Waiting for the End.
Ch. 1
This is not the end.
A/N~ Haters, they be hatin'~ Trolls, they be trollin'~ Flamers, they be flamin'~ Hounds, they be houndin'~ And haters, they be hatin'~ Hater's gonna hate~ X3
Ah, Ode to Thy Trolls United, thine refuses to obey thee's wish of termination. So SUCK IT~
Thanks to all the love from mine and StormSeeker123's supporters on this! Enjoy the revamped version!
Writers unite, and Revolt!
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Raining…
It was raining. Again.
'It's the tenth time this month…' she thought, staring blankly out of the broken, dirty window.
Piper blinked slowly, her brown eyes slightly glazed, as she watched rain drops hit the cracked glass and slither down the termite-bitten window sill. Ghostly shadows danced against the splintered walls around her, each rain drop casting its own dark imprint onto the old surfaces. She vaguely noted in the back of her head that she or her sister would have to climb up onto the thin metal roof and weigh it down with more rocks later; the metal sheets were rattling from the howling wind, and a draft was starting to pour into the rundown shanty. Although, the small shack wasn't exactly insulated to begin with, or very hospitable. But then again, she was somewhat thankful it was rain and now snow…
The shanty was about eight feet wide and seven feet long, barely big enough to fit three people. The wood of the old shanty was splintered, moldy, and termite ridden. Rusty nails stuck out in numerous places, some older than others; a good few of them were recently re-used to try and seal up holes and hold down planks, though they had been poorly hammered due to amateur hands that had to use rocks for hammers.
Bugs crawled here and there, mostly harmless, but most scary looking. All that was in the old shed was trash from people who no doubt once used it, as well as the occasional homeless person. It smelt of rotting wood, rusted metal, and other unmentionable smells that she nor her sister dared to name.
But, it was home for now…
'It's a better home than back there…' she thought bitterly, unconsciously glaring at the back wall, her overgrown nails digging harshly into the soft, rotting wood of the floor she sat on.
"Piper…?" a tired voice called.
Blinking away her haze, the named girl swiftly turned her head to look behind herself, her short pigtails rustling from the swift turn. She sighed as she watched her sister rise into a sitting position from their bed. Their little nest consisted mainly of their own clothes and an old tarp they found inside the shanty they now resided in, as well as their backpacks.
Piper watched her sister wipe the sleep from her equally brown eyes and her free hand grope along the top of a 'table' for her glasses. Said table was merely a piece of jagged wood on top of an overturned bucket.
"Here…" Piper picked the square rimmed glasses up, seeing as her sister wasn't finding them, and handed them to her, "Did I wake you?"
"Hmm? No, just couldn't sleep that well." Said the short haired blond.
Piper nodded and sighed, crossing her legs together.
Piper was a young girl a little over five feet tall, and had black hair tied into two short pigtails. She wore a plain, worn black tee-shirt with ripped sleeves, and grey-black jeans with larger-than-life holes in the knees. She is normally seen wearing a black and purple hoodie, but that was currently being used as bedding in their little sleeping pile. She had a white bandage over her left cheek from a recent injury, and wore skull studded earrings. And on her left shoulder, just on the knob, was a star shaped birthmark. Her clunky black boots, both of which were caked with mud on the bottoms, sat by the poor excuse for a door.
"You me both…" she yawned, tired but like her sister, unable to sleep.
Pepper nodded and stretched the stiffness out of her arms, adjusting her glasses.
Pepper, Piper's older fraternal twin sister by five minutes, was maybe an inch or two shorter than Piper and had very short blond hair, but the same colored eyes. She wore a black and royal blue stripped shirt riddled with numerous holes, and a worn, tattered blue-black plaid scarf around her neck. Her glasses, while not new, were in rather poor condition and cracked in a few places, the lenses smudged and foggy. She wore vintage washed blue jeans with holes like Piper's in the knees, her old-as-dirt and torn at the seams sneakers over next to her sister's large boots; they were also caked in mud. She also had a birthmark, but on the knob of her right shoulder, and was in the shape of a crescent moon.
Both of them were in poor conditions. Their clothes were filthy and had numerous tears and holes. They were both thin and malnourished, having not eaten in almost two days. They had plenty of water at least; the constant rain was continuously filling the buckets they kept outside for them, and the small creak nearby was clean and safe to drink out of. Cuts and bruises littered their bodies, most of which were concealed by their clothes, but still noticeable on their arms and faces.
"So…" Piper started, "It's barely even morning, what should we do?" she asked.
"I'd like for us to get some breakfast but…" Pepper trailed off, sighing.
"Yeah…" Piper nodded, frowning at the floor.
Primarily during their stay in the shanty, they would slip into the nearby town and scavenge the restaurant dumpsters for any food. But they were recently caught, and from then on the dumps have been under heavy watch to keep away the 'homeless trash'. One of the restaurants even got guard dogs! All because they wanted some lousy old sandwiches the place wasn't even going to serve and just throw away!
"Bakas…" Piper growled.
"Yup…" Pepper agreed, just as disgruntled, 'Who in their right mind uses dogs to guard DUMPSTERS?' she thought.
Silence descended upon the two sisters at that moment, as if all hope of a decent conversation had suddenly fell over and died. Which was kind of the case at the time. Both of them were just too tired and hungry to talk.
Pepper lowered her gaze and shifted them to the two bags being used as pillows. The dark blue one with the embroidered moon was hers, the purple one with the black kitty patch was Piper's. Inside her bag was simply a knitted hat, some yarn and knitting needles, some paper, charcoal, a flashlight with a low battery, and an extra shirt. Piper's bag had a handheld sketchbook with a single pen, two or three manga books, a traveling sewing kit, some cloth, her favorite fingerless gloves, and a dull pocket knife. Both of them had a colored ribbon tied to their straps, one purple, the other a royal blue; they had faint red stains on them, a painful reminder of what she and her sister had experienced before they left home…
There was also a dull hatchet and some rope in the corner, both of which had been found in the shanty and used for most of their means of survival.
"Well…" Piper started, standing up uneasily from fatigue, "No sense in sitting here and starving." She said.
"You're not going out to try and hunt again, are you?" Pepper asked, worried for her younger sister.
"We don't have much of a choice sis," Piper said, slipping on her hoodie and digging the pocket knife out of her bag. She stuffed it into the pocket of her hoodie and slung her bag over her shoulder, turning to Pepper, "You gonna come?" she asked.
Pepper sighed, shaking her head at her sister's stubbornness. The last time they had tried to catch something, both had come back with more cuts and bruises then when they left, and had only succeeded in catching each other in their so called 'traps'. They tried fishing, but only ended up getting soaking wet and risking themselves to sickness. The only outdoor technique they could somewhat manage was starting a small fire, and they couldn't bring that into the shanty unless they wanted to burn it down.
'Maybe we'll get lucky this time?' she wondered, then frowned to herself. Since when were they ever lucky?
"Sis?" Piper asked, giving her sister a worried look, "You don't have to come if you-"
"No, I'll go with you," Pepper said, steadily getting up as well and giving her sister a light smile, "Can't have my little sister getting stuck in her own trap without help now can I?" she teased.
Piper stuck her tongue out at her, "Yeah, and who exactly was it that ran face-first into a tree because she tripped over a pebble?" she said, grabbing the hatchet and strapping it to the loose belt of her bag strap.
"Oh shut up! You got caught in your own trap!" Pepper laughed as she and her sister got their shoes on and tied some rope to her waist for later use.
"…you tripped over a pebble."
"Yes Piper, I tripped over a pebble, you got caught in your own trap. We're both klutz's."
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"Geez, maybe we should have waited for the rain to let up a bit?" Pepper said, wiping her glasses of rainwater for what had to be the millionth time.
"Yeah, maybe, but then we would have been stuck in that shed all day." Piper said.
"Still, would have been easier, not all of use wear boots you know."
"No excuses for not wearing boots."
Pepper rolled her eyes playfully, adjusting her glasses over the bridge of her nose. She stopped however when she realized where they were going.
Piper, noticing her sister was not following her, turned around and looked at her.
"What's up? Change your mind?" She asked curiously. Pepper frowned uncertainly.
"Piper, don't you remember this trail?" Pepper asked, giving her sister a somewhat uneasy look.
Piper blinked and looked back into the tunnel of foliage she had planned to enter. It took her a moment, but after a while, she seemed to remember what was down there and cringed.
"Right…" she sighed, suddenly both angry and depressed. She heard Pepper sigh behind her.
"Let's try a different trail," she said, "There wasn't really that much down there anyways when we first went there…"
Piper nodded numbly, still gazing into the dark depths of the wooded tunnel. She couldn't help but feel some other emotion besides unease. That place had always given her an odd feeling. Not so much as to be called a bad or creepy feeling, but more of an uneasy caution. Like an instinct that only ever awakens in a person when there is a strong foreboding. Both she and her sister got the feeling from that trail, and it always seemed to get stronger every time they came within a small distance of the trail. Though it wasn't the reason why they stayed away from it…
"Piper!" She heard Pepper call, "Come on or we'll get separated!"
"Oh, coming!" Piper called, seeing her sister now a few yards off to start on a separate trail. She quickly ran and caught up to her, but only after risking another glance at the dark trail she and her sister both vowed never to enter so long ago…
A couple hours or so later found Piper and Pepper heading down a small trail they sometimes took to either try and find food, water, or do their own personal business. So far, not much was being seen, not even a bird or lizard in sight. It would be evening soon, and both were starving and having no luck in finding any form of food…
"This is stupid…" Piper rasped, both frustrated and a little put out from their lack of progress, as well as fatigue.
"I know sis, but we gotta keep trying…" Pepper sighed, looking through yet another bush to try and find either a small animal or maybe some berries. No such luck yet…
"We've been up and down this trail for hours, sis," Piper said, "If we haven't found something yet, I doubt we'll find anything now." She reasoned. Pepper looked up at her, a bit frustrated.
"Then what do you suggest we do?" she asked.
Piper got an odd look on her face. But Pepper knew this look well.
"Piper…?" She urged.
"A while back…" Piper started, frowning at the ground, "I remember seeing a large thicket of black berries." She said. Pepper perked up both in surprise and apprehension.
"Really? Where? When was this?" She asked, eager to hopefully find some food.
"…it was back there…" Piper said, almost too quietly for Pepper to hear.
But she heard her. She heard her loud and clean, and suddenly a cold ball of dread dropped into Pepper's empty stomach. She froze up and shuddered, turning her gaze downwards. Of course, where else would sick irony put their last hope of food?
"So…" Piper started, "What do you wanna do?" she asked her sister, looking at her with a mix of determination and hesitation.
Pepper looked back at her younger sister, unable to deny the look in the pigtailed girl's eyes; she was going in there with or without her sister, even if she protested against it. Piper was a very stubborn girl, and had an overly large sense of duty to those she cared about. Even if there was a single piece of candy inside of a burning building, she would waste no time in going in and getting it to bring back to share with her sister. If it would help them or would determine their survival, Piper acts before she thinks.
But there was a reason the girls did not go there. That trail was…there was just something off about it. No one went there. It was that one place every small town has that everyone knows to stay away from. It was dangerous. No one knew why, but it just was.
"If you go there, you will never return…" they cringed internally at the familiar voice, spoken to them only mere weeks ago.
People never went there because people never came back. Kids who went there on dares never came back, and bodies were never found. Hikers, explorers, tourists, or people who were unfortunate and got lost who went down that trail never came back. The girls could clearly remember the various 'missing person' posters at the grocery store every now and again. The posters were years old, the locals long since learning to stay away. Not even kids go there because of the all too real danger of the unknown.
Call them superstitious or paranoid, but when some fifty plus people have gone missing in a single area, with no one ever being found, that usually calls for grounds to be cautious.
"…you're going to go even if I say no, aren't you?" she said, more as a statement than an actual question.
"Yup." No hesitation. Pepper sighed.
"Then I guess I'm going with you." She said.
"You don't have too…" Piper said.
"I want to though…"
Piper slowly nodded, adjusting the strap of her bag.
"Alright…" She said, "Well, let's get going."
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Both stood before the entrance to the dark trail to where Piper last saw the thicket of black berries. And it seemed the closer they got to it, the hungrier they became. Now it wasn't so much a matter of hesitation, but more of a matter of how fast they could go in and get out with their food. And hopefully their lives.
If it was still there that is. It's been a whole month since they last went down that trail, and that was only because they got lost and got out before anything could happen. They were playing a small gamble as to whether the bush was still there or not…
They both gave each other one last look, as if to gauge the other's reaction or see if the other changed their mind. Hesitation was present in their eyes, but also a sense of determination. They proceeded down the trail without a second thought. It was silent for the first ten minutes of the trek, but it was eventually broken by Pepper.
"It's kind of weird…" she said, looking around.
"What is?" Piper asked curiously.
"Well, even though we've only been down here briefly, I've noticed that there's no noise or animals," Pepper said, "But over by our shed and down the other trails, there's birds, lizards, bugs, everything. So why not over here?" she asked.
Piper frowned at this, looking around in the trees and bushes. Her sister was right though; whenever she or her sister same close to or near the mouth of the trail, it was still as death with hardly any wildlife. It was like this even before they came to the area. It hadn't really bothered Piper up until her sister brought it up. All the other trails they took had tons of wildlife (all of which they seemed incapable of catching), but this trail never so much as had a rabbit or bird…
'Did whatever cause those disappearances go after animals too?' Piper thought with a frown, 'Or are the animals just smart enough to stay away?'
"Yeah, that is a bit odd…" she said, now a bit on edge due to her natural paranoia.
Pepper watched her sister's eyes shift to every direction they would look to, a little bit nervous now. She was starting to wonder if maybe some large predator lived down the trail, or something more sinister. The local kids always had some legend or theory. Mostly having to do with ghosts, monsters, mythical creatures – there were even some who said the end of the trail led to another dimension. The girls didn't give much thought to the last theory, and were more inclined to believe a rogue animal lived there. Maybe a bear or mountain lion lived around there? She didn't know. But she was a bit thankful that her sister brought the hatchet and pocket knife. Although they would be somewhat useless against a large predator, now that she thought about it…
'Or a monster…' she thought.
"We're almost there…" Piper said quietly, as if afraid of waking up some kind of beast.
Both girls softened their footsteps, the foliage under their feet crunching softly and the dirt shifting soundlessly. They took their time walking until they entered a small clearing, the very end of the trail.
The clearing was maybe about ten feet wide and twelve feet across, and in a slight oblong shape. Most of it was covered in harmless ivy leaves and bushes and trees. The light rain was almost completely blocked out by the thick tree canopy above them. And right in the back of the clearing, was a black berry thicket…
"There they are…" Piper said.
Pepper nodded, but neither made a move towards the bush of small fruits. That heavy weight of foreboding and dread was pressing harder into their guts. The air was thick with an ominous air, like they were being watched by something utterly evil. They could hear and feel their hearts beating against their ribs, and they had to wonder if whatever was out here could hear it too.
A full ten minutes passed before any of the girls moved. Pepper swallowed dryly as he stomach grumbled. She reached over and placed a comforting hand on her sister's rigid shoulder, causing her to flinch.
"Just an in and out deal…" she said, "Fast and easy, like a bandaid."
"Yeah…" Piper said, starting to compose herself, "Like a bandaid…"
Using every ounce of their self-control, both girls forced their feet to move and speed-walked to the berry bushes.
Together the two picked the berries in silence, each filling the small inner pouch in their bags with the dark ripe fruits. They vaguely noted how large they were and the slight discoloration along the tops, but wrote it off as them being wild.
Ten to fifteen minutes passed before the pockets of their bags were full, and their own hunger drove them to take a break. They sat down under a tree on the far right side of the clearing just at the edge of the berry bushes.
"God I'm starving…" Piper rasped, digging into the pocket of her bag to take out a few berries.
"Me too," Pepper said, equally exhausted, "But let's just eat the berries off the vines and save the ones in our bags for later."
"Oh, right." Piper said, putting her handful of berries away.
Both sat back and deftly started picking berries off of the vines again, this time popping them into their mouths instead of their bags. The berries also tasted different too; instead of a more tart and sweet flavor of store bought black berries, they were more mellow and tangy-sweet. They almost had a tongue-tingly feeling you normally get from drinking soda. But despite their odd flavor, they were very good.
The girls seemed to fully forget about that strange, ominous feeling the trail gave them. Slowly it seemed to bleed away from their resolve, and they started to relax in the natural setting, both shielded from the rain by the dark canopy.
By now, the girls had devoured a good amount from the bushes before their hunger was even remotely sated. They practically ate two and a half bushes worth of berries before they were finally satisfied and full.
"Ahh…" Piper sighed, picking a seed from her teeth, "SO much better."
"I know!" Pepper laughed, licking some berry juice that had leaked onto her fingers and lips, "They filled us up pretty well too."
"Good thing too, I was honestly starting to consider taking a note from cows and eating the grass." Piper said with a silly grin.
Pepper laughed and rolled her eyes, both lying back against the tree they were under. They stared up into the light-speckled canopy in wonder. The darkness of the canopy mixed with the tiny slivers of light reminded them of the night sky. There was only one large hole in the canopy that let a little bit of light through in a full circle that reminded them of a moon.
"It's pretty out here…" Piper commented wistfully.
"Yeah…" Pepper said quietly.
A sudden wave of drowsiness passed over them. Both had not slept more than an hour the entire time they were staying in their little shack, and the tree and the grass they were on suddenly seemed like a luxury sofa…
"Peps…" Piper started sleepily, "M'tired…"
"Mm-hm…me too…" Pepper yawned, her eyes drifting closed and her head lolling against Piper's shoulder.
"Hmm…" Piper hummed, her own eyes dropping closed as her own head clunked against Pepper's, unable to fight the urge to sleep any longer.
They were both asleep within minutes…
To be continued…
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A/N~ Nope, not gonna be kept down. All you haters, hounds, and trolls can kiss my ass and eat sh**!
~Mazula and StormSeeker123 (aka Earthquakes123)