Wherever You Go: Chapter Two

In which Ariana shows off her powers, and Reuben sleeps
The twins fought down the stairs in a frenzy, nearly tripping over the stale planks of wood. Without a word, they grabbed their coats from the wardrobe near the screen door and rushed out the door and into the crisp autumn air.

From their empty driveway, they sprinted a few meters and ducked into the cover of the woods, crunching against leaves and twigs and things that nobody bothered to clean up.

"We should've brought a flashlight." Ari breathed, moving a bundle of branches out of her face.

"I can't remember where Dad put it anyway. Trust me, I thought about it."

The woods were quite convoluted compared to the rest of the small town. High branches managed to stop any sunlight from touching the ground - not that there was much this late into the evening, and low branches and roots struck passerby in the head and tripped them. The only way to tell if you were getting close to the marsh was by accidentally stumbling into the mud that sucked the shoes off your feet.

Or perhaps stumbling across an old house.

It was an old fashioned log cabin, something out of a low budget horror movie, with oil lamps shining through chipped and dirty glass windows. The door, heavy and cracked, was propped open by a large stone, and through the light there was a small apothecary table covered in bowls and fallen leaves. Lights in the house shone through the rotted holes in the ceiling of the cabin, giving the gnarled branches of the trees an ethereal look.

Ari's arms slipped around her brother's unconsciously, a movement she did as a child that used to comfort her. But through their thin windbreakers, Reuben could feel his sister shaking - from cold or fear.

"Ar, you're not....scared, are you?" His voice was a mix of sarcasm and an upbeat sense of normality in an attempt to calm his sister down, but she didn't respond. Her face was stone stern,bent on the house in front of them.

"....Ar....?"

She didn't move. He closed his eyes briefly to blink, and felt the world fall out from underneath him - like a bad dream where he was falling. He kicked his legs and tried to swing his arms - but was stopped by his sister's tight grip on him.

Wind blew against him from every angle, as though he and his sister were at the apex of a huge windtunnel - and by the feeling of it, they didn't have much time left before something bad happened. The feeling of wind tearing at his hands, hard enough to break the skin, wouldn't dare let him open his eyes to look down upon Ari.

Under the pressure of force from every angle, he finally gave in and allowed himself to fall.

00:48, May 4, 2013 (UTC)00:48, May 4, 2013 (UTC)00:48, May 4, 2013 (UTC)00:48, May 4, 2013 (UTC)

"Ben? Ben?" Ariana stooped down onto her knee at her brothers side. They'd made it into the old house before he suddenly collapsed, his other arm sweeping bowls off the apothecary table in the corner. The girl couldn't say she hadn't anticipated that - being so fast sometimes had that ffect on people. Heck - the first time she ran that fast she too passed out. Granted, she was at the track in middle school, but those were details.

With a deep breath, she wrapped her arms around her brother's again and closed her eyes - imagining the shapes of the room. The apothecary desk - rectangular. The bowls - about four - circular. The stairs she discovered behind the desk - all rectangular and just long enough to drag Ben down. She reopened her eyes, stood up, and took a step, feeling the world blur around her, turning a few shades darker.

<p style="font-size:13px;">This type of speed was what she lived for. Even her brother, easily 10+ pounds heavier than her, was a feather in this state. She cleared the desk and ducked swiftly onto the stairs, carrying her ragdoll brother over her shoulder.

<p style="color:rgb(68,68,68);font-family:'HelveticaNeue',HelveticaNeue,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14.44444465637207px;line-height:21.111112594604492px;"> The basement was pitch black, but this ability let her see perfectly. A thick lead of twine hung from the ceiling, hopefully  attached  to a light bulb. Losing the superior speed she flounced over to the line, dropping her brother harshly to the concrete floor. His fist clenched and he groaned painfully, but didn't wake.

<p style="font-size:13px;">Ari reached for the rope and tugged hard. By the time it happened, it was too late for her to react - even with her power. Gallons of murky marshwater poured on top of her head, faster than even she could move, and consumed the basement, raising Ariana to the surface and leaving Reuben to drown.