8
DANICA
My
eyes snapped open from a short nap, and my heart beat painfully against my
ribs. I couldn’t sleep, no matter how sleepy I was, or I would never be able to
wake up.
The coldness of the space around me
chilled my body to the bone, and I was desperate for some rest, but I knew I
couldn’t sleep no matter what, or the coldness of space would freeze me to
death, a nap I would never wake up from, and the devil would have my body
forever. At least if I stayed awake, I would have SOME chance in getting my
body back.
I struggled on keeping my eyes
open, my eyelids slowly closing unintentionally every 3 seconds. I pinched myself
real hard, screamed the place down so there would be enough noise to keep me
awake, and thought about a lot of funny things so I could laugh instead of
sleep. I tried all of these, but it didn’t stop my eyelids from closing.
“WAKE UP, DANICA FORSYTHIA!!!” I
screamed, my voice dancing off the invisible walls of space. I slapped myself
and pinched myself real hard, muttering to myself over and over: “You can’t
sleep, great god, PLEASE don’t sleep.”
But it was not use. I grew sleepier
every minute, until it was almost impossible to open my eyes. I thought, my
heart sinking into my stomach: I’m sorry,
but I don’t think I can fight it anymore…..
I closed my eyes, and allowed
myself to float in the void of space, my heart beat slowing down, the coldness
around me dropping until it was as cold as the North Pole. Goodbye, my
life…..Goodbye, my friends…..
Soon
all that was left of me was a dead, cold body in the darkness of space.
AVERY
“Jackie, something tells me we
have a long way to go,” I muttered, holding the pyramid in my hands as Jackie
trekked well ahead of me in our journey to the ruins. I peered at the map and
the red dot in the woods. “This dot’s barely moving.”
Jackie stopped to look back, her
whole face drenched in sweat. She walked back towards me, peering at the dot in
the hologram. “Heh,” she said, sniggering. “Relax. You just don’t think it’s
moving because you stare at it every 3 seconds, but for me, who hasn’t looked
at it for awhile, I’d say its good progress.”
I rolled my eyes at her. “Okay,
Ms. Deforest,” I said, glaring at her. “How much have we moved in this map? Can
you tell me?” Jackie blinked, her black eyes staring into mine. “Um, a few
centimeters?”
I pulled a face at her, a face
that plainly said: “Are you kidding me?” Jackie slapped me on the shoulder and
grinned. “C’mon, don’t be so negative!! It’s not like the whole world is
waiting for us to finish this quest!! We can take our time!! Name at least ONE
person who is waiting for us to finish this quest!!”
I folded my arms across my chest.
“Mercedes,” I said. “The whole of Elvaeda.” Jackie blinked, then said: “Um, I
said ONE person.” I slapped myself and then walked well in front of her.
“C’mon, let’s go.”
Soon enough the dense forest
disappeared into a hot and sandy plain, and only occasionally does the odd tree
appear in the barren landscape. We had to preserve what little water we had
saved in our rucksack, but that wasn’t easy as Jackie always had to rummage
through her rucksack, draw out her water bottle in lightning speed, and gulp a
whole bunch of it down every 3 seconds, and only did she realize how much water
she wasted after she drank the whole lot down.
After walking for what seemed
like an eternity, we finally grew exhausted and had to rest for awhile. We sat
atop the sandy landscape, catching our breath, sweat streaming down our faces.
I took out my water bottle and drank a few drops, then put it back in my
rucksack (Jackie, however, drank a whole liter) I stared up at the seven suns
glaring down at us. We had walked the entire night.
I massaged the cramp in my leg,
but it just made it worse. I sighed, and rested my foot on the ground, and
Jackie looked around, not sure of where we were. If it wasn’t for the map, we
would be lost.
I stared into the hologram, the
red dot now on the edge of the plain, blinking at me mockingly. The arrow still
continued to jab down far into the plains, and just looking at the map felt
exhausting. It was going to be a long walk.
“Maybe we should rest here for
awhile,” Jackie said, her voice coming out in a strangulated gasp. Jackie might
have been the best in PE, but I doubt even she had walked this far in her life.
We were both exhausted. I pulled out the sleeping bag I packed neatly in my
rucksack and spread it out neatly over the sandy ground. I watched as Jackie
struggled with hers, in the end getting tangled within it in a way I had no
idea of how she got in it.
“Jackie,” I sighed as she tried to
rip her sleeping bag in desperateness to get out of the pretzel she made with
herself and it. I folded my arms and glared at her, but she didn’t notice as
she was too busy strangling her sleeping bag. “Jackie, come one. You were the
one who went off to camp at juniors.”
“But I had a tent,” she grumbled,
wriggling about the floor with a sleeping bag wrapped around her like a
burrito. “Not this annoying thing.” She kicked at the sleeping bag with her
sneakers, only succeeding in getting her legs tangled in the
sleeping-bag-Jackie pretzel. She rolled about the floor like a wheel, stopping
only when her back hit the face of a dusty brown rock lying on it’s side in the
middle of the landscape.
“Avery,” she whimpered,
exhausted from trying to wriggle out of the pretzel. “A little help here?” I
laughed at the mess she made out of herself, then set off to help her untangle
the sleeping bag from her body. Finally, after some effort (That sleeping bag
was stuck to her tight, so even sleeping bag experts like me have to take some
time to untangle it, haha) I managed to pry the sleeping bag off the twisted
body and tossed it onto the ground, sending dust and sand flying everywhere.
Jackie stood up and stretched
her fingers into the sky, then pulled at face at me when she caught sight of
the messy heap of sleeping bag lying on the floor. She picked it up and started
whacking it with the side of her hand to clear out the dust and sand stuck to
it, like a karate master. Dust flew out of her sleeping bag and into my nose,
sending me coughing.
“Jackie! Stop that!” I said,
pinching my nose to stop a sneeze, but with no avail. I sneezed so hard I
actually felt myself fly off the ground and land back down with a thump. I
wiped my nose with the back of my hand and glared at her as she set her
sleeping bag down daintily like I did, then smile at me.
“Well, I’m hittin’ the covers,”
Jackie said, and covered her mouth daintily with her hand, then crawled into
her makeshift bed and in seconds, she was fast asleep. I stared into the barren
landscape around us, the suns burning my eyes. I looked back down onto my
sleeping bag, looking so appealing after a whole night’s walk. After some
stretching and yawning, I slid into my bed and fell asleep.
SAYSHA
I stared into the darkness of my
grandmother’s crystal ball, my reflection peering back at me. I sat
cross-legged on the woolen matt of my Granma’s tepee, as my grandmother
whispered in a raspy voice: “Saysha…..” she coughed as smoke winded it’s way
into our tepee from the camp fire crackling from outside. I nodded at my
grandmother.
“I am ready, Gran,” I whispered
back to her, and she nodded, and placed her wrinkled hands onto the smooth face
of the crystal ball, muttering words too soft to hear. Light flashed from the
ball, filling the tepee in light. I winced as the light burned my eyeballs, and
when it settled down, I just saw my Grandmother humming to herself in the dim
light, her eyes still gummed shut.
Suddenly, after awhile, her eyes
snapped open and she glanced at me, then said: “Saysha…..” she muttered, her
voice a raspy whisper. “People…..two…..Zeyna….”
I froze at the last word.
“Z-Zeyna?” I muttered nervously, and my grandmother nodded. “Treat them well,
Saysha….” She said, and the dim light glowing at the center of the crystal ball
grew dark, shrouding the tepee in darkness. My grandmother grew silent, and I
gulped down a mouthful of saliva. If they were Zeyna, I had no idea how to
react.
No comments:
Post a Comment