Across the Borderline by Black Squirrel, March 24th, 1999 (f, mud, grim) Tammy hung up the receiver, and at the same moment the telephone rang again. With a deep sigh she picked up and answered. From the first few words the man on the line said she could tell, that this wasn't going to be a friendly call. She had had too much of these in the last days and her patience was wearing out. However, she tried to be as friendly and helpful as possible while scribbling random patterns with her pencil onto the desk's notepad. Just before she was up to break the lead the call ended and she slammed the receiver back into place so hard that Cindy, who was sitting at the desk next to her, winced at the sound. "I'm sorry," Tammy said with a wry smile. Then the phone rang again. "Good heavens!" she cursed. "Does this ever stop today?" "Let me take this call for you, honey," Cindy offered. "No, thank you," Tammy declined. "I'll manage." She picked up and started the whole procedure over again. There were days like this when she hardly ever came to rest for a few minutes. But this week had been true hell. It seemed that all the customers selected these days to order, complain over or cancel various products. She really longed for this working day to end. Tomorrow was Saturday, weekend at last. Just when she thought about that, the telephone decided to disturb her again. She suppressed a disappointed cry and stretched her hand out to the receiver. With a hard kick of her foot she slammed the door shut. The big brown shopping bags rested heavily in her arms while she entered the kitchen. She dropped them onto the table and began stuffing the goods into the fridge. Afterwards she went into the living room and let herself fall onto the couch. Her head was spinning from the day's endurance and she closed her eyes for a moment. Feeling slipping away into the dimness between sleep and reality, she saw distorted pictures of faces talking to her in anger and she forced herself to wake up again. Tammy rubbed her hand over her face and decided to take a shower before going to sleep. She went into the bathroom, undressed and turned on the relaxing jet of water. For the next fifteen minutes she just stood there, enjoying the feeling of the hot liquid pouring down on her, caressing her skin while flowing down to her feet and into the drain. Back in her bedroom she started browsing through her clothes to find something suitable to wear for tomorrow. She packed her small bag and closed the zipper. At least she would find some rest this weekend. Tammy stretched her body and finally went to sleep without being disturbed by evil dreams again. The sun was shining onto the roof of the small red ford that made its way along the country road. Tammy followed the route description she had received from a friend of hers. If it was true what she had told her, she would reach a place where she could be all alone for a while in no time. After a week like the last she needed it badly to run away from people and the problems of the daily routine. According to her map she had to take the left fork of the intersection she just approached. A few hundred feet farther, the road became smaller and led into a forest. Tammy nodded to herself when she checked another part of her route description. She was still on the right track. The road wound itself through the dense growing trees and she slowed down to reduce the bumping of the car. She liked it to drive fast, but here it was better not to push it too far. Five minutes later she reached the place where a narrow path branched off the main street. Tammy parked her car at the roadside and got out, feeling the soft wind brushing through her shoulder length brown hair. She took her bag out of the trunk, slung it over her back and started walking into the forest. The soft moss under her sneakers felt wonderful, and the air was full of smells. Tammy listened to the sounds of the wood while following the path. She lost herself in thoughts, enjoyed the silent voices of the nature surrounding her. Compared to the rumbling murmur of her office, this place was like heaven. Her walk lasted about fifteen minutes. On her way, she passed some more branches of the path, but her friend had told her to stay on the main track. Therefore, she kept on going until the forest finally opened. The lake lay before her like liquid glass in the sunlight. A low breeze blew, caused the water to ripple and lick at the sandy shore. Tammy just stood there, dropped her bag and smiled. A wonderful place to stay and forget about the world outside. She felt like stepping into another reality. About half an hour she stood there, just feeling the sunlight warming her face and the wind stroking. Her five feet six slender form was nearly motionless. Finally she sat down about ten feet from the waterline, opened her bag and put its contents onto the sand. She unfolded her blanket, undressed and lay herself on it. At first she repeatedly looked about to check that nobody was near to see her lying naked at the shore, but she quickly lost that feeling and relaxed. Her friend obviously was right when she said that this place was mostly deserted and unknown. After sunbathing for a while she decided to go for a swim. She put on her bikini and walked across the shore. Her feet touched the cool water and she slowed down, letting herself get accustomed to the lower temperature as she went on. In the meantime, she noticed the island that rose out of the water about halfway across the lake. Her curiosity came up, and she wondered, what was to be found on it. The distance seemed easy to cover, about six hundred feet - no big deal for an experienced swimmer like she was. So her decision was set. When her hips just were under the surface she made a jump and dove in. The sudden change of temperature made her gasp at first, but then her body adapted and it became very pleasant. She made some strong pulls and began crossing the lake. Slowly she approached the island that seemed to grow while she came nearer. The gentle waves bobbed her up and down while she made progress. Yes, this definitely was the right kind of relaxation from last week's hard work. When she reached the island and stepped out of the water she shivered a little from the effort and the chill the wind caused on her skin. She wiped off the most of the water with her hands and looked around. The island possessed the same sandy shore as she had encountered before, but the trees that grew here were bigger and standing more densely. All in all the island provided an air of age she couldn't quite describe. It seemed to be older than the mainland in a strange way. Maybe it was for the seclusion - people hardly ever came here - and the nature here wasn't disturbed to the extent the ordinary forests were. Tammy decided this could only add to the interesting things she could find here and set off to start her explorations. A narrow path led from the shore into the forest of the island. Slowly she followed it, taking care not to step on sharp stones or branches that could hurt her bare soles. As soon as she entered the dimness between the trees the noises grew louder and filled the air. Birds, small animals, the wind in the leaves and her own breathing together made up a strange but wonderful sounding choir that accompanied her on her way. From time to time, she saw a squirrel or another tiny creature scurrying across the path and vanishing in the foliage. She was greatly impressed by her surroundings and accelerated her pace slightly. Somewhere a bigger animal made rustling noises. She suddenly realized that the path was fading away. Just twenty feet behind her it was clearly visible, but here it was hard even to find traces of a trail. Nonetheless, Tammy went on. She was in an excited mood that didn't permit her to stop and return. To the contrary she went on walking, feeling soft moss and leaves under her feet. Her skin and hair had dried eventually, and the warm wind played with the brown strands. About an hour she wandered around in the forest before she finally decided to return to her place on the lake's shore. Just at this moment she caught the glimpse of a strange object through the trees. When she approached a few steps she realized, that it was some kind of stone pillar jutting out of the forest ground. Another was standing about six feet further. Now that she was coming nearer, she could see more stones, arranged in some kind of dilapidated wall originating from the two pillars and extending into opposite directions. It looked all like a gate of some sort. Carefully she examined one of the pillars. It looked old and rotten; moss grew all over it. She removed a bit of the plants to reveal irregular carved black stone. Curious again she scratched off more of the moss to see if there was something more to discover. Indeed, there was. The stone was shaped like some kind of upright standing animal, its paws were stretched out, palms towards her as if to stop her from going any farther. Then she heard the sound of a body moving close by. Jumping she turned around and stared through the trees. Something was forcing its way through the undergrowth towards the place where she was standing. Frightened she stepped back a few paces and froze when she saw what was just rushing towards her. A cat the size of a small German shepherd headed towards her, snarling. It had small black spots on its sandy fur, a stubby tail and long ear tufts. It was the biggest lynx she ever heard of. Tammy cried in fear, turned around and ran as fast as she could. She knew that this would trigger the hunting instincts of the animal, but she ran anyway. More than once she cried in pain when one of her feet stepped onto some pointed object. Behind her she heard the cracking of the branches the cat pushed aside to pursue her. And she knew it was faster than she was, although she was in a very good condition. 'If only I can make it to the water,' she thought. 'Then I will be safe.' She tried to pick the shortest way back to the shore, running in a straight line through the trees. Branches and mantraps cut her skin and slapped her in the face. The lynx was close behind, obviously with much less problems following her. She began to lose hope to reach the shore in time. But just a few seconds later the forest turned into open land. Tammy's heart raced when she recognized the water about three hundred feet from her. She had emerged from the woods at a different place, but that didn't matter at the moment. Tammy dared not to turn her head, so she only heard the cat breaking out of the bushes just a few seconds later. There was not much time left, but she was tiring quickly now. Desperately she ordered her legs to move faster but she got slower instead. It took her a moment to realize that the cause for this wasn't her exhaustion. Her race had taken her into the middle of an area covered with thick black mud, about thirty feet in diameter. Still afraid of the lynx behind her she tried to move on but her feet stuck to the ground. Desperately she pulled at her legs, but every time she tried to free one of them, the other slipped into the mire a little deeper. In panic, she glanced back over her shoulder. The cat was standing at the rim of the mud, glancing over to her and standing still, snarling. She felt her heart beating like a drum from the run she had made. Now she was unable to move on but her pursuer seemed to be unable to reach her. Tammy didn't know if she should be glad or worried about that. For now she seemed to be safe but on the other hand, she felt herself sinking slowly into the soft wet earth beneath her. An experimental tug at one leg showed her the same result as before - her other foot sunk readily one inch more. Suddenly it dawned on her that she could get trapped in this stuff, should it be deeper than, say, knee deep. "Oh, shit!" she cursed under her breath. "What is this stuff?" It felt like glue at her feet and - yes - by now even at her lower shins. She knew it was wrong, but she just could not stand still and watch herself being sucked into the mire. For a few seconds she fought against the wet grip, to no avail than losing a few more inches. Her knees approached the surface alarmingly fast now. Every movement caused the mud to produce sucking and smacking noises that sounded like she was being devoured by the lips of some giant slimy creature. The thought of that made her even more nervous. "You damned beast!" she cried back over her shoulder to the lynx as if it could understand her. "Now look what you've got me into! Geez! This stuff won't let me go!" To her surprise the cat rose and circled around the mud, until it was well inside her view. It seemed to consider the situation and made a cautious step forward. As soon as the animal felt its paw sink into the ground it yelped, jumped back and meowed in anger. Then it tried again, with the same effect. If the circumstances weren't so serious it would have been funny. Tammy watched the lynx for a few minutes, until a strange feeling at her knees distracted her. The mud was just taking the last traces of her lower legs and started at her thighs. 'Oh, please!' she thought and tried to get out of the vice-like grip once more. 'This can not be true! I just can't die in here!' Panic settled in again and she fought against the mire with all her strength. Bubbles emerged and burst around her while the mud turned into a soupy liquid, accepting her body even more easily. Within a few seconds half of her thighs were gone. The pressure on her legs was increasing steadily - it was not long before she couldn't move them anymore. Still, she kept on sinking and her feet didn't find solid ground. Just when the mud reached her hips the lynx jumped to its feet and disappeared from her view into the dense woods. Somehow, this annoyed her. "Hey! Where are you going? Come back! You coward! You can't leave me here like this!" Tammy cried, and in the same moment she began having doubts about her sanity. What good would it do if it remained here? After all, it was the lynx that drove her into this muddy trap. Why should she want it to stay then? Inch by inch Tammy slipped deeper into the mire. Her belly was soon completely gone and the mud started at her lower ribcage. Desperately she put her palms flat onto the surface next to her body and tried to push herself up. It slowed her descent a little but her hands broke the surface just as easily and before she knew it, they were stuck up to the elbows in the same trap. "Unnh! What the hell ...? This can't be happening!" With great effort she pulled at her arms and managed to get them free again, at the cost of another five inches. The thick black mud stuck in clods to her arms and she wiped them off in disgust. Only a second later she let out a little cry when she felt the wet earth touch the underside of her breasts. The lynx came back into view again. To her surprise it had something in its muzzle. It was a long branch, roughly ripped off from a tree and still with some smaller twigs and leaves on it. She didn't believe her eyes when the cat slowly put it down and began to push it over the muddy ground towards her. 'No time for wondering now,' she thought and reached out for the lifeline. She felt herself sliding deeper while she waited for the stick to touch her hand. It seemed to last forever but eventually she closed her fist around the wood. The lynx seemed to notice that and sprawled its claws into the ground. When she started to pull a little it held on, trying to provide her a hold. Her muddy hands kept sliding off the stick and she had to reclaim her grip to the branch several times. During her efforts, the mire was sucking her in even deeper. By now, only her shoulders were above ground, on the way to be devoured soon, too. The lynx snarled and pulled, but the suction on her body was too strong to break. Finally the cat let go of the stick and Tammy slid down another two inches, buried to her neck in the thick black mud. "No!" she cried, clinging uselessly to the branch. "Help! Anybody, help!" Now she cursed the fact that this place was so isolated. "I'm sinking! Is there anyone? Help!" The lynx watched her slow descent, stepped back a bit and mewled to the sky. Tammy tried to stop sinking by clawing at the mud around her, but the mire was winning the fight eventually. Her head tilted back she cried for help, feeling the soft wet earth covering her whole and finally closing over her face to shut her up. Her hands still held the branch that failed to save her from sinking into the deep mud, pulling it down slowly to meet the same fate she was. The sun had set over the island. Most of the birds had fallen silent, and the crepuscular animals started prowling their territories. Somewhere at the shore, a humanoid creature was sitting next to a big puddle of black muck. His lynx-like head was turned to the middle of the pool as if he could see something more than the undisturbed black surface there. "I'm sorry," he said with a deep rough voice, in a language indistinguishable for humans. His speech was turned to the mire, the tone of his voice revealed grief. "I had to chase you off the gate. The entrance to our world is forbidden for you and all of your kind. But I didn't know about the danger waiting here. I was too weak to rescue you, not able to transform before dusk. I never wanted you to die." He rose onto two legs, turned his back at the mud and started walking towards the forest. His tail wagged slowly from side to side as the nightly wind brushed through his fur. Then he stopped and looked back one more time. "There's one thing your people have to learn: You must never cross the borderline." The End