Lightning

Chapter 3

The next day was pretty much a blur. And the day after. And after. Okay, so maybe I remember some of it. I just don't want to write too much about Nyla...

The girl had saved my life. 

I think I must have fallen asleep or something, because when I woke I was in a completely different place. It was dark, but there was a fire near one of the walls. I couldn't see much because the fire wasn't giving off much light. But obviously, there were walls. I steadied myself. It was quiet, which meant I was most likely alone. The ground was hard. I was lying on ground. Stone or dirt.. Agh I couldn't concentrate with the splitting headache. I saw that I was wearing bandages, Nyla must have done that. 

I couldn't focus anymore after that so decided to lie back down and stare into the darkness. And I fell back asleep, to nightmares full of shadows and unanswered questions.

I blinked, rubbing my eyes (then regretting it as burns on my hands started to sting) A harsh light was shining straight at me. I blinked again. I was in some kind of abandoned shack, or house. The light was shining from a half cracked window and I could see the blackened remains of a fire  near one of the peeling yellowy-white walls. "You're awake" I heard a cheerful, silvery voice. I sat up, ignoring my body's screams of protest. The girl in front of me looked about fifteen years old, maybe older, I wasn't very good at guessing people's ages. She had dark brown, wispy hair and chestnut eyes flecked with gold. She had a grin on her face and dimples. She was leaning on a wooden table that looked like it was about to collapse. 

"Y-yeah" I answered nervously. "You're Nyla" (I applaud my awful conversation skills).

 "What's your name?" she prompted, still smiling. 

"Ella" I mumbled. "Where.. Where are we?"

She shrugged slightly, collapsing down to sit on the floor beside me. "We're in a random old house I found ages ago. I brought a bunch of stuff here and.." She gestures around the room "..Yeah." "You live here?" "Heck, no, this is only temporary, while I'm looking for peculiars, like us, getting rid of hollows"

 "Peculiars? Hollows? What?" I wondered again whether this was some weird dream or nightmare, but dismissed that thought as I felt the cold hard ground, the ruffled blanket, the stinging of burns and cuts. Everything was too real to be a dream. Nyla laughed. I tried to smile weakly "What are they though? What was th-that thing? The sh-shadow?"

Nyla made a face  "I'll have to explain everything then?" I nodded quickly.

"Where do I start? Okay, so we are syndrigasti, (the old word for peculiars) which means we have special powers that we call 'peculiarities'. A weird thing is that peculiarities usually skip generations. Hollows is short for 'hollowgasts'. Hollowgasts were created when a group of pretty normal peculiars - If peculiars can be called normal - in the 1900s I think, got together to try and do an experiment. The experiment backfired or went wrong and they got turned into hollows. Hollows are invisible to most coerlfolc (the old word for normal people) and peculiars. You couldn't see the hollow that attacked you earlier either, only it's shadow. But some peculiars can, including me. Hollows live to feed on syndrigasti and sometimes coerlfolc. Once they eat enough peculiars, they turn into wights. And wights are basically peculiars. The only difference is that they don't have pupils, there eyes are completely white, blank and wights sole purpose in life is to help hollows and take power from peculiars to take over the world or whatever. They're horrible things, I only met a wight once. 

"Then there are ymbrynes. Ymbrynes are rare peculiars, that can turn into birds and manipulate time. For some reason, they're only female. I was told by Ms. Dove (An ymbryne) that apparently birds can manipulate time, which is why they have to turn into birds but honestly, have you ever heard of a time-travelling bird? The role of ymbrynes is to protect and look after other peculiars. They make a time loop. A time loop means that they make a day repeat over, and over, and over for them and the peculiars to live. But they have to reset the time loop every day otherwise... It's not pretty what happens. I think that's everything to tell about this strange world of ours you've entered" She joked, ending.

"I'm so confused.." I ran all her words through my head. I have always wished for something like this to happen, sure. To be brought into some magical world like Narnia. But I didn't actually expect something like this. This was mad. Ymbrynes? Wights? Syndrigasti? Celfrelc? How do you even pronounce that?!

"Haha I was the same when I first found out, I thought I was seeing things" "How did you find out?" I asked curiously, concentrating on how interesting my blonde hair suddenly was. "That story isn't for today" Suddenly her confidence wavered, and as I looked up I saw she had gotten up, looking out the window. "Sorry.." I said quietly, though I doubt the girl heard me.Then a question popped into my brain "Wh-why are you not in a loop?" 

She looks back at me. "I left, for quite a lot of reasons. I hadn't been there long, with Ms. Dove so it wasn't dangerous for me to leave. I wanted to see if my family was alive.. Other people too. I could help other peculiars" 

"Why would it be dangerous to leave a loop if you lived there long?" "Most peculiars in loops look like they are only five, ten, thirteen, whatever age they are. They feel that age, and as long as they stay in the loop, they will remain that age forever. Literally forever. Because you don't age. But as soon as you step out of the loop, BAM, you're fourty, sixty, one hundred, however many years you stayed there. I mean, it's not that fast, it happens over a few days, but your years catch up with you. It's a horrible way to die"