Dark Seaside

8:01 PM.

It was 29 minutes before I was due to go to bed. I had a big day at school tomorrow, my science presentation on insects. I don’t why I decided to do it on insects, or even why I would exert any effort into science (though my science teacher is pretty cool.) But, hey, at least I could go to bed tonight knowing I was set for tomorrow.

However, I, for some reason, wasn’t ready for bed tonight. I wasn’t energized or anything, I just wasn’t ready yet. Sitting up from the couch I was laying on, I looked outside. The sun hadn’t completely set yet, so I decided that a quick stroll around the block would be sufficient enough to satisfy my body’s sudden need for movement. Besides, everyone else had gone to bed early, and was probably fast asleep, anyways.

Getting up and stretching, I went over to our coat rack by the front door and grabbed my green hoodie I got for my birthday last year. Putting it on, I opened the front door, being careful not to trip the alarm, and set off into the warm night, with no fireflies in sight. Trotting down the steps, I set off down the sidewalk to the north.

Surprisingly, there was no one in sight at all. Some lights were still on, but there was no noise. I assume since it was a school night, everyone was in bed, and all the adults were just silently sleeping or doing quiet activities. What should I know? I’m 13.

Continuing my stride down the sidewalk, I took a right turn and headed down a short path that stretched into a long path. I sighed and looked over to my left at the new buildings being constructed. Previously, it had been a long, green field of nothing. Now, it was a ton of dirt and tractors. I stared at it for the longest time, and then looked up into the sky. It was as clear as ever, with lots of stars beaming down. I smiled a little.

I continued my long walk to our old, abandoned elementary school. This was longer than a block, but it was still 8:09, I had time. I looked at the huge building, and imagined all the kids who used to play in it. On the now-rusted swings, the incredibly dangerous ladders to the dented slides. The memories. I looked on again. And stared. And boy, did I stare for the longest time.

8:11…

8:13….

8:15…..

I snapped out of it and quickly checked my story-convenient watch on my wrist. It was now 8:17. I needed to return home. I took one last look at the school playground and set off. It was a long way home, though it felt oddly short on the way there. I looked up into the sky again for no reason at all, and I saw clouds quickly forming. Crapcrapcrap. Was it going to rain or snow? We hadn’t gotten snow here in a year.

That lack of snow made quite a disappointing Christmas.

It was so frick-frackin’ dark outside that I couldn’t see where I was running. I took a corner that I thought led up to my home. All of the lights were off now, and it was getting incredibly cold.

It started harshly raining.

I came to a dead end at one of those circle-ways that had houses surrounding them. It was a dead lead. I turned around and ran back and took another direction. I definitely couldn’t see anything at all now. The rain started turning into snow. The snow turned into hail. My breath was harsh. I kept running into dead ends. I didn’t even know which way I was going anymore. I tried to knock on several doors, but none answered.

I heard a siren in the distance go off. I was panicking. I didn’t know what to do now. I barreled under a porch and hoped for the best, because the worst was being delivered right now.

A minute or two later, I heard a horrible screeching sound. Looking around the porch corner, I saw the street tearing up and pavement flying into the sky. My first thought was “Overkill.” However, I noticed that it wasn’t only the street being ripped, but it was also ripping everything else and lifting it into the sky. Soon, everything around me starting ripping, I covered my ears and closed my eyes, curling into a ball, and started the wait for my untimely demise.

I wasn’t dead.

I awoke, and I was underwater. Although I could open my eyes, which was unusual, as I had to wear goggles to see underwater whenever I went to the pool. In confusion, I tried to swim up to the surface of the water. Maybe I had fallen in a small lake while dreaming, or something like that.

I was immediately pushed back down by a mighty wave, which stunned me. Before I could even react, my hands and my legs were pulled in all directions, leaving me in a starfish position. I winced. Did something slip into my ravioli that I had tonight? That seems like the only likely cause for everything that’s happening to me.

My throat started to become incredibly croaked and uncomfortable, too. But I couldn’t do anything about it. I just had to close my eyes and hold my nose (metaphorically) for whatever happened next.

My vision began to blur, and I felt my arms and legs changing sporadically. Strangely, it didn’t hurt, besides the occasional wince. My throat was now beginning to feel incredibly odd, and in a bad way. My fingers and toes started to become numb. I came to the reasonable conclusion that either I was reincarnating after dying, or just on some really, really bad drugs.

Soon, though, my vision unblurred, and I could see around myself. I quickly examined where I was and confirmed that I was underwater. Or maybe under the sea, wherever this trip had brought me. I turned to my hands and feet to find out that they were more wide and stumpy. I panicked, of course. You’d do the same if your fingers and toes were removed by the ocean.

I felt a small patting on my head from somewhere (presumably whatever had done this to me) and a felt myself being pushed up to the surface of the water.

Okay, thanks, whatever you are.

I suddenly felt incredibly tired. Yawning (or just blowing out bubbles) and stretching my now finger-less and toe-less limbs, I closed my eyes. Hopefully this meant I was getting out of this heavy trip and back to reality.

I slept for a really, really long time. Maybe ten or twenty hours, which was probably for the better.

Soon enough, I opened my eyes. I expected to wake up in my bed, but instead, I found myself staring at a great, blue sky that was cloudless.

Normally, I would’ve screamed, but I just stared at it for a while. Probably the longest while I’ve ever stared at something. Also, I know better than to make noise in possible enemy territory. With extreme care, I slowly rolled over and tried to get up on my legs, which ended in failure.

Looking at myself again, I was able to verify that the entirety of my bodily anatomy had changed. However, my hoodie had adapted to change with it as well, so there was that. I also appeared to have a tail, though it was very busted and odd-looking. It also had holes in it.

My hands and feet--which now appeared to be hooves, were the weirdest part. Although my hoodie sleeves covered around 60% of my hands and fe--hooves, they had holes in them. I was confused, because if there was a hole in a body part, you’d probably be dead, but I wasn’t.

I attempted to get up again, making sure to steady myself on my hooves. I succeeded, with some clumsiness. I decided to throw my hood off, which had been obscuring my head, and then looked around.

Not far from my current location, there was a large castle of stone. Encompassing me was a large collection of trees and plants. And rocks, too. I decided that I’d make getting to said castle a priority. It looked old, but maybe it still had living things inside of it.

After a bit of clumsy fumbling with my hooves, I was able to walk competently. I set off towards a clearing that led into a forest, and then prayed that I wouldn’t get lost.