Author's Note: Yay, it's chapter two! I've been working on this since I woke up this morning at like…10. I actually started it last night at midnight but, y'know, I gotta sleep sometime! Before I get started, I'd like to thank Sky-Pirate625 and Queen O' Randomness for their supportive reviews. Feedback is always appreciated, and it's always nice to know what my readers think of my work. So, thanks, and on with the story!
Chapter Two: The Farthest Fall
Have you ever gotten that feeling when you're on vacation and you wake up in the hotel room or whatever and for a split second you panic because you don't remember where you are? That's what happened to me when I woke up on my first morning in my new home. After a second or two of imagining the worst (HAVE I BEEN KIDNAPPED!?) I remembered where I was and I could enjoy the way the morning sun reflected off of the white comforter and canopy, casting a happy glow on the rest of the room.
I forced myself out of bed, wondering what time it was because I couldn't read the clock on my iHome from across the room. My glasses were in my messenger bag on the floor. I wasn't dependant on them at all, but I was a little nearsighted and needed them to make out, say, what's on the blackboard if I'm sitting at the back of the class. I wandered over to Ol' Faithful and cast a glance at the time as I sat down. 9:43. Great. I had gotten up about three hours earlier than I usually did during the summer. I blame the jet lag. That was the reason why I had to go to sleep so early.
Waking up my computer with a jerk of the mouse, I decided to do a little of the usual screen name stalking (reading profiles and away messages over and over again). Dana had some Superchick lyric in her away message. Nathan, the kid I'd had a giant crush on since sophomore year and was kind-of-sort-of-dating-but-he-didn't-want-to-label-it, was actually online. I counted back in my head- it was four in the morning in New Jersey. He was always on at all hours of the morning, watching the entire run of Adult Swim twice while he played World of Warcraft. Holding my breath, I clicked the "I'm Back" button on my away message box and waited to see if my newly present status would gain his attention.
Nate the Great: Hey, beautiful.
Success! Did I mention that I'm the only person who calls him by his full first name? I'm the only one he lets call him Nathan. Isn't that adorable?
I Am What I Iz: good morning. :
Nate the Great: What are you doing up so early?
He's also completely obsessed with using impeccable grammar, even in an instant message conversation. He even does it in text messages.
I Am What I Iz: its almost 10 over here.
Nate the Great: Like I said, what are you doing up so early? Shouldn't you still be asleep for another three hours?
I Am What I Iz: you know me too well.
I Am What I Iz: i went to bed early last night.
I Am What I Iz: jet lag.
Nate the Great: Ah. I see.
I Am What I Iz: so what are you up to?
Nate the Great: Just watching Adult Swim and playing WoW.
I knew it.
I Am What I Iz: as always.
I Am What I Iz: what are you going to do with the rest of your day?
Nate the Great: Rachel is coming over later. We're going to hang out for a while.
My heart sank a little. Rachel was Nathan's ex-girlfriend who he insisted he was just friends with now. It seemed like he spent more time with her than he did with me even when I was actually able to hang out with him. Then again, when we did hang out it was pretty heated, if you know what I mean. I'd had to force his hands out from under my shirt a few times.
Nate the Great: Then we're going to go see that new Hulk movie.
My heart hit the floor. He was supposed to see that movie with me…well, before the moving date had been moved up and I had to leave before we could. Now he was going to see it with her. Awesome. He could at least have had the decency to leave that little detail out.
I Am What I Iz: sounds like fun.
Nate the Great: Yeah.
There was a long pause where neither of us said anything. I waited anxiously for him to say something, knowing that he tended to get annoyed when I messaged him too much.
Nate the Great: You know what, I have to go. I'm kind of busy.
Busy? Doing what? Watching an episode of Futurama that you've seen ten times? My mood dropped further than my heart had.
I Am What I Iz: oh. okay. i'll talk to you later then.
I Am What I Iz: miss you.
Nate the Great: Yeah.
Nate the Great: Bye.
Nate the Great Signed Off at 4:55 AM
I closed the IM window sadly and powered down Ol' Faithful, knowing she probably needed a rest after I'd forgotten to turn her off last night. My stomach growled, and I decided to go in search of food again. I shuffled over to my dresser and opened the top drawer, pulling out a pair of pink pajama bottoms with Tinkerbell on them. I pulled them on and shoved my feet into a pair of fluffy black socks that were extremely comfy but so slippery that I had to be very careful when I wore them. I mean it was loads of fun to go sliding across the floor in them when I actually meant to but being the klutz that I am, I tended to slip and fall a lot more often.
When I walked out into the hallway, the door to the little room next to mine was open and I could hear banging coming from within. I padded over and leaned against the doorframe to watch as my dad hammered shelves into place on the opposite wall. Boy, he liked to start early. He'd probably been at it since seven o'clock. I could sleep through anything. He already had a bar running across the wall to my right and a rough outline of where the door was going to be on the left hand wall. Another bar ran from the penciled outline to the corner where the wall met with the one Dad was currently equipping with shelves. I walked into the room to look around a bit and saw that he'd found an old vanity and put it against the wall to the right of the door into the hall, and a squat little bookshelf was sitting to the left of said door. I grinned. Perfect for my shoes.
"Good morning, Iz!" Dad said, noticing my presence for the first time.
"Morning Dad," I replied, turning around so I was facing him. He was wearing his usual work clothes: an oil stained white tee shirt and some old ratty Wrangler jeans. "I see you've been a busy little bee."
He reached up to wipe the sweat from his brow with the back of his right hand, with which he was holding the hammer. "It's supposed to be a surprise." He gave me an accusing stare, like I should have known.
"How was I supposed to know that?" I crossed my arms. "You look bloody awful." I volleyed back in my infamous fake London drawl.
"I've been working on this since seven and there aren't any windows in here, so excuse me if I'm not quite up for tea yet."
I stuck my tongue out at him.
"Get out of here, would you? And don't come back upstairs until I'm done." He waved his hands at me in a shooing motion.
Deciding to treat him to a little accented attitude, I whined, "Foine," and then turned around and marched out of the room with my nose in the air. As I got to the landing, I heard the door to my future closet close. I laughed loudly to myself, mostly just to hear it echo off of the high ceiling, and skipped down the stairs. I was tempted to slide down the banister, but then I remembered that I was me and thought better of it.
Mom was sitting at the dining room table munching on toast and reading her latest romance novel. I greeted her with a cheerful "Good morning, Starshine!" as I passed her to get to the kitchen. We had a really old fashioned refrigerator. It was, like, the first fridge ever made or something. I pulled it open carefully, thinking of the last time I'd opened the door of something that was left in the house. Luckily, the door to the fridge was a lot sturdier than the doors to the wardrobe had been.
"Let's see," I muttered to myself as I surveyed my selections, "peanut butter and jelly, peanut butter and jelly, or peanut butter and jelly?" I grabbed a sandwich. "I think I'll go with peanut butter and jelly." I poked around in the fridge a little more hoping to find milk, but since no one had gone into town yet we only had the bottled water that we'd flown in with. With a sigh, I grabbed one and kicked the door shut as I left. "The earth says "hello!"" I finished the quote as I passed my mother again. She just sighed, used to my tendency to quote Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I couldn't help it, really. When you've watched it as many times as I have, it just sort of happens.
I dragged my feet as I crossed the foyer into the living room. I was thinking about Nathan; how much I missed him, how badly I wished I could see him, how much it sucked that he spent so much time with Rachel. Sitting down on the couch, I decided to experiment with the channels on the TV to try and get my mind off of my wayward would-be boyfriend. I started at channel two and kept going up until I found something familiar. Sense and Sensibility was playing on some random British version of Pay Per View. I always loved to watch that movie because it reminded me of my older sister Jen. Did I forget to mention her? Well, she was 25 and living in Michigan where she worked teaching theater to little kids. So cute. Anyway, my sister and I agreed that we pretty much were the two main characters; she was Elinor and I was Marianne.
The movie was at a pretty early spot. Colonel Brandon had just entered the plotline and was watching Marianne play the piano. I cracked open my water bottle as I watched and took a long drink from it before setting it down on the coffee table so I could unwrap my sandwich and start eating. I settled into the couch, lounging across it on my back (the couch was perpendicular to the entertainment system, so the television was at my feet) as I started in on my sandwich.
After I finished my breakfast, I drank down what was left of the water to clear the peanut butter from my mouth (it really does stick to the inside of my cheeks!). Then I laid back on the couch to watch the rest of the movie. I contemplated running up to get my glasses, as the picture was a little fuzzy, but remembered that I wasn't allowed to go upstairs and decided to just deal with it. Before long I was fighting to keep my eyelids open again and yawning more than I was breathing. It was weird that I was still tired, but I guess it was the lack of coffee in my system. I drifted in and out of consciousness while I watched the movie.
At one point, as I woke up, I suddenly felt like there was something very important I needed to do. I stood up, ignoring the TV, and left the room. I took the stairs two at a time and walked down my hallway. There was silence coming from the room my dad was working in. At the back of my mind I registered that it was strange, but didn't think on it more than that. I walked right past my bedroom door and down to the end of the hall where there was another staircase leading up to the third floor. I ascended them, letting my fingers trail through the dust on the banister as I went. There was a twist at the top of the stairs that opened into a larger hallway than the ones on the floor below.
I started down the hallway with a sense of strange determination, as if I knew exactly where I needed to go, which was weird because I'd never been in that corridor before in my life. I passed by several doors before I decided to open one. The heavy oak door swung open easily and I walked into a big empty room with only one piece of furniture against the opposite wall: a big old wardrobe that looked exactly the same as the one I'd broken in my bedroom. The door swung closed behind me with a soft click as let go of it and walked into the room. The wardrobe in front of me seemed to be not quite as old as the one downstairs, and also looked more like a good place to hide than a huge wooden deathtrap.
A thrill ran through my veins, a mixture of fear and excitement like you get when you need to move fast to get a good hiding place when you're playing hide and seek. I moved across the room quickly and opened the doors. It held a mass of fur coats, just like the one in my room. I thought it was weird that there were two wardrobes that were pretty much exactly the same in the same house. It was too bad my dad had already started to build that closet. If we'd known this was here we could have just brought it down for me to use.
Suddenly, as if I remembered someone was looking for me, I parted the coats and stepped into the wardrobe. It smelled musty, but I closed the doors almost all the way so I could still see the room if I put my eye up to the crack. Silently, I backed up, thinking that if I could just get behind all those fluffy fur coats, I wouldn't be found even if someone opened up the doors and looked inside.
As I moved backwards and out from between the coats, I was thinking about how much the static was going to make my hair stick up all over the place.
That's probably why I didn't realize that I'd stepped backwards off the edge of the wardrobe's bottom until I was falling. It wasn't a fast, frightening sort of falling; it was more like the slow peaceful kind, like when you jump into a pool and you sink to the bottom. I closed my eyes. For some reason I wasn't surprised at all to be falling into a bottomless void at the back of a wardrobe. I felt completely calm, probably calmer than I did when I was doing something normal like read or sunbathe. A tingling sensation danced through my veins; a kind of tugging at my skin that wasn't unpleasant. I let my arms spread out, the air flowing between my splayed fingers. For the first time in years I was totally at peace.
"Isabella." A deep male voice called my name. It wasn't scary or creepy. The voice actually made me feel…happy. Legitimately content. "It is time to wake up, dear one."
"But I don't want to," I mumbled.
"Isabella…" The voice was not as deep this time. "Izzy…Isabella!" I opened my eyes. My dad was standing over me. I sat up and looked around, realizing that I was lying on the couch and the TV was still on, playing some obscure British independent film.
I yawned and rubbed the sleep from my eyes. There was something very important about the dream I'd had, but the events of it were slipping away. I couldn't remember what had happened. "How long was I out for?"
"A couple of hours." I noticed that Dad was freshly showered. I perked up and scrambled to my feet.
"Is my closet finished!?" I asked excitedly.
"Yep." He grinned proudly. My dad was one of those people who, once he'd started a project, couldn't stop until it was finished.
"Yay!" I rushed past him, excited to see the finished product.
"What, no thank you?"
"Thanks!" I called over my shoulder, scaling the stairs in record time. I rushed down the hallway and into my room, forgetting that my socks and hard wood flooring don't mix very well. I slid halfway across my bedroom before crashing into a pile of empty boxes that used to hold books and landing in a heap on the floor.
"Izzy?" Dad called up uneasily.
"I'm okay!" I pushed myself up, rubbing my hip where I'd landed on it.
His laughter carried up the stairs. "Be careful!" But I was already distracted. My eyes had fallen on the entrance to my new closet. It was amazing. Dad had taken the two beautiful doors to the old wardrobe and used them as the doors into the closet. They were set into the wall on new hinges, and he'd taken the front legs and glued them to the bottom next to the doors and surrounded the doorway with trimming made out of the wardrobe's wood so that it looked like I was just opening the wardrobe when I was really walking into a whole other room. The fancy carving that had been on the top of the wardrobe was nailed over the doors as well. I clapped happily and rushed (carefully) over to open the doors.
On the inside, the left wall was lined with three shelves all the way across it. The door into the hall sort of glued shut with calk in the cracks around it, and a row of hooks was nailed into it to hang coats on. The old vanity and little bookshelf were both still in the same places. I noticed that two lights were hanging from the ceiling and there was a light switch behind me, next to the doors. I couldn't suppress a squeal of delight. It was every girl's dream closet.
"So you like it, then?" I jumped at the sound of my dad's voice and swung around. He was standing in the doorway, smiling.
"Like it? It's positively breathtaking! I adore it!" I gave him a big hug and he laughed.
"Good, because I would have made you use it even if you hated it."
"Don't be ridiculous." I stepped back and walked the length of the room (it was only about eight feet by six feet- like I said, it was a tiny room), inspecting his handy work. "You must have worked right through lunch to finish this."
Dad shrugged. "Your mother brought me a sandwich."
"Oh yes. The food of champions…and the Navy Seals." I walked over to the vanity and sat down, pretending to powder my face with an invisible puff. "Well, father," I said, putting on my favorite fake accent once again, "I must say this is much better than that ghastly old wardrobe was. You've done some commendable work. Bravo!"
Dad just shook his head and walked away. "Finish unpacking. Your mother just got back with the groceries so dinner will be at six. You have two hours."
"Yes, sir!"
"At ease."
Since I actually remembered to turn my music on first this time, the next two hours of setting up everything in my closet went by pretty fast. I'm one of those people who abhors cleaning or organizing but once I get started I get really into it. I even finished with ten minutes to spare. I decided to check and see if Dana was online. I fired up Ol' Faithful and fussed with the pillows Mom had given me for my window seat while I waited. When she was finally whirred into action, I opened the instant messenger and was quite surprised by the first message I received.
Jo Mama: HEY GIRLFRAND!
I stared at the screen for a couple of seconds, trying to get over the shock that Jo was actually online. She almost never used her AIM and when she did it was usually because she was doing research or working on an essay and was looking for some distraction- and even that only happened once in a blue moon.
I Am What I Iz: wow!
I Am What I Iz: you're actually online!
I Am What I Iz: is the sky falling?
Jo Mama: maybe.
Jo Mama: dana bo bayna told me you came online yesterday.
Jo Mama: and your phone is useless over there.
Jo Mama: so i've been waiting here all day.
I Am What I Iz: it's only like 1 over there.
Jo Mama: and i signed on at like…8.
I Am What I Iz: you're a freak. i think i was sleeping.
Jo Mama: ew.
I Am What I Iz: sorry.
I Am What I Iz: the tv lulled me into sweet slumber.
Jo Mama: stop talking like that ya douche.
I Am What I Iz: die.
Jo Mama: neverrrr!
Jo Mama: anyway
Jo Mama: how is it?
I Am What I Iz: idk.
I Am What I Iz: rainy?
It was true. There was rain streaming down my window at that very moment. I'd been kind of hoping to go explore a little that day, but my unexpected nap and the weather had worked against me.
Jo Mama: yay!
I Am What I Iz: …
Jo Mama: i sleep better during storms.
I Am What I Iz: yeah i know.
"Izzy! Dinner's ready! Coooomee aaannndd geet iiiit!" Mom yelled up the stairs.
I Am What I Iz: oh sugar cakes.
I Am What I Iz: i have to go eat dinner. :
Jo Mama: noooooo! dont leave meeee!!
I Am What I Iz: i am sorry my darling.
I Am What I Iz: but my stomach calls for sustenance.
I Am What I Iz: and my mom calls for me to go downstairs.
Jo Mama: fiieeeennn. i should go do something productive anyway.
I Am What I Iz: goodbye for now, my love.
Jo Mama: peace!
Jo Mama Signed Off at 1:04PM
I still need to change the time setting. Signing off, I shut down the computer. I didn't want to risk leaving her on all night again. She might explode and burn the house down.
No, really.
When I stepped into the hallway the first thing I noticed was the delicious scent of homemade pasta sauce that had filled the house while I was in my bedroom. I was suddenly very hungry, having not eaten anything except the PB&J sandwich I'd had for breakfast. The excitement I felt for the meal made me think of a song from Sweeney Todd. I hummed the tune as I skipped down the stairs and went into the dining room. There was already a plate set out for me and I sat right down and dug in.
"Oh, Izzy, you could have at least put some jeans on," Mom sighed.
I looked up and realized that compared to my mom and dad I probably looked like a bum. Both of them had actually showered and got dressed into normal clothes. I was still in my pajamas with my (probably greasy) brown hair tied up in a pile on top of my head. "Oh. Sorry." I ducked my head and continued to shovel my mother's amazing cooking into my mouth.
She heaved another sigh. "What am I going to do with you?"
I sucked the end of a spaghetti strand into my mouth and swallowed before answering. "Trade me in for a better looking brand?" I burped.
"Not a bad idea."
I stuck my tongue out at her and she made a face at me.
"Now ladies, don't make me turn this table around," Dad said sternly.
"Sorry, Dad," my mom and I both chorused. We all laughed. The rest of the meal continued with our usual playful bantering until I yawned so wide Mom said she could see my tonsils (which wasn't really saying much because I was born with obnoxiously large ones that made me get a sore throat a lot) and ordered me off to bed.
As I walked out I could hear her saying to Dad that she couldn't believe how I could always be so tired. My dad just muttered something about "teenagers and hormones." I rolled my eyes. Parents. It took me considerably longer to make it into bed this time. First, I decided to try out my new bathroom by taking a hot shower. It felt wonderful and helped to ease the muscles in my back and arms that were a little sore from all the bending and reaching and carrying I'd done over the last two days.
Once out of the shower, I ran a brush through my hair and pulled on an old faded blue field hockey tee shirt over my favorite, most comfortable bra. I have this weird phobia of not wearing a bra. I think it has something to do with growing up in a family that doesn't understand the word "privacy." I mean my sister used to let her friends (of the male persuasion, usually) burst into my room on Saturday mornings and jump on me to wake me up. Honestly, wouldn't you wear a bra to bed if you didn't know whether you were going to have a boy sitting on your stomach the next morning or not? I thought so. Since then, I can't sleep without having one on.
I pulled blue plaid pajama pants on over my Scooby Doo undies and climbed into bed. Unfortunately, I knew right when I turned off the light that it was going to be one of those nights where I wouldn't fall asleep for hours. I have those nights quite often. It's a real pain in the neck. Like always, I tossed and turned for a long time. Apparently I fell asleep for some length of time, because when I turned over to face my room the moon was shining directly through my window, and it hadn't even been at it's pique when I'd gone to bed.
Don't you hate it when you're tossing and turning and you feel like you've been awake the whole time but you check the clock and it's been four hours or something but you don't feel any less tired? Yeah. It sucks.
Needless to say, I spent quite some time staring up at the canopy, wondering if Mom had unpacked the over the counter drugs yet and, if so, where she'd put the sleep aid pills. I was also trying to decide if, when I'd worked out the chances that she'd unpacked them, it was even worth it to get up and go look for them. It was during this little commentary in my mind that my eyelids started to grow heavy and finally close for what I hoped was a nice dreamless sleep.
But my eyes snapped right open again when I heard a familiar voice call my name. "Isabella…" There it was again. I sat bolt upright in my bed and stared around my room, trying to find the source of the sound. There was a strange whispering coming from, as I'd feared, behind the door into my closet. I swallowed hard, jumping when the deep voice once again repeated my name. Where have I heard that voice before?
Slowly, I pulled my sheets back and stepped down onto the cold wood floor. Before I stood up, I grabbed for something that might be of some use as a weapon. My fingers wrapped around the strap of my messenger bag. Good enough. I lifted it up and wrapped my right hand around the strap right where both ends met the bag itself, ready to use it as a bludgeon of some sort. It was actually pretty heavy. My binder and my hardcover copy of Twilight were both still inside from when I brought them on the flight in case I felt like writing something or re-reading my favorite book for, like, the twelfth time.
I pushed a messy curl back from my face as I approached my closet. More whispers, then my name again. The voice seemed to be getting farther away. I breathed in deeply. "Dad, is that you?" I asked. My voice cracked. Great. If it is some kind of crazy axe murderer, now they know that you're scared. The voice called my name again, still fading. I had to admit, there was nothing in the tone that suggested danger. But, still… "Dad, this isn't funny. Cut it out." There was no answer. Even the whispering stopped.
Silence suddenly pressed down on my ears and, let me tell you, that silence was so damn loud.
I took another step towards the doors and reached out to grasp the handle of the one on the left. Going for the element of surprise, I swung the door open, stepped inside, swung my bag blindly (I kind of closed my eyes, which was probably pretty stupid), and reached for the light switch all at the same time.
Problem was, there was no light switch. There was no floor for me to step on either. I screamed as I fell, and cried out loudly when I landed hard on my stomach on something that felt and smelled a lot like dirt. I lay perfectly still for a moment after I opened my eyes, trying to figure out where the hell I was. It was very dark, but I could make out tall shadows that could be trees, and little fuzzy shapes that could be bushes.
Shakily, I pushed myself up onto my knees and stared at my surroundings. Okay, so I was in a forest. This had to be a dream. I pinched myself like people always do in the movies. Ouch! So I really did step out of my bedroom and into some dark scary woods. Cool. Fine. Just stay calm.
Yeah, right! I started to panic, frightened tears threatening to spill down my cheeks. My head was pounding, my whole body shaking as I struggled to my feet. The pounding got louder, and as I reached up to cover my ears I realized that the pounding wasn't in my head.
It was behind me.
Spinning around, I barely had time to recognize the form of a large horse charging towards me before it reared up before me, letting out a shrill whiny. I threw my arms up in front of me to avoid getting kicked in the face and lost my balance in my effort to move backwards, falling hard on my back. Now I really was crying. I heard someone talking softly to the horse to calm it, and then the hooves drew closer to where I lay cowering with my arms over my face.
I lowered my arms just enough so that I could make out a figure riding the horse. My vision was impaired by the darkness and my tears, but I thought it might be a man. This scared me even more, and a terrified sob escaped my lips.
"Who are you?" a breathless voice asked, definitely a man. I couldn't answer. It took all of my effort to force myself back onto my feet. I tried to take a step back away from the dark figure, but my back was already against a tree. He cast an anxious look over his shoulder. I could hear shouts and the sound of more horses from the way he was looking. He turned back to me. I was breathing heavily, trying to calm myself down and clear my head so I could think rationally. "What are you doing here?" His voice was urgent but kind, and slightly halting with a soft accent that reminded me of Italian or Spanish.
The horse whined impatiently and pawed at the ground. "I…don't…know!" I managed to force out, a fresh wave of tears coursing down my cheeks.
"Don't…don't cry, please." He sounded desperate and pained. He cast another frightened look over his shoulder, and then held a hand out to me. "Come."
I recoiled. "What?" My voice broke.
"You must come with me." He urged his horse closer to me as he said this. I could just make out the shape of his nose and, vaguely, his eyes, but his face was so shadowed I could not see him clearly at all. "If you don't, I am afraid you might be killed. The men pursuing me would not hesitate to shoot on sight." His hand was still outstretched towards me, waiting for me to take it.
I hesitated. If people with dangerous weapons are chasing this man, is it really wise to go with him? Then I registered the words "you might be killed" and "shoot on sight." As quickly as I could, I slung the strap of my bag across my torso and took his gloved hand. With surprising strength, he hauled me up into the saddle behind him.
"Hold on," he advised. I barely had enough time to get my hands around his waist before he snapped the reins and gave the horse a kick and we were flying through the woods so fast I had to lean my head against the stranger's back and close my eyes to ward off the roller coaster-like way my stomach dropped to my feet. Swallowing another wave of tears, I tightened my grip around him and prayed that I wouldn't fall.
There it is, darlings. The farthest she's ever fallen…but where could she possibly have fallen!? Ahahaha. I'm sure you already know, clever little devils that you are, but I need something to keep you hooked! Maybe she fell into Middle Earth… Though, that's not very likely. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it and please review!