"Are you ready?" Jeff asked her, some of his hair poking out from beneath a knit cap. He was wearing a heavy winter coat, but it didn't feel all that cold to Sarah.
"I've never gone ice skating before, I'm nervous."
"You don't have to be nervous." Jeff's hand appeared before Sarah's face, and she took it. Jeff helped her to her feet. Sarah almost fell down again, the ice beneath her was slicker than she had expected. Jeff kept a tight grip on her arm, not allowing her to fall back down again. "I got ya. Here it's like this." Jeff demonstrated how to move his feet to Sarah. Sarah began to grasp the concept, more of a sliding motion, less like walking.
Before she knew it, she was skating along side Jeff as if she had been doing it for all her life. Still, becoming to zealous in her own abilities and trying to jump, Sarah fell down on her bottom. She felt the ice below her as she pushed herself back up, and got a suddenly feeling of wrongness in it all. The ice didn't feel cold or wet, it just felt flat.
"Are you alright?" Jeff said, kneeling slightly before Sarah. He looked with concern into her eyes, but Sarah just blushed and looked away.
"I'm fine."
Everything felt so confusing, as Sarah got back up to her feet. The pond, the trees, everything felt out of place. Where was she? How had she gotten here? She wanted to ask Jeff about it, but she felt so nervous she could hardly form words.
"Hey Sarah, did I ever tell you the story about this pond?" Jeff said skating next to Sarah again, slowing down and taking her hand.
"N..no" Sarah slightly stuttered.
"Well once upon a time, there was a beautiful young princess. She was rather rebellious, so sometimes she would run away from the castle. One day when she had run away, she came across a beautiful clearing in the woods. She found a young man playing a flute there. She was enchanted by him, and the two of them fell in love. The princess had planned on running away with the young man, for she knew her father would never allow them to marry. On the day they had planned to elope together, her father found out about her plans, and had the young man killed. The young princess was so distraught, she ran away to the field one last time. She cried a million tears they say, and those tears formed this pond." Jeff finished his story. "Kinda sad, isn't it?"
"Yeah." Sarah said quietly. She thought to herself that she was pretty sure that there had never been princesses in New England. That thought shocked her. She was in New England, or at least she was supposed to be. This looked like the setting out of a story book. "Where are we Jeff?"
"Where we are supposed to be, Princess Sarah." Sarah looked around her, and found that she was no longer wearing winter clothes, but was wearing a Renaissance era dress. It was long, and flowed around her as easily as water flows down stream. Sarah went from looking at her dress to where Jeff was sitting on a rock, wearing what looked like peasant's clothing and playing a flute. "Does the fair lady wish for me to play her a song?"
The pond was gone and replaced with a field in the middle of the trees. Sarah wanted to protest. This was all wrong. How could this be happening. Instead she sat down at the base of the rock, and nodded at Jeff to play her a song.
He began his song. It was a simple song, like the wind blowing through the trees, but a bit sad. The notes touched Sarah's heart, and made her tremble a bit. She started to sing out in tune with the flute, although she didn't know where the lyrics came from.
"I once saw a place much farther from here
A place of good, yet a place of fear
My heart beats kindly for all of us near
When I dream of Paradise.
I left that place far behind
Although it never left my mind
It wasn't a place you are likely to find,
When I dream of Paradise.
Someday I wish that we could return
Although my heart has yet to learn,
Of a place called Paradise."
Jeff put his flute down and looked kindly down at Sarah. "That was a beautiful song."
Sarah beamed at him. "Thank you." She blushed slightly at his compliment.
Jeff jumped off from the rock and sat down beside Sarah. He took her hand into his own. "I know you will likely refuse, but may I have a kiss from the princess?"
Sarah felt her blush doubling over, and quickly looked away from Jeff towards the trees. The trees sparked something in her memory. What was it? The forest. The trees in the forest.
"Forrest!"Sarah jumped to her feet. "Emily's baby Forrest!" Sarah smiled at the memory. "We aren't really here, this is a dream. We are in that dark tower still!"
Sarah looked around her, but all the scenery had gone. It was replaced by walls of ebony. There was very little light inside the tower, but towards the back of the room, Sarah could make out a staircase cut into the side of the tower. "Oh let's go! We have to reach the top of the tower, don't we?"
"Who is Emily?" Jeff stood up next to Sarah slowly.
"Oh she's...well. She's my friend. She's living with me right now, and she's going to have a baby in February. She named him Forrest. I guess seeing the trees reminded me of him. I'm glad, we might've been trapped there forever if I hadn't remembered. " Sarah sighed out a breath of relief. She didn't know that the tower was going to be like this. She wondered what waited her on higher floors. Still she knew that standing still wouldn't help. She didn't know how much time was passing in the real world, and she wanted to get out of here before they found out anything was wrong, and that she couldn't wake up anymore.
Jeff didn't move though. "I've never really had friends, it must be nice. I've always felt invisible to this world. I've always liked dreams so much more. At least in my dreams I have you Sarah."
"Well one we destroy the thing in this tower we can be friends in the real world. And you can met Jenn and Emily. We can all be friends together! Come on!" Sarah started towards the staircase. Jeff stood silently for awhile, but then began to follow Sarah up the stairs.
The stairs seemed to be made of the same black rock the tower was made of, some unearthly rock that glowed black where they touched it. Slowly but surely the two made it up the stairs to a small landing. There was another door there, much smaller than the one that they had entered the tower from. Sarah nervously opened the door, Jeff standing directly behind her, with a flash of darkness taking them over.
---
The sound of sirens echoed through the snowy morning air. Emily sat beside Tina, trying to comfort the woman who had been like a mother to her the past few days. The ambulance crew hovered over Sarah's body, putting her on oxygen. One of the men tried to ask Tina what had happened but she was too upset to answer. Emily told him about how that morning she had tried to wake up her friend, but she hadn't responded. It all seemed so unreal to Emily. Forrest kicked about in her stomach in a maddening way. Emily patted her stomach, trying to calm Forrest down. She looked over at her friend, and a feeling of fear passed through her. She wasnted Sarah to be okay again. She wanted Sarah to wake up. She was so scared. Emily tried not to think about the worst outcomes but she couldn't help it. What if Sarah stayed sleeping so long she wasn't there when Forrest was born? What if Sarah never woke up again? What if she...Emily couldn't finish he own thought, and began to sob with Tina.
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The sound of sirens echoed through the snowy morning air. Emily sat beside Tina, trying to comfort the woman who had been like a mother to her the past few days. The ambulance crew hovered over Sarah's body, putting her on oxygen. One of the men tried to ask Tina what had happened but she was too upset to answer. Emily told him about how that morning she had tried to wake up her friend, but she hadn't responded. It all seemed so unreal to Emily. Forrest kicked about in her stomach in a maddening way. Emily patted her stomach, trying to calm Forrest down. She looked over at her friend, and a feeling of fear passed through her. She wasnted Sarah to be okay again. She wanted Sarah to wake up. She was so scared. Emily tried not to think about the worst outcomes but she couldn't help it. What if Sarah stayed sleeping so long she wasn't there when Forrest was born? What if Sarah never woke up again? What if she...Emily couldn't finish he own thought, and began to sob with Tina.
---
Words this Part: 2846Sarah was laying on her back. The stars shone brilliantly in the sky. The ground felt comfortable to her as she lay there, looking at the constellations. She didn't really know that much about stars, but she saw the big dipper floating up above here. Instead of trying to figure out what the constellations were, Sarah began to make them up for her own. There was the famous kitty constellation, she thought, tracing with her finger stars in the shape of a cat head. There is the heart one, and a star constellation, she giggled to herself, making a shape of a star with the stars. She was so amused with herself, she hardly heard the voice calling out her own name.
"Sarah." Then again, this time louder and a bit more forceful "Sarah!"
Sarah sat up, dusting the dirt off her back. "Coming Jeff!"
Sarah made her way through the trees to where she saw the light of their camp fire. Sarah could almost feel a memory of being nervous about going camping with Jeff alone, but now that she was here she wasn't sure what she was so nervous about. They were having a great time. Then she looked over at the tent, and started blushing again. They were going to be sleeping so closely with each other. Sarah had never spent the night so close to someone of the opposite sex before. Even though it was Jeff, Sarah's heart started pounding faster and faster in her chest.
"Oh there you are Sarah. I was just roasting some hot dogs over the fire, I thought you might be hungry too." Jeff handed Sarah one of the sticks he was using to roast the hot dogs with. Sarah sat on the opposite side of the fire. She was still too nervous to sit any closer than that.
Sarah roasted her hot dog, and quickly ate it with mustard on top. It was pretty much tasteless, Sarah wondered if her nervousness was affected her other senses. She tried to shake herself out of it, and enjoy this camping trip with Jeff. She smiled at him, and asked about S'mores.
"What kind of a camping trip would this be without S'mores?" Jeff smiled as he took some supplies out of his backpack. "Let's get roasting!" He took a marshmalllow out of the bag then throw the bag towards Sarah. She caught it, and put her own marshmallow on her stick. She held it over the fire, watching it slowly begin to brown on the outside. When she deemed it was ready, she headed closer to Jeff to get the graham crackers and chocolate.
"Come on sit down over here." Jeff patted the log next to him. Sarah trembled a bit as she sat down and took the graham crackers and chocolate from Jeff and began constructing her S'more. "You know what else a camping trip isn't complete without?
"What?" Sarah shrugged.
"A ghost story." Jeff made a spooky "Oooh" sound.
Sarah wasn't one for ghost stories but she was alright with Jeff telling one. He was so goofy most of the time she didn't know how seriously she could take him. Of course once Jeff got into telling stories he was pretty good at it. "Alright, you got one to tell?"
Jeff nodded as he started to eat his own S'more. He took bites of it in between the sentences in his story. "It was a dark night, much like this one, with the wind blowing through the trees. There was a couple, much like us OW!" Sarah had hit him on the arm. She didn't really think of them as a couple yet. "What? Well in any case, they were two people on a camping trip who may or may not have been dating. Happy? In any case, this was not an ordinary night. This was the night that it was said that the demon of Black Pond emerges. He is a dreadful sight. Those who have seen him say he doesn't have any skin, he is just a pulsing red color, and he leaves a trail of red behind him wherever he goes. Some say it's sticky like slime, others say it is his own blood. If you touch it, the red slime or blood will paralyze you. Whatever it is, it's not as deadly as the demon himself. He travels through the woods, looking for victims. He is said to eat the souls of anyone he comes across, unless they are the lucky few to escape. After he eats your soul, he drags your body back down into Black Pond, to do terrible things to it."
"What things?"
"I don't know, everyone who was dragged down there was already dead. I can't ask the dead questions. Anyway, so the couple who was camping in the woods had been sitting quietly by their own fire, when suddenly they heard this disgusting dripping sound. Drip, drip, drip. The noise went. It got closer and closer to them. Drip, drip, drip. The girl wanted to go investigate, but drip, drip..."
"AHHHHH!" Sarah screamed as something poked her on the back. Sarah quickly turned around and found that it was Jeff and not some terrible demon behind her. She hit him on the arm again. "That wasn't funny Jeff!"
Jeff stuck out his tongue. Sarah started to giggle. Jeff joined her. They both laughed for some time when Jeff suddenly said, "Did you hear that?"
"Don't joke around Jeff, you aren't going to scare me again." Sarah pouted.
"No...well in any case don't you think we should head to bed now? It is getting kind of late." Jeff said finishing off the last of his S'more. It had taken him a lot longer to eat his than Sarah, since he had been talking the whole time. "And don't worry I'm protect you from any demons we may come across." Jeff smiled.
Jeff headed into the tent, and Sarah nervously followed after. They each had their own sleeping bags in the tent, a little bit apart from each other. Sarah snuggled down into her own sleeping bag. She turned away from Jeff and cuddled down and tried to sleep. "Night Sarah." Jeff said.
"Night Jeff." Sarah said feeling relieved that Jeff hadn't tried to make a move on her or anything. She was scared sometimes that he would want to do more with her, and she was even more scared that he would leave her if she didn't do those kinds of things with him. She knew she was being silly. Jeff knew how shy she was, and he'd wait until she was ready.
Sarah tried to fall asleep, but the nervous energy in her body wouldn't leave. She turned over to look at Jeff. He was facing her with his eyes open as well. "Can't sleep?" he whispered gently.
"Yeah..." Sarah admitted.
"Sorry for telling you that scary story."
"It's ok. That's not why I can't sleep. I just feel nervous. I've never spent the whole night with you before." Sarah felt like her whole body was shaking a bit.
Jeff unzipped the front of his sleeping bag and whispered, "Hey come over here."
Sarah was stunned at Jeff asking her to do such a thing, yet she felt compelled to go closer to him. She went into his sleeping bag, into his waiting arms. She rested her head against his should as he held her. "It's ok Sarah. We can just cuddle. I like being close to you, is all." Jeff's voice whispered directly into her ear, sending chills down her spine.
They held each other for some time, Sarah feeling very comfortable in Jeff's arms, feeling like she had no reasons to be scared. She was just about to drift off into sleep when she heard a noise outside the tent, a sickening, eerie, dripping noise.
"Sarah." Then again, this time louder and a bit more forceful "Sarah!"
Sarah sat up, dusting the dirt off her back. "Coming Jeff!"
Sarah made her way through the trees to where she saw the light of their camp fire. Sarah could almost feel a memory of being nervous about going camping with Jeff alone, but now that she was here she wasn't sure what she was so nervous about. They were having a great time. Then she looked over at the tent, and started blushing again. They were going to be sleeping so closely with each other. Sarah had never spent the night so close to someone of the opposite sex before. Even though it was Jeff, Sarah's heart started pounding faster and faster in her chest.
"Oh there you are Sarah. I was just roasting some hot dogs over the fire, I thought you might be hungry too." Jeff handed Sarah one of the sticks he was using to roast the hot dogs with. Sarah sat on the opposite side of the fire. She was still too nervous to sit any closer than that.
Sarah roasted her hot dog, and quickly ate it with mustard on top. It was pretty much tasteless, Sarah wondered if her nervousness was affected her other senses. She tried to shake herself out of it, and enjoy this camping trip with Jeff. She smiled at him, and asked about S'mores.
"What kind of a camping trip would this be without S'mores?" Jeff smiled as he took some supplies out of his backpack. "Let's get roasting!" He took a marshmalllow out of the bag then throw the bag towards Sarah. She caught it, and put her own marshmallow on her stick. She held it over the fire, watching it slowly begin to brown on the outside. When she deemed it was ready, she headed closer to Jeff to get the graham crackers and chocolate.
"Come on sit down over here." Jeff patted the log next to him. Sarah trembled a bit as she sat down and took the graham crackers and chocolate from Jeff and began constructing her S'more. "You know what else a camping trip isn't complete without?
"What?" Sarah shrugged.
"A ghost story." Jeff made a spooky "Oooh" sound.
Sarah wasn't one for ghost stories but she was alright with Jeff telling one. He was so goofy most of the time she didn't know how seriously she could take him. Of course once Jeff got into telling stories he was pretty good at it. "Alright, you got one to tell?"
Jeff nodded as he started to eat his own S'more. He took bites of it in between the sentences in his story. "It was a dark night, much like this one, with the wind blowing through the trees. There was a couple, much like us OW!" Sarah had hit him on the arm. She didn't really think of them as a couple yet. "What? Well in any case, they were two people on a camping trip who may or may not have been dating. Happy? In any case, this was not an ordinary night. This was the night that it was said that the demon of Black Pond emerges. He is a dreadful sight. Those who have seen him say he doesn't have any skin, he is just a pulsing red color, and he leaves a trail of red behind him wherever he goes. Some say it's sticky like slime, others say it is his own blood. If you touch it, the red slime or blood will paralyze you. Whatever it is, it's not as deadly as the demon himself. He travels through the woods, looking for victims. He is said to eat the souls of anyone he comes across, unless they are the lucky few to escape. After he eats your soul, he drags your body back down into Black Pond, to do terrible things to it."
"What things?"
"I don't know, everyone who was dragged down there was already dead. I can't ask the dead questions. Anyway, so the couple who was camping in the woods had been sitting quietly by their own fire, when suddenly they heard this disgusting dripping sound. Drip, drip, drip. The noise went. It got closer and closer to them. Drip, drip, drip. The girl wanted to go investigate, but drip, drip..."
"AHHHHH!" Sarah screamed as something poked her on the back. Sarah quickly turned around and found that it was Jeff and not some terrible demon behind her. She hit him on the arm again. "That wasn't funny Jeff!"
Jeff stuck out his tongue. Sarah started to giggle. Jeff joined her. They both laughed for some time when Jeff suddenly said, "Did you hear that?"
"Don't joke around Jeff, you aren't going to scare me again." Sarah pouted.
"No...well in any case don't you think we should head to bed now? It is getting kind of late." Jeff said finishing off the last of his S'more. It had taken him a lot longer to eat his than Sarah, since he had been talking the whole time. "And don't worry I'm protect you from any demons we may come across." Jeff smiled.
Jeff headed into the tent, and Sarah nervously followed after. They each had their own sleeping bags in the tent, a little bit apart from each other. Sarah snuggled down into her own sleeping bag. She turned away from Jeff and cuddled down and tried to sleep. "Night Sarah." Jeff said.
"Night Jeff." Sarah said feeling relieved that Jeff hadn't tried to make a move on her or anything. She was scared sometimes that he would want to do more with her, and she was even more scared that he would leave her if she didn't do those kinds of things with him. She knew she was being silly. Jeff knew how shy she was, and he'd wait until she was ready.
Sarah tried to fall asleep, but the nervous energy in her body wouldn't leave. She turned over to look at Jeff. He was facing her with his eyes open as well. "Can't sleep?" he whispered gently.
"Yeah..." Sarah admitted.
"Sorry for telling you that scary story."
"It's ok. That's not why I can't sleep. I just feel nervous. I've never spent the whole night with you before." Sarah felt like her whole body was shaking a bit.
Jeff unzipped the front of his sleeping bag and whispered, "Hey come over here."
Sarah was stunned at Jeff asking her to do such a thing, yet she felt compelled to go closer to him. She went into his sleeping bag, into his waiting arms. She rested her head against his should as he held her. "It's ok Sarah. We can just cuddle. I like being close to you, is all." Jeff's voice whispered directly into her ear, sending chills down her spine.
They held each other for some time, Sarah feeling very comfortable in Jeff's arms, feeling like she had no reasons to be scared. She was just about to drift off into sleep when she heard a noise outside the tent, a sickening, eerie, dripping noise.
Words Total: 35397
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