Morph [EDITING] || Wattys 2017 Winner

~THIRTY SIX~

~amelie~

I'm sprinting as hard and fast as I can before my legs wobble and I halt, panting, unable to run any more, just outside the compound.

"No..." I whimper. I have to stop thinking about what my father says, but I can't do anything to block the thoughts. All I can do is replay that conversation over and over and over inside my mind.

"I caused the Explosion."

Shakily, I look down at the piece of paper gripped in my hand. I'm standing in the clearing where Thomas and I left Matthew and my mother, where her directions begin. Stark black ink scrawls across the white, her distinctive handwriting spidering across the page. A right arrow from where I am now, pointing to the letter E and the number 5. I frown, and my finger traces the path from the E upwards to an N, right to another E, and down to an S... and I realise how these directions work. It's late evening, and so when I squint and look up I can see the sun beginning to set, bathing the clearing in dusky gold. The light is coming from my right, and so I turn until it's behind me. Sun rises in the east and sets in the west, and so now I know what direction I'm facing - East. I take five steps, watching the map, and I turn again. The sun's to my left, and I'm facing North. I start walking, and when I reach twelve paces I stop again. It's just like a treasure map, though I feel as far as possible from a child having fun or a pirate searching for gold. Right now

It takes me ten minutes to work through the directions on my mother's map, and by the time I'm done I can't even catch a glimpse of the compound. But it's worth it to get here, to be able to ask her if she knew. About Dad. About Hunter. I look up, trying not to overthink what I'll say when I get there, when I spot a dark figure sitting on the ground. My eyes widen, and my pace quickens. It's her.

"Mum?" I ask quietly as I walk quickly towards her. Her head lifts, but she doesn't look round. "Mum?" I repeat, louder, just as I'm about to reach her.

I reach out and touch her shoulder with my hand, staring down at her. As I watch, she slowly gets up, but she still hasn't turned around. I frown, and walk in front of her to see if she's alright. But, instead of my mother, I see a girl about my age, with blonde hair just like her. Fear rises in me as I realise that this is not my mother, that this is someone else entirely. Our eyes lock, mine brown, hers a startling black - no irises, no whites. Just all-encompassing onyx. I stare in horror, and she smiles, and raises her hand.

And then darkness blooms in my vision, and then I'm gone.

~~~

My head hurts.

It's the first sensation that comes to me - the strange pressure in my skull. I can't describe it. The second feeling I get is the tightness around my wrists, and when I jerk them to try and make the uncomfortableness disappear, they scratch against something like rope.

Rope?

"...Hello?" I call out, but my voice comes out as a harsh croak. I cough, and there's a muffled laugh. My eyes widen, and I hold my breath, fear rising in me. There's blackness all around me, and I can't see a single thing - but I know someone's there, watching me.
"Who's there?" I ask, sounding like the victim in a horror movie.
As I stare into the darkness, squinting, someone speaks. "Who are you?"
Amelie Carmichael. "What?" I frown.
"We've got Carmichael's daughter," says the voice triumphantly, and my eyes widen. I didn't speak. So how...?
"Ask her about the base." This second voice is male, deeper than the first, and carries at the same time an air of natural authority and dark menace. I shiver.
There's a third voice then, this one obviously female. "Anything in particular?"
I'm powerless to do anything as there's a pause. But there isn't a response that follows, so the first voice says, "Let's get on with it. He's gone."