4II: Revelations
Adam sat up on the grass to see three others scattered around him– his heart sank when he noticed they were all girls, he'd be alone on this one – then to be tackled back to the ground by the furious, hung-over Christie as she started to thump him on the shoulders, stomach, anywhere she could reach. He managed to avoid her fists near his face for long enough before he kicked her off of him.
"What the fuck are you doing here?" she screamed at him. "If I had to be stuck with anyone, it had to be you!" Adam glared back at her, angry, but saddening quickly as he saw what his ex-girlfriend had sunk to.
"Nice to see you, Christie, so nice of you to say hello," he answered calmly, voice dripping with sarcasm. Ruby stared at them in shock and disgust before intervening.
"Excuse me, but do you know what on Earth we're doing here? I have a career, you know, and a tour to complete!"
Christie spun around on the spot, growling when she spotted the young girl. "YOU!"
Ruby recoiled at the venom in her voice, even stumbling backwards a few steps. "Wha-? I don't even-"
"You are the one who ruined me! You are the selfish brat who only thinks about herself! You're the one who walks out on the ones who raised you and tries to help you, but no, nothing's good enough for Little Miss Priss! I should be knocking some sense into your pretty little head-" Christie spat, stalking forward on every sentence, but having Adam hold her back when she raised her fist, Ruby shrinking away.
"Well, I see that your outfit is even sluttier than before," Ruby muttered. Christie growled again.
"I wasn't wearing this before, but this is comfy enough." Christie examined her outfit in curiosity – a ridiculously short skirt, tight against her thighs in dark green, with a similarly coloured crop top that covered half of her upper body and revealing a lot of cleavage, and black boots that reached the edge of her thighs. The poker-face expression she was giving gave no indication of the fact that she was lying. To hide it further, she proceeded to insult Adam's clothing. "And explain why you're dressed up like a classical composer?"
Adam went to retort, but realised he had no argument. He was wearing a dark brown coat with old fashioned fasteners and odd patterns around the edges, with black trousers and shoes.
Ruby was fretting. "My dress! That was so expensive, and now I'm stuck with some boring black strappy dress and heels! What on earth?" She shut her mouth when Christie glared at her again.
"Um, excuse me?"
The three turned to Maria, who was standing behind them, twiddling her fingers nervously, in black short-shorts and a plain white button up shirt, looking rather forlorn about the situation. "Sorry to interrupt, but wouldn't we be better off going to find help?"
Christie turned to the other two. "Either of you know her?" They shook their heads. "Well, looks like you're the odd one out here, hon. I'm Christie, the blonde twit is Ruby and the even more idiotic guy is Adam. I suppose we have to get on now." She ignored the squawks of protest from the other two.
"I'm Maria, and I suppose it's not my place to say, but you guys are acting like a bunch of school kids."
The four eventually decided just to sit down on the grass and talk about nothing in particular. Really, they were just waiting for someone to hopefully come along and help them.
Even then, it didn't take that long for somebody halfway helpful to approach them.
"Finally, we've found you!"
Maria was the first to react to the relieved, feminine voice from behind her. Rapidly approaching them was a young woman with flowing red hair in a white dress and ballet pumps, with a man who must have been slightly older with dark brown hair and glasses, in a suit of sorts. The others started a second later, and Maria was surprised by Christie standing in front of her.
"Lemme guess, you brought us to your world to help save you or something cheesy along those lines," Christie snapped. "We want to go home, if you don't mind."
"Well, Christie, that's exactly why we brought you here," the woman replied smoothly. "Vita Amare, and Erik Luna. This is Carmina, or the world of the Voice, if it may be known."
Ruby burst out laughing. "Right, once you're out of your little fantasy world, then can you take us home?"
Maria slapped her arm, hard. "Shut up."
Everyone stared at her, then shook their heads in surprise and stared at Vita instead. Ruby rubbed the stinging red mark on her arm and pouted.
"Carmina used to be…beautiful. But then the queen died, her daughter, not even the rightful successor, succeeded her, and then everything went downhill. Parts of our time are disappearing rapidly, taking people, animals, homes, the whole world with it. She was supposed to control the timeline, but without the proper guidance, she lost it. Eh… Erik, continue, please."
The man stepped forward, smiling reassuringly. "Adam, Christie, Ruby, Maria," he nodded at each in turn. "I apologise for bringing you here so quickly, without notice, but we couldn't risk losing any more time. You see, we brought you here because of two things: something is missing from your lives, and your singing voice, the latter being more important for us here."
"So time-change? Like being thrust back in time sometimes?" Adam questioned. Erik nodded.
"But the voices are more important. See, this is a power no one in Carmina possesses anymore."
Christie, unable to contain her amusement, roared with laughter. She collapsed to the floor holding her sides, tears rolling down her face. Her other companions glanced at each other, and shrugged.
"So what the heck are we supposed to do with that? Sing this evil ruler to death or the fuck? Adam could do that in under a minute, he can't sing a note!" she shrieked with mirth.
Adam furrowed his brow, hurt. "You didn't say that a few months ago," he mumbled, defeated.
"I just don't believe that some crazy fangirl and fanboy made up a plot this elaborate," Ruby declared. "This is a load of crap, like some bad videogame. I mean, what kind of-"
"Who said it couldn't be real?" Maria snapped. "They don't look crazy, and yes, I suddenly walked out of my school to land in a world full of grass that my school doesn't own! Didn't you walk through your door here? Didn't you?" She focussed her wide eyes on Vita. "Look, what do we have to do? They may not want to help, but I do."
Adam looked on as Ruby became hysterical. "How can you believe this? You're just a child!"
"So are you," Adam cut in quietly.
Everyone became silent, even Christie who was still on the floor, but Erik. He coughed self-consciously. "Please, help us. You will get something in return, one, you'll find that missing element I was talking of. I suppose you wouldn't care much for that, but I think the second would convince you further."
His emerald eyes gazed at each of the group in turn, mainly staying on Ruby, who had her arms crossed and eyes narrowed.
"Like I said, the timeline is disappearing. We need it back to rebuild the world, and without the rightful queen – or king, I suppose – it will be wiped from existence completely. Thus –"
"We die with the rest of the world," Christie finished, eyes dim. It seemed that events had sobered her hangover. Adam fidgeted with the sleeves of his coat, avoiding everybody's wavering gazes. Maria sat on the floor, wincing as the shorts cut into her skin, burying her face in her knees. Ruby huffed in annoyance as if someone had thrown an insult at her.
Christie suddenly broke out into a grin. She jumped up, slapped Adam on the back of the head (purely for her own satisfaction), pulled Maria up by the scruff of the neck and turned to their leaders. "Well? What are we waiting for?"
"You're not seriously suggesting-" Ruby started.
"We have nothing better to do!" Maria cut her off, her smile matching Christie's, eyes ablaze with glee. "It sounds kinda fun, providing we don't die!"
How can she be so optimistic, the both of them? Adam was kicking himself mentally, but he reluctantly was agreeing with them. Ruby, in the end, gave in from their endless rave.
Vita smiled, but then turned to Erik and spoke in a language none of them understood, but recognised. Latin. Then again, Vita spoke so fast none of them caught a word of it.
She turned to them, smiling. "Thank you, so much. We owe you our lives."
"Well, just remember that when we're in some kind of near-death situation," Adam said, surprised by his own ironic wit. He ducked his head, embarrassed. Vita waved him off.
"Well, are we going or not?" Christie asked, suddenly eager to leave, but leaving the plea for alcohol in the back of her mind.
"Are those motorbikes?" Ruby exclaimed suddenly, nodding towards the shadows of the vehicles near the trees. She looked deathly white.
"Aw, is wittle Ruby scared of the motorbikes?" Christie mocked, running past Erik and Vita towards the vehicles. "Don't worry, there's only four, one with a sidecar, so I'll take the school kid and you can ride with Adam. Not too difficult, and I'm sure that he'll take good care of you."
"I was hoping for more practical transport," Ruby muttered, following the group who had taken Christie's path (who, of which, was now sitting on one of the bikes and kick-starting the engine). "This is going to be what kills us first."
Adam laughed, a short, deep sound. "Oh, dear, we're all just so hilarious."
Everyone felt deafened by Christie's constant whooping through the headsets installed in the helmets provided. Maria felt sick from the bumping of the sidecar across the woodland terrain, and was thankful that Christie couldn't go any faster, because overtaking Vita would have been fatal – in her mind.
It was then she felt the sidecar disconnect, and she panicked.
Everyone else was crying out in surprise too, as their motorbikes were distorting as they rode, and Maria felt her sidecar become a fat pony, saddled with reins, which she gripped tightly. She looked around with disdain as the adults had fully-grown horses, and her pony had to trot to keep up.
Great, now I feel even worse.
"A Time Shift," Vita said dismissively, as if that explained the situation. She turned around to face the group. "We've probably gone back to sometime around the Middle Ages, I suppose, judging from our transport."
"Oh, fuck," Christie groaned. "That's not fair."
Erik suddenly shouted. "Vita, watch it!"
Vita turned back around and stopped, rearing her chestnut mare just before the edge of a huge pit. The rest gathered around her, wondering why she had stopped.
Adam moaned in shock. Ruby screamed. Maria just stared at the grey pit that lay before them, dreading what it may have been.
"W-what is this?" Ruby exclaimed, rounding on Vita. "Trying to lead us to our deaths?"
"No, this is what remains of a whole town that went through a Time Wipe," Vita shot back. Maria buried her head in her hands for the second time in less than an hour.
Christie staggered towards the nearest bushes and threw up.
Two updates in a day, yes, because I finished this chapter and forgot to upload the previous one.