Technical Boundaries

Chapter 1

I found myself walking in a green, wooded area. The scent of pine and lavender filled my nostrils. "They will never find me here," I thought. I knew they wouldn't be able to see me in my own world. In my hands, I held two things. Lavender, my favorite flower, was in my left hand, and a weird, silver baton was in my right hand. The object looked familiar to me, but I couldn't tell where it came from. It was about a foot long and was quite thin. It had one red button on top of it, right in the center. It glowed dimly, and left me with the urge to push it. However, with fear of leaving the magical forest I was already in, I decided to leave the button alone. I, in fact, tried to drop the stick. Oddly enough, I couldn't. I opened my hand, but it would not fall. It was as if it was glued there. I tried the same thing with the lavender and got the same result. Even though the idea was quite troublesome, I had to move on.
I sat on a rock and took a break after walking what felt like ten miles. I looked around me to only find myself surrounded by trees, then glanced at my watch. "4:30 pm!" I shouted. The sun was setting and I had no idea where I was. I had to run back home as soon as possible. But, where was home?
I turned back to the direction I came from and sprinted as fast as I could. As I paused to take a quick breather, a small light flew straight in my direction. It shifted its motion and flew right by me, brushing my cheek as it passed. I started running backwards in order to look back and see what it was, but the object was so fast I couldn't tell. I turned around to see where I was going, and in that split second, I ran straight into a tree. I was out like a light right then and there.
It was dark when I woke up from my blackout, so I looked down at my watch to see what time it was. I then remembered the baton in my hand. I let the light of the red button shine down on the watch, which read 12:00am. Midnight... great. I rubbed my forehead, and wincing at the pain I thought to myself, "Well, that ought to be bruised in the morning!" I got up and brushed the leaves off of me. Wow, I must have been covered in them, there was a lot of leaves. The weird thing about it was that the leaves were nowhere else but on me and a foot around me. But, who would do that? There wasn't a soul in sight. I jogged on in the same direction I was headed before my blackout. The wind began to pick up; I shuddered at the icy wind and picked up my speed.
Now, I might sound crazy, but soon I started hearing voices in the trees. They were all quiet warnings, "Turn... around!" " Go the other... way!" Those phrases were repeated over and over. The words echoed in my soul. The last voice I heard wasn't even close to sounding like a cool whisper. It was a deafening screech,"RUN! IT'S BEHIND YOU!" The scream made my ears ring.
My sudden curiosity got the best of me and I turned around to see what was behind. A dark furry creature with bright green eyes was sprinting towards me. Terrified, I picked up speed to no avail. The monster picked me up and held me tight in the air with both, I guess, paws. I don't know how to explain it. The moonlight shimmered off of the creature's greasy fur. I guess it was sort of like the beast from that Disney movie Beauty and the Beast. One thing that I did know was that it had long sharp claws. How did I know? They were digging into my hips while I struggled to get free. I began to feel faint... probably from blood loss. I was so sleepy. I slowly closed my eyes. My body started to feel less and less pain. Suddenly, I opened my eyes to bright florescent lights shining down on me.