It was two o'clock in the morning when twenty-year-old Audrey had finished her painting. It was of the setting sun. She had done most of it by the time the sun had set, but she continued adding her own special touches to it later. And it took a long while.
"Done." she breathed in the scent of drying paint. "Beautiful."
Will, her boyfriend, who had stayed with her that night to keep her company while she painted, sighed. "Now that took a while, didn't it?" he asked. "Anyway, I should get going now. I finished, like, five chapters of my story."
Audrey nodded, pleased with herself and her painting. "Okay. Bye, Will."
"No hug?" he asked, packing up his belongings, and tucking his laptop away into his bag.
Audrey turned around suddenly, her wavy blonde hair flying this way and that. Her blue eyes sparkled. "No." she said bluntly.
"Aw, c'mon, just one?"
"Fine." she rolled her eyes, giggling and gave him a one arm hug, dragging him out of her house the entire time. Will chuckled, and gave her a peck on her cheek before jogging out the front door with his bag slung around his shoulder. Audrey smiled out at the dark Britain sky, shut the door, and looked back at her painting.
She'd let it dry for now. Painting was a pain in the back. Now that she was done with it, she put away her tools and headed up to her room. Today was exhausting. Ugh, she thought to herself. She had to choose a price for it to go sell it on her website. Later.
Sighing, Audrey flopped onto her bed and breathed deeply. Whipping out her phone, she opened her checklist app, and added a couple of new things to do tomorrow:
- walk around the park - set a price and name for new painting - groceries - buy something for Will's birthday - pick up books from library - drop off car to mechanic
Soon enough, still in her jeans and t-shirt, she fell into her usual restless sleep.
Last edited by Lib on Mon Mar 16, 2020 12:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Clarice Gunner awoke in a sweaty haze, entangled in her sheets. The clock to her right told the time as 2am in the morning. She pushed herself up using her elbows and allowed her eyes to adjust to the darkness of the room.
“Mikey, it’s two in the morning!” She groaned, swatting her brother with her hand. “I was asleep!”
“Shush!” Mikey raised his finger to his lips. “Listen.”
She listened, and then heard the low rumbling sound that was gradually growing louder. “Drones?”
“Just get up, quick, we need to get out of here!”
The sense of urgency in Mikey’s voice made her heart race. There wasn’t meant to be any drones out tonight, which could only mean one thing. The Abbies were close by. She immediately leapt out of bed and pulled on her clothes, the familiarity of the fabric giving her a moment of comfort.
Pushing open the door to their shared hotel room, the Gunner siblings could hear the panic ensuing around them. Like lamb to the slaughter, the other residents of the Meadhill Hotel had abandoned their beds and were running in hoards towards the exit. The loud cries of a new born baby send chills down Clarice’s spine as she peered over the banister down into the lobby.
“They’re gonna get massacred if they all flock to the streets like that!” she tugged on Mikey’s arm, begging him to do something. “We have to stop them!”
He shook her off and glared into her deep brown eyes with an expression of sorrow. “We can’t do anything for them. They’ll either be ripped apart by Abbies or caught in the drone strikes. If you want to die too, then that’s up to you, but I suggest we get out of here and find somewhere to hide.”
Mikey was right, and Clarice knew it. The whole of Eyelam was under attack from the Abbies, not just Northern Sestan. Humans were outnumbered, and as much as she hated it, it was everyman for themselves. But no matter how hard she tried, she could not get that child’s cry out of her head. It reminded her too much of Luka, bringing up memories she’d tried so hard to forget.
The Gunner siblings found themselves running to the fire escape that led to the outer stairs, and Clarice kicked it open with one strike from her heavy combat boots. When the Abbies attacked, it was best to branch off on your own, away from everyone else. They hunted in packs, and only ever went after groups of four or more people. Together, the two of them should be safe.
“The sight of one's own heart is degrading; people are not meant to look inward--that's why they've been give bodies, to hide their souls.”
Audrey woke up - sweating and trembling - in bed with a start. "Will!" she screamed. Nothing. She slowly took in her surroundings. Home. No kidnapper. No murderer. No crazy or psycho woman trying to destroy the world. Everything was okay. Just a nightmare. Just a nightmare. Will is okay. Probably sleeping.
She smiled at that last thought. Probably sleeping.
Warmth finally spread through her and she could breathe evenly now. Audrey slipped out of bed and checked the clock. 5 AM.
Audrey always woke up at this exact time, whether it was from a nightmare, a dream, or naturally. She decided she would be grateful for it since waking up so early had become a habit, and helped her a lot especially if she had a busy day ahead of her.
Sighing, she headed to her bathroom, took a cold shower, and changed into black yoga pants and a sweatshirt that had a lone rose blossoming in the middle of white. Audrey looked at herself in the mirror and gave herself a thumbs up and a grin. "Lookin' good, Aud." she winked. Quick as lightning, she loosely braided her almost-dry hair. She'd let it air-dry.
"First things first." Audrey mumbled, checking her checklist on her phone. "A walk around the park."
***
The morning sun was rising, the birds had started waking up slowly, letting out adorable little chirps, and the dense trees to the far side of the park seemed as if they were waving at Audrey. The few trees there made up a little forest of a sort where everyone always found the oddest of creations. The whole community called it the Little Forest of Mysteries. Or the LFM. There weren't much clouds in the sky - just a few here and there.
Breathing in the scent of early morning, Audrey beamed. "Good morning, London." she whispered into the cool air, her breath forming mist in front of her.
She walked into the Little Forest of Mysteries. Deeper and deeper she went, until she found the bench where she and Will had first met. She cherished this bench so much, she might as well have propped up a sign there, letting the world know, that Audrey had met Will here at the very place they were standing. Audrey smiled and sat down on the bench.
That's when something caught her eye a few feet away.
It was curious sight. A stone archway, with something that looked like... water... in the middle of it. As a gust of wind flew by, the "water" rippled. Curiosity took over and Audrey had the sudden urge to check out what it was. She reached down into the pocket of her sweatshirt to check if her phone was still there. It was.
In seconds, Audrey was standing in front of the archway. She reached out a hand, into the "water" and it rippled. Although the "water" was transparent, she couldn't see her hand on the other side. Even when she stood on the right side of the archway, and poked her hand through, Audrey couldn't see her hand on the other side.
Realization dawned.
"Magic." she whispered, and step through. It was a magical feeling, stepping through the archway. When she stepped out to the other side, she wasn't in the Little Forest of Mysteries anymore. She was in a completely different area. There weren't many trees, and it was nighttime here. The grass was soft and dewy. The few trees had vines flowing down their branches. There were stone steps before Audrey and she stepped down from them and took a sharp intake of breath.
"Awesome." She almost reached for her paintbrush to paint the scenery but stopped before anyone saw her and thought Audrey was crazy.
Right then, a monstrous creature with slits for eyes, no nose, and a huge mouth the size of a dinner plate with rows of needle-sharp teeth towered behind her. It's body was lopsided, and it looked as if it were made of boulders. It let out a low and dangerous growl. Audrey turned around slowly, afraid to see who or what had created the noise. When her eyes locked with the monster's, she let out a blood curdling scream.
The Gunner siblings had been walking through the woods for hours when they heard the scream.
“What direction did that come from?” Clarice stopped in her track and spun round, her ears pricked like a guard dog.
Mikey grunted. “Does it matter? We can’t help them, whoever it is. Every man for himself, remember! Last time you went rushing off to save someone it just caused more trouble and-”
But Clarice was already gone, thundering through the undergrowth deeper into the forest. Thorns and brambles clawed at her ankles, ripping through her tight trousers as she found herself nearing a clearing. The trees became more sparse as the forest opened out into a small field, the ruins of a church abandoned in the middle.
She saw the Abbie straight away, its razor sharp claws outstretched, ready to kill. One strike from its claw could slice a person right open, and Clarice was well aware of this. The collection of scars across her body was growing, the last encounter painfully fresh across her right shoulder. Without thinking, she charged up the ruins of the church steps towards the Abbie, arms out in front of her in the defence position Mikey had taught her when they were younger. Her boots thudded on the crumbling stone as she threw her body against the thing of nightmares, knocking it over the side of the steps. It took immense strength to stop herself going over the side with it. The ten foot drop could have been deadly, especially if she’d landed on that thing.
“What was that?”
Clarice suddenly became aware of the person she’d just saved. A young woman, maybe the same age as her, cowered at the top of the steps. Her thin lips were forming a frown on her freckled face, and her blue eyes were wide with fright.
“What, you mean you’ve never seen an Abbie before?”
The woman shook her head, and that was when Clarice noticed what was at the top of the stone steps.
It was like a puddle, but upright. In the pale moonlight, it shone almost purple, glittering as the clouds slowly drifted across the sky. She carefully surpassed the woman and made her way up the rest of the steps towards it, her arm outstretched. A tingling feeling shot up through her fingers as they came into contact with it, and to Clarice’s shock, they disappeared through the ripples. She immediately recoiled, pulling her hand into her chest and hugging it.
A horrendous screech filled the air, unmistakably coming from the Abbie ten feet below them. The woman screamed again, and clutched onto Clarice’s arm. The Abbie had made it to the bottom of the steps, and was slowly crawling up on all fours, its gigantic mouth wide open. Drool dripped down and splashed onto the stone, glistening in the moonlight. They were cornered - unless they went through those ripples there was no way out without jumping ten feet onto loose stones.
Suddenly, a bright light illuminated the space before them, and the screeching of the Abbie grew louder, only this time it was with pain and not hunger. Its body was alight, burning from the inside out. The sound of sizzling flesh filled the air, and the woman shrank even closer to Clarice, practically clinging onto her. Smoke began to waft upwards as the flames encased the bony body, and with one last shriek the thing dropped dead on the stone in a burnt heap. That was when Mikey appeared through the smoke, a flare gun in his hand and that smug ‘I told you so’ smile plastered across his face.
“And that is why you don’t go running straight into trouble without formulating a plan first!”
“The sight of one's own heart is degrading; people are not meant to look inward--that's why they've been give bodies, to hide their souls.”
When the young man appeared through the smoke the monster had caused with the flare gun in hand, Audrey finally had the guts to let go of dark skinned young woman.
Audrey blushed. "Uh..." she started, but faltered. What was she supposed to say? A thank you? But the woman hadn't exactly saved her. The man had. She turned to face the man. He looked pretty much the same as the woman. Audrey gulped. "I..." she started. "Thank you." she breathed.
She waited for a response, but there was only silence as they studied Audrey and Audrey studied them. Both of them were dark-skinned, with black hair (the woman with long hair and the man with short hair), and brown eyes. They were both about an inch or two taller than Audrey herself, who was five feet six. The woman had an awful lot of scars and Audrey tried hard not to stare at her.
"My name is Audrey. We didn't exactly meet in a pleasant situation, so how about we start this over?" she asked, flashing them a smile that showed off her two deep dimples.
Mikey spoke first, making his way up the steps. He screwed up his face in disgust as he stepped over the Abbie’s body, careful not to get anything on his shoes. They were his only pair after all.
“I’m Mikey. And this is my little sister.” He nodded at Clarice, who was too enthralled with the sight of the upright puddle to care what Mikey was saying. “Her name is Clarice. Hello? Earth to Clarice?”
Finally, she snapped out of her day dream and turned back to look at Audrey. She offered her hand for Audrey to shake. “Like he said. I’m Clarice. Clarice Gunner. No need to thank me for saving you, not yet anyway. I’m not sure we’re exactly safe here.” The three of them all turned their attention back to the upright puddle, which was still shimmering. It was entrancing to look at, ensnaring their gazes as they stared into the very middle. The ripples seemed to give out an electric charge, making all the hair on Clarice’s arms, legs and the back of her neck stand up.
“Did you come through that thing?” Mikey asked as he slowly passed Audrey on the steps, making his way towards it.
“The sight of one's own heart is degrading; people are not meant to look inward--that's why they've been give bodies, to hide their souls.”
Audrey rushed to pull Mikey away from the archway. "I-I don't think you should go through that. It did actually bring me here. So I'm guessing if you go through it, you'll go back to London."
She looked around again. Then down at the monster and shuddered. "What is that? And where are we?" she asked, desperate for any answer she could suck up. She almost moved her hand a few inches to squeeze Will's. But he wasn't here. Audrey's hands started sweating and she felt her stomach clench. Homesickness. Of course.
Ignoring Audrey’s second and third questions, Clarice snapped her head towards the blonde woman. She kept her dark eyes trained on Audrey, like she didn’t trust her. How could she have never seen an Abbie before? “What’s London?”
Mikey kept his attention trained on the ripples, though he’d backed away from it after hearing the urgency in Audrey’s voice.. “That’s an Abbie.” He threw his right arm back, gesturing to the dead creature on the steps. In his left hand, he was still holding the now empty flare gun. “Short for ‘Abnormal’. We don’t exactly know what they are, or where they come from. And you’re in Odenross. A small town in Northern Sestan. On the planet Eyelam.”
A brief silence filled the air.
“The sight of one's own heart is degrading; people are not meant to look inward--that's why they've been give bodies, to hide their souls.”
"I'm on a different planet?" Audrey whispered, staring down at the soft grass. If looks could burn, the grass would have been burnt down by now. Then she remembered Clarice's earlier question. "London is my home. It's a city in England. Which is a country in Europe. Which is a continent on Earth. Planet Earth."
Audrey had purposely made everything she said complicated. She couldn't help it. It was what she always did. Bad habits. She bit the inside of her cheek. "Is... Odenross... under attack?" she asked, looking up at Clarice, staring right into her eyes.
Clarice stared right back, unblinking. “It has been for years. Ever since I can remember. Apparently one day, the Abbies just appeared out of the woods.” She shuddered at the thought.
“There is no Planet called Earth,” Mikey said after some careful consideration. “Our dad was an astronomer, I know the solar system like the veins on the back of my hand. There’s the sun, then Cyrex, Lancer, Eyelam, Lars and then Primena, after the asteroid belt. There's no such place as Earth.”
The gunner siblings both glared at the glistening ripples with a hungry curiosity.
“The sight of one's own heart is degrading; people are not meant to look inward--that's why they've been give bodies, to hide their souls.”
Audrey bit her lip. "I... suggest you don't go in there. It leads to Earth. And you guys seem a bit too interested in going there." she chuckled nervously.
"Also, I'm guessing that, uh, Earth is much farther away from where we are right now." she said jerkily.
She raised her hands slightly as realization dawned once again. Much farther away? Were they in a different... solar system? Universe? Galaxy? Was Audrey supposed to be excited? Scared? Anxious? Audrey stared at the portal. She was a hop, skip, and jump away from Earth. But this new world... Audrey looked around, not meeting Clarice or Mikey's eyes. She could explore it! But what if the portal disappeared later on when she came back?
Audrey did some breathing exercises her therapist had told her to do. When she noticed the Gunner siblings were staring at her now, intently, she stopped and cracked a crooked smile.
“Are you alright?” Clarice asked, her expression one of concern. Earth. That sounded so wrong. It was surely a place that didn’t exist. Couldn’t exist.
“Never mind about her being alright!” Mikey grunted. “We need to get out of here before more Abbies come, and she’s just an extra mouth to feed!” He turned to Audrey, offering her an apologetic smile. “You should just go back through that… thing. I hope it takes you back to this ‘Earth’ place. It sure seems safer than here if you haven’t got Abbies to deal with.”
“The sight of one's own heart is degrading; people are not meant to look inward--that's why they've been give bodies, to hide their souls.”
As soon as Mikey said those words, the ripples from the archway disappeared.
"No!" Audrey screamed. "No no no!" she ran through the stone archway and when she came out the other side - not in the Little Forest of Mysteries and still indeed in the place known as Odenross - she groaned.
Audrey fell onto her knees and held her head in her hands, her hair falling over to the side, the tips brushing the grassy ground. She looked up at the trees, then turned around to look at the siblings with watery eyes. "What now?" she sighed. "Isn't gunna make a difference if I whine over this dumb thing."
Clarice watched a tear slip down Audrey’s face and instantly felt a pang of fear deep in her gut. “Oh god…” was all she could manage to say. Mikey was right, it was much more dangerous as a group of three than it was for the two of them. This Audrey woman would only slow them down, and attract more Abbies, yet Clarice knew they couldn’t leave her alone. She was defenceless, from some safe world that was free from Abbies. “You’ll have to come with us. We’ll look after you.” She said it quickly, and before Mikey could protest she knelt down and put a hand on Audrey’s shoulder. “I promise that I will protect you, and that we will get you home. Okay?”
“The sight of one's own heart is degrading; people are not meant to look inward--that's why they've been give bodies, to hide their souls.”
Gender:
Points: 825
Reviews: 453