The Forbidden Side

Lizzie

It was the first time they had seen the crown. Lizzie barely remembered it. She was five, and of course, so were Erin and Adam. The three of them plus Katie, Julia, and baby Justin were trudging through the leaves of the forest across the street. "I need to take a break," Erin complained.

Lizzie laughed. "Wow, already?" Erin nodded. "Ok, race you to that stump!" She pointed to a a small tree stump in a clearing. The sisters took off. They rounded a corner and turned into the clearing. Lizzie, while running, looked ahead at the stump. It was lit up by the brightest sunlight coming down that Lizzie had ever seen. She reached the tree stump, only seconds before Erin. Lizzie sat down on the stump and looked up at the sun. She learned, a minute later, that it's bad for your eyes to look at the sun.

"Forgetting someone?" Adam came though the clearing carrying baby Justin in his arms. "You, know, for a baby, our little brother is kind of heavy!" Right after him, Katie came trudging in. She was carrying Julia. The little girl seemed to be asleep in Katie's arms. Katie walked over to the stump and sat down next to Lizzie and Erin. Adam followed. All six of them looked up at the bright blue sky. Lizzie turned her head to the right and saw where the sky turned from blue to grey. What's there? She thought. Lizzie couldn't even imagine living in a place like that.  No bright, shining sun; no light blue birds chirping in the trees; no sparkling, green leaves on the tops of giant brown trunks, so tall they reach the sky; no color; no happiness.

Lizzie tore her eyes away from the grey skies and looked back at the sun. It seemed somehow brighter than it was a minute ago. It looked gold now, and the sparkle of what seemed to be metal blinded Lizzie's eyes. Even though she was only five, Lizzie was smart, and she knew for a fact that the sun was not made of gold. Lizzie stood up and took a step back. This gave her a clearer view of what she was actually looking at. A crown.

It was beautiful. Gems were scattered all around it: sapphires, rubies, pearls, you name it. It was obviously meant for royalty, and Lizzie couldn't help but wonder why it had appeared in front of her family, and why it was able to float in the air. I'm going crazy, she thought. There is no way that crown is actually here.

Lizzie managed to tear her eyes away from the crown and turn to Erin. "Hey, Erin, do you see that, uh, crown up there?" She heard herself, and Lizzie almost slapped herself on the head for sounding so stupid. She pointed up toward the crown anyway, hoping Erin would see it too.

Erin looked up to where Lizzie's finger was pointing. "Wow!" Erin exclaimed. "I can't believe it, there is a crown there! It's real! Lizzie, let's go tell Mommy!"

"Hold on," Lizzie answered. She turned to Adam and Katie and asked them the same question. Both of them saw the crown, too. Even little Julia said she saw it. Of course the baby girl used words Lizzie had never heard of, but she assumed it meant yes.

"Wow," Erin said again. "Let's see if we can hold it." She reached up and grabbed at the crown.

"Wait, Erin, no!" Katie shouted.

"What's wrong?" Erin asked.

"Don't touch the crown," Katie explained.

"Why not?" When Katie didn't answer, Erin kept reaching for the gold. She finally grabbed the crown and stepped down off the tree stump. "Look," she said, smiling, "I got it!"

"Cool," Adam said. "Let me see." He walked around the stump and over to Erin. He put his right hand on the crown so that him and Erin were each holding it.

"Let go!" Katie yelled. "Now!"

"Huh?" Erin and Adam asked with puzzled looks on their faces.

"Hey," Erin said," my feet are tickling." She started to laugh and so did Lizzie. But the laughter stopped when they all looked down at Erin's feet. They were gone, and so were Adam's. Erin and Adam gasped and started to cry. Lizzie ran around the tree stump saying "What's happening, what's happening?" She came to a stop by Katie.

"Help them! You're the oldest!" Lizzie whined.

"I can't," Katie replied.

Lizzie turned around and watched as her triplet brother and sister slowly disappeared into thin air. First, their feet, then their legs, then their stomachs, then their hands and arms and chests and necks until finally, they were all gone. So was the crown.

"What just happened?" Lizzie asked. "Where are they? We have to find them and save them!"

Katie shrugged. "I tried to warn them. And we can't follow them and save them, they are out of our reach."

"What the heck is that supposed to mean?" Lizzie yelled. Justin started to cry.

"It means we can't go after them, we are forbidden in the place they were taken to."

"But where?" Lizzie asked. "Where are they?"

"Trust me," Katie answered. "Even if I told you, you wouldn't want to go there."

Lizzie looked up. The tall trees seemed to be closing in, covering the sun and sky. She looked down to see Katie looking up, too. "We have to get out of here," Katie said urgently.

"What, why?" Lizzie asked.

"No time to explain," Katie said. "Grab Justin and follow me."

Lizzie ran back to the stump and picked up her brother. She stood there for a minute, trying to figure out what was going on. Lizzie looked around to see bark covering the four sides of the square clearing. They were trapped. A tree branch came flying down from maybe one hundred feet above. It wrapped around Lizzie and Justin and started to carry them up. Lizzie saw Katie's hand reaching out for her to grab. Lizzie wrapped her hand around her sister's and Katie tried to pull her and Justin down to safety.

"Lizzie!" Katie shouted. "Close your eyes and picture our house!"

"What?" Lizzie yelled back. "Why?"

"Just do it!"

Lizzie closed her eyes and pictured her home. It was big, it was beautiful, and it was where she wanted to be. Lizzie wished more than anything that she was there.

And then, she was. Lizzie lay on the bright green grass outside of her house. Justin was asleep on her lap, and Julia and Katie were sitting next to her. Before she did anything else, Lizzie picked up Justin and ran into her house. She clambered up the stairs and put Justin in his crib. Then she ran into her room and opened her journal. She wrote: "Erin and Adam just disappeared! Why?" Little did she know these scribbles would soon become thoughts; thoughts she could never forget, no matter how hard she tried.