I wiped my mouth of the black ink before I appeared through the trees and towards August and Arlo.
"Oh my goodness, Marie you absolute legend!" August was gleaming with joy.
"Gosh, I am so exhausted right now." I huffed heavy and decided to lie down on the grass floor as rain hit my face. Multiple rain drops hitting my face as I took it all in. At this rate, I'd never get to the border in a stable condition.
August walked over and stood over me. He briefly covered a little bit of the sky with his tall and big frame but it wasn't enough that he could be an umbrella. "Marie, I just want to say, thank you for all of this. Really."
"Uh- all I did was bring your— ah okay, you're welcome." I gave him a quick smile before he attended to his mother's health.
'My god, what a series of events. Who would have known what could have happened to Chloe if I didn't arrive in time.'
–
I opened my eyes unknowingly, waking up from a slumber to my surprise. A few hours passed and it was now dark. I sprang up and looked around me. The only thing shone down on me was the moonlight from up above.
'Oh god, I must've slept here.' I stretched myself out from the uncomfortable and uneven grass floor. And took a big yawn before catching something odd.
August, Arlo and Chloe were nowhere to be seen. Hmph. I stood up trying to balance myself a little bit more. My knees buckled forcing me to collapse onto the floor. I sighed in annoyance.
Then I felt something hard next to me. It caught my eye. There was a basket. Full of fruits and other plants left here. My immediate thought had been; Was it left by them? I assume it would have since no one else was here.
I grabbed the note that was stuck on the side of the basket and read it while I sat on the floor.
'Marie, I know I've said thank you, but really this meant everything to me and I'm very grateful that you helped my mother. She's slowly recovering, and we've retrieved the fruits we needed for my rabbits. All is good. Here's a gift from us to you in hopes that you wake up sometime soon. Love, August.'
'Hmm, very sweet.' I saw many different fruits that I could eat. My stomach rumbled quite a bit so I had to start eating as soon as possible. The night sky wasn't rainy, nor was it thunderous. It was calm as ever. All I could hear was the soft breeze of the wind hitting the trees in harmony.
After munching down the fruits I decided that I had to start moving towards the border. The storm started up again, but this time it was stronger than ever. It was cold and the rain kept hitting harder and harder. The virus had settled and hadn't caused me anymore pain since earlier in the day.
A wave of momentary relief washed through me. But once I felt this quick glimpse of freedom from the anguish, I soon worried when it would return. And when it would return, I knew it would be worse than before.
In preparation for my journey I put some of the fruits and plants into my backpack for later. The air was thick with fog and something else that I couldn't put my finger on. It was unfamiliar. Like a smell that wasn't decay but also not fruitful. Something uncanny and unsure where to sit in good or bad scents.
The darkness of the world around me hadn't phased me. I knew things could lurk in the dark, but my mind was already too exhausted to even process what could show up.
My torch was my only friend out here all alone.
–
I was upon entry to the Bliptic city which was mostly broken land. It looked barren and mostly empty like it always had been.
I trudged towards the unfamiliar world of blips and then suddenly I heard a voice from behind me. It caught me off guard so much that it felt like I was sitting outside of my skin.
"You cannot go there, that's where they GETCHA!" a croaky old man's voice spoke loud. I searched around rapidly trying to find this person but I couldn't see him. I had nothing to protect myself with except fists and perhaps this torch light.
Everything was so dark, and wet that I almost slipped trying to find this person. I knew that this wasn't part of my imagination and had actually occurred. Maybe the virus was making me delusional. I couldn't give you an answer.
Silence passed for a moment. I kept as still as a rock in the middle of the woods. Looking around, reading every detail of the world around me. And eventually after no answers… Nothing. I sighed.
I turned back to my trail towards the Bliptic city until I was interrupted again. "Don'tchu go dere missy!" The same voice. Was I hallucinating?
Then I noticed a large rock sticking out of the ground that could easily hide a person behind it.
I crept slowly trying to suppress my footsteps to not alert this person. Slow and steady. My heart beat faster and faster until I found who it was.
"You!"
The man turned around. He was wearing a purple robe from head to toe. His face was completely covered, unable to see any features. I then pointed the light into his face without warning and it revealed everything.
"Who are you?" I asked the man with the ginger beard and bald head. "And why are you following me?"
"Jesus… take that light out of my eyes!" He covered his face quickly. "Got dammit woman! Trying to take out my fucking vision?!"
I then pointed it a little lower so that I could still see the details in his face. "What's the matter with you?" I asked.
"Pah! You don't get it" The mysterious man spat out, "you don't go there! Ya hear?!" Everytime he spoke I noticed his teeth were not in the right places. "Them the places you don't go little girl. Now be a good girl and step away from there…" He pointed a finger in the opposite direction. What intrigued me about this person was that his arm that was pointing was completely blue. While his other was just white as his face.
A chill went down my spine as he said those words. What the fuck is wrong with this guy?
I slowly stepped away, keeping my flashlight on him. He was still. Unmoving. Both arms then shot up raised like he was under arrest. "Don shoot me missy I ain't done a thing wrong!" He started shaking around transitioning into a weird old man dance that, if had a name, would be called the "hoopty-hoo hah! Or the jiggly jiggly ooo". Something you'd see in a retirement home party.
This guy was clearly on the finest drugs you could possibly find in all of the land. And I had never even found someone like this until now.
I made enough distance from this stranger and made my way towards the ruins that lied in the Bliptic city. He had kept dancing while I walked away, constantly looking behind my back checking if he was still there. Until I was far away enough from wherever he was still jiggling, I was sure I could look forward without hesitation.
Without a moment's notice, my leg was tied to something. A rope? No, something more bigger and thicker. Something possibly alive and worm like.
It was slimey and tight as if it didn't want to let go. I turned around to see where it was coming from and to no surprise, it was the strange man. His mouth ejected a large black tentacle that tightened around my calf muscle.
I tried hard to budge him off but it wouldnt loosen. I then hit the ground as it swooped me towards his direction. I grabbed the grass and the rocks in hopes that id be able to hang on but it didnt work. I got dragged and dragged over until i slipped out from its slimy embrace.
I got up running as fast as possible towards the Bliptic city blindly without any precourcision. My laboured breathing started up again. I couldn't catch a break.
When I thought I was free, the world had stopped. I was frozen in place, unable to move. Unable to blink. Only to stand still as if time had frozen. I couldn't do anything to change my position. The torch was still on, shining bright into the darkness in front of me.
POOF! A green cloud exploded infront of me, and there it revealed the weird mysterious guy again. His hood was up. I already knew what he looked like, so it wound't' be shocking for him to show his face again.
In that burst of thought, he slowly removed his hood. Nothing had changed about the man.
I tried to speak only then forgetting that i was stuck in time.
"What dew I want fr'um yere? Is watcha tinking ain't it sweet plum?" He spoke. Now that i noticed, his eyes were looking in different directions, struggling to face straight.
But then right in that moment, it felt as though everything around me wasn't real as he snapped his gaze dead center, fixing both eyeballs into place to look directly into my soul. My heart didn't stop pumping. What the fuck is this guy?
"Now… we got ourselves… a problem." He slowly walked around my frozen body inspecting me as if I was a gallery sculpture hung up for the whole world to see. "Hmmm, yesss. A big problem indeed."
He stopped in front of me. Staring into me as if he was medusa turning me into stone. "You know who yere are… you just don't fit in here!...yes." He touched my face softly. His hand slipped down to my neck where there were black veins showing.
"Mhm, definitely not here– what's that?" He looked to his left. His spell was suddenly broken and I was unfrozen back to normal. I fell onto the ground, hitting it hard as if I was unused to the gravity around me.
In the next second, a large creature was in the shadows running towards us. I couldn't move. My head was in a daze, unsure what was up or down anymore. I could see two figures standing infront of me, waving in and out like a double exposure. It was the Wizard here. But then he was gone in an instant.
Then a large yellow creature showed and from what I could see was that the wizard was eaten up by it. The creature was not just any creature. It was the stonewalker from earlier in the day. It had eaten the wizard guy clean in one go.
My mouth was trembling, worried that he might eat me next. I blinked rapidly trying to figure out if this was a nightmare or not, but it was all happening in real time. I dashed behind a tree out of sight from the stonewalker.
It violently burped and erupted a large storm of noise from its stomach. I had thought it was a natural occurrence but I was wrong.
As the stonewalker was slowly stepping away into the night it started to sway back and forth like a drunk man on a night out. I was curious about what this phenomenon was doing. Was it about to sleep? Was it about to poo the wizard man out? Or was it something else?
It paused its tracks. The rear legs buckled causing the whole body to collapse with it. A massive thud hit the ground creating a mini earthquake that could undoubtedly be felt from a couple of miles away.
It fell on its side. It's eyes were struggling to stay open. Was it that easy at falling asleep? No. It was something else. It's stomach started to rumble.
Out from the bottom a large slice down the middle. Purple light shone through as if it was a portal being opened up. Guts and blood squirted out all over the floor nearing me closer and closer.
The wizard had stepped out of the stomach of the stonewalker. "Gah damn… now where were we again?".