Where the Lines Overlap

This is my story. I’m not really sure how to start this, and you probably won’t believe me anyways. I’m just telling it to you like it is. Or has been, actually. It really did start out normal, dear reader. Normal as it gets for me. I liked the normal.

The day it happened, it was a long, wet winter, and it was raining hard. I ran outside to get my dog, who was running around on the road like a stupid bison. I was also holding onto my phone and swearing my lips off, trying to talk to Rachel but failing. There was a giant flash of light and it smelled very much like fish; and suddenly I felt warm, dry, and very sleepy. Fish does that to a person.

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I started to wake up one limb at a time. First the toes – yes, tingly, just like that – then the legs. Aching crawled up under my skin. The arms next, fingers wiggling. The sounds around me slowly changed from quiet, indiscernible babble into loud civilization. Something rattling, the clip-clop of horse hooves, people’s angry voices.

Smells hit me next, horse smells. The kind of stink only mud could make. Something else – low and old. Something I’d never smelled before.

I decided to open my eyes a sliver. The light hit me; everything was blurry. My head started pounding.

Someone groaned and brushed by my arm.

Everything was still blurry and bright and I tried to talk, but my throat felt like it was full of rocks.

The person groaned loudly a second time.

“What smells?” She grumbled; voice gravelly but clearly feminine.

I coughed achingly and blinked furiously, trying to see better. No luck. My eyes were watering anyways.

“What exactly,” She grabbed my arm “are you doing?”

I kept blinking, “Erf.” I mumbled.

“…what?” She asked.

Hold it, I know that voice!

“Stop blinking!” She demanded. “Are you stupid?”

“No!” I replied indignantly.

She groaned with a strictly dramatic amount of frustration and smacked my arm.

“Keep your eyes open, your pupils will adjust better. I swear you paid zero attention when they taught you optics in psych 101.”

Oh Oh Oh! I know this person! It’s on the tip of my tongue!

“Moony?” She asked cautiously.

“Rachel?!“ I asked excitedly, and I just about shit myself. I launched myself in her general direction (or what I assumed it was; everything was still fuzzy and hard to see).

She started laughing, then I landed on her.

“AURHGHUG!” She yelled, flailing around.

I cackled and we death-hugged each other.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!” She exclaimed.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!” I replied.

She laughed and pushed me off, yelling “You’re supposed to be 2000 miles away from me!” and then she turned away and grabbed something by her butt.

I rolled away and sat up, squinting and looking around. Still blurry. Very blurry. Oooooh, that was a bad idea. Achy head.

I groaned and rubbed my head.

“Where are we?” I asked quietly.

Rachel hmm’d and said nothing, and handed me some kind of bottle, hard and plastic-y. I held it up to my nose and took a whiff. Smelled like rum.

“You brought booze?” I snorted.

“It was what I had in my hand when the…thing happened.” She replied.

“What?” I asked, holding the booze back out in her general direction. Still blurry. “What thing?”

Rachel huffed and grabbed the bottle. “You know!” She answered, “The….exploding….fishy….timey wimey thing!!”

I stared back at her. “Oh, that thing.”

She laughed. “Yes, that thing. That very improbable transporting thing.”

I nodded slowly. “It smelled fishy to you too?”

“Yeah like Vancouver Aquarium fishy.” She replied.

I noticed then that it didn’t feel rain-y, or wet or cold.

“Seriously, where are we?” I asked again, shielding my eyes from the bright sunlight, “What is that smell?”

“Uhhh…I dunno. There’s horses and shit. People are staring at us. Looks quite a lot like the Old Fort, actually.” She replied.

“Old Fort?” I asked incredulously. “The historical theme park?”

“Yeah,” she replied, “There’s peasants. Wares for sale. Why aren’t you opening your eyes?”

“Hurts.” I grumbled and laid back down, covering my face with my hands.

They were so nice and cool. I sighed in contentment.

“You know what?” Rachel asked in an airy voice, “I think it’s the people! That’s the stink!”

“Why would people be the stink?” I asked her.

“It’s medieval land! They bathed like once a year in those times!” She replied (and I could hear the creepy joy in her words) “They poured their poop buckets onto peasants walking by!”

I sniffed lightly. It did smell like weird BO and something else, a bit of poop maybe?

“Huh.” Was all I could think of to say.

“Ohmygod.” Rachel muttered suddenly. “Ohmygod.”

“Ugh, what?” I asked, “Whatsit?”

She didn’t say anything. She just punched me in the arm.

“Ow..” I replied half-heartedly. I felt too bad to sit up so I settled for waving my arm lazily in her approximate direction. She still didn’t reply.

“Stop being a dumb flipper!” I exclaimed. “What’s going on?!”

She still didn’t reply, so I tried cracking my eyes open.

“Euuuughhhh.” I moaned. Blurry and bright. Achy head. General gross feeling.

“Sit-up.” She hissed under her breath.

“Rather not.” I replied.

She huffed and I heard her shuffle nervously. A silence fell and I realized there had been people murmuring. Rachel mentioned people staring at us moments earlier.

“Um…hello?” Rachel said quietly.

“Hello,” A deep man voice. Commanding. Mmmmm. “How did you…uh..”

Silence hung.

“Are you…” He paused, “Sorcerers?”

“No!” Rachel cried suddenly.

Silence hung thick in the air. I decided the man wanted a longer answer and Rachel wasn’t going to
give one, so I had to sit-up.

I took a peek out of one eye. Not so bad. My head still hurt, but it wasn’t pounding now. The outlines
of things were fuzzy and blurring together, but I could see them!

I tried to sit up, by my arms felt like lead weights and I was out of breath after only a few seconds.
Tiredness was quickly creeping up on me. The guy who was talking to Rachel stepped over to me and knelt down, looping his warm hands around my shoulders and sitting me up.

“I’ve got you, don’t worry.” He said quietly to me. His chest rumbled against my side. I felt too exhausted and weirded out to even blush or freak out like I normally would’ve. I couldn’t even feel my fingers.

“Thanks.” I replied. “We’re not really sure how we got here, actually…”

He pressed against a ginger spot near my ribs, shooting a pain up my side and I went “Ooh! Careful!”

The man cleared his throat and shuffled so that I was leaning more than him holding me up and poking around my ribs.

“Do you suppose they were attacked?” Another man asked.

He stepped toward what I assume was Rachel. An angular blue blob, kneeling in front of a bright yellow feminine form. He extended his arm to her and helped her up.

“That seems to be the case.” My leaning post stated. “Can you walk?”

I shook my head carelessly; even my eyelids were starting to feel heavy.

“I can’t really see,” I replied, “I don’t know about walking. Must’ve damaged my fovea or something.”

The man didn’t move, exclaiming “Pardon?” and sounding very dumbfounded.

“Oh, sorry, I’m a Psych student.” I mumbled.

Rachel let out a tired laugh and stood shakily, swaying on her feet.

“You have no friggen idea who you’re talking to!” She laughed, sounding very tired and incredulous, “Or where we are! And you can’t see!”

“Shaddap!” I replied crankily. “Blind people can still be successful!”

Blue blob dude steadied her by the shoulders, “Hey, are you okay?” He asked.

She just giggled. I could tell something was going on with her too. Maybe she was as tired as I suddenly was. I didn’t even find the tiredness weird, so I knew I was really tired.

“Where are we?” I asked, voice getting sluggish, “What kind of freaky LARP-ing life do you people lead?”

Blue blob lifted one of her arms around his shoulder and started leading Rachel blob away.

“Hold on, I’m going to lift you.” The man stated behind me.

He shifted behind me and secured an arm around my back and under my knees. I could hear Rachel making a stupid delirious song about becoming a royal auntie, whatever that meant.

“Ready?” He asked.

I sighed and let my eyes close while he stood up. Vertigo hit me and my head whirled. Fogginess was quickly invading my consciousness and I groaned “Oh…augh,” I let my head rest against him, “I feel gross.” And I quickly fell into a restless sleep.