Rachel tossed and turned in her
bed. She groaned and then let out a
terrified scream. Her mother came
quickly down the hall and entered her daughter's room. She flicked on the light and sat on the soft
bed next to Rachel. She put her hands
on her daughter's shoulders and gently shook her awake.
"Rachel,
honey wake up. It's okay," Naomi said
in a soft hush. I wonder why she's been
having all these horrible nightmares. I
wish she would tell me what's going on. Naomi thought as she looked down at the
terrified girl.
Rachel's
eyes flew open and she sat straight up and shouted, "Help me help me!" And then, waking up fully, she noticed her
mother holding her shoulders looking worriedly into her terror filled eyes.
"Are you
awake sweetie?" her mother said with a concerned voice. What on earth could she have been dreaming
of?
"Yeah . . .
I'm . .I'm fine. Just a bad nightmare," Rachel said, brushing
back a strand of her blonde hair out of her face with a shaky hand.
"Are you
sure you're okay? Do you want me to sit
here for a while?"
"No mom,
I'm fine really. Just a bad dream,
that's all. Go back to bed, I'm fine."
"Okay . . .
if you're sure . . ."
"Goodnight
mom."
"Goodnight
Rachel," her mother said wrapping her in a big hug and kissing her lightly on
her forehead before getting up. When
she reached the doorway she flicked off the light with a soft click and turned
and said,
"I love
you."
"Love you
too," whispered Rachel as she tried to hold back the tears that had welled up
in her eyes.
With that,
Naomi walked out of Rachel's bedroom wondering again what could possibly cause
Rachel to have such awful nightmares.
As her
mother eased the door shut, Rachel turned over and buried her face into her
clammy pillow. She let out a muffled scream
of frustration and fear. Too much, this
was all too much. I can't take much
more of this! Rachel thought angrily as
she pulled away from the pillow. She
again, felt tears well up in her eyes and this time she couldn't hold them
back. Quickly she rubbed them away with
heel of her palm. No, she would not
cry. She had a feeling that if she
started to now, she might never stop.
She lay back down, and her thoughts
drifted back toward her awful dream and her being an Animorph. She was sick of the tedious battles and the
horrible nightmares that followed. This
last nightmare had been a reoccurring one, and she was having it more and more
often.
In the
dream she and the Animorphs had been in yet another battle. Rachel had been fighting off several Hork-Bajir
and had been backed into a cage. The
cage closed on her and she couldn't escape or move for that matter, and she was
forced to watch helplessly as her friends one by one, be killed until she was
the only one left. And in the last part
of her dream a Hork-Bajir comes over with a Yeerk reserved just for her and she
screams for someone to help her as they lower the slimy slug to her ear.
She kneaded
her temples and gritted her teeth, trying to erase the horrible images from her
mind. As she stared up at her dark
ceiling she forced herself to think about something more pleasant, failing
that, her thoughts drifted to the night when she and the rest of her friend's
lives were changed forever and how they had had to grow up so fast. It was sad and depressing to think
about. She shook herself. So don't think about it and stop pitying
yourself and get over it. Things
happen, and there's nothing you can do but press right on through, and to just
keep going and hope that everything will work out. Stop pitying yourself and move on. Pity gets you nowhere.
She thought angrily to herself.
Rachel didn't think that she'd ever
get back to sleep with all the crazy thoughts and memories running through her
head, but soon enough her eyelids grew heavy and she again, slipped over the
edge of consciousness, and into the dark abyss of sleep.
"Oops I did it again!" caterwauled
the radio/alarm clock, which rang annoyingly in Rachel's ear.
She turned
over, balled her hand into a fist, and viciously beat her alarm clock into
blessed silence. There is no way it can
be time to get up all ready. The clock
must be off. She rolled over and looked
out the window. The bright blaze of
the shining morning sun brought her hopes of an extra hour or two of sleep
crashing down. She groaned softly and
swung her legs over the side of her bed.
Squinting, and with much effort, she walked slowly to the bathroom; like
a corpse that had just laboriously pulled itself out of its dark resting place.
She was
just soaping up her hair and grumbling about how school shouldn't be allowed,
when she heard her phone start to ring.
Great, just great, the person who's calling better have a good reason to
be doing so or they are going to be having a very bad day. Rachel thought grumpily as she grabbed a
towel and ran hurriedly into her room.
Before she got to her phone, her feet lost there grip on the floor which
sent her skidding across the hard wood floor, all the while wind milling her
arms through the air like an inexperienced ice skater about to fall on her
butt. She came to a sudden halt as her
shin connected painfully with her small nightstand.
I swear if it's a sales person,
that guy is going to wish he never hooked up with that job when he's through
with me. She thought crossly as she rubbed her sore leg. She picked up the receiver and said in a
rather sharp tone,
"Hello?"
"Hi Rach,"
It was Cassie.
"What's up?" Rachel said in a
calmer voice. Yeah, what is
up?
"Can you stop by my place before school? Because my cousin really wants to meet you before he has to leave
town today," said Cassie hurriedly.
Then she said even more quickly, "Please? He has something really important to tell you and get there as
soon as possible."
"Sure
Cass. I'll be there in a few minutes."
"Thanks,"
she said and hung up.
I wonder
why Erek needs to talk to us so urgently.
It must be pretty bad. Cassie
sounded worried. Rachel thought as she
dried off and changed quickly into her morphing outfit. She then headed down the stairs to the kitchen
and scribbled a note telling her mom that she was leaving to school early to
finish up a project. Rachel tiptoed
back up to her room and morphed to eagle and launched herself out of her
window, towards Cassie's.
"Hey
Rachel! Are you ready for our next
round of fear, pain, and basic corruption of our souls? And, oh nice chicken legs, is that a new
Calvin Klein fad something?" Marco asked brightly from his usual sitting spot
atop some bales of hay.
"Shut up
Marco," Rachel grumbled as she finished demorphing. She glanced around. She
saw Cassie giving a shot to a very angry and scared fox who was baring its
teeth as if wondering if he should sink them into Cassie's exposed
forearm. Cassie, seeing this, said
warningly,
"Don't you
dare."
The fox slid his lips back over his sharp white teeth and
held still. Rachel sighed and said,
"Hey Cass. Do you know why Erek wants to have this
little chit chat at this unholy hour before school?"
"I haven't got a clue but from what
I heard from Jake, Erek sounded pretty upset."
"Where is everyone? I mean besides you and this idiot," Rachel
said jerking her thumb and rolling her eyes at Marco, who at the moment was
jumping off the highest bale of hay into a mound of the stuff giggling gleefully. Then, hearing Rachel's remark,
"Hey! This is seriously fun!"
Rachel rolled her eyes again at him
and turned back to Cassie who had finished giving the now docile fox his meds
and was now placing him back into his cage.
Wiping her brow with a gloved hand, she looked up at Rachel and
replied, "
They're on their way I guess."
At that
moment Jake appeared with Tobias flying overhead, he was quieter than
usual. He didn't even say hi to
Rachel. She noticed that Ax had not
come in after Jake. Where was he?
"So what's
up fearless leader? Where's Erek?"
Marco asked, jumping down from the mound of hay while pulling a few pieces out
of his hair.
"I don't
know, but he should be here any minute." Jake replied.
"Where's
Ax?" Cassie asked looking questioningly at Jake and then up at Tobias.
"Good
question," Jake said looking up at Tobias too.
I haven't seen him since
yesterday afternoon. And I couldn't
find him this morning. answered Tobias.
He looked away from them and started to preen himself nervously. He was just starting on his tail feathers
when he saw something out of the corner of his eye. His head snapped in the direction of the barn door. Here comes Erek. Why's he running? Tobias stated more to
himself than anyone else. Then Oh
my god! Everyone get out of here!
He flew down from the rafters and headed for the door. Rachel and the others followed.
Rachel looked around as she made it
out of the barn. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. The sky was in shades of orange, red, and deepest purple, the sun
was just peeking over the mountains in the distance, and the meadow was as
beautiful as ever. But as she looked at
the edges of the meadow, where the green grass gradually turned into thick
forest, she saw Erek. He was running
toward them flailing his arms frantically in the air and yelling for them to
run. That's when Rachel saw why Tobias
had yelled. There were about fifty
Hork-Bajir appearing out of the forest behind Erek. They each held a dracon beam.
She glanced at the others who, by the way they were staring around
confusedly, had not yet seen the incoming Hork-Bajir. She was about to yell for them to start morphing when a gust of
warm air and a dark shadow passed over them.
She looked up to see a bug fighter flying overhead. It stopped moving when it reached the barn.
RUN GUYS RUN! Tobias
shouted as the bug fighter took aim at the red building.
That snapped them out of their
trance. Rachel was the first to come to
her senses.
"Move it! Now. Run!" she shouted
pushing Cassie to get her moving. She
started running towards the woods.
"No! Hork-Bajir are in there.
Tobias? Where can we go?" Jake
asked in a tight but urgent voice as he noticed the controllers leaving the
cover of the forest.
Follow me! Over here guys! Tobias said and flew
off in the opposite direction of the bug fighter and the Hork-Bajir.
Jake took the lead with Marco, Cassie, and Rachel following suit. Jake heard the bug fighter's dracon cannon
change it's aiming direction. He
chanced a look back and with a wave of black fear, saw that it was aiming at
them.
"RUN GUYS! They're aiming at us," he shouted, and ran
faster still. He glanced to look at the
others and saw that Cassie and Marco were falling behind and saw Rachel trying
to push them to go faster.
Rachel could see Cassie tiring;
starting to slow down.
"Oh no you don't! Keep running Cassie!" she shouted and
grabbed her hand and pulled her ahead of her.
She heard Jake yell,
"Over there! Get to those boulders!"
The Bug fighter was right above
them now. It aimed . . .
Rachel felt the air fill with
electricity. She saw Jake's hair stick
up and felt her own do the same. She
heard a loud buzzing as she passed a huge oak tree.
The bug fighter fired . . .
TSWWWWWW!
BOOM!!!!!!
A wave of intense heat blew over
Rachel and she heard the tree explode behind her. She felt herself being flung
into the air, felt something hard and solid hit her in the back of the head,
and then knew no more.
She awoke with the feeling of cold
dirt pressing against her face. Blinking
copiously, she lifted her head, which now felt as heavy as lead, and saw that
she was sprawled across Cassie's lower back.
She gripped the ground with her hands and rolled herself off of her. She tried to push herself up. As she did, the gritty floor beneath her
felt less like nice solid, flat ground, but more as if she were inside a
carnival fun house mirror. With the
ground moving under foot it gave her the feeling of in vertigo. It felt as if the ground was slipping from
beneath her. Despite this, she made it to her feet. This small accomplishment however, did not last long for as soon
as she had stood completely erect her head started to pound and her vision
blurred. Rachel swayed on the spot and
put her hands on her head to stop the spinning. As soon as her hand touched her head she snatched it back. Her head had been soaked with something warm
and sticky. She glanced down dazedly at
her hand and saw that it covered in blood.
With this sight not really registering in her mind, she glanced around
to see where she was exactly. Through
blurred vision Rachel vaguely noticed that she was in some kind of dark cave,
with glistening wet walls and that had a smell of old earth. She blinked again
several times, trying to clear her eyesight.
Little black dots that had been dancing only at the edge of her vision
began to close in on her entire eyesight.
At that, she felt her knees buckle under her and she fell backward. She hit the ground with a thud and rolled
onto her side. Through squinting eyes and fading consciousness, she saw Cassie
sit up with a groan.
Cassie rubbed her eyes and looked
around. She saw Jake and Marco
beginning to stir. They were sprawled
on the strange dirt floor. No sign of
Rachel. A wave of fear passed through
her with a single thought. Oh god, have
they been captured? Did Rachel get cornered and, rather than being captured,
fought to the death? She suddenly
wanted, needed to be on her feet. She
put her hand behind her to push herself up when she heard a groan and felt
something soft but solid. Cassie spun
around and saw Rachel lying on her back with her eyes half closed. With horror she also noticed a pool of blood
surrounding Rachel's head.
"Oh my god!"
Cassie cried. She twisted all the way
around, now completely facing Rachel.
She took her limp hand in her own and checked for a pulse. There was a faint beating. She gave it a
squeeze. At this, Rachel stirred. Her eyes fluttered open just a little.
"Ca . . .Cassie?" Rachel said in a hoarse
whisper.
"Rachel! Oh thank god you're awake! Listen to me, you need to morph, now."
"I ca . .c
. . . can't. I .. so tired. Sleep now," Rachel said as her eyes began to close once more.
"No!" ,
"Rachel,
Rachel! Look at me! No don't sleep. You need to MORPH!
Please."
Rachel's eyes opened a bit more.
She knew she should morph, but she felt so tired and couldn't concentrate on
anything for more than a few moments.
She felt so tired maybe she would just rest for a while. No!
She would not fall asleep! She
tried to roll onto her stomach. The
moment she moved a white-hot pain shot through her head. She groaned and fell back and the black dots
at the edges of her vision closed in once more.
Cassie caught her
and lifted Rachel up so she could sit up a little. "NO! Rachel don't go! Morph! Come on Rach, morph and you'll be okay," Cassie pleaded
desparately. Rachel's body sagged in
her arms. Cassie screamed and began
sobbing.
Jake stirred and
his eyes fluttered open. He groaned and
pushed himself into a sitting position.
He felt moist dirt press into his palm and breathed in the musty
air. He blinked and looked around. He came to his senses with a start as he
noticed his dark cave-like surroundings.
He was just starting to panic, wondering where the others were when he
heard and saw a sobbing and pleading form across from him. He saw the person look towards him.
"Jake! Help me.
Oh god, please help me!" Cassie sobbed looking back at Rachel.
Jake ran over
towards her and knelt beside Rachel's limp and blood soaked form. He grabbed her wrist and felt for a
pulse. There was one but it was very
weak.
TO BE
CONTINUED . . .
A/N: I
got stuck after I finished that last line.
If you have some ideas where I can take this please tell me because I
think this could be a good story. I
hope you enjoyed! J
