Cupid's Bow
Chapter 1
*~(*)~*
.
.
.
I do, in fact, land on my feet. Though I don't stay that way for very long.
The shock and adrenaline coursing through my veins has me toppling over in no time. When my butt hits the plush underneath me, I watch the Stream hovering around me retract and shoot back up into the sky. The pain that accompanies its departure is excruciating, adjusting to new atmosphere and pressure and air, and of course, the realisation of the fall.
Tears spring forth, and I curl myself into a tight ball, gasping breath back into my chest as I fight the building urge to just… just…
But I don't. The last thing I need right now is to let Them know I'm here.
I lose count of time as I lie there, but when the worst of the pain begins to subside, I pull myself up. I grit my teeth at the jostling, clenching my hands into fists in the weird softness below me. Grimacing at the feel, I pull them away quickly.
After tumbling myself to my feet, every step I take is accompanied with a quietly hissed, ow. The ground is too soft, providing no traction, no grip. It's so… so ill-defined that I expect every foot-fall to be my last.
"Clouds belong in the sky," I mutter queasily, cringing as my foot hits nothing once more. "Not on the ground."
As I pass – no real route in mind – I glance periodically around me, searching for any sight of the Thing to no avail. The deeper you travel, the closer you'll be, was all I'd been told about its whereabouts. I hate cryptic, but they were pushing me over the edge before I could ask for something more substantial.
So I have no choice but to just… keep going. I'd turned inward, assuming I'd been set at the shallow, but how was I supposed to really know? They had given me nothing; no navigator, not even a plain paper map – just abstract words and a bleary understanding.
I try to avoid looking as much as I can while still looking for the Thing, but it's difficult. It's too coloured, too soft, too infinite. The relief I feel at finding it all rather disturbing rather than enamouring is what keeps me walking, really. I'm still cursing everyone back on Earth (well, the few people who'd sent me here, at least) but I manage to keep the angry muttering to a minimum.
They (meaning we, but not really) call it Cupid's Bow. I just call it Oblivion.
More time ticks over, and I'm startled by the ever growing brightness of the day, and even more so by the ever increasing heat – such as I've never felt before. My skin feels positively flushed as I pause on the clouds to take a breather. My hand forms a shield as I hold it above my eyes. It's too bright, too hot. Discomfort takes hold of my body and throat as my clothes start to stick, my mouth to dry.
"Oh no," I whisper, panicked, when I swipe my hand across my face to find it covered in sweat. Sweat, for crying out loud!
Addled, the only thing I can remember then is that I'm losing water, and becoming dehydrated is very, very bad. So logically the thing I have to do is –
"Find water," I whisper.
Despite the heat, the sudden urgency kicks my limbs into action until I'm running – where else? – deeper into Oblivion.
OoOoOo
OoOoOoOo
OoOoOo
I run until the dryness in my throat becomes painful, and then I run some more.
I thought it was my vision clouding and tunneling around me when the world started to grow narrower, but after a while I realise the world actually is. Soft and green brush against me as I push through, dragging over my sweated-through clothes. And it seems all of a sudden to get dimmer, though hotter at the same time.
Panic is at the forefront of my mind, and I can't tell whether it's sweat or tears that blur my vision. But it doesn't really matter which it is, just that it is one of them.
What's a bit more water? I think, choking back the hysteria burning my throat.
To distract myself, I try to think of all the names I'm going to call Banner and Birdy and the whole damn institution once I find the Thing and am back in the blessed land of normal. Unfortunately, that doesn't last long, as all of the really mean words (and really nice ones) were locked away and hidden all those years ago.
Rude, is mostly what I come up with.
I want to stop for a minute but I'm worried I won't able to start up again if I do. So I carry on running, and sweating, while my eyes work mile-a-minute, simultaneously searching for water and for the Thing I need to find to go home.
And then something.
Something glitters in the corner of my eye.
I immediately come to a standstill, but the sudden loss of momentum wobbles me, and I trip over my own two feet into the softness below. For the first time, I feel grateful for it, because with sturdy ground, that probably would have hurt.
I freeze as the glitter sparkles in my vision, clearer this time. Instinctively, I tilt slightly and crawl a little closer, my fast heart only going faster as I –
Water!
Clear and shining in the too-bright brightness and glinting like something I've never seen before. But it doesn't matter. Water's water, right? I try to see a little better. It's weird looking, oddly sparkling with facets of colour… but it's definitely water.
Almost giddy, I creep through the green, never losing sight of it as I crawl through the ground-air. As I get closer, the fire in my throat seems to burn hotter, so aware that relief is so close. Sweat still drips into my eyes and down my neck, but for the first time since it started I don't care because there's water! A whole pool of it!
I'm almost there when I hear a noise, and I freeze.
Melodic giggles swell around my ears as I crouch there, hidden beneath green, enclosed by yellow and purple and blue and red. Panicked, my gaze leaves the pool and darts to the left and right of me, breath catching when I see.
When I see Them.
.
.
.
*~(*)~*
A/N: Are you ready for Them?