Tag: reality

They had to play without her

She cursed her luck that would make her have to drive to her meet up alone, rather than catching the bus with the rest of her team. She cursed it more when her car broke down.

In the middle of nowhere, it seemed. She knew that just over that ridge there was civilization, but at the moment that seemed too far away. Between risking someone breaking into her car and being late for the meet, she chose to risk the car. She couldn’t let the team down.

Stepping out of the ice, she heard the crunch. As confusion overtook her, she looked down at the ice.

But it’s been nowhere near freezing, she thought, clouds suddenly forming as she exhaled.

She could have hidden back in her car, but she knew she wasn’t that far away. There was another road that had more traffic, if only she hadn’t been coming from a friend’s. She could get to town that way. Fast. She wouldn’t miss the match.

One step after another, she left the plane of existence without knowing it.

The Playthings of God (pt8)

Natie realized she was moving again. Her stomach churned, but she only bit her lower lip until she stopped moving. She realized she was on some other smooth surface, brown and wooden maybe, with the Giant nearby. Natie could finally breathe normally again, wiping her face. As she did so, she let go of the branch and what was left of the tree, tumbling to the surface alone with nothing else between her and the strange world she saw around her.

Tears streaming freely, Natie looked around her again. It really could be like a distorted house, the proper size for the bearer of the Hands. The Giant was dipping its hands into a glass box. That box was as big as the world, as far as Natie was concerned.

But the world was bigger than that, because the glass box fit perfectly on the cabinet. Which is what it had to be. She was worlds away from it, but she could see it. Like if she was seeing the sun. Which she could see now, hanging by cords thicker than all the woods wound together, shining down into the box.

Home, in that box. It reminded her of keeping a frog, except so much larger. So much larger. So much larger. So much-

Natie cried into her hands, until the Giant used something that could have blotted out that electric sun over her entire village to sweep her onto a new tree, which she clung to. Then she moved yet again, way too fast. Maybe she threw up, but her mouth tasted terrible either way. Forcing her eyes open, she looked straight up into the face of their God.

At first she couldn’t process it, because it was so large. When she could finally take it all in, when she put together everything she could see, it came to her.

It looked just like them.

The Playthings of God (pt7)

It seemed a little darker, beyond the barrier of her eyelids. Natie couldn’t open her eyes to check though, her terror kept her a tight ball on the branch she clung to. She could breathe still, but her air came out in short bursts, little lungs hyperventilating.

Until she opened her eyes and became breathless.

She was reminded of being five years old, in her house. If her house had been twenty times the size and she twenty times less. It took her a long time to take it in, as she looked around, seeing something that looked like a lantern, but huge. She and the tree had been set down on a table that was bigger than the world, so it seemed. And then Natie looked up.

The face looked down upon the tree and the Hands carefully broke off the part of the tree she was on. Natie screamed again, as she went up up up once more. She looked into the EYE, larger than life, before hanging her head to press it into the bark.

It wasn’t real. This hadn’t happened. She had fallen out of the tree when she saw the Hand and she was making this up.

Meanwhile, Mercedes ignored the message

“Reality has been scheduled for regular maintenance…”

That was not what James wanted to hear today. How come every time he went out without Mercedes something had to go wrong?

“…and so is temporarily down.”

“I knew it.” He sighed, shifting his bag over his shoulder. Things looked normal around him, but he knew better than to take that for granted. The elephant who had been watching him over the fence had stopped eating the chocolate leaves for goodness sakes. He never thought he would see that happen. She was still staring at him though, Mercedes thought he was being paranoid.

“Please stand by patiently and it should be back up soon.”

James didn’t move his feet. He really didn’t like having to stand in one place for very long, he hoped this would resolve itself soon.

“Thank you.”

And for some time, James waited for reality to come back.