The Veiled World

by Vanessa Garden

  “Stop staring at my boyfriend,” said Claire, glaring at me, before she broke into a wide smile and laughed. “Ha! Got you!”

  I tossed a piece of fish at her and found myself laughing too.

  Jacob stared at me, stony faced at first, but then he too cracked a smile.

  “Ha! We got you smiling!” Reece said, standing and doing a little dance. “I made Jacob smile! I made Jacob smile.”

  “What do you mean ‘you’? Noah said. “Amber made him smile.”

  I glared at Noah. What on earth was he doing? He smiled back at me and winked. One minute he was trying to match me with Axel, the next Jacob. His cheeks were flushed red. Maybe he’d had too much of the red water.

  “I was smiling at Amber,” said Jacob.

  I nearly spat out my fish.

  “No, I made you smile,” said Reece, grinning. “I coated the fish in the wine, for marinade, so you’ve had the red water. And the red water makes you happy. So, technically, I put that smile on your face.”

  Reece opened his arms, his greasy fingers coated in fish as he stumbled over the fire towards Jacob. “Welcome to the family, Jacob.”

  Jacob stood up and shoved Reece so hard he fell back against Kyle, knocking him flat onto his back. Then he ran behind some nearby trees and started to be sick.

  “Talk about a one can screamer,” Reece said, and I found myself torn between wanting to get up and help Jacob and...strangely...wanting to laugh. I chose to laugh, because it felt good and right even though I knew that deep down, somewhere inside of me, I was feeling bad for Jacob. But I was sure it had something to do with the red water marinade. I hadn’t felt this good in a long, long time.

  We sat, gorging on our fish, and when our sticks were licked clean, we rushed to the river side and laid down on our stomachs to scoop up more mouthfuls of wine. I slid between Claire and Noah and washed my face and hands before drinking the red water too. It was cool and fresh. When I’d had enough, I rolled onto my back. Claire and Noah followed suit and we stared up at the starless sky and the fat, pink moon.

  “I wonder why it’s pink?” Claire asked.

  “I’ll ask Axel,” I said.

  Noah laughed. He seemed to be content just laughing to himself.

  “I think I want to go short like you,” said Claire, reaching out to touch my hair with damp fingers. “It’s really pretty. Suits you. But I don’t think it’ll suit me as I have a round face and you have a long face—”

  “I can’t stop,” Rueben called out from the other side of Noah. He was having a conversation with Kyle nearby by. “It’s, like, all I can think about.”

  At first I worried they were talking about the red water, that it was becoming addictive, but then I realised it was something else they were talking about.

  “How many times you do it?”

  Rueben seemed to think long and hard. “Sometimes twice in the morning and then about four times at night.”

  Kyle burst out laughing and rolled over onto his side, tears streaming down the side of his face, glistening in the pink light of the moon. “Me too. My mum’s caught me more than once. Said I was going to snap it off if I kept going at it like that.” They both erupted into laughter.

  “What about you, Amber?” Kyle asked. “How many times a day?”

  Reece came stumbling over, interrupting the conversation, thank God. He seized Claire by the hand and pulled her up to her feet and kissed her. A full, opened mouth kiss. His hands were on her shoulders, gently caressing her. It was the kind of kiss, tender but passionate, that I’d only ever dreamed about.

  I wondered if I’d ever have someone kiss me like that. Someone who wanted me so passionately. It would be nice.

  I got up, desperate to get out of answering Kyle’s question, and found Axel by the fire. He was staring at me, but turned his gaze to the flames when I caught him. Bruce had collapsed and flaked out beside him.

  The sound of twigs or leaves crunching from behind the trees reminded me that Jacob had run off, upset. Some friend I had turned out to be. I should have run to see if he was okay straight away, as soon as he’d taken off.

  I found Jacob sitting on a wide, flat rock, staring up at the moon through a gap in the trees.

  “Are you okay, Jacob?” I asked, my words slurring. I shook my head. What was wrong with me?

  He kept his head down and said nothing. I sat down beside him.

  “Why do all the boys ignore me?” I said. Wait. No! Did I just say that out loud?

  “Am I ugly?” Shut up, Amber, shut up.

  Jacob turned and met my eyes, they were dark and shiny in the light of the moon. He looked so beautiful.

  “No. You’re not ugly, Amber.” He waved his hands towards the river. “But this is ugly, getting drunk.” He sighed. “Do you know how many times I’ve seen my mum stumble home through the front door like you just did now? It’s been my life. Drinking is ugly.” He dipped his head so that I couldn’t see his face. “But you’re far from ugly. I think you’re beautiful.”

  Wait, what? Jacob thought I was beautiful?

  “But what you have done tonight, drinking that stuff, that’s ugly.”

  A long silence stretched between us. Some kind of insect made a funny high pitched noise somewhere near us.

  “Sorry,” I whispered, wanting to burst into tears.

  What was I doing? Why did I have to drink that stuff? The fish catching had been fun, and had made me feel like I belonged to the group for the first time. But by joining the others in drinking the red water, I’d been a terrible friend to Jacob.

  I brought my hands to my face.

  “Oh God, you must hate me.”

  He sighed and shook his head, but wouldn’t look me in the eye.

  “No. I don’t hate you. That’s the river wine talking. Alcohol is a downer, a depressant. You’re going to feel like shit in the morning.”

  Tears blurred my vision.

  “I already feel like shit. I’ve felt like shit for a long time, Jacob.”

  A warm hand closed over mine. Jacob’s. I released a soft sigh.

  Tears streamed down my cheeks. I tried to blink them away.

  “I know, Amber. And I’m sorry. I’m sorry about Sam.”

  He didn’t say anything more, just sat there in silence, holding my hand, until I gradually stopped crying and forgot what I was crying about.

  I gazed up at his profile.

  “You’re a nice guy, Jacob.”

  He was so handsome, suddenly unbearably so. I started to think about Reece and Claire, and the kiss they’d shared earlier. I thought it was earlier. It seemed like ages ago now.

  I looked at Jacob, at his full lips and his strong jaw, and before I could think it through or stop myself, I leaned over and pressed my lips against his.

  He drew away, but I pressed forward, my mouth seeking his, until we both fell. He on his back and me on top of him.

  “Get off me!” He pressed his hands against my shoulders and threw me off so that I landed on my backside, before storming off into the thickness of the forest.

  I stared after him. Not knowing what to do or say. Struggling to believe what I’d just done.

  After a while, I rolled onto my back, the earth beneath me cool and damp, and stared up at the pink moon.

  Until it blurred behind my tears.

  22

  Axel

  Dawn had cast a pale light over the forest floor, the rising sun causing the ruby red river to glitter. It was pretty here, and hard to believe a place like this could be the cause of some of the ugliness I’d witnessed last night.

  “Amber!” I shouted, relieved to have finally found her. I’d been so worried.

  She was curled in a ball on a small patch of dirt, shivering with cold. When she sat up and rubbed at her eyes I noticed how tiny they were, as though she hadn’t slept well, or worse, that she’d been crying. Her skin was ashen, just like the others. She looked terrible.

  “We have to leave. The other
s are drinking already and if we don’t get them away from it they will drink themselves to their deaths.”

  “I feel like—”

  “Dragon shit.”

  She sighed, holding her head in her hands.

  “You’ll feel better as the day wears on. Here.” I passed her my canteen. She took several sips of water before stopping herself and handing it back.

  “Thanks.” She seemed self-conscious all of a sudden, and started patting down her hair. She flattened the palms of her hands down the front of her wrinkled shirt. She’d taken her mail off at some stage.

  “Don’t worry, you look fine.”

  Instead of putting her at ease, it seemed to make her body stiffen. Or perhaps memories of the night before had come crashing down on her shoulders. Hopefully she wouldn’t ask me to relay what she’d done. I wasn’t going to go there. No way in hell.

  She’d kissed Jacob. But what those two did was there business.

  It hurt me to see her pushed away by him, but in a strange way I was happy. Happy in the knowledge that the two were definitely not lovers. The real question was why I was so happy about it. I wasn’t on this journey to fall in love, no matter how appealing to a girl-starved boy like me. I was here to bring my baby brother back to my mother and nothing else.

  “Jacob,” Amber said aloud before putting a hand to her mouth. She groaned and let her head drop into her awaiting hands.

  “He’s by the fire.” I shrugged. “He knows it was the river water. Don’t worry about it. I spoke to him last night.”

  “Oh God.” She returned her head to her hands. Her white-blonde hair stuck out in all directions. She looked sweet and vulnerable. A fierce protective urge swept through me. I wanted to protect her from everything, especially from what happened last night. I was grateful that my mother had told me stories about the River of Truth. Perhaps if she hadn’t, it would have been me sitting here hanging my head. Maybe I would have pressed my lips to Amber’s, and wrapped my arms around her body and held her tight against me.

  I sighed deeply as hot blood rushed through my veins, in every direction, embarrassing directions.

  “Are you okay? Did you drink it too?” Amber was staring up at me, her blue eyes wide, almost pleading for me to have made the same mistake. She looked so helpless, so unusually small, sitting on the ground. It was hard to shake the image of pressing my mouth to hers when she was looking up at me so innocently like that.

  I shook my head, heat flooding my cheeks, and turned back in the direction of the others, who had started to stagger towards the river.

  “No. I made sure I skewered my own fish last night. Even though the fish lives in that water, it seems adding the river water as a marinade affected the fish’s potency.” I slapped my hands against my knees. “We should go.”

  After helping her to her feet, I followed a very unsteady Amber to the clearing, where we found Claire and Reece sprawled on their backs. Jacob had gathered a pile of sticks, some of them could be called logs they were so big, and was breaking each one in two. Bruce, Kyle, and Noah were trying to catch fish like last night but were too wobbly on their feet to do so. That was even with the fish all but flying directly into their hands.

  The gentle morning breeze turned into a sudden, fierce wind, taking the fish with it.

  “We have to leave,” I said, my voice gravelly and harsh, not hiding my irritation at them all.

  Collective laughter met my ears as they watched the fish spin away, off into the sky.

  Suddenly the ground shook beneath us and I shouted. “Get out of the water, the Change is coming!”

  They continued to laugh as Amber and Jacob ran to the water’s edge and tried to drag them out. I joined them and we managed to drag them onto the bank just in time before the river began to change.

  We all scrambled back, watching with open mouths as the river widened to ten times the width, the red water turning into rushing, greenish-yellow water, with sharp, jagged-looking rocks poking out of it.

  A thin wooden plank bridge appeared, tied from one side of the river to the other. The only thing that would get us across the choppy waters to the other side of the jungle.

  “We’re in a jungle now,” shouted Amber, echoing my thoughts. The Changes were happening quicker now. Within seconds. Right before our eyes.

  “I’m glad we don’t have to cross that,” said Reece, laughing and wobbling on his feet. “Don’t think I’ve got the balance today.” The others laughed. Noah was about to high-five Reece’s raised hand, but stopped when a thunderous roar sounded from within the jungle.

  Amber ran to where the fire had once been, and retrieved her sword from where she’d left it last night.

  I took my dagger out of my pocket and flicked it open.

  The creature, or whatever it was, roared again, the sound travelling through the ground and vibrating against the soles of my boots.

  “That sounds like...” Noah raised an index finger while he listened, his ear cocked towards the thick jungle. “That sounds like a Tyrannosaurus rex.” He nodded, pleased with himself, before pretending to be a dinosaur and biting into Reece’s shoulder, shaking Reece’s shirt between his teeth. Rueben and Claire laughed. They must have drank several mouthfuls of the river water again this morning.

  Trees shook and began to tremble, some of them cracking in two as whatever it was moved towards us.

  The ground trembled beneath our feet.

  “He’s right!” screamed Amber, her eyes round and her sword raised, as she shuffled back towards the water’s edge.

  23

  Amber

  All of us ran for the plank bridge at the same time. Unfortunately, due to the river water, some were still clumsy on their feet, the ones who’d drank from the river only this morning. But, for the most part, fear had slapped us well and truly awake.

  Jacob leapt onto the bridge first and was now pulling others up. He helped Claire, Noah, Rueben, and Kyle. Reece slipped and fell, dangling off the side of the bridge, his knuckles bulging as he gripped tight to the plank.

  An ear splitting roar nearly burst my eardrums.

  “Hurry!” I screamed at Axel, who had slung a spaghetti limbed Bruce’s arm over his shoulder.

  The trees behind them snapped and I left the bridge to help Axel.

  We dragged Bruce up onto the bridge. But just as the monster broke through the trees, Bruce slipped off the bridge, sliding back onto the river bank.

  The creature sniffed and roared, his head thrown back, his sharp teeth visible.

  “Bruce!”

  Claire screamed an ear-splitting scream, but it was nothing compared to the sound of Bruce’s shrieks as the Tyrannosaurus rex made a lunge for him.

  I shut my eyes, but then couldn’t resist opening them again. Luckily, Bruce had rolled out of the way. But in his escape from the dinosaur’s jaw, he’d rolled off the river bed, which was more like a cliff face since the Change, and down into the greenish-yellow waters, his head slamming against one of the jutting rocks.

  “No!”

  I winced at the bloody gash on his temple, and the way his lifeless body didn’t resist as the wild waters swept him away, his body rising and falling over sharp rocks.

  The dinosaur stepped closer, the earth quaking and the bridge shaking with each movement.

  There was no time to scream or cry for poor Bruce.

  The T. rex was so close I could feel the heat of its breath.

  “Cut the bridge, Amber,” said Axel, his voice low and steady at my ear. “Use your sword.”

  “Everyone, hold on!” I shouted. “Are they holding on? Check before I cut this thi—”

  The dinosaur bent low, opened its jaws, and roared, the hot stench of rank, rotting flesh blasting me so hard that I fell back against Axel.

  “Do it now! I’ll help.”

  I unsheathed my sword just as the T. rex reared back, looking ready to chomp me.

  Axel’s hand closed over mine.

  “Now
!”

  With his help, the sword sliced through one of the ropes that bound the bridge to the cliff face. The bridge sprang to the right.

  Axel wrapped his left wrist around the remaining rope and I did the same.

  “Hold on!” I shouted over my shoulder as we sliced through the last rope.

  Everything that happened next seemed to happen in slow motion.

  The dinosaur lunged at us, its teeth dripping with saliva, and at the same time we fell away, the bridge snapping back fast. As we swung, I looked through a gap in the planks and realised that we were about to smash into the wall of rock on the other side, and would probably not survive it.

  THE DINOSAUR ROARED again as it slipped over the edge and crashed into the water below. Claire screamed and slipped down, her body hitting the others as she fell past them, landing just above me.

  “Hold on!”

  It was then I realised that we hadn’t hit the wall on the other side. We’d stopped mid river.

  I looked down and saw that the cut end of the bridge had snagged onto a rock, creating a much steeper bridge, but still, a working bridge.

  The T.rex fought the current, refusing to be swept away. It was slowly moving towards the base of our bridge.

  “Climb up! Quick!”

  Claire was in front of me, hugging a plank, refusing to move.

  Her left leg slipped, kicking me in the face.

  I swore and momentarily lost my balance. Falling back against Axel before slipping my hands around another plank.

  “Hurry! Move, Claire!” shouted Axel from behind me. He slipped a hand around my waist and held me against him. “I won’t let go of you, Amber, no matter what.”

  The T. rex was getting closer.

  “Hurry!” I screamed. After all we’d been through, I was not going to die between an extinct creature’s jaws.

  “Who the hell wants dinosaurs in heaven?” I shouted with frustration, tears stinging my eyes.

  Axel wrapped me tighter against him and chuckled in my ear, his voice low and gravelly.