The Others

Chapter 3

I open my eyes, and the world is red. Everything, blood red. Blood. I inhale sharply, and a metallic tang penetrates my nostrils. This is blood, alright. I resist the urge to puke, and look around further. At least, I try to, but beyond the red haze all around me for about  five feet, I can see nothing. I look down at my feet, and they are drowning in a pool of the sickly stuff. I see that the red is flowing from somewhere, but I can’t tell the source. I trud next to the miniature river of red, and finally see something besides the red fog. It is lying on the ground, a huddle of something...or someone?

My heart nearly stops as I have this thought, but I still creep closer. It is definitely a small someone. They are lying on their side, almost as if they are asleep.

I am afraid to look at their face. But what if I could help them? I need to know that I am not completely hopeless.

I step around to face them.

She is curled up, her eyes shut tight. Her hair is flowing freely behind her, but it is matted with the blood flowing from a gash in her side.

Autumn.

“NO!” I scream hoarsely, falling to my knees at her side, gasping for air. “NO! NO, NO, no, no, no…..” I sob dry tears, and I cradle her in my arms. She is cold.

“NO!”

 

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My eyes snap open to see someone kneeling over me, and my voice just feels hoarse and cracked, even though I haven’t talked yet.

“Aquani?”

I try to focus on the person’s face, and then I remember. It is Shella, just Shella. Her face comes into focus, and her honey eyes are searching mine worriedly. “Are you alright?” she asks me. I try to process what she asked me. Am I alright? Will I ever be alright? The true answer is no.

“Yeah,” I say, and attempt to clear my throat. “I’m fine.” Her face is furrowed in doubt, but she accepts my answer without question, and hands me a tightly woven bowl of grass full of ice cold water. I gulp it gratefully, and watch her face as she adds more tinder to our little fire. Shadows leap across it from the flames like frolicking gazelles, and it is quite an entrancing sight.

Then she looks up at me.

She sits cross-legged across from me, and looks at me with a level gaze. I look everywhere but into her eyes. After my breakdown yesterday, I am embarrassed to even look at her.

"It may be too soon," she starts hesitantly. "But you never finished your story. I still have no idea why you were running so hard yesterday." The edges of her lips turn up slightly. I suppose it must have been a funny sight. Was it only yesterday? It feels like years ago. I remember her hushing my sobs and laying me down here, starting the fire, humming for me to go to sleep. I barely know her, but I feel like we're best friends.

"You really want to know?"

"Of course I do."

"Well, there’s not that much left to tell. I fled to the woods. I waited at a secret little spot Autumn and I had for a few days, hoping for her to turn up...she didn't. So I left there. I've been living in the forest ever since. I already knew how to hunt - my brother Alstarn showed me when I was little. He was killed, too. The...man...left him on our front porch. I saw him. I gave him...a proper burial."

"That's so sad," Shella says.

“Kinda depressing, isn’t it?” I respond, smiling grimly. I am done talking about me. I’m curious now. I can tell her about the running part later. “So, what’s your story?”

And she tells me.

“Well,” she begins, “My story is a lot happier than yours, actually. I came to the forest of my own free will.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, really. When I was about eight, my brother Simon left us. He was 12. He’s my step-brother, actually, but he is like a real true blood brother to me. We got along great when he was still with us. He only left because of my mom, I think. She wasn’t that nice. The thing is, he won’t talk to me about it at all, still! Anyway, a couple years later I left too. I left a note, so they’d know I was fine, but that’s all. I just missed him so much, y’know?”

“Yeah, totally.” I say.

“So it took me a while to find him, but eventually I did. He had a sort of camp thing going on, and I helped him fix it up some. He seemed happy for the company. Ever since, we’ve been the best of friends and we actually moved our camp to a new location. If you want, I can show it to you. He won’t mind. We’ve never actually met anyone here before. Anyway, wanna come see it later?” She seems like a real chatterbox. We both haven’t had anyone new to talk to in a while, though. No one at all for four years for me, actually. Well, I talk to my squirrel, Herbert, but he doesn’t really count. He just does what he wants, too; he doesn’t really belong to me. He just follows me around sometimes.

Anyway, Shella looks super excited. “Sure, I’ll come,” I say. “But first, I gotta eat. I am absolutely ravenous!” It’s true. My stomach is growling like an overexcited lion. They are no fun to be around, as I know from experience.

“Oh!” Stella exclaims, jumping up. I look up, startled. “I made you eggs, I forgot! They might be a little bit cold, but here.” She hands me a sanded slab of beach wood with a couple of sunny-side up eggs on it. My stomach growls loudly, and we both laugh. I dig in, and try to talk at the same time, but it doesn’t work. So I swallow hastily and ask her, “Where did you get these?”

“Oh, just over by the lake. There’s this bird that lives near it, and there were eggs in the nest. So I took a couple.” She shrugs. “It was a lot easier than going to hunt. I didn’t know when you were going to wake up, see.”

“Yeah,” I say, shocked. I hadn’t thought about stealing eggs before, and I could’ve so many times! I’ve just relied on my hunting and gathering mainly. I’m impressed by her resourcefulness. I totally should’ve thought of that.

I gulp down the rest of my eggs, and look up at Shella to see her grinning at me in satisfaction.

“What?” I ask.

“Nothing, nothing,” she says. “It’s just funny to watch you eat.”

“Why?”

“Do you always eat like you are half starved?”

“I guess. Sometimes I am,” I grin. She grins back at me, and I groan to my feet. “So,” I say. “We going to see this camp of yours or what?”

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So how’d you all like this one?! Eager to know here. :)

So I’m going to start asking questions about random stuff every chapter, here’s this chapter’s question!

Do you like dark chocolate? I know, I know, lame question but I’m curious. ;) I hope to have chapter 4 up soon, depends on the comments and votes! What’ll the camp be like…? ;D