NatePat One-Shots

Downwards

His eye twitched as the yellow smell hovered behind him, gripping his shoulder and covering his eyes. It was almost over and soon he could leave knowing they were together, but not knowing who that stranger was. No matter how curious he seemed to be at that moment, he was shaking intensely in his seat and the yellow haze clouded his thoughts and shattered his sight, he wondered if his eye had actually cracked like broken glass. Shiny crystals of fragility and transparence that blind us from the true colors, a thin layer of dust graying any ounce of color until one chooses to stay inside, for the world is not so beautiful today. Matt crossed his legs and recrossed them, biting his lip and trying to hold his breath, the smell was driving him crazy and he was sure it was starting to show. Stephanie was nowhere to be seen and he couldn't just stand up without drawing even more attention to himself, even if no one was even looking at him, too engrossed in the power of love to even notice the man having an internal battle with himself and a smell. Matt was so close to standing straight up and bolting away, but he noticed the shiny pocket watch sitting next to him innocently, shining in the sunlight that bathed the two lovers who had now spoken the vows and were prepared to seal their bond with a kiss. Was this a joke? Did that man know about the smell? Matt snatched up the watch and stared at it in his shaking hand, as if a watch could cure anything but arrogance, obliviousness to the time or day and the whole reason Matt avoided watches or clocks or anything of the sort. He didn't even realize the smell was gone until people started clapping and at that point he stopped shaking, his eye stilled, and his legs no longer crossed. But there was no sound. Nothing. All was quiet but people were cheering and clapping, some crying, some laughing, it was as if everything was put on mute.

"You're running out of time, boy!" A proper voice said.

To his left, where the chairs held space to walk through, was a white rabbit in a waistcoat with a rather large pocket watch. His pink nose twitched as he stared at Matt, now holding up the pocket watch and pointing to the time, which marched on.

"Come along, we don't have much... oh, you get it!" The rabbit snapped, taking off to the garden.

"H-hey! Wait up!" Matt called, going unnoticed by the crowd.

The white rabbit was so fast that it was hard to keep up, the green bushes with white roses flying passed, like stars blinking in the night sky, as Matt hurried behind the furry creature. Unfortunately, his agility was far greater than the theorist's and he eventually lost the white rabbit but ran into two girls who appeared to be twin sisters. They looked about 14 years old, but they also looked quite different.

"We have a secret to tell you!" One said, long hair falling to her shoulders.

"If you're telling me, then it's not much of a secret." Matt replied.

"We shouldn't tell him." The other said, brown curls caressing her ears.

"Oh, but we should!" The long haired one said.

"Now you've interested me, you have to tell me!" Matt said, curious and frustrated.

"No, we don't." Curly hair said.

"In fact, we won't!" Straight hair said.

They seemed so giddy and eager to open their mouths, but Matt didn't have time for this and ultimately decided to ignore them and continue following the white rabbit, or at least where he thought the rabbit had gone. He eventually reached a back exit to the maze that dipped to never ending forest, which was where the white rabbit sat, tapping his foot and pointing at his watch just as Matt was in his sight. Then, he took off running again. This time Matt was determined to follow him, trees and other greenery whipping by, insects and small mammals hiding away, the wedding long forgotten as the theorist finally stopped running due to him tripping on a branch. Dirt and mud splattered onto his face and into his hair, the golden pocket watch still gripped tightly in his hand, the yellow smell seeping into the woods which was the only thing that made Matt start to run again. It was almost an hour before he found a lone tree, burned black with no leaves, as if struck by lightning in a horrible storm the swept the branches away. Nervous, very nervous, the hole dropped off into darkness and he felt as if something had been ripped out of his chest, the fear of looking closer driving him to take a step back and just look at the tree. If this didn't scream bad idea then Matt didn't know what did anymore, but then a thought entered his mind. What was he doing? What would Stephanie think? What would Sean and Mark say? The whole scenario was ridiculous and that prompted Matt to start walking back to the wedding area, hoping that he wouldn't run into those two girls again, most likely family or friends of the groom or the 'bride' but clearly not right in the head.

But as Matt exited the forest he realized how dense it had become, how dark it was, and how many fireflies seemed to float about. They buzzed happily and flew slowly, dipping and swirling, brightly lit by their posteriors. The lights were hypnotic and the theorist wondered if all fireflies were like this, constantly shifting and changing colors, swirling in a spiral pattern and calming his mind. His heart, slowing snails, urged him to keep walking and his mind was full of fuzz as he blindly followed the beautiful insects. The ground seemed to dip and the fireflies disappeared, Matt's eyes bugged as he realized how close he was to falling into the rabbit hole. He was positioned on his hands and knees, each hand on a different side of the opening, leaning into it until his weight forced the loose dirt to fall and for Matt to fall with it.

Ticking in his firm grip.

Down, down, down he fell.

Twisting, swirling, plummeting.

Bookshelves, beds, mirrors, pianos.

Then all was quiet.