Myth

by Terri Todosey

  I have no idea where I am or how old I am when you read this, but if you’ve experienced time travel, you’ll know it’s not that significant anyway.

  Time travel?

  I’m writing rather about a much more important matter - this book, and I don’t know how long I have to write, so I’ll get straight to the point. Whatever you do, DON’T read this book. I know it seems odd there’d be a book that is not for reading, but I feel obligated to at least warn you that strange things can happen and in fact did happen to me when I read it. Some of it good... actually really good, but some of it was horribly frightening, and the problem is, once you start, there’s no turning back.

  I know there are some who would argue that it’s already too late. That fate has taken notice of you and entangled you in its web. Either way, you’re here now, holding this book and reading this letter, and if you’re anything like me, you’ll probably end up doing what you’re not supposed to do.

  So, I’ll tell you this - there is one way to read this book safely, but you have to trust me and do it exactly as I tell you.

  First get a pen, and open the book to the very last page. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT READ any other page. If the words ‘The End’ appear on the last page, then it’_

  It ended with a fair sized squiggle that I guessed was a jolted attempt at the letter ’s’ and there was nothing more. Unsticking it from the book, I flipped the piece of paper over, wondering if the message continued on the back, but it was blank. I looked at the book. A smear in the dust on the cover revealed the shape of a tree and the single word - Myth - pressed into the weighty leather.

  My mind now racing, I couldn’t understand what sort of craziness I had been wrapped up into. I had never even seen this book before, let alone read it, and I was sure I had absolutely not written that letter.

  I flipped open the back cover and found the last page blank. What did that mean? Without the words ‘The End’ was I to assume it was okay to read or not? The note didn’t say, and I didn’t know what to think. It felt like I was being tricked into reading some sort of weird chain letter - the kind that tells you to do one thing or something horrible will happen. Of course I never fell for those. In fact, I’d usually do the exact opposite just to prove them wrong. But this was different, and I couldn’t think of a logical explanation as to how a letter in my handwriting, that I had no recollection of writing, was there. Then I suddenly remembered how easily Justin forged signatures. Could he have done this?

  I looked up to where he and Emily stood at the other side of the room in a puddle of light from Emily’s phone. Emily was taking a selfie with the bonnet on her head and Justin looked over at me with funny looking goggles now covering his eyes and the helmet still on his head. He grinned seeing me looking, and made a funny face.

  ‘It’s got to be you!’ I thought, laughing at his genius, and then defiantly opened the front cover.

  The words on the first page were hand written, as though I had found someone’s journal or diary. But rather than it starting with a date or journal entry, as one would expect, it was a story:

  Chapter One

  The Primer

  It didn’t seem long ago when the skies were blue and easy to breathe and the land was thick with d e w y grasslands that rolled out as f a r as the e y e could seeeeee; like an emerald elixxxir p r o m i s i n g g o o d things on its h o r i z o n

  I stopped, because the letters within the words seemed to be shifting and stretching oddly. Rubbing my eyes, I squinted trying to focus better, but the dust on my hands must have made things worse, and I could barely make out the words at all. I focused hard, getting frustrated by the fact that I couldn’t see properly, but the harder I strained my eyes to see, the worse it became. Waving the phone light around me, I realized that I was surrounded by a strange green fog that seemed to be almost glowing.

  “What’s going on?” I asked, swinging my arms around me trying to wave it off, but the fog didn’t dissipate. It thickened and grew brighter around me, smothering me into confusion and I could barely make up from down. I suddenly felt terribly weak and light, as though I were a feather floating in a gentle breeze and I wondered if I was still standing up, or maybe I was in fact lying down. There was a high-pitched ring in my ears and all I could feel was the book and my phone slipping out of my hands.

  “Justin! Emily!” I shouted in blindness, but they were gone.

  Chapter Five

  Green Of Evoluii

  The musical trills and warbles of an ardent song bird floated past my ears, bringing richness to the breeze and the buzz of insects. I listened for a moment to the beautiful song, trying to discern what type of bird was singing so passionately, but I couldn’t recognize it. Opening my eyes, I realized I had been sleeping under a blue summer sky sprinkled with white puffy clouds that slowly drifted overhead, hypnotically changing shapes in a kaleidoscope of white and blue. A gentle breeze swelled closer, ruffling the bangs on my forehead before receding, taking the soft sweet song with it. Yawning, I lazily stretched out and rubbed my eyes, feeling rested and content.

  ‘Wait a minute!’ my mind stirred. ‘Justin! Emily!’ I sat up and found myself on the top of a rise in a field of green hills that rolled out as far as I could see. Another gentle wind swept past me, creating a current in the ocean of long green grass.

  How did I get here? Where was here? I searched my mind and the last thing I recalled was the book in the cellar, and the green fog. After that my mind was blank.

  I stood up and looked down at my arms and legs where the wet grass had stuck to me in some places and fallen off in others, leaving striped impressions in my skin. How long had I been lying here? I wore the same pair of old worn-out sneakers that I had laced up earlier that morning. Was I dreaming? But everything felt so vivid and real. I shook my head and took in a deep breath through my nose. The air smelt earthy and sweet, like a lawn that had just been freshly cut.

  Under any other circumstance this would have been a pleasant, peaceful place, but not knowing where I was, I didn’t like it at all. Could Justin have gone this far with a practical joke? No, there was no way. Had I been drugged? There was that green fog. Maybe I’d had a heart episode and passed out? But it had never felt like this before. What if my heart finally gave out and I... ugh, I didn’t even want to think the word. died. There, I thought it, and then flinched from the idea. But then where was this place that felt so real? And where was everyone else? No, there had to be a logical explanation for it all, but my thoughts swirled in my head, unable to settle on anything absolute.

  Could all this be connected to that note on the book? The one I supposedly wrote? I tried to think back to what it had said. Something about fate and time travel and not to read the book. Had I made a horrible mistake in thinking it was Justin who wrote it? Had I really done this before and tried to warn myself from doing it again? But, if that were the case, wouldn’t I recognize this place? It didn’t look familiar at all. My head felt like it was going to explode. Was I losing my mind? Maybe the ghost of the mad man put a curse of madness on me. Even that sounded crazy.

  “Hello?” I called out, thinking maybe someone was hiding in the tall grass, but there was no response. I called again, much louder, “HELLO, ANYONE OUT THERE?”

  I heard nothing but the light breeze through the long grass, scattering the few buzzing insects.

  ‘This is ridiculous,’ I thought, and felt my pocket for my phone, but it wasn’t there. ‘I must have dropped it in the cellar.’

  Feeling anxious, I slipped my knapsack off my back and unzipped it, rifling through the contents in search of my heart medication. I didn’t want to pass out again. I found my wallet (which I sadly knew had less than a dollar of change in it), the pen I had just put in that morning, my house key, an overdue library book from last year’s English study, ironically titled, Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman, a spool of hemp twine that I had plan
ned to make anklets with if I got bored, and a stick of cherry lip balm, which I opened up and rubbed over my lips. The sweet cherry smell was soothingly familiar, but it did nothing to help my circumstance and I didn’t have any medication.

  Zipping the bag of useless items closed I put it back over my shoulders and looked out at the horizon. I stood silently, turning myself around a full three hundred and sixty degrees with hopes I’d see something that I might have missed on my first glance. There was nothing. Nothing but endless rolling hills of grass.

  I flopped down on the ground again, closed my eyes and pressed my hands hard against them, wishing the cellar would magically reappear when I opened my eyes. ‘What am I going to do?’ I thought to myself. ‘I have no food, no phone, no money and no medication.’

  Slowly opening my eyes, I was disheartened to find myself in the same rolling green hills. Well, I guess I should try to find someone, I resolved. I looked up at the sun and knowing enough about the way the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, I figured that I should just follow the path of the sun, which should keep me heading due west. I’d have to run in to something or someone eventually. I bent down and ripped some grass out from the earth, leaving a bald dirt patch in the shape of an arrow that pointed west. It signified my starting point. I wiped my hands off on my shorts, inhaled a full breath of air, and started out towards the horizon.

  And so I began. I walked and walked and walked some more, over hills and valleys of green, in and out of what seemed like hours of time. I looked back every now and then to put some distance on how far I had gone, but everything looked the same around me and it was difficult to judge where I had started from. In fact, it felt as though I wasn’t going anywhere. A hunger began to grumble inside me, and realizing that I hadn’t eaten anything since the cold scrambled eggs at breakfast my mood turned sour.

  “If this is some kind of a joke, I’m not impressed! I’m going to need my medicine soon! DOES ANYONE HEAR ME?” I yelled out in frustration. My feet ached, my stomach rumbled and I was worried about my heart. Where were my parents? Didn’t they notice me gone? I stopped. “CAN ANYONE HEAR ME?” But my voice faded into silence without a response.

  I looked up into the deepening sky that had begun to smear with red, orange, and purple stains as the sun sank low towards the horizon. “HELP!” I screamed at the top of my lungs, but my voice broke and I could no longer hold back the flow of tears that began to pour out. I dropped down on the grass and cried so hard that my eyes swelled red, and the streams of salty tears ran down my face and dripped off my chin. I cried until the tears stopped falling. The streaks of saline soon dried and tightened against my skin, leaving my face itchy and I sat hopelessly staring at the western sky and the setting sun.

  Then I noticed something on the horizon. I pressed the palms of my hands hard against my face and wiped away the puddles still lingering in my eyes. Something was silhouetted against the glowing sun. It was large like a house, or maybe it was just a hill. Blinded by the brightness of the low sun I couldn’t see clearly.

  I knew the sun would soon set and I didn’t have much time to find out if I was really seeing something or if my eyes were just fooling me. So with my lengthening shadow trailing behind, I picked myself up and started running towards the silhouette. The tall silky grass slapped against my bare legs and for the first time I felt as though I was getting somewhere. The object grew larger before me and finally I recognized the trunk and twisted dark branches of a large tree set against the dimming sky. It was then that the glowing amber sun dipped down into the green ocean of grass and was snuffed out.

  Panting from the run, my pace slowed and I walked the remaining distance to the base of the enormous tree. The air was already cooling, leaving a moist sheen on my skin and I finally stopped and bent over allowing my tangled mess of sweaty hair to fall forward over the top of my head. The cool air felt good on the back of my neck, but my stomach still grumbled.

  The tree’s wide trunk was covered in thick bumpy bark with deep crevices. It rose up above me where a canopy of branches and leaves spread outward, tangling itself against the now starry sky. It was as though the only thing missing from this storybook tree was a fort or a swing hanging from its branches. It was not much different from the tree embossed into the leather cover of the book back in the cellar. I flopped down with my back against the trunk. I was hungry, tired, needing my medicine and I still had no idea where I was.

  Not that the tree wasn’t a welcome change to the never-ending grasslands; it was comforting to confirm that I had in fact traveled some distance, but my hunger and loneliness were difficult to subdue and the tree didn’t change either.

  I rested my head back against the tree and looked up to catch the tail end of a shooting star that disappeared out on the horizon. The Big Dipper sat familiar in the north sky and I smiled from the comfort and recognition of something that reminded me of home. Gazing at it for some time, I pretended that I was sitting on a lawn chair in my backyard looking up at the same constellation, as I had done so many times before. I remembered one night last summer when my dad and I were sitting out, looking at the stars as mom tucked Rylan into bed. Dad said it was pretty cool that we had eyes that could see millions of light years away and told me if I could somehow zoom myself instantly out to the nearest star and have a telescope strong enough to see back on the earth, I would be able to see the dinosaurs roaming around. I never fully understood how that could be possible, but it had something to do with me getting to the star faster than the millions of years the light from earth would take to get there, so I’d be seeing earth the way it was millions of years ago. My dad was full of mind-blowing facts like that. I missed him. I missed my whole family and wondered if they were missing me.

  Suddenly another shooting star soared across the sky and it too disappeared on the horizon. The sky was unbelievably brilliant. Without any nearby lights I was able to see a depth of stars that I had always missed back home. It was as though a dull filter had been taken off my eyes and I could see the hundreds of thousands of tiny stars that make the milky way milky. Another meteor passed, but to my astonishment, this shooting star didn’t fade out, but continued to move all the way across the sky and then remarkably, it changed direction and began to fly around in a sporadic and unnatural way. My eyes followed the moving speck of light flitting about in the night sky, zigzagging around and then unexpectedly it became brighter. It was obvious that what I had been watching wasn’t a meteor at all, rather it was a firefly or some other sort of lit-up bug, now flying straight towards me.

  Within seconds it flew right up to my face, nearly making me cross-eyed. I stared back at what now appeared to be a small....faery?

  “Friend or foe?” she asked.

  Long yellow feathers were braided up with silver grass that spilled over her graceful petite body, which was in total about the size of my hand. Her misty eyes stared at me and her upturned nose seemed poised for a reply, as she hovered like a hummingbird in flight. An acorn flask was slung over one of her shoulders and a thorn was sheathed around her waist like a dagger. It was her skin though that fascinated me, as it wasn’t at all like the skin of a human. Instead, she was covered in the tiniest of scales, like the scales of a butterfly wing. The tones and colours shifted with the light of the small lantern she now held up close to my face. A few fireflies flit about within the confines of the lamp, as she waited for my answer.

  “Friend?” I replied.

  Her eyes looked deep past my own, as though searching for something beyond my response that could be found somewhere inside my head. Seemingly satisfied, she fluttered up to look over my shoulder.

  “Have you seen any fire demons come by?” she asked, not taking her eyes off the horizon behind me.

  “Um,... no?” I stammered. “I mean... I don’t think so.” I fumbled over my words, not knowing who or what a fire demon was. “No, nothing... I’ve seen nothing.”<
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  She fluttered back up to my face, “Is it yes, or no? You must know that,” her head was cocked to one side and she hovered so near to my face that the breeze from her fluttering wings ruffled my bangs.

  “What I mean to say is, I really don’t know what a fire demon looks like.”

  Feeling uncomfortable with the closeness of her gaze, I pressed my head back as far as I could against the trunk of the tree, hoping my response was satisfactory.

  “You’re not from around here are you?” she remained fixated on whatever my eyes were telling her.

  “No,” I sighed. “In fact I don’t think I am supposed to be here.”

  “Well it is clear that you are here and that you seem to be of little mind.”

  “Little mind?” I huffed. “Look who’s talking! Your head is all of what... the size of my thumb?”

  Her brows frowned in obvious disapproval and I instantly regretted my comment, realizing that, faery or not, she might be my only hope to finding my way back home.

  “So...” I finally broke through the awkward silence. “What is this place?”

  “It is Green.”

  “Green?” I asked.

  She nodded and although it seemed a fitting name for the endless grasslands, I had never heard of it.

  “Is that in North America?” I asked.

  “It is Green of Evoluii, which is not in anything,” she replied sternly. “It’s simply the celestial body of land that you are sitting on.”

  “Are you really a faery?” I finally asked the obvious, figuring the conversation could get no worse.

  “A faery?” she snorted. “I am Prospexi, daughter of Cory Phaeus - leader and chief of all faeries. What other possible creature would you confuse me for?”