By Cara Listowsky
Editor’s Note: Each month, the Writers’ Guild accepts submissions for a short story following a specific theme. November’s theme was “How did I get here?” featuring stories where the character wakes up in a strange environment. Members voted on a short story to be featured in the YU Observer. For the month of November, “Chap 1; I’m Kinda Confused, But I’ll Figure it Out Eventually” written by Cara Listowsky was selected.
I was jolted awake by a cold wave smacking me inconsiderately in the face. I sat up quickly, looking around. To my right, sand — the sands of time spanning perhaps an eternity. On my left, roughly the same thing. In front of me, an imposing cliffside, perhaps 160 meters tall. I stood up and turned around. Behind me, the ocean. A wave lapped at my leg, and a bunch of cigarette butts butted my ankles. Disgusting pollution. This is why we can’t have nice things.
Now, what was I doing? I reached into my mind for some sort of semblance of memory, but all I could find was a gaping black hole. I stared down at my reflection, rippling in and out of focus in the water. A pale, round face looked back at me with frightened blue eyes. I stepped back, accidentally crunching an already broken pair of sunglasses. I lifted my stiff, heavy suede shoes out of the water and trod onto the beach. I looked back and forth between the cliff and the ocean, desperately scrounging around in my brain for a memory. Any memory at all.
After a solid half hour of this, I was starting to develop a bit of a headache. I had taken off my shoes, sat down on a rock, and stared out at the ocean, which was as endless and empty as my mind. At least the ocean had pollution — maybe a few little fishies — I had nothing. I glanced down beside the rock and noticed something I hadn’t seen before: a little photograph torn almost completely in half, resting in the sand. I picked it up and brushed the sand off. The boy in the picture wore fancy threads, a goofy grin, and a crown studded with a blinding amount of jewels. Hey — those eyes looked familiar! That was the same face I’d seen in the water! I eagerly flipped the picture over and was met with two glaring words:
“Kill Him.”
How lovely. Had I been pushed off this cliff in a subtle little assassination attempt? How in tarnation had I survived that fall? I folded up the picture and put it in my pocket. I craned my neck back to look up at the boulder. I took a deep breath and grabbed onto the first handhold I could find. This was a bad idea, a terrible idea. I was about to do the assassin a favour and finish the job for them. I looked back at the ocean. You couldn’t see the pollution if you weren’t up close, it looked so peaceful. Tempting to just stay sitting and watching and forgetting that I’ve forgotten. No, I wasn’t going to stop here. I had to know. I lifted my ornately patterned trouser leg and pulled it up to the next ledge. Slowly, slowly.
About halfway through, I had the stupidity to look down and began shaking like a leaf. I clutched the boulder like a long-lost love and squeezed my eyes shut. I was going to get to the top of this cliff, and the bottom of this situation. A little fear wasn’t going to get in my way. I just had to keep going. Slowly.
By the time I reached the top, I was aching all over, and my adrenaline rush came to a sudden crash, leaving me exceptionally weary. The sun was setting, and orange light draped over a magical-looking forest. Fireflies sparkled on and off between the trees like little fairies… hey wait! I walked closer and realized that some of the little glowing creatures were actually bona fide fairies. They flew around in little outfits made of forest leaves and vines, carrying sticks and flowers and flying every which way. I got a little dizzy trying to watch more than one of them at once.
“Excuse me,” I came up behind one, and she let out a little yelp. “Sorry to startle you,” I apologized, bending down to look less threatening. “So, I’m um, a prince, I think? I don’t know. Here, look at this.” I took out the picture. “So, the back of this picture says to kill me, y’see? Do you know anything about this? Um, about me? Maybe?” I looked at her, my desperation oozing out of my words.
She called over another fairy, and they started talking. They called over another few fairies, and they all started talking amongst themselves. Finally, one with a frilly green dress sat down on a leaf and looked up at me.
“Reggie, our friend from the nearby kingdom, came to us just recently. He said he got into an unfortunate situation where he ended up being ordered to kill a person he was indebted to. He asked for some special magic dust to protect someone from falling from a great height. We don’t know too much about the kingdom, and we don’t like to pry, but we gave him the magic dust because we didn’t want anyone to get hurt.”
A sudden memory flashed before me. Standing at the edge of the cliff — a hooded figure — pushing me off. “I’m sorry,” the figure whispered, as I lost my footing and began my descent. I took a huge gasp, leaning against a tree.
“Are you okay?” the fairy asked, concerned. I nodded. A memory!! Finally! Something! But it was fuzzy, and short, so frustratingly short, and basically told me nothing. I tried to get a good look at the face of the hooded character, but I couldn’t. I remembered the emotion strongly though: fear, so strong and powerful it ran through my veins and chilled my blood. I concentrated as hard as I could. In that memory, I didn’t put up a fight with the person, not because I was afraid, but because… I trusted him. Why did I trust him? Who was he?
“This Reggie guy, who is he?” I asked the fairy.
“He’s a nice boy. His family is poor, and they live in the slums of the kingdom. He visits here often with his little sister, and she enjoys hanging out with us. She’s lovely. He doesn’t talk about the kingdom much.”
“Thank you.” I paused. “You have some magic dust that can cure amnesia perchance?”
“No, we don’t.”
“I guess that makes sense,” I sighed. “That would be too convenient.”
I lay down in the grass and looked up at the sky. A few little stars had popped out of the woodworks. Soon, the sky would be teeming with them. Why couldn’t my memories come back as fast?
“Somebody wants to kill me. How can I stop them if I don’t know who? I don’t know why. I don’t know anything!” My voice tightened, and I punched the sky in frustration. I tried to reach out and grab my memories, but catching a falling star seemed far more likely. After trying to give me a few reassuring words, the fairies went back to their business, flying around.
After a few hours lying on the grass, trying (and failing) to remember anything, a fairy with red hair landed on my sleeve and looked at me nervously.
“Even though we’re not supposed to… I was kinda curious… I flew down to the kingdom, to see what was going on…”
“You did?” My eyes widened.
“So, um, from what I gathered from street talk, the princess got rid of the heir to the throne by having him brutally murdered, and she’s getting ready to accept the throne now and make everyone’s lives a living heck.”
“Wow. That’s actually ridiculously helpful. Thank you so much…”
“Penelope.”
“Thanks, Penelope. I would give you my name, but I don’t know what it is. Did you happen to find that out?”
“No. I couldn’t stay very long. You don’t know what they do to fairies there.”
Of course I didn’t know. I didn’t know much of anything, at the moment. I looked over at Penelope, who was frowning deeply.
“What’s wrong?”
“Years ago, there was a tyrannic rule by some maniacs in the kingdom. They attacked our fairylands out here, and it was horrible. But now, we were finally doing well. Nobody bothered us, we’ve been able to build our community. We were doing so well!” She began sobbing uncontrollably. I ripped a leaf off a nearby bush and offered it as a tissue.
Theoretically, I could probably run off, find some other kingdom, start a new life. But, for some reason, wild horses wouldn’t be able to convince me to abandon this kingdom of people I couldn’t remember. Realizing the fate of an entire kingdom and beyond lay in my hands made my hands clammy and my head spin.
“I’ll take back the kingdom, Penelope.” She looked up from her leaf tissue and met my gaze with hopeful eyes. “Don’t you worry, okay? I’m going to go down there, implement a strategic and brilliant plan, and I’ll get the kingdom back and defeat the princess.”
How? Darned if I knew. But one thing I did know was that I was still alive for some reason, and thereby still had a chance. So I was going to try.
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