Truth Water: Preface (re-edited)

Preface:

As I waited, the memory became clear enough for me to replay every single detail of this frightening past in my mind. I looked around, lifted my arms, sniffed the air, and took in my surroundings.

“So this is what my memory looks like…” I whispered to myself.

I slowly but surely inched forward until I came foot-to-face with a sobbing baby. I bent over and narrowed my eyes to get a better look, bewildered to see that she looked nightmarishly a lot like someone I knew. I waited and watched the memory replay like a rerun of a show.

“No- No!” I heard a woman screech, “Don’t take her! You can’t!”

“Yes, I can,” Said a loud booming man’s voice; it was kind of alien-like, “I have every right, on behalf of this contract with your ruler.”

“But- but how?” the woman wailed.

The man pushed past the woman by shoving her down to the ground using some sort of magic (I figured because he didn’t make contact with the woman, and there was blue stuff coming out of his hand), and slowly cut across the dead grass. The woman lunged at his legs, but her arms went through them like they were only air. She looked utterly surprised. Her chin cracked wide open when it hit the ground, sending blood gushing out of it. Her face quickly turned pale as she tried to squirm her way up to her legs, but then fell back down; this time, laying there limp.

Alarmed, I tried to pick the baby up, but my arms fizzled at the touch of her skin. I quickly pulled my arms away, aware that it felt too odd to keep them there for long. I tried again with more force, but epically failed when my limbs angrily shot through the ground. My first instinct would’ve been to yank my arms back up to the surface, but when I tried, I realized they were stuck.

I looked up and saw that the alien was rapidly getting pulled under the ground. My eyes widened with fear. I had no idea if he was going to strike me from below, pull me under, or what. I just waited there until an idea popped up in my head. Finally, I thought of something.

Maybe, I thought, if I push down and pull them up; my arms will become free again. Even though I knew it wouldn’t work, I tried it anyways. When I attempted this, my arms only got stuck farther down into the ground. Once more, I tried to free my arms, but at the last try, I was wedged into the ground, and stuck inside the baby. My torso started fizzling.

Every second, the odd feeling got worse, almost to the point where it hurt. It stopped for a few quick seconds, and then fire shot from my back, sending a rippling pain all throughout my body. I screamed with the effort to try and attract somebody’s attention, but nobody could hear me through the wails of the crying baby. Plus, I was in my head; no one could see me- or so I thought.

All of a sudden, I felt a yank at my arms underneath the ground.

Aw, crap, I thought, what did I get myself into?

A flash of lightning came hurdling out of the sky and landed in a patch of moss a few inches away from me. I tried to roll away, but then remembered my arms were stuck. Another bolt of lightning came, even closer. Then there was another, until finally it went shooting through the sky and struck my back. The lightning kept coming at me, attacking me, for some reason that I didn’t quite understand. It finally occurred to me that I was being attacked. Oddly, it didn’t hurt one bit. I mean, with the force of it pushing me down, it kind of hurt. But still.

But who, I thought, who would want to attack me?

Curiosity ran up and down my spine a million times, filling my eyes with hot tears. Finally, the yanks managed to drag me down into the ground. A burst of red light came into view, lighting way into a damp tunnel. I noticed that a bony shadow was responsible for forcing me through the damp tunnel. Sooner, rather than later, we finally reached a wide opening. A flurry of black-as-night fire shot up from the opening, revealing a hooded figure with a psyche in his hand, and I realized that it was alien man I saw earlier. His hand reached out for me. He slowly made his way across the room, cloak dragging not far behind his feet.

Right when he reached me, a blinding ball of white light filled my vision, and down came a figure with wings. They looked a lot like angel wings. The person picked me up and flew me up to the surface of the pond, leaving behind the terrible nightmares that lay below. Just as we reached the top, a current of water hit me, and out I went, scrambling to my legs as I tripped and fell over a rock. Relief and curiosity both hit me with a frightening force, sending me toppling down over my own body weight.

What happened down there? Who was my hero?

Realization struck me fast. That baby… that baby was-

BANG!

Thunder filled my ears, while lightning did to my eyes, making me both deaf and blind for a few seconds. When this was over, I realized I was staring at the ground, when I saw a shadow creeping its way over me. I slowly looked up, afraid of what might be waiting for me when I did.