Shadow Town

Chapter 2

"Satellite" by Guster was playing softly in background, barely hidden by the rumble of the engine. She found herself doing this more often. She'd escape under the shadow of night, into her black Jeep Grand Cherokee and drive endlessly. "Not even the diary would be enough to make me feel okay," she thought,"I need this."

She usually drove into the nearby woods and followed Antler Creek up to the old camping grounds. It was sort of like a ritual now.

When she reached the camping grounds, she parked her car right in front of the trail sign. She walked behind the sign and took the least used trail. She went to the usual place, a small clearing under a large old willow tree. The clearing had a makeshift fire pit in the middle, she made it. She had taken empty glass beer and soda bottles, large rocks and melded them together using the leftover cement her father had used for their backyard patio. The clearing also had an old white lawnchair, a small red portable cooler, which she hid in a nearby thorny bush. Her family, used to come to this specific spot, because barely anyone ever used it. The trail leading to the "Riddle's Secret Spot", wasn't on the trail map, and to get there you had to go off the trail and behind a large boulder.

She approached the clearing and pulled back the furry tendrils of the willow tree.

"What the hell?!" she whisper shouted.

This wasn't her clearing, it wasn't the "Riddle's Secret Spot."

The fire pit was gone, the lawn chair was gone, the thorny bushes concealing the red and white cooler were gone. All was replaced with something much more malicious.

⤐⤐⤐

Diary Entry #2

June 15 or 16?, 2017

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    Dear Diary, I don't where the hell i am, what time it is or how i'm going to get back. My phone is dead, which makes no sense because it was at 78% when i left home. I tried to go to the riddles secret spot but now i'm here somehow? I've been to this same campsite at least a hundred times, i know the willow tree i've touched it at least a thousand times, so how did i end up here? I'm freaking out!!! I'm sitting on this ledge, as i write this and i cant figure out a way down. Well, now you, the person reading this 1000 years into the future, are probably wondering whether i tried to go back the way i came. OF COURSE I TRIED THAT IM NOT STUPID! After i stepped through the leaves of willow tree and i felt this strange force closing behind me. I turned around and saw that the willow leaves were still there. Well i pulled them back only to find more leaves, pulled and more leaves, LEAVES EVERYWHERE. i tried to keep going but i felt suffocated and the leaves began tightening around my body and i was like heeeellll no and got the fuck outta there. I'm beginning to think i'm stuck in a bad science fiction story.

Sad face.

    After she put her pen down and put her diary back into her knapsack, Astor beheld the surroundings around her. She was sitting on a cold, hard black marble ledge which stood high above the ground. From her perspective she could only guess that the marble ledge she sat upon was part of a building. The sky and the earth were a scene to behold, the sky was literally glowing fluorescent neon colors with scattered void black clouds, the earth was a hazy, sharp place with plenty of nooks and crannies to hide vile creatures. And the smell, she knew she wouldn't forget. It wasn't exactly pleasant, but it wasn't putrid either. The best words she could use to describe it was bittersweet, like someone left a bouquet of roses to rot in the sweltering sun. She knew her surroundings were freaky, but somehow she was still drawn to it.

    She searched the marble ledge, she was in a cave-like structure. From the jailish leaves behind her to the very end of the ledge was about 20 ft of space. The walls and the ceiling were marble too, the walls stretched about 5 ft about above her head, so 10 ft tall. She cautiously approached the end of the ledge and immediately looked up. It appeared that she actually was in a building like structure, the marble above her stretched up the skies and seemed endless. The marble also had opening like the one she was in, hundreds riddled along it's surface which seemed to slant at a very slight angle. The black marble surface reflected the strange glowing lights above her and she couldn't tell whether it was night or day in this strange dimension.

    She looked down and saw that she was about 40 feet from the ground. She began feeling dizzy and sick, she hated heights which stemmed back to childhood when her best friend had pushed her from a one-story window in a bout of anger. Her eyes analyzed the possibilities and chances of her getting down in one piece but all situations led to nothing good. Shit! How am i going to get down? She looked up and down the smooth marble surface, and realized it was slightly angled. OK, marble it's smooth so maybe I can just slide down? Hmmm it's a stupid idea but then again I'm stupid so i really have no other options here. She planned out a path, since every opening had a ledge that jut out about 3 ft from the surface of the structure she would use them to slow her down so she wouldn't crash to the earth at high speeds. There were about 3 openings below her the she could probably reach if she slid slightly diagonally. Before she jumped, she ascertained that she would have to roll onto the tiny ledges if she wanted to avoid falling the full 10 ft of the openings and breaking her legs, which were precious assets to her at this point. She leaned hesitantly at the edge, not out of anxiety or doubt, but in increasing excitement. Here goes nothing. She held her breath and lept. She got through the first ledge, but she rolled off the side of the 2nd and tumbled face first to the ground.