She was unsure where she was heading. The only thing she knew was the sand kept sticking to her bare feet and no matter what direction she traveled she ended up on the same street. At first when she stumbled upon the lines of houses she had thought little of it. Other than the fact they were all the same at least some part of her mind seemed to think so. Sure, they were different colors, different sizes, and sometimes different materials, but something in the design stuck her as the same even if her mind could not reason it out. It was in the people too. They glanced at her and they gave her little mind, the dark haired witch dressed in a long white gaze like skirt, a shirt that did not cover her stomach or arms, in the shade of vibrant green, more color than anything around her, even the white seemed brighter more alive, and her bare feet. The people came in all sizes and colors but like the houses something was the same by design. And she might not thought twice about this strange place that she had gotten lost to but all paths seemed to lead back to it.
Ever had stumbled there quite by chance having taken a wrong turn heading home. It had been home she was heading? Hadn't it? She tried to remember if she was even on her world. Maybe it was where she called home in this place. It didn't matter she had ended up somewhere she had never seen before. So, she turned around going back the ways she came only to find once again she was there and back seemed another direction. Time and time this fact held true till she decided something was drawing her to this place. It was the moment that she decided to stay that someone decided to talk to her.
He walked up to her a smile on his face. It seemed real enough even caused it to put a twinkle in his eye but like so much it just seemed to not be as bright as it should be like the light of a lamp under a shade. He regarded her for a moment before speaking. "Hello there. thinking of joining our little community? You must be or you would not be called here."
Ever had stumbled there quite by chance having taken a wrong turn heading home. It had been home she was heading? Hadn't it? She tried to remember if she was even on her world. Maybe it was where she called home in this place. It didn't matter she had ended up somewhere she had never seen before. So, she turned around going back the ways she came only to find once again she was there and back seemed another direction. Time and time this fact held true till she decided something was drawing her to this place. It was the moment that she decided to stay that someone decided to talk to her.
He walked up to her a smile on his face. It seemed real enough even caused it to put a twinkle in his eye but like so much it just seemed to not be as bright as it should be like the light of a lamp under a shade. He regarded her for a moment before speaking. "Hello there. thinking of joining our little community? You must be or you would not be called here."
The witch eyed him a look of confusion on her face. "Where is here? Called. It feels like I have been here before." It did and the second she said that something flashed in her mind of a younger her and an old house with a different feel. It fit but it didn't fit.
"Our community. It is safe here. And everything is better." It seemed that way looking around but it also felt duller somehow in ways she could not place. "Do you want a tour?"
"Our community. It is safe here. And everything is better." It seemed that way looking around but it also felt duller somehow in ways she could not place. "Do you want a tour?"
Ever nodded her dark curls bouncing as she did so following after her host. The streets were clean and quiet. The lawns neatly cut, the kids playing outside were kind and polit and even those who peered out the windows seemed well kept but it still felt wrong. She turned to talk to her host but he was gone. As she spun to to look forward another image flashed of the same child running across a field away from something as she looked forward to see the same field. She stepped into into it trying to trace the steps to where the girl from her images came from. Seeing her at different times at different ages but never really older than what seemed close to the age she was now.
She moved across the field to come across a house. It was older than many and while it held a design like so many others it seemed despite being dirty more real. The over grown veins that climbed up the sides seemed less dull than other places despite being brown with decay and it seemed creepy in the way old houses an be and not in the way the rest were to perfect to be real while seeming surreal. She pushed open the door the echoes of words coming into her ears. "Don't go inside there is nothing good in there." Along with a strange mixture of a child's laughter and a child's screams. Her desire to understand as she moved inside made her step across the squeaky floorboards.
It seemed normal enough though perhaps not lived in for awhile. Pictures on the wall of a happy family. Neat bedrooms with beds that were now decaying with time but once upon a time were beautiful. A kitchen full of appliances, neatly stacked dishes, and a wooden table and chairs of a comfortable kind. A couch of deep blue, a matching chair, and a radio, on an end table in the living room that held more pictures. It seemed for all purposes normal--happy. She shook her head as she turned to leave when the echos said. "You forgot the hidden room." She spun around see only a shadow of a girl run past, a shadow of herself, an after image? Or some forgotten memory? She did not know but she followed it to the wall.
Her hands feeling along the boards looking for something unsure what but still looking as she hit something and it swung outwards and she stepped into the dark hallway calling upon a small green light to illuminate the path as she moved further in. The sound of singing, laughing, crying, and talking echoing through the walls every part of her wanted to trun back but she did not she moved forward to the small room at the end of the hall. The small lonely bed and the room with no windows. The images flashing once again as she entered was this part of the memories that had been implanted? Or was it some part of her own fears? Or something she had forgotten.
Next to the bed was some kind of leather strap hanging down. Chains littered the walls and she glanced at the girl on the bed. "He likes the whips the best. But he never covers your mouth he wants to hear the screams."
Ever blinked an image of the whip going across her back caused the witch to flinch the red running down the white of her shirt. "I know."
She frowned at the shadow as if she knew somehow she was talking to herself. And like the girl she could hear the whistle, the paddle across the wall as he moved down the hall and together they ran through the winding hallway so many hallways she knew not where they came from only that they did not seem to end. She moved one with the other through the maze and suddenly she fell tumbling through an open hole...down...down...down, a scream coming from her mouth as she sat up with a jolt. Awake in her bed as she looked around confusion on her face. Was that a dream? A memory? This life a different one? Or something else all together? She had no answers but she did have the lines on her back from where the whip had hit.