The Other Side

Chapter 4

THE OTHER SIDE

Chapter 4

There was a rush of fire, burning, destroying, lacing over every building and sending a cloud of smoke into the midnight sky. I tried pulling on my mother’s shirt; wanting to tell her of the sights I saw through the glass-like Wall – the one that everyone said disguised what was going on, on the other side of our town, where the snake-armed soldiers and Mayor Christopher were putting all the people who supposedly did wrong.

I was pulling on my mother’s shirt, telling her but she wouldn’t listen. She thought I was telling tales. I could see it all from Grandma’s balcony at the back of her old two-storey house. When I tried to tell Grandma too, she also would not listen, thinking I was playing some sort of game.

“Grandma, the houses are all on fire! The buildings are burning up! Can’t you see it?”

I would even point to the Wall and show them exactly where it was coming from. I could see it, smell it, and even hear it – the sound of broken wood clattering to the ground, glass smashing and even distant screams, but what bothered me the most was the sounds of angry, heated shouts.

Grandma and Mum would look, but their reactions were all the same – annoyed. Bothered by the annoying sight of the Wall, of course, but also annoyed by what they thought of as my silly theoretic games. “Yes dear” or “That’s nice” would be their only blatant reply.

They didn’t see it, but I did.

I couldn’t see the buildings or the people, but I could see the faint glow of the fire and I could smell it. I could also see the smoke.

My Grandma and Mother chatted over a cup of coffee and home brewed kombucha tea – made especially from overseas mushrooms that Grandma always ordered, saying it was healthy and could even help you live longer. While they sipped and talked, I watched.

I watched as the light of the flames drew closer to the Wall and the smell grew stronger. The flames licked closer and closer and I grew afraid that it was somehow going to make it past the Wall and come crawling over to Grandma’s building, but I watched – wide eyed – as the light of the fire suddenly disappeared when it had came in contact with the Wall, like a candlelight blown out from a wave of air.

Then something else happened after a few moments of calm – a crack of purple light, like lightning hitting a power line coursed through on the other side of the Wall. I could see a wave of fog passing over the Wall and I took a frightened step back as I saw faces through it, pressed against the silver of the Wall, a frightening red glow to their eyes.

I jumped then as I felt a breath of warm air against my ear and my Grandma’s whispering voice say to me, “Don’t worry dear, they won’t bite. Not whilst their—“

 

With a sudden jolt, I woke. Something like a cold rush of icy breeze spread over my face, making me shiver, waking me from my unwanted dream. I wasn’t sure why I kept having these annoying dreams of my past, like it suddenly meant something, but I knew that right now wasn’t the time that I needed to dwell on it.

Something was wrong. Something I needed to remember. What was it?

I could feel a tickling sensation on the back of my neck and I lifted my hand to scratch it. What was it that I needed to remember? Something...important?

I sat up and groaned as my neck, my shoulders and my back began to ache, a tingling feeling moving up and through every inch of my body. Like a rush of electricity – the static type, like the ones you got when touching a trampoline then touching someone else – a spark.