Chapter 9

A Strange New World

I walked up to the front door and opened it up. The whole sky was yellow, and the sun was black. The buildings were also black, but had the same shapes and sizes as normal houses do. The ground was the usual green grass, with paved roads, and normal plants. I slowly walked down the road admiring the scenery, and approached a cat. I took off my hood and saw that it was small; extremely skinny, ruffled fur, and had no collar. It must be a stray, I thought as I looked into its green eyes. “Leslie, stop lounging about! You’re supposed to be in the middle of town! Put that hood back on!” Lance screamed from a distance and ran up to me, took me by my arm and led me to a big crowd of people. “Sorry about that Lance, this world is so strange… I don’t know what to think of it!” He smiled at me and I smiled back, and I put my hood back on. “It’s ok; I just don’t want you to miss the ceremony of your arrival.”

The crowd went silent as we all stood in front of a large building. The door opened and a man with a cloak on walked out. Like the rest of the people, his hood was on. His light blue eyes were shinning, and he took his hood off. He looked in his twenties, had long black hair, and was pretty ugly. In a matter of seconds everyone around took their hoods off also. Franz looked around and spoke into a piece of grass. “We are here today to welcome someone special to this society. She will stay here forever, find love, and be happy. She will also have to take out an important mission. Of course, I can’t say that here. She will be the only one to know, and will find out later. Before I continue, let me point her out and bring her up to the stage. Please come on the stage now… Leslie!” He lifted his hand up and pointed at me. “Go on, you’ll be fine… everyone had to do this,” Lance whispered. I nodded and walked through the crowd of people who were all staring at me.

I walked up the stairs to the stage and stood looking at the people. “Come on, you must go to the center of the stage, so everyone can see you!” Franz yelled and I walked closer. “Now, Leslie since you are becoming a member of this society, you must fulfill a duty to this world. By the way, you are stuck here forever, so you have to fulfill it, and if you don’t you will be killed. I know these circumstances seem horrible, but they are the rules, and in order to live here you have to have the brains to succeed in this task. You will find out about the task tonight, as I said before. I know you didn’t have a choice to come here, and that you were forced to. I believe though… that you will not have a problem doing any of this work. This land is perfect, and you will see it for what it really is once your duty is done. You see the sky as yellow, the sun as black, and as for the rest of the scenery it is just like home correct?” Franz stared at me as he waited for a reply. “Yes… do you see different?” I asked cautiously, afraid he might do something wicked. He seemed like a powerful guy. “In fact everyone sees this world different then you! But, I can not tell you how, because I don’t want to,” Franz said turning away. “You seem like a nice girl, but this task will tell you who you really are. I know I am talking a lot, but let me tell you that this task will need incredible mind power, and you CAN NOT receive any help from anybody!” Franz walked to the very edge of the stage and spoke, “Welcome Leslie, for she must be going!” The crowd clapped their hands and screamed so loud, but went silent in a matter of seconds.

I walked down towards Lance and asked, “Was that it?” Lance nodded, “Yes, now we have to head back to the building we were just at before, and you will learn everything that will go on. I know you are really confused. Come on, let’s go!” He ran ahead laughing, and I ran also even though I wasn’t in the greatest of all moods. I felt like I was dreaming, and wanted to cry. This is reality… I have to acknowledge it… and learn to live with my new life, in this strange new world. I wonder what this place is called anyway.