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Red Rover
Chapter 1
The loud chanting nudged Elyria out of her thoughtless daydream. She was lying down in a field of long grass sprinkled with sunflowers and dandelions. The wind swirled around her, making the grass brush against her ivory skin, softly tickling her. She sat up, the very tip of the grass was level with her eyes but she didn’t have to see the source of the chanting to know what it was.
They were playing again. They always play. She didn’t stand up, then they would notice her and that would be bad. So she sat and picked dandelions, but every time she picked one the chanting would get louder and closer. One by one, closer and closer. She ignored it. After she had enough she stopped to tie the flowers together, making a crown. She then picked another dandelion, held gingerly in her hand, and slowly placed the crown on top of her head.
She closed her eyes and suddenly she was sitting in an oversized golden chair. She was a queen! And with a wave of her golden scepter, a grand ball room appeared, filled with people dancing, laughing and drinking. The atmosphere was intoxicating and soon Elyria too joined in on the fun, her long blonde hair swaying as she danced and laughed.
“Red rover, red rover, send Elyria on over!”
She stopped dead in her tracks. Turning around she saw a group of kids in the ballroom, her ballroom! They were playing that game again and they had called her.
“Come on Elyria! Please play with us!” They called out to her.
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“But why mommy? Why can’t I play?” Elyria pouted.
“You’re much too young darling. It’s too dangerous.” She picked her daughter up into her arms. “You’re my baby and I could never let anything bad happen to you.”
“Pleaseeeee! I’m just as big as the other kids!”
“Elyria. All the other kids are years older than you and bigger than you. Promise me you will NEVER play that game,” she said, with a harsh voice, but her eyes betrayed her. Behind her steely blue eyes was fear.
“Mommy you’re scaring me!”
“Promise me darling,” her voice softened.
“Okay I promise.”
Her mother smiled, “Good girl.” She put Elyria down. “And do you know what good girls get?” Elyria shook her head. “Warm chocolate chip cookies!”
Elyria’s faced brightened. She ran into the kitchen, as she ran her mother’s smile disappeared, her thoughts turned to the game of Red Rover.
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“But Mommy told me not to play that game!” she called back.
“Mommy told me not to play!” one of the boys mocked. “Do you always do what your mommy says?”
“Chicken! Bawk bawk!” one of the other kids started to peck around. Some joined him.
She looked around. All the people were looking at her, watching, waiting to see if she was a chicken or not.
No a queen is never a chicken. “Fine I’ll play.” She stormed over angrily, joining hands with the closest team. As soon as her hands joined, the illusion faded. She was no longer in her dream ballroom; she was in the field again, and she was really playing Red Rover. “You tricked me!” she tried to let go but they wouldn’t let her. She squirmed and pulled but it was no use.
“Red rover, red rover, send Elyria on over!” At first it was only one person chanting but soon everyone was chanting. They’re voices slurred into one steady beat, drumming in her ears, in her head, pulsing through her body. She was freed from their grasps and pushed forward. She couldn’t run away. There was an intangible unwavering force drawing her to the other side. She started to cry, tears dripping onto her white dress. She didn’t know what to do so she ran as hard as she could and her body soon impacted with a pair of arms.
She didn’t break through instead she bounced off and onto the ground with a thud. But the ground she hit wasn’t the field she was in, no, the ground was barren, not even a weed to be seen. Elyria wiped the last of her tears on the sleeve of her dress, looking around with an innocent curiosity only a child could have.
And childish thoughts she did have. What a wonderfully mysterious place! Full of new things, and new stuff to do. And she was finally away from them. She walked around in a blissfully ignorant daze. But as she went on she came to find out that this place was not what she had originally thought it would be like. She walked and walked, and came to the realization that she was lost. Everything looked the same. Dead.
“Mommy— I did a bad thing," she whimpered, tears forming in her blue eyes. This place, she hated this place. How did she get here? Why was this happening to her? She doesn’t belong here, not at all.
Seconds turned into minutes, minutes blended into hours. Maybe it had been minutes maybe it had been hours. Time was different here. It existed but its existence would come and go. Never really here, never really gone.
As she continued to walk she saw someone. No not just someone, three someones. She smiled, and ran as fast as she could propel herself. Tiny feet smacking loudly against the dead cracked ground. As she came closer, she shouted out to them. They didn’t turn around. They didn’t even seem to hear, so she ran harder still. So hard in fact that she couldn’t stop. She was about to run into them! She couldn’t stop, so she braced for impact. It never came. She looked back and saw that they were still playing!
They didn’t even know she was there! She looked closer at them. They were transparent. She waved and shouted at them, she even kicked them. Nothing could get their attention. It was no use.
Defeated, she walked on, wondering what else was in store for her in this new frightening place.
haha_haxxed · Fri Sep 04, 2009 @ 09:28pm · 0 Comments |
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