Well, here's my first short short story.
My eyes opened. Where was I? I was starting up at a dark black wooden ceiling. It looked like it had been spray painted.
I was laying on a velvet rug that looked like someone had actcidently poured red, gold and blue paint on it. Very carefully. I sat up.
"Hello." A voice said behind me. I tried to look at the voice, but I was facing the other direction, so I couldn't.
"Oh, sorry." The person appeared in front of me. She reached out a hand. Her only had. The other one looked like it was missing.
I shook it. She smiled warmly. "So who brought you here? You aren't different. I am. Frog is. But you? Your just normal. Not special. Really. Your not."
"Thanks." I muttered. This girl actually seemed to think she was being nice.
Frog, I found, was a huge frog human.
She pulled me up without asking. With her hand that didn't seem to be there. "What's up with that?" I gestured toward her gone hand. "Oh, it's just invisible." She said, reassuringly.
"That makes me feel better" I like my sarcasm. "So tell me, what is going on?"
"You've been taken to this house because your different." She looked me up and down. "Somehow."
"So why do they take 'different people' to this house?" I was starting to freak.
She shrugged. "Don't know. I just know everyone here is strange in some way. And I should have told you this first. Stay away from there." She pointed across the miles of book shelfs. Or what seemed like miles. There was a thin, tall door there. "What ever you do, don't open it. Don't even go near."
"Why? I asked. "What's in there."
"No one knows." She waved her hand mysterlsly. "We only know Camleb went near once . . . They took him."
"They took him?" I scuttled up against the wall. Wow. I had thought I was in the middle. I guess I was in a corner. I couldn't see very well, but I wondered why I could see at all. I looked up for a light. I saw a long chain hanging from the middle of the ceiling. At the end was a single light bulb. At least there was some light.
"Over here, " she took my hand to lead me. "Is another room." She was now my official tour guide.
"Okay . . . "
In this room, it didn't look like anything. I just saw black. Were these people capable of the color white? I don't think so. I walked into the darkness. It was about the size of my bedroom. "Can we go to the light?" I walked back out.
"Um, I'm going to show you one more room. Then you can. She walked back out. I followed. She took me to a new room with designer furniture. And another painted rug. They're were lots of chairs. And one couch. They were arranged in a circle.
"Very nice." I said, and walked out.
We slowly walked toward the light. But once we were at the light, I kept going. "What are you doing?" The girl whispered franticly. "You'll get to close."
But I kept going. I realized I still haven't learned the girls name. 'Oh well, I thought 'I won't have to soon.' Whoa. Where did that come from?
I still kept walking. The girl fled. My hand reached out and grasped the long thin doors knob. I pulled. A huge black bird raced out. Then another. Then another. They kept coming. They're feathers were tattered. I knew they couldn't fly, with those wrecks. I understood now why the door was long and thin. There beaks were large compared to its head. But not long. It looked like the birds were meant to kill.
They raced out. And I turned and ran back into the second room. I slammed the door.
I heard nothing from outside. Except for the one handed girl banging on the door, screaming for me to let her in. Why wasn't I? I was still leaned up against the door. She stopped yelling after a while, and then there was just silence. I peeked out the door. The birds were the only thing I saw. Stalking about. I cautiously stepped out. They glanced at me, but just continued stalking. I stepped toward the door the birds came out of. And then I walked in.
Inside was another bird. Except he was bigger, and his feathers blacker. He just stared at me. And I swear I heard a voice in my head. 'Thank you' it said in a low loud voice. 'They were to different.'
