No. 1 - Folklore (52 short stories challenge)

Chapter 1 - These lands

The air was hot and smelled like adventure. I remember shouting "I'm off mum!", and running to the big, wide green, decorated by lilies, violets, tulips, roses, dandelions (A/N: I used animal crossing for the flowers hehe) and other flowers we didn't know had names. Jake and Robert were already there, running and running, chasing butterflies. "3, 2 aaand, 1!" Hand in hand, they jumped a big jump and threw themselves onto the grass, breathing in all the different flavours of flowers. Sour and sweet, strong smells and faint smells. The sun was blinding, but the grass was soft like Mr. Willson's wool carpet and the flowers danced a slow dance to the wind. I ran towards them, feeling that the earth under my feet was alive and we screamed. Not because we were scared, but because we were children, we were free. At least we thought so. And then we remembered who owned these fields we played in and the forest everyone feared so much.

                                                                                             †¡†¡†

I could not see much in the woods, where the moon was banned from sight by big, black trees, but I heard that voice echoing in my head and I felt drawn to it, like when I followed the scent of Ms. Stanley's home-baked cookies. I just had to follow it. It said something, something... One step after the other, I followed the faint whispers and every step felt so light, like walking on clouds. Then I saw a boy, laying on the red grass, his arms twisted into directions they shouldn't see, a river of blood-tears streaming out of holes, where eyes should have been and, like quell-water jumping out of the earth, thick blood jumped out of his neck. My head stopped swimming, but it felt like I was drowning. That boy was Robert. He always stuck the sword with grace, he taught me how to wield one, like he read in books with true heroes. And we would be just like them, true heroes. We trained day in, day out, on fields with flowers, bees, butterflies, frogs, small rivers and big trees to hide under when the clouds cried their hearts out. We thought those fields were ours to protect, together with our families and the elders, who baked cookies for us and who would patch our clothes together, so we could go on to more adventures. But Robert was lying on the ground, covered in his own blood.

A scream. It was Jake. Then a smack and I was on the ground of the ocean. There, the screams and hits sounded muffled and if I just focused on the pain of digging my nails into the skin behind my ears for long enough, I could completely ignore him. And I knew that there was no ocean to hide in, I knew that the shadows would take me eventually, but I couldn't go back to the surface. My blood pulsated in my ears, more alive than ever, when all around me was dead. On the surface, the screaming ceased, yet the ocean kept echoing his cries, in hope to deliver a message. Run.

Their blood spilled and mine pulsated. And how dirty it was. Still it throbbed in my ears, as if to mock me. With one last cry for help echoing, breathing in the flowers of the fields for one last time, one last bite of Ms. Stanley's cookies, one last shout of my mum to "Be back in time for dinner, Leon!", one last glance at Jake's weird sister Lucy and one last mother jumping off a bridge with a troll baby in her arms, I sank into the ground of the ocean, among the dinosaurs. I had no blood to be dirty anymore.

.

.

.

Well, that makes 618 words (edited some words and it should be 626 now)! It's a short story so don't come at me saying it's too short, cuz it isn't. Hope you enjoyed it so far and let me hear your theories about what might happen next! Maybe you have something you'd like to happen next and I could change my outline just a tiny bit... cuz, jokes on you, I don't have some detailed outline! But I do have a rough one (and I probably won't follow most of it), although I still don't have an actual ending in mind. So any ideas are appreciated and likes (or whatever it's called on here again) are also very much appreciated! Have a good day or night and remember to drink some water!!