Young In America | Barns Courtney

Lurid Land

"Hey." I said with a small laugh as I let him in and switched the lights on. "We should start gathering up the stones and everything. Our ride should be here in a few minutes." He said as he grabbed the stones that were wrapped up. We sat them on the table and made sure we had everything. He had his backpack full of books. Anxiety filled my stomach as we sat and waited. A few minutes passed before his phone buzzed. "Let's go. You go everything?" He said after looking at his phone. "Yeah." I replied after making sure that I did have everything I needed. After gathering everything up we left the room and walked outside. A gray car was parked along the road waiting for us. The red tail lights burning bright in the night.

As we loaded up the trunk I looked around. Yellow tinted street lamps and traffic lights. A few lights were on in some of the houses and apartment buildings. I wanted to remember the way everything looked just in case I wouldn't see it again. "You okay?" Barns's voice said, taking me out of my thoughts. "Yeah." I said with a deep sigh. I got into the back seat while he got into the passenger one. There was a woman sitting in the driver's seat. Barns introduced me to her; her name was Rachel. They made small talk, which filled the silence. The longer the drive the worse the anxiety in my stomach burned. When the car started slowing down I felt like I was going to be sick.

But I tried my best to keep myself grounded. I told myself that I was just overthinking and overreacting. In reality though, anything could happen. I pressed my thoughts to the back of my mind as we got out of the car. Rachel helped us get everything out of the trunk. Then we walked into the woods with the aid of flashlights. It took a bit, but we eventually reached the broke sundial. We stopped a few feet from it and just looked at if for a few minutes. "When we do this I want you stay back, Rachel. At least fifteen feet or so." Barns said, breaking the silence that had settled down around us. "Okay." She replied. From the sound of her voice I could tell she was nervous too.

Barns and I carried the stones towards the broke sun dial. He helped me unwrap them and place the large stone onto the sun dial. It was like the stone clicked into place as if it was magnetized. The last thing was the small moon shaped stone. Barns looked back to make sure Rachel had moved far enough away from us. Then he looked at me. "This is it. No turning back now." He said as he touched the moon shaped stone. I felt him gently take my other hand in his. He firmly held onto my hand and I did the same to his. The two of us placed the stone in the middle of the mended sun dial.

A bright flash of white light pierced through the darkness. It was so bright it hurt my eyes; tears were streaming out of them. I closed them and I felt Barns's grip on my hand tighten slightly. A loud whooshing sound filled my ears. It was so loud it was disorienting, but I couldn't cover my ears. I felt like I was being sucked up and flung around in every direction. Kinda how I imagine being sucked up in a tornado must feel like. It felt like it last forever. I was starting to believe that it would never end. I wondered if I had died and this was the afterlife. Then suddenly I was violently dropped or thrown to the ground. My hip and arm that took most of the impact hurt like hell. But I'm glad I was running on adrenaline, otherwise it would be much worse.

I opened my eyes and looked around frantically. When I saw Barns laying next to me I breathes a sigh of relief. I hadn't even noticed we were still holding hands. "Are you alright?" He asked with a pained look in his eyes. "I don't think anything is broken. What about you?" I replied. "That's a good way of putting it." He said as he helped me up off the the ground. I thanked him as I took in our surroundings. The ground looked like the red stones you can find in Arizona. It was warm, but not overbearingly so. I gasped when I looked up at the sky. It was filled with various colors like the northern lights. Except the most prominent color was green. And it looked like a billion stars that looked silver, gold, and red.

"Can you walk?" Barns asked, bringing me out of my thoughts. "I think so." I replied. We took a few steps forward before I doubled over and threw up. I held myself up against a rock with my free hand. "I did the same thing my first time. It's okay." He said softly as he gently rubbed my back. I felt comforted by his actions and he words. But it was clear that he had been here before. That's why he wasn't in awe I was. When I finished being sick I grabbed a bottle of water I had in my backpack. I used it to rinse out my mouth. "Are you alright?" He asked in a sympathy tone with a soft look in his blue eyes. "Yeah, I'm okay." I replied weakly.

As we walked he held my hand the whole time. I wasn't sure if he did so because he was afraid I would run off. Or he was just making sure I didn't fall behind or something. We slowly moved forward and eventually a structure came into view. It was a strange futuristic looking thing. It looked as if it came straight out of Star Wars or Star Trek. As we got closer a few people came out of the structure. I assume that it must have been a house or something. Men and woman were dressed in burgundy robes. They looked like warriors of some kind. "Don't say anything unless you're spoken to, okay?" Barns whispered to me. I nodded to let him know I understood.

A few minutes later the door opened once more. A beautiful ethereal looking woman emerged from the strange structure. She was wearing a flower crown, but the flowers looked like they were made of crystals. Glittery golden robes trailed behind her as she walked forward. It was hard not to look at her and admire her beauty. But as she got closer I could see her eyes. There was something dark and poisonous in them; it sent an unsettling feeling into my bones. I gently tightened my grip on Barns's hand and be did the same to me. He held up his arm and crossed his fingers. Like a sign of truce or something.

"Why have you come? You haven't fulfilled your purpose yet. You were told not to return until then." The woman said, looking at Barns. She barely even glanced at me. It was like I meant nothing to her, and for some reason that was oddly a relief. "My purpose... you mean your purpose," Barns said as he lowered his arm and uncrossed his fingers. "I asked for your help to become a star, and you used me. You melded me into something I never wanted to be." Barns said. Anxiety filled my stomach as I watched this conversation unfold before me. It was obvious that he was crossing a line, but it seemed like he didn't care.

"Very bold of you to come here and speak to me in that way." She said with an icy edge to her voice. 'How could someone so beautiful in a beautiful place like this be so cold and evil?' I wondered. When I glanced at Barns I noticed that the platinum blonde in his hair was fading. His hair matched his dark roots. "I'm taking my fate into my own hands." He said as he grabbed at his golden sword necklace. The sword grew to it's full size. It looked just like it did the day we dug them out of the earth. I did the same with mine and it the same as his did. "You think the two of you can take on me? How foolish and infantile of you both." She said laughed the cruelest laugh I've ever heard.

The two of us glanced at each other. We didn't have to say anything, it was like we already knew what we had to do. We crossed our blades with the flat sides facing out. The bright white light returned, but this time it was coming from the swords. The bright beam of light made my eyes sting and water. But I kept them open long enough to see her getting destroyed by the light. Somehow the white light got brighter and brighter, so I had to close my eyes. And the feeling of being sucked up and thrown around returned.

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A/N: Thanks for reading!! Remember to vote, comment, share, etc. :) <3

This is a long chapter. I hope you all enjoyed it, especially since it took me so long to write it. Lol