I wanted to disappear. Like sink into the ground, never to be seen again. My breath was short and cold. My throat felt like ice, and my head was pounding.
Goosebumps covered my arms and legs. Despite my cast and pant leg, my legs were still cold.
I couldn’t close my eyes. They just stayed focused on the blue scene around me, wide and filled with horror. The fiery scene. The fire was an almost white blue and even though it wasn’t the right color I knew that it was fire in the very core of my soul.
The scene was blurry, almost as if it was lagging, but you could easily make out a man standing in the middle of a town filled with houses on fire. It caught onto trees and people…
My legs were weak as I watched the man kill anyone who was in his way, as if dying in fire wasn’t enough.
I wanted it to end. Tears filled my eyes, my throat burning even more as I kept them in. I thought I would have to watch more, but thankfully, the scene disappeared as a lady shrieked.
My eyes scanned in front of me, making sure it was truly gone. After a moment, my body relaxed from its tense poster slightly and I let out a small breath. I had barely a moment to fully process what had happened, and to calm down before I heard a thump.
The video-like things had put my senses on high alert, possible problems running through my brain a hundred miles per second. What if it was that man?
“Who’s there?” Brax called out; his brow furrowed. There was a squeak and footsteps running. Brax looked at Mr. Yarrowood nervously. “We can’t let anyone share what we just watched; they may get the wrong idea. And we need to keep her hidden for a bit.”
I didn’t like the look everyone gave me. I was still trying to grasp the whole ‘chosen one’ thing. I couldn’t wait to ask a million questions. Like, how does this world exist? How does the chosen one idea work? Am I still dead? Why me? When can I go home?
When can Amanda go home?
“I’ll go catch them.” Zeva offered and Mr. Yarrowood nodded. She ran off in the direction of the footsteps. Before she had slipped into the shadows of an alleyway, I noticed she had a sword on her side. Was she going to harm them…? My legs hurt from standing so long; Amanda had taken some support away from me and the pressure was starting to become unbearable.
“Er, can I sit down?” I asked, my voice echoing weirdly in the eerie silence. “Oh, of course.” Mr. Yarrowood said.
I looked around awkwardly. Amanda helped me move over to a low concreate wall and we sat down.
“Did you bring the elixir?” Mr. Yarrowood asked Brax. He replied with, “No, I left it at home.”
Home.
I missed home. It felt as if I was a world away. Which, I probably was.
Mr. Yarrowood and Brax had started to whisper to each other when Amanda said, “This is so confusing.”
“I’m sorry. This is my fault.” I looked at the crumbled concrete ground. I felt so bad. This was so weird and scary. I felt like a bottle of soda someone added Mento's to. Filled with emotions, ready to burst if someone took the cap off.
“It’s okay. We’ll find a way out of this and get home.” I looked up at her. She gave me a sad smile. I returned it. Amanda looked around us. “This place is depressing.”
I looked at the broken buildings, she wasn’t wrong. There were many crushed and crumbled stone formations, like this used to be someone’s home. And now, it was the skeleton and memories of what used to be. My gaze travelled to Brax, who was kicking rocks around now. He had such an unusual appearance. Dark purple hair with indigo tips. And those eyes… They were beautiful. And familiar.
His head suddenly lifted, and he turned to look at me. I had been caught staring. I quickly turned away as I felt my body get hot and my hands sweaty, embarrassment showed vividly for me.
Mom always said that it was rude to stare.
Amanda started to snicker. She earned a glare from me.
Then, there were several yelps and shouts. Everyone turned to the ally Zeva had run into.
Zeva emerged with a startled and annoyed little girl. Amanda jumped up, helping me carefully stand.
“Let go! Ah! Let. Go!” The girl kept screaming and trying to remove Zeva’s hand from her tiny wrist. She seemed so young. Like nine.
“Be gentle, Zeva.” Mr. Yarrowood said softly. Zeva stopped walking once she was near him. Amanda helped me walk to join everyone else.
I took in the small girl’s appearance. She had pale blue hair with matching eyes. She was wearing a blue, sleeveless shirt and blue shorts. Under each of her eyes, there was a pale blue drop. It looked like a tattoo. Was that appropriate for such a young girl?
“You will regret this.” The girl hissed, and I think I actually saw a bit of fear in Mr. Yarrowood’s eye. Why would he be scared of such a small girl?
“We mean no harm to the Drop Tribe.” Mr. Yarrowood said calmly. “But what you could’ve seen is very secret information.” I didn’t understand what was going on, but Zeva still hadn’t released her, and no one else had moved, so I stayed still and silent.
“Well too bad! I saw the whole thing. And we will not stand having associates to him, near our village.” Before anyone could say anything, the girl turned to mist and disappeared.
“What just happened?” Amanda asked loudly. “She’s telling her leader now. We don’t have much ti-” He cut himself off as twelve water droplets surrounded us. “What’s going on?” I asked nervously as the drops started to glow.
No one responded and the drops grew even brighter.
I shielded my eyes, and when the light faded, there were a group of people in dark blue cloaks and hoods. One—whose hood was white—stepped forward, “You are now prisoners of the Drop Tribe until further notice. You have been arrested for invading on our land, and consulting with the Man of Death. We will take you to our village without harm. If you resist, violence will be used. That is all.” The person, who, based on the voice, I guessed was a lady, stepped back into the circle.
The white hooded person started the chain reaction of putting their hands squarely. An ice blue ball started to form. Five of the twelve people now held light blue bags. The rest held ice staffs. I noticed the ends of each staff was unnaturally pointy.
The white hooded one put a bag on Mr. Yarrowood’s head, who obeyed immediately. Following his actions, Zeva and Brax obeyed too. They had a lot of trust in a man I’m pretty sure is trying to kill me and Amanda.
When one of the figures tried to put a bag over my head, I was reluctant. I shifted onto my good leg away from the bag, saying, “I don’t feel comfortable not being able to see, especially with people I don’t know, in a place I’ve never been.”
I was surprised to see Amanda let them put the bag on her head.
“You cannot see where we are located.” One of the people said. “Just do it.” I heard Zeva hiss.
“If I die; I’m coming back to haunt every single freaking one of you- HEY!” I couldn’t finish my threat before the cold bag was forced onto my head.
It was dark, obviously. And cold. And did I mention dark?
I hate the dark.
It was a hard walk with only one leg and a bunch of sticks and other obstacles. I almost fell over several times, being shoved up by the person standing behind me. It hurt so much, and not just in my leg.
I fidgeted with my fingers, it was a bit hard to with my arm in a cast, but I managed. As we walked, I pictured some place deep in the dark woods. And they lived in igloos like penguins and had a group campfire where scary people sharpened weapons and at night, they told war stories where they would tell how they got a scar or lost a toe.
Thinking about this helped distract me from my current situation for a little. But when I couldn’t think of any more weird things these people did—I got excessive ice-fishing, celebrating the rise and fall of each moon, and worshipping water, the moon, and penguins—and I was still left in the quiet darkness, my mind drifted to what it always did in scary situations.
It went into Everything That Could Go Wrong Right Now mode.
Number one on the list was that we were all killed.
Number two was that we were forced to participate in their crazy tournaments as prisoners.
That sparked another train of thoughts. Where they decided they wanted to keep us. And every Saturday night, they would light torches and have us fight other prisoners until the other one was dead. And then Mr. Yarrowood would die immediately—because he’s old—Zeva would be victorious many times, Brax would find a way to disappear or have a 50/50 chance of winning, Amanda would use whatever information she could find to win. And that was based only off what I knew about the three random people.
But then there was me. I would stand there helplessly as I tried to dodge, but then would get distracted by a bird, or a random, pretty flower that grew in the cracks of the ground as my opponent crushed me.
I shuddered lightly and then I heard a voice. “Take off their hoods.” I knew how this went, I would see a very bright light, so I kept my eyes shut as my hood was removed. But it didn’t last for long.
“Wow was it cold in there!” I exclaimed. My eyes blinked furiously as they adjusted slowly, not to light, but a different type of darkness. Once I could make out most shapes, I looked around. Everyone else’s hoods were off too. The first thing I noticed was that there were extremely dim floating drops like the one the people had turned into.
Then, it was still cold here. And the thing that made me feel awkward and my face slightly heat up, was that everyone was looking at me. Brax had a soft smile on his face, Amanda looked a little worried, Zeva looked annoyed, and Mr. Yarrowood looked tired. And the other people who had kidnapped us were also looking at me.
I thought about how this was the second time I seemed to be kidnapped in the last hour. That must be some type of record. I should be famous.
Kaitlyn Jones, world record setter for Getting Kidnapped the Most In 1 Hour, I thought.
“You. Are you in charge of your group?” Mr. Yarrowood nodded. “Your group has been charged for assisting the Man of Death, illegally stepping on our land, harming a tribe member, and resisting arrest. What do you have to say to defend yourself?” I couldn’t locate the voice; it seemed to be everywhere.
“We never meant to cross onto your land. And Zeva is very sorry for harming a member of your tribe. As for the resist of arrest, she was just scared. And I promise, we would never assist the Man of Death.” Was that the guy we saw in the videos? I was so lost, and it was annoying. Like at school when people would be talking about something that happened, but never tell you what happened. And you were left to figure out what was so funny by yourself.
Stupid people…
My fists clenched and unclenched as I took three deep breaths. Surprisingly, it helped. Probably because I had more important things to worry about than the annoying people at my school.
“….to consult with your group.” I had caught the last part of the deep, mysterious voice. The people around us backed away and Mr. Yarrowood nodded. He started to walk in the opposite direction to one of the dark walls. Zeva and Brax followed, causing Amanda to help me hurry after them.
“What the freaking fork is happening right now?” Amanda whispered. We had huddled in a small group, away from the people. I took the few moments of silence to look around. We seemed to be in a room with no visible exit. The floor was stone, along with the dark walls, the blue balls still shone dimly.
The people who had taken us here were still in formation. Other than that, the only thing I noticed was the sound of dripping from somewhere nearby.
“What does that mean? I’ve never heard anyone say that.” Brax asked, his eyes fixed on Amanda. That boy was weird.
“She can tell you later. We must get our story straight. They can’t know about Kaitlyn or Amanda” Mr. Yarrowood looked at both of us.
“I made a plan though just in case this would happen. We need fake names for the two of you.” I smiled, I always liked fake names, they were fun. You could choose something rare or fancy, or the name you wish you were named.
“Can we choose them?” I asked. Mr. Yarrowood shook his head, causing my smile to dip. “Names here are different than on Earth. They are names you wouldn’t usually find on Earth. So, we came up with one for you before you arrived.” He explained.
“Correction; before you kidnapped us.” Amanda said. “We didn’t kidnap you!” Zeva protested; Mr. Yarrowood shushed us. “Kaitlyn, your name will be Neriah.” He told me causing my eyes to light up. That name was so unique!
“Amanda, yours can be… Mireya.” she nodded slowly, taking the name in. “Okay, so, you are my students. And I was teaching you about the Man of Death—make sure to always call him that—and for you to fully learn it, we had to come here. Zeva went after the girl because we didn’t want any confusion, accidently harming her.” Zeva rolled her eyes.
“Okay, don’t say anything about Earth, or that you’ve never been here. Do not disrespect the tribe and we can get out of here shortly. The Drop Tribe is usually very forgiving. And if they ask about your looks, just say we were experimenting on dyes.” We all nodded just as the voice ordered us back to position. The circle formed back around us.
But it still confused me to what he meant. Did we look weird? But they were the ones with purple hair and eyes and pink eyes. What was my name again? Neriah, it’s Neriah. I repeated in my head until I was sure to remember.
“We will start the trial. Question one; why were you on the Drop Tribe land?” The voice echoed. “I was just trying to teach my students about our history. And because you have the best technology to do so, I came here. We did not mean to offend you or your tribe, I was unaware we had crossed the boundaries of your land.” Mr. Yarrowood said politely. He stood straight, his cane in front of him.
“And you will verify that you are this man’s students?” It was as if I could tell the voice was talking to us, even though I couldn’t see the person. The four of us nodded.
“What are your names?” “I am Mr. Yarrowood, this is Brax, Zeva, Mireya, and Neriah.” He introduced us. There were a few beats of silence, where the dripping noise filled my ears again.
“Your names seem valid. Second question; Who was it that resisted arrest and why?” Mr. Yarrowood looked at me. “Oh-um- me? I’m Neriah, I didn’t mean to offend anyone, um, I’m just injured and scared. Being in a. . . different place and all.” I could almost feel the surprise everyone had when I had said that. And people say TV isn’t good for you.
“Hm, okay.” Wow, these people are forgiving. “Third question; Who harmed a tribe member and why?” Zeva’s voice was soft, strange for the girl I had only known for a short period of time. “That was me, Zeva. We didn’t want any confusion to be caused, and I didn’t mean to hurt them. I hope you can forgive me.”
We were doing pretty well, at least I think, then the voice spoke again. “You seem to have valid reasons to be here, therefore you can be released. On one condition.” There was another bright light in front of us. A man appeared. He had a dark blue cloak on, and two tattooed tear drops under his eyes. He also had long dark blue hair with white stripes.
“You must request permission to step foot here again. I will give you this slip, so that we know you have been here before. It also has the location to send the request.” He had a small smile on his dark face as he handed Mr. Yarrowood a small slip of pale blue paper. These people really like blue. I listened for the drip noise, but it had disappeared.
Mr. Yarrowood thanked him, and soon, there was a bag over my head, but instead I was carried back instead of walking, which was weird. When the bag was removed, we were back at the crumbled town. The people stood in a line in front of us. “You have been released from the Drop Tribe; we hope you learned your lesson.” The white cloaked person spoke. “We have.” Mr. Yarrowood said. Then, with a flash of light, they were gone, and all I could hear was the wind whistling as it pushed my hair.
“We are so lucky they didn’t ask about Kaitlyn or Amanda’s odd appearance.” Brax said. “Yeah, because we’re the ones who look weird.” I said to him. He looked at me, “You are here.” I guess he had a point, but I still hadn’t wrapped my mind around the idea that I was in some crazy world that supposedly needed me to save it from—I’m pretty sure—a maniac.
Unless the maniac was dead. But then how did he disappear? Is that what happens when you die here?
“C’mon, let’s go home. It’s time to eat, and I am tired.” Mr. Yarrowood turned and went back to where we had come from. But, where the tunnel had originally been, was just a mound of dirt and dried grass.
Then Brax handed him a bottle of water. And it just looked like plain water. Nothing magical about it. At least the water was normal here. Then Mr. Yarrowood was handed the small pouch after there was a puddle of water. He sprinkled the powder on the puddle and the tunnel opened once more.
“Please help the girls again.” Mr. Yarrowood instructed as he climbed through the tunnel. Brax once again came to my side as Amanda and Zeva went in first. He helped me to the tunnel and through it. The water made the dirt seem metallic.
We entered back to the cabins. “Food is ready. Oh, and we’re going to fix that leg of yours Kaitlyn. And your ribs. Does it hurt?” Mr. Yarrowood asked as we walked. I realized my hand was still holding onto Brax’s wrist for support, but because I needed it, I left it there.
“It’s already being fixed. That’s why I have the cast. And sometimes, like when I move a lot or put weight on anything.” I felt oddly comfortable around these people, which was weird because I was always awkward and quiet around new people, especially adults. But I didn’t want that, right? Yes. I wanted to go home with Amanda. Or wake up and realize this was just a very detailed dream.
Mr. Yarrowood chuckled. We entered his cozy cabin. We all sat down as Mr. Yarrowood went into another room and brought out five bowls of something steaming. He set it down in front of us, followed by spoons. Then he said, “If you haven’t realized yet, this place is very different from Earth. Which means that we also have different healing methods. Eat up.”
I peered into the bowl as Brax and Zeva started to eat. It was a dark, mystical purple, with hints of blue. It seemed to be some dyed soup. I met Amanda’s eyes, filled with uncertainty as she too looked at the ‘food’ in front of us.
“Er, what is this?” Amanda asked. “A special healing remedy. Don’t worry, it will do the opposite of harm you.” Mr. Yarrowood blew on a spoonful of it and put it in his mouth.
Well, it isn’t the worst thing that’s happened.
“It looks like Brax if he was a soup.” I observed, peering at it. My face went hot when I realized I said that aloud. But then Brax looked in his bowl, smiled and said, “You’re right.” I gave a small smile back and looked back at my Brax-soup.
I hesitantly lifted the spoon up, blew, and put it into my mouth. Amanda watched me for my reaction. “Oh, wow! That’s actually really good!” It tasted like chicken noodle soup with some sort of twist. Amanda then ate some, with the same reaction.
“I am glad you like it. It will take the night to kick in, so we’ll leave your cast on while you sleep.” Then I remembered that I wasn’t home. “Um, I’m- we’re going home, right?” I asked, changing the pronouns as Amanda cleared her throat.
“No, sorry. Remember, you need to help our world. Then you can go back to Earth.” Mr. Yarrowood said calmly, eating more of his soup. I felt eyes on me for a response. I looked down at the soup as I said softly, “Oh, right. I was hoping that was a joke. Um, you’re sure it’s me? I mean, this is really confusing and I’m not even sure I believe any of this.” Mr. Yarrowood met my eyes.
“I promise you; this is completely real. And we are one hundred percent positive that you are the one,” Zeva rolled her eyes, “I know it’s confusing, but we’ll be here every step of the way. Even during the fight.” My eyes widened in horror.
“FIGHT?!” I yelled, sitting straight. “I can’t fight! Heck no! I’m not risking my life for some people I’m not even sure exist so I can get killed by some maniac who enjoys the thought of people dying! Y’all are crazy if you think I’m just gonna gamble my life for a bunch of people who kidnapped me! And my friend!” I would have stood up, but not only was it hard to dramatically, but I was feeling very tired all of sudden.
Yelling never took that much energy out of me; I know because I do it a lot.
Then darkness engulfed me as my eyes drooped down. The last thing I saw was Amanda passing out too, and the last thought was, I want to go home too, I’m sorry, Amanda.19Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡydXCTjikCH
---AUTHORS NOTE---19Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqD3kjtRKfI
Hey! I know it's been a while, I haven't much time nor the motivation to write lately. I've been swarmed with homework and started diving into this old story that I've been working on in the past, so a lot of my attention has been to that.19Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOn940LXjB8
But, I wanted to put a chapter out! I hope it's decent and that everyone has a great holiday season!19Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMZcpJilFPH
That's all, goodbye and have a fantastically fun day/night/endless abyss!19Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0AVPkAkrTU
---AUTHORS NOTE---19Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOHUP54Dn1p
