Brave (New Earth Saga)

Ch. 29

Once again I was crawling through a tight human sized hole a light beam had created. Aaron, Jade, and I were back on the giant side of town at the house of the person who apparently had River. Our journey to this side of town, and this current event of breaking into a giant's home had me on edge. In the pit of my stomach I felt unsettled. Something about this situation seemed off, and it wasn't just because we were three humans breaking into a bloody giant's home. Jade and Aaron kept making eyes at each other, like they were having a silent conversation. I may not be close enough to understand what was being communicated between the two, but It was pretty obvious something was up.

As I followed behind Jade, making my way deeper through the hole into the giant's home, I started to silently panic even more as I questioned the safety of this situation. What would we do if a giant saw us? How could we defend ourselves? Why didn't I tell Joe? Why didn't I tell Trent?!

Once finally inside the giant's home the three of us found ourselves in a dangerously dark room. I could barely see Jade or Aaron, let alone anyone, or anything else in the room. The only light visible was a sliver of light that seemed to peek out from the corner of a massive doorway. To the left of me Jade pulled out her phone that was apparently in her back pocket. The moment her screen lit up I felt even more sick to the stomach as the light illuminated the corner of the room where we were stood. If a giant had walked past, surely our cover would have been blown. If that wasn't a red flag that we were in over our heads, then I don't know what would be.

Aaron seemed confident in leading our way towards the room's door. With a surprising ease Aaron was able to hitch the door open and lead us into another giant room, that I was beginning to tell was slightly smaller than the room we'd previously been in, now that my eyes had started to adjust to the dark. Aaron pointed to the opposite end of this new room, signally for us to follow him to the other side. Before we could make our way the three of us froze as we felt a slight, yet present vibration beneath our feet. The first vibration was quickly followed by another, and then another, meaning one thing. A giant.

Sh#t, sh#t, triple sh#t!!! What were we going to do? Fight a giant?! I don't know why I trusted Aaron and Jade. I just wanted to get River back so badly. I wanted to do it myself, to be a strong and capable human for once! Oh how I was regretting this impulse to save the day.

Somehow the three of us sprinted to the opposite end of the room where we were able to hide behind a giant shelf. Moments later, lights flooded the room as a giant entered and switched on a light switch. The giant must have stood still in the room for at least 60 seconds of silence before he finally spoke.

"Aaron?" The giant whispered, making my eyes go wide. Beside me, Aaron began to move from our hiding spot until he was fully exposed. While Aaron appeared unafraid to approach this giant, Jade was shaking like a leaf in fear on the opposite side of me. I held my breath and did my best to listen to Aaron's' interaction with the mystery giant at hand.

"Down here!" Aaron raised his voice as he waved his arms back and forth to get the giant's attention.

"Dude, what took you so long?"

"Sorry we can't all get around as fast as you giants," Aaron replied, clearly annoyed.

"Well, where's she at?" The giant asked, as he crouched down, still looming over Aaron. From my vantage point I could see the giant's knees and hands he leaned on as he crouched. I also could see Aaron's entire body turn to face the shelf we were hiding behind. WIthout warning the entire shelf vibrated and shook as the giant pulled it away from the wall, revealing Jade and I. I now felt my own body tremble at the same rhythm as Jade's as I peered up to see who this mystery giant was.

My blood ran cold when I recognized the giant in question, as he smiled down at Jade and I. Though he was smiling, his face was anything but friendly. This giant couldn't possibly be here to help us. Or at least not me, for if there was one giant at Wendelton High School that hated me the most, surely it was this giant. Billy Sharp.

"Well well well, look what we have here. Two for the price of one?!" Billy declared, as he reached his hand out towards Jade and I.

"Billy! Stop! Don't touch Jade," Aaron hissed.

"Who the h#ll is Jade?"

"The one who's not Morgan,"

"Fine," Billy huffed, turning back to where Jade and I cowered against the wall. A second later Billy's hand returned, coming directly for me.

Luckily my fight or flight instincts kicked in, and I found myself literally running for my life. I didn't know how I was going to get out of this, but I knew I was not about to let Billy Sharp get his hands on me... again. I ran as fast as I could as the world around me shook and vibrated from Billy's continued attempts to grab me. Unfortunately for me, This room did seem to have any escape routes for someone my size. The only way out was the door, and there was no way for me to open it. This house was giant sized, and had absolutely no human accomodations in sight.

Pressed against the door, I felt hopeless. I couldn't fit underneath the door, and I couldn't make it open. There was no escape. No way out, now way to save me from Billy Sharp's approaching hand, until ugh. Ahhh. What the heck?

The door to the room opened. I'd only just leaned my miniscule weight on the door for 3 seconds and it flew open, creating a gust of wind that nearly knocked me over. Turning behind me I saw a pair of massive brown loafers facing me. Mother Earth! Now who is this giant, and how am I going to get out of this?!

"A human?!" The new giant bellowed above me, in a tone that signaled this giant was far from happy to see a human in his home. "What are these human's doing here?!"

Hearing the anger coming from this giant reactivated my legs. I ran past the massive shoes and started to run down a hallway of slightly uneven wooden floors. Similarly to Trent's home, this giant home had a natural almost forest-like flare to it. Most of the items I could see were carved straight from a tree, and the home clearly lacked many of the modern accommodations commonly found in human homes. Most giants still didn't have access to all of the technology that humans had. This was one factor that always made Joe stand out amongst other giants.

Turning a corner, I made it into what appeared to be a kitchen area. My lungs were burning, and I was starting to lose speed. There was nowhere to go, nowhere to turn. I could hardly keep my balance with the thundering steps growing closer to me. I can't give up though right? This can't be my end. I'm too young, I-I couldn't do this to Joe. To my mom! My mom would be so mad at me if I died now.

"Mel?!"

I froze. Mel. The giant coming my way had just said Mel... My MOM's name. It must have been a mistake. Was there someone else in the room he was speaking to? Had I heard him wrong?

"Mel, stop! I'm not going to hurt you. I-I can't believe it's you!"

Oh snap! This giant fully thought I was my mom. I mean, even I could glance in the mirror and see how similar I looked to her. We had the same eyes, the same hair, the same build... We did look mostly the same. Or course there were some slight differences I knew, like my nose was a little pointier at the end, and my skin was a shade or two lighter... which I now know is probably because of Anthony... uhg. No. I can't even think about it.

Right when I thought I'd have to give up, something caught my eye. A radiator. If I could reach the radiator maybe I could slip behind it. A giant hand couldn't fit behind there, right?! By a miracle I had made it. Luckily this radiator wasn't turned on, I could just fit through the vent like openings to slip behind.

Peeking through the vent I could see some of this giants movements as got down on his hands and knees to peer through the slits in the vent to find my hiding spot. "Mel, it's okay. It's me, Ben Sharp."