CHAPTER NINETEEN: THE GIRL IN THE WALL

Calin slammed his arms together in defence out of pure instinct.

The silver walls of the gap shot towards his hands like two masses of liquid flowing together in a rush. The wall closed shut in front of him in the instant as the thing would've struck him.

Though, the shock of the massive creature hitting the barrier reverberated through the shimmering air and slammed into his chest. The force sent Calin flying backwards.

As he struck the hard silver floor it cracked beneath him, then shattered and he fell, barrelling down towards the water of the sea.

Before he could brace himself for the impact, he stopped just as quickly as he had fallen.

Hanging suspended in the air above the crashing waves, he pressed down with his palms. By some means his rucksack was still weighing him down. Surprise flashed over him that the thing had stayed on through all the chaos. But then he started worrying about his current situation.

Forcing air into his aching lungs, he risked pushing down harder. There was a strange sensation beneath his hands and as he got to his knees, a ripple flowed away from him in what went beyond imagination. The ripples seemed to become substantial as a liquid in the air, but then faded away after a few moments.

Calin was dazed, everything he was ever taught was lacking. It was as if all the scientists were looking at the world through a sand blasted mirror. It was mad, it was all crazy.

A thought struck him and a nervous laugh crept out of his belly.

I'd like to see the faces of the scientists who see this. They will probably freak out! He imagined Kara’s face and smiled sadly. She would have loved such a discovery.

A voice startled him from the side.

"Who's there, who's laughing?"

It was a young voice. And for a frantic moment, Calin looked around to find the source but there was no one. He was tempted to call out, and opened his mouth to do so, but an instant later there came a ghostly visage of a little girl no older than fourteen towards him.

With a gasp, he fell on his back trying to scramble away from the girl, but she laughed and chided him in an amused way. “Oh my, why did you fall off, Tisk Tisk, I bet it was one of the others’ fault. Let me help you back up to your perch, where you belong. Mother wouldn't be happy if she found you lying down here.”

A flash blinded Calin and the girl stood right in front of him and she reached down. He cringed, truly afraid of the ghostly girl. His comfort zone had long since vanished. But as her hands touched him, warmth ran through his body. She lifted him as if he was but a hundredth of his real weight.

It froze him with fear. Most of it was not for the girl, but the freakish situation.

She started to walk up stairs. They seemed to appear out of nowhere. The girl carried him tenderly as if he was precious.

As she reached the top where he had stood, just before the creature had struck him, she set him down and seemed to rearrange him specifically.

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“There,” She said. “Good as new, I hope the other kids don't let you fall again, I would really hate if they break you. You're my favourite. Sometimes I swear I can hear you laugh, but mother says it’s impossible. ‘Sculptures don’t laugh’ blah blah blah." She mocked, but then she sighed and there was reluctance in the girl’s voice as she said, "I have to go now. Bye bye."

Calin waved dazedly after the ghostly girl as she disappeared. What on earth?

Sitting there a moment longer trying to figure out what just happened; he remembered the other pressing matters. He glanced around, anxious to find his friends, but they were nowhere in sight.

There were two walls only four meters away from him on either side. They reached high into the sky and started to arch to one side. A shimmering ripple ran over them every few seconds. Were the ripples calling him? Calin started to panic, what now?

It wasn’t hard to figure out that he had no other option than to try one of the walls. But a sickening feeling came over him.

The creature was through one of them.

He was sure of that, but which one? Calin just stood there, indecisive, the choice heavy on his shoulders.

For some reason, he could not discern why, he wanted to try the wall the strange little girl had left through.

He moved toward it, tiptoeing and testing every step on the glowing floor for any sign of it breaking again and then he reached the wall. While he stood there, his breathing became erratic. He tried but failed to calm himself.

With a hard shake of his head, he cheered himself on, but terror gripped him.

But he couldn’t stay here.

With that thought, he took a deep breath and gathered all his courage. He lunged forward through the shimmering liquid.

***

The wall consumed him, it was bending around his body, the hair on his arms stood on end like there was static, it was energizing. But then his body started spiralling out of control, and before he could open his mouth to scream, he crashed face flat onto hard ground.

Stunned by the hit, he groaned and forced the air out of his lungs in a great heave. It threw up a cloud of dust.

With a grunt he pressed himself to his knees. Then franticly he glanced around for any sign of the monster, but to his utter relief he spotted his friends.

Jerry came scurrying over, and helped him to his feet. A weak smile split his face at Jerry and then he breathed deeply.

Evany was staring wide eyed at Calin and with a loud huff she sat down in the dust. It puffed up around her. "Thank goodness, you're alright,” said the girl. “Don't scare me like that, you ass!"

As he stepped forward, he stumbled over the root of a tree, but Jerry caught his right arm, again steadying him.

"You alright mate?"

Calin nodded. "I'm alright, but I don't think I'm sane... Am I the only one that just went through that crazy glowing hole, or wall whatever, in the air or not? What the heck was that?!"

He looked desperately at Jerry and Evany for confirmation, they both shook their heads in disbelief and Jerry said, "No mate, we went through it alright, what it was though, I'd be Moses' uncle with a long beard and everything right about now if I knew."

Even in the light of it all, he chuckled at the image the boy created, but the weight of the situation siphoned away any humour.

"Where are we?" Calin asked with more than a slight trepidation.

While looking around, he hoped to see the cliffs and the sea, but there was just an almost endless forest around them with huge mountains peeking through the canopy. Not even a hint of the sound of waves crashing in the air.

Without warning, Calin jerked when Tyas walked out of the shadows, leaving a stump the man had been quietly been sitting on. "Welcome to—” but Tyas was tackled by Evany. She punched and kicked at the man while shouting.

“YOU LIED TO US! You said we were going over sea!”

Calin watched as Tyas tried to fend off the angry girl, not in the least tempted to help the man at that moment in time.

Finally after a minute, she huffed again and sat back giving chance for Tyas to roll away, the man gasped through coughs.

“You done?”

The girl nodded with a glare as Tyas coughed again. He stood up.

“I’m sorry. I said yes to going to a different continent. It wasn’t the entire story though, but I couldn’t tell you because I could literally not tell you. The words couldn’t come out of my mouth.”

“I don’t understand...” Evany muttered in a quivering voice.

They all frowned at Tyas, but Calin asked, “What do you mean? And where are we?” There was an awkward tension in the air as he waited for Tyas to finish another bout of coughing.

After taking a shuddering breath, Tyas said with a hoarse voice, “Welcome to one of the lost continents of Earth.”