“Forbidden Hill?” Matt sneered, his face pale above a burgundy polo strangely reminiscent of a slightly too small pajama top. He tilted his head back and drained the rest of his beer, tossing the bottle to the side and reaching for a new one. “That’s a stupid name.”
“Watch it, new guy.” Dari snapped the words, then nestled her own bottle into the dirt by her feet with exaggerated, tipsy care. “I don’t want to deal with exploding glass because you’re too drunk to keep empty bottles away from the bonfire.”
The fire popped, and Terry leaned forward with a stick to give it a few pokes. Someone paying attention might have noticed his casual maneuver to roll Matt’s bottle away from danger, but most of the group had left careful observation behind well before the sun had set.
“Sure,” he said finally, and leaned on his stick. “I mean, yeah, it’s a dumb name. Most people go up sometime as a kid. Some return wondering what the big deal is.”
Matt leaned forward, elbows on his knees, brow furrowed. “What’d you do?”
“Ah.” Terry poked the fire again, and sparks flew in the air. “I went up with a group when I was fifteen.”
“Terry’s our eldest,” Dari informed Matt, gesturing at the group. Two women darted by in the background, shrieking merrily before collapsing into a giggling pile of darkened greenery. “He’s the responsible one.”
The alleged elder shrugged from the lofty reaches of twenty-five. “I just never felt the urge, but you know how it is at that age. We ran up the hill and back for baseball conditioning, and then one day we wandered in.”
“So is it a big deal or not?” Matt prodded. “What’s up there that’s so forbidden?”
“Ruins,” Dari informed him. “Ancient ones. Prehistoric.”
Terry studied the white and orange flickers. “Turned out, what I saw wasn’t what the others saw.”
“Some people claim it’s a whole ‘nother world,” one half of the giggling bush said.
He glared at Em, wishing he’d never told her what he thought he’d seen…but he’d been young and in love, and careless. At least he hadn’t shared everything.
The other half of the bush chimed in. “There are all these rumors about people disappearing.”
Rolling his eyes, Matt gave a deliberate yawn. “Runaways, probably.”
“They tried destroying it, but even the ruins retain the power once worshipped there,” Dari said with ponderous drama, waving her arms in the air and splashing beer everywhere with a sizzle. “I just saw rocks. Wish I’d seen another world when I went up Forbidden Hill.”
“No, you don’t,” Terry said quietly, but neither of them heard his words.
That was fine with him. No one else needed the burden of what had really happened to those unfortunate souls who’d been caught in the other world.
***
Well, that got dark, but I’m pleased with this quick little bit inspired by AC Young’s prompt! We had a trade this week – check it out! And there’s more, over at MOTE!
