I stepped through the door and walked right into someone. He turned and looked at me, but I couldn’t decide whether it was a look of amusement or annoyance on his face. Then he smiled. I returned it, and was about to ask him where this was when Jake hit my back. The other boy just raised his eyebrows. Remembering my job, I grabbed Jake and moved both of us out of the way so that Niki could make her way through without running into us. I kept this up until Levi came through, then looked around. We were standing in a small alleyway, and in both directions I could see where it turned, but I didn’t see and end. Finally, I turned back to the boy I had run into. Now his mouth was hanging open, and I couldn’t help but laugh at him. He spoke first.
“Uh, hi. I’m Blaine. Who are you guys?”
“I’m Kris. And I know this is a silly question, but where are we?”
“You’re… well you’re almost in the Shandery. How could you be here but not know where here is? Did you hit your head?”
“No, no.” I laughed again. “You see, we’re not from here.”
“Nobody is from the Shandery. We all come from the outer lands. Which land are you all from, and how did you get here? It looked like… well pardon me, but it looked like magic, although I don’t believe in such nonsense.”
“We aren’t from any outer land,” Zach told him, moving to stand beside me. “We’re from another world. We came through a magical door, and now I don’t know how we plan on getting home!” He focused that last comment on me, and I cringed. I hadn’t even thought about getting home yet. We’d be no help to Liz if we were all stuck here.
“Well, we’ll figure it out. Don’t worry Zach.”
Blaine watched us for a moment, then said, “I don’t believe in magic. Whatever your tricks, though, it doesn’t matter. You are going to the Shandery now, and there will be no turning back for any of us.”
“Okay, man. You don’t have to get so dramatic on us. What is this Shandery place?” Levi asked. I gave him a look, but he ignored me and drilled Blaine with his stare.
“How can you have not heard of the Shandery?” He truly seemed amazed. I just sighed and sat down on a nearby rock.
“We told you, Blaine, we’re from another world. If you don’t believe us, at least humor us. Please.”
“I will, but you should know about the Shandery already. Everyone does. It’s a fairytale told to us when we are children. But it is not happy, as most stories are. The Queen, Adriana, rules with no mercy, as did her mother before her. They make everyone in the Shandery work constantly. It’s said that they never get to see the sunlight again. When you are sent to the Shandery, you are sent to your doom.”
“How do you get ‘sent’ to the Shandery?” I asked, now interested.
“It is chance. Some say that her spies in the cities choose people. Others believe they draw names. No matter the reason, five people form each outer land are sent here each year. In our town, our leader would announce the names on the first day of the new year.”
“So he would tell those five, and they would just come here? What if they refused?”
“No one refuses. If you do, someone from the Shandery will come, and you will be hunted down. It is a worse fate than complying with the laws.”
“What do you have to do when you get there?”
“I can’t say for sure, because I’ve only heard stories, but it is said that you are assigned a job based on your age and abilities. Then you do what they tell you to do.”
“What kinds of jobs are there?”
“Oh, all kinds. But the main job groups are waiters, workers, and watchers. Those are by age group, but some people supposedly get special jobs if they have particular talents.”
“Okay, Kris, this is all really fascinating and everything, but we need to get going!” Zach was obviously getting impatient. Beside me, Blaine only shook his head.
“I told you already – you can’t leave. There’s no turning back once you get this far!”
“Oh yeah? Watch me! C’mon guys.” Zach started walking down the alley, away from us. No one followed, but we watched him vanish around the corner. Then we heard him slowly turn around and come back. “How did you get in if that way is all blocked off?”
“I just walked, and it closed behind me. You can only go one way here. And that would be this way.” With that, Blaine walked in the opposite direction. I began to follow, but turned to face Zach and the others.
“What choice do we have? Zach proved there’s no other way out. Blaine obviously has more of an idea about where we’re going than any of us. Guys, I’m going… it may be our only chance to help Liz! It’s up to you whether or not you come too.” I went off just like that. I didn’t look back, but I heard footsteps behind me, and I knew they had all followed. Knowing my friends, they weren’t willing to risk letting me go off on my own, especially with Liz already gone. Smiling to myself, I sped up to walk beside Blaine. He glanced down at me, but continued walking.
“If you don’t mind me asking, who else from your city was chosen?”
“It’s no problem… it was Kris, right?” I nodded. “The way the Shandery works, however they really do choose us, it’s always by families. And all of the families that are large enough have everyone taken. That’s the case with my family. I’m the middle child; my youngest sister, Emma, is only 5. Rachel’s next; she’s 10. Then me, of course. My oldest siblings are twins, Justin and Kelly. They’re 18. We all got picked for the Shandery this year.”
“So… where are they?”
“We got separated earlier on.”
“Separated?”
“This pathway leads to the Shandery eventually, but there are other more direct paths throughout it. Sometimes people are given the option to take those paths. My siblings were among those. I am the only one left on this path now.”
“You just let them leave you?” I was shocked.
“Yes. They were allowed through and I was not. It’s just that simple, Kris. I could not go with them, and I couldn’t expect them to stay with me.”
“But why not? Family – and friends – should stick together!” We both turned to look at the group behind us. They had been listening; we must have been talking more loudly than I had thought. Yet, there they were; all of them had come after all. Even Zach. I couldn’t help but smile. We would stick with each other no matter what. I didn’t understand why Blaine seemed to have different feelings.
“I agree. But I don’t think you understand. The Shandery doesn’t work that way. When someone is called one way, they go. If you’re not called, you stay. That’s just the way things work. If it were ever questioned, things would go to madness. So we simply never question. Is that not the way things work in your world?”
“Not exactly,” I admitted, seeing reason in what he said, but still standing firm. “In my world, we stand up for what we believe in. We question rules if we think they’re made for the wrong reasons.”
“Wouldn’t that cause problems?”
“Sure, sometimes. But it’s worth it! We progress, and people and ways change for the better! I bet if enough people stood up to whoever ran the Shandery, you could even change that, so no one would have to fear it anymore!”
“I don’t think so, Kris. You really don’t understand how things work around here. I hope that doesn’t cause you and your friends too many problems.” Blaine suddenly became solemn, and walked farther ahead. I was slightly stunned at his change in attitude, and stopped for a moment. Soon everyone else caught up to me.
“Something wrong?” Jake asked, standing beside me. Shaking myself, I turned to him and smiled.
“Yeah. Fine. Sorry. We’d better catch up with Blaine. He seems to actually know what’s going on around here. Don’t want to get lost.” With that, I began marching ahead again. I could feel Jake’s eyes boring into the back of my head, even as I caught up to Blaine. I could tell Jake didn’t like it here, and he definitely didn’t approve of Blaine, for whatever reason. When I finally did reach Blaine, he barely glanced at me before looking straight ahead once more. Getting a little irritated, I tried to start a friendly conversation again.
“So, what was it like, back in your city?” I asked, giving him the most dazzling smile I could manage, to the point that it was obvious I was trying to get him in a better mood. At first, Blaine didn’t seem amused by my attempts, but ended up returning my grin, though not with as much enthusiasm.
“It was a poor city actually, but I loved it. I mean, it was my home. How could I not love it? But everyone knew each other there, because it was such a small town. I had tons of friends, and we always hung out together. When we weren’t helping out our families, of course. It took a lot of work to keep everything running. It was worth it, though, without a doubt. Plus, when we were done for the day, there were a million things to do… well almost anything. There was a ballroom, a museum, and even a theatre. All small, but still…” He got a day-dreamy look in his eyes just then. I giggled a little, turning away in an attempt to hide it. Shaking himself, Blaine, too, laughed with me.
For a while longer we walked on in silence. I was trying to regain my thoughts, not wanting to insult him, as I seemed to have done earlier. Just as I was about to speak up once more, Jake was standing beside me, and I could hear the rest of the group following close behind. Yet again, Blaine merely shoot him an amused glance, then became suddenly distracted as Niki came up on his other side. Winking at her brother, she began to talk to the boy very enthusiastically. I was shocked; Niki wasn’t usually very social, unless she knew a person really well. I didn’t have much time to think over her sudden personality change, because Jake abruptly grasped my arm and pulled me behind everyone else.
“We’ve got to find a way out of here Kris!” Jake’s voice was so insistent that my focus instantly turned to him.
“What do you mean? Blaine is showing us the way out.” My tone was now serious as well, but I smiled to show him that I thought everything was going to be just fine. He obviously didn’t agree with me.
“No, I think dear Blaine is leading us right into a workhouse. I, personally don’t want to go anyplace like that. Plus, he doesn’t really seem to care that we’ve been walking nearly half an hour, and it doesn’t seem like we’re anywhere near getting to… wherever we’re going!”
“Well I think you just don’t like Blaine, but I don’t understand why. He’s been taken away from his home and separated from his family. Give him a chance Jake! You’ve hardly even talked to him. What could you possibly have against him? And anyway, I haven’t seen any other way to go, have you?”
“Kris, you just don’t get it, do you? We have no idea where we’re going! Wandering around these paths, with just Blaine’s word to follow sure isn’t helping Liz! Did you forget that’s why we’re here? You can go around making new friends some other time!”
“No I haven’t forgotten about Liz! But what else do we have, besides Blaine’s word? I know that wandering around these paths trying to find a way on our own, and probably getting lost in the process, isn’t going to help her either!” Our voices had been gradually rising, and my last few words were loud enough to even attract Blaine and Niki’s notice.
“You guys okay back there?” he asked.
“Fine,” Jake grumbled in reply. He moved to rejoin the group, but I stayed back where I was. Niki, attempting to recover Blaine’s attention, began babbling again. The others started whispering, probably about our argument. It was weird… Jake and I had known each other since we were toddlers, but we’d never had a disagreement that led to something like this before. We’d always gotten along, only pretending to fight. This wasn’t like either of us. What was going on?
No comments:
Post a Comment