Wings

Chapter 6

"Jesus, you're slow", Trent laughed, as I followed him up the ladder into our tree house. We'd built it with the help of Trent's dad as six year olds. It was my safe haven, but as we got older it became increasingly harder to climb up. For me, at least. I had a lot more energy a decade ago. The whole world just seemed funner at six.

"Its not my fault that I'm athletically challenged."

"You're right, it's mine. I should've put you through your paces years ago. At this stage, I think you're past the point of help."

I laughed, despite how right he was. When I finally reached the top, about four hundred years later, Trent grabbed my hands and helped me up into the place. It was beyond me how his hands were so warm when it was freezing outside. My hands felt like ice cubes being pressed against a radiator.

The tree house smelled of wood, autumn and a hint of nostalgia. I'd grown up here. This room, this place was my childhood. I sat down on the blue and green polka-dotted beanbag and Trent took the purple plastic chair. Don't judge. We were six. We had neither colour coordination nor fashion sense. In that moment I realised how long it had been since I'd come up here. I had really missed this place.

Reading my thoughts, Trent sighed. "When was the last time you came up here with me?"

"Can't remember. Maybe four or five months. You?"

He smiled crookedly. " Yesterday."

"Oh, so you come up here a lot?"

"Sometimes. Just to think."

"About what?"

" The way things are. Coming to terms with everything. You know."

"No, I don't know. Trent, are you okay?"

"I'm fine, Thal. It's nothing. You don't need to worry about me. I'm a big boy. I can deal with it."

"Deal with what?"

"I told you, it's nothing. Just forget I said anything. Let's drop it for now okay."

I would drop it for now. But there was no way in hell that I was going to forget about it. Trent rarely looked so painfully serious about things. So when he did, I always knew there was something up. Something big. Because if I could be sure of anything in this world it was that Trent Snow did not get worked up over small, unimportant things. I couldn't shake the churning feeling in the pit of my stomach, that it had something to do with him leaving for a month. It was stupid and I knew that it was illogical and probably impossible, but that didn't change the fact that it was there.

Instead of asking him about it again as I so desperately wanted to, I decided to respect his wishes and helped him by changing the subject.

" So, you worried about the French quiz this Friday?"

It was as if hearing this question had allowed him to forget about whatever was bugging him, for the time being at least. His troubled expression changed completely.

"Extremely. You know I suck at French. I can barely speak English on a good day." Trent's first language was Spanish, but his Dad hadn't allowed him to do it. He thought it would be cheating.

"I'm not really sweating it. I've always kind of had a knack for languages."

His mouth twitched slightly, an absolute ghost of a smile. " Yeah, I know, Thal. I know."

I smiled too; glad things seemed to have gotten slightly more normal. Or so I thought. Just when Trent had started to relax again, he tensed up completely. He went deathly pale and looked as if he was about to lose consciousness at any moment. He stared at me and breathed in sharply. "What. Happened. To. Your. Necklace."

I couldn't understand why he was suddenly so worried about my necklace. "Well, the chain snapped, so I put it in my backpack." Which was in his house. "Why do you ask?"

He gulped then quickly jumped up out of his chair. "We have to go. We've got to get it now. Like right now."

"Trent, what's going on? You're scaring me."

"Please, we can talk about it later. Just listen to me. We have to get that necklace back right away."

I was still completely in the dark, but I nodded anyway. I followed him down the ladder, out of the tree house, still frightened by his strangely ominous remarks. As fast as I possibly could, I tried to keep up with him as we started towards the back door of the house.

We were about 10 paces from the back door, when I heard something. A sound that sent an icy shiver down my spine and made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I never recalled hearing it before, yet I knew it was something bad. Something really bad. I knew Trent heard it too, he looked as alarmed and anxious as I felt. Then suddenly, as quick as the bat of an eyelid something large and black sped past us. Too quick to be human. Too quick to be anything I'd ever seen before.

"What...was that?" I asked looking to Trent. I could hear my voice shaking, threatening to crack. I stood still as stone, too terrified even to move. " We've got to run. Fast. Now."

"Come on run!" We ran and ran then ran some more, deep into the thick darkness of the forest behind Trent's house. I had never known true fear until this very moment. My breath was caught in my throat, my lungs struggling to gain the oxygen they needed. I could feel the pounding beat of my ever-quickening pulse drumming in my chest. Again I heard the low growl of whatever creature we were running from. However fast we were going, it wasn't fast enough.

"It's getting closer", Trent told me. The intense fear in his voice as he said this chilled me to the bone. Trent was just as scared as I was. Who was going to be the brave one now? Suddenly, I stopped. My legs finally gave way. " Trent, I can't. I can't run anymore." In half a second, Trent was at my side again. "Fine", he said as he pulled me up on his back. "Hold on." With that statement Trent started to run and I mean really run. He went faster than I'd ever seen any human being go. I knew he was good at running, but I didn't know he was this good.

We sped deeper into the forest, leaving everything behind. I could feel the wind against my skin; the cool breeze blew through my hair. I felt a strange calmness, despite the dangerous situation we were in. Several times, I almost slipped, but I managed to hold on tightly. I knew that if I let go even for a second, the beast would've been ready to rip my body to shreds within a matter of seconds.

Then out of nowhere, Trent stopped running, His sudden halt sent me off his back. The rocks bit my skin as I collided with the cold ground. I looked up. There it was. The creature. It was standing still; close enough now that I could see exactly what it was. Frozen with fear, I could not look away. It was 9 feet tall and was covered in glittering black scales. 6-inch claws curved from each one of its ten fingers. Its mouth was wide open revealing its long black tongue and its hundreds of knife-sharp teeth, ready for ripping skin and bone alike to pieces. It frothed at the mouth and its blood curdling red eyes were fixated on one thing. Me.

A low snarl escaped from beside me. That wasn't the monster. It was Trent. Scared as I was, I looked up at him. His usual hazel eyes were now a glowing amber colour. I could see the veins in his arms growing more prominent by the second. I edged away from him. This wasn't him. This wasn't him. It couldn't be. "Trent?" I croaked. I struggled to get the words out. My throat was closing up. He didn't answer me. His eyes were focused on the thing in front of us.