The Other Side (The Other Side Trilogy Book 1)

by Anna-Marie McIntyre

  Then the clouds reached the ground. They swirled and rose around us, encircling us in a funnel-like cloud, rising higher and higher, until our circular space had walls that stretched a mile into the sky. I couldn’t even see two feet into the clouds and even though I knew normal ones were harmless, I felt an unexplained fear at being so close to these.

  “We should go through them,” said Livia shakily. “They’re just clouds, right? They can’t hurt us.”

  She started to walk towards them, but I stopped her.

  “Livia,” I said. “These can’t be just clouds. Clouds are misty, but you’d be able to see into them farther when you get closer—I think. Besides, normal clouds don’t just fall from the sky.”

  “But we can’t just stay in here,” she said.

  “I know, I just—”

  But I didn’t get to finish, because just then, Livia was pulled into the clouds. It was like they reached out and grabbed her; a swirling black hand made of mist. She screamed, but then everything was silent.

  “Livia!!!” Vanissa yelled. “Livia, where—”

  But she didn’t get to finish either, because something made of black mist reached out and grabbed her. And, just as before, her scream was silenced the minute she disappeared in the haze of the clouds.

  This time, no one spoke. Everyone stood, still and silent, hardly daring to breathe. We stood there without moving a muscle for what seemed like forever; as if we were waiting for the next person to be pulled into the most-likely deadly clouds. Even though, I realized, it didn’t make sense to be waiting for that to happen. We should have been trying to help Vanissa and Livia, or trying to figure out a way of escaping. I guess that was the point of the Dread Domain though. To make us wait, for periods of time, knowing any minute something terrible could happen to us.

  A scream pulled me out of my trance. The scream ended just as Priscila was yanked into the mist! That was when I decided I’d have to try and help them. So, this time, as I waited for someone else to be pulled into the mist, I held my knife tightly in my hand. Maybe, we could figure out some way to stop anyone else from being taken. Or maybe if we lasted long enough, it would just go away.

  The minutes dragged by. We didn’t talk, for fear that if we did, we too would be pulled in. Everything was so quiet you could have heard a pin drop.

  Then I thought I saw something move. I whirled around, ready to try and save whoever it was taking. But I realized too late it was me who was being taken. I screamed, as I felt something icy cold lock around my body. I couldn’t resist, or struggle, or anything. It was as if I was paralyzed. I was yanked into the misty haze of clouds and I felt an awful sensation of something like poison, filling my lungs. Then the world faded away and blackness filled my vision.

  26

  My eyes fluttered open, only to find I was surrounded by a dark mist. The icy, damp air was thick, almost hard to breathe in. I pressed my hand against the cold ground and tried to remember where I was. Just as it was all coming back to me, I thought I saw something.

  Something was moving through the darkness only a few feet away. The form looked human, but in the dense haze I couldn’t tell for sure. So I sat up and slowly got to my feet. The form was passing me, when it stopped, as if looking at me. I stood as still as stone, staring back at it, almost afraid to move my eyes enough to turn my gaze. Then it turned and kept moving, almost appearing to glide.

  “Vanissa!” I called in a low voice. “Vanissa, is that you?”

  But no one answered and I began to feel uneasy, so I started forward into the darkness. I felt an odd sensation, as if someone or something was following me. Stopping, I listened for a moment. When I heard nothing, I decided I really was alone and kept going. Just then, an icy hand grabbed my shoulder and I was yanked backwards.

  I screamed, my head slamming the ground, making my vision flash and spin. Then, once more, everything was silent and I was alone again. Unsteadily, I got to my feet and began to run, plunging through the thick darkness without any idea of what lay ahead.

  “Britta!?!” A scream came from somewhere ahead of me. “Vanissa!?! Owen? Where are you!?!” I recognized the voice as coming from Livia.

  “Livia!?!” This time, it was Owen.

  Soon, all around me, people were screaming and yelling one another’s names, trying desperately to find each other. I ran forward towards Livia, but before I made it ten yards, something seized me and flung me to the side. This time, the minute I crashed into the ground, I sprang to my feet to see what it was that had done it to me. But there wasn’t anything there.

  The ground began to shake and every couple minutes, a bolt of lightning would suddenly shoot downward from the sky and strike the ground nearby. Right before it struck each time, my hair would stand on-end, which gave me a split second warning.

  I ran this way and that; going whichever direction I thought I heard a scream. But I couldn’t find anyone, or even get near them. And every once in a while, everything would go silent and I’d see another form drifting through the fog. I made up my mind not to go near them, because the way they moved just didn’t look quite right. It looked almost inhuman.

  But, as it turned out, I didn’t have to go near them to find out what they looked like. They came to me. It happened like this: I was standing silently, holding my breath as one of the figures drifted passed. But, when lightning struck so close to me that, I could practically feel the electric shock, I couldn’t help but shriek and jump to the side. And then I looked up and saw the form had stopped and was now moving straight at me.

  I was running as hard as I could, when suddenly I was overwhelmed by exhaustion. Stopping, I rested my hands on my knees, breathing heavily. I turned my head, looking over my shoulder, but to my surprise there wasn’t anything there. And it wasn’t until I felt something, like a cold presence that sent shivers down my neck, did I turn around. And when I did, I saw it was standing three feet away, looking right at me.

  Before I turned to run once more, I caught a glimpse of what the thing looked like. It was humanoid, tall and thin; wearing what appeared to be a cloak made of black mist. Its face, which was barely distinguishable under the hood of the cloak, was unnaturally pale. But what stood out to me the most was the fact that it had NO EYES. It was a creaticall.

  Tearing through the ever increasing darkness, I began to wonder how I’d ever be able to get away from the creaticall, because every couple minutes, it would simply appear in front of me, blocking my way. I always knew when it was coming because I’d suddenly feel unexplainably exhausted, just seconds before, which gave me time to turn and run the opposite direction. But I knew I couldn’t keep it up forever. Eventually the creaticall would get me.

  I heard a clap of thunder and then the sizzling noise of lightning striking. My first thought was that before I managed to get away from the creaticalls, I’d probably end up getting struck by lightning. But then it occurred to me that if I could get struck by lightning, the creaticalls could too.

  I didn’t have any time to think over it though, because I suddenly felt exhausted. I backed up a few feet, breathing heavily and hoping everything would happen at the right moment. Just as I began to feel my hair stand on end, the creature appeared just in front of me. I forced myself not to run, the split second I stood there seeming like an hour. Then lightning came streaking down from the clouds, electrocuting the creaticall and sending me flying back fifteen feet. It let out an awful shrieking noise and evaporated into the mist.

  The shock the lightning had sent through my body hadn’t been enough to kill me, but it had been enough to practically paralyze me. For a moment I was afraid my heart had stopped, but then I felt it beating again and recovered enough to smell the scent of my smoldering jacket. I rolled around on the ground, desperately attempting to put out the flame, but by the time I did, my jacket was ragged and blackened.

  By that time, I’d regained focus and was able to concentrate a little more, even though my hands were shaking and my h
eart was racing. I struggled to my feet, looking around. To my surprise the clouds seemed to be moving—up. I was so relieved; I simply collapsed back to the ground, finally able to catch my breath. Then I watched the clouds ascend, spreading out and eventually evaporating, suddenly seeming so much less terrifying.

  When the air was completely clear, I looked around for my friends. As it turned out, they weren’t hard to find. They were spread out in the area, all less than FIFTEEN YARDS away from me. All of them looked confused, disoriented, and a little shocked. Of course the first one to recover and walk over to me was level-headed Every herself. She walked up to me with an astonished expression on her face.

  “Britta,” she breathed. “Were you the one who stopped it?”

  “What?” I said. “Oh, I guess. I mean, I killed the…whatever it was, and then the mist disappeared. “So, I guess I did. How’d you know?”

  “I just did,” she said. “I’m not really sure how.”

  "I don't understand though," I said, "How is it possible for those things to just appear in front of us—it doesn't seem like any kind of technology Paciscor has could do THAT."

  "Well, the mist must have acted as a sort of drug," she said. "Even if they can't make things appear and disappear, they probably have ways of messing with our minds."

  Soon, the others had gathered around and were talking anxiously. Then I realized they were talking about how dark it was. Looking around, I realized it was dark—very dark. It looked like it must be at least past nine o’clock, if not later. We must have been out for hours. We had been out for hours, completely vulnerable.

  After some discussion, we decided to sleep there for the night. We found an area near a rocky ledge and set up as much of a camp as we could with our few possessions. I was surprised and also pleased to see that Vanissa had been smart enough to pack a few light blankets. So, I found myself a comfortable place in alcove of some rocks, lay down and closed my eyes.

  About two hours later, I was still lying there, unable to sleep. I just had too much on my mind. So, I pulled out my diary and began to write.

  Dear diary,

  I don’t know how to describe everything that’s happened to me since my last entry. All I can say is that it’s been the hardest days of my life. NOTHING could have prepared me for The Other Side. In the Danger Domain we were caught in the path of a tornado a mile wide and more terrifying than anything I’ve ever seen. It’s a miracle we even escaped it.

  We’ve met up with the only group besides ourselves that's still alive. The group was Every, Lenna, a fifteen-year-old boy and a younger girl who looks about nine, but Lenna was killed within minutes of meeting us and now there are only three of them. I trust Every, but I’m not sure if I trust the boy. I don’t know what to think of the younger girl. She seems kind of fierce, but I guess that could be a good thing in a place like this.

  When Kendall was poisoned earlier, the younger girl saved him by cutting out the part of his arm with poison in it. I wanted to thank her, but I don’t know what to say. Nothing seems like it could repay her for what she did.

  I hear something coming from the ledge above...If it’s the girl then this is my chance to say something…

  I got up and silently began to climb the rocks. I could see the silhouette of someone sitting up there, but I wasn’t sure who it was. When I reached the top, where the ledge stuck out over a seemingly endless abyss, with only clouds below, I saw it was the nine year-old-girl, sitting there, staring into the starry sky. I sat down beside her and she finally noticed me.

  “Hey,” I said. “I guess you couldn’t sleep either?”

  “It amazes me that they can,” she said, gesturing at the others, who were lying in various places, all apparently sleeping soundly.

  We were silent for a moment, and then I said: “What’s your name?”

  “Liz,” she said.

  “Thank you Liz,” I said, “for what you did earlier…my brother would be dead if it weren’t for you.”

  She just shrugged. “Well, I couldn’t just watch him die, if I knew what to do. Oh, and I’m actually twelve, in case you were wondering."

  A few more moments of silence passed, as I thought over the fact that this little girl was actually twelve and not nine as I’d imagined.

  “What are you going to do once you get out of here and go somewhere safe?” I asked, suddenly curious to know someone else’s plans for the future.

  “That’s easy,” she said, her eyes narrowing. “I’m going to kill Challan and all the people helping her. I’m going to find a better president for Paciscor. Then I’m going to move there, shut down The Other Side and tell all the citizens the truth about The Island Program. What about you?”

  “I…I was going to find a safe place to live with my brother and sister and try to live a normal life, but…well, compared to your plans, mine seem meaningless and selfish.”

  “I don’t think they are. You have to think about what’ll be best for your brother and sister. I don’t have…well I don’t really have anyone like that—I mean I don’t have anyone I have to protect."

  “Why do you care enough about the people in Paciscor to go back to a dangerous place when you could be somewhere safe, just to tell them the truth?”

  She shrugged. “I guess, because, they’re being deceived, just like we were. The people from The Island Program said they were on our side and we could trust them and they’d set us free and…Well, they said a lot of things and most of them were lies.”

  27

  “Liz?” The voice came from behind us; down below the ledge at our camp. It was a boy’s voice, but not Owen's, so I assumed it must have been the fifteen-year-old boy in Every’s group.

  “I’m up here,” Liz called back.

  “Are you alright?”

  “I’m fine. I’m just getting to know Britta, the girl Every was telling us about,” said Liz, with a smile in my direction.

  “Alright,” the boy said, sounding tired. “I just wanted to make sure."

  Once the boy had returned to his sleeping place I turned to Liz. “So, who was that?”

  “Oh, that was my brother. His name is Tommy.”

  Probably half an hour passed with neither of us saying anything. The stars in the deep, clear, blue sky reminded me of how I’d seen those same stars when I was on the island. The difference was, now I was seeing them with hope. I hoped someday, not far away, I be standing somewhere high up like this ledge, looking at them from somewhere safe. I closed my eyes and made a wish that everyone in our group; Myself, Kendall, Priscila, Vanissa, Owen, Livia, Every, Tommy and my new friend Liz, would be there with me, seeing those stars and remembering how we’d once seen them from somewhere so different.

  “You know how a lot of people back on the island, hated their lives?” said Liz, interrupting the silence with an unexpected question.

  “Yeah?” I said. I knew about that all too well. I had been one of those people.

  “Well, I wasn’t like that,” she said. “I guess you might think I would be just by the way I am; how I’m quick to jump to action, whether it means helping someone, or the opposite. But, I always thought my life was great. It wasn’t that I was always extremely happy. I wasn’t like that at all. It was just that I considered myself lucky—to have my brother and to be healthy. But then when I went into Paciscor and saw all the people and buildings, I began to reconsider. I began to think I hadn’t been lucky at all. Now that I know how evil The Island Program and Paciscor’s government really is, I realize I was right the first time. We really are lucky.”

  “I know what you mean,” I said, beginning to see just how similar we really were. “I used to be one of the people that thought my life was terrible, but now I realize that being alive makes us lucky. It’s like we were given a gift; our lives and we can choose to do what we want with it.”

  A look came over her, like a longing so great she could barely contain it. “I want to use my life to help others have a chance at havin
g a good one themselves. I want to help people, and save the lives of all the people that would otherwise be killed in cold blood by The Island Program or the government of Paciscor. I want to tell people the truths they should have known their whole lives. I want people to be able to always feel safe and I want to keep anything as terrible as The Island Program from ever happening again.”

  After that, I decided I really did like Liz. And I wanted to be friends with her. So we continued talking in the cool night air, as the stars shone down, glistening like thousands of diamonds.

  Dear Diary,

  It was the girl. I’ve been talking to her for an hour and I feel like I’ve known her for years. Her name is Liz. Her favorite color is red. (Mine is orange.) She worked in the woods on the back of the island. She’s fearless and optimistic but at the same time realistic. (Which means she’s sees the good that could come of every situation, but also sees the reality of what WILL happen in each of the situations.

  Liz is one of the bravest people I’ve ever met and I wish I'd met her a long time ago.

  Closing my journal, I lay back down and once more closed my eyes. Within minutes, I’d drifted off into a peaceful, dreamless sleep.

  When I opened my eyes, it was early morning and the sun was rising into a pink-streaked sky. I was just standing up when suddenly; the ground beneath me trembled, throwing me back to ground. My head smacked the ground, narrowly missing a sharp rock a couple inches away. Around me, the others were struggling get to their feet, as the ground shook violently.

  “Run!!!” Vanessa yelled.

  So we took off running as fast as we could. Rocks and boulders were crumbling, sending chunks of stone flying in all directions. Clouds of dust flew into the air as sections of the ground caved in, filling my lungs with dirt.

  Everyone was still confused and a little disoriented, so they kept stumbling and tripping. To make matters worse, the ground was cracking and splitting in places, threatening to collapse out from under us at any second. I heard Vanissa shriek behind me, followed by the distressed screams of Owen and Livia who had been running near her.