The Middle of Somewhere

"Ah!" I screamed. My head hurt really bad. Maybe I had a very bad headache. No, that was dumb. Headaches don't cause blinding lights and raging wind. Do they?

I sat up and looked around. I was definitely no in the woods. Everything seemed brighter. The air felt warm. My hands felt dry, despite being in water. Looking down, I realized I was sitting in a pond. A very large pond. It wasn't very deep. When I pulled my hand out of the pond, the water rolled of leaving no traces of wetness behind. In fact, when I stood up, my skirt was perfectly dry and clean.

There was no trace of dirt on my body. Even my arms smelled faintly of honey. How comforting. I felt refreshed, like I had just gotten out of a long shower.

I noticed a willow at the edge of the pond. It was very large. A large rock sat in front of it, along with dozens of flowers. As I stood up in the water, which only rose to my ankles, a tiny pink petal land on my nose. I plucked it off my nose and admired how soft it felt.

Slowly, I walked towards the large willow tree. There were many hearts carved into the trunk. My heart skipped a beat when I noticed the rock had writing on it. It read

L U M I N E C A L L A S T O N E

That was my name. I pressed my hand to my mouth in realization. I was dead. This was my gravestone. The hammer must have brought me here. But how did I die? I gasped. The hammer! Where was it? Frantically, I looked around. My feet sloshed around in the not-wet water.

There it was, over on the other side of the pond. Victory! I ran and ran, while the water kept slowing me down. Finally I had reached the hammer. My arm flung out and with so much hope I pressed my finger lightly upon the strange symbol.

My excitement faded. Nothing had happened. I was stuck here, dead, alone, forever. Tears welled up in my eyes. I was always destined to be alone. Grief overcame my entire body as I wept.

Auntie and Uncle will wonder where I am. They probably think I ran away or died. Either way, they likely won't care.