Sonope

Chapter 5

Only Darby and Taylor came to the park bright and early on Monday morning.

Erin had disappeared whilst chatting with Taylor, after saying she needed to go, but not giving a reason why.

The sat in the park for awhile, elbows on their knees and heads in their hands.

After ages of silence, Taylor croaked, ¨What is going on?¨

Darby sat up. ¨I don't know.¨

She ran a hand down her leg. ¨I don't, I don't know.¨

Taylor looked to the sky. ¨Everyone is disappearing, all the cute boys are missing, and Darby doesn't know. We are all gonna DIE.¨

Darby rolled her eyes. ¨Cute boys aside, we can't just sit here waiting to be next. We have to do something. We - um, Taylor?¨

He turned to look at her. ¨What?¨

She stared at him. ¨You're shrinking.¨

He looked at her. ¨What? I don't - oh yeah you're right.¨

She paused. ¨And this doesn't concern you at all?¨

He laughed uneasily. ¨Yeah, it does. I'm having a panic attack.¨

He had shrunken almost a foot now, but at least his clothes were shrinking too.

He finally looked panicked. ¨Darby! Help!¨

She stood up and looked around frantically, not really knowing what she was looking for. Something, anything to help her friend. When she turned back he had almost halved his original size.

She shrieked, frantic. ¨What is causing this?!¨

He waved his hands. ¨Do I look like I know?!¨

Darby could only watch in horror as Taylor kept shrinking, faster and faster. Finally, she couldn't take it and covered her face with her hands. After a few seconds, she heard his higher voice say, ¨I think it stopped.¨

Darby peeked through her fingers to stare down at a now 8 inch tall Taylor. She crouched down, eyes wide, speechless.

Taylor was looking down at himself. ¨I think...I Turned? Brownie, looks like.¨

Darby blinked. ¨Wait, its Turning week...that means...¨

She sat up suddenly. ¨Our friends might not have been kidnapped!¨

¨WHAT MAKES YOU SAY THAT?¨ Taylor yelled up.

¨All the clues were laid out for us!¨ Darby whirled around. ¨It was just like that Crusion guy said! Why would anyone kidnap Turnings during Turning week? That means everyone's safe!¨

Then she frowned. ¨Except...¨

¨WHAT?¨ Taylor shouted. ¨YOU KNOW IT WOULD BE EASIER TO HAVE A ONE ON ONE CONVERSATION IF I COULD SPEAK NORMALLY!¨

¨Oh right, sorry.¨ Darby crouched back down. ¨The only problem is that our friends don't seem like the type of people to not tell us once they figured out what was causing us so much strife.¨

Taylor considered it. ¨Well, maybe they didn't have access to any texting clients.¨ He held up his hands. ¨Do you see these sending a message anytime soon?¨

Darby nodded. ¨Makes sense, I guess. Maybe they found Olive already!¨

She smiled weakly.

¨Sounds good,¨ said Taylor, ¨now I really need to go find a brownie hole. It really stressed me out being out in the open for this long and nature is kicking in. See ya!¨