Molly Taylor's Story

Chapter One

The room had no walls. No ceiling could be seen either, but perhaps it existed above the floating darkness. A pink fog rests near the ground, at least, where the ground should be. Simple movements send swirls through the wisps, shapes created and destroyed every second. Silence settles over four bodies, all collapsed and unconscious.

It is an in-between, the place before the start. The prologue.

The fog slowly turns blue, then a deep turquoise. Seven seconds pass, and the bodies stir.

Consciousness returns.

"Oh god, what happened to my head?" Molly sits up feeling a huge headache coming on. She looks all around her and sees beautiful turquoise fog. "Oooooo YAY! This is such a picture perfect moment! Pun intended!" She screams with delight even though she has a headache. She takes out her camera and starts snapping it every five seconds continuously shouting "Whoa look at that!" She hadn't even noticed the others.

Ardie woke after the screaming.

Groggily, he looked around, eyes squinting. He couldn't see anything, just a melting of various different colors. Especially a dark blue-green.

Turquoise was his first thought. Where are my glasses? was the second.

Hands crawling about blindly, his fingers finally found the familiar thick frames, and he propped them onto his nose, tucking the legs behind his ears. Blinking, the world became much, much clearer. Surprisingly, the turquoise was actually from a strange fog. Wasn't there a phenomenon for this? Maybe it was a strange mutation of Aurora Borealis? And who was that girl with the camera? And who were these other people? Were they dead???

He saw one breathe, and he himself breathed from relief. Nope. Just sleeping. His attention switched back to where they were. Which...he didn't know. At all. The most he knew was that he was most likely not in Manhattan.

So what happened?!?

Asher stirred. "Ungh... My head..." Asher groaned and held his head as he got up from the ground. "Where am I...?" He looked around, and saw he wasn't in the Do Jang (another term for Do Jo in Korean) anymore. He looked around, and he saw many more bodies on the ground. Wha...? Asher thought. Are they dead?

"Whoa look at that!" A shout of excitement was heard. Asher turned around and saw multiple flashes. He sees a girl in-between the flashes and decides to go walk up to her, since she was probably the only one conscious. "Um... Excuse me?" Asher asked, tapping her on the shoulder with one hand while shielding his eyes with the other.

"Um... Excuse me?" Molly heard someone say something behind her and felt a tap on her shoulder. "Ahhhhh!" She jumped in fear and confusion turning around quickly and pressing the flash button trying to blind her antagonist. Much to her surprise when she stopped pressing the button she saw a normal person not some crazy ax murderer. "Oh, hehehe, SORRY! I thought you were going to chop me up, and then put me in a pot, boil me at 400 degrees Fahrenheit, and then feed me to your cat. By the way I made some awesome soup like that once. Only I didn't feed it to my cat because I don't have one and I chopped up carrots and chicken not myself. I am not a cannibal! Although I have always wondered what humans taste like..." She helps him up finally realizing in the time she was trying to blind him he had fell to the ground. "So, did you have a question for me? My name is Molly, just for future reference. Reference..." Molly takes a long pause and then says, "...that's a weird word." She smiles widely staring at her new nameless friend.

Benni's head was throbbing, and someone, somewhere, was talking way too loud and way too fast. It was like taking an order for a mother with six kids, and if she didn't spew out what everyone wanted in the next five seconds, the Earth would implode.

Finally, accepting that she had to get up, she slowly opened her eyes. She was immediately met with fog. Blue fog. Sitting up quickly, she ran a hand through her hair, and easily spotted the source of the fast paced squealing.

A bubbly red head, with a camera in hand, was speaking with a white haired teen. Although, he looked as confused as Benni felt annoyed. Mainly about being woken up from her nap, and then to find herself in this awkward space. Although, she was sure that wasn't the red head's fault.

Finally, she pushed herself to her feet, and brushed invisible dust from her jeans. She spotted another figure, looking confused, as he glanced around the space, trying to make heads or tails of the situation. He was probably the best bet to get answers. Speaking to the red head wasn't going to help her headache, and the white haired kid seemed trapped. He was on his own now.

Stepping over to the kid with glasses, Benni bent down to his position still on the floor. "Do you know what's going on here?"

"Argh!" Asher had gotten caught with one of the flashes. Then he heard the girl say "Oh, hehehe, SORRY! I thought you were going to chop me up, and then put me in a pot, boil me at 400 degrees Fahrenheit, and then feed me to your cat. By the way I made some awesome soup like that once. Only I didn't feed it to my cat because I don't have one and I chopped up carrots and chicken not myself. I am not a cannibal! Although I have always wondered what humans taste like..."

"You thought I was a psychopathic killer...?" Asher muttered. She helped him up and introduced herself. "So did you have a question for me? Me name is Molly, for future reference... Reference... That's a wierd word."

"Yeah... I have a question... Do you know where we are?" Asher asked. Damn... She LOVES to hear herself talk. Asher thought.

The turquoise smoke sensed them, the bodies, the foreign objects disturbing its dance. Many instructions needed to be followed. Kept. Order meant balance. Circling the bodies, the smoke cleared from the center of the room and rose up in a cylinder around them. Their confusion fueled it on, emotions being a delectable source of energy.

Closing in around them, the turquoise darkened, light fading. Their fear charged its anger.

Ardie looked up at the girl, confused. She was asking him what they were doing here? What made her think he knew? Was it the glasses? A lot of people tended to ask him things just because he wore glasses...

"I don't know," he said, "I bet no one knows." Suddenly his face brightened, "Hey! What if we're in a video game? Like, we're at the start menu, and the game is about to start. What if we were all already part of the game, but no one turned on the TV yet, and now they have so we're jolted here and they're playing as us already. I mean, it wouldn't be impossible....just...highly improbable....."

"Yeah... I have a question... Do you know where we are?" Molly looked around and saw the two others. "No! But its so cool here right? I got some cool pictures!" She walked over the others motioning to the guy to follow her. She heard the boy taking about video games and got excited again. "Oooo! I love video games! That would be awesome!"

Asher sighed. Well... This is getting no where... He thought. "Hey! What if we're in a video game? Like, we're at the start menu, and the game is about to start. What if we were all already part of the game, but no one turned on the TV yet, and now they have so we're jolted here and they're playing as us already. I mean, it wouldn't be impossible....just...highly improbable....." Another boy said. Asher looked at him with an eyebrow raised. "No offense but that is the most rediculous thing I've ever heard... Unless we ARE in a video game, we had just destroyed the fourth wall." Asher responded. "Either way, we aren't making any movements that required some kind of programming.

"Anyway... I'm wondering this: Who the hell are you, and where the hell are we?" Asher asked.

Ardie withdrew immediately from the combined positive and negative responses he received to his suggestion. Besides, the programming argument made a lot of sense.

He muttered something inaudible and picked at his shoelaces. The next question confused him as he didn't know if it was directed at him or not. Maybe he should wait to see if anyone would answer. Or maybe he should just answer?

"I'm Butowski," he blurted out finally, "Gerard Butowski. But everyone calls me Ardie. Well, at least my parents do...and my family and...well, not all of them, but....uh...I don't know where we are."

"Butowski... Butowski and Gerard. Ardie? Hehe funny. My name is Molly! My favorite color is purple... soooo what do you guys wanna do? I know this really fun game we can pl..." Molly stopped talking as she saw the fog growing bigger and bigger. She got out her camera took a quick picture of all her new friends and then started shooting the fog. "Look you guys! It is getting bigger..." Her eyes widened as it got big enough to be completely surrounding her and the air became hard to see through. "Guys?! Where did ya go?"

Asher sighed again. "My name is Asher. Nice to meet you." He was closing his eyes to shake off Molly's comment about his name and held out his hand. When he held out a hand for a hand shake, he opened his eyes, only to shake the fog. "What the...?" He looked around. "Guys?!" Well crap... Now I'm alone... In an unknown place... Not good at all... Asher thought. "Guys...?" Asher called out again. He didn't dare move in fear of getting lost.

"I'm Butowski, Gerard Butowski. But everyone calls me Ardie. Well, at least my parents do...and my family and...well, not all of them, but....uh...I don't know where we are."

Benni stared at the bumbling nerd, still caught on the fact that his last name was Butowski. "Wait, you're seriously saying that you're last name is Butowski. Like, in all seriousness?"

He didn't have time to respond, when the red head introduced herself as Molly, and the white haired youth as Asher. "I'm Benni." She quickly chimed, but her words quickly trailed away as she noticed the spinning fog. Fear of the unknown grabbed a hold of her heart, but she hid it well.

She was snapped back to reality when she heard Molly calling out, wondering where everyone had gone. Then Asher as well. Benni noticed that they had disappeared, and even though she didn't know them, she was still afraid for them. They didn't know what this fog was, and now two of them had gone missing, although their voices were still clearly audible.

"Well, Kick-Butowski..." She began, but trailed off when she noticed that he wasn't sitting by her anymore. "Well, shit..."

Molly looked around still seeing nothing but the turquoise air, she stiffed a little and her eyes widened again smelling nothing but blood, or was it honey? No it was whipped cream... She heard Asher calling and Bennie introduced herself, but Molly was to scared to talk, she was to scared to move. She felt like any move she made would make the ground drop from beneath her and she would be swallowed into a deep turquoise abyss. However instead of doing nothing and being a huge wimp like her mother always called her she would prove her wrong, she would prove both her parents wrong. She wasn't worthless or good for nothing, she was unique, she was important in her own special way. Her parents didn't rule her life anymore. She could be her own person, so with that in mind, she said, "Hey guys I'm going to go explore." and she took a step forward.

She wasn't falling, or floating, or dying. The fog was actually beginning to clear. "Hey, guys I started walking forward and I can start to see now!" Getting excited to see again she took another step, and then another, and another. By the time she stopped walking she could see completely again. She noticed her neon green and white leggings had turned neon green and turquoise, maybe the fog was absorbed a little. She didn't care it looked pretty cool. She quickly turned towards the fog again wanting her hair and tongue to turn turquoise. She stuck her tongue out and waved her hair around but nothing happened. Oh well... Hey, whats over there?!

She turned around again seeing she was in what looked like a forest. It wasn't any normal forest though. The trees were all in knots. Molly, thinking this was the coolest thing she had ever seen, ran over to a tree and took at least one hundred pictures in all of ten seconds. Pleased with her pictures, for now, she climbed the tree and sat on the big knotted part.

She felt something fall on her head, or was it thrown at her head? She looked up to see a squirrel looking at her quite rudely holding acorns and throwing them down at her. "Hey! Stop that squirrel! What did I ever do to you? Don't waste your acorns! Aren't those things hard to find anyway?" She stopped talking as it motioned her to follow it higher into the tree, she did and when she got to where it was she saw a huge stash of acorns. Well assuming now that it had enough to waste she quickly jumped down from the tree not wanting to get them thrown at her an longer. She sat on the ground sighing. "Well, a squirrel threw acorns at me and kicked me out of a tree and now I am sitting on the ground, how are you guys doing?!" Molly knew they probably wouldn't believe her and just think she was completely insane, but it was true!

The turquoise churned, so strangely. He had to follow. How could he not? Gathering his bag, papers and pencil dropped inside, he took off. It occurred to him that he wasn't wearing his bare feet. In fact, boots covered unmatching socks which encircled his cold toes in a wonderful blanket. Glancing around, he hoped no one would come out and see. It was daytime. Rarely anyone was still awake.

Hurrying forward, long coat trailing behind him and hat nearly flying off from the winds the blue green smoke gave off, he found himself following the blob out of the main street. This was good, he was less likely to get in trouble for wearing shoes, but saw it was heading for the forest. Unlike most citizens, he enjoyed the forest, but knew of the myths just as everyone did. The monsters, the witches...The Knotted Forest was hardly a good place to simply follow a strange turquoise cloud.

But he continued.

He did think of his sister, though she would claim he wouldn't if she found out. She would say that he abandoned her, yadeya... He wasn't in any real danger, not that he could see. Crossing out of town and into the back fields, he nodded a good morning to a herd of cows grazing, their deep orange hides so bright in the morning light. One bull stood with them, hide so black, it shown blue when he moved. Animals seemed to quaint to him, smaller friends that he could always rely on. And as expected, each cow offered their own greeting of two nods, a Moo and one hoof stamp.

Next, he had to cross The Trail. The wide road was bustling at nighttime. Now though, no one could be seen travelling for miles both ways. He always figured daytime was more efficient for travelling, but no one listened to him. No one listened to him for a long time now, and it was rather disheartening.

But he chugged onward, hopping into the ditches and pushing tall grass out of his way.

The forest loomed ahead and he grinned. The cloud had grown in size by now, twice as tall, twice as high. Large enough, in fact, to hold about...oh say...four people.

Grinning, he ran forward, a voice already reaching his ears.

"Well, a squirrel threw acorns at me and kicked me out of a tree and now I am sitting on the ground, how are you guys doing?!"

Hurrying around the cloud, he found a girl. She wasn't what he was expecting, but that only intrigued him more.

"Well hello!" he exclaimed, running to the redhead and planting himself down on the ground beside her. He made sure his legs were crossed nicely and he gazed out to the turquoise smoke. "It's a very nice way of travelling, I must say," he commented, pointing to the shapes forming. "Though, I have to say also, that the color isn't my favorite." Eyes narrowing at his cleverness, he faced the redhead adding, "I think it would have looked better as purple."

Molly being bored with nothing to do took out her camera again and stated taking pictures of the scenery. She looked ahead of her and saw more strange turquoise fog floating around. Afraid she was about to be moved again she shoved her camera back into its bag. When she looked up from her side she saw a man running up to her. "Well hello!" He greeted her and then sat down next to her with pretzel legs. "Hi, I thought I was the only person here! Ya' know, squirrels are quite mean sometimes." He smiled and then looked to the turquoise fog. "It's a very nice way of travelling, I must say, though, I have to say also, that the color isn't my favorite." he looked back to her and narrowed his eyes as if he knew something. "I think it would have looked better as purple." "Travelling? ... Your favorite color is purple too?!" Molly looked back at the fog and made her "thinky" face. She jumped up from the ground and ran towards the fog. She stuck her head in leaving her body away from it so she wouldn't "travel" anywhere. She still couldn't see anything threw the thick turquoise, but she took her camera out and took one picture, with that she sat back down next to the man. "I'll make it purple on here!" She went to her settings on her camera and gave the picture a purple tint, she showed the man while smiling, pleased with the color. "So, how'd you get here? My name is Molly Taylor, I just woke up here next to three other people, then this fog surrounded us and I was here. I can't see them now but I think we can all still hear each other.

Ardie had been about to stand up when suddenly everyone disappeared. The cloud/fog/smoke grew larger, and afraid that standing would lower his surface area and make him more susceptible to falling straight through to God knows where, he stayed seated. In fact, he didn't move. Sure, the ground might feel solid, but the fog covered everything and he didn't want to risk it. Maybe they were five feet above ground. Maybe 500. You never knew.

"Of course my last name is Butowski," he muttered, to no one in particular, clutching his legs to him, "What else would it be? Butowski, it's Polish. My whole family is Polish. We're Jewish too, but not really. Just my grandparents. We're second generation. They moved to Poland during the 40s. They got lucky. They were trying to escape the Holocaust. Can you imagine if they stayed? I wouldn't even be born if they stayed. Maybe not. But maybe. A lot of people managed to survive the Holocaust. Well, I suppose a lot is relative, but not everyone died. I mean, there were survivors. But not with good consequences. You know, a lot of people pick on Jews, it's historic, but we run everything. The music industry, Hollywood, you name it. Irving Berlin was Jewish. Everyone knows him. Ever heard of White Christmas? Who hasn't heard of..."

The fog had been thinning, and now he realized he was in a forest. In the distance, he saw the red-haired hyper girl chatting it up with another guy he had never seen before. He still didn't get up. What if he was just hallucinating, and if he took a step he'd fall five stories? Nope, just better to stay here, where he knew it was solid.

"So, how'd you get here? My name is Molly Taylor, I just woke up here next to three other people, then this fog surrounded us and I was here. I can't see them now but I think we can all still hear each other."

Grinning madly, he laughed at her voice. It was filled with happiness. "I got here by my own means," he answered and held out his hand. "Nice to meet you Molly Taylor. And if your friends can hear us, perhaps they should come out."

Standing, he also went to the cloud, believing that the purple tint on her camera was much, much better. Still, he stuck his head in and saw a male figure on the ground. "Are you going to sit there all day and make the grass die?" he accused, bending down and pulling him to his feet. Squinting, he pulled the boy out of the fog and scratched his chin. "I want to say Apple for some reason, but that hardly makes sense. Your name can't be Apple. Who would name their child such a thing? But of course...Apples are delicious. Unless you eat the blue ones. Never cared for those."

He held out his hand anyway. "Good to meet you. This is Molly. Squirrels don't like her and you like killing grass. We're getting to know each other already." Clasping his hands together, his eyes switched between the too happily.