CORRUPTED FILE [Lumina Chronicles Past Drafts]

Level Two: Beyond The Door

We stood perfectly still for a moment, waiting for something magical to happen, like it does in the books and movies and games. I waited to feel that magical tingle, or rush of air, or maybe a random lamp post with a goat-man waiting for us. Nothing happened.

"Well, we aren't in Narnia." I sighed.

"Oh well," Elle shrugged. "It was worth a shot."

"Maybe we should head back now. It's getting late." I observed. The sky was starting to turn a pretty shade of pinky-orange.

Elle nodded and we stepped around the door, walking back to Elle's house on the path we took to get there, laughing and joking all the while. After about ten minutes of walking, we started to get worried. This did not look right.

"This is the way we came, isn't it?" I looked over my shoulder at the path behind us to double check.

"Yeah, but... Shouldn't we have seen the big cluster of blackberry bushes by now?" Elle questioned.

"Maybe we already passed it but we didn't notice because we were talking." I smiled, so as not to worry Elle. She had a problem with overreacting.

Elle smiled back weakly, the worry plain on her face.

So we continued to walk... and walk... and walk. Now nothing looked familiar at all. The trees had low hanging vines, the rocks had more moss than usual, even the path we walked seemed, I don't know, odd. Something was most definitely wrong. We should have seen her house by now; instead the foliage was getting thicker.

"We'll walk a bit further, see if we can figure out where we are, but then we're turning around," Elle insisted. "Maybe we just haven't been here in a while and we aren't used to it."

"Alright..." I agreed. A nagging feeling kept tugging at the back of my mind. In my thoughts, Elle's words were repeating over and over: Another world! Another world! But I pushed it away. You don't just go to other worlds, that's crazy! Stuff like that only happens in our video games.

We kept going down the path, hoping her house would just pop out of nowhere like: Surprise! Welcome home! Instead, a giant, dark stoned building loomed ahead of us at the end of the path. It's It was a castle. A freaking castle, complete with turrets, a drawbridge, and a moat.

. . .Surprise! We're lost!

Elle's jaw dropped. "Oh. My. God."

"Toto, I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore..." I forced a laugh.

"We are lost, we are lost, we are so very, very lost!" Elle cried in a panic. "And we're gonna be stuck here, forever, or at least until some psychopathic creeper comes along and is all like: 'oh look, two teenage girls who are so far from their home that no one will hear them scream.' And then he's going to kidnap us, and then... and then... well who knows what he'll do! The possibilities are endless for a psychopath!"

"Elle! Relax! Freaking out won't help us get back," I insisted, trying to keep both of us calm.

"Then what do you suggest we do? Hm?" she asked, raising her eyebrows 2incredulously.

I bit my lip. "Um.... well...." I had no idea.

"I say we scream," Elle decided. "We scream loudly, ready?" She took a deep breath.

"Elle, I don't think that will be helpful. "

"No, really, let's try it. It could attract the psychopath quicker so we can just get it over with."

"Elle, come on! We need to think this through and--"

"Mags, I'm screaming on three whether you like it or not. One..."