A/N : Hello it's TobiasEverdeen again and this is chapter 2! I got two reviews... *le spazz* So Thank You! Again I didn't do any editing or spellcheck/grammar, anyways on with the story! :)
OSTRACIZE
CHAPTER 2
"Mila!" I snap out of my daze as someone yells my name, and lunges towards me knocking me off balance, and smacking me onto the ground.
That person falls on me, and I feel uncomfortable. The person gets off me, and I finally see who it is, Lorcan. He looks at me for a second, and shifts his gaze to the wolflike creature, I can see it clearer now.
It has fierce yellow eyes that look terrifying. Its coat is as black as the night sky that is above me. Its claws, and teeth though are red with blood, and they are razor sharp. Blood drips down from its mouth.
It snarls, and stares at Lorcan. He doesn't cower though, Lorcan is brave. He holds the long knife in front of him, ready to attack. I admire him for that, for saving my life, and his bravery. Great, I think, I owe him again. I hate owing people, I don't like to live like that either, but if I don't do something for him I'll feel terrible.
The creature growls loudly, and jumps not towards Lorcan, but at me. It bares its fangs, and claws, and its eyes glint in the moonlight. Before it does anything, it quickly gets stopped by Lorcan.
He jabs the wolflike creature in the stomach, with his arms length knife.
The beast's blood spurts in my face, and it feels warm, it's disgusting. I gag at the smell.
I get up, and see that Lorcan is pulling the knife out of its stomach. I crawl to my knees, and then stand effortlessly.
He finally tugs the knife free, and the creature lays there, motionless.
"Come on, it isn't safe here," Lorcan motions for me to follow him. I don't go though, I don't want to leave my... Allies? "Hurry up, you can bring your friends." He finally says.
"Fine, let's follow him." I nod to Cyra, Toby, and Micah.
We run away from all the screaming, and shadows, and blood. Leaves, brush, and branches cut my face as I run. It has stopped raining, and the night sky is clear so that you can see the full moon, and the glowing stars. For some reason I have the urge to go back, and help them. But why would I? I have to survive not THEM.
We reach a clearing, and I can see a silhouette of a tall tree.
"Climb," says Lorcan. We all stare at him wide eyed like he is the craziest person on earth.
"I said climb," his voice is louder now.
"Fine, don't. You're going to die out here then." He shrugs. Then he digs the knife into the tree, and lifts his feet up to a knot on the bark.
He keeps on climbing with ease, up to a fork in the tree.
"Well? Are you going to stay down there?" He yells to us from up above.
"Well, I don't want to die." I say.
I head over to the tree, and put one of my hands on a knot. I try to lift myself up, but it's not as easy as it looks, Lorcan did it so well though, why can't I?
"Here." Lorcan shouts, and throws down the knife. I grab it, and stick it into the tree.
This is easier, but not by much.
I realize I'm halfway up, but I don't want to look down, it will surely scare me.
But I do look down, and see that Micah is behind me, followed by Cyra, then Toby. I feel dizzy, and then I start to wobble, I'm going to fall now. I will die because I fell off a tree, after I survived the beasts, that would be an idiotic way to die.
But I feel arms wrap around me, and the trunk, and someone's chest against my back. I can feel steady breaths against my neck. I stop wobbling, and instead I shiver, and the hairs of the back of my neck stand. It feels weird, I have never had contact with anyone other than my family. Not even friends, well I didn't even have any... Except, maybe Nero, but he died, I don't want to think about him anymore, because I'm still depressed about his dying.
The only way you would meet someone is at the Assemble Building for events, or just outside around your neighborhood, and I didn't go out very much.
The arms snap back instantly after a few seconds, and I look up at Lorcan. It's as if he has jealousy written all over him in Sharpie, I can tell by the look on his face.
I start to climb again, and I reach the sturdy branch Lorcan's sitting on. He reaches his hand over, and I grab it, maybe a bit too tightly because my knuckles turn white.
I hand him the knife, and Micah scrambles onto the branch. His cheeks are red, and I know why. I feel like I should slap him, but I don't do it, he helped me I guess... Or did he do that because... Because he likes me? No! I try to clear that thought away, but I don't. I mean, I'm not pretty, and plus he just met me anyways, he couldn't.
Then Cyra, and Toby mount atop the branch. I open my mouth to ask: "Are you okay?" But it doesn't come out because I get interrupted by a shriek of fear.
There it is again, and I see a shadow of a girl running to the tree, she's being chased by one of those wolflike creatures. She reaches the tree, and tries to scramble up it, screeching for help from us.
She manages to make it past halfway up, but the beast hasn't given up, and it's clawing the trunk, and jumping, trying to reach her.
"Meriall," Cyra yells, she must know her. "Meriall." She shouts again.
Meriall is taking one more step up to a small branch, that looks floppy, when she does it snaps, and she falls with it plummeting to the ground.
I barely just see Meriall, and her limbs bent at awkward angles, but that doesn't last long. The creature starts ripping her apart, and guts spew everywhere. I can't look so I turn around to face Lorcan, he is staring down at her.
Cyra loudly cries out a sad sob. Toby hugs her, and leans in, but he hesitates, is he going to kiss her? I was right he presses his lips to hers without thinking, but Cyra pulls away swifly.
She looks at him in astonishment. Then her eyes turn puffy, and red, she blinks many times, and I know she's holding back tears.
Cyra shoves past us, and climbs to the next sturdy branch.
"I-I think I'm going to go apologize," Toby says quietly, almost a whisper. "See you tomorrow." With that he climbs to the same branch that Cyra sits at.
"Umm... I think I'm gonna sleep too." Micah says hesitantly.
"Okay." Me, and Lorcan reply in unison. We look at each other, and I can't help but suppress a smile after all that's happened today. He smiles back.
Micah moves over almost to the edge of the branch, and takes a sleeping bag from the supply bag that I almost forgot I had. He lays down, and falls asleep.
I look down. The beast runs away from the tree, and all I can see below is deep dark splotches of blood, and insides.
Then I remember something, I open up my bag, and reach into the pocket of my crumpled jeans that I wore earlier today. I find the coin with the bear on it, and pull it out.
It glints in the moonlight, it's like a flashlight, reflecting light into the distance.
"What's that?" I look to where the sound came from, and it's Lorcan, I forgot he was here.
"Oh. Umm... Just, nothing," I reply flatly.
"I asked what it is. It's definitely something, or else you wouldn't be holding IT." Lorcan retorts.
"I don't — I mean — Just here, take it." I say handing him the coin.
He looks at it, and furrows his eyebrows in curiosity.
"Hmm... It looks like a Toonie," he remarks, a bit too brightly.
"A what?" I ask confused.
"A Toonie. It's like Threnk, but instead..." Threnk was our method of paying things around here.
"It was called... Umm..." He looks up, and blows air out of the side of his mouth. Then he looks back at me, obviously he didn't know the word.
"Money. Instead of Threnk it was called money, in the past. This used to be worth two Threnk, back then." He explains, it's like he's a history expert.
"You see, Eruthelore used to be called Canada, or United States, I'm not sure where we are now," he says. "Anyways, where'd you get it?" He continues.
I feel like I shouldn't tell him, but I can't resist, and I do.
"My dad," I say. "But he didn't say where he got it." Lorcan hands me back the 'Toonie', and I slip it into my pocket.
"Oh." Lorcan says, and he opens his mouth to say something else, but I have something else on my mind, and I interrupt him.
"Why were you looking at me? Why did you save me?" The words just blurt out of my mouth, and I regret asking that.
"Umm..." His face turns bright red, and I laugh. He manages a smile, his teeth are bright white, and straight.
"Why?" I insist.
"Well... Because... Uh..." He doesn't know what to say, and I think I know what he IS trying to say.
I laugh again, as his cheeks turn more red.
"Because I like watching people." He says, and I know he is a liar. He's a bad liar.
"You like watching people get changed?"
I ask raising one eyebrow. This comment makes Lorcan's face even more red than it was before.
"No... I mean..." He lets out a frustrated sigh.
"You're a bad liar." I say laughing quietly.
"Yes. Yes I am a bad liar," he responds after a few seconds, looking up at the star covered sky.
It's one of my first times seeing stars. Usually lights from houses, and buildings are shining, blocking any stars from sparkling in the dark sky.
"Aren't you planning on saying something else?" I ask, and I know he'll say he doesn't, but I know he does because he looks embarrassed by something.
"Well... Umm... No. I don't have anything to say." He's worse than even Colbin. Liar.
"But you DO have something to say though, don't you?" I implore.
He sighs, he might declare himself, but he's hard to crack.
"Why are YOU so interested in knowing? Hmm?" I knew it, he won't say anything. But he'll ask about me instead.
My cheeks turn hot, and I know I'm blushing.
"I asked you first." I say jokingly, maybe he'll buy that?
"You know what? Fine, I'll tell you," he is going to tell me now, and I don't know what to expect. "I like..." He is going to say it, now. "...To save people." He says in a bright voice, and smiles. Why is it so hard for him to tell me? I frown because I'm frustrated of playing this kids game.
I let out a loud sigh. He looks at me, and he knows I'm upset. Maybe it wasn't best for him to do that.
"Lorcan, it's obvious," I say, and my voice is louder than normal. "I know why you saved me. I know why you looked at me. Just give up, and declare yourself."
"What? What's so obvious? I know what's obvious, that Micah likes you." I freeze at what he said, I didn't expect that at all.
"No," I say, my voice is almost in a shout now. "YOU like me. Not Micah. Why do I have to say that for you? Why couldn't you have said that? Three simple words: I like you." Micah made it obvious today that he likes me, but I tell Lorcan he doesn't.
"Fine, I like you," he says quietly. "There I said it, you happy now?" He seems angry, but I don't know why he tried to hide it if it was so obvious.
"Yes, I'm happy," I smile at him, he doesn't smile back though. "I like you too." I say in a whisper.
We stay there in silence for a moment, avoiding any eye contact. Then Lorcan finally speaks up.
"Did I hear you say you like me?" He seems less angrier, and he smiles.
"What does it matter to you?" I snap, I'm still angry.
He sighs, and I realize he was just holding back his anger because his voice is louder, and a bit frightening.
"I told you why it matters," he stares at the blood, and gut covered ground beneath us. "Because I like you."
"Yeah. I know you do, but—" I get cut off.
Lorcan leans in, and I think he's going to kiss me, I'm shaking, and feel nervous of what's about to occur.
He kisses me on the cheek, and I feel like I just got electrocuted. It sends trills of energy through my body, and something stirs in my stomach but I can't quite place it.
When he pulls back I feel bubbly, and I have this weird type of feeling that I've never had before. I blush.
"Why do you like me?" This question is bugging me, and I want him to answer it.
"You're brave, and independent, and strong, like the way you stood up to Lazarus, remember? You're pretty, and you're—" I interrupt him.
"I am not pretty." I almost yell.
"Okay, so you're not pretty? Well to me you are. You are the most beautiful girl I have ever seen. You have that one thing, that I need. I don't know what it is though." This makes my stomach churn, it feels good. But I blush anyways.
To be honest, I don't know what to say to him, so we just sit there staring at each other, and his eyes melt me.
"So? Umm..." I brake that silence, and I feel guilty.
"Mila." he puts his hand on my cheek, and moves his thumb in circles. I put one finger to his mouth because I don't want him to speak.
He leans in, and presses his lips to mine, but he pulls back before we almost touch, this is all new to me so I must've done something wrong.
He just scans my face, and maybe looks a bit surprised?
"You don't care?" I don't know what he's talking about.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that you didn't slap me, or anything like that."
"Well, this is all new to me, and I wouldn't slap you."
"This is new to me too."
He smiles, and puts his hands on my cheeks. They feel warm, and I shiver now. He leans in, and presses his lips to mine, this time he doesn't pull away when we touch our lips together. The energy spreads through my body, and the churning in my stomach is growing faster. After I don't know how long we've been like this we finally pull away. My first kiss, and I loved it.
I move closer to him so that we are sharing the same air. I hesitate at this but then I wrap my arms around his neck. He puts his arms on my hips, and pulls me in closer. His chest is against mine, and I can feel his heartbeat quickening like mine. I am scared of this just like he is. He kisses me under my chin, then he kisses my forehead, then my cheek, and his lips creep to my lips. I shiver, and grip his shirt tightly, hoping he won't notice.
But he pulls back, and whispers in my ear.
"Why are you afraid of me?"
I release my grip on his shirt, and draw back my hands to my sides, Lorcan frowns.
"I-I already told you, this is all new to me, and I don't know what to expect. I mean you're two years older than I am, and..." I don't know what else to say.
"How do you know I'm two years older than you?" Lorcan asks, curious.
"Umm... I just assumed. I mean I didn't know you were eighteen." I answer back politely.
"Oh. Anyways, as I've said before, this is new to me too, Mila. And, yeah that humongous two year gap is really unconquerable don't you think?" He meant the ladder jokingly, and it's true but I'm still not sure.
"I know," I admit. "But... Can we just take it slow?"
"Okay." Lorcan hugs me, and I swing my arms around him.
"Mila," I hear someone's voice, and it's growing louder as it repeats my name.
"Mila. Mila. Mila!" Now someone is shaking my shoulder, but I don't want to wake up. I hear a sigh, then someone kisses me gently on the cheek, Lorcan.
I open my eyes, and try to blink the sleep out of them, then I rub my eyes with my hands. I look at Lorcan who's face, and lips are inches from mine. I move back, and hit the back of my head against the trunk of the tree.
"Owch!" I exclaim, rubbing the back of my head with my hand. My head is starting to throb now, great.
"Sorry. Are you okay?" He scoots over to me.
I groan. "Yeah, I'm okay. If you minus the fact that my head is pounding." I grunt.
Lorcan touches the bump on the back of my head softly. I wince as he does, and he snaps his hand back, looking at my eyes sadly, but he doesn't coddle me.
It's very early, and the sun is just barely rising.
Then my stomach rumbles, and I notice I haven't eaten lately, I'm not thirsty though, oddly.
Lorcan laughs, I like his laugh, it isn't deep, but it's a kind of light laugh. I can't help it so I roll my eyes.
"Looks like someone's hungry." He says it sarcastically, poking me in the stomach, forcing me to suppress a laugh.
I look behind Lorcan, and see that Micah is already awake, but he looks sad, and I knew that Lorcan was right.
But he tries not to show it.
"Well, I'm hungry too, and thirsty." Lorcan jumps, and almost falls off the branch. He would've if Micah hadn't tugged the hem of Lorcan's shirt.
I laugh again, and he shoots daggers at me, but I continue laughing.
"What was that, Lorcan? Scaredy cat." I say.
"Mila. Please. Just, shut up," Lorcan says obviously annoyed. "Micah, next time, please give warning when you're about to talk?"
"Why? Are you scared?" Micah says proudly.
"No! No I'm not scared, it's just..." There he goes again. I should call Lorcan from now on: 'The Very Bad Liar'.
"Lorcan, better off you don't lie because you just make things worse for yourself." Micah tells him.
"I'm that bad of a liar?" He asks.
"Yeah. You are." I interrupt.
"Oh yeah? And how do you know that?" Now he's trying to throw me under the bus. I like him at times, but mostly, well he annoys me.
My face turns red, I don't want to tell Micah that Lorcan likes me, or else Micah would be devastated.
Then Toby, and Cyra come down from the branch above us that they were sleeping in. Just in time, good.
"So? What's new?" Toby asks.
My eyes gaze over to Toby, and Cyra's interlocked hands, they smile at each other.
"Well look at you," I exclaim. "What happened to you last night? Hmm?" I question raising my eyebrow.
They both look at their hands, and let go of each others hands.
"N-Nothing," Toby stutters.
Cyra laughs.
"What?" He says nudging her.
Cyra puts her hand on his chest, and leans in, Toby puts his hands on Cyra's hips. They kiss, and it's just them in their own world, they'll ignore us so I just look at Lorcan.
He runs over my face hungrily, and I know what he wants, but that can't happen because Micah is here, and I don't want him to feel bad. So I give him a dirty look, and he looks away.
"Yeah. That SOMETHING that happened last night... We just well, you know talked, and THIS happened between us." Cyra says happily, feeling for Toby's hand, and they interlock fingers again.
"Oh." I say looking at Lorcan, he grins. That's EXACTLY what just happened between us last night, I smirk.
"Well half of you are probably already dead from last night's attack, and you're all probably scattered everywhere, so there should be only minor attacks now unless we somehow manage to bunch up together, and we should search for food, and water." Lorcan says matter-of-factly, I agree because now my stomach is aching for food.
"Yes please." I plead.
"Okay, but first we should check what you have in the bag since we have the time right now." He says.
I snatch my bag from the branch, open it up, and find a sleeping bag, a water bottle, (with no water sadly), a knife, some matches, some weird looking sunglasses, and my clothes that I wore yesterday to the Exude. I stuff everything in my bag again, but make sure to keep the knife in my hand because you never know what's going to happen here.
"Careful when you use that Mila." Lorcan says tauntingly, I scowl at him.
"Well I'm going to wait for you down there, see you." Then Lorcan swings his feet to the trunk, and starts scaling down.
"Well... I hope I don't fall, here goes nothing." I stab the knife into the trunk, and TRY to move down the tree, but I'm moving as fast as a turtle.
I swore to myself I wouldn't look down after what happened yesterday, so I keep my oath. Instead I look up, and see that Micah is slowly making his way down, followed by Toby, then Cyra.
It feels like I've been climbing for hours, but it's only been a few minutes. My hands are starting to throb with pain, just as my head does.
I glance down for a bit, and Lorcan is a few feet from the bottom, I am several feet from were he is. It was a horrendous mistake to look down, I broke my promise. I feel queasy as I was last night, and bile comes up into my mouth, I swallow it back into my stomach.
I drag my foot down to the next foothold, but I am too dizzy to feel it. I slip, and my hands let loose of the branch, and the knot I'm holding on to.
Then I fall, my mouth is open but I can't tell if I'm screaming because the wind is screeching past my ears, and whipping my hair into my face. My eyes are closed so I can't see anything, and even if I had my eyes open, I would be going to fast to see anything.
Then I have the same thought as I had yesterday, I am going to die right now. Then I hit something, the forest floor.
A/N : Noo, is Mila going to die? Probably not cuz I'm working on chapter 5 rite now... Kinda short chapter sorry :/ But that's cause it was the only way to leave you with a cliffhanger! I like leaving people with cliffhangers ;) Anyways I will try to update faster, I'm updating pretty slow cuz I'm writitng this story on my IPod and then transfering them to my computer, and then posting it! And I needed to come up with a name for the country/nation/city/town/whatever you want to call it (Okay I know the place) so that's why it took me even longer to update chapter two! As always please review it keeps me writing! Thx, Bye! ;)