Chapter 02

I open my eyes still not understanding why I was sleeping, it was really a crazy dream, but... it felt so real, finally time to get up, Carrie and I still have a lot of cleaning up to do here at the house. I sit up still sleepy and stretch my legs trying to eliminate the laziness that still consumes me, I open my eyes very slowly and close them again, who was it that left the window open? I straighten my spine and put my hands on the thin mattress that Carrie and I bought with the rubber bands that we had been selling since pre-school, but why does this mattress look so different, who threw leaves and rocks on it? Trying to open my eyes again I force myself to get used to the light. All right maybe I'm not prepared for what I'm seeing now, I rub my eyes once more believing that I can only be dreaming but when I reopen them everything is still the same, I open my eyes even more when I realize where I am, what the hell is going on here?

Still confused I start to look around and I can't help but be amazed when I see trees that I dare say I had never seen before, they were exotic and different, each tree seemed to be looking at me now, with their majesty and long trunks that seemed to cover the sky with foliage that looked more like long silky multicolored hair, the wind seemed to whisper passing by me as if welcoming me, it was an incredible place but at the same time dark and disturbing, Getting up slowly I begin to hear a sound of water, there must be some fountain nearby, birds pass by me, birds with a watercolor coat that I had never seen, with long wings and feathers that look like crackling fire that involves them in a soft dance with the wind each bird has a different color is simply beautiful, I shudder when I see small animals that look more like cotton candy with legs walking on the ground and look at me with a certain curiosity.

What is happening, where am I? Wasn't it a dream? But it's not possible, this place is just... magical, a wave of fear and understanding hits me when I remember the noise, the circle, that Carrie and I had the bright idea to enter it, I am startled when comprehension surrounds my mind, I was not dreaming this... this was real. In a flash I remember Carrie, My God, I have distanced myself from her during whatever took me to that place, where is she? I start to despair as I look around and can't find her, I start to call out to her but get no answer, the air seems heavy and that place is no longer so enchanting, I take a deep breath but it feels like the air is gone from my lungs, no, no, no, no, this can't be happening, my legs feel weak and my throat gets dry, I lean against a rock and kneel on the ground already feeling the tears burning my eyes as I am about to scream and cry, I hear a low noise.

- Lauren?

A wave of relief floods me when I hear Carrie's voice, I start to look desperately for her when I see a tangle of hair rising behind a huge tree that seemed to dance with the wind, I run to meet Carrie who stands up slowly rubbing her eyes and hug her, as she faces her surroundings she squeezes her eyes tightly shut and when she opens them again she looks at me tilting her head somewhat confused.

- What the hell happened, where are we?

I decide to do the same, admiring the place that looks like something out of a fairy tale, everything just seemed magical. I turn my attention back to Carrie who is still admiring the incredible animals around us, when I remember everything that happened.

- Well, I don't know how to answer any of your questions, but maybe it has something to do with going into a scary macabre circle and ending up in a place that looks like a child's fairy tale, which maybe we could have avoided if we had left when I did.

Carrie immediately stops looking at the surroundings and looks at me raising her eyebrows in amazement and indignation.

- I can't believe you're actually putting the blame on me, we," she points her finger at both of us, "agreed together to go in the circle, and even if we left when you said we would, who's to say it would work or that we wouldn't end up dead, at least we're alive and you shouldn't blame me.

She immediately turns the other way and starts walking aimlessly obviously hurt, well I have to admit she was right, it was also my idea to enter the circle alias I was the one who proposed it, it wasn't right to blame her that way when if you analyze it I was the one who was more to blame. I take her by the arm and stop in front of her.

- Wait Carrie, you are right, I am sorry for putting the blame on you, that was wrong, I was stressed and afraid and took it out on you," I let go of her arm and lean my head up to look at the sky and try to find a solution to our problem, I turn to look at Carrie who is now looking at the sky as well, "what do we do now, how do we get back?

I put my hand on my head and close my eyes, Carrie turns her attention back to me with a sigh and tilts her head down to sit on the ground near a tree, I follow her example and sit beside her, she hugs her legs and rests her head on them, and lets out another sigh.

- I don't know what came over me, but... I had the impression I heard someone calling me, someone asking for my help and I just couldn't ignore it," she looks at me and sees that I am looking at her with a frown on my forehead before I could disguise it, "I know it sounds crazy but I'm telling the truth.

I hold her hand and bow my head to her, damn she was blaming herself and all because of me.

- I know and believe you, maybe whoever did this...thing, maybe it was someone calling you to get your attention so that we wouldn't get out of the circle, it wasn't your fault.

Carrie looks at me and quickly changes her expression to one of debauchery, raising her eyebrows she gives a little smile and releases her hands from mine.

- And what makes you think I'm sad about what you said, I know we were both at fault, I'm just analyzing the facts.

I look at her dumbfounded and raise an eyebrow, momentarily forgetting that we are stuck in God knows where. Still looking at her I push her and she falls half to the side smiling and trying to tease her.

- Bitch

She puts her hands on the ground and turns to me laughing and trying to push me too, Carrie is like that, even though we are stuck in a place that we don't know where it is and much less what the future holds or how to get back home, she still makes me laugh and forget about all these problems, it has always been like that, in the orphanage I was bullied a lot for being a little different, In the orphanage I was bullied a lot because I was a little different, because of the dreams I had, I was very scared, and I had a hard time relating to other children, and since Carrie wouldn't leave my side, we were both targets of jokes and humiliation, and many times of violence, both physical and psychological, that left deep scars that sometimes still hurt.

At school, when we discussed bullying, people said that it would pass, that it might make people stronger, that everyone goes through it and that there is nothing to worry about, and we even heard that it was normal. Then at some point we started to question and blame ourselves, all the teasing, all the meanness, all the pain, all the injustice we suffered, was it really normal? Did we deserve it? This was the most difficult time we faced in that place when we started to doubt ourselves and think that our aggressors were right to attack us. We always hid in a small room under the stairs of an old storage room in the orphanage that we found by chance when we were trying to escape from the persecution we suffered.

And while we waited desperately for it all to pass, it never did, and that's when we realized that it wouldn't pass, ever, bullying doesn't pass, it only gets worse every day, bullying makes people stronger, it kills and dries up the person inside until it reaches the point where the person is nothing more than a shell sheltering pain and loneliness, bullying is not normal and doesn't happen to everyone it can't be judged as a passing thing it has to be stopped and fought before it's too late and that's when we realized that no one would help us, that no one would try to solve the situation and that there was nothing we could do.

But then we realized that the best way to overcome our difficulties and get out of that situation was not to attack them in the same way but to be better than them, because evil cannot overcome love and even if we suffered we were sure that the desire for happiness and love that one had for the other was greater than the evil desired by empty people. We started to be more secure when they hurt us with their own insecurities, to wish for love when they returned us with hate, to smile when they expected our pain, to see kindness where they only saw evil, to be happy despite all the times they hurt us with words, gestures, and fists, but mainly to stand up when they thought they had beaten us, this was the most we could do.

Putting away those sad and lonely thoughts still laughing and trying to deflect Carrie's attempts to push me, we were surprised when a pair of boots stopped in front of us followed by three more pairs, we stopped laughing immediately still holding Carrie's arms we looked up and were startled to find four men with their swords pointed at us, the one in front of us approaches and puts his sword to my neck and forces me to stand up followed by a totally terrified Carrie at my side the man then half closes his eyes and then gives a little side smile, looking us up and down.

- Well, well, well, what have we here?

The man tilts his face as if he took pleasure in seeing us terrified, this was not going to end well before we could realize we were being tied by the wrists and being pulled by horses as the men rode them. I looked at Carrie who was just as scared as I was, it was just the thing as if our lives couldn't get any worse, with such indignation we started following them to God knows where.

- Oh shit!

X

It had been about twenty minutes since we had been walking, and the forest no longer seemed so enchanting, perhaps because I was not admiring it properly, between following the footsteps of the horse that was dragging me and the almost unsuccessful attempts to dodge its feces that every five minutes were threatened to be crushed by my feet there was not much space left to look and admire the landscape. I look to the side and see that Carrie is having the same struggle as me, maybe even more so, covertly I try to approach her and speak as quietly as possible, while our kidnappers are distractedly chatting about how much they would get for our heads. How sweet!

- Are you all right?

It doesn't take long for a totally breathless Carrie to answer me in whispers.

- Oh, you mean aside from the fact that I have to fight to keep from ending up with my face stuck in the middle of animal excrement, I can say I'm fine.

I bite my cheek to hold back laughter and try to get even closer to Carrie, when the man on the horse pulling me looked back and grunted when he realized what I was trying to do, I quickly returned to my seat and lowered my head. When I was sure that the man was no longer looking at me, I turned my attention back to Carrie taking care not to be seen again.

- All right, here's the thing, we don't know where they are taking us and there is no way out of here, we are outnumbered and unarmed, so the best we can do is hope that the place they are taking us to offers us some opportunity to escape.

Carrie agrees and looks down, then looks at me quickly, trying to get closer with wide eyes.

- Wait, what if they kill us first?

I pause for a moment analyzing what Carrie has said.

- Well, I hadn't thought about it, but I don't think these men intend to kill us, if they wanted to, they would have done it by now, but we can't...

I was interrupted when the man who first drew his sword on us in the forest and who seemed to be the leader of the group turned his attention to the two of us, smiling slightly as he approached where we were standing. Now that we were not so terrified of dying, well not yet, I could take a good look at our kidnappers, they were all wearing green capes, there was a strange symbol on the cape, a kind of spiral surrounded by flowers and thorns and in the center a kind of animal a mixture of wolf and she-cow that seemed to be menacingly looking at me, over the armor, wait where the hell did people still wear armor? Did we go back in time? I kept those thoughts to myself for the moment as I looked at them again, I could see that they were very handsome as I had not noticed before, they had an age range of thirty to thirty-five more or less, their skins were so beautiful with a tan tone that looked as if they had been kissed by the sun, they were strong and well defined, strangely they had colored hair, the horns were also colored to match the hair, wait what?

I looked at them all again and had to blink three times before I could tell that what I was about to see was really real, they all had a pair of long horns about forty centimeters long, as sharp and deadly as their swords, each had a different shade that matched the color of their hair as I absentmindedly looked at these men, if I could say so, I was startled when I heard their leader's voice beside me, he had orange-red hair that matched his horn of the same color and intensity. He was talking to Carrie, but his attention was focused on the two of us.

- Your friend is right, we won't kill you, you are more valuable alive, but I can't say the same for the Illuminare Kingdom, which can be just as evil as the Darkness Kingdom. And if you think you'll find a way to escape from there, you couldn't be more wrong, and if you do, you can be sure that they let you escape on purpose just to play chase games with you.

Everyone starts laughing as if our lives were a joke to them, Carrie looks at me in terror, well, we can't give up hope since there is no way to escape from where they are taking us, maybe we can change their minds.

-Well, there must be something we can do so they don't turn us over to these people, we can who knows...

I was cut off by one of the men who was going but ahead, this one had green hair like the leaves of the forest trees that grew majestically down to his waist.

- We don't want anything from you, and we're sure to get a lot more if we give them up. And frankly, girls, you're not our style, I don't see what else you could be useful for.

I look at them incredulously, how could they even think we would want them even if they wanted us, I had this stuck in my throat but thought it best not to say anything, it might make them angry and try something against us, unfortunately this idea didn't get through to Carrie who was looking at the men with the same angry look as me, I tried to send her a signal but it was too late, Carrie's look changed to one of total ignorance.

- And what makes you think we would do anything to you if you so desired? We are not objects to be won over whenever you want.

The men grit their teeth in total opposition to what they heard, the red haired man accompanying us approached Carrie and my whole body tensed up after hearing his words.

- Maybe they don't miss one, but they don't know how many people have looted them.

Carrie's eyes widen and she turns away from the man who is already drawing his long, sharp sword. I try to run to where they are, but I am pulled by the rope tied around my wrists, desperate, I try to pull the rope, but I can't get free.

- No, please!

In the midst of my despair and Carrie's screams, what was, but the front shuts us up with words that for the moment reassure me.

- Stop it, brother, there's no point, because we've already arrived.

The man then stops and smiles, showing all his impressively clear and shiny teeth.

- Saved by the gong, well at least for now, believe me - now looking at us both he puts away his sword and begins to follow his horse to meet the one ahead - they would have wished death on my sword.

Well I no longer have any doubts about that, after seeing without believing the fortress that rose up before my eyes, is we are lost.