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I can’t see the shifty shadow. I can’t believe I never realized we had company in the cave, and he was busy watching us. And he never once attacked.
Maybe he is too close to disappearing in a puff of pointy angst.
I smile, but it’s cruel. We could end each other and leave Julie and Michael to their doomed quest. Then we will all be dead and none of this will matter.
Finally, the anger settles. We are all going to die. Today, tomorrow, or in ten years when I’m nothing but some kind of spiky, angry snake that doesn’t even remember what human is, I will die. So dying while trying to escape at least has a little glory attached to it, rather than dying out of boredom.
Boredom or fighting.
Boredom or having a wank.
Boredom or scavenging and making some shit that I don’t need, but it gives me something to do.
Now I get to experience terror and regret and anger.
“Thanks, Julie,” I mutter. Because I’m not sure I am grateful for the changes she’s made to my world. I’m certainly not for the changes she’s made to me.
When do I get to start turning back into a human?
“When?” I ask the rock I’m nestled against. The anger fades and leaves me cold and alone. “When do I get something more than the unhappy memories that I’d rather forget?”
I wish Talon would appear and answer me. Then I could rail at him for not watching Michael’s back. Maybe he’s fucked off for good. In my next heartbeat, I hope he hasn’t. He’s the only one who remembers how to read. He’s Julie’s voice.
And he can read what I wrote when I first arrived.
Michael and Julie are almost at the base of the ridge. I’d climb down and offer to help, but I’d be useless. So instead I leave the nook I’d made my own and make my way up higher, scanning for other monsters, but also for a place to hide for the night. This isn’t some kiddie camping trip with a fire and toasted marshmallows. The thought catches in my mind and I can smell the scent of burning wood, and the hot, sweet marshmallow as it turns golden and then catches fire and drops off into the flames.
The tears and a smack around the back of the head for crying.
I remembered too much.Thanks, Under.It was an almost pleasant memory, but I can’t forget the ending no matter how hard I try.
4
Julie
Idon’t know how I’m supposed to get up there. I know we are stopping at the ridge, and that this morning it was far away and didn’t look too big. But now I’m standing at the base and staring up, I’m thinking we should go around it.
Or maybe there is a way through it?
I point upward then shake my head and open my hands, hoping that Michael will understand my question. There has to be another way. I can’t climb that.
Michael glances up, then shakes his head. “We have to go up. There are passes, but they are used.”
I’m pretty sure that monsters don’t go out hiking along the ridge for pleasure. Though what do I know, perhaps some do. Maybe some are getting on with living as best they can. That’s what Michael and Tail were doing before I showed up and dragged them into my quest to get home. I sigh and lift my hands again.
Michael takes my hand, swamping it in his much larger one. He has gotten bigger since I’ve been here. Each fight is making him grow. “I don’t want to be ambushed going through a pass. Tail is waiting for us up there.”
He smiles, but I hear the bitterness in his words.
I use my free hand to brush his cheek. He doesn’t need to be jealous of Tail. I like them both, for different reasons. Michael because he saved me when I first arrived, as well as because I know him from before. Tail is smart, but carrying the wounds of his life before.
And Talon…I admire his courage to keep going, even when there is almost nothing left of him. He reminds me that I need to keep going.
And that means climbing.
I give Michael a nod and pull away to find my first hand hold. One of the rocky fingers that reaches like claws out of the dirt has crumbled, making it easy to scramble up the first bit, and there appears to be some kind of narrow path halfway up.
Michael puts me over his shoulder and begins to clamber up. I let out a yip of fear. The purple robe is slippery, and I feel like I’m going to plunge over his back and into the ground. I really don’t enjoy being carried like this. He sets me down on top of the rubble as he plans the next part of the climb.
