The Wood Between Worlds

Chapter Uno

Every story has a beginning.
Mine began with a vacation, a train crash, and some little plastic rings.
This is true. All of it. This is not just my story, it is my warning to all of you.
If you are reading this, you have gone to the woods.
Go Back.
It doesn't matter if you came from an awful place.
This place might be worse.
Please listen to me.
And if this warning didn't convince you then maybe my story will...

I stare down at the package that just arrived. "if I don't open it, maybe this will all have been a dream." I think. But no. you can't reverse the past. Slowly I reach down and pick it up. Numbly thanking the postman and going into my room to cry. I sit down on my bed and start going through the contents. The suitcases came already so these are only the possessions that they had on them when IT happened. I pick up each object and hug it tightly. This is all I have left of them. All I have left of my family. When they went on that vacation, I never imagined that this would happen. They are all gone. All of them. Aunts, Uncles, Grandparents, cousins, parents, and siblings. I shouldn't have gone back home early! Finals don't matter. Not compared to this!

I dig to the bottom of the bag, looking for my parents wedding rings, when all of a sudden, I feel strange. I yank my hand out of the bag, but it is too late. Whatever it is that I touched seems to be pulling me in. "help me!!!" I scream. But no one hears me, I am not in the foster home anymore. I am submersed in something that feels like water. I frantically try and swim towards the light at the top but, though I can more my arms and legs with relative ease, nothing happens.

Just as quickly as it started, it ended. And I come out of a pool into a forest. I start too feel odd. Happy and content, like I've lived here all of my life. I've never been any where else! Of course I've always been here!  I feel so at home. Then I glance down at my bag and it all comes rushing back. With my sense returned to me, I let out a scream.

"What happened!" I yell into the empty forest. Something in the bag triggered this, and I'm going to find out what it is. I dump everything out, making sure not to touch anything. I recognize everything in there except for two dirty plastic-looking rings. I hesitate, and then pick them up. Nothing happens. Disappointed, I stick them in my pocket and go check the water to try and tell if it is safe. While I am in the water, I accidently stick my hand in my pocket and fall through the ground, back into that strange, watery teleportation. This time, I am paying attention. I start to see the roofs of buildings, and the inside of my foster home. I'm back! When I finally land, I realize that I left the bag into woods. "Oh great!" I say to myself. "now I have to go back there!" but as I think about it. I realize that maybe I WANT to go back. There, I don't have to worry about getting adopted. And think of all the other pools! Where do those lead? The more I think about it, the more I convince myself that I HAVE to go back. So, I grab some non-perishable food, my sleeping bag, a backpack, multiple changes of clothes, and other stuff to help me survive there. Then I grab the rings and try and figure out which one takes me there. I touch the green one, but it doesn't work. I put it in my backpack, grab the yellow, and arrive back in the woods.
When I get there, I stick the bag that I had left there into my bulging backpack. Then I mark the pool I came from, slip on the green ring, and plunge into the nearest pool.

That's all for chapter 1! ;)