Animalistic

15

"I don't know Audri, are you sure this is going to work?" my words float out of me like the small puffs of warm air that swirl in the chilly air of the indigo canopy sky on this little spring night where Audri stands behind me as I sit on the window sill and look down to the 3 story drop from Sav's room. I look over my shoulder at her in hesitation "I mean, I'm sure we can sneak out some other way."

"No!" quips back Audri. "Castille, the girl whose gone to like 3 of these, told me about this secret dance and how security keeps getting tighter and tighter every year, they're afraid we're all going to go out to the forest, have orgies, get pregnant, and fuck up the Mating Ceremony, but like only two of those things ever actually happen. They're patrolling the halls outside, as I came back in here I saw a girl try to go downstairs and get sprayed with some sort of sleeping gas!"

"Audri I think that's part of the movie you watched before we left." Sav's deadpan voice calls out with a long sigh.

"I know what I saw Sav, I'm not crazy!" Oh no, lets not get into this now while I'm sitting on a window sill 3 stories up. "Anyway," she continues, diffusing her own temper and causing me to give a long sigh, "all I know is that we have to sneak out, the card said so. And Sav can't sneak for shit, so this is our only alternative."

"Jumping out of a building?" I call over my shoulder, looking wearily at the bushes below me.

"Yep!"

"C'mon Audri, this is ridiculous, what if Jas gets seriously hurt?" Sav's disapproving mom voice makes its appearance.

"Oh don't worry," Audri says as I'm looking out toward the dark bushes below "I've seen her heal from far worse." Huh, the bushes look like they're getting bigger. That's weird. Well, hey look at that, the wind is rushing past me. Strange. Well, the feeling of Audri's hand on my back hasn't quite left yet. God, I'm glad we're friends. As I continue to deny the fact that Audri just pushed me out a window, the dooming impact of the bushes grow ever near and-rustle, rustle, "Ugh, umf, oohff, ow." I find myself looking up the side of the building I was just pushed out of as I landed on the-now flattened-bushes on the first floor. Well, isn't that funny, it looks like two bodies are falling out of the sky-OH SHIT!

I barely have enough time to roll my sore and tattered body out of the way before Sav and Audri impact my previously broken in bush for a brutal, but not fatal landing. Moans emanate from both of them as I stand on wobbly legs only a few centimeters away from being crushed. "No-no one screamed...I'm proud." Audri tries to quip out as she hauls her sore body off of the bush with Sav right after her.

"So proud." Her venom laced voice rings out.

"C'mon, we can't be out in the open for too long." Audri says and together we hobble to the back of the pack house and follow the instructions, 200 paces, turn, 100 paces, and-faire circle! We made it! By the time our hobbling bodies came to the deep bass of the music resonating through the faire circle, but seemingly not passing through it, we were healed pretty well. Sav however, kept complaining about her sister pulling her out of the window to death below, but Audri didn't have a care in the world, she was in her element: a good old fashioned p.a.r.t.y.

-

The inky night only intensified as we came under the canopy of the trees of the forest, but this faire circle seemed amplify the moonlight shining down upon the circle, creating a dim yet magically glowy atmosphere that seemed to dampen the effect of the bumping music, yet amplify it as well.

The three of us, still slightly bruised, limped into the circle, and immediately I could feel the surge of the Moon running through my veins, heightening my senses yet dulling them all at once by overloading me with too many stimulants, it was...exhilarating. I could smell the clean pine of the forest, the thick salt from the sweat of the dancing bodies, and the freeing refreshment of the river, mile from here. My eye sights was devolved into shapes of grey, illuminated by the streaks of light from their movements, the electric showcase of the inner wiring of my eyes and instincts lighting up the dark clad bodies before me. My hearing focused deeply on the music, yet found the breath of every person within the circle, keeping me anchored yet widespread. Gosh this is jarring , yet so addictive.