Dark Secret

‘What should I do now?’ I groaned exasperatedly. ‘We’re lost in the desert. Freaking. Lost.’

I hoped I didn’t look delicious. I believed I was a bit too fat. Yup, no one like fatty food…right?

If I were you, I’d start moving my lazy butt and start walking. Unless you can make water appear magically—which you obviously cannot, as you are a pitiful human—you need to find a water source, and fast. I don’t want to die. Not now, not ever.

Then what do you suggest?I snapped.

Just go look for a water source, stupid.

Yeah, right. I looked around me. Honestly, I can’t even point out where was east and where was west. …Wait, did that apply to Downland? Whatever. It didn’t make any difference. I still had no idea where I should go. What if I was heading straight to a demons’ lair?

What a lovely thought.

Go left. She instructed me like a tour guide.

What?

I said go left, weren’t you listening? Or are you too stupid to comprehend the meaning of ‘go left’?

I heard you,I scowled, annoyed by her attitude. Why did the inner me have to such a spoiled brat? She was lucky she wasn’t real or I’d slap her silly. Why left? Why not right, or forward?

Just go left…It’s a gut feeling.
Now my inner self had gut feelings too? That’s it, I was losing my marbles.

But despite of how unreliable her words were, at least there was a direction for me to begin with, so what the heck, I went left. I squinted my eyes into narrow lines. The furthest thing I could see was a flat line of sand. There was absolutely nothing on the way. Nothing. Just by simply looking at it was discouraging enough for me. Actually, for any ordinary person. I wasn’t sure about the mystical creatures. Maybe they’d fly, or teleport, or run with their super speed or something. I didn’t know, or care.

Look on the bright side, I joked to myself, there wasn’t anything that could’ve eaten me for their meal…Okay, that was pathetic.

The sunlight (or whatever-light) was like burning my back with its flaming heat. Come on, wasn’t it hard enough to find my way in the middle of nowhere? I started to wonder how long I could last before I fainted out of exhaustion. One day, two days, three days?

I bet an hour.

The journey was long, yet the scenery had not changed the slightest.

Maybe only a minute had passed or an hour. (Hey, I made it more than an hour.) There was no difference when you had to wander in a steaming hot desert. With each step, I felt more invisible weight adding on my body. I wasn’t walking, I was dragging my body. Only the thought of finding Leanna and Tyler could motivate me to move, and perhaps also the thought of staying alive.

My thoughts were getting blurry, so did my vision. I couldn’t think or walk straight. I was like a gambler who was kicked out of the bar because she had just lost all her cash and tried to forget things by chunking down dozens of beer with no money to pay. Totally messed up.

My steps faltered, slowing into a snail’s pace, or even slower. I looked up at the sky; the sun (thingy) was still shining brightly as it had when I begun walking. I wanted to scream at the sky out of frustration, yet I couldn’t even manage to open my lips, let alone utter any sound.

Keep walking…she gasped.

Apparently, since we shared the same body, she could feel my fatigue too, and I thought my inner self wouldn’t feel a thing. After all, she was just a fragment of my imagination. She didn’t exist. There was only me, Charlotte Williams.

For the last time, I’m real! Get it through your thick skull…Look, I’m not gonna waste my breath on you. Keep walking. I don’t care if you are tired. Walk until our body fails us.

You mean until we die.

No,she denied. If we stay out here, we’ll die for sure. If we walk, we live. Don’t you understand? I’m not planning on dying.There was something in her tone that suggested a hidden meaning behind it, something I wasn’t aware of. Dying is not an option for me.

You don’t get to choose. I need to rest whether you like it or not. I made myself loud and clear to her. This body was mine. I was the owner, not her. The choice was mine to make, not hers.

...Fine.She agreed reluctantly. But only for a minute—sixty seconds. I’ll do the counting. Starting…now.

You’ve got to be kidding me.

Sixty, fifty-nine, fifty-eight…

If there was a wall or a tree nearby, and I had my strength, I would have banged my head against it. You’re impossible.

She was right though, in a sense. If I walked, the chance of surviving would be higher than just staying on the same spot throughout the whole day. Expect if I died of exhaustion. That would be the end of me. Only a decaying corpse in the desert remained.

I did not dare to sit down, in fear that I could not stand again once I’d tasted the comfort of resting. The sole thing I allowed myself to do was breathe. Stopping for a rest was already the greatest thing could happen for now. I closed my eyes as the surrounds spun, welcoming the darkness.

Ah, finally, peace and rest…but it did not last long.

What now?

Suddenly I reminded myself of a fictional character in the teenage fantasy books—too many weird things were happening at once since a particular day. What was going on?

My eyes opened in an instant. At first I couldn’t see anything but a blend of sandy brown and baby blue. It took a few seconds before shapes could take their original forms instead of the abstract ones.

I turned to the right when I heard crunching sounds, sounds that indicated someone, or something was walking on the sandy land. I held my breath, ready for anything. I had no weapon with my, so the left me with my fists.

Let’s see, I was clumsy to begin with, and not to mentioned totally exhausted after walking for who-knew-how-long in the hot desert. Yup, it was clear that who would have won if there was any fight.

My hands trembled, showing my fear even if my face was stone-cold. What could it be? A demon, or a vampire? What could possibly be in the desert? What would the reaction be? Would it end peacefully?...I highly doubted that.

Crunch, crunch, crunch.
I sucked in another breath as the sounds came closer; however I saw nothing by the edge of the flat line. I thought I saw something transparent moved or the light the reflected the wrong way.

Oh, no.She whispered.

What is it? I asked her urgently. She knew what it was, and I needed to know.

It’s—

There was pressure on the back of my neck, and I fell into the comfort of the darkness. It was unexpected, but I liked it. Maybe dying wasn’t so bad after all.