Chapter 2 - An Object in Motion

With a battle cry, I took a running start and jabbed my spear at the spider queen's head. I wasn't actually aiming for her eyes, but by some miracle my spear its target. It plunged through one of the six eyes on the spider's head and stuck there with a squelch. I pulled back on the spear, but it refused to come back.

Oh, perfect.

The spider queen writhed, jerking her whole body backwards and taking me with it. My stomach hit the dirt with a thud, knocking the wind out of me. As I struggled to breath, my only thought was to hang on to the spear. Screeching, the spider flailed its legs and tossed its head in the air; the shaft tore away from my hands, and I fell on my side, disoriented.

I gasped as I felt a sharp pain rip through my leg. With a shuddering breath, my uninjured arm searched for the cause. My fingers probed the painful spot and came away wet. Although my head was feeling cloudy, I was coherent enough to process that I had been cut, probably by one of the spider queen's sharp appendages.

Rolling over, I took in the situation. The spider queen was too close for comfort. She had the shaft of the spear still stuck in her eye, but it was now broken and less obtrusive. With the eyes that were left, she glared at me and gave a low growl.

I took a breath. "Okay Higgsbury, think through your options."

What do I have? My weapon is gone, and I'm bleeding all over the place. No bandages...

I tried to get up, but the wound in my leg responded with a burning pain. I bit my lip until it bled—my spider bite was nothing compared to this. One thing was for certain: I wasn't going anywhere. Already I could feel my consciousness slipping; it was becoming more and more difficult to focus with every breath.

"Oh no, this won't do. I need you alive." A snarky voice said through the haze.

I gripped the axe in my pocket.

"Who said that?"

But there was no reply. All I got in return were the spitting sounds coming from the spider that was coming ever closer.

Great, now I'm hearing things. The last thing I need is for my sanity to take a dive.

My thoughts were interrupted by a shrill scream.

"Death will find you!"

I recognized the voice this time.

Sure enough, a blur of pastel raced towards the spider queen with a spear in hand.

What?! what is she thinking? I told her to run for a reason... and what is that?

Following behind the girl was a figure, floating a few feet off the ground. If it wasn't for the glowing white aura, the person would've been a mirror image of the girl.

Is that…? I've seen apparitions like that on the island before, but all of them have been hostile. How did she manage to get one to do her bidding?

The girl and her friend lunged for the spider. The girl was like a rabbit, dodging between the spider's legs and stabbing it from underneath. Her mirror image did its own attacking, smacking with its bare hands wherever it could get at. The spider tried to retaliate, but it was in vain; every strike of its spear-appendages went right through it.

The spider gave a screech and the pair retreated. With a garbled moan, the spider collapsed, making a crater in the dirt with its fat body.

"Yes! Take that, foul creature." The girl gave the shimmering image a high-five.

I rolled over onto my side and struggled to sit up. Gripping my pounding head, I tried to focus on what was in front of me.

"Can someone explain... what just happened?"

"No. Be quiet." The girl was suddenly in front of me, gripping my arm with delicate hands and wrapping it with something that smelled like honey. Her blue eyes were focused intently on the task in front of her, handling the situation with deft movements beyond her years.

I was about to retort, but seeing as she just saved my life I held it back. Of all the things I wanted to ask, only one thing came out.

"I feel silly for not asking before, but what's your name?"

The girl paused in her task and looked at me. "My name is Wendy. I can forgive you for not asking before. We were being attacked by spiders, after all."

Despite the circumstances, I smiled.

"Thank you for saving me, Wendy. I'd probably be dead if it wasn't for you."

"Consider my debt to you repaid, then. I'd be dead as well if you hadn't come along."

Debt? I didn't know how to respond.

"Here, I'll take the rest of those." I said instead. Wendy handed over the rest of the bandages, and I proceeded to take care of my leg. Thankfully, the wound was only a graze, albeit a painful one.

"My name is Wilson, by the way. Wilson P. Higgsbury, but I'd prefer that you just call me Wilson."

"Alright, Mr. Wilson."

"Um, you don't have to—"

"—Oooh..." A faint voice whispered in my right ear, tickling it and interrupting my train of thought.

"Wah!" I rubbed my ear and scooted away from the noise. "What was that?"

"Abby, be nice. You don't want to scare him." Wendy said. The specter from before hovered next to Wendy, holding a hand over its mouth and giggling.

"Abby?" I asked, completely dumbfounded.

She sighed. "Yes, this is Abigail, my twin sister." Wendy motioned towards her white mirror image, and it waved.

"Is she...?"

"Dead? Yes. It seems she followed me to this place. I'm glad she did—I'd be so lonely without her." Abigail swooped in and hugged Wendy, who stood there as if nothing was happening, but she smiled faintly.

"A ghost?" Abigail looked up and blinked. I sucked in a breath. "I just want you to know that you offend me as a scientist."

Wendy opened her mouth, then closed it, thinking better of what she was going to say. Abigail frowned and pushed up her imaginary long sleeve, approaching me with a red face. How ghosts could turn any sort of color without flowing blood was beyond me.

"Abby, no! Let him be. We don't want to start anything nasty." Wendy stood in front of Abigail with her hands up as a meager defense. Abigail looked at Wendy and folded her arms, then turned away and gave a sniff of contempt.

"My my, fighting already? That's not a good sign." A silky voice interrupted. It was the same unfamiliar voice from the spider fight. The words seemed to be speaking in my mind, to my very core. I looked around, but could see no one.

"Over here, friends."

I swiveled to face the voice that now came from behind me. What greeted me was the last thing I was expecting.

A shadowy creature peered at us, similar to the other hallucinations that often plagued me whenever my sanity went awry. This one was familiar, as it was a hallucination that stayed at the edge of my vision, always watching, even when I was feeling relatively well. I'd spent long hours convincing myself that he wasn't there.

The creature sported tiny arms and an undersized snake-like body, with three horn things protruding from it's head, bent over like a horse's mane. It grinned at me with jagged teeth, shimmering in and out of existence—at some points it would appear as a solid creature, and other times the trees behind it would bleed through his blackness.

"I see you both survived the spider fight. I was getting worried." It said.

"Who are you?" Wendy asked.

I glanced at Wendy. "You can see it too?"

She nodded as if I had asked her if the sky was blue. Somehow, she was perfectly fine with the fact that there was a creature talking to her that should only exist in nightmares. At the moment, I couldn't tell who was more disturbing—the girl or the creature.

"Ah yes, how rude of me. My name is Mr. Skits." Said the shadow, bowing as best he could with his oddly shaped body. "And you are Wilson P. Higgsbury, the Gentleman Scientist," he said, nodding at me, "and Wendy the Bereaved. And it looks like that dead person is here too." At this, Abigail put her hands on her hips and glared.

"Who are you and what do you want?" I said, figuring I would just get right to the point. I'd seen some pretty strange things, and frankly I was losing my patience with it all. However, this creature was the creepiest and most fascinating thing I'd seen yet. If anything, this was validation that I wasn't crazy; if Wendy saw it too, then it couldn't be a hallucination, right?

Mr. Skits looked at me with pity.

"Oh dear. Here you are—trapped—and you don't even know who I am. You didn't think your friend Maxwell was really in charge, did you? How's someone who wears a suit like that supposed get anything done?"

"What does his suit have to do with—" Wendy began, but was cut off by the creature's sharp voice.

"—but to answer your question more fully, Mr. Higgsbury, I am but a simple bystander. I watch as you humans struggle to survive, and I do the only job I have: make sure that everything on this island runs smoothly." Mr. Skits scuttled towards me, his hands behind his back. "However, why I'm here and talking to you is a little more complicated. As you may have noticed, beings like myself don't converse with humans very often. This special occasion, and I have come to ask a favor."

Mr. Skits turned away to face the sun, which was rapidly approaching sunset.

Favor? I furrowed my brow.

"As a creature that lives on a different plane of existence from you humans, my kind watches from afar, indifferent if you live or die. Despite being powerful, there is something I need that I can't get myself—something that Maxwell has."

"What is it, and why do you want it?" Wendy asked. Mr. Skits smiled as if he knew she would ask that question.

"The object he carries is a book, which is filled with knowledge from ages past. I need the contents in the book, but as a creature that cannot exist as more than shadow in this world, I cannot take it from him. I need a human."

"Why should we trust you? Anything could be in that book." I said.

"In that book is not only information that could benefit me, but you as well. That book is the key to escaping this place."

My thoughts stopped in their tracks. Freedom? As in getting off this island and never coming back, able to go back to the real world kind of freedom?

"What's the catch?" Wendy said, halting my daydreams. I resisted the urge to glare at her.

"In order to get to Maxwell and ultimately the book, a dangerous journey is involved. It will require more smarts, more skill and more bravery than has ever been required of you before. However, since there are two of you, that will make things easier, and if you succeed, this terrible place will be nothing more than a memory."

I pressed my mouth into a thin line. As tempting as the shadow's offer sounded, this was exactly the kind of thinking that got me there in the first place. Last time when it came down to playing it safe or making the deal, I chose the latter. I've been regretting that decision ever since.

But what other chance at freedom was I going to get? It's not like I had any working escape plans. This could be the only way to ever be free of this place.

Mr. Skits manifested a piece of paper with a puff of smoke, and when he turned it over in his hands, I caught a glimpse of what looked like a map. "I know it's a lot to think about, so if freedom interests you, you can meet me at this location at dawn, no later." He marked a place on the map with one of his stubby fingers, leaving a burnt X. "If not, I'll get the message and look elsewhere for help."

He dropped the parchment at my feet. I stared at it, scared that it would run off if I made any sudden movements.

"While both of you have enemies here, I hope you'll realize that I'm not one of them." He said, looking at Wendy. "Dawn. No later."

And then, giving one last smirk in my direction, he scampered away and disappeared.

A difficult decision, a choice at dawn.

Can our heroes afford to be wrong?