Imagination's Saving Grace

Captive Under Disguise

Years down the road, after I stopped talking to almost ALL of my childhood friends, yes even Daniel. I packed them all away with the story book characters that have long sense stop scaring me. I kept a picture of Daniel in my back pocket, one of him and I after he rescued me from Neesrof. With that reminder I now knew I could defeat those shadows as long as my mind was free, and I kept away the Fog. I brought with me, throughout my moves, the ability to write my own stories. Most were tinged in fairytale worlds, but I didn't want to lose that magic Daniel showed me, and I wasn't quite sure of how to write my own.

My new lands brough me to a place surrounded by rolling hills, animals grassing the perfectly green grass which surrounded my new home. Here, I met a girl. She lived in a park, bordered by her own field of green, living in a metal prison disguised as a home. She had short hair, unevenly chopped with mismatched, patched clothes upon her body. She saw me through a small window where she slept. As I was exploring one day for the entrance to this field, which at first glance you would think it would be easy to access, I found it hid an electrifying secret. She waved to me with a shy smile, with eyes showing something I couldn't explain. Of course, me being the overly imaginative person I was, I wanted to find out what that field was hiding, yet I also wanted to find out more of this girl that spied on me through her grime covered window. She reminded me of someone, I just couldn't put my finger on whom it may have been. I took what I learned, from those three brothers I spoke of above, and set my mind on the story I was meant to create, the one that was waiting for me to finally understand from so many years ago.

As the days passed, I found myself in search of a path which I could write myself into. I found one that would lead me right through the barrier without a chance of that electrifying secret capturing me. To do this I did what I did best. I came up with the idea of exploring an interesting place and imagined a story to back up why. In turn my new friend, who lived behind glass, showed me the way to a key placed within a stump outside her window not more than a few feet from where she sat. As I followed her finger and line of sight, my eyes landed on a copper key, this key started to glow as I neared, by the way of telling me to grab hold. The key itself once looked plain; upon first glance you wouldn't think it was much more than an old key once tossed away to weather time. But connecting myself to that key and my new friends' hand, which was placed upon the window, the metal prison disguised as a home, suddenly, before my eyes renewed itself to look not like a prison, but a comforting home. The plain key that I once held, now had a carving of a vine wrapped around its head, with the teeth formed of leaves.

You are probably asking yourself how did they get past the electrifying secret once the girl was freed? You're not? Well, I guess I will just have to make the story more interesting as I go.

The morning after the rescue I showed her where I thought we could manage to sneak through. Together we figured out how to get past that electrifying secret and it was easier than we could have imagined. A Tree bent toward the ground in an arch, forming a perfect bridge into this new land we (I) were so intent on exploring. A land with creatures hidden within, unbeknownst to us what kind they may be. But true to my old ways, I showed not a bit of fear. Slowly crossing over the arched tree before it lifted its branches once again to the infinite sky. I looked over my shoulder and signaled to the two who followed me we must be quiet, as to not give ourselves away. The land spread out for miles all around us, scattered here and there were boulders the size of small houses. Clearly hiding the creatures which lived inside, too scared to come out in fear of the creatures that magically appear from nowhere. We found clues leading us to believe what we were searching for must be close, for as we climbed a mountain sized hill, scattered below our feet were letters and words tumbling across the grass. Upon this mountain I felt free, I felt brave. I could see below us just what we were searching for, which made my imagination grow ever more. A shack made of books worn by the weather and dancing in the soft wind. Covered in moss and little purple flowers decorating the surface. Then I heard Her. "Grace be careful, I can hear the music of the chimes." Yet, I didn't see her, we were on this mountain with nothing obstructing our view, it was impossible that she could be there without me seeing where she was. But my mind was set on the mission, so I pushed it off without another thought. We dared to get closer, to see what could be found hidden within this magically beautiful site. I strained my ears to listen for an approaching figure that would detour our mission to understand. No one came, it could have been a trick, just waiting for us to stumble upon the trap to catch us in the act, but we moved forward anyways. An abandoned mine of stories just waiting for someone to find them was floating above the ground and I wasn't about to let this go. There were no steps leading to the entrance so we could explore and discover the truth hidden within. But I could feel the magic that radiated around us, just waiting for someone to open their pages, and set free the characters made of ink and souls from within. I climbed until I could reach the opening, leading me to learn that inside these walls were others which couldn't hang-on long enough to be freed, forever cast within a tomb of forgotten words.

The closer I became to achieving my goals of understanding how to stop these shadows for good, the more worried I grew that we would be caught, judged for my curiosity, and punished for being a snoop. They knew I brought with me two innocents, who trusted they were safe, because they were thinking we were only playing a make-believe game. Never did they think or believe in the shadowed story book characters as alive. I brought my newfound friend and no other than my sibling who wanted to join into a world they never had to face before. A sound like jangling keys invaded my ears, bringing me out of my own thoughts and before I could figure out where the sound was coming from, I saw the shadows starting to close in. We were so lost within the stories we had rescued that the sun started to dip below the clouds without me knowing. I dropped the book held within my small hand, that was swirling stories before my eyes, causing them too suddenly still. Without warning I felt it, the fear I thought I fought off long ago, the ones the dark knights stood by my side to fight off. Then I heard Her again this time urging me to hurry, "Run Grace!" I jumped from the shack made of books, telling my fellow explorers we needed to go, and I ran until I couldn't run anymore. For the shadows couldn't have found me, not past the cover I held for so long. I couldn't believe after all this time; I was once again needing to hide from those who wanted to snatch me as I slept. Thanks to me, to their greatest surprise, I had brought them one more in which they lost a long time ago. For my friend, finally freed was just as vulnerable as me for the magic vibrated off of her just as it did me. She was the girl from the night the Shadow Book Characters found us outside after dark, and I just witnessed her unfinished story.

Thinking back this may have been the turning point that started the domino effect of how my years of growing up would be. Almost there, but not close enough. The electrifying secret which once on its own was easy to cross, now was surrounded by a river of raging waters. I could see the bridge that would lead me over the rapid water of my dreams to bring me closer to reaching the safety of our house lights. Yet, as I stepped closer, I spotted the smallest plaque daring me to cross at my own risk. On the other side of that bridge was a path that would bring me away from the raging waters, away from the sturdy bridge that suddenly became feeble once I read those small words. Others may not have turned away after reading those words or would have never read them at all which would have propelled them further. But I stopped for a second too long, my fellow explorers were safety over, as I stood there frozen calling back the Fog which would allow me to hide beneath its cover and finally be freed once again from the shadows. "Grace!" I heard my new friend calling, took one last look back toward her knowing if I stayed, she would be able to be freed. "Grace, come on!" I shook my head toward her, "NO. I promised you long ago I would understand your story. I will not allow them to take you away again."

My new friend, which held tight to her own story, surrounded by tattered leather, adorn with a small red ribbon, was finally set free from the shadows grasp, name is Brianna. Daniel called her Rain. She was the one that was taken by the darkness, she was out alone after the streetlights came on. I watched her get captured. She was just trying to escape her parents fighting. Two of her brothers were away for the night. Daniel, being the oldest jumped in between his parents and youngest sister Rain. He had no time to grab his notebook, and on this night, he was unable to rewrite their stories. Instead, he told his sister to find the notebook and hide. So, when she was taken by the Shadows, her notebook was too, Daniel couldn't find her without help and when his family packed up and moved, he lost the only trail to finding her without it. This is where I came in, he rescued me from Neesrof and showed me the way. I guess you could say his story was woven into mine from the start, and it was our fate that we were always meant to meet.

On that note, maybe you can see me as the hero and take my heroic release of the characters from those stories in the shack made of books and my frozen self as a selfless act because I sacrificed myself to the shadows so the others could escape, just as Daniel did long ago. Allowing my story to be woven within both of theirs, allowing written expression to live on. Either way you look at it I gave up the fight, but only for that moment.