Field Trip

IV- Catch Me

Joanna's POV

All 7 of us stumbled back at the mans sudden cry, Tali slipped on a large stone, falling hard on her ass while Alex tripped on Jemima's long billowing dress and stumbled into a clay pot. Sarah turned to help Alex out of her pot and Izzy gave Tali a hand up. Even though I could see through my black scarf that sat around my face, I pushed it up  in surprise at the man. The man fell to the cobble stone pavement in front of Sophie and pressed his forehead firmly against it. His eyes were seen to quiver violently from beneath his greyed hair. "My esteemed Lady, please forgive me!"

"What the frick frack bick back is going on?" I stared at Tali who's eyes were trained on Sophie who stood next to her, highly confused by the mans sudden outburst, her hands were running through her long hair.

Wooden doors burst open loudly through out the street and heads appeared from the doorways. The elerdly, adults and children all stepped from their humble homes and into the street to look. Murmurs were heard as people walked towards Sophie and flung themselves onto the ground, whispering 'Athena' over and over again. Soon, the whole street was covered with bowing civilians. "Um," Sophie stated, "what?"

"Our holy goddesses, please follow us!" A man yelled from the back, he standing suddenly.

With his words, the crowds stood in a wave, all most in a rehearsed like motion. They walked slowly forward, like how dancers walk when changing formations and begin to surround all of us, keeping a clear radius of 2 metres away. I looked around at the stone and wooden buildings around me, faces poked out from windows, looks of shock and surprise written upon their faces. With every passing street, more civilians were added to the crowd that surrounded us. "What did that old man yell again?" I asked, turning my head towards Jemima.

"My esteemed Lady, please forgive me?" Alex answered from the other side of Jemima, who was promptly hit in the back of the head with a back hand from Jemima.

"No you idiot, he yelled Athena," she nodded her head towards Sophie who was conversing with Izzy who's orange hair was bobbing up and down.

We continued down the pavement until we reached a hill that was covered in sparkling green grass, a vibrant green the colour of Izzy's eyes. My eyes trailed upwards to where a gorgeous temple towered. It had cream white stone and tiny details that decorated it. My mouth dropped, it was beautiful, especially with the midday sun sitting above it. Suddenly, I felt my jaw being smacked upwards and crunching into my teeth. I let out an inhumane howl at the pain of my teeth colliding. There was a loud laugh and I saw that Alex had her hands over her mouth stifling her chuckles. "Don't let the flies in!"

I rolled my eyes and rubbed my jaw, freaking fake ass ginger. We descended up the hill, with Tali begrudgingly pulling Sarah by her arms along the grass, creating a divot the ascended upwards. "The goddesses have gifted us the gift of their fresh spring water to flow through out our small town!" A woman cheered, pointing at the divot.

Izzy looked at me and raised a brow, "What? Its just a divot of Sarah's ass?"

I followed the line of Sarahs direction to where a fountain spurted diamond-esque water, it sparkled like crystal and flowed like mercury. Shaking my head, I pointed at the fountain, "Nah, they think that we wanna share our? water."

Izzy followed my finger and her eyes focused on the land mark I was pointing at. She nodded her head and looked at the people around us, "why do they think we're goddesses?"

"By the way we are dressed," Sophie stated nonchalantly, "for some wacko reason, we are dressed like rich people."

"If I was a rich girl, nanananananana," Alex hummed while bobbling her head.

Everyone rolled their eyes except for Tali, who finger gunned Alex and shrugged her shoulders. We reached the top of the hill and entered the monument. It was even more beautiful on the inside than the outside. The yellow sun shone through a skylight that was bordered by painted fluffy clouds. There were two water fountains that were symmetrical on either side of the room. I once again felt my jaw about to drop but quickly held it shut in case a wild Alex decided to show up. We were forced to walk forward and up onto the podium where 2 statues towered. They looked oddly familiar but I couldn't put my finger on it. The 7 of us awkwardly stood in front of a crowd of maybe a thousand or so, looking into a sea of faces. Sarah nudged me and whispered, "Doesn't the statues kinda look like Soph and Alex?"

Craning my neck, I rotated my head to look back up at the statues. They indeed both resembled Alex and Sophie, the same defining features, except for a few minor changes. "Mmm yeah, but Alex's boobs are smaller."

I felt an elbow to the gut and I groaned in pain while doubling over, "watch it Flaty McFlatterson," hissed Alex through slit like eyes.

I held up a thumbs up, letting her know I had received her message loud and clear. Suddenly the crowd began to murmur and I looked up to see a figure pushing the ocean of people, giving yells and growls of annoyance. A middle aged man emerged at the front with an angry scowl. "People! Do not let these imposters fool you! They are not who we think they are!"

Tali snapped her fingers and glared at the man, "and you are?" She sassily raised one eyebrow.

The man gave a mock bow and glared up at us, "Achilios, and you imposters are not welcome here. Begone!"

There was a flurry of yells as people began to wave fingers at each other, screaming and fighting each other. My head felt like it was going to split open. I grabbed my head in my hands and fell to my knees. There was a hand on my shoulder and through blurry eyes, I saw Izzy holding me. She seemed to say something but it was muffled by the noise. A white noise, like an invisible fog that smothered my ears. It was getting louder now, almost like an alarm, ringing through my head. My chest was heaving and I wanted to throw up. Bile stung my throat and desperately tried to escape. Shakily, I stood onto my feet with Izzy supporting me. Without warning, a scream erupted from my throat which made everyone stop short. It was shrill and high, my soul pouring into it. There was a deep rumble as the floor shook underneath Achilios, he scratched his balding head in confusion. Without warning, the ground opened up to reveal a chasm that heralded an orange light. Charred, blackened hands reached upwards and locked their grasp onto Achilios' heels. He screamed and yelled, as though being burnt. Slowly, they dragged him down into the hell fire of a hole. Once he fell through, it immediately sealed back up. The throbbing in my head was now gone, but my vision was fading. I staggered around as my vision became tunnel like. With one final turn on the spot, I faced my friends and did a small salut.

"Catch me will you?"

And with that, I fell into darkness.