Lost Together

Chapter 9

August was still laughing, when the train guard came in from behind.

„What just happened?" he said, rushing in. „August, what did you do now?"
„Just had a nice conversation with that boy. The oldest of the Bentham siblings." August said.
„And?" the train guard asked, expecting August to continue and picking the pigeon up.
„Well, I told him that I would show them the way and—" August had to laugh again. „And that he was slowly turning insane."
„What?! Why are you like this, August?" the man said and sighed.
„But it's true! I just had to tell him." the white pigeon said, flapping its wings.
„Alright. He might have some questionable thoughts in his head,
but—" the train guard paused. „That doesn't mean that he's turning insane."
August crossed his wings, as if he was crossing arms. „You're not reading people's minds again, are you? Eadmund, the council told you not to use your peculiarity to track down peculiars."
„Says the pigeon, who just spoke to a boy, who might be or might not be peculiar." said Eadmund and crossed his arms too, while the bird hopped onto his shoulder.
„Well, is he?" asked August.
„I don't know! He didn't think about that yet. But! His sister is peculiar."
August waved his wing dismissively up and down. "Yes, yes. I already know that. Any new information?"
"No, but just—" Eadmund lowered his head to whisper to the pigeon. "Keep an eye on that boy, because I agree with you. He does have a few dark thoughts on his mind."

Both of them nodded at each other in agreement and Eadmund headed off to the next car, shouting back to August—"and don't scare him with saying that he's turning insane!"—and then left.

„Sure I won't!" August shouted back.
But he was good at breaking promises and everyone knew that.
August liked to say things that were on his mind and didn't think about the consequences before saying it out loud.
That often led to problems, but he didn't care.
He was probably the mouthiest—or in his case, the beakiest—peculiar pigeon in whole peculiardom and he loved it.

//

„He's back!" said Alma and looked up from her seat to see Jack coming back into the car.
Jack quickly came over to them and sat down.
„Where did you go?" Myron wanted to know and then noticed Jack's face. „What happened?"
„I'm not telling you about it." he replied a little annoyed, without looking at his brother.
„What?..." Myron seemed confused by Jack's reaction. „We can always talk about everything!"
„No, not everything." Jack said and turned his head away from his younger brother.
Myron wanted to say something, but he kept his mouth shut.
And again, Jack was acting strange.

Myron turned his head to the window and looked outside.
They would be there soon.

//

It was very windy. Withered leaves were tossed around in the air, hitting Myron's face and slightly cutting his skin.

The sky was grey and, even though there was wind, the clouds didn't seem to move.

He also had no idea where the leaves were coming from—there were no trees.
Everything seemed dead and desolated.

Myron was dreaming.

As he took a few steps further, Myron stopped again and stared down, only to realise that the earth was shaking a little bit.
It slowly turned into an earthquake and Myron could hear a loud rumbling sound from deep down within the ground.

He stumbled backwards and shrieked, when a large thorny hand came bursting out of the ground and grasped for purchase.
Something big was pulling itself up.

Then two long antennae reached out and eventually, a human, but also insect-like face rose up out of the ground. It had nearly thousand eyes and long mandibles.

Myron froze in fear. What is that thing?...

The creature spread its giant leathery wings and aimed its eyes at Myron.

He wasn't able to speak and he was actually glad he wasn't, because he didn't even know what to say. He didn't even know what to think of this.

Suddenly, two other huge hands caught the giant's arms, trying to drag it back down. They looked like long, gnarly roots.

The creature tried to stay where it was, but it seemed as if the other thing—whatever was down there, Myron didn't really want to know—was stronger.

„HELP ME!" the creature cried in a bone-rattling voice.

//

Then Myron woke up, gasping.
Not only he seemed to have been sleeping. His siblings have slept for a while, too.

„Help me!!" cried a boy, who came running in. He had this really unique hair and Myron knew exactly who he was. It was the boy from the train station.
All the other people were looking now, too.

The boy ran over to the Bentham siblings and crawled underneath their seats.
„What the—" said Jack, still unsure of what was happening.

„Are you okay?" asked Myron, as he looked down at him together with Alma.

But before he could answer, another boy came storming in.
„Nim? Nim!" he said and then looked over to the siblings. „There you are!"
He ran over and tried to pull Nim out from underneath the seats.
„But Kim! This is a good hiding place!" Nim said and wouldn't get out.
„No! They'll see us!" Kim hissed and eventually, Nim gave in and got up. They quickly got over to the next door and left.

Another train guard rushed inside and looked around. He was probably the one searching for the two boys.
After deciding that they weren't here, he left again.

„What was that?" Jack said, looking at the door, Nim and Kim went through.
„That was the boy Alma and I met at the train station! And—whoever the other one was..." said Myron.
„Whatever." Jack said, but then widened his eyes when Myron stood up.
„We should go after them!" Myron said and Alma agreed.
„We should't get ourselves into the problems of people we barely know. Besides, we're almost in Derbysire,
so—" Jack said and Myron looked at him, disappointed.
„We could take them with us!" said Alma and then she and Myron ran off to the door.
„Wha—" Jack began to say and now he had to run after them again.

//

„Over here! To the door!" Kim said and dragged Nim to a door, that led out of the train. „We're going to jump out!"
„What?!" Nim shrieked. „We'll get hurt! I don't want us to get hurt!"
„Do you want to spend the rest of your life doing some family's dirty work?" Kim said, while he tried to get the door open. But it seemed locked.
„No, I don't..." said Nim and looked down upsettingly.
„Exactly! So that means we have to get out of here!" Kim snapped. „If only this bloody door would open!"

„Wait!"
It was Myron with Alma and Jack behind him.
„What do you want from us?..." Kim said and glared at them. He didn't want to waste time.
„We can help!" said Myron.
„By doing what? Buying us tickets?" Kim replied and still tried to get the door open, but it wasn't working.
„We could hide you from the train guards!" suggested Myron.
„I think we can trust them!" said Nim and smiled at the siblings, but Kim silenced him—„oh shush, will you!"
„They'll tell on us and then we're in big trouble." said Kim.

„Come on, this is a waste of time." Jack said and tried to drag his siblings back to the door.
Then suddenly, Alma hopped over to the window and pointed outside. „We're almost there! I can already see the next train station!"
The rest of them rushed to the window and now all of them were pressing their faces against the glass.
The train station really was there.
They were finally in Derbyshire.

„Maybe you two don't even need to hide anymore!" Alma said happily.
„You can come with us! So, what do you say?" Myron asked.
Nim was bouncing up and down, begging Kim to say yes.
Then Kim took a deep breath and said: „Alright."
„Yes!" Nim said and clapped his hands excitedly.

Jack crossed his arms and looked away.

He didn't want them to join. They were already three and the other two would only distract them from finding a new home.
Jack wasn't happy with them coming along.

This will be over soon.