The End of the Road

What I did when given this prompt by my LA teacher...

Imagine that you are riding on a train or a bus. Suddenly the train or bus stops, and the driver announces that you have reached the end and you must get off.  As the train or bus departs, you realize that you have no idea where you are. What will you do? 

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 

 When it comes to procrastination, I am no less then a professional. In fact, just yesterday, I stayed up all night, working on my epic social studies project. Not until 5:00 A.M. the next morning, did I finally head to bed, delighted in the prospect of two well-deserved hours of sleep. As one can guess, when it was time to awaken, I was not so delighted. I walked around half dead all throughout the day, only becoming lively when it was time to present my project. Having restricted myself from falling asleep in class, I was dead tired by the time school had ended. I got on the bus home in a zombie-like fashion and allowed myself to nap, quickly falling into a deep sleep.

An unknown amount of time later, the sharp jolt of the stopping bus flung me into a conscientious state. I blinked momentarily, trying to ward away the sleepiness. My senses still hazy, I heard a rough voice calling to me from the front of the bus. Who was that? The bus driver? The voice came again. “Hey! You over there, wake up! It’s the last stop! You have to get off!” Now fully awake, I panicked. Buses are few and far between in this area. How was I to get back? My panic didn’t last for very long though. The undisguised annoyance on the bus driver’s face soon urged me to get the hell out of the bus and onto the streets.

It was then that I noticed the complete and utter silence. There was nobody. No smoke from the chimneys, no pedestrians walking dogs, no signs of the living at all. Only a row of dainty little houses, their dark windows staring back at me across an empty street. The silence was ominous, and it frightened me just a little. This silence, however, was nothing compared to the awesome sight that lay just a head turn away. It was the end of the road, and by end, I mean the end. The road not three yards away ended in a sheer precipice. There was nothing beyond it, as if the world had just fallen away. The cliff stretched on endlessly without a bottom. How could such an impossible thing exist? I was so awestruck, I didn’t hear the nearing footsteps until they were not five inches behind me. There was a slight tap on my shoulder and I turned around, unsettled. A young boy stared me in the face. His pale skin was framed by wispy black hair, and a bundle of white bandages covered his left eye. The right was a dark somber pool of grey.“You shouldn’t be here, this place is not a place for the likes of you.” I could barely utter a “what?” before the boy pushed me over the edge with a loosely bandaged hand. I felt myself beginning to fall over the sheer precipice and scrabbled for the boy’s hand. I only managed to grab hold of a bandage, which tore in a matter of seconds. “Don’t worry, you’ll be back soon…” uttered the boy in a barely audible voice. And then, I fell.

I shot out of my bus seat in a cold sweat. I did not feel myself falling anymore. There was once again, solid ground beneath my feet. “Oh your awake kid! This is your stop right?” came the rough voice of the bus driver. Had it all been a dream? The end of the road and that sullen boy? Where had that world gone? I hurried from the bus, happy that I had not missed my stop after all. It was then that I realized there was something in my hand. I glanced down, wondering what it was. I found myself staring at length of white bandage that had been ripped away.