Hands were on my face. Rough, calloused hands. They gently slide down my neck, rubbing my sensitive skin raw, before grabbing my shoulders and tossing me up. My eyes flew open as I landed on somebody’s broad shoulder, successfully knocking the wind from my frail lungs. My immediate reaction was to scream, but suddenly I was overcome with a strong sense of exhaustion. The world spun in intricate swirls and patterns, I couldn’t comprehend through the fog in my mind, and my eyes were slowly dropping as I strained to keep them open. The lights were dimming, and I seemed to be stuck in an endless fall between hallucinations and reality, as I hurdled towards the darkness…
A swift crack echoed and vibrated through me as splinters dug into my back and broke skin. I couldn’t tell if the crack came from the tree or from my skull as my head whipped back and bounced off the hard, brown bark. I groaned, blinking away the bursts of color I saw behind my lids.
“I told you to wake her up, not give her a concussion, asshole,” an irritated voice said sharply. I felt someone’s soft breath fan across my across my face as they leaned over me. “Mia, can you hear me? Mia, we need to get going,” the voice urged me to wake up, but I didn’t have the strength to. All I wanted to do was sleep. Peaceful sleep. It was calling to me, lulling and luring me to it…
“Everyone for themselves, remember? We are losing time here,” someone literally growled, “Why don’t we just leave her? We left everyone else who couldn’t make it.” Others made noise of agreement, suddenly the idea of leaving a helpless girl behind wasn’t inhumane. This is what our world had become. A tragic dark place where the only thing on anyone’s mind was saving themselves. No compassion, love, just hate. Hate, such a deep and yet meaningless word. What exactly was the meaning of this word? Hate. Four-small letters, one syllable. Yet, it changed everything. I was almost positive my parents hated me, and even though that might be true, I couldn’t bring myself to hate them, and that left me feeling empty. Like a void was taking the place of my parents love in my soul, and swallowing the light that carried me through the days of this hateful world, and that left me in darkness…
I gasped as the feel of ice rolled over me and melted through my shirt, sinking into my skin. I coughed as water filled my throat, suffocating me. I sat up, clutching my chest, trying to drink in the air, unsuccessfully. I saw bright liquid gold eyes looking into my blue ones with concern.
“Oh, great! The princess has awoken from her nap,” someone voiced sarcastically. Leena glared at the figure leaning, lazily against a tree.
“Loose the attitude, Kennedi, or the next one taking a nap will be you in a ditch. Kay?” Kennedi didn’t reply, instead she glowered and ran away with her tail between her legs. Leena muttered under her breath, before helping me stand. “You alright?” she asked.
All I could do was nod, because in all fairness I really wasn’t sure if I was alright or not. In the past few days I had gone from prestigious Pure, to contaminated Satanist on the run. All I had known, all my beliefs were a lie. I never had anything against the UnPures, but actually being labeled as one was different. Being discriminated against, and treated as though an animal wasn’t exactly my typical weekend. Everything had been fine. Well, at least I thought it had been. But, apparently, everyone else thought different.
“Hey, snap out of it,” Leena said, snapping in my face, bringing me out of my pity party, “No need to dwell in the past. Especially out here, it’s dangerous. Don’t they tell you about UnPures?” she said, with a scary seriousness. With a thick swallow I shook my head. She leaned in and whispered into my ear, “They feed on fear.”
I jerked back, stepping away from her. She took a step towards me, stalking me like her prey. My foot slipped on the wet roots and I landed with deafening thud. I could feel the sweat starting to form as I breathed shallow, shaky breaths as she continued to advance on me, until she was right in my face, her eyes never leaving mine.
“Are you scared, Mia? Are you afraid of us? Afraid of what being an UnPures means for you? Or are you just afraid that deep down you know you’re no better than the dirty scum you compare us to?” She was right on top of me now; forcing me to hear every insulting word she threw in my face. Her arms acting as a cage, not letting me break focus from her, she made sure she was my center of attention, that I was getting everything she was saying.
“Are you listening?” she demanded, shoving my shoulders.
“Y-yes,” I stammered, quick to answer and get of my sore back.
“Good, because you need to know that you’re not going to survive,” she said, standing up and dusting off her hands. Her white clothes were now brown and black from the mud on the forest floor. I took her offered hand, reluctantly and looked at her in confusion. “Not like this. You’re too soft, and I can’t always be there to protect you. Back there you were too much weight, you slowed us down and we can’t be slowed down. You passed out at the sight of blood and you can’t except who you are. You have baggage and baggage slows you down.”
“But I…” She held up her hand, stopping me.
“I don’t care what problems you have, but save the tears and pity for your pillow. Or else your no longer welcome with us,” she said it with absolutely no emotion, her stare unwavering with her cold, unnatural eyes.
“Where would I go? You know they would catch me! You know I would…” I stopped my panicky rant. This is what she was talking about. That I was too much trouble, and right now I was being trouble. She knew that without her I might as well hand myself over, she knew I couldn’t survive without her and she was okay with that. She was in survival mode and the only thing you thought about in survival mode was yourself.
“You would be dead without me. So don’t make me regret risking these people’s lives to save more dead weight,” she said plainly, before disappearing into the trees. I stared at the spot where she stood for what seemed like an eternity, not moving. Before I knew it my face was wet and tears were falling onto the green below me. This wasn’t the Leena I knew. This Leena was cold and hard, unlike when everyone had believed she was a Pure, that Leena was the fun, adrenaline junkie who loved to party. This girl was a stranger.
“She’s right, you know. You aren’t cut out for this lifestyle. You are weak and only the strong survive.”
I looked around, seeing a black shadow ooze out from the trunk of big great oak. I quickly scraped at my face, not needing to be judged by a dead thing. “What would you know?” I snapped at it, before turning in the opposite direction to make sure I wasn’t left behind. But I stopped in my tracks, as the shadow appeared in front of me, blocking my path. I looked around and realized that something was off. This shadow was alone. They were never alone, and I could distinctly tell that it was a woman.
“I know more than you think,” she said. I shook my head, trying to see if my demented mind was trying to play tricks on me. “And soon you will understand too.”
“I will understand what?” I asked; backing away, fear setting back into the pit of my stomach.
“What it means to be UnPure,” she replied, before vanishing into the air.
YOU ARE READING
UnPure
Paranormal"For years now the Humans have been at war. Not with each other. No. We've found a new enemy. We first found out about the UnNaturals when they were in a war of their own. We of course had to get involved. They took many of us prisoners and for cent...
