Take My Hand

leap of faith

Millie flashed me a wide grin and squeezed my hand. "I knew you'd come around! Come on we need to go before the Backway closes."

I squinted as she pulled me out to the balcony. "The what? Where are we going exactly?"

I watched in confusion as she sat on the ledge of the balcony, pulling me up next to her. "When I get to three, I need you to jump with me, Charlotte. Make sure you don't let go of my hand, okay?"

Excitement and nervousness bubbled in my chest, and I was too overwhelmed to do anything but nod. This was the adventure I'd been so starved of my whole life, the feelings I'd been missing out on. I looked into the night sky, noting how the full moon illuminated the land below us. That's when the full realization of what we were about to do hit me.

"Wait wait wait, Millie! Are we really about to--"

"One!" Her warm grip tightened on my hand.

"You can't be serious right now!"

"Two!" A gentle wind began to pick up, but soon strengthened significantly, whipping my hair into my face. I concentrated on the space below my dangling feet, convinced my eyes were playing a trick on me. A large, flat, spinning circle of violet light appeared on the ground below us, and what lay on the other side was too distorted to make sense of.

"Three!"

We pushed off from the ledge and began plummeting the three stories towards the earth below. While I screamed, Millie whooped in excitement, and yelled: "This never gets old!"

The ground raced closer, and I braced for the pain that was coming when we'd surely make impact. I squeezed my eyes shut as the wind raced past me, and was surprised when it abruptly stopped. I cautiously opened my eyes, and was surprised to see that we had fell through the 'Backway'.

Except now, we were no longer falling from my balcony, but falling from the sky towards a dense forest.

I began screaming again as we pitched towards the forest, grabbing desperately onto Millie's arm.

I'm really going to die. I'm falling from the sky with a strange girl who likes to climb onto balconies, and I'm really going to die. Is this real? It can't be real. I'm on drugs, I have to be on drugs. I wish I was on drugs at this point, honestly.

Seemingly defying the laws of any kind of physics ever (again), we came to a slow stop on the forest floor. Classily, I puked into a nearby bush while Millie stood behind me, patting my back enthusiastically.

"Probably should have warned you before hand!" Millie smiled sheepishly. "But you might have backed out and I couldn't take any chances."

I scowled at her. "Where are we? How did you even do that?"

Millie turned and started walking, motioning for me to come along. "Well, think about it as a parallel universe mixed with Alice in Wonderland. Everything's basically the same except for the time of day. Also it's just way cooler than the regular world, no offence."

"None taken," I replied flatly, "but you still haven't answered my other question, Millie."

She smiled as tiny, glowing yellow creatures appeared in the air around us. Fairies? Millie firmly kicked a rock on the ground in front of her, and an ornate white and gold door appeared. As she opened it, she turned to me and said: "Isn't it obvious? I'm a witch!"

"Really?!" I exclaimed in excitement.

"No," Millie giggled, "witches don't exist here."

I rolled my eyes and followed her through the door, and we were greeted by a sunny, warm paradise. I looked around in awe. We were standing on a wide glass road, overlooking a vast city below us. The majority of the buildings were a burnt orange hue and appeared to be made by hand, yet also looked professional and sturdy. Clusters of people thrived below us, some wearing somewhat casual futuristic clothing, others wearing modern dresses, evening gowns, and suits. I watched as children chased a large bird with holographic feathers down the sidewalk, laughing all the way.

Regaining my voice back, I turned to Millie in awe. "What is this place?"

Millie took my hand as we walked, and waved the other at the land below us.

"Welcome to the Lost City of Morlayah."