Vanish

Emory Chapter 1

For seven years in a row, everyone told me that I'd never be taken; that Legend would never be taken. But something smells a bit off and the bed is insanely cold and extremely hard.

     I open my eyes but there's no difference, it's just as dark as it was with my eyes shut.

     I feel around for something to help me up and immediately notice that I'm high up. Carefully, I sit up and feel around, what I assume, is a metal table.

     Ever since I was ten I was afraid this would happen, that I would wake up and not know where I was or how I got there. Every day for seven years I've had this same dream, played over and over in different rooms with different scenarios. But they all end when I finish the room, so maybe this is just a dream?

     My first instinct is to find a source of light, but yet something tells me I don't want to see what horrors await in this room and that it'd just be better for them to be unseen.

     I ignore that part of my brain as I feel something at the edge of fingertips. I grasp onto it and the room fills with light. I panic and let out a cry as I drop the object leaving me in complete darkness again. I listen as it rolls away on the floor and bumps into a nearby wall.

     I let out a shaky breath and drop to the floor. The floor is rocky and hard, but not unbearable to step on.

     I go towards the general direction of where the item I dropped rolled. Dropping to my knees, I grab the object once again. The room lights up, but not as bright as it was before.

     Now that I can see the object it resembles a flashlight, but there's no button. There's a flat area on flashlight that can hold three fingers. I shift my hand so my fingers aren't touching the flat part of the flashlight. The room goes dark before I replace my fingers in the same spot, re-lighting the room.

     "Alright." I mumble.

     I cast the flashlight around the room, looking for anything that could be useful in this type of situation. But what would be useful for something like this?

     A smaller table sits next to the metal one I was laying on. A pocket knife and sheet of paper sits on it. I make my way to the table, ignoring the dusty mannequins that sit against the walls and the dolls that stand in glass cabinets.

     I grab the pocket knife and read the note, hoping it could shed some light on the situation.

     If you are reading this, that means that you're the next years "chosen one". I was chosen last year and have noticed that the door behind you won't open. There's some kind of code or unlocking mechanism. I think I can open it.

     I turn around and look at the door he was talking about. The person that was taken last year was Prince Alexander. Even the Royals are being taken, yet no one says a thing to stop them.

     There's nowhere to punch in a code, so Alex was wrong with that part, but there is a lock for a key.

     I wander back over to the creepy porcelain dolls in the glass cabinets and look at their hands and around their fragile structures. Each doll gets creepier and creepier; from missing limbs to empty eye sockets, cracked faces to heads turned backwards.

     I shudder as I see a key sitting in the lap of a doll with brown curls and a pink lace dress. It would be cute except for the fact that her face is cracked and she's missing an eyeball.

     Another shudder goes down my spine as I realize that I have to actually get the key from her lap. I shine the flashlight into the cabinet and, with my other hand, drive the knife into the glass. The glass spider webs, fracturing all the way to the edges of the cabinet that she sits in. I pull the knife out and hit the cabinet with the handle of the knife making the glass shatter and rain down onto the floor.

     I squeeze my eyes shut as I grab the key from her lap. I slip the knife into the belt loop on my black skinny jeans and make my way back to the door. Once the key is in the slot the door it slides open, making me jump.

     Behind the door shows a brighter area than the room I awoke in. The walls and floors are made of cracked stone aligned with moss and other type of fungi, explaining the odd smell from earlier. The only thing that I don't like is the amount of corridors at the end of the room that I can enter. Maybe a maze?  Or maybe each hallway leads to a different room?

     I start to head over to the corridor on the far left but stop in front of an old vintage mirror. My light brown hair is changed into a color that reminds me of the galaxy with the dark purples and blues. I'm wearing a black zip-up vest and my black skinny jeans. My makeup is still on but makes my face look darker and more shadowed. The only thing that hasn't changed is my green eyes and the length of my hair.

     I shake it off and start down the corridor hoping that this is still just a dream.