Thanks to ABEDFAN, LRW, Dirtkid123, and guest4890 for the reviews!
Okay, so my laptop thought it would be hilarious to mess up last night when I'm supposed to work on the entry. I resorted to handwriting the story, letting the laptop chill for a bit, but then it decided to give me more grief. It didn't really begin working well again until this morning, so that was why we're late. -_-
Anyways, the idea for this is given to me by daphrose. The prompt was Bree, lost, so that's where we'll be heading. Thank you for this!
Quick shout-out, too, to mini bagel. I kinda borrowed your story title, G. I hope that's alright.
Okay. There should be another one coming in a few hours, but meanwhile, please enjoy this one.
Onto day seventeen!
/day seventeen/
Prompt: (from daphrose) lost
Featured LR character: Bree
"Not All Who Wander"
She needed to get out of there. She needed to be somewhere not here.
The stars spread across the sky shined brightly from where she stood. Their gleam was so pure, so beautiful, that she was left in awe of them. She didn't think they ever glimmered that strongly. Or, at least, she didn't think she had seen it like this before.
Then again, maybe she had.
She added that on the ever growing list of things she could not remember.
The amazement she felt didn't last long. The forestry that lied ahead of her was as wide and seemingly endless as the dark expanse above. It had been a long time since she had last heard a human voice, and these grim realities shrunk the small amount of courage she had left. She had been wandering this place for days, for hours, for innumerable minutes and seconds, and it didn't seem like she would ever find a way out.
As the chill of the evening breeze blew, she clutched onto the jacket that she was wearing and pulled it closer to her. Nights like this were the most brutal because it was when the temperature would decline to such a nearly unbearable level. She didn't know what the exact date was, but she knew the season was nearing winter, though not quite there yet. It hadn't snowed, not as far as she could remember.
However, she wasn't planning on remaining in that wilderness until that happened.
Her breath fogged as she breathed out. She was tired of walking, tired of aimlessly going around in what seemed like an inescapable loop, but she didn't want to give up. She needed to get out of there. She had to be somewhere not here. She was barely surviving with the small ration that she had, and now that that was nearing depletion, she was getting more desperate to find another person who could lead her to more resources.
She constantly imagined what she was going to do when that happens. She thought of a person (a man, a woman, a teenager like her – it didn't matter) running up to her worriedly then asking her if she was alright as they looked over the gash on her head where blood had caked, but then she would only be too happy to have made it out to even answer. Past that, she didn't know what she would do. She was sure they would ask for her name, and all she would tell them was that she didn't know.
And she didn't. She didn't know who she was.
Perhaps that was why her hopelessness was more overwhelming than it should be. She couldn't remember many things. She didn't know her name, her age, where she lived. Did she even have a family? She wasn't sure. All she was familiar with was that bag she had been carrying, filled with a small amount of food, some survival gear, and a few high-tech weapons that she was afraid to touch, and that black hoodie she was wearing with the patch of red circles attached on the right side. She woke up days ago in the middle of a field with these things, her mind wiped of all memory.
Almost all memory, because something constantly told her that the reason why she was here was because of the owner of that hoodie that she wore.
Whoever he was, he was very important to her. Every time she took off that piece of clothing on afternoons when it was too hot and she got a good look at it, a wave of unexplainable sadness would hit her. She missed him, whoever he was. She didn't know exactly what happened, but tears had once or twice come to her eyes whenever she tried to remember. Several times, she had forced herself to recall something, anything at all, about that person, but she always ended up with that one bit of conversation she must have had with him a lifetime ago.
What?
Nothing, she had said. I'm just wondering why your mission suit has a hood on and ours don't.
Mission suit. Yes. That was what it was called.
The boy had smirked. Jealous?
No, she responded with a chuckle. But I'll definitely suggest it for the next upgrade.
His smirk turned into a smile. You know, if you just want to try it out, I can let you borrow it, he said. Just once, though. You can't have it permanently. The only way you can have it permanently is if something happens to me, and I can't go on any more missions.
Her smile vanished when he chuckled. That's not funny, Leo.
That was all she would recall, her calling the boy Leo.
She kept thinking back on that name, hoping that it would trigger something, but—nothing. Her only memory of him was that conversation and the hoodie she had. She had thought about it before, about what had happened to him.
She knew it wasn't good, because she was the one wearing this jacket and not him.
A loud snap somewhere behind her put her on high alert. She looked around attentively, her grip on the bag she carried tightening before she ran out of fear. The world around her blurred into a panorama of black and silver – but only briefly. She stopped once another unsettling thought came to her mind.
Her heart pounded. That was another thing she didn't understand. She had an ability that normal people didn't have. She could run fast, as fast as the speed of sound. It frightened her, and although she knew that skill would help in her getting out of this maze, she didn't try it often. She wasn't too sure about it, how it really worked, and, lately, she was starting to realize that her accidental uses of it were taking a toll on her physically.
She didn't know why she could do this, why she could accomplish something that unordinary, but she wasn't planning on abusing it in hopes of finding a reason. At least not when there was nobody there to help her should something go wrong.
A jolt of dizziness suddenly hit her, causing her to almost fall forward. She staggered towards a nearby tree to lean on it. The world continued to shift on an abnormal axis, and after a few seconds it made her stomach queasy. She closed her eyes then told herself repeatedly to calm down. She was afraid and confused, but she knew there was no sense in dwelling on those. She had to pretend to be brave until she made it out.
Through the low chorus of crickets buzzing in the distance and the soft whisper of the nighttime breeze, her ears picked up on the indistinct but very present sound of music and people. Her eyes snapped open as she searched for it. Her head pounded mercilessly as a result, each vein throbbing against her skull as if they were hammers, but she ignored it. She walked unsteadily towards that promise of people and trusted her ears to lead her there.
She kept going forward until the stars above paled into the thick glow of fluorescent lights lining the horizon. She paused, just to make sure that it wasn't a mirage. Then, she briskly walked towards it.
Her raspy breathing echoed loudly as her feet moved urgently ahead, one foot after another as if they were in a race within themselves. She kept her eyes towards the shadows moving in different directions and the glimpse of cars pulling in, and in so doing she tripped. Her exhaustion and injury made it hard to get up, but she mustered whatever strength she could to pull herself to her feet and continue on.
Soon, she reached her goal, and it was as if the world stopped rotating.
There were people, so many of them, and there were also countless of lights and booths and rides. There was life out here, colorful and thriving and loud. Her grip on the bag weakened as she gazed at these that she eventually lost her hold on it.
She made it. She was out.
"Miss? Miss?" She turned and found a security guard approaching her. A worried look came to his face when he saw her condition. He took out the walkie-talkie strapped onto his belt then spoke something into it. She didn't know what he said because she was too preoccupied with looking back at the people who were staring at her as they passed by. "Help is coming, miss," the guard told her. "Can you tell me what happened?"
"I…I, uh…I don't…I can't remember," she said.
"Alright," he said. "Why don't we start with the basics? What's your name?"
"I…Um—"
"Bree!" a bellow came from somewhere not far. "Bree!" They both turned, and soon, a teenaged boy, tall, dark-haired, and with brown eyes, rushed in to join them. He scanned her face anxiously, the sinking feeling only worsening as he looked at the wound on the side of her forehead. "Bree. Are you okay? What – what happened to you?"
"Do you know her?" the security guard asked.
"Of course. I've been looking for her, my dad and I have. She's been missing for days."
The security guard only frowned at him suspiciously. "Miss? Do you know him?" he asked her.
She lifted her eyes up towards him. He did seem familiar. "I think so," she said albeit unsurely.
"You think so?" the boy repeated. "Bree, what are you…You don't…you don't know who I am?"
She shook her head.
"She needs medical attention," the security guard said.
"I know, I know. Our car is parked right there. We're going to take her to the hospital now." When the man continued to look at him unsurely, he said frantically, "What, do you need me to show you an ID? She's my sister! She's hurt, okay, and we have to go now!"
"Alright," the security guard yielded, but he was still untrusting. "Can you manage to get there by yourself?"
"Yes," the boy said angrily, placing an arm around her to steady her as they turned to go.
Before he could lead her away, the security guard grabbed the boy's arm. "Wait. What's your name?" he asked.
The smallest of smiles crept to his face, the kind that an untrained eye wouldn't detect. "Sebastian. Sebastian Krane," he said. "Don't worry. I'll make sure Bree will end up where she should be."
;) I think I may just turn this into a multi-chaptered story later on.
Just a side note, please don't mistake the Breo-ness in this as something romantic. They just have a strong sibling relationship. :)
Reviews are appreciated, guys.
