The World Between

Chapter 1: Quick Grass

She lay on her bed, staring vacantly out at the blinds as the headlights of night travelers passed by. She rose, unable to take just lying there while her mind was so active. She had to be at work in about six and half more hours. She wasn't looking forward to it, though that wasn't really different from any other day. It wasn't that terrible of a job, though it wasn't that great of a job either. Maia ran her fingers through her short hair, something she often did when she felt stuck. She had been playing with her bangs since she was in middle school, and now without much length to her hair it was much more satisfying. 

One more stretch and then she moved into the living room, hoping that some mindless television would sooth her insomnia. She sat on the couch next to a fluffy white cat creatively named Marshmallow that barely looked at her with bleary blue eyes. She clicked the remote, but was disappointed to find that her internet wasn't working. A number of expletives came to her mind as she sighed and stood once more to reset the router. That's when the power went out. Really? She thought to herself as she illuminated the room with her phone. She felt a chill running down the back of her neck, cutting through the irritation of inconvenience. 

Nothing is wrong, the power would probably be back on in just a second. Or so everyone tells themselves in every horror movie, right? She forced back a nervous chuckle. 

The power blinked back on, and she smiled to herself. Her imagination was always getting the better of her. She decided to go back to bed, to be a bit more determined about sleeping. She did lay down. But she clicked open her phone and scrolled through social media. Like, like, like, why, dude. Unfriend. It was only an hour and forty seven minutes before she finally fell asleep. 

When she woke up, her phone was half plastered to her face and it was ringing.. loudly. Time to get up and start this wonderful, normal, bland day, in which she would be invisible and affect nothing. 

It's too bad that today that was completely untrue, because today was the day Maia would change. But, of course, she didn't know that; so, she showered and fed her cat and walked out her door as though it was going to be just another day. 

Of course, she immediately tripped because change doesn't happen automatically and never in the way we think it will. Her face hit the small patch of grass outside of her apartment and she felt the angry tears of frustration well up in her eyes. She lay there in the grass for a moment, letting herself feel the shame and self pity that quite frankly, she should be used to by now. 

She put her hands under her and began to stand up by using a push up, when she realized her hands seemed to be sinking into the grass. She tried to pull her hand away to study this strange phenomena, thinking she must have fallen harder than she realized. But the grass and ground around her hand seemed to grab her and now she was up to her elbows, being pulled face first into the ground. 

She tried furiously to pull her hands out, but it was as if she was being sucked in. She couldn't feel dirt or grass on her hands any more, she couldn't tell what they were touching. Her tears of frustration turned to tears of fear, and she began to scream for help. But her screams only seemed to make her be pulled in faster. And soon she was completely submerged in darkness, holding her breath and yet glad she was wearing pants as she had to be ass-end up at this point.