Lizzie

As we stood there at the edge of the cliff overlooking the water. “ It’s been a long time,” he says “ Water hasn’t been here in ages” he continues; “ Or maybe we haven’t been living in the right geological location,” she says.  As the two continue the glance out at the vast ocean the girl then proceeds to walk forward falling off a sky scrapper cliff but as the water hits her face she opens her eyes to a dark room, dimly lit fill with a bookshelf on one side of the room, a ceiling fan a laptop sitting on a table while a bed sits against a wall closet to the entrance door with a large window overlooking the backyard.

She sits up in the bed breathing heavily like a runner after a jog or a wolf after the hunt, and sweating as if a flame was next to her skin. She looked over to her nightstand and picked up a pill bottle that was filled with nuggets, she cut on her lamp and shook a nugget out into her hand; it was green with red and purple hairs on it and a smell that was of fresh honey but the bud was slightly crunchy.  As she got to the process of rolling it into a cigarette form, she received a text message [ Harold: Hey Lizzie you wanna chill?] she reached over to grab her phone while finishing up the roll with a final lick [Yeah, I’ll be in my parents out the house but do the norm] a quick reply comes back [ Sorry forgot to mention] as she scrolls down she sees a picture sent by Harold of a few others with the caption [ The guys are with me]. She pouts for a moment before laying back putting the cig between her lips and lighting it.

She slowly exhales, cutting off the lamp light and letting the light from the pool below shine into her room. The smoke collided with the light making an interesting dance in the atmosphere, so much so, that she stared at it for a while losing track of time deep in thought.

She hears the tires pulling into her driveway, “ Oh, crap….” She jumps up running to her closet, “Ummm, I could’ve sworn I left it right here”. A scrap rattles the back of her closet causing her to raise an eyebrow. She shoved some jackets out of her way and there it was, an onyx handle, with a red ribbon and a silver blade.

The front door creeks open, and she rushes downstairs to be greeted by Howard, Lance, and Heather  but…“Who is this?” she asks “Oh I hope you don’t mind, I had to bring my little brother”, “ Hey there I’m Lizzie” she stretches out her hand to which he eagerly jumps towards “He…Hey, Liz…zie my name is…is Eugene”, “ ah come now don’t be shy, Eugene Has your brother ever told you about what we do on our camping trips?”, “ Well…umm no he hasn’t gone into any explicit detail over it, why?” she laughs as she gestures for them to follow her as they make their way down what feels like long gating stairs the further they go down.

“Are we there yet?”, “ Don’t be silly Gene. We are almost at the cellar tho”, “ I hat…e it when you call m…me..G…Gene” Howard waves his hand at him “ yeah yeah kid” a piercing hit his side as quick as the words left his lips “hey!” he shouts “watch it Howard, don’t be an asshole” The glare on her face made turned Howards face from playful to uneasy as he shrugs it walking off. Lizzie pulls Howard to the side “chill, man. We need him in our party”, “It was a light light-hearted joke” she scoffs “Then we need to talk about your definition of what light-hearted means” She turns her head to Eugene. Stopping in place “ Ye….yes? Did I do So….Something?”

Lizzie lets out a huge grin before clutching the doorknob in front of her and swinging it wide open, Eugene immediately covering his eyes from the blistering bright light. He feels the front of his shirt tighten as he is yanked past the door frame. Why is it so warm? I thought she said this was a cellar.  Eugene said to himself, “Hey bro” Lance nudged him as his eyes adjusted. “Whoa!” he shouts “But how is this…is…”, “ In a cellar?” Lizzie shrugs “Honestly we aren’t sure, we still speculate it’s always been here just someone built over it.”  “ Is this why Lance always has a mage’s cane with him”, “ I’m not a mage I’m a wizard.” As they continue walking around Eugene can’t help but look at everything in awe. His brain still fizzled as he figured out if this was some elaborate prank or maybe just a highly detailed hologram but everything felt too real. From the touch of the sun’s light to the bird’s whispers in his ears.  He sees a trail of bugs on the ground, and his eyes follow Were they ants?  He thought but no they were something odd, different, exotic.  He got closer “ Hey Eugene watch it, stick with the group,” Lance said but Eugene didn’t respond and just continued following the ant-like creatures getting his face mere inches above the ground.

They were bluish-yellow at their rear, with spider-like crawling habits but acting like the ants you would see back home. They were heading to a tree which Eugene immediately walked over towards, his curiosity getting the better of him. “ Hey Eugene! Eug….gotdamn it” Lance says “ Hey it’s okay, let him explore it’s not like he is out of sight of something. Remember how we were when we first came?” Lizzie says her hand gripping her sword tight. “Yeah, I remember but I also remember us not being below pre-teen age either.”, “ We’ll just keep a closer eye on him for the moment,” she says stopping on top of a cliff overlooking a forest below with a four-way river splitting them up. “ Hey!” Lizzie hears an excited and winded Eugene say from behind her.

“Enjoying your time?”, “ What is this place?” He asks back….his eyes perker open “ Hello….Hello…Hello.” Eugene begins repeating random words to himself, some louder and others softer. Lance grabs Eugene “What is it Eugene? Are you all right” his emotions quickly changing from worry to surprise. Eugene points to his mouth in excitement  “Hello, my name is Eugene” The words come out clean, and not a single stutter. Lance was amazed looking a Lizzie who was also caught off guard by something but a shadow slowly covered them.

Eugene looks at the seriousness of Lizzie and his brother and turns his attention upwards as well. A cold chill hit his spine as his knees began to shake, “What….is that?” his back bumps into Lizzie’s legs “Don’t fear, this isn’t a first fight with a Pobawa” She unsheaths her sword pointing it at the creature with Lance behind her his Staff now a brightly light blue flamed bow and arrow. Howard stood behind them chanting while Heather hanked Eugene into the middle of the circle, before standing in the front with Lizzie. Howard holds his hand out and a swirling burst of purple electricity fills the air, as it enchants the team’s weaponry.

The team stood there waiting….almost as if one or the other were waiting for the first strike to happen when the creature roared into the void of the bright sky calling forth several other Pobawa. Lizzie blitzed believing behind nothing as she sucks the air around her to follow.