Partials

13: Shanelle

It was sticky. Sticky and dark. I tried moving but couldn't. My body felt as though it was wrapped in a tight blanket. I was upside down. My eyes wouldn't open. They were sealed shut. I couldn't open my mouth to scream. I couldn't do anything. Where was Sin? did they take him? Oh god was he dead? I fought, I dont know for how long. I couldn't get out. I would never get out. Wherever I was, was where the Partials took their prey, that much was obvious to me. If no human had got out before what made me different? Then something happened to me that had never happened to me before. I gave up.

I knew I was going to die here.

A memory of Shanelle before she was taken jumped into my brain.

We were inside my house looking up at the starry night sky. There were no Partials in sight which was odd.

"The world is a giant black glass dome." She began "The stars are just holes in the glass. When you die, your spirt rises and the glass breaks, revealing the brightest light, but it doesn't hurt your eyes. Its just simply beautiful."

Somehow that thought was comforting. It made me less afraid of death in a way. I closed my eyes. I took a deep breath just incase there was just one left. I don't know how long I hung there in the blanket of stickiness, but it was a long time. I felt the blanket around me pull. A blade jabbed through and almost stabbed me in the hand. The knife slid down cutting the sack in half. A hand grabbed each side of the sack and pried it open. I was expecting to be blinded by a bright light but the light outside the sack was dim. I locked eyes with the thing freeing me. I expected to see a hungry Partial about to eat me alive, but instead met eyes with a bloodied, bloodlusted looking, dark haired boy. Sin. I fell out of the sticky shell I was stuck in, and hit the ground hard. I scrambled up into my feet, coughing. I looked around.

What I saw was nothing like I would have ever expected.

We were in a cave. Large clear cacoons hung from the ceiling, which was strange because they weren't clear from the inside. Though my eyes were stuck shut. Each sack had a person inside of it. Tired looking, pale people. They all looked different, but the same. Different features, skin colour, eye colour, hair colour, but the same tiredness, paleness, and lost hopes. The cacoons were made out of what looked like saliva, dripping occasionally. Large icicle looking rocks hung dangerously from the cave roof. Everything was silent. Deathly silent. I had so many questions to ask Sin, but couldn't bring myself to break the silent. I scratched most of the stickiness off of my face. Sin took me by my arm and pulled me behind a rock. I locked eyes with him.

"Are you ok?" I asked desperately searching his body for any sign of injury.

"Yeah, though I think my wrist might be broken."

"You saved me." I whispered

"I haven't yet."

"How did you get out of the sack things?"

"They never got me in." I didn't feel the need to press any further.

"What do we do now?"

"We get out of here." He looked out from behind the rock we were hiding behind. His eyes scanned the cave. We were in a big round room. It had only one way out, a thin, dark corridor. That was the last place I wanted to go. The cave was isolated and silent except for a distant, faint dripping. Completely empty

Too empty.

Sin pointed to the corridor silently. He ran forward in that direction, four long strides before ducking behind another rock. I followed his lead. Time seemed to pause as I ran that small distance. I was exposed. I hated the feeling of it. The vulnerability.

I softly skidded to a stop behind him. We heard a strange chattering sound. Almost like birds. I froze. Four Partials walked into the cave. They were chattering at each other.

"Are they communicating?" Sin whispered utterly confused.

"I think so. This is so weird. Nobody has ever heard Partials talk before."

"Nobody who has ever lived long enough to say anything about it." The Partials walked over to one of the hanging bodies. One of them jumped onto a body, hanging from it. It growled fiercely and tore the body from the ceiling. The body and the Partial hit the ground with a thud. One of the other Partials leapt onto the cacoon tearing it open. One Partial bit hard onto the body's leg. The leg kicked tiredly. Oh my god. The body was still alive. How long had it been alive for? The Partials tore through nerves and bone as if it was going out of fashion. I looked tried to turn around, tried not to look at the person who was being killed right in front of me. But I couldn't. My eyes were stuck to the persons face. Their mouth was opening and closing slightly, as if the person was trying to scream but couldn't. Something about the person seemed faintly familiar. The olive skin, light brown hair, soft features. Then it struck me. I realised I was gripping Sins arm so hard my knuckles were white. I let go and stumbled backwards crashing into him. We fell backwards. I tried to get up but felt a arm wrap around my waist stopping me. I was about to cry out when a hand smothered my mouth.

"Raven-" he hissed almost silently "shut up!" My desperate cries only came out as muffled sobs. He didn't understand. It was her. They had her and it was all my fault. All my energy was suddenly drained from me. I let my body fall limp against Sins frantic hold to stop me running, unarmed, towards a group of hungry Partials. I twisted around and buried my face into Sins chest. I cried into him trying to muffle my sobs. I was putting us in danger. I knew that. I couldn't help it.

They were eating my best friend.

Authors note- So the place where the Partials take people has been revealed. Caves where they hang you from the ceiling and feast on you whenever they are hungry. Delicious. And they have Shanelle! Oh no. Do you think they will be able to get out of the cave alive?

Vote if you hate being encased in stickiness and hung upside down.