Old Memories (short story)

My best friend, Dace, walks besides me with a skip in his step, excited that we are finally getting to where where we are going. Dace skipping along besides suddenly trips on a broken tree branch lying on the floor, causing him to stumble over and land like a starfish on the fallen leaves.'Ompf,' he groans as his back collides with the floor. I burst out laughing at the surprised look that took over his face at the sudden impact. I hold my hand out to help him up and he wraps his large hand around my smaller one, pulling me down next to him and making the leaves around up fly up into the air. Soon we get off the floor and start back on our walk to the church where we will rest then start again early tomorrow.

Only I've been to the church before when I was younger but I remember the road to it well like it has been imprinted into my memory. The church has colourful stained glass windows over all the walls with small pictures of the bible traced onto the walls and windows. There are small wooden benches lined in two rows from the doors of the large church to the front where the pastor would speak and preach his believes every Saturday and Sunday. The thing I remember most though was the golden painted walls that glittered everywhere when the midday sun shined through the windows. I have so many memories from that place, good memories that I'll never forget.

A few more hours of walking through the woods we got to a small clearing and I know that the church is not that further ahead. I start running once I see the white paint of the church, pulling the doors open and expecting to see the beautiful wonders that the church held but coming face to face with "VINES!" I yell in horror.The perfect church I once knew was covered head to toe in vines, rocks, streams, hills, and dirt. You could no longer see the golden walls or the wooden seats, there was forest covering every inch of the place.

I slowly back away from the church in fear and distraught, the perfect church from my memories isn't the-the place in front of me. no way! I shake my head side to side rapidly, not willing to believe that this is the place that I've always remembered as grand and beautiful.

Dace notices the scared look gracing my face and cautiously he opens the golden doors and peeks inside to figure out why the sudden change in my attitude. "What about the golden walls and doors and the perfect place you always talked about?," He asks with a confused face, his once excited mood suddenly diminishing like mine.

"It's... changed," I reply hesitantly, my eyes still glued to the doors.

"well, I like it" he yells, suddenly excited again and a cheeky smile makes its way onto his face, I smile back knowing that he is always up for a little adventure."let's go" he screams and pulls the doors open once again with ferocity, I lightly chuckle at how he is acting like a little kid.

He grabs my hands and pulls me through the doors into the humorous room. Now that I actually take a good look at the room, it is almost the exact opposite of the place I remember. the walls are now a dark grey, there's water trickling through the middle of it and somehow there are little hills of dirt all through the room, there is also a little bridge leading to the back of the church.

I look over at Dace and see him looking around the room in awe, a child like wonder taking over his eyes as he scans the room. "how did this all get here?" he asks still glancing around the wondrous room.

"I don't know" I reply shortly, still shocked by the drastic change in the room's appearance.

"well I'm tired" Dace announces while yawning and starts pulling two sleeping bags out of his backpack. Nodding in agreement I start to get comfortable inside one and slowly drift off to sleep.

The next morning I am awaken by whispering almost like something was muttering to itself. I peel my eyes open coming face to face with a boy, he has long jet black hair, leather attire and electrifying green eyes, he's looking at me with anger and fascination. "get up" his voice bellows, startling a sleeping Dace next to me making him shoot up. Hesitantly I get up not breaking eye contact with the stranger, he doesn't look that much older than me. Why is he here? His hand suddenly shoots out grabbing my wrist in a death grip and drags me along the ground. I scream out for help but no one comes to my rescue, there is no one else here but Dace that managed to fall back asleep.

"Why are you here" his voice harsh and dominating, I shrink away from him while I keep my eyes trained on the floor. "did you not hear me," his voice fuming and laced with anger again.

"I heard you" I whisper, not wanting to say the wrong thing in front of him. I can feel the heat of his eyes staring at me almost as if he could burn a hole through my head. I cautiously look up at him and his once bright green eyes are now almost black.

His right hand starts twitching slightly and slowly at first but then started shaking swiftly back and forth. clenching and unclenching his fist with anger. The sudden eerie quietness scarring me, unable to shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen. Suddenly a demonic grin appears on his features, making a sick bile rise in my throat almost as if I'm about to throw up. The grin was displeasing and terrifying making me worry about what is going to happen next. Staring at his eyes almost transfixed in them I watch as they change back to green but this time a darker green. The grin never leaves his face as he just stares at me his eyes swapping colours making me slowly back away from him in fright.

Out of nowhere Dace comes running along the bridge that the boy dragged me across a couple of minutes ago. I watch as the vines that hold up the bridge begin to shift under his weight. he yells at me, "Lizzy!" "Dace," I yell back running over to him. My legs stop moving as though a snake has wrapped itself around them, making a sharp and sudden pain erupt through my ankles. I look down and the vines have managed to wrap themselves around my ankles, slowly making their way further up my legs and onto my thighs. Another two vines wrap themselves around my arms preventing me from moving towards my friend trying to manoeuvre around the vines trying to get at him.

Looking over at the stranger I see that his hands are slowly moving back and forth just like how the vines are tangling themselves over my limbs. The sickly grin on his face before is now replaced with a smirk as the vines keep shifting and changing around us. All of a sudden the vines lift me high into the air, my head almost brushing the top of the church. A scream rips its way from my mouth, my fear of heights consuming me and making me shake with fear. I slightly glance down at where Dace is to see that the bridge and vines holding him up snap and fall into the hole below it taking him down with it. A sudden rip comes from the vines that were holding me up are now breaking and dropping me into a dark abyss.

AN/ Is it good? bad? do they survive or is it the end?