As we lay in the soft, waxy grass caught up in a laughing fit I notice Josey goes quiet. Her ears somehow perk up (if that's even remotely for a normal human to do) and a feeling of worry overcomes me after a while of her silence. Her long, brown braid swishes down her back as her head whips from side to side. I force myself to stop giggling with a few choughs then ask, "Josey, what are you doing?" Allie quickly falls silent as she, too, senses the tense feeling in the air.
"I just heard my name," she says flatly. There's a twinge of concern in her voice. "From over there." She stands up impossibly quickly and spins on her heel, pointing a finger just above the dwindiling forest. She shoves her second hand to us, knowing we'd jump to call her crazy and restart the laughing. "Guys, I'm serious." When she glares back at us her eyes are filled with fear and confusion. My heart jumps at the sight of her bewildered expression. There's obviously something wrong. I think to myself, pushing my curls back behind my ears to listen. I stand up slowly and lean in the direction of Josey's finger. Allie follows my lead and brushes all of what she can of her short hair behind her ears. We all hold our breath as we wait for this infimious voice to say Josey's name.
It never comes. Allie rocks back and positions her hands on her hips. "You're crazy," She teases. An angry expression spreads over Josey's face. She begins to speak in a high trill, but I block it out as something prods at the back of my brain. I bite the inside of my lip, a bad habit, and clear my throat. My eyes dart between the two bickering girls, anxiety racking up in me. The same feeling pushes my mind with more intensity, filling my ears with a single sound. The letter U rings through my head, followed by the sound of an A. "Shut up!" I finally say, pulling the girls into my arms. I clap my hands over their mouths and lean forward, bringing them stumbling with me. There it was, not quite a whisper. My name slithered through the thin, spiney trees.
Luna.
~
Allie's wide eyes turn slowly to me. Josey's, on the other hand, narrow to slits as she rips my hand off of her mouth. "So I'm not crazy, then, am I?" She hisses gleefully. Allie pulls away from me and my hands drop to my sides, scared out of my wits. The girls turn to me. "Are you okay, Luna?" I let out a breath I've been holding for a while now and unlock my knees. Although I feel such a need to not move the slightest bit, I bring myself to reluctantly shake my head. Josey quickly returns to me in fear that I might fall. I shrug her off and sit myself down.
"No, no, I think I'm fine, actually..." I say, trailing off. I motion the other girls to sit next to me. They crouch down, unwilling to be unprepared in case a four-headed talking dog equipped with spider webbing and chainsaws decided to sprint for us from the woods. Dead-silent and waiting, we stay low to the ground. Another name sounds from the woods.
Josey.
Allie springs up, worry in her voice. "Where am I? Is my name not going to be called?" She turns to us, a confusing mix of terror and excitement smooshed across her face. After a few seconds of silence her expression changes to thoughtful and disgusted. "I bet it's my brother," she says, wrinkling her nose. She cranks her bravery dial up a few notches and lunges forward with her brother's name. "Adam!" She screams, "Adam, we know that's you!" In response a flash of hot-white light pulses and squiggles towards us from the heart of the woods. Allie lets out an ear-splitting scream and cowers behind my curls as the twist of light slows. My heart flops around dramaticlally as the eerie, paranormal white light approaches. Out of the corner of my eye I can see Josey begin to hypervenalate and I strech out an arm unconciously, motioning her into my arms.
The light swirls and stops in front of Josey's face. That's when her breathing quickens to a unbeleavable pace and her eyes roll back into her head. She collapses into me as drops of pure fear swell and burst onto my cheeks. To my left Allie is stiff with surprise, so that leaves me alone with the mysterious white light. It loops around to face me, examine me. I hold my ground hard, digging my bare toes and knees into the soft grass. The light circles Josey and me, but leaves out Allie. Getting progressively fast, the light pulses with more intensity as it completely encases us. By this point my heart has bounced its way up my throat, practically choking me. My stomach has flipped over and over, leaving a horribly sour feeling. My ragged but quickening breath fails to steady as I close my eyes and think, This is an illusion. A dream. Not real. I finally let my breathing override my whole, shaking body as dark patches blot over the white light. I completely black out within a few seconds.
