A Narrow Escape

By Kayal S

An angled, shagged stroke of lightning split the canopy of wild, dusky branches, dappled with musk and sap, the scene a wash of enchanted timber tints, a composition of celtic greens, driftwood brown, grounded by dilute streaks of nevada grey,  blossoming clouds of dark threatened to surge, in the process dousing the phoney brambles of the rich, cultivated nature that was Pine Barrens. 

A spine chilling, and nerve tingling roll of thunder ricocheted off the treetops, inching its way into the caverned cedar walls, giving a time-less baroque elegance, bound to the rocky cove with its beauty, and minimalistic yet seamless delivery in accommodation. 

Moving closer, the ornate wood frame of the entrance added a touch of delicacy to the atmosphere, a fragile persona unearthed once past its stone shackles.

A pair of amber eyes fluttered open as a gentle splash of water caressed her pale skin, out of focus but hitched on the two figures staring at her, their faces a blank canvas adorned with a swirl of emotions, morphing at occasion but settled on the features of her pointed face, struggling to recollect even a shred of memory to be traced back to the latticed conglomeration of episodes hoarded away in the hippocampus, but at no remorse.

In an instant, like a mirror, she mimicked their articulations of abashment, frozen in time they were, unaware of the mere essence of their existence. Fallen into a time warp, adrift in the temporal void confined by the natural flow of time.

“Who are you?” the chorus rang out, scintillating the wax candles, held in place by their companion holders, silver by constitutional by-laws but everlasting to the eyes, complementing the warmth and everlasting innocent glow, seeping from within and oozing out with it melting and falling in comparison to tears by the gravitational field strength acting towards and normal to the Earth’s surface, and in the end of their traverse pooling near the corners of the carved chasm near the end, and eventually with a calm breeze and even temperature crystallise into a solid coagulation. This was somehow a reassuring feeling at the pit of her abdomen, inculcating a bubbly warm quintessential feeling, the kind that demonstrates itself as the one when wrapped in a thick, layered, crocheted quilt with the heat of a hot beverage divulging into the palms of your hand. 

The tranquillity was soon sharded, as a heavy scream highlighted with emotions of fear, anxiety, overwhelm and a hint of irritation echoed, vibrating her vocal chords and refracting the dust laden furnishing before tearing through the far too thin tissue in our ears. 

All attention turned to the ginger blonde, in stilettos. Her flawless facial appearance tainted with discomfort. She immediately exulted a stream of constant questions:

“Where are we?”

“Who are you?”

“Why are we he-”

“Stop, that’s enough!” I snapped, thrown over the edge of panic. “One at a time. Let’s start with - who are you? I’m Evelyn Cooper.” I paused for the lady to answer, but she was breathless, seemingly unable to comprehend the vocabulary of the question.

“Jason Wilder” the brunette boy voiced, leaving the girl to have enough time to gather herself and piece it together.

“I am Marie Anna…and what was it… right! Windsor! I…I do not know anything else!. Who am I.'' she officially stated, in a twang of a British accent that I quite failed to catch before, with a startled gasp and a shocked tone at her concluding finding.

“Great, now that we have been introduced, let’s move to the more valid discussions. Since, we most obviously don’t know where we are let’s just skip that, we don’t have time to waste pondering on things we can’t control. Now, How do we get out of here?” I hysterically illustrated, myself being quite trepidation, with the haunting climatic condition, the evocatively eerie log cabin, I have no idea whatsoever of and the two complete strangers I would have to stroll out of here with and no consciousness of my identity,excluding the fact that was my name thus proving my subsistence in the actuality of the vast cosmos but I had to cope, if I wanted to keep my spirit locked inside my anatomy that is.

“Let’s look around, maybe we’ll find something to contact, help with or better yet get out of here with” Jason instructed before, walking off to a self-proclaimed right of direction and shuffling the dust with each stride of his metal tipped boot.

I hummed an agreement before moving off in the opposing way of path and starting off with the cabinets and cupboards, clanging shut behind me as I ruffled its contents to clear a distinct set of tools, unsuccessful so far. A stock of newspaper clippings, magazines and other elements of public cognizance littered the coffee table, which Marie effortlessly brushed past, but I didn’t criticise knowing a pile of past date papers were not going to get us back to civilization. 

I was going through a pot on the table containing an array of assorted pens but also a studded brass compass, tinted a light rose gold, with the flower itself engraved upon the exterior veneer to fin-

 A blood curdling, chilling, horrifying almost paranormal scream was manifested, stopping all of our tracks as its reverberations travelled upward bound to the soles of our feet, and this time all our mouths were shut. And the other impossibility was, that we were in a single floor compartment with no stairs. Where was the sound? More importantly, who was the sound?

Marie shivered and chanted protective charms under her breath, wrapping her fingers with grip till they turned white around her Holy Cross pendant. But in the end, none of it mattered though, we were a scrambled set of young teenagers. Right now, the instincts of our homo sapiens ancestors kick in, the fight or flight that kept us alive till date, we run.

My anxiety got the better of me, getting off the direct income of the scream that lay stagnant in the air, remaining unmoved, unchanged and present amongst us. I slid down the wall, huddling into the corner at a distance, I hugged my knees and beads of sweat formed at my temple, inching their way across the length of my jawline and dropping to the floor in a reservoir for the river. I wrestled against the clutches of my psyche, fighting the words and thought proclamations it instilled through a wire directly to the motor functionality of my brain and mechanical movement of my limbs.

I couldn’t move, the paralysis scared me even more than the event itself as tears cascaded down my face in a surge of crashing waves overtaking stability and making leadership a forgotten concept. But the two “strangers” beside me acted as if they’d known me all my life, placidly accompanying me in my spot and silently comforting me through unspoken and unseen kindness, sent my way by just being there to hold my hand. The fear could be felt through the skin of their palms, and the flesh of their hand, it asserted itself as the alpha, I felt Marie’s trembling and heard the occasional hitch of her breath, as she held the gush of tears inside,  the flush of red painting her cheeks had drained leaving a ghostly pale hue, that had established itself. Jason seemed serene and experienced, but that was not true, he was a scared, disoriented kid, just like the rest of us, and now he didn’t know who he was or where he belonged, but I’m not sure that was related…I’m not sure he knew his meaning before this fiasco. This event brought us together, and I now saw the good in the bad, the silver lining of the storm cloud, but I’d perceive its depth more vividly when we got out of here.

F a i t h   d o e s n ’t   m a k e   p e o p l e   t a k e   a c t i o n ,  f e a r   d o e s…

And I raised up ready to face it.

Just as I got up, my ankle rolled causing me to pin the wall in an attempt to maintain my balance. A noise that defined the word empty, a chasm that was hollowed out and the sudden movement of still particles, both dust and air, catalysing a resonation forever trapped within four walls. My eyes widened and so did my companions’, there was something on the other side.

A split decision of uncovering the wall was taken and soon enough, an axe was through the cedar that composed the wall, a crevice to look through. I gently aligned my eye with the light and blue metal reflected with accents of silver.

“Keep peeling, it’s a car” I yelled ecstatic.

Swung and swung again, a big enough hole was made to get in through it, a secret garage awaited us and within a glass display case, there was a sky blue, classic car design, smooth and sleek, a blend of contemporary innovation and the beauty of the past, when it was first released . Jason gave me a glance, as if to ask permission.

“Do it.” I stated, definitively.

“‘Pleasure.”

He threw the axe onto the glass, which had just enough force to shatter it but capitulate to the ground before doing any damage.

The humane voices that were conversing below till the final step of the escapade we were conducting halted, and we knew that was our signal to leave.

“Get in the car” I whispered, humourless and propaedeutic. The pages were confirmed to be the same, we piled in, and hot-wired the car to start, after smashing the window to reach the lock. The car itself was also completely encrusted in an accumulation of papers and files, but no time to think about that now, we have to leave now.

We drove through the entrance at 50 km per hour, and were met with the culmination of the treacherously developing storm, with rain pouring down and wind blowing the trees past. As we drove through into the sheltered and sequestered cover of the pines, I spotted a second glow of harsh, effervescence cut through the twilight dawn. They were following us! 

“Drive, Drive, Drive!” wailed Marie from the back, as Jason flattened the gas pedal.

But why? Why would they risk this storm, and ignore the fact that the tropical storms round this part are the worst and a lightning hit here, forget the hospital, it would take 2 days for the rangers to locate you. Why did we matter so much? 

The car jerked suddenly, sending a stack of paper flying and as it was administered on my lap, I caught a glimpse of a photograph underneath the headline, it was a raven-haired girl, amber ey-, it was me.

“Wait, isn’t that you?” Marie questioned inquisitively.

“The daughter of the American President is missing?” I recited. “ All these papers are either photographs, news clippings, sitings and public apprehension notifiers or official documents that they shouldn’t even have! The education program declaration, the environmental policy fund files, designs for a strip mall, this…this is a cult”.

“What?” Jason inquired as he looked back analysing the distance between the Cadillac and the Mustang. “What are you talking about?”

“They either want to collapse the world into a rage of anarchy, which is highly unlikely according to this evidence, or prove a point to the government as equity and unnecessary expense rather than actual issues that need to be resolved. They stand for something and they stand against something and they will do anything and everything to get what they want.” I critically concluded, partially empathising with their requirements and opinions. “And they plan to use us.”

“Oh my god” Marie expressed as she stared at the photo of her with her mother, The Queen of England, with glassy eyes and a flimsy hand over her mouth, as she attempted to contemplate it, and place it in her timeline.

“That’s all I recall of my story. At that moment, a tree had fallen on the road and we crashed into it. I memorialise regaining consciousness in a pure white and spotless hospital room, 216, I suppose. I had emergency surgery with a deflated lung and broken ribs. Our encounter was reported to the police and investigations are ongoing as per principle, extra protection and security is denser, regular scans for document misplacements go on every week, drills are run and emergency protocols and hotlines have been set.

The police took my statement and the others’ too. They pieced together the slivers we were able to provide them, and the source of the scream was located, Kim Haerin, daughter of a influential and dominant leader in the Korean Province, but they were interrupted in the nick of time and she survived the night. Scotland Yard got to her at the crack of dawn as the sun tinged the sky pink from the deep blue gradient the moon shone bright in. They were trying to make her give them nuclear launch codes for a special facility available only there and their cause was not approved by the leaders.

Unfortunately, the fugitives still run free. But they will not be a bother to society or our community any longer. Their cause for concern is right but slow is better. Consistent and constant change through little steps, helps us accommodate to the changes and innovate and think creatively as to engineering a solution. Big, sudden changes can make the scenario worse, taking the problem to needless dramatic extents.”

“But I promise, our Earth will be taken care of, as well as our people, we just need a little faith”

Regards, to the people of the Earth,

From the President’s office,

Evelyn Cooper.

By Kayal S