Figments of Imagination, or Sakkaland

-Chapter One-

Xalvadora was going to a well in the middle of a desert on the corner of an oddly-shaped planet when her world disappeared before her eyes. One second, she had taken a step. The next, she was tumbling down, down, ears ringing, colored dots appearing in her vision as if she'd stared into a light too long. There was a loud popping sound, and she saw the strangest thing that had ever leapt up before her eyes.

A lion was standing on a stone plateau, licking his paws. All around him, men and women in blue jump suits were walking around, their expressions frozen in boredom and gloom. The lion had teeth the size of pairs of scissors that jutted from its mouth at impossible angles.

It is a frightening thing when your world suddenly fades away to people who look like they've been in prison all their life walking around a deadly beast that could eat you in a single bite. Xalvadora was so shocked that she could not move. Her jaw did not even drop. It couldn't be a dream. She'd read enough books to know that when you are yanked from your universe into something strange and unnerving, it is very unlikely that your unconscious mind could have thought it up as you slept. Yet... it couldn't be real. Could it?

"Paralysis, isle eighteen. She's been bleeped. Still in shock." The voice was deep and sarcastic, the kind of voice that only smart-asses possess.

People were suddenly grabbing her arms to take her away, and all that Xalvadora knew was that she did not want to go. She kicked and screamed.

"Cured." The sarcastic voice again.

Abruptly, she was dropped to the ground. A hand reached out to help her up. It belonged to a small girl who could not have been more than fourteen. Relieved, she took it.

"Thanks."

"No problem." The girl helped her up. "You're a newbie?"

"New to what?" She was beyond confusion, now it was only questions that filled her mind as if her head was a bucket and the inquiries were water.

"I'm so sorry... you have no clue, do you? I'll explain. But first, follow me. I have some things for you. To make it by, you need to learn fast. Is that clear?" The girl took various twists and turns along hallways, all of them still crowded with people in jump suits.

"Yeah."

"I reccomend you memorize the path, because you'll need to."

"Honestly, I'm a little too bewildered for that..." She rubbed her head with the hand that wasn't holding that of the girl's.

"Thought so. But it's alright. I was that way too."

I seriously doubt that...

Finally the girl stopped at an iron door with a sign on it. On the sign was a picture of a light bulb. She opened the door and pushed Xalvadora in. "I'm sorry... I lied. I'm not explaining it to you. They are. But talk to me later, I'm Jade."

Suddenly the Jade-girl was gone, and the door closed. Xalvadora turned to see a small, thin lady with long fingernails and hair that was in a beehive on top of her head. She wore glasses with thick lenses and designs of starfish on the rims.

"Seeeeeeeeet."

"Seat? What- Oh. Sit."

"Yeeees."

Xalvadora obeyed reluctantly, chewing her nails. It wasn't a nervous habit, but one she activated when she needed amusement.

"You don't exist!"

Her head jolted up so fast her neck popped. She rubbed it wearily. "What do you mean, I don't exist?! Of course I exist!"

"Let me rephrase that." The lady bent up so close her perfume made Xalvadora cough. "You only exist in the imagination of a 13-year-old girl called the Sakka. Your world is a fake, you are a fake, and she decided to destroy you because she got tired of writing about you. Now you get to eat food meant for cows and walk around in those disgusting suits all day because she takes pity and doesn't want to destroy you, along with millions of other characters, completely. Be glad she made you or you would have never existed." Her voice lowered. "Imagine. Nothingness. Forever. Equivalent of death. You would feel, see, hear- Nothing. Never reborn. No heaven. No life. Not even death at that point."

Fearfully, Xalvadora backed away from the woman. It was a lot to take in. Over the course of ten minutes... she wasn't real anymore.