by Zeb Rafferty
“Ready?” shouted Madeleine.
“Ready for what?” yelled Charli. The soles of her bare feet began to tingle more intensely. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply to try and block out the insistent voice inside her head. Dont slip!, it warned urgently over and over.
Madeleine was watching her curiously. She seemed to know exactly what Charli was feeling. Once again her face seemed to shimmer with light, then lengthen.
“Ready to go?” Without warning, Madeleine lunged at Charli, grabbed her hand and toppled both of them off the Stack.
Down they plunged. Charli could feel the air rushing past as their dive accelerated, forcing her to squint. Time seemed to both slow down and speed up in the same moment. She tensed for impact. Surely she couldn’t survive such a fall. Then there was a sickening lurch. The pit of her stomach groaned as it heaved upwards. She opened her eyes. She could not believe this at all.
She was streaking through the air, the silver ocean just below. Madeleine was ahead of her.
“We’re flying,” Charli began to laugh in disbelief.
“Follow me,” said Madeleine over her shoulder.
Charli swooped to fly just behind her friend. She had no idea how she managed to do it but by twisting her neck and shoulders and by tensing her stomach muscles, she was able to dart, turning, rolling and diving in any direction she wanted.
She pursued her friend. Faster and faster they went. She stretched her body, making it as long and thin as possible. Madeleine giggled as Charli pulled level with her. They raced in a straight line, inches above the waves.
Then without warning Madeleine let out a wild yahoo and shot upwards like a bullet. They both soared effortlessly. Above them was a monstrous black thunder cloud. Madeleine stopped smiling and grabbed Charli’s hand.
“C’mon,” she shouted. “We’ve got to get above this or we’ll get zapped. They continued upwards and in just a few seconds, were able to look down to see the cloud thousands of feet below them.
The two girls floated in the same place for a moment. Charli looked at Madeleine. Her own face showed a delicious mixture of shock and delight.
Chapter 9
“Now watch this because this is the best bit,” said Madeleine. She opened her arms out wide and leaned back. Closing her eyes, she began to fall.
Charli watched her with a feeling of horror. Something was wrong. Madeleine plummeted sickeningly, her body lifeless like a rag doll.
Terrified for a moment that she too was going to fall, Charli took a deep breath, then put her hands together and swooped down after the other girl.
Madeleine was already far below, limp limbs spread. Soon she would be inside the massive cumulonimbus. Charli began to fear that she wouldn’t be able to catch her in time. She gritted her teeth and strained to dive faster.
Then blistering shards of lightning forked out. A blast of heat began to scorch the air around her. Charli tried to ignore it. The very air around her crackled with electricity which made the hair on her arms stand up. Then she saw Madeleine disappear inside the thunderhead.
Charli followed her into the mass of electrified water vapor. All of a sudden, a burst of lightning lit up the center of the cloud blinding her. She dropped like a stone, everything was quiet and she was barely able to think or breathe.
At once the tremendous crack of thunder that she sensed would come hit her like a shock wave, forcing every molecule of air from her and then she knew nothing.
Chapter 10
It was the smell that brought her back; a sour, salty and unpleasant odor. Soft hands were stroking her face, her eyes and ears. She began to feel warm and happy. Light was leaking in through the corners of her eyelids so she opened them.
It was Madeleine. She smiled shyly.
“Ah, you’re back”.
Charli reached out and took Madeleine’s hand in her own. “What happened?”
“Oh you just got knocked around a bit in the cloud and luckily I was waiting to catch you as you fell out so I brought you here,” said Madeleine.
Charli struggled to sit up. “But why did you fall like that? I thought you were dead.”
Madeleine looked away uncomfortably. “I….um...,” she took Charli’s arm and rubbed it. “I just wanted to…..help you be a better flier, you know.” She smiled a little. “Some……fun?” She looked at Charli hopefully.
Charli chewed on her bottom lip.
Madeleine wrinkled her nose. “Can you smell that? That’s disgusting.” She reached out and pulled Charli roughly to her feet.
“Look at them.”
Charli looked in the direction Madeleine was pointing. On a high cliff, a short distance away across the glistening sea she could see a tiny island. More like a great rock that stuck up out of the ocean. There were hundreds, perhaps thousands of white shapes on the top of it. They were birds, large seabirds. Some of them launched themselves off the edge of the cliff, easily riding the drafts of warmer air. Stretching out their long white wings, edged with black tips, they glided back to the rock, fluttered in midair then landed awkwardly, stamping their black feet. Once on they ground they waddled around then nuzzled their partners and chicks with their sleek yellow heads.
“Stupid gannets,” spat Madeleine. She turned to look at Charli. “I hate them; hate their disgusting stink and how they all crowd together on that stupid rock. They’re like people. Oh and they’re so boring.” Madeleine rolled her eyes, her face twisted into a sneer. “All they talk about is fish and their stupid chicks.”
“I think they’re beautiful,” said Charli without her taking her eyes from the gannet colony. “I mean…look at the way they fly.”
Madeleine frowned and took a step closer to perch right on the edge of the cliff. “We’ll soon see about that.” She stood tall and straight and stretched out her hands. Then she slowly leaned forward into a perfect curving dive towards the sea below.
“Madeleine?” called Charli. She looked over the edge. This time it was different. She could see that she would have to dive over sharp craggy rocks not water as she had from the Stack. If anything went wrong, she would end up body-broken on those rocks. She stepped back and away from the edge, then took a deep breath and brushed the hair out of her eyes. She knew what she had to do.
Charli took a running leap off the precipice. As she came out of the dive she could see Madeleine was almost at the island of the gannets.
The birds knew something was wrong. They lifted their yellow heads, their light blue eyes opened wide with fear as Madeleine began to scream. It was a horrible, high-pitched wailing. The gannets panicked. Some flapped their wings in terror. Others began to take flight. In the confusion the chicks were swept aside and trampled.
“Madeleine! Stop!” Charli had caught up to Madeleine just above the island. She pulled at her coat. “Madeleine please don’t,” she begged.
Madeleine laughed as she surveyed the bedlam below. “Oh did you see that?”
Charli tried to smile. “Take me back to the Stack. Please. Come on, let’s get away….from these…..” she thought for a moment of how she could get Madeleine to leave, “these…. stinky birds.”
Chapter 11
Charli had never felt more tired in her life. Every muscle in her body ached from the effort of flying. Her arms and stomach muscles were beginning to wobble with the effort of keeping aloft. Just ahead, Madeleine banked effortlessly away from the cliffs and began to skim over the waves.
With a sigh of relief, Charli recognized the Stack in the distance, rising up from the gentle roll of the ocean. And then they were there. “Home,” said Madeleine as they floated gently to down to stand on the top of the Stack.
Later, in her room, closing the door quietly behind her, Charli sighed with relief. She was glad to be alone. So much had happened she didn’t know quite what to think.
She sat down on her round bed then got under the red quilt. She shivered with cold but by burrowing down under the blanket and breathing
out hot air with her mouth, the bed began to warm up. She stuck her head outside and picked up a large golden teddy bear that was lying on the bed and gave it a cuddle.
“What a really, really, really strange day,” she giggled. “Gosh! Flying and Madeleine, she’s so much fun.” Charli’s face darkened as she looked into the teddy’s eyes. “But I mean Ted that, um, she’s a bit naughty as well, I didn’t really like that, you know, what she did with the gannets. I mean why would she want to hurt them?”
Charli dropped her voice and whispered in the bear’s soft ear. “It’s as if Madeleine feels that if she wants to do something, anything, then she should just do it, even if it’s bad. But I think that even if you really, really want to do it, you should stop. You shouldn’t do it because you can hurt people and if you do, you hurt yourself. Teddy, I really just want to go home.” Charli began to shake silently as she sobbed. Her tears splashed the bear until one side of his face became quite wet.
Chapter 12
Later that night Charli dreamed she was standing again on the very top of the Stack. Witchy and Madeleine were there too, in long black cloaks, leaning over the railing looking down at the flat, viscous sea which was illuminated by phosphorescent plankton. As Witchy grinned, her eyes glowed, Madeleine glared at Charli. Then Madeleine’s lips widened into a smile. Witchy though, screwed up her nose and mouth into an unpleasant grimace. She turned to the side and began to whisper something into Madeleine’s ear. Charli knew it was about her. They continued to stare at her as Madeleine listened to Witchy and then nodded.
The next morning when she woke the bear was gone. She lay in bed not knowing what to do. She got up and opened the door a crack. Down the hall she could someone humming.
Closing the door behind her, Charli crept down the curved corridor. She passed several closed doors. Then with a fright she realized someone was coming around the corner. Charli flattened herself against a cupboard, praying she wouldn’t be noticed. She held her breath as a shadow passed by.
Witchy walked down the curved hallway singing. Charli decided to follow her because then at least she would know where the witch was and would be able to keep out of her way. Ahead was a bead curtain. As she passed through she noticed it was wet and slightly warm. It was seaweed. A pot held some anemone-like flowers which pulsed and moved towards her. She bent closer to examine them.
“Found you!”
Charli whirled around. Madeleine was standing in front of her, arms crossed. She seemed to be studying Charli’s face which had begun to redden.
“What are you doing?”
“Um….I…” mumbled Charli. “I could hear someone singing and I um just thought I’d have a look around.” She shifted her weight from one foot to the other and back again uncomfortably. “You know, see what you were doing.”
“Uh huh?” said Madeleine, only half listening, then she smiled. “It’s great here though isn’t it?”
Madeleine turned and began to skip down the long corridor. She turned around and Charli realized that she was supposed follow.
The hall changed as they moved along it. Instead of Persian rugs, oil paintings, candles and old wooden furniture it was now rough bare metal floors and rusting walls.
“I mean it’s so good not having anyone telling you what to do all the time,” said Madeleine. She rubbed her nose. “Witchy hardly asks me to do anything at all and whatever it is I want to do it anyway so-”
“Like what?” asked Charli.
“You know just stuff. Not like a mum or dad, always saying do this, do that, stop doing that.” Madeleine frowned and leaned back against the outer wall.
“Do you remember them, your mum and dad?” said Charli, pulling her hair back away from her eyes.
“Not really but I know they were big meanies, always yelling about something. I just want to do what I want.” She took a step towards Charli.
“But I can still remember my dad,” said Charli.
“The memory is slipping away though isn’t it?” said Madeleine with a smirk.
“Not really, I make myself think about him all the time but yeah, I don’t know, it’s like I can’t picture his face as clearly as I could. As if I’m blocked or like my brain is turning to mush.”
Madeleine looked at Charli for a moment then began to stride down the hall. Charli had no choice but to go after her. They came to a round hole in the floor.
“Come on,” said Madeleine, smiling. She leaped down into the darkness.
Charli heard a light bump some distance beneath her and felt vibrations from the metal floor shake the soles of her feet.
“Hurry up,” called Madeleine, her voice fainter from out of the darkness.
Charli peered over the edge. She couldn’t see anything at all. “Madeleine?” she called in an urgent whisper. She took a large strand of her brown hair and put it in her mouth for a moment. Then she crouched down as low to the ground as she could and jumped.
Chapter 13
Charli hit the ground hard, knocking the air out of herself. Her feet tingled unpleasantly with the shock as she reached out, groping in the darkness. Unable to see anything at all she shuffled, step by step until her hands brushed against the outer steel wall. She could smell the rust as she dusted it off her hands.
“Madeleine, are you there?”
“I’m here,” said a deeper rasping voice from the gloom.
Suddenly a match flared. A candle flickered to life. Standing in the bare circular room was Madeleine. Her face flickered. Charli thought it must be the candle light but it wasn’t. Madeleine seemed to shimmer and change. One moment it was her. The next her face began to stretch, to transform into someone else.
Witchy! Her seaweed hair was dripping water onto the floor. Shells encrusted her pale skin. Birdlike, she turned her head to the side, to watch Charli out of the corner of her left eye.
Charli could not say anything. In fact she was so shocked that she even forgot to breathe as Witchy was standing right in front of her. Since she had first come to the Stack, she had known that Witchy was here somewhere and that they would meet face to face eventually. But somehow she had managed to ignore that fact and had pushed it into the farthest corner of her mind. Frozen, she couldn’t move though all she wanted to do, in fact was run. But run where?
After what seemed like an hour but was actually only an instant, she strained every muscle until she could, with great difficulty, open her mouth.
“Where’s Madeleine?” she asked.
“Oh, we don’t need her right now,” croaked Witchy. “You know why.”
Charli’s feet felt as though they were glued to the corroding iron floor of the room but she managed to jerk her head to one side.
“What, you mean why I’m here in the Stack?”
Witchy impatiently clicked the long curved fingernails of her thumbs and forefingers together.
“No you silly girl,” she hissed. “You are here…..” she turned her head and looked at Charli with her other eye….”because…..you are like us. I knew from the first moment I saw you.”
“But how could I be like you?” said Charli, trying to control the look of horror that she was sure was creeping over her face.
“You know, I was a girl like you when I was brought…. when I first came here I recognized something in you - the same thing that was in me.”
Charli wrinkled her nose and screwed up her eyes at the idea.
“Yes. We’re more alike than you might think.” Witchy looked at Charli with what almost seemed affection.
“Sometimes I need to be alone more than anything. People are so annoying aren’t they?” She rubbed her thumbs and forefingers together as though feeling her fingertips.
“Always telling us what to do; always judging us. Always making us feel bad. Sometimes I just needed to get away from them, from everyone. I used to go to the lonely places, the islands in the Southern Ocean or to the great white land itself where there are hardly any people at all
. I would surge over the cliffs and ice flows. But you know what, even though what I wanted more than anything was to be alone, it would get boring just flying around and looking at new things. I mean, for laughs I would haunt a fishing boat or whisper in a whale’s ear, oh what a fright they would get.” She rubbed her hands with pleasure at the thought of it.
“Or panic a flock of penguins but it wasn’t enough. You see, we always want what we haven’t got. If you’re lonely you want people, if you’re around people, you want to be alone. Don’t ask me why. That’s the way it is. But that’s why I decided to get you and bring you here with us. But it’s not really working is it? Because you will not let go. You are in this room because you insist on clinging to your…” Witchy glanced around the room, a sly smile on her lips, “past life.”
Charli’s mouth fell open.
“That life does not exist for you now, OK?” said Witchy
Charli shifted her weight onto her other foot and smiled a little not because she agreed with Witchy but she simply could not think of anything else to do.
“Just let it all go OK. Don’t fight it. Relax.” Witchy’s voice had become softer and somehow sweeter. She continued to watch Charli, birdlike, out of the corner of one eye. Her barnacled-nails drummed lightly on the iron wall.
“Fight what?” said Charli. “I don’t get what you mean.” Charli yawned exaggeratedly and rolled her eyes as though this conversation was the biggest waste of time she could think of.
Witchy twitched her head around to stare at Charli out of the other eye. She hopped up to perch on the arm of the chair behind her and let out a long, slow sigh.
“I like it when you’re cheeky like that, it brings us closer together. Let your memories melt away. They’re already fading aren’t they?” She licked her lips.
“Drifting off like smoke, drifting up and up?” Witchy continued. “Perhaps you can imagine your memories, your life before the Stack becoming smaller………and smaller, weightless, almost nothing.”
Charli closed her eyes. She felt like she was gliding. Asleep, in a dream, she imagined herself out of her body, out of the Stack, floating somewhere against the black sky. No stars, no lights, nothing below her, nothing at all. It seemed as though everything, even her own self was trickling away, fading to oblivion. Just as it all began to get dark an idea leaped into her consciousness.