Free Sondranos: The Narrative of Leon Bishop by Patrick Stephens Page A

hillside that had only scared me before because
of its drop; acting like this was all part of my plan, because
nothing else seemed to work. If Melanie believed I was here on
vacation still, I could at least lie again and maintain that I was
a hero. At the time, I had no considerations of dying, just pain.
Lots of pain. I’m not proud that my miscalculation had been played
off as deliberate, but it achieved the same results I’d originally
hoped for. Good enough?
    The boy caught me by the shirt
before I hit the tree, ripping the underarm of my sleeve. I heard
the crack of something heavy against wood all the same - a
sickening crunch that reminded me of someone cracking open the
shell of a lobster or crab. Part of me wondered if it was the sound
of my own body snapping against the trunk of one of the trees. I
thought it was the sound of my arms or legs breaking.
    But what had happened was
different than my body’d said. I’d hit the Belovore with the force
of a cannonball. We rolled and he pushed me away. The boy and the
girl had jumped out from the tree-line and raced after me. He
caught up when we rolled over the miniature crag. When he’d caught
me, I spiralled into the girl, knocking her over until I’d ended up
in her lap. She smelled of sweat and lavender. With my eyes
swimming back and forth, unable to focus, I had come to a
controlled stop at the bottom of the hill.
    The boy helped me up, but I
didn’t have the energy to stand. He pulled on my arm, and moved me
enough to rest flat on the ground. The girl scooted away. I let my
head fall into the sudden patch of grass beneath my head and closed
my eyes.
    The young man yelled, “Be
careful, go slowly!”
    A few moments later, Annalise
was by my side. The others continued a very slow climb down the
decline.
    “ What was
that about?” Annalise asked.
    I opened my eyes. When I looked
up, refusing to move my body – my legs were stiff and sore, my arms
throbbed, and I was certain the top of my head had succumbed
completely to a future of perpetual migraines – Melanie and Davion
finished their crab step down the hill
    It seemed Annalise had started
coming down as soon as I’d started my tumble. “Were you trying to
be an idiot?”
    “ It was all I
could think to do,” I said.
    She started laughing. “It
worked, I think. Hasn’t moved since it landed.”
    “ You must
have been the guy who brought a nuclear warhead to a water balloon
fight, huh?” Melanie tried to add something in. She lowered herself
over the crag, letting her stomach bundle over the edge until she
pushed away and landed.
    Sitting up, I shook my head
slowly and winked. Annalise dusted dirt and refuse off my
shirt.
    For all they knew, I’d always
fought back, and this was normal.
    I wasn’t going to correct them:
it hurt my head to do so.
    The pain still sang a high G in
my ears, which throbbed and pulsated behind my eyes.
    After Annalise forced me to
stand and take a couple disjointed steps, we all stepped closer to
the Belovore – the two kids joined us. The girl looked more
interested in the beast; the boy stepped close. The Belovore had
impacted against the tree hard enough that the second chelimb
snapped off where it connected with the lower vertebrae. It lay
horizontally on the ground. On closer look, the Belovore’s spine
had also been crushed. Parts of the vertebrae sat nearby on the
ground. Other, sharper, bits embedded in the trunk of the tree. And
behind that, the tree itself had been dented. One stiff push could
dislodge it completely.
    The Belovore’s eyes closed. Its
arms were still, and its legs bent up behind its torso.
    While we stared at it, Davion
hoisted the boulder Annalise had rolled down into his arms and
walked up to us. He feigned that it was light, but the strain
caused his neck to pulse and a vein atop his head – right where his
hairline touched forehead – bulged. The vein was a deep blue, and
the skin around it crimson.
    “ What do you
think it wants?”