The Unknown Next destination (possible change of title)
Chapter one - The weirdest of things.
Four years ago, something happened to me, and to this day i still don't fully understand it.
I had always been stuck, not knowing where to turn, not knowing what to do with myself, my life was a boring mess. I didn't think i had any skills, in fact i was very self-critical. I didn't have many friends as i always moved school.
Bridgedale high was the only school that i stayed longest in. And though i had been there for a while, i still had not made any friends. it was like i was repulsive or there was a barrier around me. Nobody talked to me, it was like i was invisible, and i don't even think i was visible to half the teachers. It was sunny but quite windy and i awoke quite early by the glowing sun beaming through my bedroom window on to my bed. I could also hear the birds in the distant forest. I knew it was going to be the same day as usual, my mother would make my breakfast without a word said and my dad would ignore me.
The only one of the family i actually got on with was my big sister Anne who didn't live with us anymore, she was four years older than me, she was nineteen.
I wanted to be a doctor, i didn't believe in them far off dreams like an actress or musician i wanted really badly to be a doctor, i got told by my headmaster to go to medical school in the summer holidays. My parents didn't listen to me, they didn't care.
As i got onto the school bus i glanced around for a spare seat to sit on, luckily enough there was one near the front and i sat down but sat on some chewing gum, it stuck onto my pants and everyone laughed.
This was just the start.
Chapter 2 - The roaring yellow machine.
They knew i was going to sit down there. The whole bus roared with laughter, everyone, so it seemed my eyes filled with tears i could barely see them, they were like blurs, but i knew as i look around trying to see the peoples faces, they were laughing, every one of them. Probably crying themselves as they thought they were so hilarious. I removed the chewing gum slowly and sat down on the seat. A tear rolled down my cheek. I moved my attention to outside, We were leaving the neighborhood now, over the big bridge across the lake to the city. My school was was by the lake edge next to the bridge, it was an old building with Gothic architecture. It was badly looked after, clearly the janitor wasn't doing a great job as graffiti was everywhere and litter covered the floors. I didn't feel like i belonged here either. It felt like a school for trouble makers and law breakers.
I didn't have any friends, everyone else did. I did great in classes, everyone else didn't. But my mam thought i was getting on brilliantly, i mean i was the only good child there, of course it would seem that way. I got of the bus and got pushed and shoved as soon as my feet touched the concrete ground, no surprise as the Rocky crew where always waiting for me in the mornings. They shoved me to the ground and laughed and carried on walking. To be honest, everyone well, bullied each other, there where always fights. I was the main victim, everyone picked on me, girls, boys, it even seemed like the teachers did, well the teachers that noticed me, with snide comments, always targeting me to answer questions.
"Hey Cinderella" a group of kids called across the yard. Yes they where talking to me, i ignored them and carried on walking along the yard.
"Cinderella!" The boy yelled louder. I pased quicker across the yard to my goal, the doors.
"Ella get here now!" Someone yelled so loud everyone in the yard looked. I stopped in my tracks, frozen, unable to move, i slowly carefully turned around to find Edward the biggest bully in school, and when i mean biggest oh i meant big, big as in 60 stone big, well not 60 stone, but pretty fat to be honest. But no one bullied Edward, not the rock. He was a good distance from me and everyone was looking, behind him was in fact the rocky crew, his crew.
"Why didn't you answer them?" Rock shouted. There was silence. "Eh? Tell me." "I'm Not..." I Mumbled quietly. "I'm not Cinderella."
"Yes you are, i say you are." Rock laughed. "Stupid person." He walked up towards me. He slapped me hard across the face and i felt myself fall to the ground. I couldn't do anything, i looked around, everyone was watching, eager to see a fight, rock yelled something and the rocky crew moved in. They started kicking me. punching my ribs and kicking my legs. Then one kicked me hard in the face. i saw the foot come towards me then blackness. and this is when my story starts.
Chapter 3 - Awaken.
They say when your in the desert, you hallucinate, you start seeing things, when your so dehydrated. But can you hallucinate the desert itself? I awoke to find nothing but sand, as far as the eye could see and further. the sun beamed down and the rays made it so hot. My only choice was to walk, and to keep walking, forward and forward, not knowing where exactly my destination was. A few hours later i was still surrounded by the endless sand, i had walked over mountains of the stuff and there had been no water, no animals, nothing. I stopped. There was no clouds, it was a blue sky and the sun seemed huge. i still couldn't get how i was here, suddenly. i thought i was in a dream, i tried pinching myself, yet nothing worked. I stopped in weakness, hungry and thirsty, i couldn't go no more. Something, like a gut feeling made me turn my head to the right and as i did there was a camel, a real life camel coming towards me, with buckets - Buckets! I have to be hallucinating right? I used up my strength and ran towards the camel, it didn't run away, it practically ignored me. I grasped my hands onto the camel, Pulling down the buckets.
There were four buckets. Inside was water, shiny clear water! The water was cool and refreshing and it wet me from head to toe as i threw it over my body. It cooled me down as it tingled down my boiling hot, dry skin. The second i drank rapidly, yet half of the water spilled down my front. the third placed on the ground by my feet. I did the same with the fourth bucket. The camel didn't seem to take notice on what i was doing.The had stopped for me though, and just as i placed the fourth bucket on the ground, the camel carried on walking. I watched it until it was out of sight over the sandy mountains. "that was weird." i thought to myself. A while after walking some more, i finished the third bucket. i placed it upside down and sat on it. i looked around. Silence.
Eventually i rose from the bucket i was sitting on, wiped the sweat off my forehead with my sleeve and headed in the opposite direction the camel had came from.
I wasn't alone in this desert, insects and lizards scurried around me, on their own journeys, doing their own things not even noticing i was there.
I pondered continuously about how i had ended up here and how a camel had came along with water. My question was always why, i had no explanation at all. My mind was muffled. I was baffled.
In the distance i saw a large silhouette but could not make out what it was. My eyes were weak and were heavy. The air was humid and i could taste sand on my tongue. I kept walking but it never seemed to get closer, i felt like crying but i didn't feel like i had any tears to produce.Eventually the object became more focused and i noticed it was a sign, a large sign with some sort of billboard on it. Standing head on below it i looked up and i could make out it was an advert for mountain water. The words read 'Quadrennial water'.
I was quite upset. I felt as though i was trapped, like it was hell, my hell? Is there a hell? Like i had been sent here. Was i meant to keep traveling? Was i meant to find a way out? Find a way to die? No, that is absurd, surely. What was i doing suddenly in a Desert? I sat and sulked and i didn't know what to do next. As i glanced around, i hoped that i could find a way out, a way to get away from this place as my faith was being torn more and more, the more and more i walked along the sandy ground. Dragging along my fourth bucket of water with me. i was persistent to carry on walking.
I heard a cough behind me and shocked i turned around.
No more than three foot away from me was a silhouette of a person. I reached out in hope they would form before my eyes or grab back or something. I was so desperate. I Grasped onto what i thought was their arm. 'Ouch' i thought as a i pulled my hand back towards my chest quickly, i had been stung. I looked to see, what i had grasped in hope was someone else, was in fact nothing more than a cactus. I should of known. i put my hand which was throbbing into my pocket and ran back to get my bucket of water. I looked in to see it was half empty. I wanted to Cherish this last amount of water, and keep it for as long as i could. I grabbed the bucket and walked in the direction of west, towards where the sun was setting and the sky was still warm and stuffy. Everything was so confusing.
Chapter 4 - Switch
My mind had lost sanity, I couldn't see properly, my throat was dry, i had finished all my water. Did i deserve this? I had lost hope of looking up and now my eyes trailed the ground but everywhere was just sand. The sun was setting now. The time was unknown. Was there even time in this world? The Sun finally went and as the last beam of light went down here was a white flash and i swore i saw my house, for those three amazing seconds i saw my whole life around me. and then it started to get dark, the sky was now an orangery colour just following along behind. And i turned to the east to see blackness creeping up. So fast it was scary.
Everything suddenly went Fuzzy and i found myself sitting on the grass somewhere. My hands felt the soft ground and it felt lovely. I looked about, everywhere was green, in fact i was unsure where i was. i stood up and looked up, blue sky, Clouds! Trees where everywhere very tall trees, and brown vines and i could hear a dozen different birds, and other animal noises. I was in a jungle. My destination had suddenly switched.
I looked around and ran straight through the wild surroundings. I ran straight all the way through and didn't stop. I could hear noises around me and birds flew about. Leaves fell to the ground and branches snapped at my feet. I saw blue sky in front of me and i ran faster with all my strength, i heard a roar and leaped, i leaped so quickly and so high, i landed on pebbles. And i looked up to find i was on a beach, a pebbly beach, and there in front of me was water. Sea water i was sure of it. there was water and more water everywhere where i looked. i turned to find the jungle i had just ran out of. I decided to walk along the pebbly ground and to see how long the beach was. I found a old wooden box which had been washed up from the shore. Stuck on a nail was a red scarf. Bright red. I found a stick and tied the scarf onto it. I placed the stick onto the box and left it as my starting point. I walked along the shore. the tide was calm and the air was cold and breezy. I came across lots of different things washed up. A watch, a empty bottle, a load of wood, a bracelet, a child's plastic tiara and a baby's shoe. I looked in horror. how and why was a Baby's shoe washed up ashore? I felt a sudden feeling of sadness. To think possibly there was a ship or a plane crash and this was the leftovers of the passengers on board. The thought gave me a shiver up my spine. I carried on walking, head held high.
Chapter 5 - A clue of destination.
Splut, splut, splut, splut. The rapid sound of running footsteps grew closer on the shore behind me, and I spun around to face a young woman dressed in a bikini and sarong, an infant on her hip. "Miss! You've dropped something," she said to me, and I paused to let her catch up. The shore behind her was expansive and barren. Where on earth had she come from? And what could I possibly have dropped? I took a quick mental inventory. No. I had nothing, and I had lost nothing.
"Here you are, dear," she said, her outstretched arm offering me a rhinestone bracelet.
The bracelet was familiar. I had spied it in the sand just moments ago. "That isn't mine." My voice betrayed a combination of regret and exhaustion, as well as a maturity that I didn't recognize as my own.
"Don't be silly. I just saw you drop it." Insistently, she placed it on my wrist. It was much shinier than it had first appeared in the sand, and I admired it for a moment before taking it off.
"Really, I didn't drop it. Please take—" But as i looked up the woman was gone.
But the infant was here, sat in the sand at my feet. "Oh, dear. Oh, no, no, no, no," I chanted, scooping him up in my arms and searching the empty shore for his mother. "Where have you gone?" I shouted into the distance. There came no answer. Not even an echo.
The child's patient face looked up at me, and I noticed for the first time that he wore only one shoe.
I paced around the beach looking into the thick jungle, hoping to see the woman once more. but no luck. I sat on a large rock and placed the baby next to me. I looked at him. He was very unusual and did not seem at all familiar.
"now where did you come from little one?" i patted the child's head. He giggled softly. I looked at the child's shoe, it was very familiar but i could not quite know why it was. i stood up and noticed on the floor, the missing shoe. I replaced the shoe onto the baby's foot. i smiled at him and then noticed a necklace, very similar to the bracelet i was given by the child's mother. I touched it gently and noticed it had a name on it.
"Kai..." i spoke quietly, the wind suddenly picked up and i could hear a small wind chime somewhere in the distance. I stood back up from my kneeling position and looked about, blinding by the strong gust. the wind stopped suddenly. I looked rapidly to make sure the little boy was also okay. He was gone.
Trembling in the sudden stillness, I looked to the east, shielding my eyes from the sun. Seeing nothing, I turned away and found myself squinting into another sun. Concern struck me. Two suns? Was I on another planet?
Before that worry was fully formed in my mind, a loud crash of crumpling trees caught my attention, and I realized I wasn't looking at a second sun. I was looking at the same sun, but from another direction. I had been transported to a clearing beside a forest.
Another crash.
And another.
Getting closer.
The vibrations shook the earth beneath my feet, and I lost my balance and fell against the trunk of an ancient tree. I peered around it just in time to see the owner of the crashing footsteps emerge from the forest.
It was a giant. A real giant. And not just any giant. A familiar one.
Chapter 6 - Edward returns.
My name is Tina. I'm lost.
The last sensible thing I remember was watching Edward make a brilliant demonstration of how stupidly simple and recklessly destructive he could be. I can't call it selfishness because he didn't get anything out of it. It was just a habit. There was a small kid who had responded to the bullies' taunts with a cold, distressed confusion. It was hopeless. Didn't that kid know how to survive? I couldn't hear the kid make any noise over the cheering of the crowd. Disgusting. I couldn't watch. But not my buisness- I turned away, and when I turned back, reality had slipped away and I was left in a dreamland alone.
Eventually I found myself in a forest, watching as, far away, a giant Edward stumbled through the undergrowth. If Edward is changed in this dream of mine then maybe I've changed too. I grip a tree for support as I feel dizzy and my head spins. The feeling subsides, but I worry that if I relax at all I will loose touch with even these shadows of reality. And maybe then... I'll die. I must stay awake.
I closed my eyes and exhaled slowly, calming my nerves to steady the dizziness. The vibrating ground did nothing to help and I cursed my subconscious. Dreams aren't supposed to make you sick to your stomach, I thought bitterly.
A smaller rustling began, much closer, and I turned to look. From the other side of the tree trunk scrambled a figure, frightened, crouched low as its panicked face followed the approaching giant. As I watched, a bit tense now — I may as well admit, I was startled, and the way this thing was behaving was a bit desperate and primal for my taste — it backed into my legs and yelped, turning quickly and throwing itself against the tree.
It was not an it. It was a girl from school.
Why on earth my sleeping mind had conjured up an image of this particular girl, one I'd never so much as heard hello from, puzzled me, and I scrunched up my face to tell her so.
She was silent and stared up at me in terror. It was more than a little pitiful. "You're, er, Cindy, aren't you?" I offered.
"Ella," she muttered.
"Ella," I repeated. I reached a hand down to help her up. She recoiled, then flickered and vanished completely.
No sooner had she gone than the giant Edward reached out and smashed the tree stump into the ground. "Stop being awful, Edward!" I shouted. "Can't we have a moment's peace and—"
And then we did.
The forest was gone. Instead of looking up at a giant, I found I was looking through a ceiling of beautiful colored sea glass, built into a sort of igloo. Smaller pieces of glass dangled from above, and as a warm and gentle breeze blew in through the door, they swayed and bumped together with a soothing and joyous tinkling sound.
Outside, I could see Ella standing at the ocean's edge, facing the setting sun.
The little glass igloo was calming, and I stood still and sighed for a moment before stepping out and trotting toward this odd girl. She didn't look at me as I approached, and I stood beside her, the waves swirling around my naked ankles.
"It's not right here," she said quietly.
"You're mad," I replied. "It's lovely here. It's loads better than that horrible forest." She continued to stare into the ocean. It was awkward. I hurried to fill her silence. "It's like a resort. All we're missing is a five-star hotel to go and stay at."
I turned and smiled at her, but she was gone again. Behind the glass igloo was now a towering luxury hotel. This could hardly be a coincidence.
I spent the late afternoon on the beach. My dream had become a bit dull, admittedly, but I had no reason to complain. It was a strange feeling, being aware of a dream, and as I gazed up at the cloudless sky, I decided I was happy to get used to it.
As night fell, the beach became less welcoming, and the hotel gradually came alive in a wash of warm light and sparkles. I left the beach and wandered inside.
The concierge was very familiar, but I was a lot less surprised this time. "Do I have a reservation for tonight, Ella?" I said.
'I don't know...' i replied whispering, moving my eyes around the room in fear. 'why are you so calm? who are you? where am i?'
'erhmm, i'm in a dream Ella. This is surely a dream.' Kate laughed. 'I'm Kate and i don't know why your in my dream.'
'Your funny. Real funny. Wheres the little baby?' I Yelled and ran out of the building, out of the double marble doors.
'MY RESERVATION?!' I heard Kate Yell back. I ran out and in desperation fell to the ground. Which was in fact sand. i was still on this island jungle place. I ran to the rocks near the shore and looked around, to the sky. The giant was no where to be seen. that terrible monster. What next Mermaids?!
'Its not normal, i know.' Someone spoke to me behind. I dared not turn around. I had too much crazy for one day.
Chapter 7 - Four birds.
I don't think he had been there when I walked out, but then again, his appearance was no stranger than the absence of the hotel I had just walked out of.
The young man didn't look at me, or say any more. He sat in the soft sand and stared serenely into the ocean. His messy black hair falling in front of his very light grey eyes. Too light, I thought, like a blind man. I realized I was staring and turned away with a start, but he hadn't seemed to notice one bit.
I looked back at him as the realization began to form in my mind. Cautiously, I waved a hand in front of his face to confirm what I already knew.
But I was wrong.
"I can see you," he sighed, his gaze at the ocean unbroken.
There was something familiar about him. He reminded me of a younger version of my physics teacher at school, or my cousin Will, but I knew I'd never met anyone with eyes like these. As the shock of this stranger's appearing here wore away, my awareness returned and I looked down the beach to try to decide where to go now.
"Stay," he said, and I, somehow comforted by his familiarity, turned and sat beside him. I glanced over my shoulder at the tall birds. They looked back at me with glassy eyes, but didn't flinch. I faced forward. The ocean was beautiful. Still, I was too anxious to appreciate it.
Minutes passed.
My mind began to clear, and after a while, I breathed deeply and let out a heavy sigh. He finally turned to look at me and as he did, his eyes darkened to an impossibly deep brown, and the moonlit ocean was no longer reflected in his gaze. Only I was. And I knew him.
I scrambled to my feet and backed away. It was impossible. He hadn't lived to be this old.
"Whats your name?" I asked with a stern voice.
"Steve." He calmly spoke without looking at me.
Steve was my best friend when i was six. He had passed away after a tragic accident.
My mother told me he had moved away to a different country but when i got older she told me the truth. It hurt. It changed everything about how i felt.
But my childhood best friend was here? In a jungle? Alive? Older?
I really couldn't handle this.
Chapter 8 - Help.
"Steve, Come over here."
The soft voice came from the double marble doors. It was Tina, He responded quickly to his name with a sharp turn of the head.
"Yes?" He replied.
I watched as he rose from where we were sitting and walked over to Tina.
I noticed they were the same height and their hair colour was also the same.
"Wait!" I called following him to where Tina was standing.
Tina looked at me, and so did Steve. My heart skipped a beat as i noticed how incredibly familiar they were in appearance. There eyes were practically the same. They were the same.
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