Here, have a disclaimer. My stories are written for fun.
The only bit that's mine are the OCs.
Chapter 1: In Which Amelia has a Rather Rude Awakening
Amelia Finch had always been a good runner. She might not have been the fastest on her high school track team, but no one denied that her endurance level made her one of the top five of the female athletes and number twelve when compared to the boys and girls teams combined. If someone had told her that she should consider herself lucky she was good at running, Amelia would have laughed and shook her head, reminding them she didn't see any reason to consider skill luck. It was from hard work and perseverance that anyone got better at something.
It was this opinion that quickly changed when she found herself running from something that definitely belonged only in the movies. Preferably not children's ones, unless your intent was scaring the kid into a blubbering mess. Amelia certainly felt lucky she was able to outpace the giant creature crashing through the trees behind her.
Being chased by something that had her terrified made it difficult to believe it wasn't really there, even though its existence had only shown up in stories before. Before tonight she never would have imagined being chased by a troll. Or at least another monster ugly enough where it could be considered one. Amelia didn't really know much about fantasy to really tell what it was for certain. The only thing she knew at the moment was it was that it looked pissed off, was gaining on her and smelled awful.
This definitely hadn't been a good way to wake up. First off there'd been that weird electrical problem in her room with the lights turning on by themselves and then having trouble deciding if they would stay on or off with alarming frequency. Then had come that horrid feeling of being pulled in on herself, as if someone was trying to fit her into a tiny box with needles lining the walls. Amelia couldn't remember if the lights had turned off and the feeling had stopped, letting her fall asleep, or if she'd fainted and been unconscious, so what happened afterward was a little foggy. Considering she'd woken up with a headache, Amelia guessed it had been the latter.
Finding out she was no longer in her room and was instead surrounded by trees in the near dark wearing only her pajamas and a blanket half draped across her knees was a little harder to deal with, and the panicked scream that followed had undoubtably brought on the troll.
She cursed as she tripped over a hidden root in her distraction, it didn't help that she was unable to make out much of anything in the dark. Wasting precious time to glare back at where that stupid root was, or maybe a couple of feet off since it was difficult to make out many details, Amelia then scrambled to her feet.
'Crap, crap, crap.' Amelia's thoughts had turned into an unintended mantra, her brain blanking out on any ideas on how to ditch the troll-thing chasing after her. How to escape something that looked like it wanted to kill you and most likely couldn't be bargained with wasn't exactly a subject taught in school. Amelia wasn't even sure it would be taught anywhere, except maybe by really paranoid, and possibly crazy, people.
She'd almost run into a tree several times in her panic, and had lost her blanket in the process. A low hanging branch had managed to smack her in the face, adding to her collection of scratches. At this point, Amelia was just focused on getting away, not really thinking on where she was running.
The sounds of pursuit had gotten quieter. Somehow she'd managed to put a little extra distance between herself and the troll. Trying to ignore the nagging wish to glance over her shoulder to see how close it had gotten, she kept her eyes peeled for anything that looked like it might be a good hiding place. Maybe it wasn't the best plan, but it was all she could come up with at the moment.
Tripping again was probably the best thing that had happened to her that night.
It sent her flying forward into some bushes that had grown clumped up together near the path. After flailing around to get loose and landing on the ground with a thump, she saw that a group of bushes and trees next to the ones she'd fallen into had what looked like a small tunnel heading into its center. Deciding that it was likely the only chance she was going to get, Amelia crawled over to the opening and forced herself in, ignoring the sharp pokes from twigs.
The thicket wasn't a bad hiding place. A few young trees had worked their way in, providing pretty good overhead cover. The bushes were pretty thick and made it difficult to see out. Something that was always good when you needed to hide from something, because it was much less likely whatever hunted you could see in. Whatever had used it before was probably a small animal, there was enough space for her to curl up and maybe move around a little, but that was pretty much it.
Amelia put a hand over her mouth to try to silence her shaky breaths as the troll finally caught up with her, crashing through the brush next to her hiding place as it continued its chase. It was lucky for her that trolls were pretty stupid, and she'd managed to stay quiet enough that it hadn't noticed her in its haste, even though it had muttered under its breath as it crashed past her about how nothing was easy to catch any more and its a shame the farmer was gone. Mutton was much easier to catch, even if there was never enough meat on them.
At least thirty minutes had gone by before Amelia felt it was okay to move again. Stretching her cramped muscles hurt now that the adrenaline rush was almost all but gone. All her aches and pains were starting to appear, along with the reality that she was no longer safe at home. It was still too dark to really see much of her surroundings. The only thing she'd been able to decide on was that there were a lot of trees which meant a forest, and that there were monstrous... things here that smelled awful and tried to kill you.
'I bet Stephen would have known what it was... He's always talking about those one books with monsters in them. I wouldn't know if it was a troll or an ogre.' Amelia frowned as she thought about it. Maybe it had been something else. It hadn't been a subject she paid much attention to other than remembering one of the main characters fenced. Not that it helped her in her current situation. She didn't know the first thing about fencing and doubted it would have been of any use against the troll. It probably would have used the foil to pick its teeth after eating her. Or maybe use it to roast meat as an improvised shish-kebob.
Either way, she now regretted the loss of her blanket and shivered, curling up in her found shelter after she'd snapped a few of the more annoying twigs to prevent them from poking her in the sides. It didn't work as well as she'd hoped, but it made the small enclosure slightly more manageable. Taking a worried glance through the thicket to try to see if there was anything else out there, Amelia considered looking for her blanket in the morning. It really could be anywhere. She had no idea how far she'd been chased or in what direction and frankly, she was too exhausted to figure it out tonight.
She wasn't even sure what had happened and was still convinced it was a dream. A very realistic, terrifying dream. One that she'd really like to wake up from. But no amount of pinching or poking that was theoretically supposed to wake you up from one worked. Amelia was still curled up in the middle of a thicket in the middle of the woods, with only her t-shirt and baggy pants. And as far as she knew, she was all alone, trapped in this nightmarish realm.
Amelia did the only thing she could do. She cried.
'...I don't even know where I am...' she thought, occasionally wiping tears from her face. They continued to fall no matter what she did, grateful that her sobbing was quiet. She didn't want that thing to come back and find her. Her body trembled slightly as the cold air settled in, doing its best to keep her warm.
'...I'm not going to die out here. I'm going to make it back home.' Amelia promised herself as she tried to get some rest. 'I'm going to figure a way out of this mess. I've got to...'
Sleep didn't come easy. Now that the troll had been gone for a while the inhabitants of the woods active at night were going about their daily lives, causing what seemed like a never-ending track of unfamiliar sounds that made her jump until total exhaustion kicked in and she was pulled into unconsciousness once more.
A/N: Bear with me folks, it's been a good several years since I've tried getting a story written down, so I feel pretty rusty. If you guys want to leave me some constructive criticism that'd be helpful, since I'm pretty sure my grammar is shot. There's always room for improvement, either way.
I know the "girl chucked into ME" is used a bunch, and more often than not turns into a Mary Sue, or at least something that can be rather horrific to read. I've been a big lurker and reader here (I do admit this is my favorite plot twist, though it's more from the angle of something unexpected happening in life and what is more unexpected than getting tossed into a new world with no warning?) for a few years - okay, more than a few - and I'd like to give back to the community.
So here's this little tidbit. If you liked it at all, please leave a review. Any sort of encouragement helps when trying to gather up enough motivation to write the next chapter. It actually tells me if there's going to be any point in writing the rest of the story. I won't feel as inclined to write for you guys if I don't feel there's any interest.
I'd also like the include a little shout out to one of the most amazing and hilarious fanfics I've read in years, it is quite possibly the main reason I've been working on writing again.
I feel everyone should read The Skipper, by LinzRW at least once (and I believe new chapters are still being worked on).
So if you enjoyed my story, chances are you'll love this one far more.