Status: Working on rewriting and continuing this story (5/29/18)

Chronological Chaos

White

(Warning: mild profanity.)

“Wilkommen zurück, Emit.” (German: Welcome back, Emit.) The voice was all too familiar and Emit rolled her eyes in exasperation; she thought she would never have to hear that voice again.

“Go away,” Emit said in a disinterested voice. She did not look away from the wide tree that stood in front of her. As on the day she arrived in this place, she read the inscription on the rough bark that had not been altered in the least.

‘Through time and space, thou shall not race.’

It did not make any more sense than the first time she had read it, but now she felt that it held the answers as to why she was once again standing before it. The explanation to her quandary had to lie somewhere within the folds of that very tree. Hadn’t she escaped this place before?

“Whoa, someone is a little bit touchy today. What happened? I thought your concert went well.”

Emit spun around to face him. How was it that he knew about her concert? Noticing her perplexed expression, the stranger spoke again.

“You put on a horribly splendid show, if I might add. You are indeed very talented.” Emit gave a slight smile and was about to communicate her thanks out of habit when the stranger continued to speak. “Plus you looked pretty damn hot in that outfit, might I add.”

Emit stood there in a momentary phase of astonishment. She had never imagined him speaking with such informal language since he always spoke rather eloquently in English and especially in German. The surprise soon wore off though, and it left a trail of disgust in its wake.

“Verpiss dich, arschloch.” (German: Fuck off, asshole.) Emit was clearly frustrated. Here she was, trapped in a mystic land that she could not escape, which in turn sparked too many questions that spawned too few answers, all the while a reoccurring tree loomed in the background. Not to mention, there was a very attractive guy with a not so attractive personality who wouldn’t leave her alone.

“Hey, there is no need to become antagonistic. Pretty girls should not use dirty words either way, schatz.” (German: treasure – a term of endearment.)

Emit pivoted sharply and charged past the strange tree, walking in the opposite direction she had when the stranger had first taken her to the House of Mirrors. She threw her blonde hair behind her as she quickened her pace in hopes of reaching her destination, wherever that was, at a faster rate. Emit strode for what seemed like hours, passing fields of nothingness only to head into more of the very thing she had past. When she looked back, she could no longer see the tree in the distance, but instead the stranger trailing behind her with his hands in his pockets and a gratified look on his face. Beige sand met Emit’s eyes when she turned back again, shaded a bit darker by the undertones of the night sky. It stretched on for miles and miles so that Emit’s vision was a blur of a dark taupe.

Just when Emit thought that she had been walking forever, she heard the calming serenade of oceanic waves approaching her. Quickening her pace, she arrived at the spot where the desert sand and the salty water met to whisper in sporadic lulls. The ocean spanned the entire length of the desert, and recalling what had happened to her the last time she came in contact with the ocean, Emit stood there and calmly looked into the distance.

As her vision reached out to spot the end of the endless ocean, Emit could think of no better place to be but her home surrounded by her boring canvases of exciting colors. She closed her eyes tightly, breathing in the salty air and letting her mind reel off into all the things that could be. The stranger said something, though Emit was too far off to even begin to pay attention. His tone of voice did indicate some urgency, but Emit decided to ignore that too. She had had enough of this nuisance and decided she would tolerate no more of it.

Her ignorant bliss soon ended though, when she realized that somehow, the ocean had been disturbed and was now spraying her in its wrath. However, Emit found that it was actually rain that fell upon her shoulders when she opened her eyes. She was no longer facing the ocean, but on a street corner in what looked like a busy city, void of an umbrella and any other form of protection from the rain. The rain felt not so much like a drizzle, but like whiplashes to her body, and Emit scurried to the nearest building that offered her shade from the storm.

The city was unfamiliar, and Emit could only conclude that it was definitely not New London. A quick sweep of the vacant area also revealed that her car decided not to tag along for the ride, and with good reason. There was a slight sound of thunder, followed by a blaze of lightning that chased the thunder through the blackened sky. The only good thing the lightning brought was enough light to illuminate the street sign that was labeled Broadway, after which Emit concluded she was in New York City.

The elation of being in The Big Apple soon faded when she realized that she was completely alone and the only thing that seemed to have a breath of life within a twenty mile radius.

She closed her eyes, trying to wish herself somewhere else, perhaps the port in New London or even at her desk at work, listening to Jezebel whine about nothing. She wanted to be somewhere familiar, but when she opened her eyes she was met with the same scenery she saw before closing her eyes.

With a frustrated ‘Grrr’ and a glare at the sky, Emit stomped her way down Broadway looking for a place to get to shield her from the storm. Joe’s Pizza’s red, neon sign reflected its light onto the pavement before it and Emit decided that she wouldn’t mind waiting in a pizzeria for the weather to calm down. She dashed to the corner and yanked the door only to find that it was locked. After peering inside, Emit saw that there was no one there despite the lights being on. Wasting no more time, she concluded karma had hunted her down for being picky during a rainstorm and turned onto a street lined with more businesses. This time she did not look at the name of the establishment, but reached for the door instead, wanting to get inside as soon as possible.

It turned out that New York City was not having it, for each door that she tried to open on that street was locked even though none of them seemed to be completely closed for the day. Still, there was no one roaming the street, something that seemed completely out of character for the city that supposedly never slept. From what she heard from others and what was portrayed in movies, New York City was always busy, even around midnight when people strolled around, going to catch a movie or buy some ice cream.

Something was wrong with this city, and Emit resolved that this wasn’t the real New York City at all. It was a phony one like the New London she had gone to the first time she thought she had escaped from the other world.

As she hurriedly crossed the street, it occurred to Emit that there seemed to be no way out of this place other than to wait and see what was to come. Panicked at the thought of being trapped, she furiously tried opening every door she could find as she brushed off the rain that had fallen on her hair. Oddly enough, she felt that her hair was not even slightly wet although she had just walked through the heavy precipitation. Emit walked back out into the street, exposing herself to the pouring rain that certainly felt real and darted back onto the covered sidewalk. She touched her clothing this time and felt the dry fabric of her shirt met her skin. Emit could come up with no answer as to why the rain was not wet, so she continued her search for an open door instead.

It took about thirteen minutes until Emit stumbled upon a door that gave way to her forceful pull. It was the entrance to a derelict Laundromat whose name was half lit and falling apart. All the washing and drying machines were spinning when Emit cautiously walked in. There was no noise save for what sounded like an arcade game in the distance. Emit crept toward it, hiding behind the washing machines in the center as she went. She spotted a pale boy with black hair bent over the controls of Mrs. Pac-Man, smacking his teeth when he was caught by Blinky. Mrs. Pac-Man was brought back to life and continued to eat the yellow pellets, eventually winning and going on to the next level.

“Ya can come out from behind the washin’ machines, ya know.”

It took Emit a few seconds to realize it was the boy who spoke to her, but she stayed put for reasons unbeknownst to her, just like the boy stayed bent over the arcade game screen.

“Didn’t cha hea me? Come outta dere, Emit.”

It did not phase Emit that he knew her name; of course he would because that was how this mysterious world worked. Everyone knew her name, yet she knew no one’s. She eventually stood up and approached the right side of the game, watching the ghosts float around the maze in hopes of catching Mrs. Pac-Man. Inky finally caught up with Mrs. Pac-Man and the game was over.

“Allow me ta introduce myself. Name’s Nicola, but ya should call me Cola. Nice ta meet cha Emit.” He stuck out his hand and Emit shook it with little enthusiasm. She was much too confused to put much energy into her movements.

“Wha’ happened. Cat gotcha tongue?” Nicola turned away from Emit and went back to playing the game. Emit stood there as she tried to figure out why Nicola was the only person she meet in the past half hour she had been in New York City.

“Where did everybody go?” Emit was able to find enough words to form a coherent question.

“I was about ta ask ya da same ding.”

It puzzled Emit that Cola didn’t know where everyone went either; she was hoping that he would be able to supply her with at least a few answers.

“Maybe dey all went on vacation,” he said with a shrug. “Haven’t seen anybody all day.”

“So you’ve just been here playing games the whole day?”

“Nah, I came hea went it started to rain. Some kinda rain ain’t it? Didn’t even get wet.”

So it didn’t wet him either?

“Yeah, I didn’t wet me either. Where were you before you came here?”

“I was just walkin’ down da street when it started ta rain. Den I came in hea. Wha’ are ya now, da police?”

Emit thought about how to respond, resolving to utter her words vaguely as not to reveal too much information.

“I just had a peculiar situation before coming here. I was wondering if we had similar circumstances, but I guess not.”

“Don’t get all fancy shmancy on me. I don’t do all that big word stuff, but I understand what it means anyway.”

Unlike the stranger Emit met when she first stepped into the strange world, she postulated that she was actually going to like Nicola. He had even willingly given her his name. If that wasn’t the start of some sort of friendship, then Emit would have trouble finding out what was.

“Alright, so how did you know my name anyway? It seems like everyone knows my name and I know no one’s?”

“I dunno, really. When I looked at cha it just came to me. Kinda like I’ve seen ya before, but I know I haven’t.”

“Interesting.”

Nicola lost again and slammed his fist into the side of the arcade game, cursing under his breath that he was ‘betta dan dat stupid game anyway’. He turned and walked toward the front door of the Laundromat, waving at Emit to follow. She walked toward him without hesitation, not only because she did not want to be left alone in the strange pseudo-city, but also because she felt slightly at ease with Nicola. Emit had no premonitions and for the first time since her concert, she was able to live in the moment without worrying about what was to come.

Not too long later, they arrived at what Nicola identified as the ‘silent meadow’, which was really an expansive field of abnormally green grass. They lay there for some time, conversing about nothing in particular. The dry rain was still pouring, but it wasn’t as heavy as before so Emit didn’t mind it at all. If anything, it made everything more enjoyable.

“So how long have you been here by yourself? I haven’t seen anyone since I got here.”

“I guess since dis mornin’. Yesterday when I went ta sleep der was a lot of noise outside. Ya know, people are always walkin’ around and stuff. But when I woke up dis mornin’ in my apartment, everythin’ was really quiet. I looked out da window and dere was nobody outside at all. It’s all a little bit crazy, but der’s nothing I can do about it, so I just figured I should wait it out; see what happens tomorrow or somethin’. When’d ya get here dough? I coulda sworn dere was nobody here before ya showed up.”

And so Emit told him everything that had happened since the day that she collided with the tree and passed into another realm; a realm that seemed to be a gift and a curse simultaneously. For some odd reason, nothing inhibited her from narrating her journey to Nicola; she felt completely at ease. Nicola seemed like the casual, cool friend you would want to unwind with on a Friday night after a week of intense work. It was like Emit had known him since before they were born.

“Wow, dat’s crazy. I’d definitely be off my rocker if dat happened ta me. It’d be messin’ wit my head.”

“Tell me about it. I think I’m officially crazy now anyway.”

It was then that Emit saw a figure run across the street a few blocks to the left of the meadow. Whatever it was moved so quickly that Emit thought she had imagined it, but when a loud ‘Bang!’ sounded in the distance, she knew that it was not a creation of her frazzled mind.

Nicola looked for the source of the noise and his eyes widened in recognition before he abruptly stood up, snatching Emit’s hand and pulling her up in the process.

“Damn! I dought I’d neva have ta deal wit dis guy again. Fuck, man! Whateva happens, Emit, ya gotta stick wit me. Okay? Deal.”

He uttered his sentence so fast, that Emit had a hard time deciphering what he said, but she registered his facial expression and immediately understood the severity of the situation. She nodded her head ‘yes’ and Nicola tugged her hand, leading her away from the silent meadow and away from the noise.
Soon, they were running down the sidewalk and hiding behind buildings, all the while Nicola turned back to see if there was anyone behind them. It went on that way for a few minutes and Nicola looked extremely nervous as they flew across the street and turned behind another building only to face the source of the noise itself.

The figure was clad in white; something Emit thought was rather peculiar since the majority of sinister people were conventionally dressed in black. Maybe the alleged perpetrator was not actually sinister in the first place.

“Don’t you dare move, Nicola.” His tone was deadly as he held up a phony-looking gun in his left hand. Whether it was a fake or not, Emit had no intentions of testing its authenticity and opted to squeeze Nicola’s hand tightly.

“Give it up Travis. I already did it, it’s ova.”

Apparently, Travis wasn’t satisfied with his answer Nicola gave and directed his gun directly at his face. Emit wanted to knock the weapon out of his hand, but she was rooted in her spot, unable to move, paralyzed. It felt like an invisible force was holding Emit back and no matter how hard she tried to move, she could not.

“It’ll never be over until I get my revenge. I’m going to kill you Nicola. You can fucking count on it.”

Even though Emit had not known Nicola for a long time, it already pained her to think about Nicola’s death. Before she could even process the thought further, Nicola had stepped in front of Emit and launched at the villain, arms stretched out in front of him as he reached for Travis’ gun.

Emit knew Nicola had just made a mistake, and when thunder sounded loudly in unison with Travis’ gun and a strike of lightning, it only cemented her conclusion.

When the lightning disappeared, so did the light. Everything melted into a sea of pitch black and thunder rumbled through the nothingness although it sounded muffled. Now there was no more rain, no lightning, no Nicola. The only thing Emit saw before the light vanished was the plain white fabric of Travis’ white sweatshirt.
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1) Writer's block is a killer.

2) I tried to transfer the Brooklyn, New York dialect into writing and I suppose it may be a bit hard to understand. Let me know if you have any trouble reading it so I can alter it. I molded the speech after Joey Wheeler from the Yu-Gi-Oh! T.V. series since I live in Florida and I don't really hear authentic ones here. Coincidently, my mother happens to be from Brooklyn, but of course her dialect is gone. Bummer.

3) Hope you enjoyed this chapter! I promise I will finish this story unless I die or something.