They Do Exist

They Do Exist (11)

Chapter 11: Disturbia –Rhianna

I couldn’t tell you how long we walked until I finally saw some sort of vegetation sprouting out of the ground.

A comfortable silence had settled between Gabe and me.  I could tell he was in deep thought, while I was just trying to keep my hands and feet from falling off.

I decided it’d be a good time to ask him where we were headed, when more and more plants popped up around us, and the snow grew thinner and thinner.

“Where are we going?” I asked.

“To my realm and my castle.”

“Oh.”

“We have to go through the grey lands first though.”  Gabe informed me.

“What are the grey lands?”

“They’re the lands between kingdoms.  Where no one rules, it’s not black or white. It’s grey. It’s basically like the wild.”

I nodded.  Ok.  So I have to go through the wild in another realm with crazy magical creatures I probably have never even heard of.  With some summer elf prince guy, who doesn’t really even like me all that much to begin with, and hope that he will protect me from scary things.  All because my helpless old grandmother told him to.

So exactly when should I have my panic attack?

I think the weirdest part was how we suddenly went from winter wonderland from hell, to a jungle in t-minus three minutes. The snow just melted into dirt, and trees sprouted up, and the climate became warmer. Like around the 60s and 70s.

Gabe pulled out a sword and started hacking away at tree limbs and vines that hung in our way.

“You do know where you’re going, right?” I wondered.

“Yes.  I’ve lived here all my life. We’re heading south toward my kingdom.”  I nodded. Ok, he sounded legit.

I didn’t really like the vines. They were scratching at my skin, and getting tangled in my hair, and not to mention the humidity of this place would put the amazon to shame.  No doubt my hair is one big frizz ball. 

“Any idea when we’ll be getting th—.”

“SHHHHHH!” Gabe interrupted me.

“What is with you and interrupting m—.”

“WILL YOU SHUT UP?” He yelled.

Suddenly something flew out at me from my peripherals.  I felt a hand on my back, and the next thing I knew, I was on the ground with my palms full of mud.

I heard a horrible hissing noise and looked up to see Gabe fighting off a huge snake woman.  Literally. The top half of her looked like a normal…naked human girl, except for the fact that her skin was green, and her bottom half was that of a snake—scales and all.  Her eyes were a frightening yellow, and she slithered.  Her fangs popped out, two outrageously long incisors, as she tried to get to me.

“SssssI ssswantt her flesssssshhhh.” The snake woman hissed.

In one swift movement Gabe avoided her arm coming at an unnatural speed towards his head, and swung the sword cleanly into the side of her neck.  Her head rolled off away from her body, and I fought the nausea that came over me.

Before I could blink another snake woman was pulling me by the hair through the brush.  But before I could cry out, Gabe appeared in front of her in a matter of milliseconds and stabbed her clean through the chest.  She folded onto the ground as her thick, almost black blood oozed from her fresh wound.

“Let’s go.  We need to pick up the pace.  They’re starting to pick up your scent.” He ordered, putting his sword away and helping me off the ground.

“Who’s ‘they’?” I questioned.

“The creatures that live in the grey lands.”

I gulped.  Oh, greeaattttt.

We started moving at a faster pace.  I was glancing at Gabe for some sort of reassurance, not that I expected a motherly hug or anything, but I was expecting something!  But he was acting like knifing the head of a snake woman was completely normal.

“Oh, and do me a favor?  When I tell you to shut up…Shut.  Up.”

I nodded naively.  “Ok, sorry.” I apologized.

*

Gabe decided to take a longer route, but it was dense with vegetation.  He said this way would cover up the smell of my humanity.

And yes, I took that as a compliment.

We weren’t speaking.  Although, I had so much I wanted to ask; to understand.  His whole aura screamed ‘don’t bother me’.  So I did just that.

I tried to distract myself and attempt to calm my nerves by humming songs to myself.

I didn’t care if this annoyed Gabe.  I was on the last strand of my sanity.

My feet ached, and I resisted the urge to groan.  How the weather could go from almost twenty below, to ninety degrees, I don’t know.  But the heat was blistering.  Then there was that feeling that the shadows were watching you.  It occasionally caused warning bumps to rise on my arms.

Right when I was about to break the tensed silence between Gabe and I, the ground started to reverberate.  The pebbles near my feet jumped with each new shake.  They repeated themselves in a pattern almost like…

“Footsteps.”  Gabe spoke; echoing my thoughts.

He drew out his sword prepared for whatever was causing those footsteps.  It all got eerily still. Not even the plants were breathing, as we waited.

The trees groaned as they were pushed apart.  A giant hand darted out from the thick vegetation and grabbed Gabe.  He let out a yelp of surprise and struggled as the humongous hand enclosed around his small frame.  The rest of the giant creature appeared from behind the brush.  I probably looked like a deer caught in the headlights as I took in a creature that should not exist.  If I had to guess, I’d say it was an oger.   He had age spots that were a bit darker than his pale gray-green skin.  He was wrinkled from head to toe, and his red beady eyes stared down at Gabe.  His teeth stood out of his mouth unattractively and two of his bottom teeth jutted out longer than the rest, so it looked like he was constantly snarling.  He had a huge ring running through his septum like a bull, and more piercings through his ears.  Over all, he was scarily frightening.

“Well, well.  I caught me a Princey!” His voice was deep and powerful, and his laugh sent chills up my spine.

Gabe visibly struggled as the oger continued to squeeze him.

“Let him go!” I heard myself yell.  Did I really just say that? What was I thinking?  Like I could take on an oger!

The oger turned his red beady eyes over to me.  “Princey got a girlfriend?” He laughed mockingly.

“Layla—stay out of this.” Gabe struggled to speak.

I was too frightened to do anything, as his other hand shot out to grab me. His fingers seemed to enclose around my lungs, as I focused all my energy on trying to breathe.

But soon enough, black spots clouded my vision, gaining coverage as my vision slowly, but completely blackened.