The Life Beyond You

Chapter 7

My arm is shooting pain around my body and I can't move it. I just lay for a second, face down in the dirt. Everything that happened moments ago flood my mind. I feel cold hands on the back of my neck, rolling me over gently. The sun causes my head to throb, and I blink trying to regain vision. Knox was above me, dusting himself off.

"Haven't done that in a bit." He knelt down, pulling my head up. I winced and tried to move my head back, but he just forced it closer. I forgot he was shot, and I didn't ask.

"Ouch. There may or may not be a stone sticking out of your head right now." He said it so casually that I thought he was messing with me.

"Just pull it out? I don't know how to respond to that." I felt the top of my head and when my hand barely brushed the stone, the pain flooded my head. I let out a small whimper and held the side of my head.

"Still want me to pull it out?"

I felt for the stone again on my head, Knox trying to pull my arms down. Once my fingers were around its edge I pulled as hard as I could, screaming from the pain shooting to my fingertips. Everything went blurry again and all I could see was a distorted stone covered in a thick red liquid.

"Jesus christ-" That's all I could hear from Knox, because I think I passed out.

Knox

I caught her before she hit the ground, blood dripping from the deep wound on her head.

What an idiot.

My gunshot wounds at this point were already healed, nothing but a few small scars. But I was sore still. I groaned and pulled her up, looking around.

We landed in a corn field, somewhere not in New York. I lifted Cyra's body over my shoulders, walking us to the old barn a few yards away. The inside smelled of mold and manure. I took off my coat, since it was suprisingly warm, and cushioned her head. I raised my hand over her head, they veins running up my fingers turning dark black as I mumbled a simple reverse spell. The wound slowly dissapeared into time. My hands started shaking horribly and I leaned on a beam next to Cyra, studying her tense face. It was never relaxed, not even for a moment. She looks so broken, and her smile seems to have faded away from her lips. I know when she wakes up she'll have questions, and I know I'll have to answer. Just not all of it now.

Cyra

I sat up, the moldy air filling my lungs with its toxicity. We were in a broken down barn, the roof full of holes that let in the smallest bit of light from the moon. Knox was sleeping quietly on a beam next to me. I remembered Martin shooting him, blood clovering my hands. I quickly look at his shirt. Every spot where there was blood is gone, back to a normal shirt. I felt my head too, it was like there was never anything there. I stood up and felt my way to the barn door, it was atleast 11:00pm. All I could see for miles was corn. I heard what I thought were waves coming from behind the barn. So I ran, just in one direction. Letting the plants hit my face, the breeze trying to catch up. Suddenly I was on the edge of a cliff, the edge dropping down into a wide ocean. Where are we?

I catch my breath for a moment and look up at the white flecks spread out across the sky. I always dreamed of a place like this when I was younger. Living by the edge of a cliff. The thought of that hit me for a moment, everything I wanted to be when I was younger. I snapped out of my thoughts when I heard ruffling behind me. I turned around to see Knox tripping out of the vines and plants.

"Glad to see you're alive." He walked to the edge, looking at the water.

"Where are we?"

"I don't know at all."