‘June. What have they done to you?’
June smiled and cracked her neck. The change was already overtaking her. Unlike Bruce, June seemed to be welcoming the pain of her transition.
‘They haven’t done anything to me, Valentine. They’ve awoken me.’
‘I don’t understand,’ I whispered.
‘You will.’
June’s skin started to split, her body folding in on itself.
I turned and ran. I could hear June roaring behind me as I scrambled to open the front door. I looked over my shoulder to see a monster running at me, mouth open and claws extended. I managed to get the door open and quickly slammed it shut. June’s monster rammed into it, but the door held. I knew it wouldn’t for long.
I ran down the front porch steps, my legs blindly taking me around the side of the house and to the backyard. Without looking back, I ran into the night, down the grass hill and straight to the creek at the edge of the property. The water was cold against my legs and I stumbled trying to keep my footing in the rushing water. I glanced back at the house to see a few creatures swarming around the brick building. Their tall, white bodies glowed in the darkness. They had yet to look my way.
I kept moving, crossing the water and onto the other side of the creek. I tried to move silently through the wild bushland but couldn’t help the crunches of dead leaves underfoot.
It wasn’t until I reached our neighbour’s clearing that I realised a creature was already there waiting for me. I stopped moving, hoping it hadn’t heard me. We locked eyes and I knew it was over. But it wasn’t the creature in front of me that attacked. I felt a strong arm reach around and grip my waist, picking me up with ease. I tried to fight it, but I was no match.
It dragged me out into the clearing. More creatures emerged from the shadows, including Sam in his human form. They stood together in the dim light of the moon.
‘Eleanor, you can put her down now,’ Sam said. The creature dropped me in front of Sam. I stood up, my legs shaking. The rest of the creatures formed a circle, trapping me in the middle. One creature stood to Sam’s right. I assumed this was June.
‘You killed my son,’ Sam smiled.
‘What have you done to my sister?’ I whispered, wrapping my arms around myself.
‘She’s one of us now, Valentine. If you surrender your spirit, you could be too.’
‘Never,’ I said.
‘Well, you give me no other choice,’ Sam said and nodded his head. A few creatures pounced at me. I ducked and tried to scramble out of the way. I felt a claw around my stomach, piercing me as I tried to move out of reach. I screamed in pain and landed heavily on the ground. The creatures moved away, and a smiling Sam approached me.
‘Last chance,’ he said. I grabbed a handful of dirt and flung it in his eyes. Sam cried out and June’s creature ran at me, its hands coming for my throat. Before it lifted me off the ground, I reached blindly for a rock. My fingers curled around one and I swung my arm. The rock smashed into the creature’s head with a crack. Thick dark liquid splattered my face and June’s creature released its hold on me, falling to the grass with a thump.
‘I’m sorry, June,’ I whispered. I let the bloody rock drop to the ground. The monster lay motionless, but it was still breathing.
I stood to face Sam and his monsters. They were growling and licking their lips, but Sam seemed unfazed. I placed a hand to my stomach, wincing at the pain. My hand came away soaked in red.
‘Your grandmother defied us. You know how that ended for her. Together, Valentine, we could have had unspeakable powers.’
Clouds started to form rapidly above us. The ground rumbled, an earthquake shaking the island. I looked at Sam, but his face was clouded with concern.
‘Stop it,’ I cried.
‘It’s not me. Control yourself, Valentine,’ Sam said, holding his arms out to steady himself.
‘I don’t understand.’
‘If you don’t, we are all in danger.’
Lightning struck suddenly from the clouds above, splitting the grassland in front of us in two. Another earthquake ripped through the island, cracks starting to appear in the ground.
I could hardly stand as I waited for the shocks to cease. A blustering wind shook through the bushland, trees caving in on themselves as the gust whooshed past them. The creatures started to scramble and flee, but trees began to fall, barricading them in the clearing. In the distance, I could hear the windows of my grandmother’s house breaking. A few of the monsters tried to run at me, but they were swept up in the wind, blown into the now gaping hole in the ground. Trees, animals and debris flew past me, swept into the darkness, as more earthquakes ruptured throughout the island.
‘June!’ I screamed, but the monster that was my once sister was blown into the darkness, as if never there at all. Tears blinded my eyes as I tried to hold myself upright. I managed to grab onto a nearby tree, gripping it tightly as the world around me caved in on itself.
‘The island will swallow us if you don’t stop,’ Sam called. He was struggling to hold onto a tree himself. We were trapped, the space between Sam and me widening as we stood on opposite sides of the fractured land. Sam started to change, his claws coming out to get a better grip.
‘This isn’t me,’ I cried, as Sam’s transformation completed. I looked away; my attention now caught by the movement of the plants around me. Vines from around the trees moved like snakes through the grass, tearing and ripping everything in their path. The vines caught a few of the creatures, dragging them towards the split in the man-made island’s earth, which was increasing with every second.
Water started to thrash between the cracks, the ocean coming up from the hole in the ground, engulfing the land and spilling out, reaching my feet. I felt a magnetic pull towards the hole, and was desperately trying to resist it.
There wasn’t much left of the island as the land sunk into the hole, causing a wild waterfall at my feet. The tree I was grasping was the only thing left standing. When I looked back at Sam, his human form had returned. He was being held up by a floating hollow branch, which was quickly making its way towards the waterfall into darkness.
‘Valentine. Help me!’ He was choking on the waves as they crashed over him. ‘Please.’
‘Hold on,’ I called out. I let go of the tree with one hand and reached out for him. I waited until Sam was just about to fall into the empty space under me, then grabbed his hand. Sam dangled for a moment mid-air, water crashing around him, his legs swinging. When I knew I had a strong grip, I pulled Sam up. My hand around the tree felt like it was being torn in two.
‘I’ve got you,’ I cried. Sam’s body was inching further and further towards me, despite the black hole’s energy still pulling us down. When Sam reached my shoulders, he gripped the hand I had wrapped around the now breaking branch.
‘I really wish you had joined me,’ Sam whispered. He smiled and with his last strength, wrenched my hand from the tree. For a second, the two of us remained suspended above the swirling waters. We fell into the black hole, Sam laughing, and me trying desperately to find something to grab hold of. The remaining ground cracked and what was left of the island began to drop, inches from my own falling body.
I fell into the darkness, hitting the water below with a hard crash, my breath leaving my body. I was thrusted further down as the remaining rubble fell above me. In the darkness of the water, I couldn’t see anything, but I could feel the debris shooting down into the water like bullets.
When I no longer felt the pull to the ocean floor, I started to swim up, the need to breathe taking over my body and drowning out my thoughts. I could see a faint light above, and relief rushed through me as I took my first breath of air, spluttering out the remnants of water. There was no island left, just a quiet sea where we all once stood. Looking around, in the shadows of the night sky, I tried to find something to use as a raft. I spotted the sign for Sam’s Stupendous Store floating a few waves over from me.
Before I could reach it, I felt something brush my leg. I looked down to see Sam’s grinning face under the water, his white teeth stark against the deep dark blue. He grabbed my leg, pulling me violently down. I screamed, water flooding my lungs. Thrashing, I couldn’t escape his grasp. I reached my arms up, feeling my fingers just barely brush the air above the water’s surface. I tried to fight him, but his grasp on my leg was too strong, until finally I was pulled under.
THE END
Clouds Behind the Moon is written by Olivia Hides and was published serially throughout 2020