Author's note: This chapter is dedicated to my buddy Nino. Sorry it took so long to upload. I had a lot of trouble writing this chapter for some reason. Hopefully it comes across clearly.
Jason's body went rigid and alert. He felt Kim clamor behind him and clutch his arm in fear. He didn't know where his sudden burst of confidence came from, whether it was due to years of martial arts training or something he was born with, but he was surprised to find himself rising to his feet defensively towards the new creatures that stood before them.
There were three of them. They looked almost human, but Jason could tell that they weren't. They had long, slender bodies, extending to an above-average human height. They had pale, almost paper white, skin. Their pupils were completely navy blue, and the whites of their eyes were emitting an eerie glow. Their white, sleeved dresses lay full-length and draped on the ground at their feet. Something about the way they stood was very feminine. Long, wispy and silvery hair flowed down to their waists, seemingly being blown by a strangely absent wind. They stood almost ghost-like in the middle of the clearing in a straight line, their unnerving eyes staring unblinkingly and expectantly at the children who stood scattered before them.
Jason broke the silence between the two groups and said in his bravest voice, "Who are you?"
The one standing in the middle cocked her head slightly at the boy before her and spoke through thin lips, "You have come across this sacred land." Her voice was light and feminine and seemed to echo as she spoke. There was a long pause.
"We're sorry," Trini piped up nervously from behind Jason, "We – we got lost…"
"It does not matter how you came to be here," the white lady interrupted gently. "What matters now is how you leave. There is only one price you must pay in order to return to where you came from. It is the law of this land."
Zack's brain fumbled as he thought of how much money they would have to pay. They were only kids. The most they probably had among them was twenty dollars, if they were lucky. He wondered silently whether they would make them do labor to pay their way out. "We don't have much money," Zack murmured quietly, looking around at his friends.
Kim, on the other hand, comprehended that the meaning of "price" had nothing to do with monetary value. She froze, temporarily paralyzed by terror. Jason had felt her tremor behind him. He knew whatever they had to do to get back home was something very difficult.
"What do we have to pay?" Jason asked.
"It is not something you must all pay," the white lady explained patiently. "The price is a task. If done correctly, we require only one. That is our price. That is the law."
Kim's breath began to come out in short gasps. Only one…
Jason's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "The law?"
When the white ladies didn't answer he continued, "A Task? What do you want one of us to do?"
"If it is done correctly, only four of you may return home once the task is complete," one of the other white ladies replied vaguely. She sounded almost exactly the same as the first.
Kim's heartbeat fluttered faster in anticipation of the task. Only four may return…
"No way!" Zach exclaimed furiously. He turned to Jason for affirmation. "There's no way we're leaving anyone behind!"
Jason nodded in agreement. He looked up at the white ladies and said firmly, "He's right. We're not leaving anyone behind. We go home together."
"You misunderstand us," replied the third white lady. "We do not require anyone to remain behind."
"But then –," Trini began again confused.
"In order for you to return home," the first white lady interrupted again, "one of you must die."
And there it was. The truth exposed itself upon Kimberly like a hammer. As menacingly her heart was beating a moment ago, she felt as though it had stopped. The words echoed across her thoughts blaringly… One of you must die. Only four of them could return home at best.
Jason stood disbelieving for a moment as though he hadn't heard them correctly. "No," he shook his head angrily. "No, that's not possible. No one is going to die." He looked back at his friends and saw the fear etched across their faces. His eyes rested on Kim who had paled sickeningly. He repeated to them, to her, "No one is going to die!"
"It is the law," the second white lady repeated loudly over Jason. "There is no way around this sacred land. It cannot be changed."
"I don't care about the law!" Jason screamed furiously at the white ladies. "We're not letting anyone die for you!"
"This is our price. This is the law," she repeated in an emotionless tone, seemingly unaware of Jason's outburst.
"No, it's not the law!" Billy exclaimed suddenly. "That's completely unconstitutional!"
"You are not where you believe you are," the third white lady explained.
"We're somewhere in North America," Billy replied hesitantly, as he nervously adjusted his glasses and took a second sure glance at the trees around him. The misty fog of the forest began to fill the clearing where they all stood. "There is no law requiring death to leave in any territory that I've heard of."
"You are not where you believe you are," the first white lady mimicked the second. Her eyes rested mournfully upon the children. "This is our land. It is sacred. This land has the ability to mimic an occupant's origin planet."
"Planet?" Trini repeated with a raised eyebrow. As scared as he was at first, she started to think this was all a terrible joke. She looked to Billy instinctively; if he believed anything to be true then she would too. "Billy?" she nudged him. But Billy's face was frozen in confusion and disbelief. He was squinting through his glasses, determined to find sure evidence of their exact location. "Billy?" she pleaded him to confirm that this was all a lie.
"There's no way," Zack laughed manically, and seemed to ponder the idea that this was a horrific joke as well. "There's just no way. Jase, this has got to be a joke. We're just kids!"
"I –," Billy interrupted his friend softly, taking another hard look around. The sky had gotten dark during their flight from the creatures. Nightfall had finally come. He glanced upward, just noticing a small clearing in the sky. His mouth fell open, seeing for the first time an eerie constellation of stars he could not recognize. What startled him more was the fact that he could see two moons. The truth sunk into his heart, and suddenly he wasn't sure of anything. "I don't think it's a joke." He pointed up, and heard Trini whimper.
Zack's smile disappeared from his face, replaced by shock. He caught his breath as he tried to come up with an argument, but his trust in Billy's wisdom vastly outweighed his denial. His mouth opened and closed in attempts to fight for the truth. But he could see it plainly on Billy's face.
The defeated looks on his friends' dumbfounded faces was too much for Jason to take.
"What's wrong with you guys?" Jason asked his friends defiantly. "We're not on another planet, and we're not going to obey some stupid made-up law! We're lost, that's all it is! We'll be home soon to have some snacks! We'll ask my mom if you guys can sleep over, and we'll play video games and watch movies all night!" They stared back at him silently and unbelievingly. When no one answered him, he blew up at them. "No one is going to die!" he finished angrily.
"Jason…" Kim spoke up for the first time, expressing to him with dark doe eyes the seriousness of their situation. He recognized the knowing look of clairvoyance in her eyes. But he refused to acknowledge it.
"No!" he'd yelled at her for the first time in their young lives, scaring her slightly. "We're leaving!" With one long rebellious look at the three white ladies that stood at the center of the clearing, he moved determinedly away from them. "Come on!" he demanded to his friends. He took Billy by the arm, distracting him from the mysterious constellations above, and pulled him gently. Billy took the hint and marched after Jason out of the clearing.
"Right behind you," Zack said as he ushered Trini in front of him obediently.
Kim, however, stood rooted in the spot. For the first time in her young life, she had chosen not to listen to Jason. She was conflicted between her sudden disobedience towards her best friend and the impending doom that lay ahead of them. There was nothing more she wanted than to run after Jason, to follow his defiant lead and prove him right. At this moment she would've given anything to be munching on Mrs. Scott's snacks and laughing with her friends into the night… well, anything short of giving up a life. Her gut told her that Jason's stubbornness, although admirable, would lead them down a drawn-out and painful path. As noble as his intentions were, no matter how hard any of them would fight to believe Jason, she knew what had to be done. She wouldn't let any of them perish; she was suddenly quite determined not to let her friends suffer a fate they didn't deserve.
Kim noticed that the fog had stopped moving. It looked like a solid blanket upon the ground. She had a feeling that time had stopped everywhere else, and that somewhere in the woods, her friends were motionless, temporarily frozen in time. She wondered why time hadn't stopped for her as well.
Realization dawned upon her. She swayed on the spot wearily at the sudden thought. She was the one with the least to lose by dying. She was the one who had to die. Jason, Trini, Zack, and Billy each had families who would miss them… parents who would suffer dearly from their children's absences. With a painful jolt in her stomach, Kim bitterly doubted very much that her mother had noticed her absence this Friday evening, let alone whether she disappeared forever. Her father hadn't contacted them since after the divorce. They had received one giant lump of money, and he'd left without a goodbye. It was true, she thought soberly. She didn't have a family to miss her. She felt stinging in her eyes from tears threatening to burst. No one would care if she died… Except her friends.
Billy would take it hard after already losing his mother. Kim wasn't sure he could handle another death so close to his mother's. And Trini was the only person among her friends who could really understand what it meant to be a girl. Kim briefly recalled the girlish fantasies and secrets they'd shared with one another at sleepovers. She wondered whether Trini would find someone to replace her. Zack, Kim thought, would shut himself off from the world. He was never really good at expressing his sad or angry feelings. And Jason… Kim knew Jason would blame himself forever… But what other choice did they have? She couldn't fathom a world where any of her friends no longer existed. The world still needs them, she thought. She knew that the others couldn't think clearly at the moment with the panic of death upon their shoulders. So this was it. The solution to their problem was right before her. As much as it would pain her friends, it had to be done. Death was something they had only barely begun to understand. She felt guilty at the thought of leaving such a burden upon them, but it was the only way to ensure that they got back home safely.
Ten years old and ready to die. It was a strange feeling. She suddenly felt like her childhood had been too short. Had she laughed enough? Had she smiled enough? Had she cherished every happy thought and feeling? She'd never even received her first kiss. She couldn't think of many instances outside her time with her friends that she had been happy. This felt right though… dying for the right reasons. Was this how it felt to be grown up? Are all grown-ups ready to die too? She recalled when Jason's Nana had passed away. She heard Mrs. Scott mention that Nana Jan had been ready to die not long before she'd passed. Kim wondered whether this was the same type of feeling. Had Billy's mom felt it as well?
Kim reluctantly tore her gaze away from where Jason and the others had disappeared into the woods. She looked back up at the white ladies who still stood in the middle of the clearing. They stared down at her expectantly and curiously. Their eyes bore into her understandingly, and Kim felt as though they had read her thoughts and comprehended her reasons for remaining behind. They remained silent.
"I'll do it," she said in a brave voice that sounded nothing like her own.
The white ladies looked down at her with expressionless faces. "You accept this task?" the lady in the middle asked, interrupting Kim's observations.
Kim nodded firmly. "Yes." The white ladies looked at one another, exchanging what Kim thought seemed like nonverbal communication. Kim couldn't tell what they were thinking. She suddenly felt nervous as they examined her as though she were a specimen.
"It is not as easy as you may think it is," another one explained serenely. "We cannot simply strike you down where you stand, nor can you take your own life."
"But then," Kim asked nervously, "how will I know when I'm going to die? And how will it happen?"
"Part of the task," the first white lady said simply, "is that you cannot know how or when it will happen."
Kim trembled slightly at the thought of pending death, but pushed past her emotions. She had to do this. It was the only way.
"Furthermore," the second lady spoke, "once you accept this task, your friends will remain in danger as long as you remain alive."
The third one continued, "You must realize that once you accept this task, if another child dies first, no one may return home until you die as well."
Kimberly was confused. She thought that by simply volunteering she would ensure her friends' safety. The white ladies seemed to read the confusion written upon her face.
"As the one deemed with the task," the third white lady explained gently, "it is you who must die, even if another dies before you."
"But…" Kimberly tried to understand, "How do I keep my friends from dying if I can't be sure that I die first?"
"You protect them," the second white lady stated simply.
Kim blinked, taking in this heavy piece of information. She nodded in understanding. The fog had unfrozen at her feet suddenly, and was flowing freely across the ground of the forest once again. Time had unfrozen, Kim realized.
"Another law of this land states that your word is your bond," the first white lady said. "This form of verbal contract cannot be undone, and once you agree to this task you can never take it back. Do you understand, child?"
"Yes," Kim nodded. In the distance, she could hear Jason's voice. He was hollering in the distance.
"And you understand that by accepting this task, you become responsible for the outcome of your friends' lives?"
"Yes." She heard Jason's voice more clearly in the distance. He was calling her name. She did her best to ignore his imploring calls for her and focused on the white ladies in front of her.
"And in the event that you should fail, meaning if one or more of your friends die before you, you must continue your task to save the rest? That if you should give up, you will all perish here?"
"I won't give up!" she exclaimed determinedly, balling her fists. Jason's voice was getting louder; he was getting closer.
"Then one last time I must ask you: Do you accept the task that lies before you?"
"I accept," Kim stated firmly.
The white ladies said nothing more, but stood there silently watching her with curious eyes. Kim realized they were starting to fade, becoming transparent and disappearing within the misty fog. Their eyes remained focused upon her, and for the first time Kim detected a hint of emotion flowing from them. Was it sorrow? Sadness? She couldn't tell. They were fading so fast, she was unable to identify their emotions. She wondered whether they were ghosts…
She gasped as her thoughts were interrupted suddenly when she felt someone whip her around on the spot. Kimberly looked up into her best friend Jason's face.
Jason's expression was torn between relief and anger. He was panting. He was about to begin yelling at her for disappearing and scaring him, but then he saw the fearful expression upon her face. Jason didn't like the idea of Kim being afraid of him. He was angry that she didn't follow him, but he decided he couldn't let that cloud his determination to find a way out of the forest. He settled on relief, released his hold on her shoulders, and sighed. He smiled momentarily at her. He was glad that she was okay, and that was enough to get him focused.
"Come on, Kim" Jason pleaded, taking her hand and pulling her gently. "Let's go."
She nodded numbly, letting him pull her by the hand away from the clearing where the white ladies had stood. As he dragged her away, she looked back and saw that the white ladies had disappeared completely within the hazy fog.