"For something to start, something must finish. This is the way of life, a philosophy. - There is always a beginning. A beginning to the end."
No Man's Land
#
I. The Beginning.
My name is Linda Mews.
We have been here for, a while, it's hard to tell how long exactly.
These days seem longer than usual here. Our best estimate, upwards of 40 hours.
I have made allies with the bold, beautiful Rachael Liou, and the advantageous Trent Hicks.
We have made camp, little settlements across varying areas.
This... This place is not normal.
Please, when you find us... If you find us...
...Help.
Run. That's all that was sifting through my head. Run. My vision was blurred with tears as my mind wouldn't let me stop, but my legs pleaded for rest. The lush, wet green grass slithered between my toes as I sprinted as fast as I could. Kiting myself through the ubiquitous evergreen tree's that stood ever so tall and intimidating. The distant sun was setting in an display of sorrow, oranges and yellows flared at the horizon as reds and purples meshed together. The howl of my follow grew every closer. My destination appeared to be getting farther away, and as I attempted to conserve my rational thought, a guttural roar shook all sanity from my trembling figure. The placid field of protection, my destination, grew ever so further away. And that's when I saw it, or rather, them. My fear vanished, replaced by a false serenity. They stood only a few feet from the field looking as gorgeous as I remembered. The woman was leaning silently on her hands which were folded together and planted on the man's shoulder. She was smiling at me even though tears stained her cheery face. Her blonde hair fell to her shoulders, resting on her dull blue tank-top. Seemingly mundane jeans wrapped around her legs. Lastly, a soft pool of green eye's embraced me. Mom. I ran faster, unknowing that my legs could propel me at such speeds. The man looked just as normal, with his short brown hair, chocolate eyes, blank-green T-shirt and ratty jeans. Dad.
Suddenly the constant thumping on the ground faltered which made me turn around. Thoughts, questions, and memories of them flooded back into my stressed mind, giving it an uneasy rest as I slowly began to stop running. "Mom! Dad!" I managed to croak through my hoarse throat.
"Hello, Dee." Came mother's soft and pleasant reply. However, something sounded off. Maybe it was because I hadn't seen them for 12 years, maybe it was that I forgot what her voice sounded like. Maybe it was because I had forgotten what they meant to me. Locking myself in solitude by letting no one get as close to me emotionally as they were, wasn't exactly the best treatment for grief and sorrow. Sure as hell felt good though.
Snapping myself out of my thoughts, I noticed that I was nearly beside them. Getting lost in your thoughts passes the time quickly I guess. I thought I was saved within their warm embrace, their presence alone was making me feel safe, but something else nagged at me from my lucid conscience. Something didn't seem right, but what did it matter, I was finally with my family, right? I took another glance up at their faces as if I had to reassure myself that this was the real deal, so to speak. I could not prepare for what I saw then and there. Time seemed to slow down around me as the horrible truth made itself visible.
Hair, Skin, and parts of clothing were rapidly peeling away from their bodies as the gentle wind whisked it away in chuncks at a time, eventually taking my parents with it. Leaving an empty feeling in the pit of my heart. A dark emptiness that could not filled with companionship or psychiatric work-up. This void was much worse than when I actually lost them in the first place. This was something much, much worse. For them to be so close to me, yet gone with the wind without so much as a single regret.
The world seemed to tick by minutes at a time as I stood in place with my eye's focused intently on where they had been standing. A monstrous crash on the ground in close proximity of my being shook me from my sorrows. Tears dripped freely from my eye's as there was no one to hide them from right now. I was alone for once, truly alone.
Another bang behind me reminded me of what fate would be bestowed on me if I stayed there. In all honesty, I did want to stay there. I did want to die. It would end this internal pain, it would take me to my parents again. But warm thoughts of Emily scrolled through my mind quickly which made me begin to run again. The fact that I could make even one other person happy is good enough. It didn't matter if I was in pain, as long as I was filling someone else with joy. That was sufficient to drive me forward. My legs pumped harder, straining myself to the very limits of my existance. Sweat trickled on my forehead and soaked my back. I dare not look behind me at fear of what beast would surely torture me if he had it's appandages on me. My goal, no, humanities goal of self-preservation was hanging in the balence as the beast bounded after me. My ears rung with a high pitch squel as the feral animal roared again. My bare feet quickly becoming raw against the grass and rock of the creek-side forest. The gentle breeze did nothing to soothe my worries as the horror crept closer and closer.
I watched desperately as the open field rushed closer to me and with one final stride, I was free. Free from the hunter, free from the misplaced indignation of nature. I turned around to the forest in hopes to see my attacker at bay, bearing a safe distance from my shield-like field. Instead, I was face to face with a dark nothingness. Midnight black shadows pierced through the forest, mingling with the rough auburn of the evergreen's bark. Finally allowing myself to relax for once in at least an hour of running, I dropped roughly to the ground without a second thought.
"Hey" came a voice from seemingly no where. It trailed off slowly, lessening in volume as it passed.
I laid my hands on my eye's and tried to reclaim my peace of mind. I took a deep breath in hopes to calm myself. My attempts of tranquility were quickly rendered futile as the almost-dream like voice called again.
"Deela..." The voice came swiftly and it seemingly rolled off the tongue quite well. Starting softly, rising in the middle, and then ending with a decrescendo. I shook my head in a vague attempt to clear my conscience, clear my mind of all thought.
"Come on Deela..." The voice eroded out of no where once more. This time it sounded closer, much closer. But with the fatigue in my legs, the tension on my body and exhaustion applied to my mind, I could not keep my eyes open for much longer. They seemed to close by themself as I slowly began to embrace the warmth of darkness.
Consciousness flooded back to Deela's sleeping form once her alarm clock, or her friend rather, began to yell at her. Deela sat up slowly and rubbed the grogginess out of her eye's. She emitted a large yawn while her body subtly woke up.
"You awake now, sleepy head?" Emily said with a joyous tone while simultaneously knocking playfully on Deela's forehead.
"Shu'up" Deela slurred through her yawn.
"I will once you stop making us late for school, now c'mon. Hurry up and take your shower you lazy child." Emily retorted, gleefuly mocking her friend.
"Alright, alright. Jeez." Deela finally surrendered to her friends prying hands and let herself be pulled upright. Slowly, she got out of her bed and walked past Emily to the communal showers, but not before images of her nightmare reflected in her mind and stole her happiness.
Deela Keiser and Emily Vawnelle had known eachother for quite a while. Even before the accident happened, Deela would always spend time with Emily whether it be immediately after school or just before bed, they would hang out. Even though Emily lived in the orphanage across town, and Deela lived with her parents, they acted like sisters. You would always catch them together, inseperable some might say. Whenever Deela wasn't with Emily however, she would be with her parents, telling them everything. This all changed on one egregious day. Her parents were going to the store to pick up some groceries, as per their usual Friday routine, except with one addition. They were T-boned at the intersection leading to the store. When the paramedics had arrived at the scene, they were announced dead. A couple weeks later, Deela was unsurprisingly diagnosed with depression...
That was a year and a half ago. Since then, she had moved into the Orphanage, by solemn request, and was in the company of the only person she found that she could stand; Emily. Deela was just overcoming her depression now, finally beating it with a combination of prescription meds and excercise. She was finally surpassing the nihilistic attitude, and transforming it into and overall realistic perspective. However, one thing did not change since the accident. She closed herself off to the world in fear of more emotional turmoil, and has not opened back up.
Deela let the water streak down her naked back as she stood petrified in the shower; a recollection of her dream running freely through her troubled mind. The fatigue, the pain, and the fear...
...It all came back to her, and for a brief moment, she gave in; reminded of the isolation she felt when the accident first happened, the hatred that she could do nothing to help them. However, she quickly overcame that feeling, for if she gave in it would be months before she would regain this current stature of calmness.
Staring blankly at the wall ahead of her, letting the water run down the drain, she closed her mind off to the outside world and to her memories. Focusing only on the water, the current it made, the graceful and fluid movement. For some reason, it stuck with her; she was fascinated with the unseen grace of the water.
She finally snapped out of her stupor and got out of the shower and dried herself off. Pushing the plaguin memories away, she realised that the day was Friday. She only had to suffer through this last day at school and then the weekend would allow her to relax.
Deela was in History; the class that no one liked and is more likely to bore you to sleep than teach you anything. The day at school past her by quickly- or rather, the first 3 periods had. She sat and stared at the teachers powerpoint presentation, idly fiddling with her pencil, waiting for the next line of notes to appear. Checking the classroom's clock, she noticed that there was only twenty minutes left in class and then she would be home free. This perked her up a small bit inside. On the outside, Deela chose to display no emotion other than calmness around people. They might get uncomfortable, she thought.
Deela looked around the the classroom and noticed that the teacher was, in fact, not present yet the students still jotted down the notes obediantly. She took this time to peer over at her friend, Emily. She had short brown hair, cut crew-style. Lively red eye's melted into her pale skin which was laden with energy and bravery. A faded purple tank-top, achromatic pants, and ghetto open-toed sandals completed her ensemble.
Her attention was soon ripped from Emily and forced upon the teacher as he casually strolled back into the classroom. "Sorry about that; had a little mix-up with the schedule she did." The teacher announced to no one in particular. And, to be honest, Deela didn't think anyone cared.x
The History teacher then walked up to his laptop and brought forth another page of notes for every to copy down into their notebooks. Deela begrudgingly brought pencil to pen and started copying with an helpless sigh. The rest of the class went like this, copying page after page of notes.
When the bell finally rang Deela, having carrying all her school supplies in her bag, walked straight outside and waited for Emily who had to make a brief trip to her locker. Deela was saying goodbye to some energetic classmates when Emily finally caught up to her. "So sorry for taking so long" Emily said casually, "On the bright side, I found out that the county fair is tomorrow. Would you like to go?"
"Yeah, sure. It'd be a nice break from the everlasting studies." Deela replied coyly.
Upon entering the empty orphanage after an hour long walk from the other side of town, Deela and Emily went straight to the common room and cracked open their books.
"Time for homework!" Emily said sarcastically with a scoff.
"Oh, I'm bursting with joy." Deela mockingly replied.
Hours quickly past by as they slowly finished worksheet after worksheet, question after question. It was now 10 PM. 6 hours of homework, divided between actually doing the work, and goofing off with eachother. In reality, it should of only taken 3 hours of working, but they had goofed off regularly with eachother. Still though, they enjoyed it and it was better than anything else they could do on a Friday. Emily and Deela really seemed to enjoy each other's company, no matter what they were doing, they just loved being together. They were compatible friends, and that's what mattered.
"We should probably get to bed if we're going to that fair thing tomorrow. It'll be a long day." Deela said while packing up her books.
"Yeah," Emily replied, "I suppose we should."
"Promise you'll get up early enough for the fair, Dee?" Emily questioned playfully.
"If I'm not up by ten, wake me. Sound fair?" Deela proposed.
"Fair enough. Although, I don't see why I always have to drag your ass out of bed, some day it'd be nice to have the royal treatment." Emily answered with a wink.
And with soft giggles kept quiet by pursed lips, they went into their own rooms and flopped right into their seperate bed. Listening to the silent hymn of a promise, they fell soundly asleep.
Emily was the first one up that morning, waking up at her normal 6:30 AM. She wiped the grogginess from her eye's and stretched, giving an unnessesarily loud yawn. Lazily getting out of her bed, Em stalked over to the kitchen and grabbed some cereal. She started to think while having a mouthful of Fruit Loops, what will the fair be like? She was expecting a stereo-typical circus type fair with big tents and clowns and all. Who'll be there? She thought briefly of how many people in this town knew eachother, and of how many people were going to give Deela their sympathies. Even though the accident happened a long, long time ago, people would not stop reminding her of it and it drove Emily crazy with sorrow for her friend.
Before long, she had lost herself in her own train of thought. Time whizzed by while she ate her cereal, idly concentrating on foreseeing the days events.
Ten o'clock came sooner than everyone was ready for it. Em was still in her Pajama's and Deela was still fast asleep laying in her bed with one arm up and bent at the elbow, lowering down to her head. The other arm leisurely strewn off the side of the bed.
Em shook Deela softly at first, and when she didn't wake, Em starting to shake harder and harder until Deela was knocked off the bed with the returning kinetic energy. "Uhhh... What time is it?" She slurred softly, the grogginess crealy audible in her speech.
"It's 10:05 silly. Hurry up and get dressed, we have a fair we have to go to you lazy woman." Emily replied with her hand on her hip, her other hand wagging a finger at her friend. Without another word, Deela grabbed some clothes and ran to the washroom to take a shower.
Deela and Emily hadn't been at the fair for very long before they ran into some elder friends of there's. Deela and Emily were widely known across their part of town, which, coincidentally, was where the fair was. They were known in their hiccup town as the out-going duo of friends who would not turn down a good challenge. And because of this reputation, they were recruited to run a couple of the trivial fair games such as the Ring Toss, Bottle Shot and Skeeball.
"Aww, nice try sir." Deela said empathetically as a customer miss the bottle.
They were operating the Ring Toss while the manager was away for a couple minutes. Customer after customer came up to their kiosk to try their luck with planting a ring ontop of bottles from a distance. That was the defined goal of it at least. Mainly, people just came to fair's for the social aspect of meeting new people.
As the last customer was leaving, Deela and Emily knelt down to pick up and reset the bottles for the next challenger. But when they got back up, they only saw their school friends; Chris with his purple hoodie and skinny jeans, and Bree with her bleach blonde ponytail, green T-shirt and navy blues sweatpants. "Hey," Chris said with a shocked expression, "didn't expect you to be running this shin-dig"
"It's called a Ring Toss, dude." Deela shot back with a faint chuckle, "how about giving it a go?"
The friend in question laughed at this awkwardly and raised an eyebrow. "You know I'm no good at carny games, Dee."
"Well, it wouldn't hurt to try. Only a dollar per go. C'mon Chris." Emily butted in with a smile.
"No thanks" he repeated, defensively holding up his hands. "I'd rather keep my money."
Emily and Deela offered a mocking smirk as if to say 'Mhmm, Sure.' Right when Chris was about to make a snide remark, the manager of the kiosk returned after his 'much needed' break.
"Thank you guy's. Here's what I owe you, as promised." He offered each girl a small sum of coins, but they politely refused saying that they had no need for it at the time and that they didn't like to take money from other people without purpose, and holding a carny kiosk for an hour wasn't exactly 'work'.
"Well, alright. At the very least you should take some of these." The manager replied reassuringly while handing the girls a handful of ride tickets. The girls both chuckled at his generosity.
"Now these, we can use!" Bree happily interrupted while gleefully staring from the tickets to the festivites behind her.
Deela, Chris, and Emily all gave a hearty chuckle.
Deela glanced at Bree with a smirk, then turned back to the kiosk Manager. "Thanks," she said, "I have a feeling we're about to use these."
Deela gave the manager a wink and took the tickets from his outstretched arm.
"C'mon guy's!" She shouted with a smirk. "Last one there is a rotten egg!"
And with that, Deela bolted away from the Ring Toss leaving the others briefly awestruck before chasing after her, laughing.
They eventually caught up to her after much running, zigging and zagging through crowds, and totally neccessary cart wheels. Chris' rusty blonde hair was being utterly massacred by the wind, but Deela could easily recognize him from his toothy smile.
"About time." She called out, waving one arm.
"Oh, come on. You didn't even tell us where you were going!" Emily shot back once she arrived with Bree.
She only responded with a slight shrug of her shoulders. The line was moving now, and they were near the front. Pulling everyone close together, Deela locked eye's with one of the Zipper worker's, silently telling him that they were all together. The worker briskly walked up to them, gently took the tickets from Deela's hand, took her and Emily and put them in the last available cart, completely contradicting Deela's unspoken command. Deela quickly shoved the remaining six tickets in her pocket. Upon getting buckled in, Emily and Deela looked at eachother. Staring intently into the other's eye's, they knew that they were going to abandon Bree and Chris on this ride.
The cage slammed shut and locked itself in place, sealing their ambivalent fate for the next couple minutes. With a quick and sudden lurch, the cage began lifting off the ground causing the young women to laugh for no apparent reason. The cage started rocking back and forth with nothing to stablize it. Their hearts started pumping against their chest in anticipation. The cage started speeding up, twirling the cage as it circled the structure itself. The sky and the earth rotated swiftly infront of them as they sat strapped in their chairs, screaming with joy. Their movements elicited creaks and groans from the cage. Eventually, the peppy carny music faded away and their container's movements faultered; the ride was ending.
One by one the cage's were opened and people were unbuckled by the employee's. Every riders hair was ruffled and messy; like the wind had fiercly attacked it. Deela was no exception. Deela's unnatural synthesis of brown and dirty blonde intertwining hair that was normally breast length, was now coiled up above her resembling an afro. Emily's hair however, was a different story. She had crew-cut short brown hair and it remained the same through the entire endeavour.
As the two got out of their cage, looking flustered and dizzy, Chris and Bree caught up to them. They jokingly put their arms around the two girls as if Em and Dee were drunk and needed support to stand.
"Hair's looking as beautiful as ever, Dee." Bree mocked with an almost unnoticable smirk.
"I thought the wind wouldn't get inside of the cage..." Deela feebly tried to defend herself while fixing her hair.
"Yeah, and how'd that turn out for you?" Chris replied after a few moments of silence from Bree.
"Oh, not you too Chris." Emily sighed, resulting in a laugh from Chris.
"Yeah, why not?" He said smugly with a shrug.
"You guy's are all awful." Deela spoke up in between chuckles.
"Yeah, we know." replied Chris with a ear-to-ear grin of his own.
"So, where do you guy's wanna head next?" Emily asked.
"Umm... How many tickets are left?" Chris wondered.
Deela checked in her pocket and brought out the remaining tickets. "Six." She said after counting them, "that leaves two for me and Em, and four for you two."
The four of them walked around for a couple minutes deciding on what to do with the remaining tickets. Eventually, they settled on it: They would look around the fair for the bumper cars, which took two tickets per person, and they would attempt to get in even though they only had six tickets. They had to hurry though, it was almost 8 PM and the fair closes at 8:30.
"Come on guy's. It can't be too hard to find." Deela pleaded to the group.
They were desperately searching for the bumper car tent, hoping to get there before the entire fair closed. Some kiosks and rides were already closed, like the ring toss, skeeball, zipper, and octopus. It seemed as though every ride they went passed or looked at, closed a minute after.
Deela was looking around, near the merry-go-round, when the ever so familiar ring tone went off from her phone. She had a text from Bree: "I found it! It's right beside the Tilt o whirl!"
She noticed that the text was sent to her, Emily, and Chris, so she wouldn't need to text either of them. After much looking, Deela finally found the Tilt-o-Whirl, right beside the now-closed octopus, and beside that was the bumper cars tent! She checked the time on her phone: 8:17P.M it read in a blue cursive font. We can still make it.
The entire group arrived at the Bumper Cars around the same time. Bree had proactively taken a spot in line to let the other three skip ahead to her. It didn't take long for everyone to locate Bree and take their position in line beside her. "8:23P.M." Deela read out loud. "There should be time for one more run of the bumper cars before the fair closes."
"My life will finally be complete" Emily joked, which was rewarded by chuckles all around.
Suddenly, the line started moving ahead; people were releasing custody of the cars and getting out of the stadium as others were walking into the arena, giving their tickets, and obtaining their own cart.
"When we get up to Ezra, I'll handle it. I know him the best." Emily said authoritatively.
"Yeah, alright. No argument here." Deela replied.
"Ditto." said Chris.
"Non débat avec moi." Bree spoke, and chuckled for no reason. "French is fun."
"Oui, il est." Deela confirmed.
"Oh, shut up you two! You both know that Em and I don't know it." Chris squinted his eye's.
"Fine..." Deela sighed and rolled her eye's.
As the line became shorter and shorter, Deela found herself reflecting on yesterday's dream, once again. The nightmare that it was, the haunting of those tainted memories. An abrupt cessation of the lines movement ripped her back to present, keeping her depression at bay. She could handle it for now.
"Hey, Ezra!" Emily greeted cheerfully.
Deela noticed that the sun sparkled off of Ezra's clean, light brown hair. His glasses framed his face and his mouth was plastered in a tight smile. He wore a purple T-shirt underneath his rainbow vest, supplied by the bumper car tent. However, nothing covered his ripped jeans or gray runners.
"Hey, you. What's up?" Ezra responded with a smile.
"Oh, nothing much..." Emily said shifting from the ball of her foot to the toes and back. "Hey, we only have six tickets for the four of us. Do you think you could let us in?"
"Oh yeah. Easy peasy! Just give me your tickets and hop on in." Ezra replied.
Deela stepped forward and handed Ezra the tickets with a smile. "Thanks Ez."
"Yeah, thank you Ezra!" Everyone shouted.
Ezra laughed whole-heartedly. "No problem guy's. Enjoy!"
"Oh, we will." Chris shot back over his shoulder.
All four of them picked bumper-cars that were quite close to eachother, just to make sure that they would get the first hit of the game. Deela and Emily were the first ones to settle into their cars. They looked at each other, then to Ezra who was closing the gate, then back to each other.
"Alright everyone. This will be our last run of the day." An anonymous voice from a P.A System announced. "Enjoy."
Pretty soon the music started going and the car's gained traction. Deela stabbed the accelerator with her foot and launched right into Emily with a squeel of joy, which was cut short by Bree slamming into her from the side, and Chris from the back. Emily backed up and pulled a U-turn, attempting to attack some random people in the cluster of cars.
Deela saw Emily trying to escape in the wave of random people but couldn't get over to her with her cart backed in a rounded corner. "Bree, Chris. Em's going to hide in the cluster of people down there. Let's stop her before she can get there!" Deela shouted to them.
With a nod of approval from both of them, they drove off after Emily. Someone had pinned her sideways against the wall, so it was almost too easy for the torrent of friends to smack her silly. "For Narnia!" Bree cried out while they raced through the crowd to get to Emily.
Chris was side-checked by someone and pinned to the wall before he could get to Emily. Deela and Bree sped past quickly, desperately trying to catch up to her. Someone thought ill of this and headed for Deela, aiming to knock her car to the wall. But he missed, and Deela got away scott-free. Bree didn't, however. The guy who missed Deela, kept going and crashed Bree into another bumper car racer. The domino effect sums up what happened pretty well.
Deela was the last one pursuing Emily after she had cleverly avoided capture by the others. Deela was gaining on her slightly since Emily had to weave in and out of ongoing collisions, whereas Deela just sailed straight through the passers-by. Emily was in the home stretch, she was heading for someone on the opposite side of the arena and no one was in her way. Deela however, was tailing her, catching up ever so slowly. As Emily closed the distance to the blind driver, Deela was gearing up.
Finally, Emily stabbed the oblivious driver right into the wall with her cart, and bounced back off his. Deela wondered if she could beat the timer on this ride to bump her friend, but sadly the bumper cars' festive music started to fade slowly. Her carts acceleration died, but the kinetic energy held. She went skidding across the floor and rammed right into Emily's cart as she was getting out. Her cart plunged into the adjacent one and rebounded back, forcing Emily to sit back down in the cart abruptly.
She stood back up and got out of her cart while she laughed convulsively. Deela soon joined in, after making sure that she wasn't hurt.
"Finally got you, Em." Deela managed to spurt out between laughs.
"Yeah. I was trying so hard to avoid you the whole round." Emily confessed through her giggles.
"Well, you almost got away with it." Deela shot back with a wink.
The two walked together to the exit where they found Bree and Chris. It was now 8:33P.M., according to their phones, and their curfew is not for another hour and a half.
"Hey. The orphanage's curfew isn't until 10, so what do you guy's wanna do? Do you think we should help and clean up this place?" Asked Deela generously.
"Yeah, that sounds good to me. I don't have to be home for a while." Replied Chris.
"Perhaps we should start with cleaning up the kiosks, it'd be easier and I bet we would have to explain ourselves if we started cleaning up the rides." Added Deela.
"Yeah, that sounds good." Bree agreed. "Em, you in?"
"Yeah, sure. Let's start with the ball toss. It's right over there." Emily responded.
And with that, they were off towards the ball toss kiosk. The only awkward thing about it was that they had no idea who the manager was, despite seeing him earlier today. They walked over to the kiosk regardless. Emily found the manager in the back, loading his pick-up truck with the kiosk's supplies. "Come on guy's, he's back here." She whispered.
Almost immediately, Deela, Bree, and Chris appeared behind Emily. Bree and Chris standing barely infront of Deela, just enough to make Deela feel more secure. Ever since the accident, Deela had help a state of ambiguity towards strangers. She was afraid that they would sense her distraught emotion within. So, naturally, she passively stood behind her friends, both proverbially and physically so that nothing would cause the other to question her mental integrity.
"Hey." Emily said awkwardly.
The man loading objects into his pick-up stopped and turned around to face the group.
"Hello there, youngsters." He greeted in a cheery tone. "What can I do you for?"
Emily laughed at his unexpected innuendo. "We were just wondering," she scratched the back of her neck, "if there was anything we could do to help you... Ya know, clean up?"
The man guffawed loudly at her offer. "Yeah, there sure is! You can start by helping be stuff all this junk into my truck, here."
"Alright. Awesome! Let's get to work ladies!" Emily said over her shoulder.
"Hey!" Chris shouted, making everyone laugh.
Minutes past, and soon, hours. They were busy cleaning up kiosk after kiosk with a variety of different characters. It was during one of these clean ups that Chris' mom called him via cell phone and told him to get home because it was getting late. After which, Bree decided that she would go too because she lived on the other side of town and it was a long walk. And so, it was down to Deela, Emily, and whichever kiosk personnell were still around to clean up.
Deela pulled out her cell phone and checked the time: 9:46P.M., it read in it's stylish blue font. "Hey, Em. This'll be the last kiosk, we have to be home in 14 minutes."
"Oh yeah, sure. Ya hear that, Garry?"Emily called out.
"Loud and clear, luv." Garry replied in his british accent.
"God I love british accents." sighed Emily.
"Em, now's not the time to dilly dally, we have to clean this up before 10. Come on! Power clean!" Shouted Deela.
The group laughed away the time, exchanging witty puns and silly jokes to each other as they cleaned up the kiosk.
"Hey guy's. Did you hear about the guy whose whole left side was cut off?" Deela asked.
"No, why?" questioned Emily.
"Oh, no reason. He's all right now though." Deela responded wittily.
"Oh, wow Dee. You've sunk that low?" Emily smirked at Deela while lifting a box full of prizes.
"I haven't sunk at all, I've always been on this level." Deela replied with a wink as she helped Emily maneouver the box into place.
"Yeah, two can play at that game." Emily challenged.
"Bring it." Deela called out her bluff.
"A dentist and a manicurist fought tooth and nail." Emily said proudly.
"If you don't pay your exorcist, you get repossessed." Deela countered.
"To write with a broken pencil is pointless." Emily shot back while helping Garry with another box.
"Spouting one-liners back and forth isn't exactly a good way to test our punny ways, is it?" Deela wondered out loud.
"Yeah. I know, right? We need a better way to settle this... How about rhyming every sentence?" Emily challenged again while Deela squinted her eye's.
"Bring it" Deela said while putting another some rings in a box.
"Alright. Garry, you want to be our official starter of this competition?" Emily asked.
Garry raised one eyebrow, and thought for a second.
"Yeah, sure. I guess I could start you off, as long as you don't sit there and helplessly scoff." He finally said in a goofy tone.
"Oh, wow. You witty little kitty." Emily retorted once she packed in yet another box of goodies.
"Hey! Don't leave me out, you smelly trout." Deela called once she finished packing stuff into her box and stuffing it into the pick-up truck.
"Don't worry, you silly billy." Emily winked and looked for some more boxes. "Hey. That's all hun, we are done!"
"And not a moment too soon. How about that you old coon." Deela smirked at Garry who, in return, squinted back at her.
"Ah well. We better get going Dee. The ol' Orphanage will be worried if we're not home soon. See you later Garry!" Emily said bittersweetly.
"See you later!" Deela waved as she followed Emily back to the street.
"Buh-Bye, luv. Stay safe!" He called.
Deela and Emily walked on the side-walk, underneath the street lights. They past by ubiquitous buildings, but it seemed that no one else was on the streets at this time of night. Even though it was only 9:57P.M., according to Dee's phone. But that didn't change the fact that there was no one using the side-walk, and the really rare car on the street.
"Hey, Dee?" Emily asked after a large moment of silence. "What did you think of Garry?"
"Well. He wasn't skinny. His purple T-shirt couldn't hide that. His glasses were cool, and his short brown hair... He wasn't that great looking to be honest." Deela modestly replied. "But he was fun to be around. Nice sense of humor."
"No, no. I meant what do you think of him. He was a stranger, and he never... well. He was a stranger." Emily corrected herself.
"Oh. In that sense... It was unnerving at first. But as we kept working together and I got to know him better. But still, it was really awkward and, to me, ill-advised by my consciousness." Deela solemnly admitted.
She hated talking about this kind of stuff with Emily, but she knew that if she didn't keep it in check than she would have another episode, and no one would benefit from that.
Once they arrived inside, Emily and Deela went into their separate bedrooms, meeting up only once more to brush their teeth and wash their face. After which, and a quick 'Good Night', they went into their own bedroom again and laid down, idly humming tunes and waiting for sleep to come. Even though it was 10 o'clock, they felt extremely tired because they had had a rough and taxing day.
Emily was the first to fall asleep, as usual; she could fall asleep anywhere in a matter of minutes. Deela however, was another story. She tossed and turned for an unidentifyiable quantity of minutes, most likely spreading into hours. Without getting the least bit sleepy, Deela got out of her bed and don a gray T-shirt, Auburn hoodie and fitting jeans. She quickly and quietly left her room and walked outside into the night. She just walked with no goal in sight, other than to pass the time. Deela just kept on marching towards nothing, wherever her feet would take her. Letting her mind wander to places that it really shouldn't. She began to rethink of the nightmare, of her parents, of the feelings that came like a torrent of guilt for not being there for them. For letting them go and do what they did. The damage that was inflicted, now personified deep inside her psyche.
As she was thinking, she didn't notice when she arrived in the park, she was just there all of a sudden. Laying down comfortably on the soft, dry grass, staring into the heavens, counting the stars. The feeling of the grass on her skin reminded her of all the time camping she had done, how great she was with the outdoors. Maybe it was that fact that put her at peace, maybe it was the counting of the stars that made her tired, but one thing was for sure. She fell asleep.
When she woke up, she definitely was not where she had fallen asleep. Shamefully, it took her a quick second to realize this because of the air rushing past her as she fell from the sky head over heels and repeating. There was a device strapped on her back, that was one of her first noticings. She didn't know what it was, but at this rate she was going to be splattered on the floor of the jungle. A jungle, she realized, that is not present in her home town.
She slapped at her back and found the object was of backpack size and shape except it had an almost metalic texture to it. She slapped at it again, trying desperately to grab something, anything, from it but to no avail. She tried again, third time's the charm, she thought hopefully. And this time, her hand struck something; a cord. Wrapping her hand around it fiercly, she pulled. Her hand slipped off it, but her pinky slipped through a hole and the last minute and held it tight to her hand. The cord flew out and, to her surprise, the backpack like contraption burst open. A cloth material evacuated from the new opening and unfolded into the sky. Catching the air in it, it slowed her down immensely, but jolted her unexpectedly. Deela looked up at it and noticed what it was, her savoir in a time of need, her objectified knight-in-shining-armor; A parachute.
She grabbed the two levers that settled themselves beside her and used them to steer left and right. Deela finally managed to get a first look at where she was since she woke up. A massive jungle covered the ground infront, behind and to both sides of her as far as the eye can see. She looked up to see where the sun was; rising or setting. She saw the sun, over her shoulder, but that wasn't what made her jaw drop. It was the fact that a much larger planet stood near it, almost beside it. It looked a lot like Jupiter, with it's brown and white stripes. There was another planet nearby that one, a smaller one; maybe a moon. She knew instantly that someone was wrong.
A thought started to formulate in her mind. One thought and one thought only repeated verbatim in her head like a mantra. One thought that should never be said by anyone in the right mind, but then again, She wasn't. One thought that would forever change her life.
This... This is not Earth.
A/N: This is my Secret Project that I have been working on and revising for a while... like. A while, a while... I'm hoping for around 8k words per chapter, but we'll see. I won't have Author notes on all chapters, and when I do, they are going to be minimal to sustain the immersion in the story.
One question though, do you like these quotes at the beginning of my chapters, or would you like them eradicated? And just by the way, if you guessed already, I have no idea of how an orphanage works or looks like...
Rate's and Review's help chapters come out faster! They are much appreciated, and very well replied to with love. =)
I apologize sincerely for the long wait.
Love and Laughter,
Archangel.