it, what then? I hadn’t really thought that far ahead. Could I live in the forest by myself? Learn to hunt deer and make a fire by rubbing two sticks together? The thought filled me with panic. I didn’t know how to do that stuff!

I could text at lightening speeds. I could make awesome videos on the computer. I was a sixteen year old girl, not Xena the warrior princess. There was no way I was going to survive this. Not by myself.

I eyed him up again. “Jai,” I repeated.

He nodded, taking a cautious step out of the shadows toward me. His hair under the light was almost a golden color, and he had red cheeks and wide grey eyes. The start of a beard covered his jaw, and when he smiled it was wide and friendly. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have scared you like that.”

He was like a flipping Viking.

Okay, that could come in handy. “Do you live here…I mean, are you staying here?”

“You mean…am I on the run?” Jai shook his head. “Not exactly. I’m looking for someone.”

My heart sunk. “Oh, I’m sorry.” Whoever he was looking for, it wasn’t likely they still had a soul, but I didn’t say it. How could I tell him that this entire neighborhood had been taken?

Jai dropped his voice to a whisper. “Don’t be. I found her.”

It took me a minute of incomprehensive staring to figure out what he meant. The scythe went straight back up again, and I backed up so quickly I ran my shoulder into the wall. “What?”