"Aaand, done!" I exclaimed to the empty apartment as I finished eliminating all typos from the five page homework assignment. Considering my major was Culinary Sciences I was surprised at how much of the work was textbooks and writing assignments. With a groan I stood up from the slumped position in my chair and stretched my hands to the ceiling. Bending down to touch my toes I felt a pop in my spine. Getting up to walk to the kitchen I couldn't help but feel ecstatic at the current state of emptiness in the condo. I was by no means a recluse, in fact I was almost always out and about, a study group here, party there, work in between. Yup, I was one of the busiest people among my group of friends right after Jake who was studying to be a doctor.
Psh, maybe I should've been a doctor.
"Nay." I announced out loud to the invisible audience in my head. "Who'd wanna be a doctor when you get to cook and bake for a living?" To me the answer was pretty obvious as I re-imagined opening my own five-star restaurant one day.
Returning my focus to the task at hand I moved towards the pantry and pulled out a bag of flour and some cocoa powder.
Three eggs and a messy kitchen later I heard the ding declaring the chocolate muffins to be done. Leaning over the open door I let the heat hit me as I pulled the chocolate-y goodness off the rack. As I left the mini cakes to cool I hurried to the bathroom to turn on the tub water, I love the bath steaming hot. Really eager to get to my plans of relaxation I quickly cleared away a majority of the mess, just enough of it where my roommate won't murder me.
And even if she does still get mad chocolate is Mary's favorite so I could just bribe her, I rationalized.
Grabbing a still-warm muffin and my selected reading material for the night I hastily striped and slipped into the tub. Letting out a very contented sigh as the heat seeped in and carried away all my life's worries. Slowly letting my mind drift back down to earth I reached over and dried my wet hands on a towel before grabbing my pleasure reading. Holding up the bound pages I smiled at the blue and gold cover of Gianna Gabaldin's novel, Outlander. Sure, I've read this book about three times maybe five times, but it was among some of my favorite books and no harm in reading it again. Resting my elbows on the edge of the bath I shifted to a more comfortable position to read.
"It was an odd place for disappearances, at least at first."
"Damn!" I swore loudly as the book slipped between my fingers and landed with a splash in the bubbly water. Frantically groping the water my hand finally wrapped around the drowning novel and that's when the tub started to shake. No, not the tub the room. The room is shaking. I realized then before another coherent thought could be formed one word bounced about my head filling me with horror.
Earthquake!
The book completely forgotten as I bolted from the tub only to be smacked to the ground on unsteady legs. Fighting against the violent rumbles I struggles to reach my clothes at the other end on the room.
No way in hell am I gonna be found dead and under debris naked. I resolved, determinedly trying to get to my scattered clothes.
Wobbling forward on hands and knees alternating between falling and sliding I had managed to secure my discarded nightwear. Knowing that putting on a bra would be mission impossible I came to the quick decision to forgo undergarments and just threw on whatever would cover me, which were a large white T-shirt and grey sweatpants. After very awkwardly wiggling them on I tried to stand while avoiding the now movable bathroom commodities. With painstaking effort I finally managed to get upright until the shaking ground gave a hard lurch and I was thrown off balance. Catching myself on the windowpane my attention was drawn to the streets below. Well, more specifically to the ground itself, it was still. Nothing was violently being tossed about, it looked like a completely normal Friday night in suburban Florida.
What the hell?!
Before I could continue with my shocked perplexity I noticed another odd occurrence, the still shaking room suddenly got very cold. Sucking in a shuddering breath I turned around, still leaning on the window pane for support, and my eyesight was greeted with a light green staining the walls. Blinking in confusion at the invading color of what used to be an all white bathroom I strained to locate an origin only to realize that my eyes refused to stay in focus. It was like looking through someone's thick prescription glasses, you can see blurry shapes and fuzzy colors, but lines and details are lost. Shutting my eyes for a few beats I reopened them hoping to have regained my clear vision only to receive the opposite, my eyesight was getting worse. The blurriness turned my whole bathroom into one giant blob of fuzzy colors, I couldn't see any shapes, but what I did see didn't make any sense. I saw the lime green turn darker until I was suddenly surrounded by a deep and lush shade.
I tried to call for help only to discover my voice frozen in my throat. Panicked I lunged for where I knew the door would be. Snagging my foot on something hard I flung towards the floor. Bracing myself I was shocked to have landed on something plush and soft instead of the tile floor of the bathroom. Even more surprising was I could suddenly see with amazing clarity my hands sprawled out in front of me. Everything was still as I surveyed the impossible image. It was my hands, they had reached out to break my fall and somehow had been firmly placed on green living grass! I could see the individual blades surrounding my hands and tentatively moving my fingers I saw the grass I had fattened underneath. With uneven breaths I looked up from my position on the ground.
I know this place. But it's not possible... I thought in complete denial.
With a sickening jolt in my stomach I suddenly realized I have seen this place before, just never looked upon it with my own eyes. Only images in my head until finally seeing it on TV.
"No…." I whispered wide eyed in disbelief.
Looking around wildly for something, anything to pop out and tell me this was all a joke I once again fixed my shocked gaze upon the tall standing rocks of Craig Na Duhn.
Doing the only thing that seemed rational to me at the time, I stood up, looked around and ran. Fully expecting this to be a hallucination, or an elaborate prank, I knew it couldn't last that long. Somehow my mind in a few seconds that if I could just reach the clearing it would all disappear because dreams or TV set pranks don't go on forever.
Trying desperately to air back into my screaming lungs, I stopped running to cling to a tree for support. After running and meeting nothing but more trees, I realized what was really going on. When I fell I must have smacked my head against the tile floor and this is just some concussion induced dream. It's all a dream and in reality I'm really passed out on the bathroom floor, which is why I'm currently freezing to death.
Wandering down from the rocks into the beautiful and deceptively quiet woods I gaped at the detail and the realism of each tree.
Huh, I wonder if all concussed people have such vivid dreams.
Bending down to examine a purple flower cropping up through the vine covered floor my reverence was cut short by a loud bang. It was immediately followed by someone crying out in pain. Quickly scanning the area for the source of the sound a flash of red caught my eye.
Whoa... I thought in amazement as I moved closer to get a better look. In a dazed confusion I watched as a redcoat was firing a musket. I was transfixed as I watched the smoke puff out and the sparks fly from the gun. A real musket. With real gunpowder. Real bullets.
Real.
Real. Real. Real. Real. Real! The word screamed inside my jumbled mind. And then he saw me, the redcoat focused his weapon on me. Before he could pull the trigger, I was already running as far and as fast as my wobbly legs could carry me.
Author Notes: I'd love to know your thoughts on this. It's my first fic and I'm curious what people think of the first chapter. So yeah, be a good person and leave a review. :)
