The Reach Ch. 01

The sun was low on the sky and I feared I wouldn't make it back or that I wouldn't find my way back to our hill. When I eventually saw it I heard running footsteps behind me and soon Belle and Step had run me down.

"What were you doing?" Step said. "We had fun?"

Belle put one hand on my neck and started to massage it. They exchanged looks and smiled. They closed in on me but then I interrupted them with one pointed finger. The sun was going down and we all knew that the steppes were dangerous at night.

A look of disappointment passed between my friends, or ex-friends, but they started to walk with me through the tall grass to our hill.

Strange feelings came over me when I followed them into the hole, an unease that I couldn't explain. I didn't want to stay in the country I had come to hate for what it had done to my former friends, but at the same time I did not trust the dark bend that was close to Belle's careful feet. But neither Belle nor Step stopped and I followed.

There was a sudden thump and Step cursed. Belle had crossed over to our world's part of the tunnel and I thought that she had fallen down and blocked the passage for the irritated Step. But then he stopped cursing and started to shout "Belle!" over and over again.

From my point of view he seemed to reach for her when he screamed with pain and started to back away, bumping into me and making both of us fall on the slippery slope.

"Get away from me!" he screamed at me. "Don't push me!" And he started to grab on to me as he kicked himself up.

"What's happening?" I said when I too started to climb up even though I find it increasingly difficult when he used by backpack as a handhold. Luckily my balance saved us from tumbling down again.

"Just shut the fuck up!" he screamed at my back.

He stopped cussing when we both reached the grassy glen between the bushes on the hill again. But he started at the hole in terror and grasped his left hand with his other. The lack of light, the sun had already started to pass under the horizon, made me skittish.

"Where is Belle?" I asked and he shrugged.

"She's dead," he answered.

"What?" I said and stepped to the hole, looking down. At first I couldn't see Belle but then I saw some of her red hair and a bit of her hand. It was still.

"We must get back to the city," he said and grabbed onto me.

"We can't just leave her?" I asked but he just kept on dragging me towards the shrubbery. "Let go of me!"

He threw me to the grass and stared down at me. Something strange met me; a red glare came from his eyes, as if he was an animal in the light. I felt something against my back, between me and the backpack, making me uncomfortable on the grass but I dared not move under that Stare. He looked confused when he saw me freeze beneath his eyes. Then he grinned and started to walk towards me.

A violent scream came from the newly settled darkness and we both looked that way, not seeing over the bushes of course. I was the first one to remember my priorities and when I notices I had regained my ability to move I ran up the slope to the thorny bushes, throwing of my backpack as it would stop me from gaining access to the small passage that I saw.

Step was running after me but he suddenly stopped and I heard a thump as he fell down. I didn't stop to look and soon I was looking over the tall grass, facing unblinking darkness under strange stars. Slowly I slunk into the grass, just deep enough to prevent Step from seeing me if he should come this way. I didn't dare to move deeper into the grass, fearing what would lay waiting for me.

Deepest fear made me freeze, instincts I had never felt before forced me to hide there. When nothing happened I relaxed and scratched my back, still feeling something uncomfortable there. It seemed as if some sort of soft branches had gotten stuck under my t-shirt. I tried to remove them but when I tried it caused me pain.

I removed my baggy t-shirt to get a better look and when I turned my head I saw grey, feathery wings sticking out from my back. I moved to get into a better position and when I did so my clothes started to fall off me. They were suddenly much too big and even the grass seemed to be taller, the world more menacing. I collected my clothes in my hands, rolling them tightly and using the belt to secure them.

Step hadn't shown himself and I wondered what he was doing. Hopefully he had started back to the city. I hoped that he would run into one of the screamers. Thinking of them made my heart run cold and-

A sound? Someone was edging their way closer. Step? Or was it something far worse? But there wasn't just one sound. As I turned slightly to get a better ear on the first sound something else moved just to my left, and to my right. Not even thinking I kicked off into the air, leaving my clothes behind me and feeling my unsteady wings fumble in the air. Then something grabbed a hold of my leg and I fell badly on the ground.

I didn't get a chance to see the ones who had captured me before they thrust me in a large sack and carried me away.