Godtrust ~ Chp.4

Cian’s body twitched. It began in his fingers and spread like fire- up his arms, down his chest, into his legs- until he was violently dancing with full-blown convulsions. The force of the shaking sent Alice on to her back. She dragged Cian with her. She lost her grip on him mid-fall, and they were separated.

Alice sat up, rubbing her head. She could see the two pieces of Cian in front of her. They were mere inches apart,, and getting closer. Little strings were connecting part of his body. They were wound tight, like guitar strings. The two pieces moved closer and closer, like snails, until he was back together. He stopped moving, and Alice caught her breath.

She sat by his side, patiently. He wasn’t exactly breathing, and he didn’t really have a pulse, but his fingers twitched, almost like clockwork, and he kept scratching his hair.

He woke up a while later. He would have slept longer, but Alice had grown impatient, and decided to stop moving him away from the tide. His first sound was a gasp, the second was a sigh. He was lying on his back, and reached his arms out like wings, grabbed handfuls of grass in his hands, and let out a scream. Alice was expecting him to scream like a wild animal, but what she heard was pure victory.

Darkness came before nightfall. The Secret beach was completely surrounded, barr one side. The tall cliffs cast terrible shadows, and trees, by their nature, tried not to let any light get past them. Only a gloomy light let Alice tell one shape from another, but she could see Cian’s face. They were sitting across from each other. Cian had his legs stretched out in front of him, leaning back with only his arms to support him- like he was trying to occupy as much space as possible. Alice was much more contained. Her legs were crossed, and she leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees.

“What happened to you?” she asked, after pleasantries had been exchanged.

“I died. I think.” he said, louder than she’d expected. “I’m not quite sure.”

“Well did you go to heaven or hell or what?” she said, laughing. Cian felt a prickling at the prickling at the back of his neck. He couldn’t remember most of what had happened. All he could remember was Lucy. He thought Lucy was a boy at first, but thinking over it now, he didn’t know why he had mistaken. Lucy had the hair, big eyes, and full lips that marked her as a woman. Biologically, anyway. But her words kept ringing in his ears. I am neither. She had said. But he couldn’t think of anything, between male and female, so he just went with calling her a girl.

The encounter felt like a secret. He didn’t want to lie to Alice, but it felt like he would be betraying a friend, so he kept his mouth shut. “I went to neither.” He said. “It was just like sleepin’, to be honest. Like those ones where you don’t have a dream and it’s just black.”

“That’s depressing. Was there no white lights? Like, I doubt you’d go to hell. And you were killed, so that should be, like, a free pass or something,”

“I was killed?” his raised his eyebrows, and Alice could tell that he was more curious than mad.

“Yeah.” Alice looked down and started twiddling her thumbs. “I think it was my fault. I’m not sure.”

“How can’t you be sure.”

“Like, I think I did it. But i’ve been trying to make sure, but I can’t do it, so I’m not sure.”

“Can’t do what, exactly. What did you do anyway?” Alice pushed herself on to the ground, and ran her fingers through the grass.

“It’s something to do with the grass. And the plants. And the trees too, I think. But I’m not sure.” There was a pause. The flow of conversation died, and Alice took her opportunity. “Why aren't you mad, Cian.” Alice was happy for the dimming sky. It gave her something to look at, other than his face.

“It’s behind us.” he lied. In truth, he was happy he died. He had so many of his questions answered. He just thought of it as a dream, and left it at that. He lay back down, and looked up at the sky. “What’s happening to us?” he asked no one, and Alice replied, half-asleep:

“Something terrible, but we can sleep in off.”

*

The pursuer was a lovely person, admittedly. He was a short boy, who went by the name green. He had shoulder length brown hair, with no fringe, that made his face look square. His eyes seemed to be constantly half-closed, but he could see just fine.

Hannah was enjoying the warmth of green’s fire. Her jaw had nearly dropped open when he made fire out of sticks. He tried to show her how, but the sticks kept deteriorating in her hands. Poppy wasn’t able to grasp it either, which made her feel a bit better.

Poppy feel asleep after they exchanged ghost stories. Hannah had stopped smiling then. Poppy’s head rested on her lap, and she stroked her head with the back of her hand periodically. “Now you’re goin’ to tell me” Hannah said bitterly. “Just who the hell you are, and why you followed us here.”

“I thought we were having fun.” Green laughed. “Okay.” He said. Then he strongly declared, “I am Green J. Green. I live here in this forest.” he stared at her strongly. Hannah tried to say something back, but like a cue, he talked over her. “I followed you because I saw you were having trouble carrying the little girl, so I decided to help.” He calmed his voice, letting the comical sternness fade away. “I didn’t want to seem like a creep, though, so I was going to wait until you stopped to nonchalantly walk over and offer to assist. But you didn’t stop. Next thing I knew, I was falling out of a tree. D’you do that?”

“Yes.” Hannah replied. She had put down some of her walls, but couldn’t risk being friendly with him, for real, just yet. “My hands are acting weird. When I touch things, living things, I think, they just kind of rot away.” she couldn't stop looking at them. They didn’t seem any different. “Is anything weird happening to you?”

“Yeah yeah yeah.” he said excitedly. “Watch this!” He exclaimed. At first Hannah thought he was jumping, be he just kept going up and up. He was just floating in mid-air.

“You can fly?” Hannah was surprised, but not shocked. She’d seen a bit too much to experience true shock.

“No. Not really.” his voice broke. “I can’t move once I’m up here, just kind of float. I don’t go much higher than this either.” the boy was clearly sad. Hannah felt sorry for him. Not because he couldn’t fly, but because it made him sad. She always had pity for people who couldn’t love themselves for everything they were.

“I see.” she said quietly. “Do you know where we are?”

“What’s the last thing you remember doing before you woke up here?” he asked, abruptly changing the subject.

“Where are we?” Hannah answered, stressing each syllable. She was finding it hard to pt power in her voice, when she had to constantly check how loud she was being. Poppy was probably exhausted, and she didn’t have it in her to wake her.

Green didn’t answer her question. Instead, he locked his fingers together, and rested his chin on them. It was a direct insult, especially coming from a boy so much younger than her. But Hannah knew he knew something-she had to leave her pride behind on this one. “We made a wish at the Godtrust on the other side of the island and woke up here. Now, where are we?”

“How do you know you’re someplace different?” Green retorted. Hannah laughed.

“A cow went missing two months ago, and the whole village did a sweep of the island. There aren’t many places to hide here. If we were at home, we would have been found by now. Where are we?” Green snickered.

“Okay. But you’re not going to belie..”

“Try me.” Hannah interjected.

“Fine.” the boy ran his fingers through his hair. Hannah was throwing him off, and she loved it. “We’re in some sort of different world, Hannah. I don’t know all of what’s going on, i’m afraid. But I do know that there are no other people here, and no way to leave this island. We’ve tried.”

“We?”

“I came here with three friends. But they're all gone now “ he looked down at his hands, and started messing with this nails.

“What happened to them?” Hannah asked. She was trying to put some sympathy in her voice now, but she couldn’t get over her gut feeling that was saying ‘this boy is bad.’ Her words came out like ice.

“There are things on this island, Hannah. Horrible things.” the wind rustled the the trees that surrounded them for a moment. The sound sent shivers up her spine. A moment later ,Hannah’s face went red. Green smiled understandingly.