“Britta?!?”
“Priscila! Priscila, I’m right here!” I yelled back, as loudly as I possibly could.
Then I saw her running towards me, through the berry bushes. She looked scraped and bruised and one of the birds was chasing her. I threw my knife at it as hard as I could; hoping that my throw would be accurate. The knife stuck directly in its head and the creature fell to the ground.
“Are you okay?” I asked Priscila, hurriedly as I wrenched my knife from the creature's head.
“I came back and you were gone,” she said, out of breath. “I thought something had happened to you. And then the birds started chasing me and…”
“Don’t worry,” I said. “We’re fine. I’m so sorry we left you. I promise it’ll never happen again. But we have to go and catch up to the others. Okay?”
“Okay,” she said softly.
We ran the exact way I’d come, retracing my footsteps, so there wouldn’t be a chance of getting lost. I followed the distant screeching sounds and hoped that the birds being that way would mean my friends would be there.
I’d been expecting it to take much longer to catch up to them, but it was just the opposite. After running through a rocky area we ran across a huge field covered in a mix of rocks and flowers. In such an open area it was easy to see my friends, running only a little ways ahead of us. I was so relieved; it took me a moment to realize that something was wrong. They weren’t running forward, but instead, this way and that, dodging and fighting off the creatures…but they weren’t getting anywhere.
I didn’t have to wait long to figure out why, though. In a few minutes, Priscila and I reached them and stopped to try and catch our breath. Then I saw that the ground in front of us was a cliff that dropped straight into a huge, icy river, over two-hundred feet below. It was almost exactly like the chasm in the cave…only much, MUCH bigger. Just like the other one it had a thin, dangerous path across. It was less than a yard wide and on either side of it was a straight drop to certain death. But the worst part of it was that, in the middle of the chasm, there was a seven foot gap before the next half of the path.
We’d have to jump over it just like in the test. Only this time, we had a very thin place to land. But we didn’t have a choice of whether or not to do it, so I wasn’t sure what they were waiting for. Then I remembered Kendall and his hurt ankle. I guess if someone stood on the far side and reached across, they could grab his hand and pull him across? But that seemed so dangerous and not well thought out. In a split second I decided we didn’t have any other option.
Apparently, someone else had figured out that we needed to get going because Liz shouted: “Come on! What are you waiting for? We have to get across!”
So, in a single file line, we began to run on the path over the chasm. Owen and Livia stayed at the front, Vanissa, Liz, Priscila and I at the back, and Tommie carrying Kendall in the middle. Many of the birds were dead, but a few of them stayed, swooping back and forth along our line, forcing us to duck every few seconds.
I looked over the edge of the chasm at the churning waves below and felt dizzy just looking at it. I was used to being up high, but not this high. And besides, it wasn’t the height itself that scared me, but the thought of what would happen if I fell. So I just concentrated on walking forward and NOT falling off.
It took a full ten minutes to get to the middle where the gap was. We all made sure to stay far enough apart that we wouldn’t trip and we gave Owen extra space to jump. But with the wind and birds, I wasn’t sure how we’d all be able to jump. I knew I could, but what about Livia and Priscila? They weren’t very athletic and neither of them had made it all the way through the test.
The bad feeling that had started in the pit of my stomach the minute I’d left Kendall in the hands of someone I didn’t even know, now grew until it had taken over my whole body. I looked down to see my hands trembling. I wasn’t even sure why. But I guess a lot of times you just know when something isn’t right.
“Owen,” I said. “When you land, Tommie will help Kendall reach you, but he can’t get him all the way across. Can you help Kendall as much as you can from your side?”
Owen simply nodded and looked at Kendall, whose ankle was now swollen and looked painful. Then, he ran forward and leaped across the gap, landing on the other side without a problem.
Tommie carefully made his way past Livia, to the edge. Meanwhile, Owen reached out his hand towards them. Tommie said something to Kendall and then lowered him to the ground, while still supporting him a little. Kendall took Owens hand and, with Tommie’s help managed to jump enough for Owen to do the rest.
At first when Owen set Kendall on the ground safely, I felt relieved. But then, that dark feeling that something was wrong took over me once more and I suddenly felt panic rise in me. Without thinking, I began making my way to the front, past Priscila and Vanissa and Every and Liz and Livia, until I stood next to Tommie. Again, it was like I knew something was wrong, but I didn’t know what.
Owen was helping Kendall along the path and they were about halfway to the solid ground on the other side. I remember noticing how suddenly calm and silent everything was for a moment. I remember the crisp air and the solid gray clouds. I remember the wind seemed to stop, as if the entire world was holding its breath. And I remember how, in one single second, everything changed.
A swarm of birds flew at us, starting the chaos. I could hear shrieks behind me, as the others tried to dodge and fight off the birds. The wind began to blow harder than I’d ever seen. It nearly knocked me off my feet, but Tommie grabbed ahold of my wrist. I managed to get my balance again. And then—Owen shoved Kendall to the ground.
“Britta!!!” Kendall screamed, as he desperately tried to back away from Owen.
“Kendall!!!” I screamed, making a desperate leap across the gap.
I just barely cleared it and my feet slipped out from under me when I landed, my head smacking the rocky ground. Dazed, I struggled to my feet, pulling out my knife and trying to regain focus.
Owen had just reached Kendall and once more shoved him, knocking his head against the rocks. Kendall was still screaming for me and trying hard to get to his feet.
I threw my knife, but I was shaking and it wasn’t hard enough. Owen dodged it and it clattered to the ground a few yards away from him. I ran as hard as I could, towards Owen and towards my poor, helpless brother.
Then something so terrible, so INCREDIBLY shocking and horrific, I couldn’t believe it was real, happened. Owen picked up my knife. Kendall reached out a trembling hand towards me, making a last desperate effort to get away and screamed my name. And then, Owen plunged the knife into my little brother’s heart.
30
In seconds I was at Kendall’s side. His face was ashen and before I even knelt to look at it, I knew the wound was fatal. With shaking hands, I lifted his head off the ground and laid it in my lap. Tears spilled down my cheeks and my vision was blurry. The whole world seemed like it was slipping away.
“Kendall…” I managed to choke out. “Please don’t…I want you to…” But I didn’t know what to say. What do you say to your dying brother, who was murdered by one of your best friends, before he had even lived nine years? So I just said:
“I love you Kendall.”
His voice was barely perceptible. “You have to…get out of The Other Side…so you can live in a safe place…”—his body convulsed and he coughed out blood—“just like you always wanted.”
But I wanted it for you! I thought. I wanted you to be safe. But I just nodded.
He tried to say something else, but I never found out what it was because his body once more convulsed, and this time. His head fell back to the ground. He was dead. Kendall was really dead.
In a moment of shock, I didn’t move, but just stared into his lifeless eyes—the same eyes, which, not long ago had been full of life.
A voice inside me reminded me who had done this to him and I suddenly felt a crazed, dangerous a
nger fill my body.
“You’re a monster!!!” I screamed, in the direction I assumed he’d gone. “You’re a monster and I hate you!!!”
I hate you. That hatred, which I’d been unable to feel towards anyone until now, had broken through whatever barrier I’d kept between myself and it. I'd once said that I wouldn't be the same person if I hated someone. So I guess I really wasn’t the same girl at all anymore.
I got to my feet and ran forward, screaming awful things at Owen, who wasn’t even in sight. (Or maybe he was, but I was just too blinded by anger and tears to see him.)
But then, someone grabbed my arm, and began pulling me along. Around me, I could hear people screaming things like: “RUN!!!” and “We have to get to Horror!” My perception of all this, was that the Horror Domain was on the other side of the chasm and everyone wanted to get out of this Domain as quickly as possible. I tried to look back at Kendall’s body, but it had begun to rain and I couldn’t make it out.
I felt myself being pulled onto solid ground and then down a steep slope. I finally managed get ahold of myself and focus on all that was going on around me. We were about to run into the woods, (which was exactly how I’d imagined the Horror Domain to look like). Tall trees, that lead into a dark forest of unknown traps—and we didn’t have any choice but to plunge straight into them.
I jerked my hand away from whoever was pulling me along and began to run harder than ever. Then, we ran into the woods, and a horrible night that afterwards, seemed like only a very bad dream began.
Britta...the awful voice in my head screamed in a hissing, raspy voice. Britta, you’ve finally come.
Everyone stopped in their tracks. It was so dark; I could barely see Priscila standing a few feet away from me. I was still struggling to see clearly and my whole body was shaking. And then an icy cold hand clamped over my mouth.
I’ve got you Britta, said the voice. Only, this time it wasn’t raspy or inhuman sounding. It was the clear, sweet voice of a young girl…except it wasn’t sweet. It sounded full of evil.
Then, I was yanked into the darkness and far away from my friends. The hand let go of me and I was thrown into the air. I barely had time to scream before I hit the ground so hard I saw stars.
I was struggling to get to my feet, when I turned and saw I’d fallen into some kind of pit. I was on a slippery, dust-covered, glass surface. No, not a glass surface, a glass box—a rectangular glass box at the bottom of a pit. I don’t know why, but I felt a strange impulse take hold of me and I brushed away some of the dust of the glass. When I looked through the glass and saw what was inside I gasped, trying hard to even breathe. Because inside the box, was a body—Kendall’s body. It was a coffin and when I’d fallen, I’d fallen into a grave.
I screamed, and feeling a presence above me, looked up. Standing on the edge of the grave was what Owen had called the ‘highlight’. It was a girl, around my height. She had long, dark hair and pale skin. But she kept her head down so it was in shadow and I couldn’t quite make out all her facial features. Her clothes were The Island Program uniform, only in bright white with red lettering. They were stained with blood and in her hand she held a long knife.
I was so horrified I couldn’t move. I had to convince myself that what I was seeing; the girl, the coffin, and my brother in the coffin, wasn’t real. It wasn’t really my brother and the girl wasn’t human. All of it was just meant to make me go crazy.
She put out her hand to me and smiled. “Britta,” her voice was now real and not just in my head, “I’ll help you. Just take my hand.”
For a moment, I wanted to do it; to go with her. But then, I remembered how close we were to getting out and I knew I couldn’t.
So, instead, I grabbed ahold of the edge of the grave and pulled myself out. Then I began to run, in no particular direction, simply trying to get as far away as possible. I kept tripping and falling though, because I couldn’t see anything until it was too late. I banged into a tree and fell to the ground. Then, only moments later, when I’d gotten to my feet and started to run, I tripped over a root and went tumbling down a steep hill. I tried to put my hands out in front of me and ended up getting numerous scrapes and cuts all over them.
And then, just when I thought I’d gotten away, the girl appeared directly in my path, her knife pointed at me. I fell backwards, to avoid getting impaled by her blade.
I tried to get to my feet, but in less than a second, the girl was standing above me. Then some invisible force began to drag me around, throwing me against trees and knocking my head to the ground. Something, which felt like claws, scraped down my arm, leaving a long red scratch. But I couldn’t see anything even near me, except the girl standing in place and laughing.
Then I felt myself being dragged through the forest, across sharp rocks, over prickly branches and through streams. I tried to scream for help, but there was no one around to hear. I managed to lift my face off the ground and look ahead. And just in time too, because I saw that I wasn’t being drug through random places, but instead headed straight for a cliff!
I tried to grab at whatever was pulling me towards it, but though I could feel its tight grip on me, I couldn’t even touch it. I tried to hold onto the ground with my hands, but the thing only dragged me more forcefully. With a last desperate effort, I grabbed the low branch of a pine tree and held on with all my strength.
One more, I felt as if claws, or nails, were being raked across the skin of my knuckles. Deep scratches formed lines from the tips of my fingers all the way to my wrists. But still, I kept holding on. And then, suddenly, and for no reason in particular, I was set free.
For a moment, I laid on the ground, trying to catch my breath. But it was impossible. After watching my brother die and then nearly dying myself, I felt as if I’d never get control over my shaking hands.
“Britta!” Priscila’s voice screamed. “Britta, where are you?”
“Priscila?!?” I leapt to my feet and ran blindly towards the sound.
I ran into a clearing and saw Priscila standing there, staring at me.
“Priscila, where—” But I was cut off by the sound of laughter. Only it wasn’t hers…it was an evil sound from my recent memory.
Then Priscila’s face morphed into that deathly-pale, shadowed face, I recognized as the highlight. She looked at me and smiled that awful, evil-looking smile. Then she locked her gaze directly on me and began walking slowly forward.
I was still in so much shock; it took me until she was a few feet away, to realize I needed to run. And when I ran, I ran harder than I’d ever run in my life. Each time I tripped, I got to my feet and kept running. I knew if I stopped, another terrible thing would be waiting for me.
But before I’d run in one direction for long, the girl appeared directly in front of me, just like the things in the cloud back in Dread. So, I found myself running this way and that, constantly having to change directions. Eventually, I tumbled down a steep slope and hit my head on a rock at the bottom, knocking me unconscious.
Somewhere in the back of my mind, before I was completely out, I had a thought that a lot of this might not even be real—it could just be a trick made to mess with my mind and make me go crazy, and eventually begin seeing things on my own.
*****
“Britta!” Liz’s voice called urgently to me in a whisper. “Britta, wake up!”
My eyes flew open and I sat straight up, looking around wildly. I was still in the same spot where I’d been knocked unconscious and it was as dark as ever. Liz was next to me and she too was looking around, as if to make sure nothing was watching us.
But then, when I remembered what had happened earlier with Priscila, I got to my feet and backed slowly away from Liz.
“Britta,” she said. “It’s fine. I’m not…one of them.”
“How do I know you’re not?” I asked, unconvinced.
“Because THEY aren’t human,” she said, as if it was obvious. They can mimic human voices and sounds but they
can’t actually have conversations or communicate. They’re just made to torture you. Now come on, we have to get out of here.”
"What about your knife—do you still have it?" I asked, hopefully.
She shook her head sadly. "I lost it when I fell down a hill."
31
We tore through the darkness, running as if our lives depended on it, because they really did. I tried to focus on just running and tried not to think about what could be happening to the others right now. But I ended up thinking about it anyway. What if they were being tortured the same way I’d been? What if one of them had fallen off a cliff and was now calling for help, but with no one around to hear? Worse, what if they were dead and we’d really been the ones who'd had it easy?
The next hour or so was a blur. We ran through the seemingly endless forest, avoiding any signs of life or movement. . The forest was full of dangerous cliffs and slopes that we couldn’t see in the darkness until we nearly fell off them. But we didn’t have time to rest after nearly falling off a cliff or running smack into a tree. We had to just keep running and try to avoid doing it again. Every time I felt like collapsing from exhaustion, I only had to remind myself of that awful nail raking across my skin and how if I stopped that it could happen to me again, and I was filled with renewed energy.
Suddenly, I heard a sound, coming from behind us. Liz and I both turned our heads to see what had made it. But I guess it must have just been a distraction of sorts, because when I turned my head back, I saw the slope that dropped off suddenly in front of us, all too late. I tumbled down it and landed at the bottom, hitting my head hard.
When I managed to get to my feet, I was dismayed to see Liz was no longer with me.
“Liz?” I called out, still dizzy and disoriented. “Liz, where are you?” But she didn’t answer, so I began to stumble through the surrounding forest, thinking that she couldn’t be far.
It all felt unreal; like a dream. A bad one, a nightmare, where more and more terrifying things keep happening to you and no matter how hard you try, you can’t figure out exactly what’s going on.
The Other Side (The Other Side Trilogy Book 1) Page 18