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No, this shifting of realities did not occur quickly, snapping into place like a rubber-band might if it were closing around something. For although this change and shift did pass within seconds, time seemed to slow and drag out the process as if it were taking hours. The moment Arietta's fingers grazed the smooth reflective glass surface of the old mirror, her world almost seemed to explode in a way. The light that she so loathed seemed to burst out around her, long tendrils of gold, amber and even burgundy ran through the air, some twisting around her frozen body. A few even wound their way through the faint curls of her blonde locks. Arietta herself was frozen in place, unable to move a single limb. Although, her hair seemed to billow out around her as if she were sinking into the dark black depths of water. For a few more moments the light encompassed her being, holding her hostage to it's bright blaze. The only other thing that she could see, was the mirror. But the bizarre thing about the object, was that her reflection could no longer be seen within the caverns of the glass. Nothing could bee seen in it at all. Only the light which erupted from the surface was all that could be made out.
But after seeming to be stand in her unmoving state for a long time, the light almost seemed to shatter. But not in the way glass or clay might if it were dropped on the ground. The wisps of light seemed to break into small fragments, softly almost as if they were melting, as they gave way to inky onyx-like waves. The midnight colored tendrils seemed to blot the air with their inky substance. And soon the tendrils blotted together until no longer could she see the world around her. Even the faint glimmer of the mirror was lost to the black surroundings. It seemed that everything was devoid of light, nothing was tangible in this state. Nothing that was, aside from the mirror. For although she could not see the glass, she could still feel the cool, smooth plane of it's being. Suddenly all was quiet. She had not noticed it until that very moment, but a loud roaring had sounded throughout the length of this shift. But now, not a single noise could be heard. There was nothing but the darkness, and the silence.
But soon not even that remained. The great roaring returned to her ears and this time it was loud enough for the magnitude of the noise to draw pain from her eardrums. She couldn’t imagine how she had missed it before. But as the roaring quickened and grew more loud with each passing second, the inky onyx began to break away and give way to the bright amber and gold she had experienced earlier. And now her eyes could not stand to gaze upon the brightness that the light presented her with. And now all she could see was the blinding white of light. Her entire body, soul and being seemed to be alive and buzzing with pain. But it was not an intolerable amount of pain, only a small amount. She couldn’t even process what thoughts were rolling through her mind, but many they were in number. Not her life but all her thoughts and ideas seemed to flash across her psyche, even though she could not comprehend what they were, she could feel the significance of each.
And then she fell. It was quite a shock after being held in a frozen state for so long, and it took a moment for her to determine what was happening. But when she came to the conclusion of what had happened, she wasn’t sure how to react. The mirror that had stood before her for so long was nowhere in sight. In fact, neither was the old locker room. And it was not Emerson High that greeted her smoky grey eyes when she looked around. She wasn’t even sure she was still in the small mountain town of Elwood. No, the buildings around her did not resemble the washed out shops and buildings she was familiar with. Everything around her seemed to be bathed in a darker shade of sepia. Even the heavily clouded sky seemed to hold this dark tone. There were spurts of orange flame that licked at the air from randomly placed garbage cans, and even the people that huddled around them seemed content to match their clothing with the uneven tones of sepia. But separating Arietta from the rundown brick buildings was a chain-link fence topped with rolling curves of barbed wire.
Arietta puzzled over this for a bit, until she heard the sirens sound. They almost seemed to be the amplified sound of her alarm. But they were not the sirens of an ambulance, no. They were sirens alerting her presence. At the time Arietta had no knowledge of this, but the sound was enough to make her move. She had no clear idea of the meaning behind the blaring alarms, but a sense of trepidation lurked behind the noise and pushed her feet into a run. It took her a few moments to push her shaky legs up into a standing position, but once she was up she was off. She didn’t know what she was looking for, but she knew she had to look for something. For not long after the sirens began, she could hear the pounding of feet, other than her own, off in the distance.
This only made Arietta pick up her pace as she raced along the outside of the fence. Only a few sullen faces from within the fencing turned to look at her, and most found little interest, as if this were a regular thing. She was suddenly thankful for the years of track that she had endured, if she hadn’t have kept in shape she surely wouldn’t have been able to evade the other pounding footsteps behind her for so long. The sky continued to show no signs of change as the clouds masked whatever sun shone on the fenced in city. Arietta was sure that there was a sun, for what else could cast the sepia color across everything? Arietta could hear the footsteps behind her grow ever closer, she didn’t bother turning to look, it would only slow her down.
As she continued to run she spotted a spot in the fencing, just the slightest upturning at the bottom of the chain link. She dashed forward and threw herself to her knees, pulling at the fence. It took a few moments, and anxiety weighed down on her as she heard the pounding of footsteps behind her, but she finally managed to squeeze through the bottom of the links. She glanced back slightly to see a group of men chasing after her, dressed in some sort of uniform. But she didn’t gaze on for long, and soon she was running towards the brick buildings.
She had managed to lose her bag somewhere in her dash. Actually, she may have lost it before she even ended up in… well wherever she was. Perhaps it was still sitting on the ground by that damn mirror in the old, abandoned gymnasium. The streets were paved. She didn’t know if that was something important to note, but she thought it really was. At least she hadn’t traveled back in time or anything. But that brought up another question, what had happened to her? She didn’t have time to think about this though, as she was pushing through a group of people huddled around a fire burning away at the trash in a rusty metal garbage can. They didn’t move out of her way, but they let her shove pass them, not seeming to care either way if the men in uniform caught her or not. She did notice that they were all dressed in ragged clothes, and some seemed to be in their early twenties, others in their late eighties. It was an odd mixture of people.
But again, she didn’t have time to dwell on this, as she was still running. She wasn’t quite sure what it was she was running from, but she had a feeling that if those men did happen to catch up with her, the end result wouldn’t be a good one. So she let her tired feet pound along the small sidewalk as she pushed through another huddled group. The sirens continued to sound at varied volumes depending on where she was running. She had taken a couple of wild turns while she was running and she couldn’t hear the feet hammering behind her. So she turned down a side alley in hopes of eluding the men. She turned her head slightly just to make sure she wasn’t being followed… well followed closely, when she ran into a pair of hands. Before she could try t fight out of them she saw the face of their owner. It was an old woman, perhaps in her nineties. She couldn’t help but think that that was an achievement for this place. The woman nodded her head towards a small worn out wooden door leading into a building. And for some reason, Arietta couldn’t help but feel that the woman was trustworthy. She had grey hair that held a shimmer of it’s former color, and bright eyes that hadn’t lost their spark like she had seen in some of the people.
So she went through the door. The woman didn’t speak, she simply lead her up a flight of stairs and to a back room, opening the door for Arietta. There was really nothing inside. Some old furniture covered with a sheet and a few discarded boards of wood were the only objects that filled the small space. And a tiny boarded up window centered on the far wall let small trickles of sepia light seep into the dusty old room. Arietta looked at the woman.
“Thank you.” the woman merely nodded and walked out of the room, closing the door behind her. Arietta walked over to the farthest corner and leaned her back against the wall. How had she ended up like this? She let her body slowly slide to the floor, letting out a small sigh as she finally hit the ground. The faint sound of the sirens had finally subsided, giving way to the small crackles of fire and few yells of conversation, though she couldn’t make out the words. She heard a few deep chuckles of laughter but then silence yet again. She couldn’t help but wonder about what would become of her. This wasn’t Narnia, there was no magic lamp that would lead her back to reality. She was stuck here. She heard the faint sound of footsteps on the stairs and inched back further into the shadows of the corner. The sound seemed to loud to belong to the woman who offered her shelter.
And she was correct. When the old door opened, it was a man in uniform who stood in its frame. He had dark, golden blonde hair, and dark onyx eyes. His eyes reminded her of the inky black tendrils that had brought her here. He was tall and well built, though not overly muscular. And he looked to be in his early twenties. He seemed a bit young to be in this situation. But he was staring right at her, and a knife glinted coldly as it dangled from his hand. As he stepped forward slowly Arietta couldn’t help but cower and tremble at his feet. He bent down at his knees and looked straight into her smoky grey eyes.
“If you want to live, don’t leave Lalita’s house. You understand?” his voice was warm, more so than she had expected, and it was all she could do to nod her head. “Good.” he responded, standing up and tucked the knife into his boot. He threw her one more glance before walking out the door, down the stairs, and into the street. Arietta let a small tear slide down her face, she had come so close to dying, she couldn’t really comprehend it. The woman, Lalita, walked in and handed her a blanket and a piece of bread.
“Don’t worry, Gabriel isn’t like the others. He won’t tell them where you are.” the woman rasped, a bit of saliva flew from the few empty gaps where teeth should have been. Arietta nodded and the woman smiled at her before leaving yet again. She looked down at the bread and eagerly tore into it. She ate it down to the last crumb, wondering once more what she had gotten herself into.
But after seeming to be stand in her unmoving state for a long time, the light almost seemed to shatter. But not in the way glass or clay might if it were dropped on the ground. The wisps of light seemed to break into small fragments, softly almost as if they were melting, as they gave way to inky onyx-like waves. The midnight colored tendrils seemed to blot the air with their inky substance. And soon the tendrils blotted together until no longer could she see the world around her. Even the faint glimmer of the mirror was lost to the black surroundings. It seemed that everything was devoid of light, nothing was tangible in this state. Nothing that was, aside from the mirror. For although she could not see the glass, she could still feel the cool, smooth plane of it's being. Suddenly all was quiet. She had not noticed it until that very moment, but a loud roaring had sounded throughout the length of this shift. But now, not a single noise could be heard. There was nothing but the darkness, and the silence.
But soon not even that remained. The great roaring returned to her ears and this time it was loud enough for the magnitude of the noise to draw pain from her eardrums. She couldn’t imagine how she had missed it before. But as the roaring quickened and grew more loud with each passing second, the inky onyx began to break away and give way to the bright amber and gold she had experienced earlier. And now her eyes could not stand to gaze upon the brightness that the light presented her with. And now all she could see was the blinding white of light. Her entire body, soul and being seemed to be alive and buzzing with pain. But it was not an intolerable amount of pain, only a small amount. She couldn’t even process what thoughts were rolling through her mind, but many they were in number. Not her life but all her thoughts and ideas seemed to flash across her psyche, even though she could not comprehend what they were, she could feel the significance of each.
And then she fell. It was quite a shock after being held in a frozen state for so long, and it took a moment for her to determine what was happening. But when she came to the conclusion of what had happened, she wasn’t sure how to react. The mirror that had stood before her for so long was nowhere in sight. In fact, neither was the old locker room. And it was not Emerson High that greeted her smoky grey eyes when she looked around. She wasn’t even sure she was still in the small mountain town of Elwood. No, the buildings around her did not resemble the washed out shops and buildings she was familiar with. Everything around her seemed to be bathed in a darker shade of sepia. Even the heavily clouded sky seemed to hold this dark tone. There were spurts of orange flame that licked at the air from randomly placed garbage cans, and even the people that huddled around them seemed content to match their clothing with the uneven tones of sepia. But separating Arietta from the rundown brick buildings was a chain-link fence topped with rolling curves of barbed wire.
Arietta puzzled over this for a bit, until she heard the sirens sound. They almost seemed to be the amplified sound of her alarm. But they were not the sirens of an ambulance, no. They were sirens alerting her presence. At the time Arietta had no knowledge of this, but the sound was enough to make her move. She had no clear idea of the meaning behind the blaring alarms, but a sense of trepidation lurked behind the noise and pushed her feet into a run. It took her a few moments to push her shaky legs up into a standing position, but once she was up she was off. She didn’t know what she was looking for, but she knew she had to look for something. For not long after the sirens began, she could hear the pounding of feet, other than her own, off in the distance.
This only made Arietta pick up her pace as she raced along the outside of the fence. Only a few sullen faces from within the fencing turned to look at her, and most found little interest, as if this were a regular thing. She was suddenly thankful for the years of track that she had endured, if she hadn’t have kept in shape she surely wouldn’t have been able to evade the other pounding footsteps behind her for so long. The sky continued to show no signs of change as the clouds masked whatever sun shone on the fenced in city. Arietta was sure that there was a sun, for what else could cast the sepia color across everything? Arietta could hear the footsteps behind her grow ever closer, she didn’t bother turning to look, it would only slow her down.
As she continued to run she spotted a spot in the fencing, just the slightest upturning at the bottom of the chain link. She dashed forward and threw herself to her knees, pulling at the fence. It took a few moments, and anxiety weighed down on her as she heard the pounding of footsteps behind her, but she finally managed to squeeze through the bottom of the links. She glanced back slightly to see a group of men chasing after her, dressed in some sort of uniform. But she didn’t gaze on for long, and soon she was running towards the brick buildings.
She had managed to lose her bag somewhere in her dash. Actually, she may have lost it before she even ended up in… well wherever she was. Perhaps it was still sitting on the ground by that damn mirror in the old, abandoned gymnasium. The streets were paved. She didn’t know if that was something important to note, but she thought it really was. At least she hadn’t traveled back in time or anything. But that brought up another question, what had happened to her? She didn’t have time to think about this though, as she was pushing through a group of people huddled around a fire burning away at the trash in a rusty metal garbage can. They didn’t move out of her way, but they let her shove pass them, not seeming to care either way if the men in uniform caught her or not. She did notice that they were all dressed in ragged clothes, and some seemed to be in their early twenties, others in their late eighties. It was an odd mixture of people.
But again, she didn’t have time to dwell on this, as she was still running. She wasn’t quite sure what it was she was running from, but she had a feeling that if those men did happen to catch up with her, the end result wouldn’t be a good one. So she let her tired feet pound along the small sidewalk as she pushed through another huddled group. The sirens continued to sound at varied volumes depending on where she was running. She had taken a couple of wild turns while she was running and she couldn’t hear the feet hammering behind her. So she turned down a side alley in hopes of eluding the men. She turned her head slightly just to make sure she wasn’t being followed… well followed closely, when she ran into a pair of hands. Before she could try t fight out of them she saw the face of their owner. It was an old woman, perhaps in her nineties. She couldn’t help but think that that was an achievement for this place. The woman nodded her head towards a small worn out wooden door leading into a building. And for some reason, Arietta couldn’t help but feel that the woman was trustworthy. She had grey hair that held a shimmer of it’s former color, and bright eyes that hadn’t lost their spark like she had seen in some of the people.
So she went through the door. The woman didn’t speak, she simply lead her up a flight of stairs and to a back room, opening the door for Arietta. There was really nothing inside. Some old furniture covered with a sheet and a few discarded boards of wood were the only objects that filled the small space. And a tiny boarded up window centered on the far wall let small trickles of sepia light seep into the dusty old room. Arietta looked at the woman.
“Thank you.” the woman merely nodded and walked out of the room, closing the door behind her. Arietta walked over to the farthest corner and leaned her back against the wall. How had she ended up like this? She let her body slowly slide to the floor, letting out a small sigh as she finally hit the ground. The faint sound of the sirens had finally subsided, giving way to the small crackles of fire and few yells of conversation, though she couldn’t make out the words. She heard a few deep chuckles of laughter but then silence yet again. She couldn’t help but wonder about what would become of her. This wasn’t Narnia, there was no magic lamp that would lead her back to reality. She was stuck here. She heard the faint sound of footsteps on the stairs and inched back further into the shadows of the corner. The sound seemed to loud to belong to the woman who offered her shelter.
And she was correct. When the old door opened, it was a man in uniform who stood in its frame. He had dark, golden blonde hair, and dark onyx eyes. His eyes reminded her of the inky black tendrils that had brought her here. He was tall and well built, though not overly muscular. And he looked to be in his early twenties. He seemed a bit young to be in this situation. But he was staring right at her, and a knife glinted coldly as it dangled from his hand. As he stepped forward slowly Arietta couldn’t help but cower and tremble at his feet. He bent down at his knees and looked straight into her smoky grey eyes.
“If you want to live, don’t leave Lalita’s house. You understand?” his voice was warm, more so than she had expected, and it was all she could do to nod her head. “Good.” he responded, standing up and tucked the knife into his boot. He threw her one more glance before walking out the door, down the stairs, and into the street. Arietta let a small tear slide down her face, she had come so close to dying, she couldn’t really comprehend it. The woman, Lalita, walked in and handed her a blanket and a piece of bread.
“Don’t worry, Gabriel isn’t like the others. He won’t tell them where you are.” the woman rasped, a bit of saliva flew from the few empty gaps where teeth should have been. Arietta nodded and the woman smiled at her before leaving yet again. She looked down at the bread and eagerly tore into it. She ate it down to the last crumb, wondering once more what she had gotten herself into.
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