Young Writers Society

Maybe this will help?

Four

Amelia felt claws digging into her forearms, her feet giving out beneath her as she was roughly pushed to the ground. A scream escaped her as the claws didn’t let go, and she opened her eyes and looked up to see two figures towering over her, two more standing behind them and grappling to get control of Talmon.

She gasped at the sight of them, tall and dressed in a thick gold color that shone even in the darkness of the forest. Golden hoods pulled over their faces, they had long fingers tipped with claws, their arms seeming oddly elongated as well.

They were comprised of large stitches, sloppily sown together like large poorly made dolls. The skin of their hands was wan and they were anatomically wrong, just wrong. It was an eerie sight and she felt another scream come out of her as the robed creatures clawed at her arms.

“Stop!” Talmon cried, trying to bite one of them but finding a fist make contact with his jaw. He staggered in their grips, looking around wildly for her. “Amelia Dahl! These are my owner’s creatures! Run away, I’m sorry!”

She stared at him with horror as the stitched-up men, the people who were to take him back to his imprisonment, plucked him off the ground and twisted his arms behind his back, making him cry out in pain. Their movements were jerky and they seemed to sway around like overgrown puppets, but they still had a strength to them that made Talmon wince in their hold.

“Leave him alone!” she screamed, running up and pulling on the sleeves of their robes. “Stop it, let him go now!”

She didn’t know why she was trying to protect Talmon, considering he was just a strange boy she had met that day, but she had said she would help him and he had promised to help her. Also, there was always the possibility that the puppet henchmen weren’t real either.

The men turned back to her at this, the four of them grabbing at her thin arms and holding them still as she tried to flail at them. What sounded like laughs resonated deep in their throats.

“Don’t touch her!” Talmon barked, nearly hanging upside down from one of their shoulders. “She’s not a Lostling, she has nothing to do with this! Let her go!”

The creatures didn’t listen, blocking him from her view as they lifted her up onto their shoulders. She screamed as loud as she could, kicking at them until one of them brought a hand to her throat.

She felt the cold claws against the skin of her neck. With Talmon still shouting somewhere in the distance, consciousness left her.

____________

Amelia awoke to a brilliant yellow light, her eyes closing again instinctively and a headache forming in her temples. A groan escaped her and she let herself lay where she was for several minutes.

She could feel a plush bed beneath her and blankets stretched over her. A pillow cradled her head and the smell of perfumes came from somewhere, wafting throughout the room and completely driving the sleep from her.

Puzzlement overcame her and she opened her eyes slightly, sitting up against the pillows and wondering if she was at home in her room. A joyous feeling filled her. She was safe at home, away from those monstrous stitched-up creatures and from the dark forest she had just been creeping through.

A smile came to her face as she realized she had just been dreaming, that the world hadn’t lost her at all and she had simply gone home and had an outrageous dream about some alternate world that didn’t exist at all. Talmon, that odd young man with the untamed hair, had just been something her exhausted mind had made up. She never would have thought such a character existed in her imagination.

Sitting up some more, she paused in thought as she looked down at her blankets.

They were gold. She didn’t have gold blankets.

Her heart sank to her feet as she looked around her, seeing that the bed she was in was not hers at all. She was in a foreign, circular room with no windows and only one door. It wasn’t her bedroom at all.

Her chest felt tight as she slipped over the side of the bed, looking down to see that she was wearing the same shorts and t-shirt she had been wearing at work. Bringing a hand to her head, she ran her fingers along the rim of her cap. She was even wearing her sneakers still.

Wrapping her arms around herself, she bit back the anguish as she looked around the dome bedroom with the gold-blanketed bed and the gold pillows that matched, depressions in them from where she had been laying. The floor was a plush scarlet carpet and crimson tassels hung from the posts of the bed. The room was painted white with a gold molding, and the door was wide open to a hallway.

Leaning against the side of the bed, Amelia wiped at her face and carefully took off her sneakers and socks, tossing them aside and letting her feet sink into the scarlet carpet. Running her hands through her short hair, she stood up and glanced over at the open doorway.

She had no clue where she was, but she knew she didn’t want to stay in that eerie bedroom. The hallway was a blaring white, almost like a hospital hallway. She squinted over at it, holding her arms and looking down at herself so she could ruminate her situation.

This wasn’t a dream. Everything that was happening to her was real, as real as anything else in her life was. She had slipped into unconsciousness, blacked out again, and yet she still was in a strange place, probably still in the world where the lost things went. And she truly was lost to her world, she had really lost herself, just as Talmon had said.

Talmon.

Looking up again, Amelia stumbled toward the doorway, her legs feeling weak beneath her. She had to find him, had to see if he was alright. She felt sick at the memory of those creatures hitting him, knocking him around. He had been trying to escape and his attempt to run had been ruined because he had run into her and she had demanded so many answers out of him. But he had helped her despite his own agenda, and now he was possibly in danger because of it.

She had to figure out where she was and then find him. Once she found him, then she could think about finding Astray and getting home. He was the only one she knew so far who could help her with that anyway.

Running her hand along the white wall, she tottered down the hallway, scrutinizing the closed doors she passed and watching as the turn in the hall grew closer. She clasped her hands together as she neared it, not knowing what to expect, what she was going to find in the rest of the building. She didn’t even know if she was in danger.

Just as she was about to round the corner, a figure sprang out from the other hallway and ran right into her, sending her sprawling out against the floor. Her elbows hit the hallway tiles hard and her ears began to ring. Sitting forward, she put a hand up to support her head and she let out a pained groan.

“What…?” she mumbled as an undernourished figure loomed over her, twittering nervously and hopping from one foot to the other.

“I’m s-sorry, miss! Are y-you alright, miss? Oh no, oh… I d-didn’t mean to run into y-you!” The voice was lilting and feminine, shaking uncontrollably as she spoke. The figure bent down to help her up, trembling hands righting Amelia and dusting her clothes off.

“What?” Amelia mouthed, looking down at the tiny girl fluttering around her like a hummingbird, her eyes as wide as saucers. She had long hair tied back with a rubber band, her clothes just as raggedy and moth-eaten as Talmon’s had been. In fact, she seemed a lot like Talmon, the way she stuttered and quavered with her nerves.

“Are you a Lostling?” she asked, watching as the girl jumped a foot back at the question. After a moment of anxious twittering, the girl nodded feverishly.

“Yes, yes. A Lostling. Servant to the grand and beautiful Baroness Brynhilda.” The servant girl gave Amelia a darling, clumsy smile. “The Baroness sent me to come fetch you. Oh! I’m so s-sorry I ran into you! Are you going to tell the Baroness?”

“No.” Amelia answered, observing the Lostling as she spoke. “The Baroness is your owner? Am I in one of the lost cities?” She couldn’t quite recall the city Talmon had said that he had run away from.

“Nibelhem. The city Nibelhem.” the girl said with a nod. “The Baroness is my wonderful owner. She’s so wonderful, you must come see her now! She’s summoned you. Come along, please.”

The girl took her hand in hers, her fluttery feet starting off down the hallway. Amelia looked down with confusion at the servant as she was pulled along, shaking her head and tugging for her to stop.

“Wait! Wait, if you’re a Lostling, do you know Talmon?” she asked eagerly. “If you do, can you tell me where he is?”

The girl froze at the mention of his name, turning her panicky eyes on Amelia like she had threatened to harm her. She let out a few squeaking noises before responding.

“Talmon was bad, he was very bad. We must not speak about Talmon. Come, the Baroness is waiting for you. Please, follow.”

The servant girl started off again, tugging her along more hastily now. Amelia tried to ask more questions but the Lostling had grown rigid and it was useless. Giving in, she followed along and watched as the hallway spanned out into a grand lobby room.

This room seemed about the size of the entire Kay County Fair, the high ceiling held up by pillars and images of angels and clouds strewn across the walls and above the crystal chandeliers. The floor was smooth and marble, stretching out across the colossal room, gigantic vases full of beautiful flowers propped up every now and then.

Amelia gaped, her mouth hanging open in shock as she took in the sights, the servant girl dragging her along without looking up once. It took several minutes to cross the room, and they exited it without a pause to breathe or a chance to stop and look around.

They were in a hallway again then, the same piercing white color as the other ones, and the Lostling flounced along without hesitation. Amelia kept up with her, wondering what was in store for her in such a place. Since this Baroness Brynhilda person had sent a frail girl to bring Amelia to her, she figured that maybe the Baroness meant her no harm. Maybe she could reason with this woman and then she would have a new way of reaching that Astray place that Talmon had mentioned.

Home. She just wanted to go home now. She had been about to go home back at the fair, but just a moment’s sickness and a black out had brought her to this fantasy world. What strange circumstances she was in! She felt weary and sick again.

Her stomach was full of butterflies and her head felt light as the Lostling stopped at a gold-trimmed doorway that towered above both of them. Amelia looked up at it, feeling too nervous to take one more step forward and wondering where Talmon was.

There had been something comforting about his presence. Maybe it was because he was a shyer, even more anxious person than she was.

The Lostling girl walked up to the immense door, rapping her tiny knuckles on it and listening carefully for any sound from inside.

Something that sounded like heavy chimes rang out from the other side of the door and a lush voice answered:

“Come in, children.”