The ground shifted beneath my feet suddenly. I clenched my teeth as I felt my hands slid against the tough material of the wall. Even being on all fours wasn’t enough to balance me. I cried out as my right cheek collided on the ground. I felt the blood crawl through my eyelashes. The small pool flooded my nostrils causing me to gag. I could never stand that vile odor of blood. The sight meant practically nothing, but the smell is what would make me keel over.
Again as the ground shook I clung to the sides of the wall. I didn’t want to fall. Not here. You don’t fall here. These bricks were stacked for our flight, our rebirth, not our end. I can’t be the one to end the village’s one and only hope. To fill something that once held greatness, and replace it with tragedy and despair. This wall is the barrier that protects us from the other side. It’s our curse. Our burden. Our god.
Most of the children in the village don’t understand what the adults mean, but I do. We have to fall to our feet when it calls to us. Inexhange, we are provided life. But never freedom. Father was so proud of me when I told him I understood. He wouldn’t be now though, seeing me on top of the wall. When an earthquake is going on as well! Ill surely be punished when I return home.
The rumbling had halted. My hands were drenched in sweat. My arms pulsing with every ache. I wanted to let go so badly but a bird yelped at me and I clung even tighter. A brutal wind blew from the other side of the wall. I turned away, tears in my eyes. I felt my hand slip a bit and my chest imploded. A squeak echoed down to the sand. I heard Charlie call up to me laughing at my fear. I said nothing in response, afraid that speaking would make me lose my grip once again. I heard him erupt in more bitter giggles. He could really be a mean kid. Even though he was my best friend he could be awful cruel sometime. He even dared me to climb this stupid wall. I’ll have to get him back for this.
Peeking my head over the edge. My eyes lids sealed shut with my own blood. Mt teeth clenched and chattering. One lash at a time I peeled them open. At this height I could hardly see Charlie. All I could make out was the exaggerated, yellow hair of his. His baggy tunic contrast to the tightly knit sand.
The bricks were stacked so high that if I did fall I would surely die. My body would go CASPLAT. A large sand storm would form around the mess of blood and bone that once was me. The thought of all that blood made me gag. My body heaved. I tried to turn my head away from the image of my body below. Away from seeing the puddles and splatters against the rim of the wall. The thought of Charlie standing there smiling because he’s too in shock to realize that I was splattered all over him. The stains. Oh god the stains I would become.
There was no other way to turn but that side. The other side. The abandoned side. No one has seen the abandoned side in hundreds of years. It isn’t ready yet, father had said. No one is to see the other side until its time or we all will pay. Theories spread through us children, but the adults would never comment. They would just grin down at us with those patronizing eyes of theirs. We wanted to know so very badly, and here I was so close to revealing the truth. Honestly though, I was far from excited.
Again the smell teased me. Irrationally turning away I opened my eyes.
Just for that longing second I felt nothing. My breath was held. My heart had stopped. I was simply another brick on the wall. Looking at the sun during the day and the moon at night. A bird then screeched me awake, my eyes popped from their sockets, and I shot up. I screamed in the way that would make animals run rampage. The ground shook again. I did not care to grasp for the wall this time. I just kept screaming and screaming and screaming. I felt my feet trying to catch on air. Even as I fell back I was still facing the other side.
I became silent as the wind blew in my ears. I could still smell my blood. For those mere moments I was convinced that I was flying just like in one of those bedtime stories. Then I saw Charlie’s smiling face standing still looking up, but it was already too late to begin screaming again.