So, although I really didn't want to, I forced my eyelids open.
And immediately wished I hadn't.
Turns out, I hadn't stayed in my bed, like I'd wanted to. I was in a small clearing, lying in the dirt, surrounded by towering trees with leaves so dark green, they could've easily been mistaken for black. I groaned and rolled over, hoping it was all a dream, that I wasn't where I thought I was, and then jerked back in surprise.
Westley was sprawled out next to me. His eyes flitted back and forth beneath his eyelids, and he was breathing rapidly.
"Oh, crap," I groaned again. This could not be happening. It was bad enough I was here, again, but to be here with my kid-brother? Major suckage.
Okay, I thought to myself. What are you gonna do, eh Thema? The last time you were here, a monster came after you. It would probably best to get up, and try and find a safe place to hide.
Sounded good to me.
"Wes, wake up," I whispered, prodding his arm.
No response.
I frowned. "Come on, Wes. We need to get out of here," I urged, shaking him harder.
All I got was a mumble.
"Westley Gray, get your sorry butt up, now!" I hollered loudly into his ear.
That got his attention. . . maybe a little too much. He jerked up, banging his head with mine.
"Thema, what the crap?" he howled, rubbing his head.
"Watch it, Stupid!" I growled back, massaging my own temple. That was going to leave a bruise.
Wes fell silent. He had finally caught sight of the fact that we were no longer safe and cozy in my hospital room. Had the circumstances been of a lighter tone, I would have found his expression comical. But this was no time to be laughing.
"W-where are we?" he finally stuttered, his face a portrait of awe and fear.
Unfortunately, I had no answer. "I don't know," I answered, shaking my head.
"Is this where you went, when you went through the mirror?" he queried, turning to look at me.
I gave him the Well-What-Do-You-Think look. Suddenly, I felt something tickling my hand. I looked down and saw a black moth. Of course, it wasn't a normal black moth. You know what I'm talking about: The kind that is basically just a shadow, with the tawny eyes. Immediately, I thought of Grace, guilt suddenly weighing heavily on my shoulders.
The moth sat still for a moment, then fluttered up, landing gently on the front of my. . . Oh, you got to be kidding me! I was still in a hospital gown! "Thanks for pointing that out," I said sarcastically to the moth. It gave its wings a little flutter.
I forgot Wes was still sitting next to me, so you can see how he startled me when he exclaimed,"Whoa, that is one, black, moth."
I rolled my eyes. Leave it to Wes to be Captain Obvious. The moth sat on my chest for a few more seconds, then decided it had had enough of me and my brother. In a flurry of movement, it was flitting away through the trees. I had the sudden urge to follow it, but I didn't. Who knows where we would end up. Turns out, we probably would have been better off, had we followed the moth, but I'll get to that in a bit.
Wes and I sat in the dirt, staring after the black bug, the only other life form we had met so far, flying away, leaving us to ourselves, again. After the moth had disappeared into the trees, it was Wes who decided we had better get moving.
I glanced at him in surprise. He seemed to have gotten over the initial shock of waking up in a forest, and was ready take on whatever the place threw his way. Good. That meant at least one of us was confident about our situation. I, on the other hand, was still thinking about Mr. One-Eyed Smoke Monster, coming back to get us. I guess Wes was thinking about the same thing.
"Come on, Thema. I don't feel like sticking around to see if that thing that attacked you last time, is still waiting around to try again."
He had a good point, so I followed him as he led the way into the dark trees.
Maybe I should mention a little something about the sky. See, it was daytime, but there wasn't exactly a sun, up there. Actually, there wasn't anything in the sky. No clouds, nothing. And the sky wasn't blue, either. Instead, it was more of a bleached out yellow. The light, if you could really call it that, seemed to be coming from across the entire expansion of the sky, instead of one little point, like from the sun; the so-called "light" wasn't even that bright. It reminded me of a cloudy day, when the sky is just completely grey, and the light seems to be coming from all over the sky, and it's a just a dull light, you know? Only, instead of grey sky and light, it was all light yellow. Make sense? That's about the best way I can explain it, so that will have to work.
Wes and I walked endlessly, it seemed. We didn't make any turns, or anything, but I seriously doubt that we would have been able to make our way back to where we started. One tree looked like another tree, one rock looked like another rock. But, I can't really say that we were "lost," because we never really knew where we were, in the first place.
~*~*~*~
© B. J. Robertson
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