Hidden Allure

Part 9

I think when we had learnt that, something snapped inside both of us. Why couldn’t they just leave nature, well, natural? There were so many plants and animals that had become extinct, only because the Society of Iopen didn’t want anything to be imperfect. Well, they hadn’t exactly become extinct.

The Forest was the one place where you could find undiscovered things in nature. It was the one place which wasn’t maintained by the Society. The one place where we were completely forbidden to go. 

Every night when Caleb and I would walk in the park (as the street guards knew us well enough to allow us to be outside after eight o’clock), we would stare straight into the Forest and try to notice something different.

Maybe there was a new plant growing, or maybe there was a different sound being made. We would point out every idiosyncratic thing we could find. It occurred to us that we needed to know more about this. 

Soon, we began to research these “extinct” things. We were engrossed by these books about the history of nature. The librarians reserved a special table for us with all of the books that we wanted to read. They would always order the latest books on the topic for us.

My favorite plant that I read about was called a Venus Flytrap. This plant simply intrigued me. I mean, a meat-eating plant? Unheard of! When Caleb saw the picture of the unique plant, he was creeped out.

For some reason, the idea of some kind of plant chomping down on insects did not seem very appealing to him.

One night, Caleb and I climbed up the tall street lights in the crop fields in front of the Forest. We stared into the depths of the unknown area, searching for something new.

We had just been informed that some of the carrot crops had been taken.

Everyone had been baffled by the news.

No animals were kept anywhere near the crops (their pens were across town). And no person would ever need to steal from the Society; every family was always delivered a over sufficient amount of food for the day. So who would have done such a thing?

The Society was enraged when they found out that this news had been revealed to the public. It showed that they had some sort of flaw in their work. And the Society did NOT want that.

As Caleb and I stared at the Forest, I began playing around with the light that I was sitting on. I found a button on the bottom of the light. My curious self made me push it.

My eyes were momentarily blinded as the light shut off. Caleb looked over and, seeing what I had done, did the same. It was weird, seeing the area dark. The lights were never turned off (except in the middle of the night when everyone was sure to be asleep), so it was kind of the first time that I was in the dark.

“Hey let’s play a game!” I suddenly told Caleb.

“And what game would that be?”

“Well, here’s how we will play it: I will flash a pattern the lights and you’ll have to copy it. Once you mess up, we’ll switch and you will flash the pattern. We can try to keep track of points to see who wins”

“Alright, then. Let’s do it! But before we start, I just have to warn you that you are totally going to lose!”

“Yeah, right! Let’s see if you can prove yourself correct... but that won’t happen.”

“Just start already.”

And we began to compete. I was in the lead for the first few turns, but Caleb soon caught up to me. The scores were tied when all of a sudden all of the lights around us turned off. Caleb and I instinctively closed ours so that we wouldn’t stand out.

We saw a guard walk down the street monitoring everything around him.

Caleb and I were silent as mice. Though we did get more privileges, we still were not exempt from staying out THIS late. What time is it anyway? I thought. All I knew is that it must have been really late for all the lights to turn off.

Caleb and I held our breaths as the guard walked right below us. Finally he moved on to a different street. I told Caleb (as quietly as I could) that we should start heading home before we get into any trouble.

We were just about to climb down the lamp posts when we heard a rustling sound. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up. Was someone spying on us?

We monitored our surroundings. Finally I spotted the culprit.

It was a small chubby little creature with extremely long ears that stuck up in the air. I silently pointed the animal out Caleb and we both watched it hop across the street, right into the carrot crops. We saw it begin to pull out the carrots from the ground and nibble on it.

So that was who took the carrots! I thought.

We had figured out who did the crime, but what we didn’t know, was where the criminal had come from. I didn’t recognize it from the Simulatus, nor the Zoo. Our questions were answered when we saw the creature leave.

It hopped all the way back across the street and underneath the berry bushes in front of the fence of the Forest. I quickly slid down my lamp post (Caleb right behind me), trying to be as quiet as possible. I ran to the bushes and pulled some of the leaves up to see where the animal had disappeared off to. I gasped when I saw how it had escaped.

“Is that...” I tried to speak to Caleb but was at a loss for words.

“What’s wrong?” Caleb asked, as if he were totally unaware of what was in front of us.

“Who could have done this?”

“What are you talking about, Amia?”

I looked at him in disbelief. Was he blind?

In front of our eyes was a bar of the fence bent upward. This may not seem as that big of a deal, but it definitely was.

The Society always made sure that the Forest was kept away from the people. Ever since we started school, we were taught never to go lurking around the Forest. These rules were enforced by the iron bars that created the fence. Mother would tell me how  the fence used to be made out of just thin wire.

That is, until the Incident.

No one ever dared to try to go near the Forest, let alone into it. But the iron being bent upward, had to be done by a human. That was not good. The leaders of Avenine were sure to be furious if they found out. I look over at Caleb, asking him,

“Who do you think could have done this?”

“Done what?” he replied nonchalantly.

“Don’t you see that the iron wire that’s bent?” I was wondering what happened to my usually observant friend.

“What! Where?”He rapidly scans the wire, and then looks up at me with a ludicrous look on his face.

“Haha, Amia. Nice try, there’s no bent gate. Besides, the officials wouldn’t have let it happen. “

I was absolutely stunned. There was no way that I was the only one who could see it, right? It was right there, as plain as day. I rubbed my head, thinking that maybe I was just seeing things since it was so late. Maybe it was like one of those optical illusions we learned about the other day.

I decided not to make myself look crazy and play around with Caleb. But this would be hard; I never lie to Caleb.

“Oh yeah, I got you pretty good, Caleb! You’re so gullible!” I gave a nervous laugh. I hoped that he couldn’t tell that I was lying through my teeth.

“You did not get me!”

“Did too!”

“Did not!”

We continued to bicker all the way home. Even though I pretended that it was all a joke, I still couldn’t shake the feeling that something was up with that iron gate.

 A/N: Hey! I haven't uploaded in a long time, so here you have it! The next chapter will be in Caleb's point of view, so stay tuned! Thanks, all my fans (the two of you)! Oh, anyone willling to make a cover for this? I would love a new one, this one is rather lame. Thank you!