The Hybrid (5 page)

But today was different. Today there was enough cloud
cover to keep to the shadows of the forest without the
possibility of being seen. He could watch her. He knew
she couldn’t hear him. But he could hear everything. Her
breathing. Her heartbeat. The sound of the wind blowing
through her hair. Her
thoughts
.

“Yes, Brother. I see her.” The man standing a few yards
away from him whispered too, but it sounded as though
he were standing right next to the other young man. Any
other person would have thought he had only mouthed
the words.

“Not tonight, Edyn. If you say she comes here everyday, then you can wait another day.” The man turned to
look at the girl. “But, I have to admit, she seems different
somehow.”

The younger man turned toward the girl. She was still
looking at the trees, facing away from the two young men.
“How so?”

“She should not be this young.”
“You are right, Brother. How has she managed to stay
so young all these years?” The man named Edyn peered
through the tree trunks and pine needles, examining the
girl that sat just a few yards away from them.
He slowly crept closer, making no sound at all. The
sticks and muddy shrubs below his feet didn’t crunch or
buckle. The sky had grown much darker within the last
half an hour, and he knew he could move as far forward
as the last row of trees before he reached the open field,
still without being seen.
Suddenly, the girl’s head perked up. Edyn looked at
her cautiously. She was looking right at him. His heart
slightly skipped a beat, instantly worried he had made a
noise, or worse, she could
see
him.
“Edyn,” Kayne whispered from behind him. “We have
to go,
now
.”
Edyn waited
a moment longer, staring at the girl.
“Okay,” he said, turning to look back at his older brother.
And within a flash, they were gone.

Gertrude looked around the field again. She knew she
should have called her grandmother, but she didn’t want
to risk missing something as she removed her phone from
her pocket. But part of her knew she probably wouldn’t
see anything. The trees were much too thick, and the
shadows between them were much too dark. She peered
into a spot between two trunks, trying to see how far into
them she could really see. But it was no use. After about
five minutes of pointless squinting, she looked up at the
sky.

The sky had become dark and ominous
⎯ much more
frightening than when she had first arrived. It looked like
rain would soon fall, but the air didn’t smell the way it
usually did before the rain ⎯ fresh and clean ⎯ so she
continued to sit.

Carefully,
Tru
leaned
back
against
her
hands
and
stretched her legs out in front of her. She had been sitting
in the same position for so long that her calves and feet
were beginning to fall asleep. The tingling sensation in
her toes caused them to curl uncomfortably in her sneakers. And it didn’t take long for the palms and fingers of
her hands to feel the same way. Leaning forward again,
she clasped her hands together, rubbing them against one
another, hoping to gain some feeling back in them.

The field around her was quiet, aside from the occasional
bird,
or
short
burst
of
wind
pushing
its way
through the trees. But it was also cold, reminding Gertrude that she hadn’t grabbed a better jacket on her way
out of the house. Slowly, she fell back against the damp
grass, and rolled over to her side. She could feel the wet
blades tickling her cheek, and as she took a deep breath,
she smelt them, inhaling the dewy scent that filled the air.
Carefully, she wrapped her arms around her shoulders,
trying to conserve the warmth that was left in her body.
“Magaterra?” a young man’s voice called.
Gertrude’s eyes shot open as she instantly lifted her

torso off of the grass, resting her body on her knees. She
tried to look around, but it was so dark now that she
couldn’t even see her own hand as she held it out in front
of her face. She could tell by the tenderness in her cheek
and the tingling of her arm, that she had fallen asleep at
some point.

As she felt her shoulder, a rush of cold wind brushed
against the skin on Tru’s cheek, causing chills to run
down her spine. She looked around again, knowing she
still wouldn’t be able to see anything.

“Magaterra?” the man’s voice called again, this time
sounding as if he was standing right in front of Gertrude.
“Is that you?”

There was another gust of wind, followed by the faint
sound of fluttering. It sounded almost like a small swarm
of birds had completely surrounded her. Tru tried to
reach out to the noise, but nothing touched her hands.

“It is not her, Brother. I told you,” another, almost
identical, male voice said in the darkness. There was a
slightly angry and annoyed tone to his voice. Tru could
hear the subtle sound of grass slowly crunching, coming
closer and closer.

Footsteps
.
“But it looks just like her,” the first voice replied.
“Who’s there?” Tru shouted out to the air. Her voice

Suddenly, Gertrude could feel her clothes being pulled
in
different
directions.
Pieces
of
her
hair
were
being
tugged away from her cheeks. Her shoes were being lifted
from the ground. She reached out in the direction of the
tugging, hoping to swat away something, but nothing was
there.

I’m going crazy.
“She does not sound like Magaterra.”
“You are right, Brother.” The first voice sounded puzzled. “What is your name?”

Tru assumed the question was directed at her so she
replied, clearing her throat before she did so.
“Gertrude.”
What am I thinking? I should have made one up!
What if these people are dangerous? Too late.
“I could have sworn it was her, Brother,” the first voice
called. His voice was quiet, and didn’t echo across the
field as Gertrude’s had just moments before.
“
Your
Magaterra was a hard one to duplicate. But we
must go,
now
.” The second man sounded angrier than
before.
The first man spoke again, this time his voice was only
a whisper. “Then what should we do with her?”
“She has heard too much,” the second man replied. Tru
could hear more crunching grass striding closer to her.
“But we cannot dispose of her
yet
.” This time, a young
woman spoke, and the sound of footsteps on the grass
stopped abruptly.
“And why not, Airi?” the second man asked.
The young woman took a deep breath. “She has Magaterra’s scent all over her.”

She
must
be
the
one
tugging
at
my
clothes
, Tru
thought.
“It’s revolting. She must know who she is. If you get rid
of her, you may never find her.” The girl’s voice sounded
mischievous. Tru was glad she couldn’t see her face.
“Girl, do you know a young woman named Margaret
Mason?” the first voice asked. His voice was so loud and
forceful as he spoke. It sounded as though his mouth was
right next to Gertrude’s ear. And even though it sounded
as if he were shouting, his voice still did not bounce off of
the trees surrounding them.
But Gertrude knew now whom they were referring to.
She knew the name. She knew it very well. “Yes.”
“Where is she?” he asked.
“She’s probably already asleep in her bed.”
“How do you know her?”
“She’s my grandmother.”
The tugging on Tru’s clothes had stopped almost immediately. The fluttering in the air had also vanished. The
violent gusts of wind seemed to have disappeared completely. Tru remained seated for a few more minutes,
waiting for the voices to return.
“Hello?” Tru asked to the dark, open air. But there was
still no reply.
For a quick second, she thought everything she had
just heard had been a dream. She pinched her arm and
slapped her cheek just to make sure. But, she was completely awake, and completely alone once again.
What just happened?
Tru tried once more to look around, hoping for a
glimpse of something that could give her any sort of clue
as to what had just taken place. It was still pitch black,
and all that could be seen was the dim glow of a full moon
behind a thick blanket of dark clouds ⎯ not anywhere
near enough light to illuminate anything for her.
Slowly, Tru rose from the moist ground where she sat
and turned to begin walking back towards the house.
Finding the beginning of the path back through the trees
was much more difficult now that it was so dark outside.
And not surprisingly, finding the path was much less difficult than actually trying to navigate her way through it.
More than once, she tripped over a fallen log. A few times,
she stepped in deep, muddy puddles of water, soaking her
shoes,
and
even
her
socks.
The
moist
fabric rubbed
against her feet uncomfortably.
When Tru finally began seeing the glow of the patio
light through the trees, she looked at her clothes to see if
there were any signs of her encounter with the voices. But
the only evidence she could find were the muddy legs of
her pants, a few patches of wet fabric on her shoulder and
part of her stomach, and a wet, grass-stained seat on her
jeans.
Hurriedly, Tru ran to the sliding glass door, hoping it
would still be unlocked. But when she was about two feet
away, she could see that the door was open, with no more
than a three-inch gab between the door and the door casing. The curtains, that hung against the window inside
the house, swayed back and forth as the wind from outside pushed against them.
Gertrude’s jaw dropped instantly.
She pushed the door open further⎯ wide enough for
her to slip through. Gently, she closed and locked the
door behind her, then tiptoed her way through the family
room, and into the kitchen. It was hard to see her way
around the house with every light turned off, but she
walked slowly, avoiding as much furniture as possible.
When she walked into the spookily dark kitchen, Tru
could just barely see that the oven and stove were both
turned off. The dishes had all been washed and put away.
And fortunately, nothing looked too out of the ordinary.
Tru carefully turned around and walked back out into
the hallway and looked up at the second floor from the
bottom of the stairs, as she stood in front of her bedroom
door.
“Hello?” she whispered. She didn’t want to wake her
grandparents, just in case they were home, but part of her
still worried that something was wrong.
Everything is okay. They’re asleep. They have to be.
Everything is fine,
she said to herself repeatedly.
Then, as she placed her foot on the first step of the
stairs, she stopped to listen. The faint rustling of sheets as
someone rolled over could barely be heard over the sound
of her grandfather’s snores.
They’re safe
. Tru took a deep breath.
I am slowly losing my mind.
Almost immediately, Gertrude remembered that
she
was the one who had left the door open. She had been in
such a hurry to get to the meadow that she had forgotten
to close the door behind her when she left. Her grandma
and grandpa must not have seen that it was open.
Tru turned back towards her room ⎯ finally able to
call it her own⎯ and walked to her bed. She didn’t want
to believe anything that had happened earlier that night.
And thinking about it more made her think even more
that the whole thing had just been some crazy dream.
She stood there in silence as she unbuttoned her pants,
pulling her legs out of the holes⎯ one at a time⎯ and
yanked on her cotton basketball shorts. She wrenched her
sweatshirt and shirt over her head and threw on a ratty
tank top her mom had bought for her years ago. She then
gently climbed into the bed and pulled the warm sheets
and fluffy comforter up to her chin. Her mind was racing
at a thousand miles a minute, but before she even had a
chance to dream, daylight was shining through the cracks
in her eyelids, telling her it was already morning.

Saturday
, Tru thought as she opened her eyes and
looked up at the ceiling.
For the first time, since her arrival two weeks ago, Tru
was somewhat excited. But more than the feeling of excitement, was the overwhelming fear that she was possibly going crazy. She had begged for herself to wake up,
hoping everything was all just a dream.
I need to know if last night was real
.
Quickly, she jumped out of her bed and threw on her
typical wardrobe of jeans and a tee, and tied her long,
wavy brown hair up and out of her eyes. Since the sky was
covered
in
yet
another ⎯
but
thinner ⎯
blanket
of
clouds, Tru decided to put on her favorite maroon pullover.
“Where are you off to?” Maggie asked, walking out of
the kitchen, catching her once again, as Tru made her way
through the family room to the sliding door.
She caught you. Just improvise.
“I’m just going out for an early morning walk.”
“Then wouldn’t you be going out of the front door?”
Maggie asked, pointing over her shoulder to the large
white door located on the other side of the room.
“Right,” Tru replied, trying to make it sound like she
had forgotten which way the front door was. “I was actually just going to go around the back.”
Smooth. Like she’ll believe that!
“Oh, alright then.” Maggie turned around, giggling as
she walked into the kitchen.
Tru was surprised that Maggie hadn’t mentioned the
fact that she hadn’t been around for dinner last night. But
she didn’t question the matter. And realizing she still
hadn’t moved, Tru hurried over to the door and pushed it
open making sure Maggie was still in the kitchen.
But as Tru placed her hand on the sliding door, and
looked around at the backyard, she slightly smiled. Then,
she looked over her shoulder toward the kitchen and
sighed.
“Actually, Grandma,” Tru began as she walked into the
kitchen, “can you take me somewhere today?”
Maggie turned away from the sink slowly. “Sure,” she
replied, grabbing the towel and wiping off her hands once
again. “Where are we going?”
Tru looked at the ground, placing her hands in the
back pockets of her jeans as she strode closer. “Can you
take me to see my dad?”
Maggie
almost
dropped
the
towel
from
her
grasp.
When her son had first passed away, she spent almost
everyday visiting his grave. But lately, she realized, she
seemed to only visit when she was in the area. “Sure.”
Maggie placed the towel on the counter before walking to
the entryway to grab a coat and her car keys.