Four Psychos

One of my leaps tests me, because I’m airborne for a little longer than I ever have been and stretch my usual limits before landing on another limb and racing after them still.

The four of them are suddenly all together, and I have no idea where Jude and Ezekiel just came from. All the while, I race behind them. Staying close but not close enough to be seen.

Nothing eventful happens after that.

They’ve got blood all over them, so I’m assuming more eventful things happened before I got here. I’m not sure how. It was just over ten minutes when I ended up here behind them.

Before I can ask too many questions, a blast of light hits them, and they’re suddenly gone.

Cursing, I drop out of the tree, looking around aimlessly. Shit. Not again. What if I get stuck here? It’s not like I know how I even zapped myself here to begin with.

Just as I turn around, I meet a set of huge eyes. Eyes as tall as my body. And scales. And fur. There are scales and fur. It’s a hideous combination right on the nose that is between the eyes that are in front of me.

A scream tears from my throat before I can remind myself that I can simply pass through the scaly fur best. It reels back like I’ve slapped it, and it leaps into the air before diving down.

All several hundred feet of it.

The entire earth moves and shakes as it burrows below, taking forever to get that entire, worm-like body down the hole. And I say worm-like instead of snake-like because worms don’t scare me as much.

My legs are shaking even after the ground goes still again, and I stagger around, looking for a way out of here.

Just as the pain starts to form in my chest, I feel it happening again. Like a rubberband has been snapped, an unseen force violently yanks me away from monster land and tosses me back inside the quad’s home.

“Think she faded?” I hear Gage asking.

He doesn’t sound too torn up about that.

“No clue, but Neopold just called. He said since we easily crushed everyone else’s times, they’ll make the next trial harder.”

Gibberish. It’s all gibberish.

I poke my head through the wall just a little so I can see them. Fortunately, I pick a spot where no one is looking.

“Which means we can deal with the girl now,” Jude says as I lean back before they spot me.

“Deal with her how? We can’t touch her. We don’t know what she is. And it’s very likely we’re the only ones who can see her if she’s meant to be a hindrance to us,” Gage states flatly.

They better be glad I can’t hit them. I’d totally do it right now.

Without a word, I sit down on the stairs and listen to them dissect a hundred nefarious theories about my existence, while I peek in on occasion to get my fix.

Never once in all those fantasies did I see them trying to figure out a way to get rid of me.

It makes me hate them a little.