Once upon a time, there was a girl named Nyra. She wasn't exactly rich or poor. She was neither happy nor depressed. She didn't have very many close friends, but she didn't really want too many either. She was almost like a blank slate. The reason for this was because of her extremely dark past, but almost no one knew the full story. The only two people who knew it all where the person who had been there when it all started and Nyra herself.
"Nyra, can we walk to town again?" asked her best friend Angel.
"Sure Angel, but since you probably mean walking to the town up from Waterridge, we should probably take the forest path so that my parents won't see us if they're driving by." Nyra told her.
"Ok, I guess we have to then." With this, they walked on. They walked along the sidewalk until they came to the entrance to the bike path that ran through the forest.
"Are any of your friends going to come here this afternoon to smoke and stuff?" Nyra asked Angel.
"And stuff? God Nyra, you're like a freaking unicorn! No, everyone's going to Dex's house tonight." Nyra pondered this comment. Angel saw Nyra as a bit of a virgin. It was natural considering the kind of fun Angel sometimes had, but Nyra knew that her hands had more than a normal share of blood on them. No, Virgin wasn't the right word for Nyra, much less unicorn. But, angel's current situation was her problem. She had to deal with the present. Nyra got distracted from her thoughts when she noticed a strange pathway that she had never seen before. It was a fancy red and gold bridge that went across a river that had also seemingly appeared out of nowhere. Nyra found the bridges very existence to be strange. She had walked on this trail more times then she could count throughout her life and there had never been a river or a bridge in this forest. Especially not where the red and gold one was. But, it was clearly there because the next thing that Angel said was "Nyra, we don't need to walk to town. We can talk on the bridge." Nyra was a little uneasy about it, but something about the bridge seemed to be pulling her in. it seemed like it was somehow calling to her. Nyra told Angel that it was a good idea and they stepped onto the bridge. When they got to the end, there was a lake and a small pagoda. There was a figure standing on the edge of the pagoda with their back turned to Nyra and Angel. Angel and Nyra walked onto the pagoda and the figure turned around. The figure was wearing a white kimono and a smiling mask.
"Welcome! This is the red pagoda." said the figure. Something about the figure's voice sounded odd to Nyra. It was like the figure didn't really have a voice and was somehow talking strait into Nyra's mind. But, it was impossible to see if his lips where moving under his mask. Nyra was pretty sure it was male because it was wearing a male kimono.
"Um, excuse me sir, but how long exactly has this pagoda been here?" Nyra asked him.
"It has been in this forest since the beginning of time." said the man "but humans can only see it once every thousand years. You see, this is the lake of desire. If you touch the water, it will rearrange reality to grant the wishes that you don't know lie in your heart."
"What are you on?" asked Angel, assuming he was a drug addict of some sort.
"Nothing. Absolutely nothing."
"Ok. Nyra, I changed my mind. let's walk to town."
"Oh, I'm afraid you can't do that." said the man "the door to your world has already closed."
"Ok, I think you seriously high." said Angel. To prove her point, she ran back across the way she came. Ten minutes later, she came running back. "It,...doesn't end."
"Like I said, the door to your world has closed. The only way that you can open it is for one of you to touch the lake. That is the only way."
"I'm not touching it." Angel told him.
"Like it or not, you have to."
"Angel, I'll touch it." Nyra said.
"I'm glad to see one of you understands." said the man "Now, walk to the edge of the pagoda. Be careful not to fall in, because if you do, you'll die instantly. Just put your hand in the water." Nyra did as the man said. She walked to the edge of the pagoda and dipped her hand in the lake. Five seconds after Nyra had done that, she fell unconscious.
