Chapter 2

The sound of our shoes echoed through the hall as we made our way in the darkness. I followed closely behind Lizzie, so close that even if I was paying attention would run into her as soon as she stopped.

We soon arrived on the other side of the tunnel to find ourselves in a large room. I looked like an old train station. There were benches along the room and small circular windows high on the walls. Large pillars held up the roof. It must have been quite beautiful when it was built but now it was dirty with dust everywhere. It clearly hadn't been used in decades.

"Wow," I glanced over to see my friend grinning. "This is so cool!" Her voice echoed off the hard walls. It felt wrong, like our voices didn't belong in this place. I wanted to shush Lizzie but I didn't want to break the silence that had fallen over us again.

We headed toward a bright doorway and when we went through I shielded my eyes from the blinding light of the sun overhead. "Oh my gosh," Lizzie's voice was filled awe. It hurt, but I peeked my eyes open to see a vast meadow with rolling green grass. I physically felt my jaw drop in shock. If anything I had been expecting more forest but not this. The wind swept through the grass looking like waves in a green ocean. "What is this place?"

"Beats me," I replied.

"Let's find out," and with that Lizzie jogged off down the hill.

"You said just ten minutes!" I screamed at her back, "Now let's head back." I may as well have said nothing at all with the reaction I got from her. My friend continued on as if the wind had swept away my words. Not wanting to give in easily and indulge this behavior in the blonde explorer I watched for a few seconds as she descended the hill. A gust of wind blew by as I looked back at the building we had emerged from and saw an old clock tower on top of the structure. The rusty red paint color was chipping away but it was charming in an old, abandoned, creepy building sort of way. With the wind blowing it sounded as though the structure was moaning and with that thought the hairs on the back of my neck stood up and I ran after my friend.

It wasn't long before I caught up to her, "Good, I thought you weren't coming for a minute there."

"If I hadn't come would you have come back faster?" I was genuinely curious to know if that would have worked.

A mock thoughtful expression appeared on Lizzie's face as she "contemplated" my inquiry, "Hmm…nope," She shot me a dazzling smile with her answer.

I chuckled, "Didn't think so." The quiet didn't last long, "Oh my gosh, how long is this hill? I feel like we have been walking up it forever."

"Almost there," suddenly Lizzie stopped, "Do you smell that?" I sniffed the air.

"No."

Lizzie closed her eyes and tilted her head back taking in a huge breath through her nose, "Food." Without another word she ran the rest of the way up the hill.

"Hey! Wait up!" I cried as I tripped up the hill after her. As we crested the hill I could smell it, the aroma of freshly cooked food made my stomach grumble. That power bar I had eaten earlier was pitiful compared to the real food I was smelling. Across what looked to be a dry river bed there were restaurants and shops everywhere.

"This must be an old amusement park or something," I stared at Lizzie after her comment. It's an old amusement park. I walked after my friend who had begun looking for the source of the intoxicating smell. She easily jumped from rock to rock as she crossed the river bed. My body followed after her but my mind was sluggish as I took in all the features around me. What a weird park. Where are rides? I thought as I stepped off the final rock of the river bed. A stone toad welcomed us into the empty streets of the park.

"Over here! I found it!" My mind snapped back as I turned to watch Lizzie duck into one of the food stalls. As I approached I heard her calling out, "Hello? Is anyone in there?" There was no answer but that didn't stop Lizzie. She sat down and grabbed a plate.

"What are you doing?" I hissed, stepping forward, "you're gonna get in trouble," My eyes shifted around to make sure we were alone.

"Maybe it's a pay after you eat sort of a thing," Lizzie said as she bit meat off of a chicken wing. Her eyes rolled closed as moaned in pleasure, "We really need to bring more food with us when we go hiking. You should try this Chihiro, it's so tender."

"No thanks, I would rather not go to jail."

"I've got my card and cash, we'll be fine," she assured me, but no amount of coaxing would change my mind. I couldn't explain it, but I had a bad feeling about that food. I knew we shouldn't eat it. Although I knew it, no matter what I said Lizzie wouldn't listen. I watched as my friend became very unladylike, shoving handfuls of food into her mouth. With a roll of my eyes I walked off to do a little of my own exploration of the place. If I wasn't going to eat I didn't want to stand and watch my friend hork down enough food to feed a village.

How odd that out of all the food booths only one was serving any food. Stranger still was the fact that it appeared no one was in this park except me and Lizzie. Coming to the end of the lane I looked left to see more stores and restaurants. A glance to my right showed a few steps leading to a giant lantern. Without a conscience decision my feet took me up the steps to the lantern where I stared up at it. Something caught my attention out of the corner of my eye; I looked to my right. My breath caught in my throat as I gazed at the enormous bath house in front of me. Red walls and a green roof towered above, a small bridge connecting where I stood now and the large edifice. "That's weird. A bath house?" I wasn't expecting that.

The sound of a whistle rang through the air, "A train?" I ran to the side of the bridge to look over the side. The train that had whistled passed far below the bridge. Not wanting to lose sight of it I ran to the opposite side of the bridge to watch where it was going. If there's a station nearby we could hop on it and…

My thought never finished. Movement out of the corner of my right eye caught my attention. Green…and white. I snapped my head around to see who or what it was.

A young man with green hair stared at me in shock, "You shouldn't be here. Get out of here now!" Confused didn't even begin to describe how I felt at that moment. One second I am alone watching a train in hopes of catching a ride and the next I am being yelled at by some guy.

"What?"

"It's almost night," No it isn't, I thought as I hurriedly looked at my watch which said…..wait, what? My watch wasn't moving. It had stopped working at 11:23 but we still couldn't have been here for longer than half an hour, tops. I got a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach as I noticed the shadows on the bridge were lengthening….quickly. I looked back up, "Leave before it gets dark!"

Right as he said those last words the remaining light dimmed significantly. Lanterns were being lit behind him in the bath house and all around us. The stranger looked back at the bath house in frustration, "They're lighting the lamps."

Suddenly I was yanked back across the bridge toward the large lantern, "Get out of here! You've got to get across the river! GO! I'll distract them." He pushed me forward, turning around to face the formidable structure. Not wanting to argue with a crazy person I kept running, the large lantern from before lit up as I passed it. The urgency in the strangers voice spurred me on to keep going. Only one thought was in my head, What's up with him?

Looking around at the lanterns I began to panic. How did it get dark so fast? There was no way that it could be night time already. As the lamps around the shops and buildings lit up shadows began to appear, shadows with glowing white eyes. They were sitting at bar of the restaurants, walking down the street, and some even appeared to be coming up out of the ground. This can't be real! The shadows were almost human in shape but they were dark and see through. It looked like I could reach my hand right through them.

My slow run sped up to a downright sprint as I made my way back to Lizzie. We needed to get out of here. As I reached my blonde friend I didn't notice that she was a lot bigger than when I had left her, I was too busy looking around in a panic at the ever growing population of shadows.

"Lizzie! We have to get out of here!" I yelled, tugging on her shirt. Feeling her turn to look at me I focused on my friend. There was only one problem, that thing wasn't my friend. A nasty pig sat in my friends spot wearing her clothes. The blond hair was tangled with food smashed into it.

"UGH!" the pig turned back toward the food sniffing for more delicacies to consume. I quickly backed away from the nasty creature, looking around in hopes of spotting my friend. My attention was quickly returned to the pig when I heard a loud smack. A shadow was hitting the pig with a metal spatula until it fell over off the stool. "AH!" Without another thought I ran back through the streets the way we came. "Lizzie!" I called, praying that she would hear me, wherever she was. Freaked out wouldn't even begin to describe how I felt in that moment, running through the streets dodging shadow ghosts at every turn. By the time I reached the stone frog and ran down the steps the sun had set fully ushering in the darkness.

I didn't expect it when I ran into the water. I tripped over the sudden and unexpected force of the water hitting my legs. I flew head first into the river that wasn't there before. I broke the surface and ran up the steps again completely soaked from head to foot. Panicked, I looked across the water to the clock tower only to see it lit up with buildings on either side that I hadn't noticed before. A ferry boat was drifting its way toward where I was.

"This isn't real," I said to myself, "I'm dreaming….I'm dreaming. Wake up. Wake up. WAKE UP!" No matter how I shouted or wished it would all go away, it stayed. "It's not real. Just go away. Disappear." Not knowing what else to do I hugged myself. Where was Lizzie? Did she ditch me here? Where am I? Is this a joke? Is this a dream? What if I don't wake up? Am I in a coma? Did I fall and hit my head too hard on a rock or something while we were walking in the woods? The questions didn't stop coming, but no matter how many I asked I still didn't know what to do. Am I dead? I sunk down to the ground, resting on my knees. My hands travelled up to cover my eyes, but before they reached their destination I stopped. My hands….they're see through. I looked down, I'm see through. The lights of a nearby ferry were clearly visible through my arm as I held it up to the light. With each passing moment I could make out more details of the ship as I slowly faded away.

Passengers on the ferry began to make their way off the ship, heading towards the shops and food stands. They were so weird looking. Some wore red capes with paper masks, others were purple blobs and I swear there were giant duck things too. This was all so impossible. I ran away from the lights and the creatures, I ran away from it all.