Diary of a Bipolar Pixie

Hello, chimers, and welcome back to Diary of a Bipolar Pixie, where I still have some motivation to write! That’s good news for me, and depending on how much you’re enjoying my story, it could be good new for you too.

Welcome to chapter three of the book that still doesn’t have a good title, hope you enjoy.

I awoke to a loud bang against my head. I felt groggy from a night of poor sleeping, so it took me a second too long to register that I was on the ferris wheel. Another loud bang caught my attention, I was suddenly very aware of the fact that my cart was a lot closer to the water than it should have been. I scanned the dark water for any clues, and spotted a flash of movement. It was too far away and too distorted to make out properly, so I took a deep breath and leaned down to stick my face in the water.

I saw a pale, amphibious looking creature with fins and webbed fingers and toes, floated near the bottom of the ferris wheel, pulling on something, a lever maybe. Each time it pulled the lever object, the ferris wheel rattled with a loud bang, and sunk closer to the water. I pulled up for air before sticking my head back under water, and I saw the creature staring at me with solid black eyes. It opened its mouth to show hideously sharp teeth, similar to sharks. With a quick jerk of its feet and hands, it propelled towards me faster than anything I’d ever seen. I threw myself backwards just as it broke the surface, clawing over the edge at me, but it couldn’t reach me, and I realized it couldn’t get out of the water.

I stood quickly and reached for the slanted bars of the cart above me. My heart raced as I heard splashing behind me and I climbed onto the bar. As I slid towards the center to reach the next bar, I heard the splashes in front of me. Then as I climbed onto the bar to the very top cart, I heard the splashes more rapidly underneath me. I almost couldn’t breathe for all the climbing I was doing, but thankfully, I managed to crawl into the cart away from the creature.

It screamed at me. I didn’t know it could make noise until I looked down to see where it was, and it opened its hideous mouth to let out a blood curdling scream halfway between a dying woman and crazy cougar. It was the sound of primal rage and it absolutely terrified me.

“AHHH! Somebody, help me!” I screeched to the sky, bawling my eyes out. “Please, somebody! Anybody!”

The ferris wheel rattled again and I almost fell out of my cart. I screamed as I flung myself back into the cart, shaking and crying. The cart was sinking lower to the water at an alarming rate and I tried to calm myself enough to climb to the next cart up. The cart, however, was moving faster than I could climb. As I was dragging myself upward, white knuckles gripping the metal bars with all my might as the rattling frame threatened to shake me loose, I felt the cold touch of water on my feet, and looked down to see I was barely hovering about the water line. I scramble faster up the frame, the other cart almost in reach, but I was still sinking so fast, first up to my calves, then my thighs. I started crying, realizing there was no way I was going to make it completely out of the water at this rate.

The frame suddenly stilled and my heart raced as I realized what that meant. I tried to jump into the next cart, but before I could, something gripped my ankle so tightly I was worried it would snap. The force at which it pulled me under water gave me no chance at getting a breath in, and my chest tightened painfully. 

I looked down toward my ankle and saw the creature swimming rapidly towards the bottom of the lake. I tried kicking and hitting it, but it never even flinched, and my strength was quickly leaving my body as my lungs burned and my vision blurred. I could hear my heart pounding in my head. I tried one last time to break free of its grip but I was too weak. I couldn’t hold my breath any longer. I wasn’t going to make it..

Involuntarily, my hold body forced me to inhale in the hopes of finding oxygen, but it was only met with water. However, it didn’t burn, like it had when I was younger. I remember falling into the river when I was child and struggling to keep my head above water. Every time it got in my nose and slid down my throat, I tried to cough it up and it burned the whole way. My dad had jumped in to save me and I’d spent the remainder of the day coughing and throwing up.

Something had obviously changed since then. Every breath felt like I was truly breathing for the first time in my life. It was refreshing and energizing as the headache and spots disappeared from me. 

I was able to regain focus, throwing this new development to the back of my mind to deal with later, and tried to find some way to break free from the death grip. The creature had slowed down, probably assuming I’d lost consciousness, and it swam towards some openings in the rocks. I knew I couldn’t fight on my own strength so I waited to see what would happen. Maybe it was like a crocodile and it drowned its victims before it ate them. 

If that’s the case, I thought, I’ll wait till it lets me go, then I’ll find somewhere to hide from it.

I waited patiently, trying to let my body relax so the creature wouldn’t notice I was still conscious. It slipped into one of the larger openings, revealing a cave with a strange collection of trinkets and toys in it. It reminded me of a mermaid movie where the main character had an obsession with human objects, except that movie was for kids and some of the objects in this creature’s cave were definitely not for children to know anything about. I saw a broken fairy figurine sitting next to an object that looked like something from the male anatomy. Okay, it was dildo. The thing had a fucking dildo sitting on a rocky protrusion like it was one of its prized possessions. I wondered for only a second about where it could have gotten the object, before telling myself I absolutely didn’t want to know.

Then I saw something else. A glint caught my eye and turned to see a hint of light reflecting off a silvery surface and realized it was a pocket knife. The creature passed within a foot of the knife, and I tried to carefully and stealthy reach for it, but I was pulled past it too fast to get a grip. The creature finally released its hold on my leg, but I waited to see if it would go away. I needed some space from it if I stood any shot of surviving this. 

Still believing I was unconscious, the thing drifted against the opposite wall of the cave, it’s back to me. I made small movements, kicking my legs softly to drift nearer to the knife. I kept glancing at the creature, freezing if I saw it turning one way or another, desperately hoping it wouldn’t pay me any mind. I stretched out my hand, just within reach of my goal.

A hand gripped my ankle once more and jerked me back, but it was too late. I had it, the knife, it was in my hand! I swung it around towards the thing and grabbed its arm, swinging the knife down as hard as I could. I didn’t want to lose my only weapon, so I ripped it out. The creature screeched, a sound I didn’t know could be made under water, and it released me to grab the wound. I took the chance and swam with all my might out of the cave and back to ther Ferris wheel. I didn’t look back, knowing without a doubt that if it grabbed me again, I would do everything in my power to fight it.

I broke the surface and scrambled out of the water once more. I was breathing heavily, short and ragged breaths, but I was still surprised that it wasn’t the kind of breathing that typicaly accompanied swimming of that extent. The sun was just beginning to sink past the rocky protrusions around me, but I was too frightened to sleep. I wasn’t sure if that thing would try to drag me into the water again. I quickly rose to my feet and hurried to climb to the highest cart. It wasn’t a perfect solution, but I knew if i got too tired, I wouldn’t stand a chance of staying out of the water, and the highest cart gave me the best vantage point to move from should it come down to it.

I stayed awake the entire night, too afraid to close my eyes, waiting with baited breath for the structure to rattle and move once more, but it never did.

Maybe it’s waiting for me to relax, I speculated, gripping the knife tighter. If I fall asleep, I’ll be a sitting duck up here.

Whenever I felt myself slipping, I’d pound the blunt end of the knife against my leg to jolt me out of my sleepy daze. When that stopped working, I hung my head over the edge of the cart, hoping the blood rush would do something useful. At bare minimum, it reminded me of why I had to stay awake, the blackness of the cold water taunting me. I kept scanning my surroundings trying to make out the slightest of differences in the ripples in the water or the noises around me. I couldn’t hear any animals, but I could hear the roar of every small waterfall crashing at the same time. Any noise outside of that roaring left me scrambling to see where it might have come from.

Around dawn, as the darkness of the night sky gave way to the pale oranges and pinks of the sun’s rays, I heard a much more distinct, louder splash of something falling into water. I spun in circles, trying desperately to find the origin of the noise. Then, I saw a slightly darker shape moving quickly towards the Ferris wheel in the water. I was frozen watching it, terrified of what it might possibly be, but when it broke the surface of the water, my terror shifted.

It was a dark skinned woman in blue clothes similar to the ones I still wore. She stared up at me with chocolate colored eyes, a smile at the corner of her mouth.

“Get out of the water!” I yelled down to her before she could speak.

“It’s okay, you don’t have to be scared. I’m here to help you, if you’ll just come down to talk to me,” she tried to reason.

I realized she must have thought I was afraid of the water itself.

“No! You don’t understand! There’s something in the water!” I shouted, trying desperately to make her hear me. “It tried to kill me! You have to get out of there before it comes back!”

“It’s okay, I promise. Aquatic critters aren’t a threat to you anymore. You can come down.”

I sighed heavily, then saw the pale outline slowly approaching the woman. I ran through every possibility I could think of, but none of them would get her out of the water without her arguing with me. I only had a split second before I settled on a plan and I quickly jumped as far out as I could into the water, the knife still in my hand. I didn’t quite reach the woman, but the sudden splash caught the creatures attention and it turned back towards me.

It came at me with lightning speed, reaching for the hand that held the knife. I brought it down as quickly as I could, slicing at the creature once it was in range, and it screeched again. I thought it would retreat, but it circled around to get behind me faster than I could turn. I knew it was coming for me, I knew it was going to grab me again and I wasn’t sure I’d be able to fight it off. As I attempted to turn toward the creature, I caught sight of the woman from the corner of my eye. She was directly between me and that thing, and I saw her holding a blue dagger about the size of her forearm. It shimmered strangely and I instantly knew it was more dangerous than the little knife I was holding. 

The creatures froze, eyeing us each in turn, before it swam away in retreat. I followed the woman to the surface and then forcefully pushed her into the cart without any argument. I crawled in next to her and flopped down on the bench seat with a huff.

“What the fuck was that?” She asked.

“That,” I panted, “was why I told you to get out of the water. It dragged me down to a cave underwater, and I was able to stab it with its own knife to get away.”

“So, you learned you can breathe underwater?” She questioned, raising her head to look at me.

“And it seems you can too, so would you mind telling me what’s going on before we die?” My voiced dripped with frustration.

“This was supposed to be a pretty straight forward test. Certain people, a very small amount of people, have such a strong connection to one of the four elements that it etches itself into their souls and gives them power. This test is meant to figure out who has that level of connection. Each path had some little trick to it that made it impossible for anyone else to get through to the end. At the end of each day, we, the coordinators, walk the paths to find if anyone is stuck or lost, and if they are, we know they don’t have the connection, so we disqualify them. Last night, we managed to round up everyone, except you. My superiors were worried, so they sent me to find you, but when you weren’t on the main path, or the false paths, I knew something had to be wrong. You were really fucking lost girlie.”

“Gee thanks,” I said sarcastically. “I think that’s the nicest thing anyone’s said to me in the last 48 hours.”

The woman smirked and I knew we’d get along pretty well. 

“My name is Nadia. I’m the only water coordinator available, so I really need you to do as I ask, even if it doesn’t make sense. I’m going to do everything in my power to get us out of this as safely as possible, okay?”

I nodded, knowing I didn’t have many other choices, and the ones I did have would most likely leave me stranded where I stood.

“Okay,” I responded. “Whatever you say, I’ll do. My name is Eve.” 

“Nice to meet you Eve. Okay, so the main problem is that for some reason my communicator isn’t working here. We need to find some way out if we’re going to call for help,” she explained, pointing to the weird looking device attached to her pants. “I’m going under to see if I can’t find a tunnel that will lead out. I want you to take this,” she handed me her weapon, “and I’ll take your knife. I’ve had more practice with my powers so I should be okay, but if something happens and you fall into the water again, this might be your only chance at saving yourself. If I’m not back in an hour, you’ll have to find a way out on your own.” 

She then handed me her communicator and before I could protest, she grabbed my knife and dove back in.

I wasn’t even sure if I could accurately figure out how long an hour was, given I didn’t have a fucking watch. Her stupid communicator didn’t even make any sense. I was expecting it to function like a phone or a radio, but when I turned it over and over in my hands, I couldn’t find any buttons, or speakers, or anything to show that it could send a message anywhere. It just looked like a piece of gray junk. 

I tried to pass time by examining every aspect of the device, by counting, by watching the water, but it felt like it was going so slowly. 

Eventually, I was certain that Nadia should have been back already, but I couldn’t see even the faintest shape in the water. I couldn’t take it any longer, wondering if she was hurt or lost somewhere. The fear of being all alone again was overwhelming.

I jumped into the water once more and dove down, praying I could find some sign of Nadia. I knew she’d said to make my own escape if she didn’t return, but I couldn’t even work the communicator. I needed her help, and figured at this rate, she probably needed mine.

I was so focused on finding Nadia, I didn’t even realize that the water was moving around me, not until I looked around and I found myself drifting rapidly towards one entrance specifically. I didn’t hesitate, feeling that the water was pulling me the way I needed to go. I trusted the water, I just didn’t trust everything in the water. The pull was stronger the closer I got, so I swam with the current, carefully maneuvering between rocks and threw whichever opening felt right.

Then I saw a silver pocket knife resting on the tunnel floor. My blood ran cold, but before I could react, something yanked on my leg so hard I smashed my face into the tunnel floor, a sharp pain shooting through my skull before I lost myself in darkness.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and if not, well too damn bad. I plan to continue to write this story cause I’m having way too much fun. Hopefully you remember how to find me if you do have any comments, questions, or concerns. In the mean time, I hope you all have wonderful lives. Fly high, my chime, fly high!

Chimers! I’m back! And I’m still writing the story from the last post!

I’ve fallen into hyper fixation with this story idea, and you get to be the victims, I mean witnesses, of that fixation. So sit back, relax, and enjoy chapter of… well I still don’t have a good title for it.

Chapter 2

We walked a ways into the poorly lit tunnel in silence. I was too nervous to speak, almost feeling like any noise I made would trigger something horrible. After another few minutes, we came upon a table with electric lanterns on it. We each took one carefully and continued.

“Hi,” the girl whispered next to me suddenly. “My name is Morgan. What’s yours?”

I smiled nervously and replied “Evianna, but you can call me Eve.”

“This is all so crazy. I just wanted to talk to someone to make myself feel better,” she explained shyly.

“I understand. I don’t mind the quiet too much, if I’m being honest, so long as I have something to do.”

“I’m the same way,” one of the boys, a short red head announced. “I actually prefer the quiet to noise, helps me think.”

I felt very attacked by that statement, but I also felt that Morgan still needed to talk.

“What do you think this path will be like?” I asked her, trying to keep the conversation going.

“I don’t know. The banners and our clothes makes me think we might be getting wet, but I really hope not. I hope it’s more like a water slide than anything else. I can’t swim.”

That was confusing as fuck. 

“Why’d you pick this path, then?” the tall brunette behind us asked.

“The others seemed worse,” Morgan admitted.

I somehow couldn’t disagree with her. 

“I picked this one cause I was the best swimmer at my school, which might also be why I got reported. I’m Jacob, by the way. I caught your names earlier. The little angry leprechaun in front of you is Trevor, known him since second grade.”

“That’s kinda strange,” I said. “I haven’t seen anyone I know here.”

Tevor growled and responded, “We live in a really big town. Chances were higher that we’d see someone we knew.”

It made sense but he was so sour about it, it pissed me off.

A sound in the distance shut us all up. It was a roar that got louder the further we went. We silently continued down the path, listening for the roaring sound. We turned a corner and were faced with a fork in the path. On the left was the source of the roaring noise. A waterfall broke through the ceiling and continued down the descending, sloping path to the left. On the right was another straightforward path. Standing in the middle were the three other boys who took off at a faster rate than the rest of us.

“Hey,” one of them called back to us. “Nice of you to finally catch up.”

Trevor glared at them as we approached, a look I was becoming fond of if only to show off my own emotions.

“Sorry we can’t all be sprinters,” Jacob replied quickly before Trevor could.

“It’s fine, all it did was give us time to think. We can’t decide which way to go and none of us want to go on alone yet.”

“What’s the problem?” Morgan asked.

“Well, that one,” One said pointing to Two, “wants to go down the freaking water slide of doom, while we think it’s best to walk the path.”

“Why?” I questioned.

Three rolled his eyes and answered, “The path leads up so it should take us out a lot sooner than the slide that only goes deeper into the damn mountain. The goal is to get to the finish line before the end of tomorrow, but I plan on getting there first.”

I snorted, which earned me center stage. 

“If you really wanted to be first then why did you wait till half the room had left before getting started,” I reasoned.

Three glared daggers at me, and balled his fists. If I was a boy, he’d have hit me without a second thought.

“I’m going up. The rest of you can do whatever the fuck you want,” Three growled before storming down the path.

One followed after shooting us an apologetic smile, and too my surprise so did Trevor. I was going to miss his witty, yet curt, sense of humor… Not. Two stayed with us, though he seemed very sheepish about it.

“I’m Morgan,” my new friend introduced sweetly, “and this is Jacob, and Eve.” 

I was surprised to hear her call me by the nickname I preferred, it took most people a few tries to get it right.

“I’m Kevin,” the boy said meekly.

We nodded our hellos and made our way closer to the waterfall. The rocks were slippery, rubbed smooth by the force of the water. It looked like a better ride than any water park I’d ever been to, but, then again, I could only see a few feet down the path thanks to the poor lighting. I couldn’t tell if it came to a smooth stop or if it fell into a shallow and deadly pit. These issues apparently weren’t going to stop Jacob, who stepped right up.

“Wish me luck,” he said, as he prepared to continue.

“Wait!” I called, suddenly thinking of something.

“What? What’s up?” Everyone asked.

I took a closer look at our electric lanterns. While they were water resistant, they weren’t quite waterproof, not while on. They had to be off and fully collapsed within themselves, the only way to seal off the water, in order for them to be waterproof.

“You’re going to have to go down blind,” I announced.

“How do you know?” Jacob asked.

“My dad used this style to take me camping. You have to turn it off and collapse in order to preserve it,” I explained.

Jacob cussed low in his throat before doing as I told him.

“Okay, let’s hope I don’t die,” he said instead and then he was gone, slipping down the smooth stone.

Kevin followed shortly after him, leaving me and Morgan standing at the fall.

“I don’t know if I can go down in the dark,” Morgan whimpered.

“What if we go down together?” I offered.

“I still don’t know. It seems really dangerous.”

I sighed, slightly frustrated with her, but I understood her hesitation.

“Honey, it’s now or never. We can either go down together, or you can follow the other path. Maybe you could even stay here or go back until you find help.”

Morgan thought about it, then she stepped up to the waterfall.

“Let’s get this over with,” she sighed, tears running down her eyes.

I joined her next to the slide, one step away from a very dangerous ride. She turned off her light and slid onto her butt, preparing to scoot her way forward. I sat down next to her, wrapped my arms around her, and then I turned off my light, plunging us into complete darkness. We scooted ourselves forward, and then we were off on the most terrifying ride of our lives.

Unable to see the twists and turns of the path was like walking through a haunted house. I knew jump scares were coming, but when and how bad only made the fear grow inside me. When they finally came, they were so much worse then they could have been. Every movement had me screaming, my heart racing and my limbs weak. Morgan had such a tight grip on me, I thought she was going to strangle me at one point. Not knowing when it would be over made the whole thing so much worse. 

Then, out of nowhere, we were free falling. Everything to me was in slow motion. I felt Morgan’s grip on me loosen and disappear as she reached for anything to stop her fall. Then I felt something pulling on me. Not a physical object, but an energy, cool and crisp and so damn refreshing. I grabbed Morgan and covered her mouth. I felt her take a deep breath, I plugged her nose, and then I held my own breath, and not a moment too soon. We plunged feet first into chilling water. It took a second for my brain to tell me I should swim rather than just float through the water. Then I started kicking for all my life while holding tightly to Morgan. We breached the surface gasping for air, and Morgan holding onto me for dear life.

“We almost died!” she screamed.

“We survived.” I tried to tell her calmly.

“I thought we were dead!”

“But we’re not.”

I still had my lantern locked tightly in my hand, but I could tell Morgan didn’t have hers. She was screaming all sorts of horrors of what she thought was going to happen to her.

“Morgan! Morgan, shut up!” I yelled silencing her. “I’m going to hand you my lantern. Your only job is to turn it on and hold it above the water. Do you think you can do that?”

“No! No, I’m going to drown.”

“No you’re not, I’ve got you. I can get us both somewhere if you can just give me some light.”

“Do you promise?” she cried.

“Yes, I promise. Now turn it on!” I yelled, giving my lanturn to her. 

I turned her around so her back was facing me, and then I laid back myself, so that she was resting on my stomach with her hands and head well above water. She turned the lantern on then, and I saw that we were in an underground lake, lake being a very generous term. It may have been deep, but it wasn’t very large. The shore wasn’t but thirty feet from us. I kicked my feet gently, propelling us towards the shore. When we reached it. I pushed Morgan onto it to keep the lantern on, then I crawled out after her.

“Okay, this looks like the only way out. If we hurry, we might even be able to catch up to the guys,” I told her.

She shuddered violently, but got to her feet and walked with me through the tunnel.

We never caught up to the guys. Not too much farther down the tunnel was a rapid river. I wouldn’t be able to carry Morgan through this one.

“You should go on without me,” she decided as tears streamed down her face.

“I think you’re right,” I sighed, “but you should keep the lantern. I can’t swim and hold the lantern.”

She nodded gratefully, and I made my way into the river. It pulled me along quickly, but I managed to keep myself straight in the water. For some reason, I felt at peace like that, with the water rushing around me. My heart rate slowed and I felt almost as if I was taking a weird bath rather than floating down a river.

Then it happened. It was gradual as is normal, or fuzzy, and unclear. I blinked my eyes while calmly floating, and suddenly I could see everything in crystal clear detail. I could see the lazy streams of water that ran down the roof of the tunnel, I could see the fuzzy white mold that buried itself in crevices. And I could see where a secondary tunnel broke off above water.

I swam towards it quickly, just barely grabbing the edge of the opening with one of my hands. I pulled myself up and through the opening as quickly as I was able. Once through, I jumped to my feet and hurried along. This tunnel was smaller than all the rest. I knew if those boys couldn’t see like I suddenly could, then they wouldn’t be able to find the tunnel.

The tunnel wasn’t very long. It took all of two minutes to get through it and into the next tunnel over, which had a lazy little stream soaking the bottom up to my knees. I felt that following that tunnel would get me out of the mountain for good. So I followed it happily, wanting out of the damn mountain.

Then I lost my footing, and plummeted down a new, previously unseen, water slope. The slow, gentle slide filled me instantly with so much terror I thought it would eat me alive. Something wasn’t right about this path. I could feel the weight of the worst misstep in my life on my chest, so heavy I thought I would stop breathing. A bright light at the end of the tunnel blinded me momentarily, and then I was air bound again, falling through nothing as I grabbed for something. With no warning, I plunged into ice cold water, freezing me to my very core.

My arms and legs went numb fast, the cold sapping away at my energy. I couldn’t move, couldn’t do anything to save myself. My lungs burned as I held my breath, but the thought of drowning started to sound better than slowly freezing to death. Black spots covered my vision, my brain ached and pleaded. I was slowly fading, no idea when I would succumb, hoping it was soon.

I broke the surface of the water quite suddenly, and very confused. I gasped for fresh oxygen, my body returning to a somewhat normal function, my sight clearing and my arms and legs moving freely.

I looked around frantically for what happened, but I didn’t see anything, well, nothing that would have been able to save me. Not far from where I was treading water, however, was a mostly submerged ferris wheel. Only four carts were completely above water, so I started swimming towards it as fast as I could. I reached for the lowest cart, using the bars as a lever, and pulled myself up and out of the water and into the cart, panting and thoroughly exhausted.

I was in the center of a massive hole in the mountain. I was surrounded by steep tall cliffs, ones I wouldn’t be able to climb up. From where I sat, I couldn’t see any way out. There weren’t any nice breaks in the walls for me to crawl through other than where streams of water cascaded down the rocks. I wondered if there was a path or tunnel now submerged under the growing lake, but that didn’t make sense. If there were tunnels or paths or whatever, then logically, all this water would go somewhere, right? Unless of course it A) only had one tiny escape hole for the water to trickle out of while there were easily thirty waterfalls adding to the reserve, or B) any tunnels under the water led to other bodies of water.

“Fuck!” I yelled in frustration

The sun began to fall behind the rock walls, casting dark and terrifying shadows across the lake. Hunger pains and torrential thirst tormented me for the next few hours until I succumbed to the exhaustion of the day’s events.

And this we reach the end of chapter 2. Hopefully this inspiration to write doesn’t fade out any time soon, if only because of how much I’m loving this story.

Please, if you wouldn’t mind, like, subscribe, and share with your friends. It doesn’t really change what I’m doing, it just makes me feel good about it. In the meantime, you can comment through any of my linked social media accounts (you can find them if you know where to look), and have a wonderful life! Kisses, and fly high, my chime!

Hello, my chime and welcome back to Diary of a Bipolar Pixie, where I, the slightly crazed Pixie, write, rant, and get really fucking weird in this anonymous space on the internet.

It’s been some time for me since I’ve written anything worth writing about, that didn’t have anything to do with school assignments. Because of this, I’ve lost some interest in some of the topics I’ve already written about or started series about, so I will be taking the time I feel necessary to write the fantasy scene and series I’ve been thinking about for a while. I’ve just finished my spring semester, and expect to have some more time to devote to this blog. However, given my history, I don’t think any of you should be holding your breath for another post. Okay thanks.

Where Rivers Meet- Chapter 1

(That’s not gonna be the full title, I just can’t think of a better one right now)

My heart raced and my lungs burned for oxygen. The blindfold over my eyes kept me from seeing where I was going and I tripped. The bindings or rope securing my hands behind my back kept me from catching myself, and I smashed my face into the ground. Two sets of hands, probably the same hands that dragged me out of bed in the middle of the night and did this to me, picked me up off the ground and set me back on my bare feet. I felt my nose running rapidly into my mouth and the nasty copper taste made me realize my nose was bleeding.

I never imagined this would happen to me. Growing up I heard stories of people, young adults between 20 and 25 who were taken in the night after their neighbors reported them. My own parents reported a number of people, ruining those people’s lives. I swore I’d never be a reporter.

The gruff calloused hands pulled me to a sudden halt. I wanted to ask questions, but knew the situation didn’t allow for it, so I kept my mouth tightly shut.

A quiet rumble approached, then stopped in front of us. My stomach dropped, but before I could act, I was shoved forward, my knees and the side of my face hitting metal, and the creaky door slid shut behind me.

The vehicle sped off, then quickly spun in multiple circles, causing me to lose track of what direction we were going right away. The van, I assumed, also made sharp unexpected turns that caused me to roll from one side to the other.

I wondered to myself why someone reported me. I thought I lived a very normal life. I woke up at the same time every day, went to a normal eight to five job, and then I went home to my normal one bedroom apartment and ate my dinner, watched Netflix, and went to bed at the same time every night.

Then I remembered my last day off. I went to walk by the river, which was totally normal for me. What wasn’t normal were the turtles that kept following me. One even let me run my fingers over it’s green-black shell. I remembered as a child turtles swam away from people pretty fast, but not those one, not with me. I didn’t think anyone saw, but I must’ve been wrong, and it cost me a lot.

My parents once reported a man who had a big beautiful garden too early in the year, when everyone else only had little sprouts. I was up late that night reading when I heard him yelling. I peaked out my window to see four men pulling him out of his house while he fought and kicked. Then my mother came into my room, closed my curtains, and dragged me to her room on the other side of the house. He returned home a week later, obviously terrified of whatever he experienced. The real terror, however, occurred the next day when someone destroyed his garden and wrote something on his car, something my mom wouldn’t let me read. The man moved only a month later.

Hours passed agonizingly slowly. We stopped only a few short times, but they never untied me. At one point I had to pee so bad I thought my bladder would explode. I voiced this to my captors but received no answer. I ended up wetting myself right where I was.

They didn’t give me anything to eat or drink, and after way too long in that stupid van, exhaustion took over and I passed out. I remember having a strange dream, but only in pieces. There were mermaids, mist, someone falling, or maybe flying? There were also bubbles, but I couldn’t recall where they came into the dream.

I woke up confused and worried. I couldn’t remember where I was, or what happened, and the room I was in didn’t help much. It was plain with only a bed, sink, toilet and a mirror. No window, and the door had bars over the upper half.

Wait, what? I thought, staring at the door. 

That’s when I remembered everything that happened. I stood up so fast my head spun and dark spots covered my vision. My stomach twisted in pain and my dry, sandpaper tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth. My own breathing hurt my dry, itchy throat, so I stuck my head under the sink faucet and turned it on, not even caring for the quality of the water that came out. The crisp refreshing water slid down my throat, easing all the pain and itching that tormented me. 

After I had my fill, I looked in the mirror, and discovered the horrid state I was in. Dried blood coated my face and neck and stained my grey pajama tank top. My pajama shorts smelled awful and had a discernible large dark stain on the crotch. I sighed heavily and worked on cleaning myself up a bit, just to make myself feel better.

Then I mustered my courage to check out my surroundings. I tried the door first. It was locked, as I expected, so I stood on my toes to try to see outside. All I saw was a hallway, and as far as I could see, there were doors just like mine.

“Hello?” I called tentatively, not really expecting an answer.

A dark skinned boy appeared in the door across the hall with a finger to his lips.

“Shh,” he hushed, “or you’ll get in trouble.”

“Where are we?” I whispered to him.

“I don’t know,” he answered.

“Then, do you know why they brought us here?”

He shook his head sadly.

“All I know is they bring bread and cheese three times a day, and they’ve been whispering about some kind of test we have to take. I don’t know what it is, or when we take it so you best get comfortable, you might be here a while.”

I sighed and sat down, very uncomfortably, on the bed. I hoped they would bring the food by soon, I was starving.

I passed my time quietly staring at the wall, thinking. I thought about when I was younger and my parents took me to the beach at the lake for the first time. There was a crystal clear, beautiful lake about forty-five miles from our home that my parents used to visit on summer weekends with their friends. I was twelve on my first trip, and I spent most of my time either swimming, or sitting right at the water’s edge. I loved the clean smell of the air, the cooling feeling on my toes. I missed the lake, and suddenly found myself thinking about going back to dip my toes in the water again.

Banging on my door brought me back to the room, and I looked up to see a blonde man  staring in at me. I stood and approached him cautiously, hoping he had food with him. He handed me a few slices of bread and three sticks of string cheese. I was surprised when he also handed me several slices of deli meat and clothes.

“What’s going on?” I asked him.

“Eat fast, and change, you’re being moved,” he responded curtly.

“Moved where?” I questioned.

He didn’t answer. Instead, he turned his back to my door and stood waiting. I peaked over his shoulder as much as I could and saw two more men and a woman farther down the hall.

I devoured the food graciously, thankful for anything in my stomach and then quickly took off my soiled dirty clothes and changed. The outfit they gave me consisted of a black sports bra that somehow perfectly fit, a pair of form fitting black pants made of a breathable, smooth material, but it wasn’t one I was familiar with, and a black form fitting, long sleeve top of the same material. It reminded me of wetsuits that I’d seen on tv, minus being a two piece outfit and the fact that I couldn’t be sure if it was the same material.

I let the guard know I was dressed and he let me out of my cell. The dark man in the other room was already in the hallway, along with many other people, and we were all dressed in essentially the same form fitting clothing, the guys’ clothes a tad looser however. I counted only two women, including myself, compared to the eight men. 

I contemplated the success of a group revolt, but quickly squashed the idea. Something about the seven guards in the hall made me uneasy. They were all dressed in basic navy blue clothes, but they weren’t wearing any forms of protection. It was like they didn’t think we would fight them, or they thought if we did, we weren’t going to hurt them. The other thing that bothered me, they didn’t carry any weapons. I think that part scared me the most.

When we were all assembled outside our rooms, the guard at the end of the hall began walking, the guard that stood next in line pushed the captives in front of him to follow, and a precession of captors and their captive ensued. As we walked from our little hallway into what I assumed was the main hallway, we were joined by others exiting from their own hallways. Many of them looked tired and sickly. Their faces were shallow, their hair dirty and greasy, and their eyes looked around at us wildly. I suddenly realized they must have been there a lot longer than the people in our hallway. My guess, they’d been there for weeks. In the end, there must have been about fifty of us

We filed out of the building and into vans lined up in the lot. I also realized why we weren’t allowed shoes. Beyond the smoothly paved lot was a dense forest overgrown with all sorts of plants. The “road” that led into the lot was almost nonexistent. It looked as if cars drove over the road maybe once a year, so the rest of the year, weeds and shrubs grew in the tire ruts. Anyone who dared to run would find themselves with cut and damaged feet, and would probably be caught in no time.

Once we were loaded, the guards took their places in the front seats of the van and drove us straight into the woods. This path was barely visible, less traveled than the road up to the lot. The path they traveled seemed to be going up, so I took a quick peek through the windshield and through the trees. As I expected, I could see a mountain top peaking over the trees. Based on our direction, we were planning on either heading straight up the summit, or my guess, through it.

Turns out, I was kinda right. We changed direction at the last moment and drove into a narrow tunnel. I flinched, along with several other people, afraid the vans wouldn’t fit, but they did and we continued deeper into the tunnel. I wasn’t claustrophobic in the least, but this whole process put me on edge and I wanted nothing more than to be out in the open. Some of the ten people stuffed in the back of the van also seemed uncomfortable, and one girl’s breathing increased to the point of full panic, until she was heaving violently. The guards didn’t even turn around.

Finally, the tunnel opened up into a giant cavern, where the guards stopped the vans and let us out. The rocky ground stabbed at my feet and it took everything inside of me not to hop from foot to foot or crawl back up in the van. Then the guards forced us slowly through a smaller tunnel, single file. I appreciated the slow pace because of the rough ground, but it didn’t make the short walk any easier.

After all that traveling, after being kidnapped and held against our wills, forcefully moved into a mountain, and made to walk across the roughest ground I’d ever traversed, we’d arrived at our destination, yet another cave, but this one was filled with hundred shoes, all the same kind, black tightly fitting boots meant as the last article for our uniforms, of varying sizes. At the opposite end of the tunnel we just exited were four other tunnels, each with a different banner hanging over them. From left to right, there was a yellow banner with little swirling lines, a red banner with flames, a blue banner with wave lines, and a green banner with a leaf. In front of each tunnel stood a guard, but they looked different from the ones that brought us in. They had similarly styled clothes, but the colors of their clothes matched the colors of the banners over them. 

A loud clap caught our attention and we all looked for the source of the sound. A man stood on a rock formation between the red and blue bannered tunnels. He was dressed in white, which stood out from the dark rock, but I didn’t remember seeing him until he clapped. We all waited with baited breath for what he might say.

“Good day, everyone, and thank you for joining us for this momentous occasion.”

I stared at the man in disbelief. How the hell could he be thanking us.

“I understand that you weren’t expecting this, you didn’t sign up for this, and you probably really don’t want to be here, so I want you to know that I and every other specialist here greatly appreciates your continued cooperation with us. 

“Now, onto the really important matters. Before you are shoes. I assure you there is a pair to perfectly fit each of you. These shoes are important for the next step in your journey, choosing a path. You see, all we want you to do is get to the finish line, about ten miles west of here. That may seem like a long journey, but if you do it right, it won’t take too long, a day at most. The path there is not exactly straight forward and some of you might find a certain path easier than the others, but that’s for you to decide. You have until the end of the day to begin your journey and until the end of tomorrow to finish it. I wish you the best of luck.”

The man stepped off his rock pedestal and walked casually down the red tunnel.

We stood frozen in our places. I was scared out of my mind, unsure of what to do next. Then one person stepped forward and claimed their shoes, then another, then another. Soon we were all following their lead, finding a pair of shoes that fit us. Then several people started towards the tunnels. I, along with many others, watched to see which ones they would take. They all chose the green tunnel and disappeared down the path. Another small group made their way toward the yellow, several more toward the green again, some toward the red, but not a single one towards blue. I had this strong urge to take that path and started towards it. I was joined by five boys and another girl. For some reason I felt this would be all of us, and I didn’t think we were all going to make it.

Thank you for reading!! If interested in a second chapter, please let me know, as I am deeply in love with this story line right now. I do hope you enjoyed what you read, and that you’ll subscribe, share, and comment if the desire does find you. If you have any questions, compliments, concerns, or compliments, you can reach me through my many social medias (which are still all available if just not very active).

I hope your days are fulfilling, and your nights calming. Fly high, my chime, and I hope to be back with you soon!