A ringing in her ears wakes her from the unconscious; it makes her feel as though her head is a ticking bomb moments away from an agonizing explosion. She wakes in a black laced gown that stops at the top of her knees. She finds herself lying on a dirt floor. Blood seeps from her hair, thus she begins running her fingers through her hair in search of a wound. She finds that her scalp is so tender and she quits searching. She then slowly rises up confused and lost. Where was she? What happened? She struggles to get up, and then manages to dizzily walk and fall against the door. She goes to twist the knob. It is stiff. She is locked in here.
Terror chills up her spine; relentless fear. 'What happened to me? Where am I? Am I dead? Is this hell?' She asks herself several questions trying to piece together what is going on, and what has happened to her. She looks about the sand stone prison she is trapped in for another possible way out. She sees a small opening at the bottom of the floor. She contemplates fitting through there. She knows she could fit. The real issue is fitting her chest through. She may be thin, but those were one part of her that were not so small.
She hobbles slowly over to the opening and lays on her back. She first pokes her head out and peers around for anyone that may be around. It looks like an empty desert fortress. The clouds were a dark thick gray. She begins slowly pulling herself through; barely managing to get her chest through. As soon as she is outside she attempts to stand herself up, too quickly she becomes light headed and falls into the wall. She grasps onto the wall in fear of falling. She sucks in a deep breath trying to calm the dizziness and regain focus. There seemed to be endless walls around where she was, made of sandstone and approximately a few stories high. "Son of a bitch," escapes her dry cracked lips. She leans against the wall and slides down. The young woman's eyes were too dry to shed a tear. Her face pales with fear and hopelessness. She is frustrated and flabbergasted. 'What happened?' she asks herself in her mind over and over again; attempting to remember. 'I don't know where I am, and I am not exactly sure what happened... wait, what happened to my friends?'
'Paris! I was in Paris, France. We were getting ready to go to the opera, but then I don't remember.' She is lost in her own train of thought, then a loud burst of thunder brings her thoughts to a halt. She jumps in surprise of the sound. She hears a chuckle and looks about but sees no one. "You will not get anywhere sitting down." A man's voice! She slowly creeps to her feet and peers around. Still nothing. Then she hears a whistle above her head, she looks up and sees a man's face close to hers and she yelps in surprise and falls to the ground.
He laughs as she looks back up and sees him floating in the air. Her eyes widen and she finds this baffling and unreal. She pinches her own cheek assuming that she is in some sort of dream. The throbbing pain left after the pinch proves her assumption false. Her mind races with more questions than she can answer. Her breath shallows with each daunting question that tears through her uneasy mind. 'I don't understand... Where am I? What is this place and what has happened to me?' Her breath shallows more and more; her heart thuds faster and faster. 'Where are my friends? Why can I not remember? Am I dead? Is this hell? How is he flying? What is he? An angel here to taunt me?' Tears begin to rupture from her eyes. The boy above her slowly lands on his feet in front of her. He recognizes the hysteria and panic in her eyes. He notices she has stopped breathing.
"Hey girl, breathe!" he demands in a worrisome tone as he grasps her shoulders and shakes her.
She focuses and sucks in a deep breath, " okay, okay."
"We should leave they will be coming for you soon. Sounds like they just figured out you escaped."
She looks up at the stranger. She notices he has pretty deep ocean blue eyes. They almost remind her of the deepest darkest purest sapphire. He has rich dark raven black hair with chunks of blonde as well, which brings out his eyes even more. His eyes stare down at her, he tenses. It has been a long while since he has come in contact with a human girl. He finds her radiant. She on the other hand feels as though he can see right through her; she finds it to be rather intimidating. He is attractive though she has to admit to herself, but also looks as though he has one hell of a chip on his shoulder.
"Who is coming? And where am I?" she responds, this is all a little much.
"The men who took you. We need to go..." a sound of an alarm interrupts him. He pales in worry. It is loud and ear drum busting. He finishes, "No time." he scoops her up and takes off with her in the sky.
She yelps and panics at the height and rate they are flying at. She hugs him out of a panic reaction. His body tenses. They hear howling and growling from below. He comes to a halt as they ascend above the clouds. She is stunned by the breath taking sight. It looks like earth but at the same time it was not earth. It looks like earth when Pangaea, in theory, had existed a long time ago. There aren't any buildings, only two castles or fortresses. Half of the planet is dead and the other alive; it makes her wonder how this is even possible. The dead half is coveted by dark and angry clouds and the other side has a normal, healthy and happy sky.
She sees the world as it is. The lively half of the world is so lush and green. Mountains of a light bluish purple hue and capped with snow surrounded by the intense green of the land; trees everywhere, not one bit of dirt. The boarder that divides the lively from the deathly is a massive strip of volcanoes; the deathly dark, grim and gray. It is truly a chilling sight. The dark fortress is surrounded by thorns, sand and dead trees; it is worse than a lifeless desert.
She looks back up at the man who has saved her and finds him staring down at her. He bites his lip and then speaks, " I apologize for my abrupt brutish rescue. However, time here and there is lacking; so explanations will have to be left for tomorrow."
"Where am I?" she asks under her breath.
"In the Earth's reflection," he answered cheerfully. She did not realize that he had heard her, and she is not so sure why he is so cheerful over that answer.
She looked up at him with a baffling expression, "What?"
"This is the earth's reflection, the place where the lost, the damned and cursed, and many others live. We are on the opposite side of the north star from Earth. It is a very long story, I would much rather explain later, when we are grounded and settled."
"Um... okay," she responds. He gives her a rather discomforting look, and she returns the look with confusion. We fly over this mysterious place, and soon within their sights, a fortress or palace of light became visible. It looks like a white medieval castle. The sort of castle everyone reads about in stories like, "Cinderella," and, "Beauty and the Beast." They land on a rather high balcony of this place, and he set her down slowly. The doors fly open and a rather eccentric tall beauty jumped out grasping onto this mysterious stranger that had saved her. The inside of this place lets out a floral scent and warm air. The woman that pounced on the mysterious hero is rather tall and slender, about seven feet maybe; she is much taller than him. He must be around 5'10" or 6 feet tall. She has gorgeous bronze amber eyes, and her hair looks so soft, and pretty; like rays of sunshine.
"Good to see you too Mildred, can you do me a favor and show our guest to a room, and perhaps run her a bath; and she will be in need of some clothes. I need a rest. See you in a few hours," He looks at the girl he just saved and smiles warmly, "Mildred will take care of you, and perhaps find the wound on your head, and clean it so it does not get infected." He leaves entering into the place of light. Mildred gives her a nasty look and pushes her forward into the fortress. If she did not know any better, Mildred really has a thing for him, and does not like that he brought home a girl. She wonders if Mildred and the hero are an item, it does not seem so, but she can totally tell Mildred wants him, bad. As Mildred leads the girl throughout the palace as she looks around.
There are a lot of stairs, white walls and columns for the structure of the castle; there are antique doilies, vases, curtains, and a lot of locks and bars on the windows and doors, perhaps to protect from something. There are paintings of mermaids, fairies, flowers and angels. There are also darker paintings. These paintings consisted of the corrupted dead, blood and war against good and evil. There were paintings of people being torn apart by demons and sacrifices. These paintings leave an impression on her, fear.
Mildred brings the girl into a bedroom. It was rather beautiful the girl thought to herself. There are white satin sheets and a green comforter on the bed; a royal green. It is a canopy styled bed with a white lace canopy blanketed over it. The bed is made of some sort of white and grayish wood, none that she has ever seen before. There is a pretty velvet green rug, over a wooden floor. There is a dresser, a chest of drawers, two bedside tables and a chest that sits at the end of the bed made of the same wood as the bed frame. A huge beautiful mirror sits on the wall above the dresser, and a small silver hand mirror rested on top of the dresser. Why two mirrors she wonders? There are vases with dancing children, elves and dwarves on them. There is a tapestry on the wall of a cloaked beauty using magic.
Mildred took the girl into a walk in closet that led to a bathroom. She fills the tub with hot water and some lavender scented flowers, yet they are yellow; how peculiar. "Towel is in the cabinet and clothes in the closet. Enjoy your bath." She states coldly then exits.
"Uh, thank you..." she replies.
She hears a distant, "Humph."
The girl responds with a snide remark, "Apparently Mildred is not my biggest fan."
She closes the door and undresses; then slowly submerges into the hot water. She rinses her head off finding the wound. It stings once it hits the water. She wonders how it happened; still fuzzy on the details. She cleans her body thoroughly and sat in the tub in deep thought. 'What could have happened to me? 'She grows more irritated. She leans back and stares at the ceiling. There are painted words in French written on the ceiling. It reads, Laissez son innocence est la clé pour apporter le salut à tous. "If it is French it is saying, let one's innocence be the key to bring salvation to all. What an odd thing to paint on the ceiling. Of course everything in this place is a little odd." She wonders if it is history or just stories being told. Well either way they are stories being told.
After being harassed by endless thought, she then pulls out the stopper. She stands up and steps out of the tub. She bends over and pulls out an orange towel and wrapped it around myself for cover, then closes the cabinet. She stood up straight, a little too fast, and becomes very dizzy, then collapses. Everything is blurry, she blinks her eyes a few times trying to focus and then I was in Paris. Everyone was in a panic, screaming and running, cloaked beings landing from the sky, and the sky had red clouds... "Hey, girl." The girl feels herself being shaken. She squeezes her eyes shut and rubs them, as she opens them and sees the pretty boy, that had saved her earlier in the day, hovering above her.
"Are you okay?" He gives her a look of concern with beautiful aqua marine eyes. She stares deeper in his eyes, she thought they were darker. Perhaps it depends on the lighting that messes with his eye color; much like the ocean.
"Uh... yeah, head rush, gave me a fragment from my missing memory, but not enough to be sure what actually happened." she answers.
"So you do not remember what has happened to you?" he questions with concern.
"No, not really, I think it has something to do with my head injury. Perhaps I have a concussion, which may have brought on some temporary amnesia, or it could be psycho-traumatic so my brain blocked it out so I did not have to deal with it," she answers as he backs away and gave her a look as if she is lunatic speaking another language. She slowly sits up and changes the subject, "Hey, uh what's your name? What do I call you?"
"My name is Austin." He says stiffly as he analyzes her. He does not know what to think of her. She finds her compelling, beautiful and strange. He admires her rose colored cheeks and deep green eyes. She has lush dark brown hair, and peach colored skin.
"I'm Ally." She replies with a nervous smile.
"You are nervous," he states with a look of guilt. She also notices he has a very weak French accent; it must be going away.
"No, no I'm not," she lies, with a fake grin.
He smirks with a small chuckle, "I don't blame you. I don't blame you at all. No memory of how you got here, and not knowing where you are. Not to mention you meet a stranger, and have no choice to trust him, otherwise you would have ended up being the next sacrifice."
"Sacrifice, what are you talking about?" She lets out an obnoxious anxious laugh.
"I will tell you about it tomorrow, but after you get some rest, it has been a tiresome day. I shall have Mildred put some medicine on your wound to help it heal."
"Yea... I don't think that is such a good idea, can you do it? She does not seem to be fond of me, at all." 'Who knows, maybe she would even try to kill me, she thinks to herself.' Thinking about her stressed her out' Austin could see Ally's eyes pop out due to stress. She is not use to having people not like her. She tends to be a people pleaser... most of the time.
He laughed at the sight of her distress, "Alright, just get dressed and then come into the room, and I should be back with the medicine by then." He gets up and leaves. Ally stands up slowly, and hobbles to the closet. She looks through the clothes; there are so many colors, the only one not in the closet is the color black, of course black is not technically a color. She picks out a short yellow night gown; it ends right above the knee. The gown is made of silk and lace with a rose print. If you are wondering, yes she does love my name. She finds a few drawers, and just looked in one, and there are panties. She cannot deduce whether they are new or not. "I won't chance it. I will look for shorts." After she finds them, she steps out of the closer and sees Austin sitting at the end of the bed. Nervousness creeps up on her. She walks over and sits next to him, and turns her back to him. He parts Ally's soft hair, then takes a translucent white ointment on the wound. It heats up on her scalp,"Owy," she yelps. He snickers. "Not funny," she gripes.
"Sorry, I could not help it," he replies, as she rolls her eyes. He moves her hair aside to puts some on a different spot. She can feel one hand on her back, and it sends a chill down her spine; an oddly nervous yet excited shiver down her spine. "All done," he moves her hair back, and stands up. "You should get some rest; we have a busy day tomorrow, and a lot of explaining. Oh and I am truly sorry, are you hungry?" She looks up at him, and really takes him in, he is extremely delicious. She is in complete awe of him. She could see his lips moving, but has no clue what he is saying... Finally, "Ally!" He grabs her face.
"I'm sorry, what?" she grins.
He let go of her face and shakes his head. He then makes eye contact again, "Are you hungry?" He rolls his eyes.
She starts rambling, "Not really... considering I haven't a clue as to when the last time I ate, you would think I would be, but no. I am thirsty though, do you have any water?"
"Sure, I will have Mildred bring it up, but um after she leaves, lock your door, just as a precaution." He smiles at her like he has a secret but is not going to tell her. It is very taunting.
"Okay..." She is rather confused by that cryptic order... and that smile, a little creepy. Gives her a slight urge to want to jump out a window.
"Good night," He smiles warmly, pats her head and walks out of the room. She can hear him speaking to Mildred in a sort of muffled tone.
"This all gives me the creeps," she says to herself.
Soon after Mildred brings her a glass and a pitcher of ice water, with lemon slices in it, she then locks the door once she had left. Mildred really gives her the creeps, the whole situation gives her the creeps; not to mention Mildred does not make her feel welcome at all. All she will give her is dirty looks, she personally will not mind going home, but first she needs to know what happens to her friends. She pours herself a glass of water, and it is oddly sweet. It does not taste of lemons. To be real, she is not sure what it tastes like, but it is delicious and refreshing. She lays down on the soft bed, and toss and turn, but as soon as it reached twilight, she fell into a deep sleep.