Lonely

Chapter 32, Sadie

I frowned as I stood on the edge of the  yard that surrounded the medium sized house. It was dilapidated and I doubted any one lived in it. At one point, it had probably been a really nice house. A porch on the front had two rocking chairs on it, but the seats had fallen in and one had a broken armrest. The paint was peeling, one window was shattered, a once beautiful garden surrounding the house was now dead and full of weeds. The lawn was over grown and pieces of slate from the roof had fallen off and were leaning against the house.

The door hung crooked on the hinges and rattled ominously in the wind. Just as I was about to give up and hope that the pulling feeling came back, I heard something inside. A crashing noise and then a high pitched scream. The door literally flew off the hinges and landed six feet away, but no one came out. I ran into the house and looked around. Wall paper peeled off the wall in places, but the hall way was empty with nothing but a broken coffee table. I heard the noise again, and then something that sounded liked hissing. I crept down the hall towards the sound and peered around the corner into another room that appeared to be the kitchen. Pinned in the corner was a girl who looked to be about twelve. A massive snake was coiled up in front of her, its head poised back to strike. She looked terrified, her brown eyes wide. I jumped into the room, and the snake whirled its green scaly body around to face me, exposing fangs a foot long and bright red eyes. It hissed and the girl glanced wildly between us.

Now what? Before I could do anything the snake bunched its muscles and launched its self at me. I ducked, my three years if training kicking in. I loved a good fight. I whirled and grabbed a chair; bring it down on the snakes head. It hardly noticed. It spun again and snapped at me, but I dodged it and went back down the hall, luring it form the girl I assumed to be Libby Marcops. It slithered after me, watching me. I stepped onto a board that creaked under my feet, swaying under my wait. It was dead…the one next to it was the same way. I waved my arms, watching as the snake followed my movements. I saw the girls head poke out from around the corner, and I shook my head slightly and took another step back. I glanced around, as if in slow motion.

Leaning against the wall was a mirror, split right in half with a jagged edge on one half and a wooden frame on the other. I took that final step and the snake came forward, its full weight on the dead boards. They creaked then shattered, surprising the snake. It whole lower body fell into a black hole, but its head and some of its upper body still stood above. It writhed as it tried to haul its heavy body back over the edge. I grabbed the mirror by the wooden edge and brought the jagged edge down on the snake, at the thinnest part, right behind its head. With a sicken noise, followed by a silence, then a thud! As the snakes body hit the invisible ground far below us. I poked the head with my toe and rolled the lifeless, foot ball sized head into the hole. I stood there for a moment, gazing down the hole, trying to catch my breath and racing heart. Suddenly, I remembered the young girl named Libby. I looked up to find her watching me, her eyes wide. I stepped around the gaping hole and knelt down in front of her.

“You alright?” I asked. She continued to stare at me, and I snapped my fingers in front of her face. She focused on my face, hers crumpling into tears. Instinctively, I gathered her into my arms, trying to soothe her. After a few moments, she pulled away, still sniffling. “I-I-didn’t hear it and I c-couldn’t do anything!” she wailed. I almost smiled at her face. “It’s alright. Everything’s alright now. We have to go now though.” I said gently. This got her attention. She eyed me with sudden caution. I realized she should be suspicious. “My name is Sadie. I encounter the same creatures that you have. One time, there was a giant lizard thing that attacked. You’ll be safe with me.” When I saw that this wasn’t going to convince her, I changed tacks. “A woman named Arianna sent me.” The girl’s entire face changed, and she looked so much more grateful than anything else. She sighed. “Alright, if Arianna sent you, then I guess I’d better go.” She said. I smiled at her and looked around. “We’d better get going. Staying here isn’t safe. And I have more kids to go get.” I said smiling. She tried to smile back, but I could see that she was still shocked by the most recent attack. She tied her frizzy born hair back and followed me out of the house.

“So, why did Arianna send you?’ she asked once we entered the woods. I shook my head. “She was about as helpful as a dead mouse. All she said was that I needed to come get seven kids and bring them back to her to fight a battle. You must be Libby.” I said. She smiled up at me, but continued mulling over what I had told her. I tried to focus on the returning pulling feeling, leading me to my next kid, Jett Henson, according to the list. I thought about Hanger and wished for everything that he was here. I sighed, but Libby didn’t notice, still too deep in thought. All I wanted was to be back with Hanger.

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By that night, I had discovered that Libby was a talker. Like, a never shut up and fill the silence with brain vomit. “Then, when I was eight, I went to live with my aunt, but she had to leave so I was sent to an orphanage and then the monsters started coming. How old were you when they started coming? Then, I started to live on my own, and one time I fell and hurt my ankle and had to limp around for two weeks before it stopped hurting. Have you ever hurt your ankle? Have you ever broken anything? I don’t think I broke it.” She continued talking, never letting me answer the questions she asked. She just never stopped. After a while I stopped pretending to listen and got a fire going. Finally, I noticed there was silence. Surprised, I looked around for Libby. She had found part of an old, chain link fence, and as I watched, she stared at it, and the metal started to twist into awkward shapes, creaking and moaning as it did so. It looped around its self and finally it stopped moving. I focused on it. It was her name, written in a loopy sort of form out of an old rusty fence. She had done it with her mind.

“What was that?” I asked, stunned. She smiled at me, glad I was paying attention. ‘My talent. It started when I was really little. I can do all sorts of stuff. I am still learning how though, and sometimes-” I cut her off before she could rally get going. “Oh, yeah. I remember Arianna had said that you all had a gift she needed. That’s pretty cool. You’d better try and get some sleep. We need to keep going tomorrow.” She nodded and curled up next to the fire. She must have been tired because within a few minutes, I realized she was asleep. Even though she talked a lot, I enjoyed the company. Unfortunately, it didn’t make me miss Hanger any less.