Waking up in a pile of leaves wasn’t normal. There was no reason for Kristen to be in that position, although there had been a couple of times when she thought it might happen, and yet there she was. Confused, she slowly sat up, looking around at her surroundings in an attempt to work out where she was, hoping that she wasn’t far from home. It was the clothes that told her something strange had happened, because she wasn’t wearing the clothes she’d gone to be in. Gone were the warm fleece pyjamas and in their place… she looked at the leggings, unable to believe that she’d managed to get her legs into them.
“Good morning,” a male voice said, startling her.
The words Kristen planned on saying dried in her throat as she looked at the man who’d spoken to her. “Where am I?” she asked, a tremor of fear entering her voice.
“That’s an interesting question.” Their eyes met. “You see, when someone told me what had happened when I originally arrived it took me two weeks to believe them, even though it’s pretty obvious that this world isn’t the one we left behind. I think it was because I didn’t want to believe him.” He sighed. “I know better now and I’ve met a couple of new arrivals since I’ve been here, so I know the reaction I’m going to get when I answer your question could vary from calm acceptance, which was terrifying, to weeping about how much you want to go home.”
“Just answer the question, please…” Kristen ran a hand through her hair, disturbing the leaves that had become woven into it, and tried not to think too much about what he’d just said. “I want to go home, but I don’t know how to get there from here.”
“I hate to break it to you, but you aren’t going home any time soon. We’re…” He shook his head. “Do you remember playing a game recently?”
“Yes,” she answered, slowly, because she had a feeling she knew what had happened. There were enough stories going around about people who had ended up living through the storyline of a book or a movie that it was beginning to become real rather than just an urban myth. “I bought it a couple of weeks ago, behind as always.”
He nodded, the lack of surprise in his eyes telling Kristen that he’d expected the answer she’d given him. “The game world that you were playing in has now become your home. I don’t know how long you’ll end up being here, but I’m here to be your guide.”
“You said you’d met a couple of others.”
“Yeah, they went their own way after I’d taught them all I could. I don’t know what happened to them, so I can’t tell you if they’re still in this world or not. I’ve been here for…” He bit his lip, staring at her as though he was attempting to gauge what her reaction was going to be. “It’s been a long time.”
Mirrored from K. A. Jones Writing.