Between Two Worlds

The water from the grass seeps through my shoes and onto my toes, as a gentle breeze cools my skin. Darkness surrounds me, with a small amount of light shining from a faraway moon. The faint moonlight attempts to pierce the darkness, but the darkness is too strong making it hard to see. Some sort of insect makes a steady chirping sound, and something bigger seems to be singing. Not with words, or humming, almost like bird song but different. The singing noise has a tune but seems indistinct at the same time. Whatever is making this noise sounds big enough to eat the bird, perhaps big enough to eat me. I shiver as goosebumps cover my arms. “Couldn’t we have brought some sort of flashlight or something? This place is so warm and inviting during the day, I definitely wasn’t expecting chilly and creepy at night.” I quietly complain.

“Flashlight?” Kat whispers. “What is that?”

“A mini light that you can take with you.” I explain, coming to a stop beside her.

“Oh, okay. That sounds similar to Pulsis powder.”

“Pulsis Powder? What is that?”

“A glow powder that you throw on the ground, that gives off just enough light to see where you are going. Completely biodegradable within a few hours and terrible if a breeze starts blowing. Looks exactly like sand.”

“Weird.” I say.

“I guess. Look, we didn’t bring a light source because we don’t want to get caught.”

“Yeah, I get that, but I feel like something is watching me. Something large. That creepy singing isn’t helping.”

“Yeah, that thing, whatever it is, is freaking me out as well. And I don’t scare easily. It doesn’t help that I feel like I’ve heard that sound before. It’s tugging at the edge of my mind, but I can’t figure out why.” Kat says.

“Does it matter? If it was important, I’m sure you would remember.”

“Yeah, I guess you are right. Come on, let’s keep moving. The sooner we find it, the sooner we can go back to bed.”

“Find what? Are you ever going to tell me what in the world we are looking for? Ugh! Can’t that thing just shut up for two minutes?!” I say that last part a little louder than I intended. I am rewarded with silence, as the creepy singing stops.

“What the heck? Did it just hush? When you asked it to shut up?”

“Yeah, it did. I think the silence is freaking me out even more. Can we please get out of here?” I ask, pushing Kat.

“Yep. I agree. Come on. I think the building I am looking for is up ahead.” She says, turning and starting to run.

We dash through a small yard, past a large fruit tree, and up against the next building. Flattening ourselves against the wall, we quickly but quietly slide across the wall, to the corner of the building. We pause momentarily as Kat sticks her head around the corner. I hear a rustling noise and turn back the way we just came from. As I squint into the darkness, I swear I see movement, a shadow against a shadow. The movement is so slight, that for a moment, I am sure that I was wrong. In fact, I am just about to write it off as my overly active imagination, when I see it again. By the fruit tree, I see another slight movement, this time I am sure whoever is following us is tall. We are being followed. We are caught. But why aren’t they busting us instead of following? Maybe they are curious about what we are doing. Could it be Altair? My heart sinks in my chest, and my stomach feels like it’s full of lead. If it is Altair and he does catch us, surely, we will be kicked off the planet. And then where will I go?

“Kat we are...” I start to tell her about being followed but I am interrupted by a lot of shouting coming from the other side of the building; from the direction, we are heading.

“Shhh!” she whispers, loudly, pulling her head back. “Something is happening.”

“What is it?” I ask, forgetting about the shadows and movement.

“I don’t know. I couldn’t really tell. I can hear shouting and see a lot of lights being waved around.”

“Let me see,” I say, walking to the edge of the building and looking around the corner. I don’t see much, just as Kat said, a bunch of lights seem to wave in erratic directions.

“Come on, let’s get closer.” Kat whispers, from beside me. She darts out from behind the building and runs towards some bushes, with me right behind her. We duck down to a squat and just try to make sense of what’s happening.

From this vantage point, we are well hidden, unless someone walked over and shined their light directly into the bushes, we can’t be seen. From here, we can see and hear everything. I can see the lights being used are ordinary human flashlights. And as the lights are waved around, they occasionally fall on people, and I can make out Kyra, Harmony, and several men. They seem to be panicked over something being loose. Or something escaped. Or something got in. I couldn’t really make out what exactly they are saying due to everyone shouting at once.

“It got in! I left the city to get the supplies. We needed more supplies for the printers. The city defense was only down for a moment! What are we going to do?!” Harmony shouts, panicked.

“First of all, we are going to calm down,” Kyra says. “Now, then, you said you left the city for supplies. Did you follow all protocols?”

“Yes. Yes. I checked the sensors, the cameras, there wasn’t anything within two klopins, in any direction.” Harmony says in a calmer voice.

“There was nothing nearby? Are you sure?” Kyra asks.

“Yes. I am sure. It must have found a way to trick the sensors. Oh, No! How will we keep ourselves safe?! We are all going to die!” Harmony says, starting to panic again.

“Calm down, Harmony. No one is going to die.” Altair says, walking up to the women.

“How do you know it got in?” Kyra asks.

“The singing! That horrible noise! Why does it do that? I can’t stand it!” Harmony shouts.

As soon as she says that the creepy singing noise starts up again. This time it sounds a lot closer as if it’s standing right next to me. I whip my head from side to side but don’t see anything. “Not again,” I whisper. Kat covers my mouth with her hand but doesn’t say anything. I see Altair turn his head in our direction. Oh, man, how bad did I just mess up? Did he hear me? Does he know I am here? A light shines in our direction; Kat and I shrink back into the bushes. The singing grows in pitch and intensity until the rest of the world is drowned out and it feels like I will never hear anything else, ever again. The light shifts to our left and I hear shouting over the singing.

“There it is! There it is! Get it!” Harmony shrieks.

And everyone starts running in our direction. Kat and I flatten ourselves on the ground and don’t move. Hopefully they just run past us. Within seconds, about eight or ten people go flying past us. We wait a few minutes and then sit up. The singing has stopped again, and the silence that follows seems deafening in comparison.

“Was that what you wanted to see?” I ask Kat. But she doesn’t answer, she just stares off into the distance. “Kat? Kat. Hello?” I say, shaking her shoulders.

“Oh, Rain. I’m afraid I made a mistake. A terribly dangerous mistake.” Kat says.

“What do you mean?”

“We should have never left the safety of our apartments.” Kat says. I can just make out her form, taking off running.

“Kat! Wait! Please!” I pant, chasing after her. I catch up to her, just outside of our building. Up ahead, a small rectangle of light shines on the ground in front of the doors. “Kat. What’s wrong? What mistake?” I grab her arm and spin her around. “Please answer me!”

“I was so foolish. So stupid. It’s been a while. The rumors. I didn’t believe them. Didn’t want to believe them.”

“Kat, please. You aren’t making any sense. What’s going on?”

“The noise, Rain. The singing. There was something about it that kept nagging me. It sounded so familiar, but I hadn’t heard it in so long, I just blocked that memory. I know what the singing is. And we need to get back inside, or we won’t live to see the sun rise.”