Volume I Chapter 13

Stuck… Do you mean to say that we're going to be stuck waiting in this small rickety old shed?! I could feel my face morph itself into utter bafflement from her words of 'encouragement'. Everything was too much to digest, and just thinking of how we were going to wait for utter doom to knock on our door was, getting me anxious all over again.

I heard her sigh and quietly said inside the small room, "Look… All these things are still new to me and as much as I want to scream for help… 'help' isn't going to come until we survived the next 30 minutes of this place." With a small glance towards the blocked door, she stashed the old clock away on her pocket and went to stand up behind the wall for some stability and assurance. I looked at her, mind running in full circles as she tried to inspect the world outside from the window slightly above. Just when was it that the girl beside me looked more reliable yet frail to lean on? Her efforts on making the two of us safe while looking after my injured self was… quite touching, so to say.

"Sorry… if I've been somewhat a jerk to you for these past few days, and was constantly dragging you down." I said while staring at my ashy-stained foot with knotted eyebrows. "I've never been really good at handling my temper, and a lot of times, I'd get ostracized at school because of my uptight personality. But, I'm working on it..! Truly."

"Well, I don't really mind since… I'm not without fault as well." I heard her say while she quickly faced my way. I turned back to look at her and saw that her sheepish eyes were focused on mine as well. The whole atmosphere was quite warm, and I couldn't help but smile and nod from her forgiving acceptance of my personality.

Creak…

Suddenly, a loud creak of wood made the two of us silent. So silent, that I could hear the hammering of my chest.

"What are you doing?"

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"Mom… What are we hiding from exactly?" Nearby the creak that we just ran into was a small formation of boulders, it was the place that mom and I were currently hiding upon from our unknown pursuers at the airport.

"It's… We're hiding from the… p-people who sent us here from the airport. Although, maybe, the word is a bit unfitting to call them as just that." My mom explained, her pauses and breaths tells me that she was trying so hard in forming the correct words for me to understand the whole situation completely.

"Mom. Just tell me everything, okay? Please?" I held her arm with both hands and looked into her unfocused eyes.

"Everything..?" She asked yet continued, "Y-yes, I… I need to tell you everything."

"Nessa… Do you remember the times that your father has to always do overtimes at night in his police work?" I nodded, and let her continue. "It's exactly like this… Every night, when the sun sets and lets the moon rise brightly in the sky, your father would come across situations wherein he would be dragged off to help into this… place."

"W-What is 'this' place?"

"It's a place wherein the souls of the dead wander… A land made specifically for the extremes of the dead called the Bridge of the Overworld."

Bridge? Just a bridge? You tell me that this was just a bridge?! Well! It doesn't seem like a bridge to me. Heck- we we're literally flashed by a white light- teleported, a more likely fitting term, into a place filled with tall trees found in the depths of the wilderness!

And now you tell me that this was where 'dad' usually does his businesses at night? To some place called the bridge of some-cringey ass name?! What the hell?! Her explanation left me more with things to ponder about, and it felt a lot frustrating hearing mom pop off the idea that we were suddenly facing someone who dragged us out in this bridge place.

I took a deep breath and asked.

"Mom, why is it just called the Bridge of the surface-err overworld something? I mean, it's a fucking dumb name but it has to have a purpose right?" Sarcastically as I was, this whole shinanegan was the only thing that makes sense and interconnects logically with what happened to us earlier. So, I was determined to figure everything out. Even if my father was often dragged into the bridge that was practically non-existent until today! Great!

What was he doing in this place, and who was he exactly helping by leaving his family behind?

"I-I don't really know honey. Your grandfather would only tell tales on how every eldest Pearson would encounter a helpless will of a dead soul- something that would open rifts to the bridge and let your father in. E-even I had only been dragged a number of times in this place by your father when we were young." She lightly panted and coughed, her breathing getting more ragged by the second.

Grandfather knows about all of this? Every eldest Pearson? Rift? Questions are answered with more questions inside my head and it wasn't helping when I keep noticing her cough more than usually needed.

I said, "Mom. What's happening?" Her movements went stiffer as I continued, "Is this why you've only been dragged a handful of times in this place? Does it affect the body of a living human..?"

My mother nodded her head slowly and smiled.

"You sure do pick-up things faster, like your father."

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It was only about half an hour in the small shed when we encountered an indistinguishable silhouette of a little boy on a small corner inside the room. The room temperature kept on going down several degrees lower, and every minute spent inside the room was similar to standing in an incredibly large freezer that stored dead meat of freshly cut animals. I looked backed on Andy, her fear-stricken eyes was explicitly seen as the boy who had just announced his presence was currently walking towards her, slowly.

"What are you doing?"

She glanced quickly towards my way, her eyes asking for help while I look for something to grab on so that I could defend the poor girl from a kid of unknown origin. Unexpectedly so, before I could grab a chair from the pile that I stored to block against the door, the kid turned his white eyes to me instead.

"What are you doing?"

Fully creeped and caught on act, my muscles visibly stiffened from the sudden question of movement. "What are you doing?" He asked again for the fourth time before saying, "Why are you in my house?"

Noticing that his voice seemed to go decibels lower as the room go from chilling to freezing, I couldn't help but lowly answered out of panic. "W-we're hiding. Sorry."

"Hiding..?" The boy's voice returned to his earlier pitch and he looked at the both of us in wonder. "Hiding… From who?" The sudden question was brought to me once again, as I finally got a hold of a leg from the chair that I was reaching to.

"Someone dangerous outside…" Andy spoke, her voice squeaking at the end of her tone as she tried to stand up and go to my side, near the door. Seeing her currently struggling to stand straight, I abandoned the chair that I was holding unto and went to quickly side-step my way towards her. The boy didn't seem to mind the careful and cautious actions we were making, it was as if he couldn't exactly see them.

"Dangerous… My father told me that everything that came from the outside was dangerous." His innocent statement made the lightly illuminated room to turn a little dark once again. I held Andy's arm for a while, shielding her body with my own in case trouble suddenly starts when the boy seemed to look at the direction of the door once again and yelled, "Father!"

With rapid movement, we saw him disappear from the darkness as he merged with the shadow of the blocked door inside. "We shouldn't stay here anymore…" Andy whispered in a pleading tone, grabbing my right sleeve in a tight manner as we both stared off the direction that the boy of darkness had merged into.

"Alright…" The route towards the door was currently unavailable since we don't know if we would bump into the boy's father or the boy himself, so I turned to look towards the previous lookout window and thought that we would have to make do. I grabbed the previously left chair near the door and quickly place it as a stool to stand on. The dusty window had small cracks in it, and seeing as the glass was still intact, we had to make this fast.

"Andy, we need to be fast. Once I break the glass on this window, you'll be the one going across first. Luckily, the window's about the right size to fit an adult human in a fetus position-"

"What about you?"

Her sudden question made me turn to look at her and say, "I'll… try to buy us some time. More importantly, you need to worry how you'll safely ascend outside. I don't really recommend you falling to your death you know?" I tried to joke and make the atmosphere lighten for the two of us, but her stern expression said otherwise.

"Okay… But I meant what I said. You might need to quickly climb the roof with your injured foot by your own. A bit risky, but it's a more viable option than getting chased on the ground." I seriously explained and looked back on the small pocket watch that my mother gave me. We had already stayed hiding for almost 45 minutes inside the small shed. Running outside for 15 more would be a stupid idea if you have an injured person on the team so we have no chance but to try our luck on the roof.

"How much more do we need to wait?"

"About 15 minutes."

"Okay, let's wait five minutes more before we proceed on escaping. This would most likely be a gamble off our own luck, but I think that it will be the perfect time to alert the people near us of our escape." I nodded absentmindedly as I think of some ways wherein I could slowly chip in the glass from the window, silently.

Thud!

Thud!

A large thudding noise came suddenly near the window and it made my heart still once again. My eyes grew wide as several amputated limbs tried hard to climb and destroy the circle window- the only barrier that was separating me from the scary chaos outside. In just a few seconds, my vision had turned red seeing the bloodied handprints on the pane.

"Ah!-" "Vanessa!" I didn't know when it happened, but I already found myself falling to the ground with speed that made everything I see blurry.

"Father, look at what I found hiding on the shed! Two walking corpses waiting to play!"

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"W-what do I do? What do I need to do to stop your coughing?" I looked at my daughter with a troubled smile. The things she would experience in the future would certainly change her look in life. I just hope that some of it wouldn't affect her too much- especially when some things are just meant to happen in this world.

"I'm f-fine. These are just some of the side-effects for staying much longer than intended in this place. B-back to the task at hand, the rules of this place are quite simple, Nessa." I sat up straight and looked at her in the eyes, seeing as she her glared signified her disapproval, I had no choice but to ignore her glaring looks from my dismissal actions on one matter than the other. "One thing that you're grandfather warned us about in his stories was that, you shouldn't talk willy nilly to the people-dwellers of this world. After all, if you don't want to anger the wrath of some people, it's best if you talk to them less or don't talk at all."

"Talk less, got it." A rustling of leaves made us stop talking and search the area from any other disturbances that was causing the noise. Streams from the far away body of water was the only thing that we can hear when all of a sudden, a loud shrieking of an unknown bird came at us from above.

Ckaw! Ckaw! Ckaw!

"Shit!" Hurriedly, my daughter put one arm of mine above her shoulder and supported me to stand all the way up. While I was trying to stabilize myself coupled with hers and my own efforts, I saw her search through the nearest bushes and found a long twig. With one hand, she quickly bended down to reach the stick and seemingly adopted it as her temporary weapon.

Swaying the long stick above our heads, the two of us quickly limped away from our previous location as both of us knew that we were already quickly discovered.