Chaos Theorem

Chapter 1: Question Everything

My first thought was to try to call someone I knew. I hadn't had a chance to use my phone at its full capacity in a long time, for... reasons, which I wasn't going to get into now, because, as I had already decided, I had bigger problems.
"What the..?" I whispered disgruntledly to myself.
My calls app had been deleted! And my messages app, I discovered once I went to look for that too. So, I was isolated. Fun. But there were people everywhere, someone had to know what was going on!
I looked back at the strangely placed, cuboid room in the populated plaza.
Someone had to know... right?
But I still had more things to check on my phone first - like for injuries. I had woken up in a random room in a random place, with no clue as to how I got there or who had decided that I should be there. I could have been drugged or knocked out, and I thought that viewing myself in the camera was the best thing to do.
My hair was somewhere between ginger and blonde, with attributes taken from both my dad and mum respectively. It was still short and naturally messy, and when I turned to check for injuries behind my ears it bounced in all of its chaotic glory. I then ran my hand through it, just to see if it pained me after I did so. It didn't, thankfully. My hair was too thick to search it for scratches.
My eyes were greenish-blue, (again, taking attributes from both my dad and mum) and also looked normal. My nose was small and unbroken; and trust me, I would know if it was broken. I was the clumsiest person I knew...
...Which also was the cause behind the scratch on my elbow. I had done that the previous week. Hit it against a tree while I was walking. A classic Kat thing to do, so I was told. My shirt had short sleeves, which allowed me to see this, and the shirt was white with stripes that were red, almost like a cherry! Ooh, I loved cherries! They're so sweet, and-
Ahem. That was a flaw of mine - sometimes I got a little distracted from my primary objective, which was to analyse my phone for evidence!
Keep on analysing. Don't get distracted by cherries.
My jeans, blue and pre-ripped on the knees, and my shoes, forest green high tops, were also the same, scuffed just the right amount, just like how I'd left them. So I couldn't find anything there, even if I did look very stylish.
The next thing I noticed (something which might actually have been considered evidence of something being up and it not being just me being forgetful) was that my battery was at 100%. This was befuddling particularly because I hadn't had an opportunity to charge my phone for over a year. So who - or what - had charged it? Something else to add to the pile of mysteries.
And also my phone app wasn't all that was gone. The clock was gone too, including the time at the top left of the screen. I didn't even know that was possible!
Slowly, I slipped my phone back into my jean pocket. I had ransacked it enough now, and it honestly wasn't getting me as far as I'd hoped it was, despite checking your phone not being a natural start for investigating your own kidnapping.
It was time to interrogate someone. As someone who hated confrontation, I really didn't want to.
But what choice did I have?
"Um, excuse me?" I asked, which made me feel better; it was less of a confrontation now, more of a polite question.
"Yeah?"
When the man turned around, I saw via his pointed ears that he was an elf. That was also evidence. To what? I didn't know, however I did know that elves didn't hang around normal theme parks, unless it was cosplay, which this was certainly not.
I smiled jovially (maybe too jovially) and asked quickly, "Is it ok if I ask how you got here? Like, I don't mean to intrude on anything, but I've always been inquisitive, and-"
The elf's original, steely face slipped seemlessly into an equally jovial smile, providing me comfort, "Slow down, slow down. It's ok, you aren't bothering me."
"Okie!" I gave him a thumbs up and sighed dramatically.
"I'm guessing you just woke up in that room? 'Cos I did too. That's all I know, sorry."
"Oh," I shrugged, "That's fine. Sorry to bother you."
The elf nodded, and then started to run eccentrically towards a rollercoaster. At least he was having a good time...
But I was only left with more questions than answers.
I started to wander aimlessly, as if the answer would walk up to me randomly, and say 'hello'! I was not that lucky, although there would be comedy value if the answer did just appear, like in a puff of smoke. Maybe it'd come off of one of the rides? Maybe it'd just get off, and walk up to me and ask me if I wanted to know the secrets of the universe. There were a lot of rides - rollercoasters, ferris wheels, a drop ride which was very high, and looked very dangerous.
In fact, all of the rides looked dangerous. It might have just been my perplexed position clouding my ever-weakening judgement, but I couldn't trust these rides. Something about this place screamed 'TRAP!' in capital letters, and I didn't want to be there when it was revealed why.
"Are you lost?" a woman asked. A human woman. How were the elf and the human in the same place?
"I- I'm fine." I replied. Rather than being overly happy, I now seemed overly stressed, almost rude, in my approach. What was happening to me?
Chill, Kat. You're in a theme park. Enjoy yourself.
Nonetheless, I didn't fancy any more interactions, so I put in my earbuds. I went to put on music, but I realised that I also needed to think. No music today.
And then the thought sliced across my mind; this was a theme park! There were rides everywhere! If something was truly up, then I would find it there. Or maybe I was just being overly optimistic... yeah, probably the second thing.
Sighing, I joined a queue for the first rollercoaster I saw (which was definitely a huge mistake - I waited for over an hour) and then got onto the ride once I got to the front and after a lot of dead-end thinking.
I was placed next to someone I didn't know. She was human, and she didn't say anything when I sat down next to her. I didn't think anything of this at first...
...But then I realised that everyone was there by themselves. Nobody was talking. Had the elf been with anyone? I knew that the woman who talked to me certainly wasn't...
Was it a coincidence? Was my mind just unraveling under the stress, like a yarn ball being attacked by a tiny kitten? Something seemingly innocent with predatory instincts could be a description shared between Mr Kitten and the theme park. But which did it apply to most?
The ride itself was fun, and shook some of the excessive amounts of questions from my head, which was actually appreciated because I needed to focus on one thing at a time, and this was no way to do it.
The confusion itself had definitely eased, but it hadn't rid itself entirely. It would just have to be a moment I'd look forward to later.
Now, the next step was to figure out the catalyst that'd get me to my happy ending faster. Talking to the elf and observing the people on the ride wasn't enough - I needed to talk to a staff member, aka my catalyst. The staff member on the ride was busy with other people and I didn't want to be a pain, so I didn't bother them.
However, restaurant staff would not be able to escape my interrogation! 'But wouldn't it be easier to find customer services?', I hear you ask. Well, finding a restaurant would be more fun, for undeterminable reasons.
Also, I was hungry.
I wasted another half an hour searching for a restaurant. All of this searching and queueing was starting to take a toll on my mind, compounding with the obscene amount of questions to form a thick paste, which made me brain ooze discomfort, despite being around a rainbow of bright colours, which were my favourite! As in, I didn't have a single favourite colour, I just loved all colours, but the colours were annoying me. I clearly wasn't ok.
And the restaurant I found made me even worse. It was CLOSED! What the heck!
I sighed, defeated, running my hand along the crumbing paint. It flaked under my finger, and I let it blow away from my finger in a strangely mellow wind. I slumped down against the frail glass door and banged my head against the dirty glass softly.
Why would the restaurant be closed? Where were all the staff members? And why the hell was this place so goddamn big?
I sighed yet again.
Too many questions. Not enough time to answer them.

To be continued...

Words: 1564
Pages: 9.5 (16 in total)