“What about the main entrance?” asks Al, pointing with his own hand at the obvious wide doors, opened in greeting.
“Safer sneaking round the back,” says Molly pulling on his hand. Al lets her lead him to the side of the building closest to the Mountain Range. When his legs hit the floor, they wobble like they’re not really attached. He catches himself on the wall, but then stumbles forward taking great gasps of air.
“You rest,” says Molly, patting his back. “I’ll be back in five Wild minutes.”
Al hasn’t got the breath to protest. Scrapping his back against the concrete wall, Al sits down and enjoys the tingling sensation on his shoulder where Molly touched him. Examining the hand Molly held, he can’t see anything different about it, but the feeling is definitely there. He wonders if Molly felt it too.
Sighing, he realises he’s got his breath back and wonders where Molly is. What was five minutes in the Edge of the Light? Al starts counting, but he forgets how many counts are in a minute. Time never feels quite constant here. When the Lumini were witnesses, focusing on something in the Wild made it slow down or speed up, or maybe it was them that changed pace.
It was starting to feel like forever. He stood up and started chewing on his thumb. Birds twittered in the trees and Wind sporadically rustled the leaves, distant shouts made Al twitch. Then under it all, he could hear the plop-glop-gopple-gulp, it was constant and coming from somewhere to his right. Walking a bit further down the building, his legs still feeling shaky. The green cover suddenly ended, and beyond it he could see a deep grove in the side of the mountain, like a giant gutter and down it slid a tangled mess of red tape. This close he could hear another noise, a hissing, Alesssssanda, it seemed to whisper. Both intrigued and terrified, Al took another step forward but then remembered he was waiting for Molly. Glancing back, he can’t see her anywhere.
Where is she?
Frozen between the green shadows, where Molly left him and the sound of the Red Tape calling his name, Al closes his eyes.
Surely, it’s been five minutes, he thinks.
She’s definitely late.
He should go after her.
Maybe she’s in danger, maybe she’s been caught by the Red Tape and bound for forever. The image of Molly trapped overwhelms his fear. He turns to the door, about to yank it open, but hears a squeak from overhead and jumps back.
“Al it’s all clear. Get up here,” says Molly, leaning out an open window on the second-floor and waving.
The face of his favourite Lumini, safe and well, makes Al blaze with light and he finds it no problem to fly up to the window, even if his landing is still a bit awkward and Molly has to grab him before he falls. At least it makes her laugh.