“Psst, Jezzy. Jezz. Bell, belly welly. Psst. Come on you and I both know you’re not asleep.”

“Yes I am. Now go away.” Clutching my blanket closer to my body I cracked open an eye to look at the clock. This was making a small “whining” noise as it projected the time on my wall. 12:30.

“No way! Not till you come with me!”

“Damn you. Hold on let me find something to wear.”

“Just throw on some shoes. I don’t want your room waking up.”

“Whatever.” Slowly I started to roll out of bed, and trust me that is not an easy feat with a sleeping cub across your abdomen. One wrong move and you would soon be on the stairway to Limbo. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. If it were it any other time, I could have picked her up. But with it being twelve thirty at night I could not do that. Unless I wanted my room to wake up. Something I did not want. Not right now anyways. A room waking up in the middle of the night was a thought that most teens shudder at. Choosing to take a bite from the most poisonous viper in all of Anran instead.

“Hurry up. We don’t have all day.”

“You don’t think I know that? I’m not ready to go to limbo yet! Do I look like I want that?”

“It’s not that bad.”

“Oh yeah like you would know! You don’t even have a pet!”

“I don’t want a pet!” I stiffened as Xara yawned and licked her chops; closing them with a rather loud smack. Go back to sleep. Good little girl. Back to sleep. In the ten or so seconds that it took for Xara to lift her head, look around, nimbly jump off the bed, and patter over to the other side of the room and lay back down, I don’t think I took a single breath.

“Look, problem solved. Now let’s go.”

“Vid, I swear if you don’t shut up.”

“I know I know. You’ll set your cute little lion cub on me. Oh I’m shaking in my boots. Can’t you tell?” Vid clapped his hands to his cheeks looking like “The Scream.”

“Smug ass. Move.” I opened my window and pushed Vidar out of the way hoping to push him off of his hover board; which sadly did not happen. Casting a cinnamon eye around my room I tried in vain to find a matching set of shoes. Damn, I should set the bots to clean this place. It’s becoming worse and worse everyday. Mum and dad will give birth to a Mhow if they see this mess. Out of the corner of my eye I saw one fur-lined boot by my heater and the match to it not too far away. Jackpot. Scooting across my floor I grabbed the boot and tugged it on and did the same with the other. It is odd sensations to have your naked feet settle in on fur. Soft but strange, oh well. Hoisting myself up onto my windowsill which was a slow and tireless act. Once I was up I allowed my feet to dangle into the night air.

“Don’t fall!” Vid’s smug voice came from the bowels of the cold and foreboding night air, appearing from seemingly nowhere with my hover board in hand. “Thought you might want this. Unless you want to free fall to your doom. Your choice, it’s all yours.”

“I don’t know maybe I will take that option to free fall to my doom. Not today though.” Leaning forward I grabbed my board from his hands. It came to life with a soft whirr, barely detectable unless you knew exactly what to listen for. Dropping the board, I swung my body into the cold winter air following it down, free falling for a few seconds before landing like a cat on my board. “This better be really good. And if it isn’t, guess whose blood will be set free.”

“Dr. Seuss?”

“No.”

“Elmo?”

“Nope.”

“Umm,” Vid paused to scratch his head in thought tilting his fedora to the side. “Um a purple dinosaur?”

“Dude, you’re a major idiot. I do hope you know that.” My board buzzed in protest as I angled it towards Vid. It may be one of the newest boards on the market but it refused to do some of the simplest things I asked it to do. Taking a whole ten seconds to turn around when the Flier 300 did it in less than a nano second, at least that’s what it felt like at least.

“Having trouble with the new board Jezz?”

“Yeah, it might just be because it’s new. Not used to all the heavy flying that you’re making me do right now.”

“Hey! This just so happens to be the best way to break in a new board and you know it missy!” He poked me in the chest with one of his well kept finger nails. He tends to be more of a girl than me sometimes. “I heard that!”

Faking an innocent smile I looked him dead in his earl grey colored eyes. “Heard what? I have no idea what you’re talking about.”


“A likely story.” He leaned forward kicking his board into turbo, going well past the flying limit. One of these days he’s going to do that and get thrown in the sinner’s sewer. With a groan I shifted my weight onto my right foot and sped my Fowl 200 into overdrive. If I didn’t catch up with him soon I would lose sight of him and not find out what was so important that it could not wait till morning. Damned boy and his stupid ideas.
??????????????????

About an hour or so later a massive figure appeared in the distance; rising up from the ground like a castle. The only man made thing in a dense forest where the howl of baby snatchlings could be heard waiting for their momma to come home with the night’s dinner. Disgusting little creatures no matter how you look at them. The genetic failures of trying to make the best babysitters out of monkeys and deer. Too good in fact. If a snatchling did not have a child to take care of they would wander around waiting until your back was turned to take your belongings. At least that’s how it started out; soon they were taking children and attempting to raise them. Each and every single one was found dead in a snatchlings nest. As we got closer and closer, ancient and faded letters could be seen on the front of the building.

“Please, please, please don’t tell me you dragged me out of my nice and warm bed just to show me something that was left behind by the mudders?” Mudders, a common name given to the people who lived in this world before us. About a thousand or so years ago, they really messed the planet up for those that lived after them. Oceans became all but radioactive piles of muck and the rainforests were rain orchards. Global warming that’s what they blamed it on. There’s a hole in the ozone layer? Blame global warming. Our children are having babies when they themselves are still babies? Blame global warming. You get the idea; all of their problems came from global warming. Disgusting creatures. Although to call them disgusting creatures is basically the same as calling myself a disgusting creature. In technicality we are still the same species. More or less that is.

“It’s not just something left behind by the mudders. It’s much more than that.”

“I’m failing to see how this place is any different from the field trips we went on in class before.”

“Trust me it’ll blow your mind!”

“Right.” Shifting my weight onto my left leg, leaning backwards, I began my descent, following Vidar onto the steps of the massive building. Coby Senior High School, that’s what the sign on the front door said. Pushing the door open, it gave a creak in protest, wanting to keep its secrets for itself. We passed through what seemed to be the main office, if the big sign on the desk was correct. Which the sign probably was, because for all of time since Homo sapiens knew how to write, they tended to make it easier for everyone by putting signs up that said what something was. At least that’s what Mr. Goldin said. The halls were silent except for the soft patter of our feet as they touched the hard linoleum. I tried to imagine what this school had sounded like when the mudders where still around. Was it loud with the shuffle of feet hurrying to class? Or was it silent except for the all knowing tick-tick-tick of the clocks as tests were taken? Was there a tinkle when the bells, keys, or jewelry moved in the summer air?

“Jezz, come on. You’ll get left behind if you don’t keep up.” Vid’s voice interrupted my thoughts, sending what felt like an electric shock down my spine.

“Vid, I hate to say this and you know I do. But I don’t like it here. Hurry up.” It was true this place was devoid of all life. Not even a little roach or a wild Spig could be seen. All I wanted was to get out of this place to go home. Or better yet to wake up nice and warm in my bed. We went up three flights of stairs. Peeking into the classrooms along the way, the place actually seemed very familiar. Biology class rooms covered in dust, English rooms with moldy and tattered books. Like our own school, just without the metallic hum of the lights and generators.

“Shocking huh?”

“You got that right. But why are we here? Vid this is just a mudder school; nothing real special just a bunch of dusty old classrooms.”

“Just hold your horses. We’re getting there.” With that said he led me through a set of wide doors, held open by a single skull. A human skull picked clean of all flesh. It made me want to puke.

“Vid,” My voice was starting to get higher, a sign that this really was freaking me out. A single skull holding a door open was doing this to me. What happened to the great and fearless Jezzbell that would stare down a vicious viper bent on taking a bite out of my flesh? There was a thud as something rather heavy fell from the rafters, landing by my feet. The sight of it made me puke. My friend, my best friend in the entire world was lying lifeless at my feet. His beautiful earl grey eyes open in shock. It was obvious that he had been like this for a long time. At least a day.

“Oh God! Vidar!” hands clapped over my mouth I started to cry. I had been duped. Fooled into believing that I was following my best friend into the woods to see something amazing. I was an idiot.

“Oh come now Jezzy, it’s not that bad.” The thing with Vid’s face grinned, revealing rows upon rows of teeth. A Taker, how had I not known? It took Vid’s body and drained it of all its memories and actions and brought me. Next they would go after our families. This was a disaster. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. The last thing I heard before I slipped into unconsciousness was a metallic pop as the takers friend appeared.



The End?