Identity

Chapter 2

I woke up the next morning and decided to make the most of a Sunday off from school.  I had my mind set on going out exploring.  You probably think I’m too old for that, and maybe I am, but I didn’t care.  I slipped quietly out of the house before anyone woke up, walking around in bare feet and jumping over the creaky spots in the floor and stairs.  I left a note on the table saying where I was.  I strolled aimlessly around for around five minutes until I came to a creek.  I hadn't meant to end up there, but the creek had been my thinking place when I was younger, and it appeared that my brain remembered that. 

It was a pretty little thing, just a small trickle of water, but the stones and trees on the sides of the creek were beautiful. The stream almost seemed dainty to me.  My favorite time to be here was Autumn, because all of the trees turned colors and dropped their amber, green, yellow, brown, and scarlet leaves into the water, where they floated gracefully down the stream, twirling and swirling with the water as if in a perfectly choreographed dance. 

I decided to try to make my way down to the stream, hoping that possible the crystal cold water would wake me from my daze.  It was a bit difficult, though, for the rocks sometimes slid when you put your weight on them, and there were trees dotting the hill.  I got most of the way down by cautiously picking which particular rocks to stand on.  I watched ahead for trees, and soon I was very close to finished climbing down the short but treacherous slope.  Then, just as I got less careful, I put my foot on the wrong rock.  The rocks all fell out from beneath me and I was pulled down the remainder of the slope.

The rocks jostled an bruised me, for as hard as I tried to stay upright, it was a feat that was impossible for me to accomplish, and soon I was swept down the last couple of feet to the stream.  Of course, it was just my luck that I was leaning forward to try to avoid a certain rock when the rocks me the stream, and due to that unfortunate fact, I was all too soon eating mud.  I had somehow managed to face plant in the wet sand at the waters edge.

Ugh!  I spit the mud out of my mouth and tried splashing my face with the icy stream water, but there was nothing that I could do about the mud that splattered all over my t-shirt, or the fact that my shoes were covered in mud and had loads of pebbles in them.  I had the unpleasant feeling that the stones in my shoes took up more space than my feet did. 

I climbed up the slope and wiped the remaining muck off of my arms and face and neck with some grass, but that procedure had limited success.  I cursed my clumsiness, for now I would have to go back to my house, where mother would go on and on about how I was a “young lady” and was “too old for this.”  Mom thought that I had to be a sophisticated little lady; a perfectly happy girl who was beautiful, wore makeup, had a slim body, and wore dresses.  Unfortunately for her, I hated dresses, makeup made my face break out, and although I had a nice body, you could hardly call me beautiful.  Mom didn't seem to understand that her only daughter liked girly things only once a year, and that although I wasn't a tomboy, no one would catch me alive wearing a dress if I didn't have to wear one.

This was why I woke up early in the mornings, was mom.  I started to make my way back to my house, still cursing at my stupidity.  I was not in any particular hurry to return home, so I just enjoyed the birds, the flowers, and the green trees.  I smiled and whisteled, and thought that although I had bad luck, maybe it wouldn't be such a bad weekend after all.  It was hard to be angry with the sun shining down on precious few clouds and a picturesque world all around me.

I was within about a minute from my house when I heard a pretty bird calling, and as I looked around (still walking, of course), I once again tripped and fell flat on my face.  Of course.  But to say that would be a lie.   I tripped and fell, and I should have face planted, except that there was no ground to face plant into.  I literally fell through the ground. 

Don’t even try to get me to explain how this happened, because I can in no way, shape, or form explain what was going on around me.  I went from a perfectly normal girl who was on her way home to a terrified, confused, and, although I couldn't feel it past my terror right then, excited girl who was in no way normal. 

I ended up falling head first down a chute, screaming my head off.  What was going on?!  I managed to get my feet below my head instead of the other way around, but I was still falling rapidly down a chute.  Now what?  Then, with the same amount of warning I had when I fell down the chute (that is to say, none), I landed on something kind of bouncy and squishy, like a bed.  Only, when I looked down, it wasn’t a bed I was looking at…

It was the floor of a cave.  A cave made of stone.  That apparently was squishy and bouncy and felt like a bed…  This wasn’t right.  So I looked around me at my surroundings.  I was in a room that looked like a cave without an opening.  The chute extended above me, and only then did I realize just how steep it had been.  Just peering up at it, it was enough to make me shake when I thought that I had fallen down that chute. I sure wasn’t climbing back out that way.  But there was no door that I could see.  I looked all around me and walked around the so called “cave.”  It definitely didn’t have an opening.  And although it looked like a cave, it was shaped like a room with a very tall ceiling. 

You have no idea how terrifying it is when this happens to you.  My senses were all mixed up, and it almost felt like my entire body was disconnected.  My touching sense was telling me something different than my seeing sense, and my seeing sense was telling me something totally different than that which my smelling sense was telling me (that I was still outside in the early morning dew and sunshine.)  My entire world had just been mixed up and turned upside-down.  The scary thing, although I didn't know it then, was that if I thought that this was a scary surprise, then I was in for a rude awakening in a bit- and not only would it be rude, but it would be terrifying.

I know, I know.  Thinking about squishy caves that look like rooms instead of trying to find my way out.  But I was trying to figure out how to get out.  I was starting to panic, but only a bit.  I forced myself to stay calm and think… “Think!  THINK!” I yelled at myself. 

And then I realized that if I had fallen through the ground, maybe the door was hidden and looked like part of the wall.  So I ran my hands all over the wall that was within arms’ reach.  I focused on the crags, trying to pick out a doorknob.  I walked around the entire cave-room, but I could not find a door.  Damn it!  I was sure that would work, too!  Now I was actually beginning to panic.  I almost just sat on the ground and cried, but I had a bit more sense than that.  I yelled, hoping someone from above would hear me, but I knew in my heart that they couldn't, and wouldn't, hear me. 

Once again, I tried to force myself to remain calm and think a bit.  So I turned off the part of my brain that was freaking out and not connecting to itself and focused on what had happened in a calm and collected manner. 

Where was I, anyway?  I had fallen through the ground, down a chute, and into a cave-like-room without a door.  What did this mean?  I envisioned a door, wishing that it were there, that it would magically appear, but I was beginning to accept that I wouldn’t get out.  I pictured the door exactly as I wished it was- a little rainbow door with a white doorknob, and a door about six feet tall and two feet wide.  When I opened my eyes, I practically squealed in surprise.  There, right in front of me, was the exact replica of the door that I had just pictured.  So I walked cautiously towards it, and, seeing no evident danger, put my hand on the white doorknob, turned it, and walked out into…  well, not what I was expecting, that’s for sure.  Although I really had no idea what I had been expecting.

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A/N:   THIS SECTION HAS UNDERGONE EDITING.  HOPE IT'S BETTER THAN IT WAS :)

hat do you think?  too fast of a start?  I really don't know what I'm doing ;D but I think my plot idea is fairly decent.  Probably NOT what you think it is...  anyway, questions, comments?  oh, do you think I should italicize or bold words that I want to emphasize?  and do I italicize too much?  Please vote and comment and recommend, because this is my first story it means a TON to me :)  Thanks guys!!