The Town With No Name That Once Had One

As soon as Eleanor stepped outside she was forced to brace herself against the wall as a gust of wet wind smacked her head-on. The wind held nothing back now, drenching her within moments and forcing her to fight back with all her strength just to make her first step forward. She planted her foot forward in defiance, slamming it down so unnecessarily hard that a spray of mud erupted from the ground, covering the blanket she wore as a shield in a dark brown that surely wouldn't last long in this much rain.

She gripped the strap on her pouch with a newfound determination. She'd made peace with herself. She couldn't be stopped now. She was as prepared as she'd ever been, and she wasn't about to throw it all away now.

The wind grew harsher.

It was difficult, almost impossible it seemed, but she drew another foot out and stepped forward again, leaning into the wind as far as she could without falling over. The wind whipped at her, harder and harder, trying to force her back as rain rushed at her in waves and waves, battering against her over and over and over but she kept going. She gritted her teeth and pushed forward through all of it, gaining ground against an impossibly powerful enemy that seemed to hate her personally. She was barely holding onto her blanket now but it didn't matter. Up ahead the gate was getting closer and closer. What would the rain do then, when she was out of the yard? Once she shut the door behind her, the only person that could get her back in was her. And there was no way she'd be doing that, come hell and high water.

She was almost there now. It was just a few steps ahead. She could almost reach out and touch it, even if the wind was trying as hard as it could to stop her. She extended an arm, defiantly grabbing onto the wet wood, pushing forward...

Her progress was stopped by the rattle of a thick, metal chain on the other side.

She pushed again. The chain remained, the wind and rain swirling in unbearable mockery. They were laughing at her, laughing at her powerlessness, laughing at the idea that she ever had a chance in the first place. None of her preparation had mattered, none of it. There never was any chance, was there? This was the truth, wasn’t it?

No, that couldn’t be right! There was always a chance!

“There’s always hope!” She screamed into the sky. “I don’t care what you do, you can’t take that away from me! You won’t break me, I won’t let you!”

She clawed at the gate, trying to climb her way up despite the unrelenting gale shoving her back down, but she tried anyway. Her blanket, the blanket that was dear to her just a few minutes ago, went flying off into endless nothingness with barely a notice from Eleanor. With all her strength she tried to force herself over the fence, again and again, dozens of times until her arms were too weak to continue, and even then she kept pushing until finally, after one last gargantuan effort, she managed to get one leg over the fence, gritting her teeth as she strained to keep her balance.

Until a sudden stinging of her hand caused her to momentarily lose balance, which, combined with the sheer force of the wind, sent her sprawling onto the ground in a spray of clammy, muddy water. As she struggled to pull herself back up, her eyes settled on the fence as it began to grow several meters by the second, as if mocking her for even trying in the first place. It must have been mocking her.

“Is this all this is? You just want to see me broken? You just want to see me give up? Because I won’t! I won’t because I can’t! I won’t stop fighting! I won’t stop, ever! I’m stronger than you!”

As if right on cue Eleanor was sent hurtling into the air by an exceedingly strong updraft, limbs flailing uselessly before landing back on the ground with a thud that knocked the air out of her lungs before they were immediately filled again by the rush of the wind into her mouth despite any other intentions she might have. She began rolling towards the door of the house, now open wide as if beckoning her forward.

“No!” She screamed. “No no no! I won’t let you!”

Her screams disappeared into the wind, heard by no one, as she was pushed ever closer to the door. The door wouldn’t listen. The gate wouldn’t listen. Most importantly, the wind wouldn’t listen, dragging her forward as she clawed at the ground, grabbing fistfuls of grass and mud as she pointlessly grasped at any control at all over her destiny.

The door didn’t care. The gate didn’t care. And most of all, the wind didn’t care. No matter how much she kicked and screamed, it had determined that she was going through that door. Hadn’t she compromised on that before? It’s not like she hadn’t walked through that door willingly before. What was the difference now? That it was easier? That something wanted her to go through?

That brief mental pause was all it took to send her shooting through the door, back into the house she had come to dread. She kicked and screamed as she went, trying to grab on to the door frame, but to no avail. The door slammed shut in front of her, and with a crack her head hit the table, the world snapped to darkness.