The Arrival

A young woman was searching through a very messy bedroom mumbling under her breath as she went along. "Alphonze where are you?" she said in an exasperated voice.

"Still looking for your muse Avery?" an older woman asks from the doorway. "Yes mother. I have a poem I have to write for a class and he is mysteriously absent." The woman's mother shook her head fondly

"Have you looked under the bed? It seems like everything that gets lost in this room of yours, if you can call it that ends up there."

Avery looked towards her mother and rolled her eyes at the obvious dig at her state of living.

"I have already checked under the bed mom. And I assure you for the hundredth time that my room is perfectly put together and if I moved even a single thing that I would have no idea where anything was anymore. That is probably what got me into this mess in the first place." Avery flung her hands up at the end of her statement in annoyance.

"Well then." Her mother pursed her lips and put her hands on her hips and took a few steps into Avery's room settling in for a fight she took a glance around the room. "I suppose that the sock monkey I can see under YOUR bed from here is just another part of your 'system' and not Alphonze. And the fact that you could not even see it the first time you checked is just another aspect of this great 'system' of yours. Honestly I should force you to clean this disaster up! I am amazed you have not caught some disease living in such conditions." A glance was thrown to the old pb&j on the desk "Besides, I only came up her to tell you that you need to wash up because that nice boy from across the street is coming over for dinner as payment for raking our leaves last week because 'someone' was too lazy to do it the first NINE times I asked them to do it and I had to resort to asking help from the neighbors since I can't do it myself! And what do I get in return?"

Avery's mother was yelling at the end of her rant and rushed away from the room after a very loud huff leaving Avery alone to try and get rid of her anger at her mother. She hated that her overbearing mother was always trying to tell her what to do all of the time.

And a father that scared away all of the boys she had ever had an interest in. Always saying they were not good enough for her. Who coddled her like a baby instead of the young woman she was. She was in her twenties and going to college, she was not a child anymore.

With a loud sigh she looked under her bed only to find the elusive sock monkey. As she reached for it she wished she could get away from all of the overbearing adults in her life that wanted to suck all of the fun out of her life.

When her hand came in contact with his plush arm she was overcome with a dizzy sensation that forced her to close her eyes and fight not to become sick. The sensation calmed enough for her to open her eyes only to see something impossible. She was in the sky over a forest and falling very quickly towards the ground.

It took her a moment to realize she was falling to her death. When she did she started screaming and flailing hoping to stop her fatal fall. Quite suddenly she felt something come into contact with her and grab a hold of her.

As she looked around to see what had caused this change she found herself looking at a very odd looking man. The man had silver hair and a mask on his face with some sort of headband and two very mismatched eyes. She had never seen an eye with what looked like a design instead of a pupil.

She did not get a chance to study this man very long as the approaching ground was much too close to do anything but come to terms with her nearing end "At least I won't die alone" she thought as she pressed her face into the man's chest and clung to him waiting for death.

She lifted her face and when instead of the pain she imagined when hitting the ground she felt like she was flying almost. Only to gasp when she saw the man that was holding her was running impossibly fast, moving from tree branch to tree branch like he was running on the ground.

"You're safe for now. Could you tell me how you ended up hundreds of feet in the air free falling towards the ground?" The man's voice startled Avery out of her stupor at the situation and caused her to start hyperventilating as she struggled to come to terms with what was happening.

The man slowed and left the tree branches for the ground. Once there he laid her on the ground and tried soothing her frayed nerves. "Ma'am you need to calm down you are going…" unfortunately she never did find out what she was going to do as the darkness consumed her and she lost consciousness.