Chapter 19 Aanya

Chapter 19 Aanya

            I peer at the corner opposite of me; a girl had fallen through the ceiling and landed as I did with a pool of water. She is tall with tan skin and strawberry blonde hair put up in a high ponytail. I slide down the wall I’m leaning against and curl up in a little ball. As I sit there she makes her way towards me and says, “What is this place?”

            I look up into her blue eyes and reply, “I don’t know.”

            “How long have you been here?”

            “Only about ten minutes.”

            She sits in front of me and crosses her legs, “So you don’t know anything about this place?”        

            “Nothing,” I assure her.

            “Well, I’m Rachel, Rachel Holly,” she smiles holding out her hand.

            I come out of my ball and take her hand, “Aanya Tanner.”

            “Nice to meet you Aanya, Where you from?”

            “Ohio.”

            “Cool, I’m from Hawaii.”      

            I only nod my head and wait to see if she’ll ask any more questions.

            “This place is pretty interesting,” Rachel begins, “I wonder what I came here for. You see I was surfing with this weird board I found in the shack out in the backyard. I had never seen it before so I was curious, you know? Anyways so I took it out to the ocean and before I know it I’m being shoved down without any air. Then I saw you and decided to find out more, but you don’t know anything so that didn’t work. How did you end up here?”

            I look at her and say quietly, “I was in my backyard, and I found a sparkling rock so I touched it and I ended up here.”

            “So something weird happened to you too?”

            “I suppose.”

            Rachel stands up and begins walking around the room. “I wonder where all these doors go,” she says knocking on one of them.

            I stand up as well and say sarcastically, “Probably to some secret world.”

            “Probably,” she responds, looking back at me with a smile.

            I look down at the floor for a second and giggle. I look back up at her and I notice she has no arm. “Your arm is missing!” I yell.

            Rachel’s head snaps down and she looks at the spot where her arm should be, “It’s only invisible, weird things have been happening to me lately.”

            “Me too,” I say in awe.

            “What kinds of things have been happening to you?”

            “Well, it all kind of started on Saturday when I was outside drawing. I was drawing a bird and then all the sudden it turned into a person.”

            “It started on Saturday for me too,” Rachel says.

            I tell her about all the things that have happened to me since Saturday. The water, the flies, even what happened to my neighbor.

            Rachel looks at me with a puzzled look and then tells me about all the things that have happened to her since Saturday including, she can turn invisible, the kids digging through the sand at the beach, and her being able to pass through things.

            “I don’t think we ended up here by coincidence,” I say.

            “I’d have to agree,” Rachel nods. “Look over there in that corner is a spider, what do you see?”

            I look into the corner Rachel is pointing at and see a small eight-legged creature, “I see a disgusting, creepy, black spider.”

            “Oh,” she whispers a little disappointed.

            “Wait a second,” I begin, “Now it’s a weird carriage thing and the legs are ropes.”

            Rachel looks back at me and smiles, “That is weird. Let me try something.” Rachel walks into the middle of the room and squints her eyes, thinking hard. I watch for a moment longer and next thing I know she is completely gone.

            “Rachel?” I call, “Rachel, where did you go?”

            “I’m still here,” she says, becoming visible once again, “I can turn invisible. I’m going to try something else.”

            Rachel goes into the corner where she finds a chair and brings it back into the middle of the room. She stands above it, once again squinting her eyes in deep thought. She puts sets her arm on the back of the chair and it passes through, as if it were normal.

            “Holy cow!” I say, “That’s creepy. Can you pass through people?”

            “I think so, but I don’t want to try it.”

            “Wait, if you can pass through things do you think you can get out of this room by passing through the walls?”

            “I don’t know that’s a good idea.” Rachel steps in front of wall trying to make it passable, she takes a step forward in attempt to walk through it and only finds herself hitting the wall.

            “Well, ow,” she says.

            I laugh until I see the top of the ceiling begin to move. We go back to our original corners and stare at the ceiling and a boy falls through.

            The boy hits the floor and looks around him, first at me, then at Rachel. He quickly gets up and looks around in alarm.

            “We come in peace!” Rachel shouts quickly, holding her hand in a Vulcan sign.

            “Where am I?” he asks.

            “We don’t know?” Rachel replies.

            “What?” he whispers.

            “We just got here too,” Rachel assures him.

            “Did Aanya just get here too?” he asks.

            “How did you know my name was Aanya?” I ask, a little creped out.

            “I know pretty much everything about everybody,” he replies holding his hand to his head.

            “Did you hit your head or something?” Rachel asks.

            “No, whenever I find something out about someone else it gives me a headache,” he states.

            “So whenever someone asks you how you knew that you just tell them?” I question.

            “No, I did it only to you guys because I knew strange things have been happening to you too.”

            “Creepy,” Rachel proclaims.

            “Seriously,” I agree.

            “Well since I can’t read your mind, what’s your name?” Rachel inquires

            “Talith,” he states.

            “That’s an interesting name,” Rachel muses, “I like it Tailith.”

            “It’s Talith, the ‘a’ is short.”

            “Whatever you say Tailith,” she breaths.

            “Can we stop arguing and find a way to get out of here?” I inquire.

            “Speaking of which, what are all these doors for?” Talith asks.

            “We don’t know that either,” Rachel applauds, “and I thought you could read minds.”

            “It’s on and off,” he mocks.

            All three of us glance around the room, trying to find any sign that would give us a way out. All eight doors possess a sign above them with symbols, almost like hieroglyphs. They’re not Egyptian though; they’re more elegant, softer.

“What do these symbols mean,” I ask.          

Rachel and Talith, both on the opposite side of the room walk over to me. “Does anybody read Egyptian?” Rachel necessitates.

“I don’t think so,” Talith retaliates.

“Well then we’re screwed then aren’t we, Tailith” Rachel exaggerates.

“For the last time, it’s Talith.”

“Whatever,” she articulates.

I stand there puzzled while they sort out the difference between Talith and Tailith behind me. “It can’t be Egyptian,” I ponder, “It just can’t, it’s not the same.” I think a while longer until I feel the ground begin to shake.

“Earthquake!” Rachel cries.

“This is no earthquake,” I add. I had been in several earthquakes before back when I visited my aunt in California, this was not the same. The room seemed to growl, as if it were alive.

I stand there trying to evaluate out situation when the room gave a jerk to the side and began to spin, and we all roll with it.