A BLINK
The chain weighed across her chest. Invisible to the eye, but so heavy.
It pressed coldly threw her skin and wrapped around her lungs. Tethering her down.
"Don't do it because..."
"You need nicer clothes."
"You can't do that because..."
"Your not smart enough.."
"Your not pretty enough.."
"Your not nice enough for somone like him."
"You don't have good sense. Cover up. Show more taste. Reveal less skin."
"That would be a horrible idea right now."
"There's things you shouldn't say despite how you feel."
"Don't let people treat you badly, but don't stand up for yourself either."
"Don't be weak."
"Don't be so headstrong."
Some of the voices were hers. Some of them were the voices of others. To their eyes the voices drizzled over her and ran off like water over bright sparkling rock, but to her they were like insects crawling beneath her skin.
The words biting at weird times. Halting her hand on the mouse to her computer.
The voices so loud she wasn't sure which were her own anymore.
What did she want?
Were they right?
Was she right?
She mused. 'It didn't matter, because she didn't matter. Not really. You were here and then gone. A blink in history.'
The laptop closed defeated.
A blink.
The chain bit again as it coiled around her heart.
She wanted to matter, but perhaps that was too big a hope.
She placed a rolled paper between her lips and her eyes glittered; reflecting with flame.
With her exhale the chains loosened. The voices were gone, her own included. Smoke danced across the light that came through the green gauze window.
Silence.
She blinked.
She smiled, leaving it for another day.
THE MUSHROOM FOREST
Pale light cast down over the even walk.
he didn't know which way he had turned.
The boys who showed his head into the toilet last week had been following him the last block or so thinking he hadn't spotted them.
Football practice ended the same time as the math club and he had calmly reached a corner before darting down a ditch and then another.
"He's gone!"
"Let's chase him James!"
He heard the loud group of boys laughing before giving chase.
That had been thirty minutes ago. The area had given way to woods that looked familiar at the time.
Now he was lost.
It was getting darker.
He jumped as he heard a twig snap beneath his own foot. He had dropped his schooling a while back.
He tuned to go back and tripped over a curled root.
He blinked at the mushroom that appeared inches from his face. The wind picked up as he pulled himself off the dirt and his nostrils caught the faint smell of rain. He was careful to check that he hadn't touched a mushroom.
He was Afterall allergic.
Relief escaped him at his luck. He had landed dead center of a ring of them.
He brushed off his clothes.
"Well that was close," he muttered.
He picked up his speed and checked his cell phone. He was going to fess up to his mother and call to be picked up. He knew she worried about him being picked on, but at least it was late enough she might be off work. She was a nurse at the only hospital the town had to offer. He frowned as his phone disconnected him.
He had no service.
He sighed and headed back the way he had come. Nothing was looking familiar, and dread and panic played at racing his heart as he carried on. Trying to remain calm he reached a hill and smiled. He recognized the hill. The town should be just over the rise. He reached for the inhaler he kept in his pocket and took a deep drag.
He placed one foot over the other, tired, and dreaming of his mothers leftover stew.
The top of the hill was only a few more steps now. He reached it and the smile on his mouth fell away.
He was sure this was the hill he had ran down. He turned recognizing the land well right down to the the rose bush that had torn his favorite shirt.
So why was it that the town was not there, but instead a field of Aspen.
He sat in the dirt and was just about to check his phone again when he heard it. Something large was stalking up behind him.
He turned shaking and gasped.