The Overture
A police car with wailing sirens flew down the road, harshly wafting air into Ry and Amie’s faces.“D’you think -” Ry begins nervously.
Amie scoffs. “Please. You expect them to care?” When Ry sighs, Amie stops to put a hand on Ry’s shoulder. “They won’t look us in the eye anymore - now we don’t have to look into theirs, either.”
They walked for a little while longer, until the silent air was broken by the sudden sound of sirens again. A second police car came whizzing down the road.
Another, moments later.
“The hell?” Amie murmured, eyes following the vehicles. “Isn’t that the third one to go past now?” She looked at Ry. “You think something bad happened, in town or something?”
Ry sighed tiredly. “So long as they’re not looking for us, I don’t care.” She said, kicking a stone to punctuate her mood. It scuttered a few centimetres and stopped pointedly.
“...Okay.” Amie said, her eyes fastening on the optimally kickable rock. “How far do you think I can punt it?”
Before Ry could answer her, Amie had jogged up to this rock and kicked it what she thought was a fair distance into the wooded area beside them. The closeby thump of the rock hitting the tree and then the floor showed Amie hadn’t actually kicked it too far.
Amie looked to her feet. “It’s these naff shoes.” She kept walking, and Ry picked up her pace. There were rustles from where Amie had sent the rock.
“I think you hit somebody.” Ry stopped. “I can hear them moving.”
“Probably a hobo sleeping or something.” Amie muttered. “C’mon, let’s keep going.”
“We can’t just go,” Ry whispered.
“Sure we can.” The rustling continued, sounding like someone was moving through the sloped brush toward them. “C’mon, Ry. We need to make distance before they realise we’re gone.”
“We’ve gotta apologise.”
“Please. You think this is the worst thing to happen to a -”
Metres away from the two, the figure had begun to emerge from the slope at the side of the road, still partially shrouded by foliage and shadow. The figure stood on the edge of the road, aimless, like it was waiting for direction.
“Ry?” Her name caught in Amie’s throat. “Can we go?”
The figure sharply cocked its head towards them.
Ry couldn’t look away. She was stuck still. Her owlish eyes were unblinking, heart dangerously pausing.
The figure started moving. Towards them. Its feet dragged harshly against the gritty tarmac road. It sounded familiarly like shoes being scuffed - but when Amie looked at its feet, she didn’t see shoes…
She saw skin tearing.
“Ry,” Amie desperately grabbed her arm. “C’mon, let’s go!”
Arms stretched out, it grew menacingly closer.
“Come on!” Amie urgently pulled on Ry. When she did, the thing surged forward, falling.
Ry gasped as her thundering heart caught up. The thing looked up at them, hands looking to clutch. The thing almost had her in its gnarled fingers.
It snarled.
Jonah Zalick
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