Chapter 4

Lights were streaming from above. So many different colors spinning through the crowd. Music was blaring pop punk and people were dancing.

Rachel was there next to her with her hair up, and dancing. If you could call it dancing. It was more like flailing, but graceful? None of Diana's friends were good dancers but Rachel at least made it look easy and effortless.

"Someday we'll sing it out looooud!"

The whole crowd was dancing hypnotically to the rhythm.

"Maybe it's not my weekend but it's gonna be my year"

'Okay different song. Different band.'

"Hey Diana have you tried the pasta?"

Jeremy appeared behind them with a giant plate of lasagna. This was normal?

As Diana noticed the pasta she suddenly realized that she was holding a plate of lasagna as well.

When in Rome. She took a big bite and it tasted like twizzlers and queso, but like… good?

The floor shifted and all of a sudden they were in a garden party with lights and music. The rocks around them glowed different colors except for a large boulder with a seat cut out of it. That rock chair was gold and surprisingly empty. Diana found her way to it and sat down to finish her lasagna.

The seat was shockingly soft, and she could feel herself sink into it. It was the brightest gold color she had ever seen. She was so engrossed with the chair that she didn't notice that her plate of lasagna had disappeared, or that she was truly sinking into the chair. She didn't notice until it was too late. Over half her body had sunk into the gold boulder chair. She couldn't move her hands or feet and no sound would come out of her mouth.

"The Throne Is Where You Will Find Your Second Self, But Be Warned. It Is Guarded By Greed. We Will Help You."

'the fuck? Now I'm hearing voices?! Why can't I speak?! Who are you??!'

"We Are Already With You. You Only Need Use Us."

And the boulder swallowed her completely.

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The sun was definitely up. Mornings are the worst. Diana's eyes fluttered open, and she immediately felt the drool on her arm. She should really fix her sleeping habits. The ground is really hard, and now everything hurts.

'I'm sure I had a weird dream. I don't remember. Fuck I'm still here… And in my underwear.'

She wasn't very cold which was surprising. Even more so, was the fire was still going. Barely, but it was there. There was also a long line of twigs and lighter branches leading towards the forest. The wood wasn't stacked but had been placed close together, as if dragged and left as close as possible.

'All my clothes are smoky, and my cardigan is still a little damp. I wonder how long I was asleep.'

After sliding her shirt and jeans back on and while she was checking to see if her shoes had dried out she decided that she should definitely investigate the odd line of sticks.

'No matter how short I slept the fire wasn't big enough to last this long. I also did not gather this much wood. Where am I? I mean yeah I'm still in the woods, but like… Where am I?'

Growl, grumble, rumble, and roll… she was ravenous. And probably dehydrated due to all that crying before she fell asleep.

"Fuck I'm hungry."

She heard a gentle rustling by the edge of the clearing, immediately whipped her head around, and saw. Well, she didn't quite understand what she saw. She saw a few sticks being dragged along the ground towards the clearing, but there wasn't anyone dragging them. Upon closer inspection Diana realized that there were little shadow stick figures dragging the sticks to the clearing together.

'This doesn't make any sense. Those are really stick figures.'

She reached out her hand towards the stick figures. They seemed to notice her presence and dropped the sticks. As her hand neared the stick figures they gathered and placed themselves exactly as she had drawn them the night before with the stick. Once they were in place they seemed to glow with a black light, much like she had seen once at a school dance. It was really pretty and the light bent and swayed as her hand got closer. Diana swiped her hand across the dirt and wiped one of the stick figures away. As soon as the lines she had drawn disappeared the light on that particular stick figure stopped glowing. The others seemed fine. The glow still continued in the other complete drawings.

Out of curiosity Diana drew another stick figure in the dirt and stared at it. She felt very silly just staring at the dirt, but her experiment began to bore fruit. The new stick figure, which was much larger than the last batch, started to shine and squirm. Within a minute it was just as animate as the others who were just standing there on the ground. Well, laying down would be more accurate than standing. This was definitely worth exploring. She had never seen anything like this.

Her stomach growled loudly.

"This is fascinating but I need to eat something."

As soon as she spoke out loud the stick figures glowed a little brighter for half a second and they started moving towards the woods. It was slow enough that Diana could easily finish tying her shoes and follow them. The stick figures soon led her to a small patch of leafy greens that had small orange berries. They started picking the berries and bringing them to Diana's feet.

They were kinda cute. In a weird they-have-no-face kind of way. Even though they had no expressions it seemed like they were waiting for Diana to try the berries. She gingerly picked one up from the ground.

"Guys. If I eat this will I wake up at home?"

She popped the smallest one in her mouth. It burst the moment it touched her tongue. It tasted like a cross between a blueberry and an orange.

'Hell yeah'

The little stick figures wiggled when she smiled. Diana quickly started to shove the berries into her mouth. She was ravenous. The wiggles started to gather more berries and some leafy greens that just tasted like the color green.

At least she wouldn't go hungry.