LIMINALITY

Chapter 11.

Sadie woke up, refreshed from the day before. "Ivorryyyy, wakey wakey!" She poked at her face, trying to wake her up. "Let me sleep..." Ivory grumbled in a low voice and covered her face to avoid the bright sunlight. "You gotta wake up, Iv." Sadie chuckled. "Fine, don't answer me then. Guess I'll just go explore this castle by myself then." She sighed. Ivory's eyes shot open, "Fine, I'll wake up. Just give me a minute.." She rubbed her sleepy eyes and sat up, propping her back up against the wall behind them. "Heh..you really aren't a morning person, are you?" Sadie asked, "Nope..." Ivory yawned, "Not at all."

— — —

Ivory finally decided to get up after about five minutes of just staring off into space and yawning every second, "Alrighty, get up, Iv." Sadie said as she grabbed Ivory's hand and helped her up. She grabbed her backpack and put it on, "You ready?" She asked, "Yep.." Ivory replied, still quite tired. Sadie nodded and pushed the castle door open. She was surprised because of how easy it was to get open. Though, she wasn't complaining. As soon as the two stepped in, the castle door slammed shut right behind them. "W-wh..." Sadie paused and turned around. She began trying to open the door back up, but her efforts were in vain.

They were trapped.

— — —

"W-well, there must be another way out..!" Ivory tried to calm down Sadie, who was incredibly upset. She banged her fist against the door, trying to get it to open. "UGH, WHY WON'T THIS STUPID THING OPEN?!" She screamed angrily and kicked the door as hard as she could. To her dismay, it wouldn't budge. "We just have to walk around and explore, like we always do! Surely we aren't trapped here forever..!" Ivory assured.

Sadie's breathing steadied, "A-alright, I believe you.." She rubbed her hand. "My fist hurts," she thought. "I don't wanna seem weak to Ivory though.." She let go of her hand and let it drop down to her side. They took in their surroundings silently. Inside of the castle was just a huge fun-house area. It was very bright and colorful with slides and ball pits everywhere. There were several hallways and corners, like a giant maze. "Hm... which way do we go first..." Sadie muttered and looked left to right then over to Ivory. "Let's go...left." She said and began walking towards the left hallway of the castle's playhouse. Sadie nodded and followed her.

The two weren't the best at mazes. Sadie remembered the time where they both went into a corn maze at their local fall festival and got lost. Ivory had to call her mom because Sadie's didn't care. The whole drive home, they were getting screamed at. Sadie was used to it though, so she didn't really care. She just learned to tune it out. Ivory on the other hand, looked like she was on the verge of tears. She hates disappointing people, especially her parents.

Sadie huffed, "How long until we get out?" She asked and turned her head over to Ivory. "It's been five minutes dear..." She replied. Sadie groaned, "It feels like it's been at least five hours."

"We'll get out eventually." Ivory chuckled, turning a corner. Sadie continued to whine and complain about how bored she is. "Well, how about a game?" Ivory suggested, "You're bad at games." Sadie grumbled, "Nooo, you're just too good." She replied with a smirk, "I mean, I am pretty awesome." Sadie grinned. Ivory nodded and laughed. They just continued walking in silence, occasionally stopping to look around the room they were in. Ivory found some bottles of Almond water scattered around the place. "I wonder why everything doesn't seem so grainy now." She muttered, "Yeah, what's up with that?" Sadie said while she grabbed a bottle of Almond water out of her backpack and sipped it. For some reason, it made her feel a lot more at ease. For a while she was confused, but then she thought back to what the Plush Dino said.

"Drink Almond water to keep your sanity stable; if you don't, you'll grow insane."
"Maybe this stuff does have a lot of uses.." She thought and took another sip. "Ivory, did the Plush Dino tell you about how the Almond water helps you stay sane?" She asked, "Hm...oh, yeah- it did!" Ivory nodded. "Alright, well we're probably gonna be in this funhouse thing for a while so we gotta preserve this Almond water." Sadie said. "Alright, smart idea." Ivory replied.