"OUCH!" Shan shook out her finger, biting her tongue. A drop of blood sept into the ragged brown shirt she was trying to mend. Grabbing her old, dirty towel, she attempted to clean her swollen finger that she had just poked with the slightly rusty needle. Her day had been fairly awful, and this was not making it much better. Seeing as this was one of her only shirts, she gritted her teeth and tied the last seam.
Holding it up, she noticed that she had accidentally sewn a piece of the back to the sleeve.
An amatuer mistake.
Huffing, she tossed it aside, jumping to her feet the very moment the door slammed open.
In the door stood Frederik, beaming. His mood seemed to accurately reflect the perfect opposite of hers.
"Shan, Shan! It's happened! It's true!"
He grasped her hurt hand, and twirled her around. She promptly tore it away and landed on her bottom with a painful humph!
Frederik seemed to finally notice her mood, and never did his smile fade. In fact, it widened.
"Shan! Oh, get up, Shan! We can go! We're free!"
"Free." Shan stood, dusting off her sleeves.
A small crease crinkled his brow.
"What's wrong-"
"Nothing!" She snapped, plopping back down on the hard couch. Some tiny part of her protested that she was being unreasonable. But she couldn't bring herself to care. Her day sucked. It was awful. Her stupid boss-
Frederik tilted his head, reaching toward her arm, which she yanked away.
A ghost of a smile still tainted his lips, and so she forced her shoulders to relax and to unclench her jaw.
"What's great?" She said quietly, trying to force some enthusiasm.
Sighing, he plopped down next to her.
Shan's nose wrinkled; he smelled strongly of dirt, gas, and blood.
"You've changed, you know that?"
Blinking, she looked up at her brother. Her first instinct was to protest-but he was right. It was true. Without her Lifeline...She felt a little hollow.
Like she couldn't control her own thoughts.
And if her mind was her only weapon, then what did that leave her to rely on?
Shan lowered her eyes. He was right.
But then again...So had he.
"It's this-this blasted Snuffer!" She kicked at an old pan laying haphazardly across the ground.
Oddly, Frederik's smile came back in full force.
He jumped up again, startling Shan.
"The Snuffer! The Snuffer, Shan!"
"What about him!" Her temper rose
again.
"He's gone!"
The blood drained from her face. In a small, hushed voice, she whispered,
"He's...He's gone?"
"He's gone!" Frederik cried, throwing his hands up in the air. Her mouth dropped open.
"Gone?" Shan's voice got stronger. "Gone! GONE!" She screamed.
They both jumped to their feet in joy.
"GONE!" The sound echoed down the street as the two children left their coats and bolted into the forest.
The forest was quite cold, and Shan immediately regretted leaving her coat. The thick fog sept into her thin shirt, leaving her soaked in minutes.
She shivered, and Frederik glanced over. He seemed cold too, though maybe not as much.
"Are you ok?" He said softly as they tread through the mud.
"Peachy." She growled, pulling her arms in.
He looked ready to protest, but then thought otherwise.
They walked on in silence. No noises sounded from the forest except their boots squelching in the mud.
The fog seemed to become an almost human-like shove, forcing the siblings to bow their heads and push through it.
At one point, Shan stumbled and sept knee-deep into the thick mud and lost sight of Frederik completely.
By the sound of his footsteps, the fog was so thick that he didn't even notice she was gone.
Wiping mud off her mouth, she croaked, "Frederik!"
The fog muffled any response. No answer. No sound.
Panic building, Shan struggled to get her leg out. It sucked her in deeper, and with a horrified cry, she realized that it was no mud. It was quicksand. She'd be gone long before he even noticed.
Shan.
Frederik trudged forward, pushing his way through the fog. Shan was next to him, shivering. Putting his head down, he focused on putting one foot in front of the other.
Shan.
It was immensely cold, oddly. Outside of the forest it had been moderately warm.
Shan.
He wondered how close they were.
Shan.
It hadn't seemed to take as long last time. Maybe they were not as strong without their Lifelines. Come to think of it-
Shan.
-he was feeling weaker since then.
Shan.
Shan.
Shan.
SHAN!
A headache blossomed in his forehead. He felt like he was missing something. Like some tinny voice was squealing in his head.
"Shan.Shan.Shan.Shan.Shan.Shan. Shan, Frederik, Shan."
On pure instinct, he stopped dead in his tracks.
"Shan."
"Shan?" He reached out to where thought she was.
Nothing.
When had she...When had she...
"SHAN!" Frederik shouted. Something was wrong. So wrong.
She had fallen behind and he hadn't noticed. He hadn't noticed that his sister was gone.
"SHAN!"
A small voice echoed back, and at first he thought it was her. He turned in a circle,
trying to pinpoint where the sound had come from.
Echo, echo, echo, echo, echo.
No landmarks. Just...white.
"Shan!"
That wasn't him. That wasn't him at all.
A hand hit his shoulder, and he lashed out, punching the person in the shoulder as hard as he could. He would beat the crap out of them. No one would hurt HIS SISTER! Never again!
"Frederik! Frederik it's me! FREDERIK!"
It wasn't Shan. And the voice was deeper, unlike anyone he could remember knowing.
So he continued to beat the crap out of him.
Unfortunately...Frederik was not very strong. Unlike this person. They grappled both his hands, and held them tight.
"LET ME GO!" He screamed, a few stray tears leaking down his face. He couldn't-he couldn't lose Sha-
"Let me help you, Frederik."
"HOW DO YOU KNOW MY NAME?!" Futily, he flailed, kicking the person in the shins.
"I..." The voice broke, and he released his hands sadly. The fog obscured everything but his bare feet as he fell to the ground, off balance.
"I'm not your enemy. I will help you find your sister."
Slowly, he stopped struggling.
"Who..Are you?"
That really wasn't his finest moment. Sitting in the mud. Without his sister. In the middle of some stupid forest. But the person didn't laugh. Instead, a hand reached out of the fog, and he took it, unwilling to fight anymore.
Slowly, the boy stepped forward. In the fog, they had to stand almost nose to nose. It was only then that Frederik could really see him.
The boy's curly white hair framed his pink cheeks, giving him a rather boyish look. Despite that, it was obvious, from his broad shoulders and smile lines, that he was not as little as he looked. Splotches of color, light and dark, traversed his eyes, neck, and shoulders. His long fingers gripped his own slightly crooked, peach-colored left arm, almost sheepishly. In the end, it was only his eyes that frightened Frederik. Well..Maybe frightened wasn't right. They were a mix of both yellow, slitted snake eyes, and little specks of emerald green that seemed to shift and move. It was odd, and almost a little recognizable. His eyes focused on the boy's nose, where there was a small dot of dark brown.
"Leo." The boy's thin lips moved almost mutely, and Frederik almost wanted to ask him to repeat himself.
But there really was no need.
He chirped a small, slightly crazy laugh.
"Last time I checked, my lizard was a...lizard."
He sighed.
"There are ample things to explain." He whispered, his voice hoarse from disuse.
"But now is no time."
Leo held out his hand.
"Time to go get Shan."
Slowly, awfully, the sand pulled Shan ever downward, ignoring her attempts to escape. She screamed herself horse, while she sank to her hips. Eventually, she became mute, resolved to her fate.
Shan wondered how many had wandered from that path, lured into the forest by some creature of origin she couldn't fathom. Or maybe it was just an accident.
Or maybe she was the first lucky victim.
Gone was her waist, and then her stomach, and then her chest.
It was was the most terrifying thing she had even been through. The last thing she'd ever go through.
It was peculiar, knowing how close she was. Frederik could be just around the corner, and he might never know what happened to her.
The girl who was gone.
No. That was stupid.
What did she even do that was memorable?
No..Who would even remember her?
Frederik.
Muma, Lily, Juo.
Miss Vespa?
Oh, and a lizard.
A lot of people. Certainly.
She would just be the little Lifeliner, who disappeared, from land and memory.
Shan cried no tears as the quicksand reached her shoulders.
How could it possibly be over so fast?
I love you, Frederik. Thank you for being there for me.
Love you, Juo. Lily.
Love you Muma.
Cheesy, that was all it was.
Time moved in slow motion, and yet it went faster than lightning.
Shan wanted this chapter to end.
And as the sand slid over her head, end it did.