6 Chapter 5- The MarketPlace

I went back to the wall that night.

I regretted it.

I felt cowardly. I know safety comes above everything else but kids went in there. People my age. I sighed as I stared at the looming wall before me. I probably wouldn't even be able to go in there like them. There was probably some rule that only ghosts or something could enter.

I backed off a bit and then ran into the wall. (Harry Potter style -w-)

Instead of being greeted with a broken nose, I was greeted with a marketplace. Behind a wall in a dead-end. I was horrified. This wasn't some trick. It was real. This place. This Marketplace was not some sick trick.

Okay. Breathe.

Breathe.

It's okay, it may be behind a wall, but nobody here is getting hurt. Kids went in here. Now that I'd looked around, I'd realized that those weren't the only kids. There were many more...In fact, there were more children there than normal marketplaces. Nothing unnatural, but...Unusual. If this would have been a normal day, I would've turned around and left, and still cursed myself for coming there in the first place. That the sort of thing I'd normally do. A logical thing. But that day was not normal. I was not myself. So even though I'd just walked into a marketplace through a wall, I kept walking forward.

Did all the people here come through a wall, or was there a normal entrance too? Why were there so many kids here? Why was I here? How did this place never get discovered? I had too many questions. When I looked around though, I realized that there were very diverse kinds of people...to say the least. At first glance, this was nothing different from a regular marketplace, but when I really squinted my eyes at each person separately, they were different. A few looked normal, a few looked normal but with one inhuman feature like unnatural eye color, which I didn't pay attention to, since my own eye color is un-natural. But there were others...Some had animal features on their face, some had fur, some looked too ugly to be natural, some looked too good. This was not a normal marketplace. Almost nobody but the kids I saw looked completely normal here.

Come to think of it, the black-head looked a little too good...

Oh, god Nessa. You don't know him.

I shook my head, hard. You do not fall in love at first sight, Nessa Hayes.

You are a logical girl.

I sighed. The marketplace was noisy, just like any other. I never really liked marketplaces. People always thought that being the outgoing person I was, I would love a place with a lot of people. I thought so too, but it just felt like there were bees buzzing continuously inside my ears. I loved a place with a lot of people...If I knew them, or they were there for something regarding me. Otherwise, I just regarded them as annoying background noise. I looked up, at the night sky. Or what should've been the night sky. Instead, there loomed a huge black screen.

This place was indoors.

It didn't make much of a difference, its not like I could fly, but I suddenly felt claustrophobic. Being in a place that looks like its outdoors, is actually indoors, should be normal, is not, is supposed to have humans, does not-

I was breathing hard. The shops grew fuzzy in my vision as I stumbled towards what I thought was the direction of the exit. I couldn't think about anything. How weird I must have been looking, why I barely reacted to the fact that that place wasn't supposed to be there, but got so scared over the fact that it was indoors. Nothing.

There was just one thought on my mind and it was-

I need to get out of here.

I need to leave,

Clear off-

Now.

Hyperventilating about a place being indoors. I'd be laughing at myself later, but at that time, it was one of the worst fears I'd ever experienced. I could blearily make out people and monsters alike staring at me with varying expressions. Some concerned, some weirded out, some blank, some's faces were too mutilated to understand their expressions. I slowed down, only then realizing the exit before me. The edges of my lips had just started pulling up when I heard "MUNDANES!" in probably the most booming voice I'd ever heard.

I hadn't even realized how quiet the busy marketplace had gotten just for staring at me. I could still faintly hear chatter and metal clanking from neighboring aisles. I stopped abruptly and turned to see what was going on.

This place was going to deprive me of every last bit of logic.

The source of the voice was clearly displayed. All around him, crowds had parted and stared fearfully. He could be intimidating to some people, I'd give him that. A large, bald man stood in front of me, almost every bit of exposed skin (except his face) covered in tattoos. He looked like he had a permanent frown attached to his face. In the clearing the crowd has made, there were five people.

I didn't realize yet, but when I looked at the others, my breath caught. I recognized the familiar fuzzy brown hair, just much more close up this time. The same silver cross around the neck. My eyes widened.

They're the three kids I followed in here.

I can't-

I was hit with a wave of dizziness. I could see the girl try to explain something to the man, her hands moving rapidly, her mouth forming words I couldn't hear.

That was it.

The night's events had caught up to me.

I stared at the ground, unblinking, unmoving. There was a string of thoughts going through my head I couldn't voice. I didn't even know what I was thinking about. I bought my hards up to my head and gripped it. hard.

Why, why,

WHY DID ALL OF THIS HAPPEN TO ME?

I didn't realize I'd fallen to my knees until I had. My eyes were dry. I had tunnel vision, the only thing I could see was the ground and my legs. I could hear only static. I don't know if anybody tried to help me.

The last thing I remembered was the ground rushing at me. Fast.

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SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

FINALLY DONE WITH THIS. BIG CHAPTER.

WordCount: 1144 Words