(FREE TO READ) Bad Moon

chapter 14 ; Flora

Jaylin heard the resonant bang of the trapdoor falling closed, but he couldn't look from Flora. The way she wore bandages around her neck and shoulders, the way she looked so wild and rural and animal, a tigress in a circus cage.

"Quentin isn't going to like this," Alexander's voice pulled him back to Earth.

"He'll get over it," Felix stepped forward to a device that had been latched onto the bars of the cage and wired to the wall. "It's nearly out. A new vial?"

"In the cupboard."

Jaylin was still staring, still watching Flora. And now she was watching him too. Her head rocked just slightly, and though she wasn't smiling, there was a look in Flora's eyes that glinted wet with satisfaction.

"You shouldn't be in here too long, Felix." Alexander stepped forward, his presence poignant at Jaylin's side. "I'll explain everything to him. Just go check on Quentin for me. Make sure he's asleep, because if not, you've really screwed the pooch this time."

Jaylin wanted to ask of Flora—what she was doing here, why they had her locked away, but he feared the answer too much to form words. They had her in a cage. Why did they have her in a cage? He watched as Felix took a device from the wall—a small cylinder with a cord that spilled down on the ground and attached to an electrical outlet. He twisted out an empty glass vial from inside and replaced it with a new one, red in color. Then Felix retreated to the ladder and climbed back up through the trapdoor.

And not long after, there was a smell in the air. Jaylin couldn't put his thumb on it, but the scent was sick and sweet and pulsing through him like cold, fuzzy static. He felt a quiver skitter up his esophagus and suddenly Jaylin was hunched forward, repulsing all of the sugary snacks he'd shared with Tisper an hour ago.

"Jaylin?" he could hear Alexander, feel the taut worry in his voice. "Ah, man."

But Jaylin couldn't respond. He heaved, though not a morsel was left. Heaved until his stomach cramped and his chest ached. And when finally he felt he could bear the swallow of acidity, Jaylin stood straight. He wiped at his mouth and gripped the bars of the cage, but it only felt like his insides were rising again. Like there was something inside of him, a monster, kicking and clawing its way out.

And then Jaylin was sliding down the wall, down until he was squatting on his haunches. And when the dizziness grew into a dangerous vertigo, Jaylin felt himself slipping. Slipping, like the world had turned at a ninety-degree angle, and those bricks in the wall were all he had to keep from falling.

"Hold on, Jaylin." Alexander echoed in his ears. "Just um...hold on, alright?"

The light fled from him, left him in the dark. And suddenly Jaylin was somewhere else.

-

The wind was blowing in his ear. The wind and the song of leaves as they broke from their trees and piled on the autumn ground. This place he'd found was beautiful—a clearing in the woods, trees as tall as towers. And when he looked up, there was only a circle of sky that could be seen through these godly trees. A perfect orotund gap where the moon cast down on him and lit his circle like a halo from the heavens.

But Jaylin was far too tired to appreciate the moon. His heart burned in his chest, lungs crumpled and tired and the faint taste of copper on his tongue. It was then that Jaylin noticed he hadn't a scrap of clothing on. He didn't feel much from the snow around him. It wasn't cold like it should have been; he could hardly feel the ice beneath his feet.

As he searched around the clearing for his clothes, Jaylin could make out something faint in the distance, muddled and mingled with the rush of the wind. He followed the sound, breaking branches from his way, cringing and wiping at his skin when the dew shook from the leafs and slapped against the nape of his neck. His adventure took him deeper into the forest, deeper until he could decipher the sound as voices. And then deeper until he could make out the words they were saying.