Deciding it was best to simply ask a person where I was, I approached a woman in a pink ruffled skirt. Her buttoned-up blouse was a matching pink with white threaded designs of cherry blossoms. Her blonde hair was done in tight curls and she had a headpiece with cherry blossoms weaved into it. She even smelled like cherries.
“Excuse me, Miss, can you help me? I think I’m lost.”
She turned to face me and I froze. Her face was shrouded in darkness, like a mask. I couldn’t see her eyes, or nose, not even her mouth. It was as if light didn’t hit it and all I could see were the shadows that had consumed her features.
She hurried off, ignoring my question completely. Maybe it was because I stared at her in horror or because she simply didn’t want to talk? Or was it obvious that I didn’t belong here? Especially since I wasn’t wearing anything close to what those around me wore…
Curious, I took another look around. I don’t know how I didn’t notice before, but I could not see the face of anyone around me. Had I gone face-blind? Or was this some kind of custom of the people here? All I knew was that a cloud of darkness covered their faces and I couldn’t tell any of them apart. Fear, confusion, you name it, I was feeling it and all of it told me that I should run.
I started running through the crowd. I didn’t know why, it just seemed like the thing to do. I shoved past all the faceless people, trying to find an escape. It didn’t help that I didn’t know where I was nor where I needed to go. All I knew was that I wanted to get away from here. Maybe I could find the way to the outside of the city, if I traveled in one direction long enough.
The citizens of the city all stared at me as I pushed my way through their groups, at least I think they stared at me. Their heads were turned towards my direction, so if they did have eyes I would presume I was in the center of their attention. It made me shiver that so many eyes were on me yet I couldn’t see any of them. Could they even see me or was I complete darkness to them?
It was probably a stupid idea to run and I should have just calmly tried to figure out what was happening, but all the confusion hit me at once. What if I couldn’t find a way home? What if I was stuck here forever? What if something happened to me, and my family never found out the truth? My heart was beating fast now and all I could do was try to run away from my worried thoughts.
And that’s when I heard someone yelling after me.
“Stop! Stop her! She’s an outsider!”
I debated stopping for a moment, especially since I had no idea what I was doing, but then I remembered all the fictional stories with outsiders getting captured and being thrown into prison. That’s what always happened, right? Besides, they didn’t sound like they wanted me to stop and have a spot of tea or something. They sounded like I was a criminal and they needed to apprehend me. I didn’t want that so I kept moving forward and didn’t let anything stop me, or at least try and not let anything stop me.
As if fate heard my thoughts the moment they were projected into the universe, I felt something grab me and pull me into an alleyway at a distance from the major pathway I had been running around on. I tried to scream but whoever it was put something over my mouth.
“Shhh, it’s all right,” a familiar voice said. It took a second to register, but I realized who had me wrapped up in his arms. It was Chase, a boy from school that was in a couple of my classes. He was definitely a troublemaker and it had been his locker that I had seen everyone step through to enter this world. Was he the reason I was here? Or was this a dream? I kept telling myself it was the latter, but treated dangers as if they were real. Couldn’t be too careful.
“Now, I’m going to let go of your mouth, just promise me you won’t scream,” he said.
I nodded, feeling a bit better that I had found someone I knew. I had completely forgotten that I had followed them down into the abyss. Everything was so new and surprising, the main reason I had fallen into this world had completely slipped my mind. Chase removed his hand from my mouth but didn’t remove the arm that was wrapped around my stomach, holding me against him. I still couldn’t see his face as he was behind me. I wondered why he didn’t let go and I began to get a little nervous again, although I could feel my cheeks getting warm still.
“What’s going— “
He placed a finger to my mouth. “Wait for them to pass.”
Chase kept us in the shadows of the trees that had grown with the buildings. It was very narrow down the alleyway, almost like some of the passageways in the old Fort Worden naval batteries near Port Townsend, Washington. I couldn’t even see the sky from where I was since the foliage was so thick.
We stayed silent as the men ran past us, not even taking a glance down this way, which made me wonder what was down here that
