The Open Book

Chapter 1

1.

Aphiwe had, as her mother would say, just dipped a toe into the last day of her life...

"Not like that!" Aphiwe yelled.

Lesanda threw down her arms letting out an exaggerated groan.

"I don't even want to do this!"

"No! I let you go first, so now I get to go!"

"I don't want to play anymore."

"If you stop without me getting a turn; I'm going home."

"That's not- You can't- You promised!"

"So did you!"

Both girls stared, caught in an impasse. Aphiwe sighed and walked away.

Lesanda's jaw quivered.

"Okay! But do it from-"

Aphiwe parted her feet, shoulder width, digging toe to root and soil, hands apart, spine straight, the bow the length of her body pulled taunt, top and bottom giving, she loosed and her arrow flew straight and true.

Thud!

Crash!

Lesanda was flipped, blowing through a young Barudabi tree, snapping it in half. Aphiwe froze. Time as she knew it expanded infinitely, swallowing space and matter.

Then a gravely still Lesanda cried out, squirming and clutching her chest. Aphiwe blinked a tear away, laughing as she dropped her bow, sprinting up to Lesanda who was still hugging her heart.

"Ow! Ow! Ow!"

Kicking out of Aphiwe's line of sight, Lesanda's foot carved into the soil, sweeping Aphiwe's leg before she could think. Lesanda's onyx and silver speckled legs wrapped around Aphiwe's neck, rolling them.

Layers of rotted leaves, soil kicked up as they gained speed spinning on and on.

"Stop!" Aphiwe yelled.

"No! You hit me harder than I hit you!" Lesanda cried out.

"I'm sorry!"

"Liar, you laughed!"

"I'm sorry!"

"For what?"

"I don't know."

They sped up.

"I'm choking."

"Good!"

"No really."

"You wouldn't be able to talk if you were choking."

It shut Aphiwe up, she let go of Lesanda's smothering thighs, suddenly kicking up. Lesanda's momentum, mixed with Aphiwe's, launched them skywards.

"Wait! Stop! We're right next to the-"

It was too late. The wooded earth hit a sudden end. Aphiwe stood only to fall, taking Lesanda with, momentum launching them over.

The girls parted, screaming their lungs out. The drop wasn't their own. Dozens of vines, branches and webbing crowded, mostly them along the way, bouncing and flipping them until they slammed into the floor with a crash that caused birds to shoot up into the air.

From multiple vines sap dripped, pooling before spilling down to another slow accumulating pool. Bugs poured out the woodwork, attached to them crystalized versions of the same syrup with green and purple roots popping out like veins. The bugs converged in sappy war, and the veins fed on the aftermath too, slowly glowing.