Lights

prompted writing i did

Running, running again. You can't seem to remember the first time you thought of doing just this act. Really, it is all you have dreamed about for years and now, now you can finally say you had the courage to do this. Its getting pretty dark out and after every bound you start to think about the fact that you should of brought a flashlight. You keep your mind occupied with good thoughts; the treehouse you have spent three years building yourself so you have somewhere to run away too, the backpack over your shoulders that contains every essential belonging you own along with over six hundred dollars (which you stole ten dollars at a time from your stepdad), the look on your classmate’s faces when they hear you ran away, the freedom of being on your own at last; all these thoughts rush through your mind and a smile spreads to you face.

You have done it. Four more blocks and you will be at the front of the forested area that holds your homey wooden abode. You can almost see the fenced entrance from here and your heart starts to flutter faster as you continue to run; it is beating so fast you can hear it in your ears and you breath at the pace with it. As you reach the last stretch, that one final block, you hear it, the police siren. The lights are flashing and you just know they are after you, your stepdad probably called them. Your one chance to be happy and he has to ruin it once again. Your blood is pumping with adrenaline and you sprint, faster than any kid in track, faster than any small town teen robber, faster than you have ever ran, and you jump onto the side of that fence and grip tightly on the chain links and climb up it. You can taste the freedom. You can see where you can hide while the cops look for you. You reach up and grab the top pole of the fence and pull yourself up.

You jump.

As your feet reach the ground you hear the squad car, drive by, right past you, and turn onto a new road.

They weren't even after you. You slump onto the floor and let your heart calm down a bit. As you sit you notice a mark on your pants and go to wipe it off and realize its blood, and its from your hand, and you just smudged it over your pants more. Nice job.

After wrapping your hand in a bandana you stand up and start for the path, you really wanted to be at the treehouse by at latest midnight, and right now its almost 10. You continue walking for almost a half hour until you finally see the tree you have completely memorized in the latest year. You pull on the cord you have hidden on the side and the ladder falls down. The ladder creaks a bit as you climb up, and up, and up. You reach your hand up and grab the handle to open the trapdoor. Then, “CRACK”. The last sound you hear as the ladder rung under your foot breaks and you plummet down almost 20 feet. An empty “thunk” is the final invitation to the darkness and you fade out.

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……. slight chirping. You can hear it.. and, bells? You swear you can hear the jingling of small bells. The light erupts into your vision as you open your eyes and totally blinds you. By instinct you roll over in an attempt to escape the sun’s rays but are then confronted not by sheets and a bed but by leaves and flowers. In confusion you sit up, rubbing your eyes to see clearer, and look around. What you see makes you think you are still dreaming, you really can not believe anything you see. There are small flying… PEOPLE. Like, REAL people with WINGS! They are small enough to it in your hand. You are surrounded by them. You stumble away from one as it flies near you and you stand up. Now they are all looking at you. The only thing you can think to do is to run. So, thats exactly what you do. You run and run. You run out of this field that, quite frankly, you have of recollection of going to in the first place. Soon you reach the trees that surround the field and grass and those… dare you say, and you will totally hate yourself for thinking this but, fairies. As you run you slowly start to see more now that the sun is out of your face. The trees are slowly looking more normal as you go farther and farther into the darker and the more overgrown forest. You turn around to see if anything was following you and all you see in a light at the entrance of the woods from where the field is. You quickly look back as to not run into anything and with a sense of newly found security you slow down. You bring your run to a slow walk and then just stop altogether. Your mind is racing. Every thought is a question and every question needs an answer now and they are all fighting to be answered first. Your brain feels like it is going to explode with all this voices fighting at once. You scream:

“SHUT UP”

Everything turns quiet, even the birds, and in this moment of peace you slouch down and sit on the floor. You lean against a tree. And you close your eyes. And you hear something…. a phone? You look down and you see, YOUR BACKPACK! One strap is broken now and the zipper looks busted completely. You reach in quickly and get your phone. 23 missed calls. Ha looks like someone did miss you. Battery is almost dead so you shut it off and shove it in your pocket. Then you remember, if your backpack is here then, you turn around, you found the treehouse! You stand up and step back a bit but your foot get caught on something and you trip backwards and onto…. yourself… your DEAD self……

The smile on your face is replaced with utter disgust. You look at the body in front of you and tears start to fill your eyes. This is you. You are dead. Blood covered the leaves around your head. You scuttle against the tree and clutch your legs close to you and hide your face. How…. How could you be dead? How are you here? What-

You hear something near you. You quickly look up and see someone. They have long blond hair and bright blue eyes. They look at you with a soft, sad, smile and reach out their hand to you. You slowly retract your hand from against yourself and reach out to this stranger, you have nothing left to lose now really… They help you up and start to walk to the field with your hand in theirs.

You reach the field and the flying.. fairies and watch your every move. You don’t make eye contact with them and just try to shuffle on past them. As you reach the center of the field you look at the person, or well at least person-like thing, holding your hand. It looks down at you and you look away. Darting your eyes at something to look at you look up at the sky, the clouds are covering the sun and as you watch them It lets go of your hand. You pretend not to notice and keep watching the clouds, the sun starts to peek out and you can’t avert your eyes. The light is pulling you in and there is no way you can look away. Your eyes start to water and you are struggling to look at something else. Your body is paralyzed. Then the light softens, and you suddenly feel happy, calm even, and you feel like you are floating. The light looks like it is getting closer and closer to you till finally,...

FIN

Prompt: A kid, when running away, climbs up to a tree house; after falling they can see magical creatures.

Reviews

[E.L. Debbage]

Such an entertaining story. I love how you've written it in second person, it's almost dream like.