What Lies Beyond

Chapter 13

"Summer!" Matthew yells as he shakes me awake.

"Mm mm..." I mumble as my eyes flutter open; Matthew suddenly looking like he's about to throw up.

"Summer!" Matthew yells, "Wake up! Now! We have to run!"

"I don't wanna." I groan reluctantly, just hoping I can go home.

"Well you have to!" Matthew yells; his eyes are glued to my eyes, and it's so frightening, nobody will understand what I mean.

"OMG Matthew! It's you! I'm so sorry!" I whisper.

"Summer, it's time to go." He says with fear and concern; his eyes meet mine in the most awkward way possible.

I just glare at Matthew, studying him, making sure he's not trying to hoodwink me. Matthew glares at me and pulls me by my left arm, scaring me with how much force he used. He almost pulls me off the tree, he uses so much force. I don't need a lot of force. Even my friend who's much shorter than I, can lift me up, high in the air. Matthew fidgets then he looks at me. He inhales. He exhales. He inhales. He exhales. I look into his eyes and find confidence. He looks so fearless as he does it, like he's not afraid at all. Deep inside, I know he is secretly scared to death. We just escaped a troll-operated prison and we spent the night in the tops of the trees. I know Matthew is scared, but he just wants to look confident. I just see the fear in his eyes and it hurts me. He scurried briskly all the way down the tall tree, each individual twig loudly creaking after he bravely leaps to the next one. I start to do the same thing, leaping briskly from twig to twig to twig. I am much slower then he. I briskly land in this one twig and I start to leap off it, but I accidentally jump in the wrong direction, and I just go plummeting down to the ground. I land with an incredibly loud thump.

"Summer, are you okay?" Matthew asks before pulling me harshly to my feet.

I just glare at him. "Yep."

Matthew glares at me like I've gone crazy. "Time to go, Summer. We are about to get killed. Go to Cinderella's."

"Cinderella?!" I ask in disbelief, "She exists?!"

Matthew laughs quietly to himself while I bite my lip so hard, it started to bleed. I glare at Matthew. He slowly nods his head. He starts sprinting where all the trees are, using the trees as a shield. Good thinking. That's pretty smart. I run after Matthew, just trying to catch up with him. I just need to find Autumn. We need to get back to Earth. Back to New York City. We need to arrest Mindy Welch. I know she's the cause of this. Deep inside, I know that she's the cause of this. My heart plummets inside me as I lose more and more hope as every minute ticks by. I sprint as fast as I can. I feel like I'm flying, because I'm running so fast.

"Summer!" Matthew yells, "You're like a sloth!"

I laugh quietly, still running as fast as a cheetah through the forests, trying to catch up with Matthew; my feet feel like the wind, I feel so light. Everything becomes blurry as I still rush towards Matthew. Suddenly, I see briskly sprinting for his life, but everything is so blurry, I can't think. My mind is distracted by this image of Matthew sprinting, but everything's so blurry. My hair, attacked by the humidity, blows vigorously into my face. My hair is no longer straight, but I don't care. I still rush towards Matthew.

"Matthew!" I exclaim, "Wait up!"

He finally stops running. "Tricked you, Summer. That was hilarious."

I just smile at Matthew. "Sorry."

"It's fine," he replies firmly.

My lips softly curl into a smile while Matthew smiles at me. Matthew starts to stroll around the forests, trying to find a way out. I follow him, but I jog instead of stroll.

"Just turn left," I randomly announce, "Most people turn right. If you turn left, it's unlikely that they'll find us."

Matthew's lips slowly curl into a smile while I run my hand through my dirty blonde hair. "Perfect."

I slightly nod my head, blushing. I lead the way, by turning left on every song dirt road path we see, while Matthew slowly lingers behind me. I hear Matthew running faster. "Turn right!" He screams, "Trobella alert!"

"Oh God," I quietly mutter to myself as I turn right. I start sprinting, even faster then I did in detention with Mindy in 7th grade. I have no cell phone, no computer, no internet, and most importantly no GPS here! This place is awesome, but extremely dangerous. I have no clue where I'm going and that really bothers me!

Matthew slowly follows behind me, making by heart thump faster and faster, like I just won the lottery.

"Come on!" I whisper yell to Matthew, "Stop lingering and get moving!"

Matthew follows my instructions, while he briskly catches up with me. I grin as I look ahead, into the field of nowhere. "Look!" he yells, "We found a path!"

I smile again as I look at a concrete road. I see something huge in the distance. "What is that?"

Matthew looks at me like I'm an idiot. "Sleeping Beauty's kingdom."

"So, we haven't found Cinderella?" I ask harshly, raising my left eyebrow almost to my hairline.

"No," he replies, "But we can find her."

My lips slowly curl into a smirk while he says that. We slowly walk on the concrete path, and we are now out of the dwarf forests. Permanently... I hope...