Vista – Henry Zhang
Bryce Augusti
I awoke to something much worse than the Ravens. They had watched silently and led me somewhere. This was a pointy object in my face, with a blurry figure holding onto the end. After a few moments, I realized that the pointy object was a spear and the blurry object was a dark-haired, freckled, post-adolescent boy. He seemed scared. I don’t know why he was scared when he had the weapon. I got the sense that visitors in this place – the tree or down where I had felt the power – were not welcomed very often.
“Who are you, and why have you come”? He uttered triumphantly.
“The Ravens led me here.” I snapped back harder than I should have.
“The what”? Are you high, kid? You are going to come with me to see Him.”
He grabbed my arm and pushed me off the tree. I hit the ground with a thud and cut my elbow. It was bleeding even more than it had been before. My whole body was scraped, bruised, and purple. I hadn’t noticed last night through the darkness. It was quite painful, but I ventured to stay silent.
“You didn’t answer me before,” he said. “Who are you?”
I stayed silent. Thinking about what he had just asked me, I puzzled myself as to why he would want to know. Could my name change – in the blink of an eye – if he took me to see “Him” or not?
“First, tell me who you are and who He is. Also, where are we”? Those were the questions I wanted to know. He stood for a moment, then responded:
“My name is Matt. Matthew Ylyse. As for where we are, you were on the edge of the boundary outside the school.”
We took a few more steps, and I felt the power again. It surged throughout my entire body – my brain forgot about the cuts or the fall from the tree. I still couldn’t see anything through the trees. What school was there in the middle of a forest? What boundary?
As we walked, I reached into my pocket and pulled out the paper to examine it. Just as I glimpsed away from the capital C, I was knocked to the ground once more. This time by a girl. She, unlike Matt, was unusually beautiful. She had slightly lighter brown hair than Matt. She had a knife and an unsavory look on her face. She stood over me:
“Who is this? How did you get him inside the boundary”? She questioned Matt.
“I don’t know. I saw him go through the boundary on the night watch and spent a while looking for him. I found him in a tree.”
“How did he..” She gaped at me in awe as I stood up. I didn’t understand.
“The tree was high, but the branches were easy to climb. What did I do?”
She got more angry this time. She pushed me down again, harder than her first time. The knife she held inched its way toward my throat. I looked in between Matt’s legs and spied a large rose garden. Behind it was a group of buildings – a relatively large lot that I had previously never noticed.
“Tell me who you are, or this grass gets dyed red!” She yelled angrily.
I didn’t respond immediately. I studied her face as well. She was angry. She didn’t want to be. I felt like she was lonely – perhaps I also wished for that to be the case. After all, I was alone in the forest; that fact in itself doesn’t usually scream companionship and social connection. When I looked again, she was still glorious. I didn’t have anything to compare her to in my mind. She seemed hopeful yet sad. Her left eyebrow leaned slightly.
She had dark green eyes. They were the opposite of the Raven’s. I felt warm when I stared into them – even though the blade at my throat felt cold to the touch.
I spent a few moments analyzing the intricate details of her face. If I had to die here, surrounded by strange people, at least something pleasant would be my last image. I was completely and truly alone. Matt stared off into the distance, and the girl in front of me seemed hell-bent on my demise. Although, I felt that I couldn’t give up just yet. The power came over me.
For the first time, I realized the extent to which I was alone. I chimed back into reality:
“I… I don’t know.” I exclaimed. “I… My name is Today, but I don’t remember who I am or how I got here.” I pleaded with her.
There it was. I awoke to Ravens and saw It in the forest. Got threatened by steel twice and hit the ground by a large oak tree. She lifted the knife, and I stood up. I gazed upon the school in the distance. I felt the message in my pocket and the ground beneath my feet.
“My name is Today, and I have no memory,” I unwittingly amused myself.
Though the Ravens would remember who I was.