Adaa Singh - Aged 14

The Reckoning

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​Someone was always watching. Andie knew that off by heart. Expect the unexpected and never think you have the upper hand. The streets around her were dimly lit as the twilight sky faded from its blues and greys to a permanent shade of midnight black. As night fell on the city, so did the cold.

 

​Wrapping herself in a jacket that was certainly not her size was easy enough; the hard part was getting home. The pavement was cracked, and Andie didn’t care to avoid stepping on them as she hurried down the empty pathway.

 

​She glanced at her watch as another gust of wind blew her hair into her face; the tiny hands of the iron watch ticked closer to midnight. She needed to hurry. Her boots hit the cement with thuds as she broke out in a faster walk, vainly trying to reach her doorstep before all hell broke loose.

 

​The first sign was the cold; the next would be that dreaded, poisonous smoke. She had approximately fifteen minutes before her vision would be impaired. She knew she couldn’t panic, she knew she couldn’t. There were only a few who had dared to evade the end, but she knew it was inevitable.

 

​It hadn’t always been like this. There was a time when the city was still alive after the moon rose; a time when lights shone and laughter rang through the streets instead of screams. That era had ended.

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​Red hair entered her vision, and she was shoved past; her arm reached out to grab the person’s arm in an effort not to fall over. Andie caught a glimpse of the stranger; wide, looking blue eyes and pale skin greeted her eyes with a sting of familiarity.

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​“Cassy!”

 

​Those eyes blinked at her in confusion before recognition flickered in them, “Damn it, Andie! What the hell are you doing here!” Cursing under her breath, Andie grabbed her friend’s arm as she looked behind her to see the outlines of buildings that were once clear were fading and disappearing.

 

​“We don’t have much time- Cass,” Andie rushed forward with her, trying hard not to run for the sake of her companion. She dragged her forward, tugging Cassy’s wrist to get her to move. “Cass, we have to hurry.”

 

​She looked back to see someone she had not seen before; her friend didn’t wear the face she had done seven months earlier. No, her skin ashen and tear-streaked; her hands trembling as if they wanted to reach out for something that was no longer there; and her eyes- God- her eyes were hollow and unfeeling. Now the smoke was nearer to them. There were only a few minutes left.

​“Cassy! Don’t do this to me- I can’t- I can’t lose another…”

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A large bell chimed in the distance. Midnight.

 

​Andie’s face twisted in despair as she tugged desperately at her friend’s shoulders to get her to move. “Please! Cass- please!” she was screaming now. They didn’t have much time. Cassy didn’t make eye contact with her; she looked at her feet- splatters of blood coated the once white shoes.

 

​Andie’s eyes followed her gaze. “No-no-you’ve got to move. You’ve got me, you’ve got Sid and Dan!” She watched as the ghost of the girl she once knew flinched.

 

​“Dan’s dead, Andie.”

 

​Grief hit her in waves, Dan- perfect, kind, Dan. Dead?

 

​“No. He’s not.”

 

​“I watched it happen, Andie! He killed Dan.”

 

Cassy looked at her with tears filling her eyes. She pulled her hand out of her jacket’s pocket and out came a small digital camera. It was covered in red. Splattered across the lens and the initials etched on the side were stained. D. H. L.

 

She held out the camera to her, offering her the last of their friendship as if it were a receipt.

Dan was dead.

Dan- Dan was dead.

Dan died.

Dead.

 

She traced his initials on the side; her fingernails filled with scabs of dried blood. Her hands were coated red.

 

He wasn’t at home waiting for her; Sid was out collecting the samples, but he should be home before the smoke began. Cassy wouldn’t be with them either if they didn’t move right now.

 

“We’ve got to get going,” She snapped out of her daze as her eyes glinted in the flickering streetlight. The narrow pathways began to crawl with smoke. They stood under the streetlights, a certain death waiting for them on the back and grief at the front. They had made their choices.

 

“Cassy- Cass!”

 

Her friend refused to move, her feet stuck to the ground as the poisonous smoke rolled over - like waves waiting to swallow her whole. Andie watched the look on Cass’s face- her eyes rolling back and her head tilting to one side and soon the smoke clutched her in its icy embrace. She fell to the ground with a gut-wrenching cry, the last of her strength depleting as her lungs consumed the airborne poison.

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Blood seeped around her as Andie dropped to the ground next to her, too late to save and too early to grieve. “Not your fault- save th-” her friend gasped for breath as blood choked her. Andie felt the urge to throw up. The smoke covered the body a few feet from her. Grasping her friend’s hand, her other covering her mouth and nose to avoid the poisonous smoke, she sobbed.

 

She felt cold metal in her hand and pulled it away to find a small gold ring. She grasped it and pushed herself up, the pavement scratching her hands as her blood mixed with her friends’. There was no time, but she couldn’t let Sid be the only one left. No, they had made a pact- them four above all.

 

Now it was just two of them and damn it! She wasn’t going to let Sid be alone in this.

She was not going to die here.

 

She got up and ran as fast as she could. A digital camera lay heavy in her coat pocket, and a ring on her hand. She ran, stumbling upon an iron-caged green door and desperately searching for her keys. She pulled them out; the metal was now bloodied from her hands. She opened the lock in a haze of anguish. Her vision was so close to giving out as she stumbled into the meagre house that four of them had called home.

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It was nearly two o’clock now. Sid should be home and safe long before midnight. At least he was fine. The bell rang again; the time was up. The air outside was clearing as the night sky turned black again, but the smell of death stuck to her skin like a leech.

 

“Sid!” She called out once she realised the house was strangely empty. She tried to look around, but her mind could see only Cass’s face in a drunken stare of pain.

 

When no one answered her call, she gripped the walls to find her way through the house with her quickly fading vision. She knew she had inhaled too much of that poisonous smoke. Tripping over the carpeted floors, leaving bloody footprints everywhere, she made it to the kitchen to see a familiar body facing the now extinguished fireplace. She took a deep breath of relief. Sid was fine.

 

She gently touched his shoulder, and when he did not stir, she walked around the armchair to see him. She let out a scream as she met the mangled face of her friend. His black hair was damp with blood, and his work shirt was more red than white. His face had large cuts across it, precise ones, made by a hand. Not an accident.

She whirled around to find herself at the other end of the blade that had taken everything from her. “So, you didn’t honour the deal, love. You know what happens to those who lie to me?”

Her neck was centimetres away from being slashed by the sharp blade. She met the cold eyes of the man in front of her. “I don’t bargain with murderers.”

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A dark laugh escaped the figure in front of her. “Murderer! My, my, that’s some hypocrisy from someone who has the blood of friends on her hands!”

 

Andie looked at him in disgust, “I told you and your sick terrorist group what I told you seven months before, “She brushed a blood-stained lock of blonde hair from her face. “I would rather die than tell you how to make that smoke last for longer.”

 

The man’s head tilted to the side, sharp angular features breaking out in a maniacal grin. “How many must die before you help me, love? Were your little group of scientists not enough?”

 

“Rot in hell!” she spit in his face. He smiled sickeningly, “I’ll see you there, Andie.”

 

And in the blink of an eye, he was gone. Leaving her with hands just as stained with red as his were.