Sneak Peek

Here is a sneak peek of Part One of the Ghost Story: Who's That Girl?

The large flower themed calendar hung on the wall by the kitchen. The days had been crossed out with a red marker to a Saturday afternoon. In the Meubwel house, Saturday meant two things: Cam’s hang out day and Candice’s lottery day.

The glass front door sprung open, letting a huge gust of cold air into the spacious front entrance. The long peachy curtains covering all six windows jumped and blew the opposite direction. The door shut and the lock clicked. A woman with long bouncy brown hair came skipping onto the marble floor. Her high heels clicked noisily as she moved.

 “Oh yeah! Yes! Yes! Yes!” she shouted with a huge permanent smile on her face while jumping up and down. She stopped for a second and narrowed her eyes at a figure at the door all the way across the room. Her voice echoed as she called, “Cherry! Cherry!”

Cherry groaned and pushed the hair out of her eyes and walked to the woman. “Candice, take off your shoes before you start jumping with glee. You don’t know how long it took for me to finished mopping the front entrance. The dirt was practically imprinted to the ground!”

“Oops, must have been a hard job for you all by yourself, Cherry dear. It’s too bad Saturday has to been clean up day.”

The woman kicked off her heels and put them on the conveyor belt that with a touch of a button, the shoes were gobbled up by the slot on the wall. On the other side of the wall was a room shelved with shoes. Each shelf had a label with a name on it, and the conveyor belt knew to put the shoes on the Candice shelf.

“Yes, totally unfair that Cam never cleaned anything since the day she was born,” Cherry groaned again and rolled her eyes. She walked along the wall with the windows and sat down on the antique wooden bench.

“Aw, you don’t know that. She is older than you. Maybe you’ve never seen it.”

“Yeah, sure, says the woman who has been yelling at her herself for weeks,” Cherry said sarcastically. “Besides, she’s sixteen! What’s she going to be cleaning at the age of one?”

Candice sighed and took the bag off her shoulder and swung it on one of the hooks along the wall. She slipped around the flower vases and sat next to Cherry. “Okay, whatever. Forget the fact that you’ve been cleaning the house all your life and just hear me.”

“I heard your voice before you came into the house. It seems like lottery day went well for you.” Cherry spoke with a little raise.

“It did!” Candice shrilled. “You won’t believe this! You won’t believe it! Get this: I won the lottery! First time ever!”

“Oh yeah,” Cherry nodded. “I kinda guessed that was what had happened since you were screaming in the front yard a moment ago. So what did you get?”

Candice jumped to her feet and patted down her black skirt. She fixed the black framed glasses on her nose and took a deep breath. Then she leaned forward, gripped tightly to Cherry’s shoulders, and pulled her to her feet. “I won the lottery!” She screamed while swaying Cherry’s body back and forth. “I won it! I won it! Yay! Thirty million dollars for me! For us! Thirty million!” She repeated with her high pitched voice.

Cherry coughed when Candice let go. “Thirty million? Where is the money?” Her head sprang up and she looked around the room with an eager expression.

Candice blinked and laughed a little. She brushed the dark bangs out of her eyes and looked up at the ceiling meters above. The pointed glass ceiling let the afternoon sunlight enter the room.

“Well, they said the thirty million dollars weren’t going to come yet and if they didn’t give the winner something at the time, they’d look ridiculous. The money would come sometime later. So instead, just for now, they gave me free tickets! Free tickets to Sherpson town for the whole family—for two months!”

To Be Continued...

Relapse

Survival Hunt - Part Nine

The distance between them and that dinosaur progressively broadened. The restless forest of flailing branches and trembling leaves slowly calmed. The foggy air cleared slightly and the blue sky above showed face. A little further away, one or two silhouettes scurried away without any vocal sounds. A brown bird was spotted; flapping its wings vigorously and flew away to another tree.

Chouchou followed Jonathan with shaking eyes. Her thin fingers constantly combed through her now tangled hair. She reached a knot and yelped slightly. Jonathan turned around immediately with a raised eyebrow and a face expression saying, ‘Be quiet’.

She nodded and walked a little closer. Then she rubbed her fingers together. “Can we please stop for a minute? We’ve been walking with no sense of direction for a long time already. My hands are cold.”

Jonathan stopped in his tracks and whirled around. His bright eyes were hazy and slightly darkened. He narrowed them and sighed. “Get your gloves. We’re starting right after you do. Twenty seconds. Get going.”

“Come on, Jonathan. Why are you so mean to me?” Chouchou pouted as she swung her backpack off. She dug through her back and pulled out thin, yet warm black gloves.

After zipping up her bag and putting it back on, Jonathan counted down.

“Five, four, three, two, one, we’re done,” he turned around and pushed a swaying green branch away as he walked by.

“I didn’t even put them on yet!” Chouchou complained.

“Did I say I’d wait for you to put them on?”

Just then Lenny came onto the path. He had leaves sticking out of his hair and dust all over his clothes. He wiped the side of his mouth.

“Another one spotted,” Jonathan commented. “Where’s the other kid?”

Chouchou stared at Lenny’s every movement. The air felt cold as a sudden gust eloped around them.

He shook his head. “Elias? I haven’t seen him since the dinosaur from earlier. Where’d he go off to?”

“You’re supposed to know that,” Chouchou argued. She had a frown on her face now and arms crossed. “Elias was with you and Matthew the whole time. Where did you come from?”

Lenny shrugged. “Where’s Matthew then?”

Jonathan pointed ahead without a word. His dirt filled nail was shaking slightly as it directed the others toward the distanced fog. Rustling tree top leaves and dried grass was heard. The ground beneath them was wet with early rain.

“How come everyone doesn’t care about each other?” Chouchou asked. She looked at Lenny. “Does it not bother you that one of our group members is missing?”

“Am I responsible for him? He’s smart. He’ll know his way,” Lenny responded. “Besides, this is survival. You can’t let one person ruin you.”

“But wanting to find someone makes you determined doesn’t it?”

 After a series of rumbling grow fainter, Mei Xing appeared. She rolled up two pieces of rope and stopped with the other three.

“The dinosaur tore it in half, scared, and ran away,” she laughed. But her laugh was drowned away when she studied the faces of the other teenagers. With a half smile she asked, “What’s going on here?”

Chouchou pulled up her backpack and stared straight into Mei Xing’s eyes. “I’m not accusing here but both Jonathan and Lenny don’t seem to care whether we find Elias or not. Isn’t that a problem? We went through trouble to search for Casey, didn’t we?”

Before Mei Xing could say a word, Jonathan shot a glare at Chouchou. He snorted and shook his head violently.

“I’m pretty sure we all knew that the point of the survival hunt was not to find a bunch of people to work with and socialize with. I knew I was going to work by myself way before I reached this age. We were taught about this hunt when we were little—the insiders that is.” Jonathan pursed his lips and breathed heavily. “You don’t know anything though. Outsiders don’t know a thing about this. You,” he looked at Chouchou, “You’re an outsider, aren’t you?”

Mei Xing shut her mouth and looked to the ground. Her eyes studied the dark, flooded grass patches surrounded by slushy mud. The silence caused her arms to feel cold and form goose bumps. Though she wanted to add to the conversation, she stayed quiet.

Chouchou replayed the same look Jonathan shot. “That’s right, I don’t know anything. I don’t know what I am and I don’t know how you all think.” She made a pouted face as her eyes bulged and reddened. “I don’t know if I’m an insider or an outsider. But I do know you guys are all so different—too different for me to catch up.”

“Chouchou,” Mei Xing started. “We’re all different. No one thinks the same.”

“But you’re all leaving me out; treating me different! I don’t want to be so different that I can’t keep up! I don’t want to be here anymore! I’ll go back by myself. No one was going to care if I died anyway!”

She pulled her black hood over her head and darted ahead of them without looking back; without listening to any words the others yelled to her. 

* * * * *

Chouchou’s footsteps slowed when she realized she had run a great distance. Her throat was cold and dried, as if every swallow scraped along sandpaper. Her nose was clogged and red from the cold.

She stopped by a tree and squatted down. The tree was surrounded by tall and strong-smelling berry bushes.

Her breath huffed heavily into her gloved hands. The gloves against her face now felt warm and friendly. Her once smooth and flawless cheeks were now dry and itchy. She had irritated rashes on either side of her face, caused by sweat and the environment itself. The tears that rolled down her face only made it worse. The more water added the slower to heal.

“I don’t care if I die,” Chouchou muttered in a whispery voice to herself. She huddled close to the tree and pulled the drawstrings of her jacket. Slowly her eyes shut, still mumbling. “I don’t care if all that’s left of me are bones. I wasn’t meant to be noticed or remembered on the last day of my life anyway. No one likes me… I’m too different. It’s been like this—since forever…”

“I don’t want to sit next to her,” a little girl with a bowl cut whined, pointing. “She’s wearing black and I don’t like black.”

The teacher knelt down beside the bowl cut girl and said in a friendly voice. “Chouchou is a nice girl; you two can be good friends too.”

But the little girl persisted, “I don’t want to be friends with a scary girl. I like girls that are like me.”

Chouchou sat alone at a desk with three other empty chairs. Her long, wavy blond hair did not help her blend in with her kindergarten classmates. Her black shirt with white kittens on it was newly bought and given to her by her aunt the day before her birthday. She wanted to wear it on her birthday at school so her classmates would like it.

That afternoon back home, she pulled her shirt and looked down at it. Then she complained to her mother she did not like the kittens on the shirt and wanted one with flowers instead, because flowers hardly ever printed on black backgrounds.

When her mother and father finally got her a new pink shirt, Chouchou pulled it on right away and went to school. She had a big smile on her face as she was brought into the classroom.

She hoped her new shirt would impress everyone. But it was just the opposite. The boys avoided her as usual, and the girls did not like the fact her pink shirt was prettier than theirs. That whole day Chouchou ended up colouring pictures alone again.

Years after that, in elementary school the same things would occur. When she had pretty hair accessories, or whether she had the newest clothing first, others would become jealous and leave her out of their groups, thinking she was too stuck up and spoiled.

As Chouchou slowly realized her parents were spoiling her, she wanted normal style things, to blend in with others. But when she got to school, they would say she copied them, or that she ‘finally wanted to join in.’

Apart from appearance, everyone was covetous over her creative stories, her beautiful artwork, and would criticize and tease her poor math grades.

That was until she turned eight and was forced to leave her country to a strange land far away by force. Her parents disappeared as she lived now with her mother, who revealed to have sneaked out of the land. Nothing school related or amalgamating with other people existed in this world. Solitude conquered every emotion.

* * * * *

“You’re an outsider, aren’t you?”

“I’m an outsider, aren’t I?” Chouchou sighed. She stretched out her legs for a moment, and then tucked her knees again.

The rough bark against her hooded head felt uncomfortable. Her long, messy hair wrapped around her neck as a wet and uncomfortable scarf.

But one incident did cause despondency previous to departure. In elementary school, the start of a new year in second grade, an experience never had before cropped up.

“Eli and Matt are partners, teacher, I don’t have one,” a girl with long black hair said. She had a tight elastic in her hair, bundling only a finger strand of hair at the back.

The teacher scanned the room and spotted Chouchou, again sitting by herself doodling on the requirements sheet. She came up to her. “Chouchou, can you work with Acacia for this project?”

Chouchou had a blank expression on her face as she looked up at the girl. The girl named Acacia was smiling. Chouchou nodded solemnly and continued to stare. The teacher walked away to help other students and the girl sat next to Chouchou.

Expecting another useless partner, Chouchou ignored the girl until she spoke. Usually the partner would read over assignments and tell her what to do. In this case, however, it was unusual.

“What do you want to do for the project?”

Chouchou heard the question twice before realizing it was directed to her.  She looked at the paper. “You pick.”

“Come on, you have to choose. I’m not going to,” the girl said. And she stayed quiet until Chouchou responded.

“Puppet show,” Chouchou finally said in a hushed accent.

The girl beamed and nodded, “I like that too.”

And for the first time, Chouchou responded with a big smile and a friendly laugh as if welcoming a great image that only appeared once in a lifetime.

* * * * *

            All the memories Chouchou had in her childhood before turning eight became a blur. The little details and the names of people all fogged. The new classmate’s faces readjusted into new people by the time she thought of them again. They were not who she thought they were.

Now fifteen years old, she still could not remember the name and face of the friendly girl who spoke to her in grade two.

Chouchou sat up with her eyes open and looked down at the ground. Her black gloved hands clenched tightly to the crumbled dirt and the foot of the tree. She opened her hand and watched as the crumbs trickled to the ground again.

            Everyone is different. Even though someone does not think anything has changed, quietly everything rearranges itself. The combination of two or more people would gradually adjust life and thoughts, forming a different person out of the same person. 

Rampage

Survival Hunt - Part Eight

            A slit of white light shone in the distance. The dot gradually shifted until a white line was formed. It turned into an eye shape. Then colours and figures were seen.

Casey opened her eyes and looked around. Everything was surprisingly fine. She was unharmed. The only places that hurt were from Jonathan’s muscle chuck and sliding around on rocks by the cliff. At the moment, her legs were sore and so was her back.

“Where is this…?”

She rolled onto her front and stared ahead. Close by she caught sight of an Aeolosaurus and assumed it was from the previous day. She wondered if it was lying in the grass field because it was sleeping.

A backpack was sitting somewhere on the other side of the tree Casey was flung into. She quickly scrambled to her wobbly feet and grabbed it. After holding onto the bag, she dropped to her knees and crouched down, hoping nothing had seen her moving without any thoughts.

When nothing moved in the next few minutes, Casey resumed to finding out where she was. She swung her bag over her shoulders and turned around, away from where the trees were gathering closer together into a forest.

The moment her head faced the other direction, something rough and hard came at full speed, smashing into her stomach. It sent her flying backwards at least fifty metres. Luckily there was grass all around.

Her head was spinning so fast that she could not discover what the strange moving object was. Faded and heaving pounds on the ground followed.

Casey yelled in a bellowing voice. She winced and bit her lower lip so hard she tasted blood. Both arms were clutching tightly to her stomach. She could not move an inch after being thrown so hard by such force. Her face was hot with salty tears. Sweat rolled down her face and stained her neck. Her hands were slippery, holding to her jacket tightly.

The soft grass cushioned her. It was like a bed. Casey had her eyes shut as she lay on the grass for a long moment. After another ten or more minute, she pulled herself to her feet.

Carefully she pulled her shirt up to examine how badly she was attacked. She was thankful her tummy warmer was thick and cushioned the strike a little bit. She was also relieved the thing that whipped her was large in diameter. If it were a thin rope-like material, she would definitely had skin peeled.

Casey wiped the sticky sweat and blood from her mouth off her face and fumbled with pulling the warmer off without scratching her deep, dark bruise. It looked sordid and implausibly nauseating. Just from the appearance made her insides shrivel and her fingers curl. Black, purple, red, and everything mixed together into a dark shade. Her skin did not even look like skin anymore. It felt like the enormous bruise probably would not heal completely even after weeks. It hurt a great amount as well.

An idea suddenly came across Casey’s mind. It was just something to do and attempt to help, but a horrible idea. She took her backpack off and dug out her water bottle. Her hands kept slipping as she turned the cap. Eventually it unscrewed. She pulled one arm out of her sleeve and dabbed it with water. Carefully, slowly, and shakily, she touched her wound. Barely any contact was made but it felt like a million bee stings already. She threw her sleeve away and squealed loudly. She bit her lip again, deepening the cut in her mouth.

Without another plan in mind, she put the water bottle away and zipped her bag again. She stood up and cautiously looked around. Her whole body was shaking and sweating with fear and nervousness.

Fearfully, she questioned to herself whether or not a dinosaur might suddenly vault out of the forest and charge straight for her. If that were to happen, she would definitely be finished right then and there. Her head could barely turn around; her waist could hardly even bend, much less move her legs and run as fast as she could possibly go, trying to escape a creature.

The field she stood on was vast. The damp grass grew tall and green. Just a couple metres away the grass began shrinking into a pebbly, dry and sandy area full of rocks. Up ahead was a forest of various species of trees. Some leafy trees sprouted in the middle of the grassy field.

Unhurriedly, Casey lowered herself to the ground and lay on her back. She stared up at the dim grey-blue sky. It looked as if it would rain a lot today. The sky was filled and jam-packed with thick, heavy clouds. The air was chilly and much stronger than it was yesterday. It was not surprising that it would feel frostier. The reason was simple. Today was the first day of winter.

Casey shut her eyes tight and kept her arms by her side. Her hands were clenched again in tight fists. Her lips were dark mahogany and purple. The cut along her mouth where she kept biting was red and puffy. It hurt yet she continued to bite it. Her eyes began to swell up again. She hoped to fall asleep.

It hurts… It hurts… It hurts so much I can’t go on! I don’t want to go on. I can’t… Even though I had made a promise; I promised that I would be strong and try hard… I can’t. I don’t want to do this anymore…

Finally her breathing slowed down, a little more relaxed now. She wanted to forget about the pain. Things started to fade away slowly. The view of the low sky blurred into darkness.

* * * * *

Unsettle grey filled the space. Minuscule flashing white and black dots mixed together with the blotchy grey colour. The light flickered black for a split second. Then the grey vision reappeared. The space gradually widened.

Casey stared up at the sky. Her freezing cold hand touched her cheek. Her face had a high temperature. She rolled to her side but stopped halfway, wincing at the pain. She had forgotten about the wound for a minute, but remembered it again. Something was different, however.

Something rolled off her stomach as she turned. She used her weak hands to push herself to a sitting position and stared. Thin branches holding large leaves surrounded her. She picked a branch up and spun it in her fingers. The leaves were like raindrop shaped fans. Something about the outer layer of the greens gave her fingers a tingle. She sniffed the air. It smelled minty.

Wait… Am I sitting? Before, my stomach hurt so badly I couldn’t even bend it, so why am I feeling all right sitting…?

Casey poked her stomach lightly. It still hurt but it was not stinging or throbbing. She picked up the minty leaf and put it on her face. She blinked and took it off. Her tongue licked it a bit. It had a sweet taste. Hunger was reminded by a taste. She had not eaten for a full day already. But it was not smart to risk eating something unknown. She threw the leaf away and stood up.

Noises were heard in the distance. Noises were heard everywhere. The leaves rustling in the wind, the wind itself was moaning in morning. Then another strange yet familiar sound was heard. They were footsteps. They were footsteps of an enormous creature. The sounds were spread apart. Even the ground began shaking lightly with every pound.

Casey’s eyes were wide open and not blinking. She stood still, petrified, unable to move. Only her eyes were darting side to side. Suddenly her ears perked up. It sounded from behind. She spun around on her heels.

Her eyes enlarged bigger than before. They stung so much since she did not blink. Her jaw dropped. Sweat started smearing her face again. Her fingers were wet and shaking.

What stood some distance from her was a gigantic creature. It had an extremely long neck. The head was small but capacious enough to see that it was holding something in its mouth. The body of the creature was a great amount bigger than a human; a building size, indeed.

Casey recognized the creature—the dinosaur to be unequivocal.

This dinosaur… It’s the one Mei Xing explained. It’s the one that had us go insane yesterday. The A… The Aeolosaurus…?

Her finger shook as she felt her arm slowly rise in front of herself. Subsequently, without another thought, her legs trembled and backed up. Every step serially increased in speed. Shivering and vacillating legs only caused trouble. After another step, she fell backwards onto her bottom.

The Aeolosaurus lowered its head a bit. The small shadow of a branch began enlarging. The branch came out of its mouth and started falling. It landed a metre away from Casey’s feet. She tucked her legs in, full of surprise. She stared up at the dinosaur without moving.

It let out a low moan. Then it started turning away. The creature was in such close distance that the ground was shaking like an earthquake. The thumping in the grass was loud as well.

Nothing stirred in the next five minutes. The dinosaur had disappeared into the forest. Echoing thumps continued but were fading. Distanced shouts sounded like murmurs. Everything was quiet again.

Casey moved her fingers, scratching at the dirt. Her fingernails were caked in brown soil and her hands were muddy and scraped all over. She patted her hands on her jacket and scrambled forwards. Inquisitiveness crept into her mind. Her hand reached out at the branch the dinosaur dropped. Her fingers came off wet. With repugnance, she brushed her hand on the nearby grass, trying to get rid of the awkward touch.

Was collecting some kind of dinosaur evidence needed…?

The backpack slid off her back. She pulled it forward and grabbed a Ziploc bag from deep inside. Picking the branch up again she brushed her finger across the stick and wiped it in the bag. Another idea came to her mind. She picked up the branch and built up all her strength to break it into a smaller piece. Soon enough, she managed and closed the bag.

She took her water bottle out and poured some on her hands. She discovered a few slivers in her palm but ignored them. After taking a sip or two, she stood up again and sighed. It was time for her to finally do something useful.

While she brushed away the grass as she walked, she constantly wondered what the dinosaur was. It was like Lenny said. The dinosaurs could have been mutated or somehow altered. This Aeolosaurus appeared to understand. It had a mind; some thought to help, which was funny because animals or creatures would never consider human emotions or even know what was on their minds.

It could be possible for the Aeolosaurus to not be a real dinosaur in the era. But that would conclude something that did not make much sense

* * * * *

Halfway into the forest, water started falling. Small raindrops sprinkled down on the earth. The sound of rain muffled every other sound. Although the rain started falling lightly, buckets started to pour within a minute or so. Footsteps were not as heavy. Rustling leaves were not rustling as loudly.

Casey’s face was cold and soaked in an instant. She pulled up her hood and tightened the drawstrings, warming her ears. She held onto her backpack straps as she started moving faster through the woodland.

Every step she took caused mud to splatter everywhere. Dark brown puddles were formed. It was incredibly hard to see which was where and what was there. Up ahead was misty. The smell of rain was so strong and sour.

The boots on Casey’s feet were caked. The colour transformed into chunky brown and leaves with humus. Her running slowed down.

She found a little shelter under a large tree. Tired, she crouched down to the ground and stared ahead in the distance. Every half minute she wiped the water off her face and sighed. Nothing was seen. There was no one around. But even if there was, the person would not be seen so easily in the weather.

Casey let out a long sigh. Her plan at first was to find the others but that was pushed aside quickly. There was no reason for her to find the others again. Although it would feel safer and more cheerful with someone around, there did not seem to be any chance of running into them again. Everything she did now, she had to do on her own. She knew that very well.

Her back was cold against the old tree trunk. Her backpack was sitting in the muck at her feet. Her hands were tucked into the sleeves of her jacket as she dug through her bag. She knew she had kept some kind of snack in there.

During preparation, all the teens were allowed to bring anything with them. Food was one of the number one choices. The survival hunt hosts and helpers provided almost every kind of object and food for them. They all knew it was essential, especially in a crucial event like the survival hunt.

Many items included extra clothing like hats and gloves or scarves. Some important optional trinkets were watches and compasses. There were extreme items, weapons, like scissors or knives. First aid was a required package.

Inside the backpack were different labeled bags. Most of the teens separated their belongings into four categories: first aid, food, clothing, and weapons or materials. Casey grabbed a variety of items during preparation. There was not a single person who knew exactly what they needed or did not need inside the dinosaur arena.

Casey had a small bag of wheat snacks that did not appeal to anyone. It had no scent or any taste to be honest. The wheat pieces were dry, but the crumbs of dried fruit helped a lot. She did not like dried fruit very much but it was something that would keep her going.

After two raisins and one piece of wheat, she packed up again. By now, everything she had with her was dripping with rain water. She squeezed water out of her ponytail and gave her waterproof clothing light smacks, spraying rain off. She rubbed her eyes and got off her ankles, regaining balance and releasing sharp pins and needles.

Because of the sharp pain, she was paralyzed for a minute. She stood under the tree silently and biting her lip, shaking, and eager to leave the spot. She continuously rubbed her legs until finally after one more shake, she could move normally again.

Cautiously Casey moved forward down the rigid and slightly visible path. Ahead were muddy puddles and branches that grew out of the earth, creating arcs that easily tripped people. Even though it was still morning, the forest appeared shadowy and gloomy like near evening.

Just then, Casey’s heart pounded loudly and heavily. She grabbed her shirt collar and pulled off her hood, letting the large raindrops splatter on her head. Her breath began speeding up hastily. The heart pounding was faster and louder.

This is strange. Something’s there… Something’s happening. Something is coming.

A split second later, her ears jerked up and she turned her head to her left. There was a dim light glowing.

Casey’s shaking legs brought her closer to the light, but her body was refusing to go any closer. Only one more step gave her the answer.

Up ahead where the dimly glowing light was, a safe house stood. It blended in well with the background, except for the tiny speck of light: a front door light. It was immensely dim that only someone with perfect vision could see it clearly, and in the rain too.

Just then the tiny spot of luminosity flickered and shook.  It blurred into darkness for a split second. Then another blink and it returned to normal.

Stop… Stop…!

Casey’s heart was knocking. Her shaking hands clutched tighter to the neck of her jacket. Every part of her was stinging with a freezing cold touch.

Stop… Stop it! Stop it!

Finally she swallowed hard. The tense lump in her throat was preventing her from swallowing and breathing normally. Her fingers were shaking faster and so were her legs. The sounds in her ears were ringing loudly.

In a moment’s time, pounding in the distance was heard. Heavy running and loud splatters like footsteps in puddles became auditory.

A high pitched scream was heard. Following that was another higher pitched shriek. The voices were piercing and raspy. Whether it was a female or male, it was almost impossible to know.

Casey’s eyes widened. Her jaw opened and her teeth started chattering. Sweat was building. She suddenly felt hot under all the drenched layers. Booming followed the screams.

Then, she saw something.

She immediately jumped out of the path and grabbed onto a tree trunk. Her nails scraped off a chunk of bark. She shoved it in her mouth to stop herself from teeth chattering and wanting to scream.

When the dark, foggy figures progressively grew larger, Casey frantically tumbled over her feet and pushed aside leaves, desperate to get into the bushes nearby. Her hands scratched at contact with the thorny branches in the process. But her mind was not on that. She was scared and full of trepidation. It felt as if her heart was going to bounce out of her mouth.

The bush she managed to scramble into was just behind a group of thick trunked cedar-like trees. The area was also close enough to see the larger path just in front and the safe house camouflaging somewhere.

Multiple pairs of feet thumped in water close by. There was chaos right in front of her eyes. Casey parted some branches, trying to catch a glimpse of the commotion.

Her trembling fingers pulled a small bottle out of her jacket pocket. She fumbled with the lid and sprayed herself all over. She was beginning to inherit a leafy fragrance. It did not smell much like the real nature, but at least she did not smell like flesh.

Her heart still pounded as she put the bottle in her pocket. Just after she found a comfortable sitting position, clenching tightly to the roots, the uproar was fading away. Casey watched as the two teenagers crashed inside the safe house.

A second later and the carnivorous creature behind would have caught one of them in its long, sickle-shaped claws.

Casey’s eyes were shaking and constantly blinking. Water started to roll out. Her teeth dug into the bark as she held her breath.

There were three fairly short dinosaurs angrily scratching at the safe house. They had muscular legs and long tails. The scariest part of them was they had extremely long black claws on their hands and feet. The claws were like knives and could possible scratch through anything.

Deep inside, Casey sighed silently in relief for the two teenagers that were lucky to have survived that. The dinosaurs appeared in excellent health. Their muscular legs looked as if they were also very athletic and could run for miles.

When all that died down, Casey held her breath. She sat as still as she could possible, still staring out at the three mysterious and annoyed dinosaurs.

All three of them had just missed a chance at breakfast. They would be furious and desperate to find something—anything—to be able to fill their stomachs for enough energy to start the day.  If they heard or seen anything, they would launch right at it. Carnivorous dinosaur’s noses were never underestimated.

Casey sat uncomfortable in the bush. She prayed with all her strength they would not sense her. She had already tried her best to have them not smell her. They might have seen her from far away, but the rain could have blinded them a bit.

While the nosy dinosaurs scrambled here and there, Casey risked shutting her eyes tight and trying to ignore the fact they were there. She indeed would be blinded but it would spare her from shrieking and gasping when one of them came to her face outside the bush.

She silently breathed another fresh batch of air into her lungs and slowly let it out. Her eyes were closed and her head was held high, but not high enough to stick out of the bush. Her ears were the only part of her working; and her nose, but she did not recognize dinosaur smell. But she finally did, and they smelt like blood and meat.

Her eyes tightened. A ticklish feeling crept on her back. She felt all her hairs stand on end. Goosebumps formed quickly. Something nearby rustled.

God, tell me they’re not there…

The meaty smell was stronger. One of the meddlesome dinosaurs had its face over the bush. It snorted and slobbered into the leaves. After a raspy shriek from it, the other two came closer. They were mumbling in dinosaur language to themselves.

The rain continued to fall. Soon enough, something further in the opposite direction, deeper in the forest, shuffled. The dinosaurs jerked their heads up and began making noises while charging towards it. They roared loudly and stomped away quickly.

Casey winced and flinched lightly. An itch was behind her ear but she did not touch it. When the dinosaurs finally disappeared, she sat for a minute or two before scratching. And she finally took a silent gasp for air and opened her eyes. Her heart settled.

Thank goodness…

* * * * *

Still in the bush, Casey sniffed and looked around. It was uncomfortable in the rough and tight space. She tried to move but stopped only to have a horrible thought come across her mind. If something was lurking there, she would have no chance of survival.

Should I stay here all night?

Quickly she shook the thought out of her head and bit her lower lip again. By now it was completely puffy and bruised. She winced and opened her mouth wide. She touched her lip, finally realizing how deep her teeth had gone into them. A canker sore would form soon.

Her teeth were straight after having braces, but they were sharp. Her canine teeth especially were sharp. She had not had her dentist come in and file them up since a while ago.

As quietly as she could, she pulled a small tube out of the inside of her jacket. She kept a lot of medication and bandages on her for emergencies. Casey squeezed a little substance on her finger and dabbed the side of her mouth. It stung a lot. It hurt so much that she almost spat loudly and bit her lip again. She squeezed a little more and applied it to the other scratches she had.

At last, her numb and bruised body could not take the cramped space anymore. Her back was aching and her knees felt locked in a bent way. Even her neck was straining and her shoulders hurt painfully from being hunched over for a long time. She took several peeks out the bush before gradually and inaudibly crawling out. She had one hand gripping tightly to her backpack straps, and her legs were ready to sprint whenever needed.

When she got her leg out of the tangled branches, she slipped and fell flat on her face. The front of her body was completely covered in mud. She was completely wet now. For a minute or two she lay there paralyzed and too tired to get up. All her muscles were aching. Only her fingers twitched slightly.

After she caught her breath and shuddered in the cold rain, she slowly dragged herself across the muddy ground to the trunk of a large tree. With the strength remaining, she pulled herself to her feet and stayed close to the tree. Her eyes darted left and right, up and down, as if she were tracking a nuisance mosquito.

Now as soon as her legs started moving properly and her stomach not hurting as much, she began her journey again. It was difficult and stressful, despite it only being the second day.

Casey heard her stomach growl. The growling was like a pouch of air in her stomach moving and trying to digest whatever non-existent substance was in there. It added more pain to her previously damaged stomach.

No, I’m going to save my food. I only have a limited amount. If I eat it all now, I might not have any left to keep myself going later…

But it hurt more and more with each step she took until her knees popped again and she tripped into the wetness again. Finally Casey gave up arguing with herself and snacked on a granola bar. If she ate now, she might not have to eat again later until a while.

* * * * *

She had walked at least a long hour before finally hearing something familiar.

The rain had already started falling lighter until they were only sprinkles. The air was still misty and cold though.

Something whizzed by her ear. That something sounded hard and seemed heavy. Casey jumped up and dashed to the nearest tree and held on tightly. Her fingers looked the same colour as the rough and old tree bark. Her brown eyes stayed wide open, staring into the distance on her side. Slowly she shrank down to the ground, trying to make as less movement as possible. Her eyes narrowed, still staring. That was until she felt a smile come across her face.

There were light footsteps in behind the fog. The dark silhouettes were made out to be human. In fact, little voices were heard.

Casey felt something whizz by her ear again. She stood up and tilted her head to the side to look at the chattering group.

“Nathan, stop that.”

“Sorry Mei…”

Casey’s eyes widened.

Was that…?

Halfway opening her mouth, her jaw made a weird pop sound. She shut her mouth again and bit the inside of her cheeks. A second later, her fingers left contact with the tree as she started slowly walking towards the sound.

“…Hello…?”

“Who’s there?”

“Hello…? Are you…?”

“It’s Casey!”

Casey focused on a spot until the fog disappeared. She saw three familiar people. She wanted to smile but her mouth hurt so much she ended up biting harder to the inside of her mouth and pursing her lips together.

Acacia started jumping up and down. She ran forward and hugged Casey tight. She started jumping again. “Casey! We thought… We thought you wouldn’t make it!”

A nod came from Mei Xing as Acacia let Casey go. Mei Xing tightened the rope around her waist and brushed her straight bangs aside. “Yeah… How did you…?”

“I don’t know what happened…” Casey mumbled. She swept the sticky hair off her face and wiped her wet cheeks with her sleeves. “I think I probably passed out…”

“That A-saur was so big and everything!” Acacia exclaimed. “Mei Xing said if it dropped you, you probably wouldn’t…” She lowered her voice. “Well, we’re glad you’re okay! You don’t know how worried we were.”

Casey raised an eyebrow and sniffed. She suddenly felt extremely cold. Her fingers shook as she scratched her nose. “The A-saur was all right. I don’t know what happened but it didn’t seem like a normal dinosaur. You know, I think it had… Well it just didn’t seem like an animal. It left me mint leaves!”

She pulled her backpack off. But before she did, Jonathan pushed her shoulder. He patted mud off her jacket and gave her a look that made him seem like he was keeping a laugh to himself.

“What happened to you?”

Casey looked at him with round eyes. She glanced away from him and at her clothes. She had a few scratches and holes in her clothing already. Most of her clothes were caked in mud. Even her face was splotchy.

“Oh…” Casey sniffed again. “I saw these other two people running into a safe house. They were being chased by these small dinosaurs. There were three of them and they had really long and curved claws. I thought I was going to die.”

“You didn’t go into the safe house?” Acacia asked.

Casey shook her head. “No. I was too far away from it. I hid in a bush instead.”

“I’m surprised you didn’t get eaten then,” Jonathan stated. He handed a cloth to her.

Mei Xing nudged Jonathan. She looked at Casey, who had taken the cloth. “Those dinosaurs are probably Balaurs. I don’t really know much about them but they are short and have long, shiny, hook-like claws. They also have really big muscular legs. They’re so scary looking but really cool at the same time! They have sharp teeth and three claws on their hands and their feet. Such fascinating creatures.”

Acacia stole a glance at Casey, who was shuddering. “I don’t think we should be admiring the creepy little carnivores quite so fast. I mean, they are carnivorous if they have hands and feet and claws and sharp teeth and ugly faces, right?”

“I don’t think they have ugly faces,” Mei Xing said.

“Okay, they have ferocious faces that make them look constantly mad and awkward,” Acacia nodded a reply.

“Where are the others?” Casey asked. Shivers ran up her spine as she spoke.

Mei Xing patted her shoulder. “Don’t worry about them. We split up early this morning to search for safe houses, some resources, maybe some food, and other things. Acacia suggested searching for you so she went with me but I don’t know what happened to the groups since we met up with Nathan a little while before.”

“Are we going to look for them?”

Acacia took a peek behind. She looked back at Mei Xing. “What do you think?”

“We can’t exactly guarantee finding them. We can try, but we might not… I mean, we don’t know how big this arena is yet, and we don’t know what kind of dinosaurs are here. We found a lot of carnivorous dinosaurs here. I’m not sure what the goal of this is but the main thing here is to survive, not stay together and get desperate when we’re alone.”

Casey nodded. She lowered her head and started talking quietly. “I’m sorry but I did not really think about looking for you guys after we separated.”

Jonathan folded his arms. “Well good for you. I wouldn’t worry about you if I were separated from the group.”

“We all knew that you wouldn’t,” Acacia mumbled.

Jonathan ignored her. “Come on, let’s get going before something with a beautifully awkward face comes popping out at us while we’re just standing around.”

Just then, the tall trees growing close together, just a dozen or more metres away had their branches sway. The leaves were rustling loudly and anxiously. They tumbled to the ground after a couple of spins in the air. The bushes growing just around the trees also shuffled.

The four teenagers standing in the crowd of trees stood silently still. Their eyes darted everywhere. They held their breath as the sounds grew louder.

Casey watched the bush. She looked further behind it. “Do… Do you hear that thumping…?” she whispered.

There were so many trees that the sunlight hardly made its way in. The trees were also looming over in a haunted way. But some light was shining through, enough that colours were seen.

In a split second, something jumped out of the bush. It was a boy, and someone they all knew too.

“Hey, it’s just Matt,” Acacia said, taking a breath.

But the expression on his face was not the best. He opened his mouth to call out to them but they heard nothing.

Mei Xing suddenly took a step back. She pulled a rope from her pocket and nudged Jonathan. She gave Acacia and Casey slight glances before her shaking voice sounded. “I think he means for us to run!”

The thumping sounds were very loud and audible now. They were heavy and fast-paced. Just from the ground shaking, they all knew this creature was angry and charging.

Matthew sprinted past the other four. Something came out of his mouth this time but they still could not hear. But he seemed to have mouthed something along the lines of ‘It’s still far’. This time, Acacia’s eyes widened and started tearing up. She turned around darted after him, not giving a care of what he was actually running away from.

Jonathan pushed Casey. “What are you still doing here? Get your brain and run already! Or just leave it behind if it’s slowing you down!” He gave her another push, this time so hard her legs automatically started working and sprinting away.

“What about you?”

“Forget about that, just leave!”

Casey turned around shook her head, shaking all the horrendous thoughts she had stored in her mind. She clenched her hands into fists and stared in front of her, where Acacia and Matthew were tiny in the distance. Although her legs were tired and every muscle in her body was numb, her legs continued running. They would not stop even if she forced them to.

Back by the bushes, Mei Xing and Jonathan stood on the side.

“It’s just an angry Triceratops,” Mei Xing commented. “I can sort of see it. That fan thing on its head…”

“It’s ‘just an angry Triceratops’? Mei, you never say that ‘fan thing’ either. You always say it’s the large neck frill,” Jonathan hissed. He held his rope tight in his hands. “And exactly why are we still here?”

Mei Xing shuffled in her spot and started running the direction the others had gone. “Remember that Elias, Lenny, and Chouchou are still there somewhere!”

“Right…” Jonathan nodded. He started walking along the bushes mumbling that they should have been smart enough to have run like Matthew. He looked up and saw Chouchou roll out of the bush and out of the dinosaur’s path. “Oh, there’s one.”

“Ow!” She cried. She crawled to the bush and started rubbing her knee. “Are you trying to kill me, Lenny?”

“Do you want to die?”

Chouchou looked up and was surprised to see Jonathan. She opened her mouth and breathed in disbelief. “What are you doing here?”

He ignored her question. “Why isn’t that dinosaur coming out already? What happened to your other group mates?”

“The… the what…?” Chouchou stuttered. She turned around and almost jumped backwards into the bush when the thundering creature charged out from behind the trees, trampling the bushes in the process. “You mean that thing? It’s there!”

The Triceratops thumped in a straight path, snorting and groaning. Its eyes caught sight of Chouchou and Jonathan. Suddenly its path angled. It started running towards them now. It tossed its head and raised its horns. As it ran closer, the horns were pointing straight at them.

Chouchou automatically freaked out and screamed.

Jonathan pulled her to her feet and pulled her aside. “What are you doing? Don’t scream when it’s coming at you!” He opened his eyes wider and stared at the dinosaur. “Mei Xing, you take care of this!”

A rope from an enormous tree dove at the dinosaur, tightening around its neck. The rope was thick and strong but not strong enough. The dinosaur raged and roared loudly as it was being slowed down by the tight rope. It was getting angrier and pulling hard. The gigantic tree keeping it from charging elsewhere was beginning to get pulled out of the ground. The whole tree slanted and dirt from the ground parted. A root sprouted from the earth.

Mei Xing jumped down and ran to the side. “That is definitely not going to stay. Here, Nathan, see if you can find Lenny and Elias. And Chouchou, you’ll need to stay with someone so go with him.”

“How are you going to deal with that thing by yourself? You’re not a muscle woman,” Chouchou said with worry in her eyes. But she still stood up and followed Jonathan out of the scene.

As they ran, they could still hear loud and angry stomping and roaring behind them. Jonathan was quick, jumping over branches and roots. He looked left and right and slowed down a bit. Behind him, Chouchou ran as fast as she could, also searching for the others.

“Where did they go?”