Kicking It (On Hold)

Chapter 9

A/N- Hello! Been some time, huh? I've been on a small trip, and going on another one this month, June. Hopefully I'll be able to get a couple more chapters in on the adventure! :)  -(OK, ME FROM THE FUTURE WRITING SOMEWHERE IN THIS CHAPTER. SOMETHING HAPPENED, DELETING ALMOST HALF OF MY WORK FOR THIS CHAPTER, AND I'M F-ING PISSED. And very sad.. I don't feel like writing now. Maybe in a few days. But, as I write this, I realize that you, the reader, won't notice, because I mean a break from writing this chapter. Though, when you see this, it's in the past, meaning that my break will be over, and you won't see a difference.)

Lucy POV-

  I slowly opened my eyes and a rough cave ceiling stared back. I was confused for a moment, but then it all came back like an electric shock. I sat up immediately to find myself lying on a pink and fluffy bed. It looked very out of place in such an awful atmosphere.

"Oh. you're awake," I heard a familiar female voice call. I turned my head to see a hooded figure sitting at a small round table beside the bed I was on. She lifted her hood down and, yep, there was my mother's face.

  I couldn't speak. No words came out. None came to mind. I stared blankly at the woman in front of me who I deemed dead for so long. "I know you're very confused," she said, "but please, do not be frightened. Yes, I looked like a hideous monster, but it was just all an act. Please, Lucy, do not be afraid of me..." Her voice got quieter and concerned as she spoke.

"I even brought back your old bed from when you were a child."

I slowly looked down at the mattress under me. She was right- my comfy, old bed. It made me feel so many emotions. How she would read to me every night before I went to sleep and how she carefully woke me up every morning.

"M-mom?" Part of me refused to believe it. I didn't like saying that word. It made me feel unsettling.

"Yes, dear. It's me," she -Mom- said back to me.

"I-I can't believe it's really you! How, how did you- I don't understand!"

"You don't have to. All that matters is that you're here with me now, Lucy."

Mom got up from her chair and table and came towards my bed. She sat down on the side and put her hands on my cheeks. I put my hands over hers and my eye started to tear up. Mom undid the strings around my head and pulled off my eye patch. She quickly put her hand over my unused eye and portrayed magic from her hand to my eye. Once she pulled away, I opened my eye and could see. I blinked twice and held my hand in front of my eye that just a second ago was unmoving.

I gasped when I finally accepted that I could see again in my other eye, and looked up at Mom. "M-mom, I- Thank you!" I cried. Then everything went pitch black. "Mom?" I called. There was no response. I could no longer feel the soft bed from under me. I couldn't see farther than my nose. "Mom? Are you there?" I called out again.

"Shh... Don't be such a fool, darling. They are watching..."

"What? Mom! Who? Who is watching?! What's happening? MOM!"

I hear a noise behind me a turn around to find a candle in a holder on the ground, which appears to be solid concrete. I pick up the candle after realizing my magic wasn't working here. That was never good.

As I walked around the barley illuminated room, or hallway, I have no idea, I noticed that the candle light was slowly starting to get dimmer.

"No, no, no, please!" I yelled at the flame hopelessly.

"C'mon, c'mon! Work!" But despite my strange conversation with a candle, the flame eventually dispersed, leaving me all alone, truly in the dark.

"Fuck..."

"Lucy, dear, not such harsh words, please."

"Mother!" I called. I didn't hear her voice again. "Mother! I know you're there!"

It was still an empty void. It was still dark. And I was still questioning my sanity. Even with my other eye able to see again, it didn't aid me in seeing around me. With no other options, I decided to feel around to get my bearings a bit. As I stretched my arms and walked in different directions, I realized I was in a hallway.  

After walking with my arms stretched out like airplanes for hours and hours, I finally gave up. This was obviously getting nowhere. And I was tired. And hungry. And bored. And lonely. And cold. And a whole bunch of other things too. I sat down on the floor and closed my eyes, not much different when they were open, and lay there. I thought maybe I'd hear my mother's voice again and it could lead me somewhere. My hunch was right; I heard a voice. But not my mother's.

This voice almost sounded demonic and really hard to understand, but in the scruffiness of its voice, I was able to make out a couple sentences.

"This is going absolutely nowhere!"

"Just wait. She'll figure it out eventually." Another voice popped up.

What am I supposed to figure out? 

"Would you idiots be quiet!?" a third voice chimed in. "She'll hear you two babbling if you talk to loudly!"

Too late for that, I thought.

Before I could keep listening to the inhumane voices, the flame of the candle I'd still been holding onto burst into flame. The whole thing was on fire. I dropped it like it was hot. (B) yes I did.)

The instant the candle hit the ground, the whole hallway was lit up in flame, but in a strange way. Flames bordered the walls and ground, keeping an orderly amount to each concrete slab. I stood up and, although fire consumed my feet, I didn't feel anything whatsoever. I looked down one side of the hallway to find a dead end, one I was sure wasn't there before. In the other direction, the flames scurried down the tunnel almost endlessly. I started running quickly towards the unending pathway, which swiftly adapted to its name. It seemed to go on forever and ever, no limit in sight. 

I had already lost most of my hope. Was this going to finish it off?   

As soon as I assumed that, the walls started to move, growing wider with more room for me to walk. Then, the ceiling was next. It rose up higher and higher, more than enough room for me to jump. The hallway kept expanding until a voice from above said "Stop. That's enough."

I felt like Alice from Wonderland.

I looked up just in time to see a black top hat slowly descend the floor in front of me. As soon as it landed, a body began to sprout from under it, taking the shape of a man. Once the form officially took shape, I noticed the man looked almost ten feet tall. He literally towered me. No wonder he desired the hallway larger. He wore a black vest with an incredible matching tie and black pants to complete it. The Giant reached into his breast pocket to retrieve a pair of glasses. After putting them on, he looked down at me carefully.

"Finally, you've arrived. Excuse my idiotic partners earlier." He had one of the voices of the three almost incoherent ones.

"Arrived? What are you talking about? Where's my mother?"

"Lucy, dear, I'm very sorry to say, but that was not your mother. However, we knew she was the only one who could inspire you to come here."

I felt like I was going to explode. "...What?"

"I'm terribly sorry! But there was no other way... It was her dying wish," the giant responded.

"Dying wish... From so long ago?"

"No. Your mother did not die from Magic Deficiency Disease. It might as well been an act."

I was getting more confused than ever. "An act for what? Who are you? Why am I here? What "stupid secret" was my mother hiding from me!?"

A/N- Dear reader, sorry if this chapter isn't as good as the others, it's been a while! I just wanted to inform you that when I pulled up this chapter draft to work on it, every time I viewed it, the words I had written were completely gone. I do not understand what is happening and it is really stressing me out. If any of you know what this is, please notify so I can fix it. Thank you.