Evadere (2 page)

I glanced around. Where was Emry? He probably had taken a stroll and let me sleep. Maybe he had climbed up on the cliffs. I shaded my eyes from the sunlight as I looked up at the cliffs overhead. Nothing.

Jumping to my feet, I brushed off the white sand that stuck to the back of my legs. I hurried to the other side of the beach, my mind having frantic thoughts of being all alone in this beautiful place since Emry wasn’t anywhere to be seen.

“Emry!” I cried out. “Emry!”
 

Still no response. I desperately ran to yet another side of the beach and peered up at the majestic cliffs that towered above. I could see the whole way to the top, but he wasn’t there.
 

I took a deep breath and tried to remain calm. I hadn’t been farther than this before. The tips of the alluring golden grasses swayed rhythmically with the breeze. They were almost as high as my waist. There was an eerie attraction about them. I wanted to reach out my hand and touch them, run through them, but fear stopped me from doing so. It was almost as if I could sense the hidden evil lurking within those glorious plants. Something told me that if I were to go in there, I may not come back out.

I looked up toward the ruddy sky. It was growing darker by the moment. Surely it had to be evening. I felt slightly dizzy and sat down in the sand looking out over the water. My stomach growled. I ignored it. A sickening feeling followed the pangs of hunger as the realization settled in of what was happening.
 

Emry wasn’t here. I was all alone in Evadere. When I was with him, this place seemed surreal, magical and there was nowhere else I’d rather be. But without him, it all seemed too good to be true. There was something else about this place. It was as if the beauty of it all was merely a masquerade that hid something ugly waiting just below the surface.
 

I closed my eyes. The reality of my abandonment was haunting. He would come back for me, I was sure of it.

My eyes snapped open. I had fallen asleep in the sand. It was nighttime now as I couldn’t help but stare into the sky, the whitish stars so large, so bright as if I could reach out and touch them. Then the reality that I was still in Evadere without Emry hit me. My hungry belly protested against its emptiness. I took a deep breath and tried to will the slight ache away.
 

A scraping sound in the distance alarmed me. My eyes darted around, searching in the darkness for an answer of where it had came from. I waited, remaining absolutely still.
 

It came again, only this time even closer. It sounded as if someone were walking, their steps heavy as if wounded, like one of their feet dragged behind them. Anxiety filled every ounce of my body. I kept squatted down on the balls of my feet, the tips of my fingers balancing my weight in the sand. I was ready to run if need be.
 

Please, please go away.
 

I tried to slow my now out of control breathing that came in huffs that were louder than I wanted. What could it possibly be? I looked around in the dark. The possibilities were endless. This wasn’t Earth. I had no idea of what kind of things could be lurking here on Evadere, what kind of monsters came out in the darkness.
 

Why did Emry leave me here? Tears stung my eyes and spilled over onto my cheeks. What was I going to do? What could I do?
 

I glanced toward the high golden grasses that now looked like black spikes in the dark of night. They beckoned me in with their height, the only place where I could hide from whatever it was that was coming.
 

My pulse raced as the noise came again. It sounded close, as if it were right next to me this time. My fingers ached from the position I had them in, forcing them to bear most of my weight. I didn’t dare move a muscle.
 

My eyes searched the darkness from where I thought the noise had been coming from. The only sound was my labored breaths.
 

I caught sight of a shadow standing a few feet away on my left. I could only make out a small form. Never before had I felt such a fierce terror rip through my entire body. The adrenaline coursed through my veins at full speed, and my head throbbed as I tried to remain perfectly still. Neither one of us moved as we stared at each other’s shadowy forms under the glorious stars on a beach too beautiful not to be cursed with something demonic.
 

Then it reached out its limbs toward me as it took a heavy step forward. It only took half a second to register that if I didn’t move right now, I would be the meal of this unknown creature standing so close it could possibly slaughter me in one swift movement. Without hesitation, I launched my body away from it and took off as fast as I could toward the golden grasses in the distance. I didn’t stop and didn’t look back until I felt the plants suck me into their grasp. I ran farther into them until my lungs burned in agony and I couldn’t take another step. I collapsed to the ground, the plants hovering above my head. I panted wildly, trying to suck more oxygen into my lungs. I put my hand over my chest and could feel my heart thumping madly within my skin.
 

Oh, please, God, let me have escaped.

I closed my eyes and tried to shut out the torments that I had just forced upon my body. The adrenaline slowly began to recede.
 

Something warm touched my arm. An ear-piercing, shrill scream escaped from my throat.

“Are you okay?” someone whispered.

I lapped air into my lungs. My muscles were on fire from the strain. I struggled to see clearly in the dark, even with those stars seeming so bright, so near.
 

“Who is it?” I hissed. “Who’s there?”

“Jo.”

I composed myself as quickly as possible and jumped to my feet. Beside me stood a little girl, the top of her head only reaching to my shoulder. I couldn’t see her entirely.

“We have to get out of here,” I whispered to her quickly. “There’s something after me.”

The girl just stood there in silence.

“Did you hear what I said? We have to leave.”

“What’s after you?” she finally asked.

She was wasting time. That thing could be here at any moment, although I didn’t hear it coming like I had before. “I don’t know. It was back there beside me on the beach.”

“You think I’m after you?”

“What? No,” I answered, now getting irritated with how calm and still she was being. Couldn’t she sense my urgency? “It was back there in the sand. It was standing right next to me. I don’t know what it was.”

“I was standing next to you over there,” she confessed.

“What?” My head spun from trying to process it all. “It couldn’t have been you. It was making a noise, like it was dragging something or part of itself. I don’t know.”

She reached out and touched my arm. “That was me. I was dragging a heavy sack behind me. I left it back there. I thought you were hurt.”

“Oh,” I managed to get out.
 

“Are you still frightened by me?” she asked.

Now I just felt irritated that I had ran away from a child. “Well, no, not now that I know what you are.”

“You know what I am?” She sounded alarmed now.

I couldn’t say she was a human, because the truth of the matter was I didn’t know what she was if she came from this place. “Jo was it?”

She hesitated.

I wondered why this little girl was out here by herself in the middle of the night anyway. “Thanks for checking on me,” I added, trying not to scare her off. Right now I didn’t want to be alone. I welcomed her company with open arms.

“Yeah, Jo.”

“I’m Anna,” I introduced myself. “I’m … lost.”

“Lost?” Jo sounded confused by the statement. “Why are you alone? Are you running from someone?”

“I was with someone,” I told her. “But I don’t know where he is now.” Jo’s silence was beginning to disturb me. She was a nervous, little creature, yet she was out here all alone in the dark.
 

“Are you sick? You don’t seem quite right.”

“I was scared …”

“No,” she interrupted. “That’s not it.”
 

We stood there for a few moments in the dark. I felt as if she could see me way better than I could her.

“What is your contribution?” Jo finally asked, her voice seeming to become more afraid of me by the minute.

“I’m sorry. I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I confessed. Here we were, two strangers in the dark, trying to figure one another out. For all I knew, she could have fangs and green skin, but from what I could tell, she seemed so much like a child.

“Where are you from?” she asked.

I hesitated. I might as well tell her. Maybe she would know how to get out of here. “Earth.”

Jo took a step backwards, tripped and fell on her back. I hesitantly extended my hand to her. Feeling what felt like a normal hand and fingers, I helped her up. Pulling her back to her feet seemed effortless as there wasn’t much weight on her small frame. Once standing, she still continued to move backwards.

“What is it? Did I say something wrong?” I whispered. I had obviously alarmed her.

“You’re human?”

“Yes,” I said slowly. “You know what that is?”

Jo inched away even more.
 

“Please!” I cried out. “Don’t go. I don’t know how to get back. Please, I’m hungry. Can you at least tell me how to get food?” I felt myself move forward, closer to her.
 

The girl stopped. “I can’t help you.”

“Why not?” I asked.

“You’re a human.”

Human. I wondered what the word meant to her, but she obviously wasn’t going to stick around long enough for me to question her further about the subject. “Look, Jo.” I forced a smile in case she really could see me. “I just need a little help getting food. Then I won’t bother you again. I’m going to just get something to eat and then go right back over …” I turned my head to the left towards the beach. It was gone. I turned my entire body around as my eyes frantically searched for the water. Then I looked down in horror. I was no longer standing in the golden grasses. They, too, were nowhere to be seen. I was standing on solid, barren ground. I lifted my foot and put it back down again. I could hear the noise of the dry ground crumbling beneath my shoe. “Where did it go?”

“The sand and water?” she asked.

“Yes.” My eyes kept scanning the area behind me over and over again, hoping with all my might that it would return. “How do I get back to it?”
 

Jo exhaled loudly. “You can’t.”

“What?” The word stuck in my throat. “This doesn’t make sense. It was just right there …” My voice trailed off. I stared out into the nothingness. It felt like I was in some sort of nightmare only never waking up. I closed my eyes tight. Emry had to have transported by himself unknowingly, but he would be trying, I knew, to figure out how to get back to me on the beach. “Please.” My voice began to shake along with my entire body. “I know nothing about this place. I’m begging you.”

Jo was silent for a long while, but she didn’t back away any farther.
 

“Can you just point me in the right direction?”

“I don’t know what you want,” she finally said.

I wanted Emry to be here. He’d know what to do. He could take us both back to Earth. I decided I should just start small with this girl. She was obviously skittish near me now that she knew I was human. I just needed to gain a little trust from her. Who knew if the next someone I met would be as nice as she was, or even if there would be another someone.
 

I licked my dry lips. “Food. Anything. Something. Please.”
 

“Ok,” she whispered.

A small amount of relief washed over me. “Yeah?” I asked, still afraid to get too close to her in case she’d take off running.

“I walk fast,” she warned me.

I nodded. “I’ll keep up.”

“Stay close.”

I took another look behind me at what used to be a beautiful, familiar place where Emry had first exposed his secret to me, where we had first kissed and promised each other we’d figure it all out together in our new sense of freedom. A kind of nothingness stared right back at me as a pulsing ache began to grow in my temples. How would Emry ever be able to find me now?

Chapter 2

Jo was a very fast walker, but I kept up even though I felt like I was mostly jogging.
 

As morning changed the darkness into a pale light, I was relieved to see that she was just a normal little girl. Skinny and short with long brown straight hair that reached her waist and fluttered in the wind as she moved. Her clothes were very worn, appearing to have been cut or ripped at the sleeves and waist. She looked too fragile to be out here on her own.
 

We didn’t speak for what seemed like hours, just walked on. Exhaustion settled into the depths of my out of shape physique.

Everything was barren. No signs of plants or life anywhere. A ground composed of grayish-colored dust crunched beneath my feet with every step. The horizon was full of more lifeless colors, everything except the sky, which still remained a pale red with bright, enormous stars.