Chapter Text
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All you do is stare up at the small, small circle of light above you. Your breathing is slow and steady, and one of your hands is on your stomach right underneath your titties. The other is resting down on the ground, softly feeling the large, yellow flower petals beneath you that had broken your fall. You honestly don’t know how long you’ve been lying there. You can’t bring yourself to get up either. You feel… so peaceful.
It’s a little chilly here, but not so much that it makes you want to bundle up, but cool enough that it’s pleasant. Honestly, you’re tempted to close your eyes and take a nap right where you are. The only reason that you don’t is because this is not a normal situation you have found yourself in. That, and the throbbing pain of your right leg that is slowly bleeding out onto the gold flowers (though it was not lethal that you had to be seriously concerned).
Well, actually. This is not the weirdest thing you’ve experienced before. There was this one time you got stabbed as a prank when you were seventeen, but you tried not to think about it too hard. Mainly because you also stabbed that punk back but that was six years ago! No use in dwelling in what once was.
Still.
Somehow falling into a dark Chasm at the top of the mountain? That somehow beats that time you fought God (your parole officer) in the Denny’s parking lot. Is this your attempt to repress the seriousness of this situation with humor?
Yes.
Because you don’t fucking know what the hell happened that ended you up in this situation.
——
You fix your dress and scrunch up your nose at your reflection, trying and failing to pose in the comfort of your bedroom inside your apartment. It’s not… typically something you would wear regularly. Still, your friend, Elliot, had gifted it to you for your birthday not too long ago, so you might as well use it now. He’s a friend you made in your second year of University, and you two have been pretty close since.
If you were honest with yourself, you would’ve NEVER thought you could make it to where you are now. You’re currently in your last year at Northern Arizona University, and applying to get accepted into a graduate school. You’re almost done with the last year to get your bachelor's degree in Biology, and the last semester is just around the corner. You went to community college at eighteen for two years but afterward took a year off before attending University for the next two years.
It’s a little unorthodox, but it’s much cheaper and better pacing for yourself. After all, you know that getting your doctorate’s is going to kick your fucking ass. You’re not in a rush for that crap, so no, you have no issue with taking your time. Doing all this just to be a surgeon is a lot of work! If your dad had taught you anything, it is to take a break when things start to get too much. There’s no use in stressing yourself out too much to the point of self-destruction, after all.
Anyway, you met Elliot when taking an elective and were sitting next to each other in class. He was a little shy at first, but when he realized you were just as mentally ill as he was, you two got along great. As you two kept hanging out, naturally you’d adopt certain habits from each other.
For example: his fashion taste.
The dress he picked out for you is more “cozy, mid-autumn weather” core than your usual “I am surviving off of cocaine and ecstasy but I’m trying to look good” core, you know? It’s not bad, by all means. You’re sporting a light and dark brown striped dress that hangs a bit close to your figure with the skirt stopping mid-thigh. The sleeves were very short and only covered your shoulders and the neckline was low and round, so you wore a white, button-up shirt underneath it. You would’ve gone full white woman’s Instagram and put on some panty-hoes as well, but Arizona weather is the fucking worst. You knew that it would get hot later even though it was nearing the end of December (in the year 201X), so you ditched the panty-hose and slipped on black ankle boots.
Look at you, so fucking fancy. University life is turning you into a bad bitch who drinks coffee from Dutch Bros and looks out the window so you can seem mysterious and sexy.
You nod at your reflection, looking around your room for a moment to find your small, crossbody purse. Making sure you have everything you need in that bag, you leave swiftly without looking back.
————
Elliot… had gone ahead before you!!! You just got off the phone with the guy and he had gone up the mountain while waiting for you!
You’ll admit that you were running late by 30 minutes, but only because you grabbed a drink from the store for you both! Granted you drank both of the cold drinks during the ride because you got lost in thought-
Anyway! It’s not unusual for Elliot to go on ahead of you sometimes whether on purpose or accident. You don’t take it personally, you just need to catch up with him. You put your phone in your purse and sled it on before leaving the car. Your poor, poor car. It’s going to break down eventually, you just know it. It’s been through way too much shit, but she’s still running.
You begin walking up the faded trail, definitely a legal and legitimate trail, and not one that you and Elliot made for yourselves because you guys know a good spot up the mountain that is off-limits. Still, you never actually went up the mountain alone before, it was always with Elliot–you never had to really pay attention to where you were going.
This is not falling in your favor at the moment.
It doesn’t help that the sun was rapidly setting already even though it’s only a little after 5 pm. You swear you’re not dumb, your intelligence is just a fucking roller coaster: sometimes it’s REALLY high, and other times it’s embarrassingly low. Not waiting for Elliot to come back down the mountain so he could walk with you back up the mountain is certainly one of your dumber moves in the book.
Not as dumb as that one time you challenged the bouncer at a club to a dance battle to let you in because you forgot your ID at home and couldn’t prove you were 22. No, no, no. You have a full arsenal of moronic things you’ve done in the past. (Spoilers: you did NOT win that dance battle.)
You don’t know how long you’ve been walking up the mountain. You lost the faint trail a while ago and had pulled out your phone’s flashlight to light your way and not trip and eat shit.
“I fucking hate it here…!” You grumble under your breath, “This is the last time I go out on a school night.”
You raise up your flashlight and stop walking. You’re… You seem to be a lot higher than you originally thought. You’re definitely not where you should be. You’re not a professional hiker, or someone who is knowledgeable in nature and crap. But you’ve learned enough to see signs of anything walking through an area, or man-made tracks via the dirt or on the trees. This place hasn’t been touched in a long time.
You turn on your phone to call Elliot, but you don’t have any bars or a signal. Shit. This might be a good time to go back down, but… Ah, you’re a little excited to see where this adventure takes you! You know the ins and outs of this city, and you rarely explore outside the mountainside you and Elliot frequent. You’re going to feel bad about it, but you’re sure Elliot will be fine waiting for you a little longer as you explore this side.
The air is getting colder now, you must’ve misunderstood the weather for today since it’s not usually this cold at this time. Your legs, your beautiful legs, are beginning to feel the consequences of you not wearing an extra layer of clothes. You don’t know how long you’ve been going up, but it was, surprisingly, not as tiring as you thought it would be. You didn’t realize you’d reached the top until the light from the moon was brighter than your phone. You put it back in your purse, smiling and taking a deep breath.
No, this isn’t the very top of the mountain, but a particular summit on this uncharted trail. You notice a strange, large something a few meters from you, but you decide to keep away from it because you’re not white like that. You still want that break though, so you remove your purse from your person and set it down. You lay down on the green grass, staring up at the beautiful stars.
You start humming to yourself, feeling comfortable enough to do so since there shouldn’t be anyone for miles.
“LA la LA laaa,” You grin to yourself, thinking how awkward it’d be if someone was listening, “LA la LA la… La… la. La LA la. LA… La… laaa.”
You keep repeating the same tune, not musically talented enough to make up your own song other than a simple “la-la-la” tune. It’s so peaceful out here, that you kind of wonder if you’re able to take a quick nap-
“WHAT THE FUCK?!”
A thorny vine wraps around your right ankle, spiraling up to your calf and digging into your skin to make you bleed.
You’re being dragged by the leg.
“WHAT THE–NO, NO, NO!!”
You dig your fingers into the dirt and grass, trying to grab anything and everything. You’re trying to pull yourself free and resist, you barely managed to reach the straps of your bag and thwack your bag on the vines. Damn you for leaving your knife in the glove department of your car!
As if taking that personally, the vines thicken and tighten around your leg and TUGS you violently.
“YOU SON OF A BITCH!”
Your grip on your purse weakens and you let it go by accident, and the pain is so sudden that you can’t muster the strength to resist anymore. Apparently, that was all the vines needed to drag you closer to the strange something on the ground that you were purposely trying to stay away from. Now that you’re being forced closer to it, you can see that it’s a hugE FUCKING HOLE!
“NO, NO, NO, NO!! STOP, STOP, STOP!!”
The thorny vines do not listen to you, however, because they are vines.
“PLEASE, I SWEAR I’LL FINALLY GO TO CHURCH!!”
Your desperation grows stronger when you can feel your legs begin to hang off an edge–entering the dark pit of this summit. Your own weight is pulling you down and adrenaline is the only reason why you’re able to clutch to the edge of the crater with all your might to not fall-
The vines YANK your right leg, and you fall, down, down, down into the dark hollow of the mountain.
——
“Haa… Ha…”
Your breathing had only just slowed down, and so did your adrenaline. Your voice is soft and meek as if you’re scared to break the silence.
“Ah… What… What the hell just happened…?”
If you didn’t know any better, you would’ve already thought you were completely, royally, and utterly fucked.