Thyla - Kate Gordon [18]
They did not look like they were part of your world.
As I flew farther down, I saw a young girl sitting hunched against the wall of one of the buildings. She was dressed very differently from the girls here at Cascade Falls – in a long pale cotton dress and a cloth cap.
Her head was bowed and her face was hidden by her long hair.
Her hands were grasping at the cloth of her dress, wringing it and then smoothing it out, over and over again.
She sniffed loudly and looked up, her face angled away from me and still obscured by hair. I could see only part of a cheek, slick with tears.
‘Stop it!’ she whispered. ‘Stop crying! You don’t cry!’
She rubbed at her face, roughly, then shook her head so suddenly that my dream self was startled. ‘It’s not true,’ she said. ‘It’s not true. They’re lying to me again. It can’t be true. It’s not true.’
She looked up and off to the left, and I could feel that another presence was there. I tried to turn and see who it was, but my eyes were fixed on the girl.
‘Is it true? What they say? That she’s gone?’ she asked, her voice gritty. Then she shook her head again, her hair hanging in front of her face like a mourning veil.
‘No!’ she growled. ‘No, it’s not. It’s not …’
Sobs took her body captive, and she tried to rock herself free.
When she spoke again, all traces of her girlish voice had gone, and the sound was like a howl. ‘Please,’ she begged the invisible one. ‘I’m all alone now. I have seen what you have done! I know what you can do! Do it to me. I will join you. I will help you! Please! If you don’t take me with you … if I am here alone, I will die. I am strong. I will prove it. I know you think I am weak, but that is only what she wanted you to think. She wanted to protect me, can’t you see? I would have joined you long ago! Please don’t leave me here like this!’
The girl pushed herself to her feet and I could feel the pain searing her palms as the jagged gravel bit and scratched them. She didn’t seem to notice.
She walked quickly towards me, towards the invisible one, and as she did so, the edges of my vision began to blur. Shadows crept in and I began to drift away.
I was floating above her, far away, when I heard her final cry.
‘Please!’
I was up in the sky now. The moon was full and plump and the stars gave me just enough light to see the girl. Another shape moved towards her; fast and taut and terrifying. It was a monster. Even from so far away, I could see that it was a monster, and I opened my mouth and let out a silent scream.
The girl didn’t scream, though. She just stood there and watched as the monster leapt at her, and made her disappear.
I shook and shuddered, and the sky around me bubbled and quaked and then, all of a sudden, there was light, blinding and piercing and horrible, and I couldn’t see anything any more.
And the air was full of my screaming.
When I opened my eyes, a pale face filled my vision.
Of course, I screamed blue murder! And, of course, the other girl screamed too. It would have seemed very comical from the outside. From the inside, it was wholly terrifying!
Then, the other girl stopped screaming and started laughing hysterically.
And then I recognised her face. ‘Rhiannah?’ I said.
She nodded. She was still laughing so hard that tears were streaming down her face. ‘I’m so sorry, love. It’s just –’ She broke off as giggles took over again. Despite myself, I could feel the corners of my mouth begin to push upwards.
‘What?’ I said.
Rhiannah took a deep breath and opened her dark eyes wide. ‘Right, Rin. Focus. Tessa, I’m sorry for scaring the crap out of you. I didn’t mean to. You were just making funny noises and I was worried. Sorry.’
Her lips twitched but she controlled them.
‘It’s okay,’ I said. ‘I think I was just having a bad dream.’
Rhiannah offered