Chapter 5 – Up the Rabbit Hole
It’s night now, but the kingdoms and countries continue to be at war with each other. The aggression and anger seem to have infected the plants and the animals who fight each other as well. Irene tries to not get involved in any conflict but does attract the aggression of some of the animals and plants. She tries to let gravity take her up to the clouds, but the trees smack her down. With no other choice, she transforms her arms into cutters and cuts her aggressors until they can no longer pursue her. Since she is a heart, her strength is amplified, and it doesn’t take her much effort to defeat whatever comes at her. Fighting is easier than she thought so she thinks to herself that she might have a chance at surviving in this world. She shakes off the thought when she looks back at the raging battle behind her.
Venturing further into the forest, she finds Jen who is in pieces.
Irene goes to her and says, “Jen! Are you okay?”
“Yeah…I’m fine. Give me a day and I’ll be back to normal. How was the castle? Was it fun?” Jen says while in constant pain.
“It was doesn’t matter Jen we have to leave this world.”
“Why would we do that?”
“Don’t you see all of the fighting going on all around us? This place is in utter chaos.”
“This happens every month or so. It’s nothing.”
“But this can’t be a good way to live.”
“Hey, if you want to leave, then leave. You’re free to do anything down here after all. Hahaha.”
Seeing that Jen is beyond reasoning, Irene leaves her. As she gets closer to the exit, she sees more and more injured animals, plants, and people. It seems that either someone has the same idea as Irene or there is someone or something dangerous around here. Going a bit further, Irene finds Amy who is impaled to the ground by several cutters. There are enemy soldiers lying around her along with her own and other soldiers from other armies who appeared to have betrayed her.
Amy weakly smiles as Irene approaches before saying, “Ah, so the queen finally appears to us. Haha, we’ve been looking for you.”
“I’m not the queen, Amy. I was never meant to be,” Irene replies as she takes out the cutters from Amy.
“Of course you were. You have a heart in your eye.”
“Never mind that. I’m getting out of this world. You should too.”
“And go back to that land of slavery? No thanks.”
“The above world is slavery? I don’t think so. This place is a land of slavery where you’re submissive to your own ideas of freedom.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Freedom from one set of ideas is submission to another.”
“Whatever. I still think we can make this place a paradise.”
“Human beings don’t create paradise, they destroy them.”
“You’re so cynical.”
Irene takes out the last cutter from Amy’s body.
Amy continues, “If you help me, I can make you queen of your own country or kingdom and we can make this place into a haven for kids like us.”
“You know, you sound like someone else I know.”
“Don’t compare me to that witch!”
“I’m getting out of here and that’s final. If you want me to carry you to the exit, I will.”
“You’re wrong about this place.”
“But I’m a heart and we usually know best, right? What’s your answer?”
“No.”
“Then enjoy eternity in your paradise.”
“Irene don’t do this.”
Irene doesn’t listen to Amy as she walks away from her. Amy’s voice eventually becomes silent once Irene gets far away from her. The exit should be close by now. Irene thinks to herself what she’s going to do when she gets home. Will it be the same time up there then it is down here? Will she stay in this crystal state? Are her parents looking for her? Did they find this place? Would they be able to since they’re adults? These questions keep popping up in Irene’s head until she silences them. She tells herself that she has to wait until she leaves this place.
Finally, Irene makes it to the hole she came out of. She looks down it and sees the colorful crystals that transformed her, but she doesn’t see the exit point. She’s about to jump down until a familiar voice stops her in her tracks.
“Irene…Lacey said you’d be here,” Sharon says from behind her.
Sharon has huge holes and cuts in her body as its mostly torn up because of the battles she’s been through.
“Sharon…I’m surprised you’re still in one piece.”
“Haha. Barely.”
“Are you going to stop me from leaving this place?”
“I don’t know actually. The pain hinders me from thinking. On one hand, if we were to join forces, we could get people to stop fighting. Two queens are better than one. On the other hand, I’ve been through conflicts like this and they keep happening with nothing changing. This world is in a state of endless revolution against itself.”
“You already know my choice. Will you join me?”
“…I will. If we get separated, where will I find you?”
Irene tells her the name of her hometown and Sharon does the same. Irene then holds out her hand and Sharon takes it. They look at one another before leaping down into the hole. The crystals in Irene and Sharon’s body disappear as they go up. Soon after, Sharon disappears out of thin air and once Irene is spat out of the hole, she looks around to see that it’s the same time of day when she fell in. Irene’s body is back to normal but feels better than ever for some reason. Sharon is nowhere in sight and the hole that was once there is a small hole that a bunny pops its head out of.
With no idea what happened to Sharon, she thinks to herself with her hands together, “Sharon, I hope you’re in a better place.”
Irene then heads back to her hometown but doesn’t see any missing person posters hung up in town. Usually what happens when someone goes missing in her town is that the town will have missing person posters the day when they know someone is missing and don’t take them down until that person is either found or presumed dead. It’s been about two days for Irene and the town hasn’t seemed to have noticed that she’s disappeared. She knows people here that care for her and they would’ve definitely done something if she disappeared.
Confused, Irene goes back home and heads back in the way she sneaked out, through her bedroom window. She sneaks downstairs to see that nothing has been moved since she last left. If a parent’s child goes missing, the family is usually torn apart, but everything seems normal here. Checking in on her parents, she sees that they’re sound asleep in their room. Everything that Irene sees implies that no time has passed since she ran away from home. Going on this theory, she heads back to her room and sleeps for the night.
As the morning sun rises, her mother wakes her up, “It’s morning honey. Time to wake up.”
“Hey, mom. What’s today?” Irene asks.
Irene’s mom tells her the date and it’s the day after Irene decided to run away. Time really hadn’t passed while she was in the crystal world. A smile rises from Irene’s face as happiness fills her soul. She thanks her mom and tells her mom and dad how much she loves them. Irene tells them that she’ll give her options another chance and she chooses one of them. During the course of the day, she comes across a familiar face.
Unsure of this is who she thinks it is, she asks, “Sharon? Is that you?”
The woman turns around, gasps, the hugs Irene. She says, “Yes, it’s me Irene!”
Sharon is wearing a long, fancy red, black dress as if her dress from the crystal world didn’t go away and became a better dress.
“How are you here? You look way older than me.”
“I’m thirty-five years old to be exact thank you very much. I got spit out of that crystal hole at the same time I went in.”
“The same thing happened to me.”
“That’s what I assumed especially when I traveled to this town and found that you didn’t exist yet. I’ve been waiting for over nineteen years for you to come up to me and recognize me.”
“That’s not creepy at all. Hahaha.”
“Haha, right?”
“How did you get this fancy dress?”
“I got a job as a teacher. It took years of work, but I pulled it off.”
“You’re a teacher? You don’t teach in my school, do you?”
“Unfortunately, no but I’m overjoyed that we’re back together again. Do you know what you’re going to do with your life now? This life is so much more relaxing and freeing than being a queen of a crystal kingdom.”
“I do.”
And so, after reuniting with a friend, Irene takes advantage of the life she has and begins to make something of it. With the lessons from her experience, the wisdom of her parents and teachers, and her friend, she embraces the future realizing that she was always free to become who she wanted from the very start.
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