The Other Side - A Jamilton Fanfiction

Chapter Four

Finally, we reached his destination.

He stepped onto the path, and I waited a few minutes before following him. I winced slightly when my feet crunched against the gravel, but Thomas didn't notice. In fact, he was talking to the many birds that seemed to be... following him.

The sky was a light blue now, speckled by orange streaks as the sun started its rise like it did every morning.

I slipped off of the path and moved into the underbrush like a cat hunting its prey, staying as quiet as I could be.

It's important to note that Thomas strayed off the walking trail.

I frowned as I followed him, but as he disappeared into the woods beyond, I lost sight of him.

"Dammit," I cursed under my breath as I emerged and returned to the path. I began to search for him, but it seemed that he had just disappeared from this world entirely. "Where'd you go?" I whispered to myself distractedly.

And that's when I was attacked.

"Who are you?" demanded a voice as I was pushed against a nearby tree, my arm twisted behind my body. I felt something cold pressed against my neck, and with a start, I realized it was a knife.

"What the—?!"

"What are you doing here?!"

"Let go of me!" I exclaimed. "Please, I didn't do anything!"

"You were following him, weren't you?" they demanded. The rough bark of the tree scraped against my skin, and for a second, I thought that whoever this was was going to kill me.

I let my body relax, and their grip on me softened. I brought my foot down on theirs, and they let out a sharp curse and let go of me, dropping their knife. I grabbed it and swiveled around to face them, breathing heavily from the adrenaline racing through my body. My back was pressed against the tree as I studied my attacker.

He was perhaps an inch or two taller than me. His curly hair was pulled back into a ponytail, and he was heavily freckled. He seemed to be fairly young, and he was dressed in a dark blue waistcoat with a white shirt underneath and black breeches.

He crossed his arms and stared at me critically. "You appear to have bested me, human."

"What. The. Fuck."

His eyes lit up and his arms fell to his side. "Oooh! You said a baaaad word!"

"Why the fuck did you just attack me?" If you could even call it that; he had just pushed me against a tree for a couple of seconds.

"I thought you were someone else. But don't worry, you're just a human. Why would I wanna hurt a human?" He held out his hand. "Let's start over. Hi! It's nice to meet you!"

"You just pinned me against a tree."

"I said I was sorry."

"No you didn't!"

"Oh." He frowned. "I'm sorry. Anyway, it's nice to meet you." He held out his hand again and hesitated for a second. "I'm John! And you are?"

"Piss off," I returned before turning and stalking off, forgetting about Thomas.

"That's a funny name," John said as he raced after me and matched his pace with mine. "Y'know, I've never been here before. I'm kinda rebelling against my family, but that's okay. Fuck them! Oh, please don't tell them I said that! They mean everything to me."

I tried my best to ignore him, I really did.

My hands were shoved in my pockets as I started the long walk back to my apartment, and despite my closed off attitude, John didn't seem to want to leave me alone. He was going on about his family or whatever, but I was hardly paying attention.