the gravestone ch. 36

The water was as cold as the first night Mel had found her sphere, the first night she thought she saw a snake in the water. The water was dark, they were holding their breath but couldn’t hold it much longer. Just as they thought all hope was lost, a long swimming figure swam towards them. It was the serpent. The giant serpents mouth opened ever so slowly and the last thing both Mel and Joseph saw were giant black fangs.

Coughing and spluttering, Mel and Joseph rose from the ground once more. Joseph jumped back with a huge fright from what he had just seen. In front of him lay fifteen to twenty bodies of human beings. Joseph gasped and yelled, “BLOODY HELL!” then as suddenly as Joseph had yelled, every single one of the bodies rose from the ground looking confused. “Where am I?” said a girl with black hair, “Who are you?” said a man with short red hair. Joseph soon realized that these weren’t just any people, they were The Others. Suddenly, one of them shouted. “I REMEMBER! WE’VE GOT TO GET THE OTHERS, QUICK EVERYONE!” Joseph whistled as loud as he had ever whistled in his life. “WAIT! You have to wait. There are no more others, we are the only ones left. Me and Mel have rescued you from The Rangers, you were going to be killed if they had found you again.” All of them turned and looked towards Joseph, the one nearest Joseph who looked the oldest with thick blonde hair turned to him and said “Why thank you, young man. You have saved time and all of our lives.” Joseph frowned, “Not yet I haven’t, we all have to get together to do this and I don’t even know what to do next.” Mel put her hand against Joseph’s shoulder. “I think I know, Jo”

All of The Others gathered together as Mel and Joseph lead everyone to the ancient house in the park forest. Serpent carvings lined every single one of the stone blocks they passed, each changing it’s pose slightly. “I figured, since the spheres kill us they must be connected to us some how right?” said Mel as she walked swiftly with Joseph. “You’re brilliant” smiled Joseph, “If we destroy them, and ourselves. None of this would have happened, and we’ll kill the Time Architects.” Mel stopped herself from saying more, “But I just wonder, if they’re architects… how is there going to be time after us?” Joseph glanced at Mel as they walked, “I don’t think The Messengers knew everything, I think they probably made the name up. They seem like pirates more than anything. The Time Architects, I mean.” Mel smiled, “So if The Messengers don’t know everything, is there anyone that does?” Mel, Joseph and The Others all slid to a grinding halt as a voice emerged from the well behind the ancient house. “I DO!”

Jumping over the old carved fences, slightly cautious as to where this voice was coming from, Mel and Joseph ran towards the well. There it was, a great giant head of a serpent the same thickness as the well was staring right at them. “Come towards me” it said in a slithery croaky voice. Mel and Joseph hesitated and called the others over with hand signals, finally convincing themselves to walk to the serpent. “Melvina. I do not have the time to put this to either of you slowly or kindly. I am your grandfather, I am a Time Keeper and I am here to guard all of time and protect those who have been taken out of time. I cannot create time, however. But I do have certain powers to being a Time Keeper” said the serpent with a loud hissing noise, then a sudden crack. Blood dripped from it’s mouth, all over the ground near the well and the serpent opened it’s large mouth and spat out what looked like a very large tooth. “This, this is for you and Joseph. It will you take you back in time, to warn yourselves. You must do it quickly, break my tooth between the two of you and hold onto it with your eyes shut. You must warn yourselves, or all is lost forever.” Mel and Joseph had never been so confused and scared in their entire lives.

the gravestone ch. 34

There were no sounds coming from the blackness of the room they were in, they could feel something moving passed them ever so gently to send shivers down their spine and set the hairs on their neck on end. “Are we-Are we in the storage room again?” said Mel as she clung ever so tightly to Joseph. “I think so… but I don’t know what these-these things are moving around us” Suddenly, a cold hand grasped Joseph’s free hand. Joseph leapt and pushed Mel onto the ground with all his might to protect her, his thick blonde hair up against her face making it hard to breathe. “WHAT IN THE BLOODY HELL WAS THAT FOR?” yelled Mel at Joseph with all of her might, “Shut up shh!” said Joseph quietly as he covered Mel’s mouth with his hand. The room was still again with no sound. The air felt sleepy, especially it being pitch black and silent. Joseph felt himself falling asleep, “No.. we must.. stay awake” Joseph said as he jerked himself up letting go of Mel, who had fallen asleep. Joseph searched around with his arms flailing all over the place through the darkness. Until he felt something, something colder than he had ever felt before.

A cold hand pressed against Joseph’s wrist, Joseph tried to run away and turn around but the cold weak grip on his wrist was preventing him. It held him still in the silence, curled around  his wrist like icicle fingers made of bone. The creature slowly opened Joseph’s clenched fist with it’s other cold hand and placed something in his palm. It was round, heavy yet light and rather cold. Joseph realized and stopped hesitating the creature. ‘Could it be? Could it really be the others?’ Joseph thought. “Let go of me” he said calmly as he backed away from the creature, who was letting go. “OUCH” screamed Mel as Joseph stood on her leg, “WHAT ARE YOU DOING? I CAN’T SEE YOU, WHERE ARE YOU JO?” Joseph jumped three feet at the sound of Mel’s yell, “Sorry Mel, I think I just found the others” Joseph could hear shuffling as Mel got up from the floor. “You what?” Joseph forced a snigger, “Yeah, you know those creepy shadows that kept making you faint you told me about?” said Joseph. Mel frowned in the darkness, “How could I forget?” Joseph forced another snigger, almost not believing himself. “Well, I think they’re the others and they live in your storage room.” Mel gasped.

As suddenly as they realized, the room began to lighten ever so slowly with a blue hue of cold air. There were fifteen creatures in all that Mel could see. They were shriveled, skinny and boney creatures with hardly any hair left. One of them was missing a chunk out of it’s leg and another was missing an eye. The seemingly strongest of all the creatures came forwards to Joseph and reached out with it’s hand clutched and gave Joseph a piece of paper. Joseph frowned, still shaking at the sight of these horrifying creatures of darkness. He unrolled the old looking piece of paper and it read:

Kill us all or it is too late,

The serpent must fulfill our fate,

The Rangers are watching in the day,

We are only a part of the growing fray,

For we were once human too,

Until The Rangers found our few.

Joseph frowned, both confused and shaking with anxiety and horror. “What does that mean?” Mel asked quietly as Joseph wondered the same thing. “I think-I think we have to take them to the serpent. I think we have to go too, and I think we have to take all the spheres with us.” Mel looked towards the floor, realizing that the entire floor of the storage room was scattered with spheres, some looking older than others. “Are you ready to come with us, then?” asked Joseph as he looked towards the creatures. Some of them made a high pitched hissing sound, as if they had forgotten how to speak. The strongest of them came towards Joseph and nodded slightly up and down, as if to make sure his head wouldn’t fall off.

the gravestone ch. 32

“How do we get back to the others?” said Mel as she spoke to the messengers. “The serpent will need to take your life” Mel felt her knees drop to the ground as she felt empty, with no hope for anything any more. “We’re going to—to die?” the messengers turned to Mel and lifted her slowly up from the ground to her feet. “You must die here, in order to go back to your world. We will wait for you here, and you will save time.” Mel looked hopeless and turned towards Joseph, “Are we ready, Jo? Ready to save time?” Joseph forced a smirk, “As ready as we’ll ever be”.

Joseph and Mel slowly followed the messengers, which were disturbingly accurate mirror images of themselves. They were walking into a deep garden behind the old house in the forest, it grew thicker and thicker as they walked passed cobbled fences which looked ancient. The fences had engraved serpents on them, just like the park fences did. There were old vines growing all over the place and grass everywhere too. Mel and Joseph followed the messengers through an old archway, which had been slowly crumbling away.

In the middle of the fenced area, was an ancient giant rounded stone which looked like the covering of a well. The stone had a serpent carving as did all the other stone, but this one was different. The serpent grew an intense blue outline around the shape as Mel and Joseph came towards it. It slowly moved off of the well and floated onto the ground gently. Mel and Joseph glanced at each other nervously, the messengers gently pushed them towards the well.

Mel was the first to look down the great big gaping hole of the well, only to find blackness. “What now?” she said as she turned towards the messengers. “You will take your stones now”. The messengers handed over two stones, which were the spheres that strangely made their way into Mel and Joseph’s lives. “I don’t want to know what we have to do… I know it’s going to include death but I don’t want to do it” said Mel as she backed away and sat up against the well wall, her eyes gathering tears. “Mel, we’re the only people who can save time. There’s no one else, everything we know and could know will be taken away.” Joseph said as he knelt down towards Mel, hugging her. “You must do this as quickly as possible” said one of the messengers, who looked like Joseph. “The serpent is waiting for you, he is coming for you now” Joseph turned to look down the well as he heard a large slithering sound coming from it.

the gravestone ch. 35

The creatures brought darkness with them, it seemed all the energy they had left was to protect themselves from The Rangers, who couldn’t see anything in darkness. Mel and Joseph lead the creatures from Mel’s house to the park. The spheres were eerily floating behind them all, following one by one. The street was empty, there were no people or birds singing in the trees. Surely a sign of the end, Mel thought. The day was still and the air fell silent as Mel, Joseph and The Others reached the park. The park of Mel’s grandfather, the serpent who would help save them all from the end of time.

The gates were already open, the dark trees grew darker as they all traveled passed them. “Joseph, my parents weren’t real” said Mel as she sobbed quietly to herself, “I’m sorry Mel. Bloody hell, neither were mine but they didn’t care too much for me anyway” Joseph said as his head hung low to the ground, wishing he’d have parents wherever they’d be going to next. The path to the pond seemed longer than ever, with recent events Mel believed time really had slowed down to make this walk more painful. Mel had lost her entire family, her entire world she thought were real. Everything she ever worked for or wanted was gone, and even her cat who was sometimes the only friend she had when Joseph wasn’t around.

“We’re here” said Joseph as he stopped before the lip of the pond began to soak into his shoes. The sun was covered in darkness as The Others slowly approached the pond. Mel and Joseph parted from each other and one by one, the creatures followed each other into the pond. Joseph and Mel stood together as they watched the creatures sink into the depths along with their spheres. “What now?” said Mel, shaking. “I think I know, I think we have to wait for the serpent in the water. With them” said Joseph as he pointed towards The Others. Mel shook her head and said, “I really don’t want to do this, but I get a feeling that we have to” just as the words had left her mouth, both Mel and Joseph waded into the pond slowly.

the gravestone ch. 33

Mel and Joseph awoke with a jolt on the ground next to the pond which was in the park. Joseph awoke remembering the last thing he saw—a serpents’ fangs and gigantic mouth moving over him. The vision made him shudder, Mel glanced at Joseph “Jo? Are we-back… in that other place now?” Joseph sighed with a negative tone, “Yeah, back to what used to be real.” Mel and Joseph slowly walked out of the park with the spheres in their hands. “What now?” said Mel as she paused and looked up and down the street with a slight look of confusion in her face. “I don’t actually know” said Joseph as he too looked up and down the street confused. “All they said is that the others would be hiding from The Rangers… Whatever they are” said Joseph, Mel frowned and glanced at Joseph. “Hiding where exactly from these ‘rangers’?” Joseph gave a loud sigh, “That’s the problem, they didn’t tell me much. They said we would figure it out, in time”

“Are our parents The Rangers?” asked Mel as she nervously sat with Joseph on the curb, wondering when the world and time would cave in around them. “It’s possible, but they’re supposed to work with the Time Architects, and send them messages whenever something has gone wrong. I don’t think they can hurt anyone, though. Bloody hell Mel… Why is this happening to us?” Mel frowned as she looked away from Joseph, “Time Architects, Rangers… I don’t even know what’s happening any more. Where do we start? How do they expect us to save the world?” Joseph put his arm around Mel, “I don’t know Mel, but I’m thinking The Rangers were those pylons that tried to kill us.” Mel’s face brightened a little as  she said, “I’m not the only one who’s brilliant.”

Mel and Joseph ran as fast as they could towards the road of which they escaped The Rangers from. They had disappeared, there was nothing but an endless horizon of green blanketed hills which had the occasional tree or shrub on it. “So this is where we were… If I were to hide from a bunch of giant pylons where would I hide?” said Joseph as he searched his mind for any clues to the whereabouts of the others. “How in the hell are we supposed to find the others if they didn’t tell us where they are? I don’t trust these messengers, I mean… Not only do they make no sense, they look like us” Joseph sat in the middle of the road, waiting for the answers to reach his brain. “This is bloody stupid” Joseph said as he threw his sphere onto the road with a loud bang. Something had happened, all of Mel and Joseph’s surroundings were warping, as if they were being taken out of reality. The trees and hills lost their colour, the sky faded darker and darker until everything turned black. “What the hell just happened! Where are we Jo?” said Mel as she clung onto Joseph. “We’re in your house, Mel” Joseph said as he could feel something brush against him.