Until Forever (1st draft)

Part the Twenty-Eighth

Back in the real world at Boston Harbor Regional High School, freshmen and sophomores were required to participate in a sport. Geneva had immediately ruled out basketball because it required mastery of too many specific skills. Softball was next off the list because even though she could throw the ball well, she could never hit it with a bat. She had played soccer in middle school, but it completely bored her so that was also a no. She finally settled on running for the track team. She did okay, but according to her coach she could have excelled if she had been able to get motivated. Now she knew what her coach had meant. Being stalked by a demonic creature was all the motivation she needed. After discovering that Kraw was still alive, Geneva had fled through Ingar at a breakneck speed that definitely would have impressed her coach. It probably would have been enough to qualify her for nationals. She ran so fast that she didn't have time to think about direction or destination; she just slid around corners, slammed into walls, and bounded down stairs until she found herself in the doorway of the cavern where the tamed monster insects were corralled.

A pair of Kraw's mute servants were emptying containers of wriggling, foot-long centipedes onto the floor where the gathered giant beetles quickly gobbled them up. Geneva sprinted past the impassive workers and attempted to climb up one of the mounts, but she slid off and landed hard on the stone floor. She lay there stunned until one of the pale anthropods crawled over her, which prompted a quick return to her feet and a more determined climbing attempt. This time she got herself all the way up and into the saddle. She remembered to click the lever five times and the giant bug scampered over to the closed exit. Unable to go any further, it began searching for more food. Geneva looked back at the two servants who were staring at her.

"Don't just stand there," she said to them forcefully, "open the door!" They didn't move. Her mount paced restlessly, wanting to rejoin the eating frenzy.

"Do you want to anger Kraw?" she yelled. That got their attention. Each of the servants' three eyes widened in obvious fear and one of them dropped the container it was holding, spilling a pile of centipedes that attracted the eager beetles who began slurping them down like pasta.

"Open the damn door and let me out!" she shrieked. The servants ran to a large, circular stone that was positioned just to the side of the rectangular one blocking the exit. Thick wooden pegs extended from the outer edge of the rounded stone, and a braided mass of dried vines ran from a bigger peg in the center of the circular stone to another peg on the end of the rectangular stone. The servants each grabbed a peg and leaned their limited body weight forward, slowly turning the circular stone which coiled the vines around the peg and, in turn, pulled the heavy rectangular door along an oiled trench below it. Sunlight burst into the dark chamber as the opening widened. Geneva clicked the lever five times again and her creepy ride raced outside. She had done it. She had escaped Ingar!

She allowed the beetle to run at full speed, which normally would have terrified her. The creature's gait was even and balanced over the changing terrain, much less jostling than riding horseback, yet the speed was way beyond reckless. She held on tight, drifting across the saddle, wishing there was a seatbelt. If this were an amusement park ride she would scream at the top of her lungs to get off. But the gripping fear of what lurked behind her overwhelmed even the slightest concern about this potentially suicidal ride. She just wanted to distance herself from Kraw as quickly as possible. Her hair whipped about her head like a blinding storm cloud of tangles and knots, but that didn't prevent her from constantly looking back for any sign of pursuers. She saw nothing.

The beetle continued at full speed right up to the edge of the forest which contained Steekbunk Lowbone's grand tree. Then it came to a stop so abruptly that Geneva felt the momentum would push all of her organs up and out of her mouth. Thankfully they remained intact. She repeatedly clicked the lever but the giant insect nervously stomped about, refusing to enter the woods, and truthfully it probably wouldn't have fit even if it had tried. Instead it crouched down and allowed her to dismount, which she accepted because she didn't have time to argue with a giant cockroach. She really had no idea where she was going but at least the forest provided cover. It was pointless to try to hide out in the Treeless Expanse.

Her instinct was to run, run, run. So she ran toward the trees, crashing through the underbrush in search of a trail, but something caught her attention when she glanced back over her shoulder. She stopped and looked back to see the giant beetle who had been resting calmly just a moment ago, now hopping and darting about. Something was making it either very excited or very agitated. She looked out across the plains and saw movement within a cloud of dust. Her stomach flopped.

Taking a few steps back out of the forest and raising her hands to shield her eyes from the sun, she squinted at the horizon. It was clearly another one of the giant beetles. And it was running in her direction!

Geneva pivoted and raced into the woods, instantly back to full speed. It was pure fear that pushed her beyond all physical limitations. She had never run this fast in her entire life, even back when she was in shape for competition. And she had certainly never run this fast for so long. As she leaped over fallen logs, crashed through thick branches, bounced off unyielding tree trunks, and fought through thorns that tore at her clothing and flesh, the warning signs of pain and exhaustion didn't register within her brain. She just kept running. At one point she feared that she was losing her vision, but then she realized it was the strange graying of the flora that had spread throughout the forest like a rampant disease. The once verdant landscape had become a bizarre patchwork of alternating color and grayscale scenes. Miraculously she came cross a path and that gave her a second wind because she was free to run without so many hindrances.

How long she could have run like that will never be known because as she rounded one particularly tight bend in the trail, an object came hurtling down out of the upper branches and collided into her, sending her sprawling into a clump of gray bushes.

The torrent of adrenaline coursing through her body didn't allow her to stay down for long. She popped back to her feet, chest heaving as she labored for air, and saw a stunned Monkey Hawk searching for something as it also regained its footing. Geneva scanned the forest floor and saw a stone dagger that the creature must have dropped after flying into her.

"No!" she shouted, causing the Monkey Hawk to turn and look at her as she ran towards it. "No, no, no!" Before the creature could react she had leaped into the air and tackled it, her shoulder slamming into its chest as they crashed to the ground together. She scrambled off it and started toward the fallen dagger, but a talon raked at her calf and tripped her up.  She fell on her chest, the weapon just out of reach, as the Monkey Hawk squawked angrily right behind her. One talon gripped tightly around her ankle while the other stepped on her back, but she still managed to crawl forward just enough to grab the dagger and roll over. Wings wide, the Monkey Hawk attacked and she plunged the stone blade into its abdomen. It made a horrible screeching noise before toppling over onto her, wounded badly but still full of fight. She turned her head to the side just in time to avoid the snapping beak. Gritting her teeth, she used both hands to thrust the knife deeper into the menacing beast atop her. Its head flailed back and it screeched a piercing sound of despair, then it hopped off her and staggered two steps before falling dead. Geneva lay on her back, still heaving for air. Suddenly she was aware that her lungs burned, her head throbbed, something felt sharp and out of place in her side, and her calf was wet in the same spot where a stinging pain originated.

"Geneva Maxwell, what have you done?" asked a voice from a distance. "My obedient winged lackey sounds injured."

Just as suddenly her brain again blocked out the pain and exhaustion, choosing instead to focus on getting her back to her feet as quickly as possible. She tried to listen over her pounding heart and wheezing lungs.

"What has become of my fragile little air-breather?" said the voice, drawing closer.

Geneva crept to a wide tree and peered back around the bend. She couldn't have imagined a worse sight. Down the trail she could see the foreboding figure of Kraw the Fallen jogging in her direction. Even from this distance the hollow black eyes looked ready to swallow her.

"You have revealed a nasty little disposition that I did not anticipate," he said. "What would your poor dead mother think of her little girl now?"