Moon Girl (Watty Awards 2013)

Chapter 10

The cool night air crackled and whipped around her as she silently slipped out her bedroom window. She let go of the sill and dropped to the ground 10 feet below.

Twigs and mulch crunched beneath her feet and jumped out of the garden onto the soft grassy lawn to avoid further noise. The stars glowed overhead and stirred a strange excitement inside her. Her eyes twinkled and shone brightly and she nearly skipped with joy.

As she exited the property she looked back once more, the light were still off reassuring her that her parents were not up and alerted of her late night escape. She hoisted her bag higher up on her shoulders and walked to the other side of the street.

Anna didn't really know where she was going, she knew what she was looking for but she didn't know where to start. She supposed that the school would be as good as start as any.

Anna's school was pretty far from her house and it took her nearly 45 min to walk there. As she neared the large building she felt inclined to stop and look behind her. Anna froze and felt her spine stiffen, she slowly spun around and faced the shadows behind her.

Her eyes pierced the darkness and picked out the outline of a young boy standing in the shadows of the schools entrance gate. She squinted her eyes hoping for a better view, but for some reason he just seemed to be impossible to see.

Normally Anna had no problem seeing in the dark, it was part of her nature, but now..... She took a hesitant step forwards and then paused again. The boy in the shadows was slowly moving towards her, she took another step forwards and then another.

Suddenly, he sprinted the rest of the way, and before she could get a chance to see him or cry out, he had covered her eyes and her mouth with his hands. Anna struggled and wiggled to get out of his grasp, but his hands held her like iron.

Finally she submitted herself to stillness. Since it was night, Anna was running only on the charge she had received from the Sun during the day. The boy put something over her face and before she knew it she was limp and asleep.

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The light that greeted her eyes when she woke up was blinding. It pierced through her eyelids even when closed and seared her eyes. She lifted her hand to cover them but found that she couldn't lift it high enough, something cold and smooth weighed down her wrist. She twisted her head and tried to get the light away from her but was dismayed to find it equally bright on every side. She wanted to SEE!

She was confused, cold, and strangely tired, and she couldn't even open her eyes to see where she was. Anna opened her mouth and let out a whimper, what was going on? After a few more minutes of resigned silence her eyes began to adjust and she slowly cracked them open.

Light filtered in as she blinked, once, twice three times to grow accustomed to it and then she looked around. Clear, glistening floor to ceiling windows surrounded her on all sides and the sun lay positioned straight overhead and streaming through the overhead window. She shook her head confused, what was going on?

She heard the soft patter of footsteps behind her and she struggled vainly to turn her head so she could see who it was.

The footsteps stopped and it was once again silent.

"Your name's Anna? Isn't it?" the person standing behind her asked. It was a he and he sounded to be young, probably around her age.

Instead of answering, Anna fired back her own question. "You’re one of the boys that was at school today, aren't you?"

The person sniffed sounding aggravated, "You didn't answer my question so I won't answer yours."

Anna imagined herself burning small holes into his head with her eyes and glared at the wall in front of her, "What are you two?" she muttered

Suddenly laughter rang out quite loudly in the room causing Anna to jump in surprise.

"Seriously, Marco?"

"I like her already," two new voices chimed.

"Marco?" Anna questioned, "What's the other two's name's?"

"Zach"

"Andrew"

Anna nodded her head, "Okay Zach and Andrew, why am I tied up?"

She heard someone chuckle again. "Obviously it's so you won’t run away!"

Anna rolled her eyes, "Well, why don’t you want me to run away?"

"Because then you wouldn't be here!"

"Well, why do you want me here?"

"Because here is a very good place to be!"

Anna growled in frustration, "Can't just one of you irritating dimwits give me an answer?!?"

This time the laughter was even loudly she heard something bang to the floor and she realized that whoever it was, was rolling around on the floor laughing.

She growled again.

"Didn't....your.........mother .......ever.........teach you.................manners?" he huffed out between laughter.

"Didn't yours?" she fired back

This only fueled the laughter.

Finally she heard a very aggravated voice say, "Just leave, Andrew, your only making this more difficult."

The laughter stopped and she heard Andrew stand back up, "No, it's okay, I'll behave myself."

Someone grunted in approval and then took another step closer to her chair.

"My name's Marco," the person said, "And we've taken you here to do some tests, we know you’re a Moon Dweller, and we need your help."

His voice cracked a little at the end and Anna wondered what was making him so desperate.

She really wanted to turn around and see what was going on.

"How am I supposed to help?' she asked

"I don't know," Marco answered, that's why we took you to find out."

It was silent after that for a few minutes.

"Where you the boys I saw at school today?" she asked again

Again it was silent.

"Yes," Marco finally replied we were.

Anna heart leapt with excitement, "You can untie me," she chanted eagerly, "I won't run away, I was out looking for you guys, I have questions for you too!"

She heard the shuffle of feet and it sounded as though all the boys had gone to the back corner of the room to talk. Finally she heard the footsteps come close again.

"We'll untie you," Marco said, "But we are going to keep you in this locked room until we are surer of what to do."

Anna nodded, "Okay."

She felt the ropes rubbing roughly against her wrist as Marco pulled on the knots. They rubbed coarsely for a few moments before falling softly off.

Anna took a deep breath of contentment, she hadn't realized just how much those ropes had been bothering her until they were gone. She pulled her hands forwards and onto her lap. She started to stand up but suddenly froze.

She rung her hands softly, while pondering her options. She was quite curious to discover what exactly her captors looked like, but was also unsure whether she really wanted to see it or not. It seemed to her that by seeing their faces it would make her captor that much more real.

Finally, before a few more moments passed she slowly stood up and warily turned about to face her conflictors.

What she saw shocked her.