loveliestpenguin

Dodging any sort of destruction was a must, though.  I could care less about damaged cars and trucks, especially if they had no one inside them, but if I left any kind of visible trail, those formidable government helicopters could make a quick re-appearance.  I hadn't accounted for all the hazards here in the more developed areas.  My practice had only taken me around relatively open fields.

As I worried over my chances of being caught, I stepped on another vehicle — one of those fancy trucks with raised wheels.  When my foot came down on it, the large coiled springs beneath the truck snapped horribly and I flinched away from it as the suspensions shot out from beneath it.  Before I could reorient myself, an infuriated cry rose from the front steps of the house behind the flattened truck.  A man stormed out onto the lawn, raving crazily about how he was going to kill whoever had destroyed his beloved vehicle.  

Despite the stranger being only a fraction of my size, his voice scared me.  I slowly backed away from him towards the other side of the street, unaware of how little space I actually had between him and the house on the other side.  A loud crackle burst through the neighborhood as I felt something solid press against the back of my leg.  My heel had collided with the home behind me.  I tried to turn around to see the damage I’d caused, but my shoe caught on the rubble.  With my leg yanked backwards, I tumbled over and landed in a painful sit as clouds of dirt and dust went flying.  I shuffled back upright as quickly as I could, dusting myself off and staring down at the demolished home in stunned shock.  If the crushed cars hadn’t given me away, a whole crushed house absolutely would.

I hurried back into my own world in a panic, scared the helicopters would appear on the horizon the very moment I did something wrong.  Several minutes of nervous pacing later, I finally managed to clear my head enough to think things through.  Anyone actually looking to capture me would still have to travel to the destruction, and who’s to say I caused it?  Maybe the foundation was unstable, maybe a pipe exploded.  They’d have to rule out all sorts of things before believing it was my fault.

I turned around to pace the room again and my eyes landed on the fallen area.  The stopwatch I’d set up earlier still sat nearby, untouched.  It chirped as I hurriedly rushed forwards and stopped it.  The dull digital face claimed I’d only been gone for about three minutes.  That obviously wasn't true, but I’d also been pacing around for a bit before I’d stopped it, so I still wasn’t entirely sure whether time completely halted for me while I was gone, or if it only slowed to a crawl.

Taking one last steady breath, I stepped into the small area where I’d fallen and zapped away back to the field.  I took a different path to the city to avoid any potential run-ins with anyone out to hunt me down, and tried my very best to leave no trace behind.  I hadn’t been too concerned with where I’d been stepping before, but now I took each step as slowly as I could, nudging things before outright stepping on them.  With my previous destruction set as a distraction, I pressed onward into the ever-crowding area surrounding the city.  The closer I got, the harder it was to find some open space to move to.  In fact, the buildings were almost literally within my reach, but I had no way to get any closer without carving a path right through them.  

Most of the larger buildings on the outskirts of the city only came to chest height.  Still, that was tall enough to stop me in my tracks.  I stood on my tiptoes, trying to scout out any signs of a giant robot battle like the one Liam created yesterday, but there wasn't a single piece of evidence that anything was out of place.

As I shifted my weight to one leg so I could see around an office building, the pavement of the empty lot I was standing in cracked beneath me.  I flinched, kneeling down to examine the shattered asphalt below.  I knew I was big, but being able to break through such a solid material still shocked me.

“Giant robots are invading!”  I scrambled to my feet in an instant.  That was exactly what happened yesterday, in my brother’s story, before heroes came along and put a stop to it.  I looked around wildly, trying to spot who had yelled.  With all the tall city buildings, it was hard to get a clear view of everything around me.  I was used to a bit more open space.  Now, my vision was constantly obscured, but I tried my best to find out what was happening.

Rushing down an empty street as carefully as I could manage, I found a view of the highway into the city.  An explosion pictured on an electronic billboard dragged my eyes away from the busy five lane road.  Large robots walked in thematic slow motion as the screen faded out.  The board announced: “See the new movie from the Robo-fighters Cinematic Universe, in theaters now!”  

I exhaled a relieved breath as I watched the preview switch with an insurance ad on the billboard's display.  My brother's stories were only movies, not reality.  There was no mass destruction, no horrible demise of the human race.  

The sun was already sinking below the horizon; I'd spent a lot more time than I realized finding a pathway out to the city.  I thought about leaving, but I’d come all that way.  Why not enjoy the view I had of the city while I was there?  Carefully checking the lot I’d come from, I sat down for a while and watched the city come to life for the night.  It was a nice break from everything that had happened in the world so far.  For once I had a moment to myself to enjoy without having to dodge vehicles, people, or houses.  

If time truly was stopped in my world, I could come to this world and do whatever I wanted for as long as I liked without consequence!  I could take a several day long break if I felt like it, though I’d have to prepare to camp out somewhere ahead of time.

I don't know how long I sat there for, but eventually I got up to leave.  The sun had long set, and I was getting bored.  This outer part of the city wasn’t all that interesting, and I couldn’t even see the stars through the scattered clouds and the light reflecting off them.  Just as I picked myself up, I heard something crash to the ground.  Standing frozen halfway bent, I searched for what caused the noise, fearing I'd broken something again.  "Ugh, let go of me you-!"  In an instant I was standing straight up, searching for the source of the voice.  

My search led me to a run-down club a few blocks away and two people fighting in the alley beside it.  It was almost completely dark in the part of the alleyway I could see, and I didn’t have room to bend down either.  Despite my best efforts, I couldn't make out their appearances.  

"This is the last straw, I'm done."  It was the voice I'd heard in the empty lot.  "What do you mean you're done?" another voice asked.  It was gruffer, more masculine.  "I mean you can go rot in hell you psycho!  I'm done dealing with your shit.  I can't stand another second of your fucked up little game where I hopelessly try to please you!  Is this where you've been sneaking off to?  You know what, I don't care.  I'm done.  Goodbye and good riddance!"  I don't know what I just stumbled upon, but by the sound of it, nothing good.  

It might be best for me to just leave; pretend I didn't see anything.  Slowly, I began backing away into the street.  "Where do you think you're going?"  For a brief moment, I thought the gruff voice was referring to me and I flinched.  Instead, the owner of the voice grabbed the other person and yanked them back into the alley, sending them crashing against a dumpster.  

"What the hell, you could’ve broken my arm!" yelped the one who'd been pulled back.  The violent one sneered, "I'm going to break more than just your arm by the time I'm done with you!"  "What!?"  I spun around, watching as one hulking figure approached the other, halfway on the ground.  This little fight was going too far.  I had to stop him, but how?  I wanted to pick the threatening person up and throw them full force into the city, but I couldn’t just go around attacking people, even if they might deserve it.  This was all fake though, wasn’t it?  They were just.. toys.

In seconds I was back in my own world, searching the little table in front of me for what might have been the place I'd seen, hoping to somehow affect things directly from the source.  Try as I might, I couldn’t find it.  The little building probably hadn’t made the cut for the model city.  However, through other buildings around it, I was able to gauge where the place would’ve been in the model.  I reached for the alleyway beside it, picturing the man apologizing and walking away.  

Nothing had changed when I returned to the other-world.  Well, nothing good.  The woman was struggling fruitlessly to get out of the man’s grip over her mouth.  In a panic, I grabbed the man who held her.  Some weird jolt made my hair stand on end as I did — his body going strangely slack.  My nerves spiked before I realized I was still invisible.  I cautiously pulled my hand away and the man stepped backwards with it, still strangely frozen.

My hand reached to hover over him maybe a dozen or so different times before I finally found the courage to try something.  Resting my hand at his back, I used one finger to move his arm and make him pick up an empty can on the ground nearby.  I kneeled down, thoroughly shocked, leaving him frozen in place as the woman rushed away from him.

"John?"  The other person asked shakily, probably confused by his sudden strange movements.  ("I uh, I have to go now.")  I said quickly while turning him towards the parking lot.  The man, John apparently, spoke the same thing I had just as I said it.  I walked him a good distance away from the other person in the alley, but as I walked, my hip grazed the side of a building while I wasn’t looking.  I turned quickly in horror, ready to reach out and catch part of it that would come crumbling away.  It was completely unscathed.  My side had passed directly through the building.

I.. did see that right, right?  With the man still under my control, standing in the middle of the parking lot, I reached out and tried to push over a street light.  I swear my eyes nearly widened off my face as I watched my finger phase through the metal pole until it looked like it had impaled my hand.  I brought my hand down on a car in the lot and my hand fell straight through it, sinking into the dirt below the asphalt lot.  While I was controlling one of these small people, my whole form became strangely intangible. 

After testing out my new ability on a few other objects, I finally let the man go, willing him to drive away afterwards.  It somehow worked, and I watched him look around confusedly, get in his car, and leave.  A quick swipe at a signpost proved that I was no longer intangible.  It fell to the ground at my touch.  I returned to my own world shortly after watching his car drive out of sight, and spent the rest of the day at home sorting through what I'd learned.

The false people that filled the little world were incredibly realistic — personalities and unfortunate fragility included.  Yet, they could be controlled and manipulated so completely that they were basically still toys like the ones on the playtable back in my world.  They acted and looked and felt as realistic as everything else to do with the other-world.  So much so that I got worried for the woman I’d incidentally saved, and angry over the man I’d controlled’s words.  Still, their mimicry of real life instantly fell away the moment I’d come into contact with them. 

“You- you’re in a hospital,” Dad answered nervously, “I called 911 after I found you beneath a tree; they had to cut it apart to get to you.”  The nurse began to ask me if I remembered my name and birthday, but I quickly answered those questions and brushed past them.  I wasn’t having trouble remembering who and where I was.  I couldn’t tell if I’d been somewhere else.

The nurse typed something up on the laptop sitting on the counter beside her.  “You’re extremely lucky to be alive.  A part of the house must have stopped the tree before it hit you directly.  There’s no other explanation for why you aren’t at least completely paralyzed or still in a coma.” 

Could that be why I saw all those crazy things?  Tiny people and dangerous midnight helicopter chases?  “Wait.. still in a coma?” I backtracked, looking to the nurse.  “Yes.  You’ve been in a coma for five hours, but your vitals are coming back perfectly normal now.  Hopefully you’ll stabilize and we can discharge you soon.  You’ll have to stay twenty-four hours so we can monitor your health, though.  Which means you’ll be here overnight, but tomorrow, if all goes well, we’ll send you home.”

“What about her cut, and the marks on her back?” my dad butted in.  “The burn marks are strange, they could’ve been caused by friction on the carpet or something similar, but those should heal fairly quick.  She’ll leave here with ointment to help them keep from infection.  She won’t be able to walk on that leg for two to three weeks, but it will heal as well.”

After a few more tests and talks with both a doctor and my dad, they let me rest on my own for a bit, giving me time alone to think.  Everything that happened to me seemed real, even if the situations themselves were fantastical at best.  The rough feeling of rock running across my palms was so fresh in my memory I could almost still feel it.  I’d been cut by those rocks, that’s why I can’t walk.  The helicopters shot me in the back, that’s why I have those weird burn marks.  

It sounded crazier and less true the longer I thought about it.  By the time the sunlight faded from my window everything seemed more like a dream than something real.  I guess I really had just been hit by a fallen tree, and my mind made up the rest.  The entire night I don’t think I got more than a few minutes of sleep at a time.  If it was all in my head, then what would stop my brain from bringing me back to that awful place when I closed my eyes? 

The next couple days are blurry in my memory.  I remember finally getting the bandages removed from my hands and leg; I remember being helped from the car to the house, and how my brother came and played by my side to keep me company while on bedrest.  

As it turned out, I had every right to be worried my mind would take me back to the strange world I made up.  When I slept for the first time since my visit to the hospital, I was bombarded by a nightmare of small helicopters driving into me — blades tearing into my arms, ropes and weights holding me down.  Yet even in the dream, as grisly as it appeared, nothing actually hurt.  I woke up expecting cuts and bruises, another trip to the hospital.  Nothing.  No signs I’d been there at all.  It felt different, but maybe that’s the difference between sleep and a coma.  The worst part wasn’t the pain, it was the haunting image of gore from the man I’d killed.  Just when I thought it had finally been forgotten — pushed down by my mind — it would return like a crystal clear photo beneath my closed eyelids.  I kept having to remind myself that it wasn’t real, that I hadn’t killed anyone.

After a while stuck in bed, I was sent back to school with crutches.  My life slipped into the mundane again.  My friends begged me to tell them the scary story of how I'd survived a whole tree falling on top of me in the middle of a massive storm, but there wasn’t much of a story to tell.  I only saw the tree and the shattered glass for a few moments before passing out.  The place I dreamt up made for a more interesting story, but only a few close friends took an interest in something that didn’t actually happen.

Despite the normalcy returning to my life, there was still the upstairs.  The large room above the garage served as a play room for me before it was passed on to my younger brother.  Ever since the tree tore through it, I hadn’t set foot up those stairs.  Blurred memories of bleeding over a mountainside deterred me from getting more than a few steps closer to it.  The furthest I’d managed to get is the doorway at the top.  I’d called Liam for dinner, and went right back down.  

I couldn’t avoid it forever, though.  The big screen TV was up there, and I didn’t want to keep turning my brother down whenever he asked me to come play a videogame or listen to some story he’d invented with his toys.  So, while my father and brother were out of the house, I dared myself to give the upstairs another chance.  At least if I backed out or ran away no one would know how dumbly I’d acted but me.  The room itself seemed fine, but that wasn’t what I was worried about.  

Tentatively I set foot on the soft carpet that had recently been redone from all the storm damage, then stood there at the door, staring down the playtable near the front of the house.  It was just beyond it, by the large rounded window, where the tree had broken through.  That was where I’d fallen down that evening.  That was where I fell into, past the floor, to somewhere else.  I approached it like a wild animal cautiously inching its way towards a snack gifted by a human passerby, slowly, not taking my eyes off the spot where I’d been hit. 

 Something was off, I could feel it crawling beneath my skin.  At first I thought it was goosebumps, but it’s hard to mistake the tingling static feeling of a sleeping limb.  It’s the sensation of blood flowing almost painfully through veins, only it wasn’t just in an arm or a leg that hadn’t moved in a while, it was everywhere.  Every part of my body hummed with the awful prickling feeling, which worsened as I got closer.  I backed off just to test if I was imagining the increase in pain, but it faded as I retraced my steps.

My brother hadn’t mentioned anything about this.  It was only me.  Sure, it could be a fear response, but I didn’t think I was that scared.  Sucking in a long breath, I marched myself forward until I stood right over the spot where I’d fallen — as fearless as I could be.  Yet, the static feeling didn't stop.  

If something really had happened to me, if I’d really fallen through the floor right here, the strange energy coursing through me would make a little more sense, wouldn’t it?  The world in front of me began to blur, and in my anxiousness I was sure I was about to pass out again.  Maybe I had.  Everything came back into focus differently.

There was the field of too-short grass, and the wide expanse of sky, now a cloudy grey.  I took a knee and ran my fingers over the tiny thin blades.  They felt like the thin tines of feathers grazing over my palm, but they did feel real.  If this were a dream, would I really be able to feel such a small texture, or sense the dirt running through my fingers when I picked up a chunk of earth?  I wasn’t sure.  The place was certainly strange and dreamlike, but it felt incredibly and intricately realistic.

Lifting myself from the ground, I took a breath and looked around.  One glance at the mountains ahead sent a shudder racing down my spine.  That’s when I remembered how desperate I’d been to leave this place and never go back.  Whether it was real, a vivid hallucination, or an intense dream, I shouldn’t be there.

As if on cue the edges of my vision swirled; a haze drifted over my eyes until I was forced to shut them.  By the time I blinked awake I was on the floor.  The carpeted floor.  Back where I started.  I almost expected there to be a tree on top of me.  There wasn’t, thankfully, but there was still dirt stuck beneath my fingernails.

That was enough weirdness for one day.  The hammering of my heart bled into my ears as I stumbled away from the eerie spot on the floor right behind Liam’s innocent little kids table.  Even if I could get back to that other world, I would only get myself in serious trouble; I couldn’t just stroll in there whenever I wanted for fun.  Whatever it was, its inhabitants clearly didn’t want me there.

Though I refused to return to the other-world, a name I’d given to the tiny place I’d encountered, I could still experiment with things in my own world, where I knew it was safe.  The need to know what the strange place really was kept bothering me until I couldn’t stand ignoring it and moving on.  Most ‘tests’ resulted in nothing.  There wasn’t a weak spot in the floor that would cause me to fall, nor was I dehydrated or starving in any way that might cause me to see things that aren’t there.  And as I started spending more time upstairs, my fear of it began to fade.  I’d get a little lightheaded near the exact spot where I’d fallen, so I avoided the small two foot long area, but the weird pain I felt surrounding it was seemingly unavoidable and unexplainable.

The internet offered that I had leftover trauma from the incident that was manifesting as some sort of phantom pain.  I didn’t trust it for a second, but I was willing to believe the ‘phantom’ part after catching a glimpse of my reflection in a mirror hanging on the wall.  While standing where I’d fallen, feeling my whole body go numb and my head begin to spin, everything about me began to glitch in and out of visibility like a broken video game or old-timey ghost.  I stared at the glass dumbstruck, trying to figure out if what I was seeing was real or a trick of the light.  My reflection slowly faded more and more until the mirror showed nothing but empty space.  I rushed over to look closer at my non-reflection, but the second I left the spot I’d fallen, I snapped back into view.

So.. something about this situation was definitely off.  The line between what I imagined and what really happened blurred like the outline of my body against the room.  Invisibility in a single spot wasn’t all that useful here, but it would be very useful in a place like the other-world, where staying hidden would be essential for staying safe.

The next few days I dedicated my free time to figure out how to make things work — to stay invisible on the other-world side and keep the pain down to an almost unnoticeable prickle.  It took hours daily, but no one suspected anything of me.  I was supposed to be doing homework, but my new powers seemed more important, or at least more interesting.  Everything was finally ready for me to test-run on the weekend, when I'd have a bit more free time to properly explore.

Not a single thing that week seemed nearly as interesting as it once was, even the activities I actually looked forward to.  By Saturday, my father must have been convinced that I’d chugged about five cans of energy drinks because I’d been hyped up for no apparent reason all Friday, eagerly waiting to try out my new ability.  Upon warping into the other-world, I was completely invisible — exactly what I wanted.  Only I hadn’t realized how complicated things could become.  Walking, as it turned out, was slightly more difficult when you couldn’t see your own feet.  Sure, I could feel my limbs there, but gauging where they were in comparison to the ground was tricky.  The best way I can describe it is when you’re walking up or down a flight of stairs in the dark.  You get a mini heart attack after every step is either further away or much closer than you thought it would be.

It took an hour or two just to master walking on a relatively flat field, and the moment I tried to scale a hill I fell against it almost immediately.  Things were more difficult than I thought, but I was determined to go somewhere interesting no matter how long it took.  I lost track of time training myself to walk, run, and maneuver my new surroundings; finally coming to a halt at the edge of a small suburbia.  People were out walking or getting their mail, but no one fled or screamed in terror.  Success, after nearly a full day’s work.

I put my hand up to shield the sun from my eyes as I looked out to the horizon, silently laughing to myself as the light shone directly through my invisible hand.  If I squinted, I could see the outline of a city skyline beyond the suburban houses.  The blazing setting sun outlined it against the faraway sky.  I stood there for a good few minutes, taking in the vastness of the new world, and all the places I hadn’t seen just on the other side of the large mountain range.  Everything began to glow gold and orange, and I realized how late it was.  

I barely thought about the image of the playroom I had in my mind before I was zapped back into my own world.  All it took to get back was a bit of concentrated thought.  To get in required the same, only I had to be standing in the exact place I’d fallen.  The moment I arrived, I raced downstairs, bumping into my brother on the way.  "How long have you been looking for me?” I gasped.  “Is Dad alright?  He didn't report me missing or anything, did he?" I asked Liam in a hurry.  He gave me a bewildered look, scrunching up his little face.

"Huh?  No one's looking for you."  "But…  I mean, I’ve been gone all day."  My little brother only shrugged and continued on past me up the stairway.  "I just saw you an hour ago, before karate."  

Only an hour?  One hour was impossible.  The sun was setting when I left the other-world.  I followed Liam back upstairs and peered out one of the windows.  Sure enough, it was still completely bright out.  I pulled out my phone.  Only 1:30.

“So did you want to play with me?  I found all my battlebots!”  As charmingly tempting as that sounded, I had bigger things to worry about.  “I’ll just watch,” I replied, “Tell me a story.”  My request seemed to excite him just as much as the thought of playtime did.  I sat on the couch, completely tuning out the new story my brother was spinning with his toys.  

Either time slowed here while I was in the other world, or time stopped completely.  I would have to leave a stopwatch behind the next time I went back, just to be certain.  Absentmindedly, I watched my brother's antics on the play table beside that increasingly strange place I’d fallen.  Anytime before the incident of the storm, I would’ve happily agreed to entertain him, but now if I moved into that area even on accident I would end up glitching in and out of visibility.  I’d appear like a ghost in the place where I nearly became one, or worse.  

Liam made a loud explosion sound with his mouth as one of his robotic action figures crashed to the ground, startling me from my thoughts.  New destruction scattered across the city made of building blocks on the table.  A city not unlike the one I’d seen earlier, only that one looked far more real.  Yet, somehow it was less real and tangible than the plastic blocks right within reach.

A gasp tore through my throat before I could fully make sense of the thought that settled itself in my head.  "What happened?" my brother asked, pausing after my outburst.  "Oh, I'm uh, very enthralled by your story,” I lied, “keep going!"  Liam shrugged and returned to his robots, narrating yet another battle of good and evil as I stared intently at the city in peril.  

The city on top of the little table — the city my brother and I built together — had a skyline with four main pointed buildings that stuck up from the rest.  The one in the other-world had only three, but if I looked at the table from the angle I sat at, it also looked like it had only three.  They could almost be one and the same, a replica of one another.  

Everything had calmed with the sudden bright sky that replaced what I remembered being a stormy one.  I was indoors, something had shattered.  I could’ve sworn that’s what happened, yet the empty field I sat in surrounded by unrecognizable wilderness begged to differ.

Once my eyes finally adjusted, I stood.  Keeping my hand up to shield the sun, I scanned the horizon, but nothing seemed familiar.  I was lost, and I’d only fallen.  I’d call out for someone to help; maybe they could tell me what happened — but there wasn’t a soul around.  I couldn’t be too far from civilization, though.  Surely someone would know something.  My home had to be nearby, where else would I be?  Deciding that this was the truth, I picked a direction and started walking.  Away from the mountain range seemed like the solution since I didn’t feel like scaling a rock wall.  Or, more accurately, I didn’t feel like I’d survive scaling a rock wall.

Thankfully my journey was relatively easy, all the grass was cut short and there wasn’t any tangle of plants to block my path.  The field was well maintained.  In any place wilder, the grass should've grown up to my shins at least, so there had to be someone out here to keep it.  Which meant there was someone I could ask.

I followed the cut grass in hopes I might find a house or a park entrance.  Twice I had to stop to rest my legs, which spasmed unexpectedly.  I had my suspicions that the strange painful fall I endured earlier was behind it.  It felt like I was dying, but already the memory was becoming less and less clear in my head.  I was starting to doubt I remembered tripping and falling correctly.  The whole situation was bizarre.

Determined to find out where I landed, I kept walking towards the forest ahead.  However, with each step my perception of it changed.  The trees fell shorter and shorter the closer I got to them.  What I'd thought was a forest at a distance seemed to shrink before my eyes until the 'trees' I’d seen turned to low bushes that only came to the edges of my knees.  

It was all strangely unsettling; a whole field of only small bushes with no actual trees in sight.  They went on like that for miles, almost as far as I could see.

I changed course and walked along the edge of the bushes for a while, hoping it would lead me to whoever took care of the place.  There were still no other signs of humanity.  No fences, no posts to help the plants grow, no structures or pathways or trail markers to use as landmarks.  Each little detail only grew more unnerving the longer I thought about them.  No one was around; everything felt so oppressively empty.

Anxious ideas sank like stones deep into the bottom of my mind.  They weighed on my thoughts, bringing me to a slower and slower pace.  I didn't react in time to avoid the real rock sticking out of the ground in front of me.  The tip of my shoe hit it at just the right angle so that my leg was thrown from under me.  When I fell, I half expected to sail right back to where I’d been before, the first time I’d fallen.  Instead, I was met with branches slashing at my face as I landed on a few bushes — the wind knocked from my lungs.

I stared into the underbrush shaken and dazed.  My hands drifted to my face to feel for any major cuts.  Thankfully, I couldn’t find any.  My fingers returned blood-free, though my face still burned in jagged lines that undoubtedly still left a few angry red marks across it.  I exhaled an angered huff and glanced around the underbrush, pulling myself up from the ground.  It took me a moment to realize — I’d already stood and dusted myself off — but the scenery under there didn't look quite right.  It was almost too familiar, like I’d seen it before, almost deja-vu.  Some creeping ill feeling leeched off my anxiousness.  My heart began to thrum in my ears.  Slowly and thoughtlessly I lowered my head all the way down and looked up at the bushes from the ground where I’d fallen.  

They were trees.  From the ground the bushes looked exactly like trees.

From my new perspective at ground level the grass would be up to my knees, if not higher, with tiny little underbrush and shrubs to match.  Each true bush was barely larger than an inch.  No wonder I mistook the growth of miniature trees for a real forest.  It was a real forest, just not the kind I knew.  The sound of a bird call tore my head from the ground.  A flock of them scattered off of a bush-sized tree nearby.  Each and every one was about the size of a pin.  The whole flock combined was still smaller than any real bird I knew, besides maybe a hummingbird.  

My eyes seemed to trace every detail in slow motion — time stood still to present clues for the reality of my situation like the dramatic end of a mystery plot.  Evidence flashed before the screen.  Still, pieces didn't fully align until I heard a scream echo from the edge of the woods.  I flinched violently at the well-timed sound.  I would have liked to scream myself.

Shuffling on my knees towards the direction the scream had come from, I bent my head lower to see under the treetops.  At first I saw nothing, only empty forest.  Then some small movement caught my attention as something disappeared behind the trunk of a nearby tree.  Only thinking of solving this mystery for certain, I grabbed the tree, or bush, or whatever it was, and pulled.  I meant to tug the plant back so I could see behind it, but I ended up pulling it right out of the ground instead, misjudging my strength.  Its roots ripped out of the earth with chillingly loud snaps that sent dirt flying, all too easily breaking away from the grip it once had on the ground below.

Another scream pierced the silent air followed by a faint tiny shout that sounded vaguely like "Run!"  I watched unmoving and unblinking while a young couple ran deeper into the woods.  The taller of the two couldn't have been much larger than the length of my hand.  

I sat up, my vision spinning, dark spots popping and scattering through my sight.  Everything, the plants, the birds-  This wasn't my brain misinterpreting strange things; the whole world was somehow shrunk to an incredibly small scale.  Either that, or I was somehow massive.  Both sounded ridiculous — too impossible to be true.  Yet, I was holding an entire tree in my hand.  I’d squeezed it so hard the bark left divots in my palm, and my hand left cracks through the tree.

After I finally snapped out of my daze, the people had long fled.  I stood warily and dropped the slightly crushed tree, a fresh sense of fear seizing my mind.  It was worse than being alone.  I was alone in a place full of people who would fear me.  

I felt the same.

I ran back the way I came.  This time I had no trouble getting across the field — adrenaline doing most of the hard work for me.  I wasn’t sure whether I’d grown or the world had shrunk.  Not that the difference would have mattered.  

When I arrived at the spot I'd first woken up in, I stooped, panting for breath and desperately looking for any signs of the strange falling feeling, or any familiar thing I could use to get home.  I purposefully let myself fall to the ground, trying to mimic how I’d arrived, but the only thing I succeeded in doing was hurting my chest as it collided with the earth.  Nothing had changed.  I was trapped.  

I scanned the horizon in all directions again.  The sun was just starting to set, soon it would be pitch-black in the completely empty field, and I was starting to dread the possibility that I'd be sleeping in the grass that night.  Tears welled in the corners of my eyes and my vision began to blur.  Without an answer and dreading the worst, I sat down in the grass and hoped I could will myself to wake up from the awful nightmare.  After what seemed like hours of laying dreary and restless in the empty field, I heard what sounded like machinery rumbling.  

I got up in an instant.  My head spun from sitting up too quickly as I tried unsuccessfully to pinpoint where the noise was coming from.  As the strange sound grew closer at an alarming rate, I could finally tell the source of the noise was behind me, where the forest was.  It only got louder while I searched through the dark.  I stumbled upright, bracing myself to fight or run.  The sound was close enough I could tell it was more of a whirr than a rumble.  I held my ground, still unsure what I was up against.

Suddenly, lights flickered on in the sky and I let go of the breath I’d been holding, thinking they must be flashlights held by people my own size.  However, as they neared and the noise grew loud enough to hurt, more and more light filled the field in front of me.  Dark gleaming metal shone in the spotlights’ paths.  My hopes of being rescued were short lived at best.  

Helicopters the size of my forearms came barreling up the field faster than I could react.  Blinding floodlights suddenly attacked me from all sides, and I could hear faint unintelligible shouting over the cacophony of the helicopter blades.  I could just make out a man’s voice yelling: “Take it down!”  My brain screamed at me to do something, anything was better than standing around waiting to be caught.  There really was only one thing to do.  

I ran like my life depended on it, because I was certain it did.  The most sheltered place I could find would be my goal.  All I could do was push myself forward further faster — half blinded by light and half blinded by darkness at the same time.  I shoved my way through a valley, clawing at its stone sides to push me faster.  The shrieking of spinning blades got marginally fainter.  

Another part of the mountain range loomed ahead.  I was giant, but these cliffsides dwarfed me.  If I could just get further ahead of the helicopters, I could hide in their ragged shadows.  With an extra burst of speed, I was able to put enough distance between me and whoever was chasing me to find a place to hide.  A large overhang jutting from the mountain’s cracked face would have to do.

I slid under the rocks and came to a seamless stop beneath them, slicing my leg on something sharp in the process.  An awful pain rushed up my shin, but I grit my teeth and kept quiet.  Whoever was up there searched the ground thoroughly.  They scanned the trees for any sign I’d flattened them, but I was safe under the cover of the rocks.  The spotlights from above cast even darker shadows to hide me.  My pursuers eventually split off in different directions, giving me a moment to breathe and think.  

They’d found me far too easily.  I’d only been wandering around for half a day, if that.  Only two people had actually seen me, but I hadn’t thought of the planes that might be flying overhead, or even a reader for seismic activity locating any disturbance I’d made.  I could hide here for now, under cover and staying still, but once morning came and the sun rose, my dark hiding spot would become an open cliffside again.

There were only two options I could think of: keep running or turn myself in.  If I turned myself in, whoever was searching for me up there would probably lock me away just for looking threatening.  I hadn’t done anything to upset them, yet they acted like I’d torn through a city.

The only option left was to keep running.  I groaned silently at the thought; my legs were tired enough from racing through the field and being hugged up tight to stay under the rock above me, and my right leg still throbbed angrily from the cut I’d given myself earlier.  

I couldn’t tell how long I’d been under the overhang for, not even by the moon.  It wasn't in the part of the sky I could see in front of me.  Everything ached from sitting huddled under the rocks for so long, and the temptation to stretch was getting harder to ignore by the minute.  If I moved from beneath my hiding place the helicopters might find something amiss and come for me.  Maybe if I stretched quickly, out then back beneath safety, no one would notice.

The noisy churn of an engine reached my ears only a second before headlights flickered through the branches ahead.  I quickly tucked myself away even further.  A rugged vehicle came barreling down the trail that passed by my overhang, seemingly following the helicopters.  It came to a sudden halt as the dirt path abruptly ended with a wall of rock.  Someone, presumably a park ranger of some kind, stepped out of the car and slammed the door behind them.  "I guess I'll wait out this crazy search party from under here.  Don't know what they're looking for, but it can't be good."

I held very still as a figure stepped beneath the ledge I'd been hiding under.  Luck had yet to be on my side all day; it certainly wasn’t with me now.  Silently, I begged him not to notice me, and for a while he didn't.  The man stayed in the front of the overhang, looking out into the dark while I pressed myself into the rocks behind him.  

"Ugh, what did I just sit in?"  A small light flickered on in front of him, illuminating the rock I'd cut myself on.  "Is this.. blood?"  

My heart dropped.  I felt vomit rise in my throat.  The ranger returned to his truck and a fog light suddenly cut through the shadow I desperately clung to.  The beam of light traveled agonizingly slowly.  Sliding down the bloody trail, to my leg, then all the way up to my face.  

With the light pointed at my head, all I could see of the man was his silhouette, outlined by the glow of the searchlight as he slowly backed away from me.  "Holy...”  I held completely still, a bit shocked at how small his voice sounded, though I knew I shouldn’t be.  Step by careful step, the ranger backed away from me until he’d cautiously slid the driver’s seat door open and reached inside.  “Fox Den, this is Scout Four, I have a.. I- I don’t know what to call this in as, but-”  

"No, wait!" I cried out, "Don't let them know I'm here!"  Talking only made it worse.  I should've known my voice would draw the helicopters’ attention to me, but I wasn’t thinking.  The ranger spoke through his radio in a hurry now, waving his arms wildly at the sky as the helicopters circled back at the sound of my voice.  "IT'S OVER HERE!"  Two of the spotlights to my left turned and started heading my way.  I had to stop him.  I didn’t want people searching for me on the ground as well as in the air; they’d find me in no time.  In one sudden reflex, my hand shot out and grabbed him, but to my surprise he wiggled free and started screaming louder.  The helicopters were closing in, there was no time.  Their droning hum beat loudly against the cliffs.  

I slammed my fist down on the light and reached for the ranger again, grabbing him as tightly as I could and yanking him back under the ledge.  With the floodlight destroyed, the shadows quickly covered any trace that I was there.  Similarly, the truck vanished into the dark.  A few nerve wracking seconds passed as the spotlights flew by overhead and I breathed a sigh of relief.  They hadn't spotted me.

"Don't scream," I whispered once I felt it was safe, "and I'll let you go, I promise."  I didn't want to scare this poor person any more than I had to to keep myself safe, they were already freaked out enough as it was. The man was silent in my grasp, so I slowly unclenched my fist.  Little snaps and crackles crunched in the creases of my fingers as I released him, and his body limply fell into the palm of my hand.  

All other concerns completely dropped from my brain, I rushed into the moonlight for a better look, staring in horror as his corpse — mangled beyond recognition — was revealed.  A scream tore from my throat before I had the sense to realize that was a bad idea.  I just killed someone.  I hadn’t even noticed I’d done it.

Terrified tears had barely welled in my eyes before blinding light was thrown into them.  "No!" I yelped pleadingly, dropping the body "I didn't mean to kill him!  I swear I didn't mean to!"  Choking on a sob, I tried to run blindly, but only tripped on my hurt leg and raked my hands over the rocks surrounding me, tearing up my fingers.  Blood trickled over the mountainside as I grasped the rocky cliff to right myself.  I turned to the helicopters in time to see projectiles launching at me.

I squeezed my eyes tight as tears streamed down my cheeks.  I could only hope that my death would be quick.  When the projectiles struck, electricity surged through my veins.  Another scream was wrenched from my throat, this time in agony.

They weren't trying to kill me, they were trying to subdue me.  It would be easier for them to drag me away if I were knocked out.  More rounds were fired off as I desperately fought to stay conscious.  I refused to be put under.  The second round hit its mark and my vision went with it.  I just wanted to go home.  I could see it so clearly in my memories as everything began to fade.