The Green Bottle

As I ran, I felt my foot come down on top of a moss filled rock, and I knew I was in trouble. The slick moss ripped away from the slab of granite and it sent me flying. I knew the fall would be inevitable, and took the it as best I could and prayed for some luck. Branches ripped apart my face, snapping from the contact. Blood flicked up into my eyes. My shoulder made contact with the trunk of a tree as the rest of my body dug into the mud. My legs flipped up over me, crashing into piece of granite bulging out of the ground, pain traveled its way up my leg.

Some nights the sky wept stars that quickly floated and disappeared into the darkness before our wishes could meet them. Under these stars and sky I used to hear stories, but now it seemed as if it was the sky that was telling us a story as its stars fell, violently colliding with each other. The moon hid behind clouds to avoid seeing what was happening” (Beah 80).

Soft moonlight lit the land and sea kindly, almost as if it were giving gentle kisses. It kissed the sea and the waves it formed, it kissed the drowsy ship which laid on said water, it kissed the sand the waves lapped at, it kissed the grassy cliff above the shore, and it kissed the girl who slept on said cliff.

Suddenly, there was the Pacific Ocean, as blue as a large aquamarine gem. I was high on a cliff overlooking the beach far below. Huge black rock formations, like jagged, decaying teeth, jutted out of the water with wave after turquoise wave slapping against them. The waves also slammed against my cliff, spraying mist from the ocean onto my face. The roar of the wind embraced the land, and the thunder of the waves somehow had a calming effect.

My feet, without any cloths to protect them were bloody and covered in sores from rubbing against sharp stones. Like some of the horrible bed sores one of my many brothers had gotten years ago. At least that is how I am picturing them in my mind, as couldn’t see them in this light, or lack of. My feet ached, hunger pains were beginning to rise, my head, with such intense pain and that awful, awful feeling that I was not alone. I could feel the hairs on my neck stand as the eerie buzz of silence screamed in my ear. Unconsciously my slow pacing of the perimeter broke into a full speed run.

Unable to see a break of light in all of the dark, my mind grew fuzzy, I was losing hope. Gritting my teeth, grinding them along each other, a new pain ripped through my body. Thick, thorn-covered vines wrapped around my feet multiple times as ripples began to flare out from bellow the soles of my shoes. Like ripples across water. The ground was no longer solid.

Eyes struggled to open, the world around me blurry, dark, spinning. “Danny, Danny, are you alright?” I heard my mother ask frantically. Confused, startled, feeling like someone was trying to hammer a nail through my head, a warm and sticky fluid running down the side of my face, my eyes gradually converging on my surroundings.

It was like two hands intertwining together when the moon’s light peeked through the gargantuan sycamore trees. We are on the treacherous run to freedom, and I am eager to get there. Because of my bistered skin, I was shackled and cuffed, and forced to work in a field my whole life without my family. If all goes well tonight, I will be a free man who makes his own decisions instead of having everything forced upon me by an austere master. It seems like we had been running for days and my feet had never felt pain this agonizing until now. We slid through the woods like a snake slithering towards its prey until we began to hear voices. They echoed through the trees and would not stop. Ducking behind opaque bushes, we waited for the signal

With my mind in fear, my body took over, bolting in the opposite direction of the beast. I was running so fast, the leaves felt like

“Hey! We’re running now. Start moving.” I opened my weary eyes. In front of me was the dark face of the same woman who I talked to at dusk. Heeding her words, I rose and started moving to the exit of the barn, quietly evading the slumbering guard outside. I realized that she stayed behind for me and the rest were gone already. After we went over the fence, we started to run as fast as a tiger until we were out of breath and our limbs were sore. The weather was clear as day and the sun was right above me. Then, I heard the familiar sound of

The bell tolls. I stumble downstairs in a drear. I can’t stand it, I can’t stand this heaviness, this heaviness in the air. I could scream. My feet begin to thud, thudding down the stairs. I shove the front doors open. To hell with the repercussions. I run. I run like I have never run before. I let it all drip away. The fog thickens around me, clouding my vision, tripping me up. It’s the fog of me, the fog I’m releasing. My toes sink in the grass, squelching and sinking. I’m light as air now. It’s like I’m painting, but not painting in my head, I’m painting on canvas. I’m building sculptures. I’m shaping sand.

The curved, blue-white blade of the moon pointed down at the smaller trail for a split-second, and Will darted for the white mirage. His fear kept his feet beating at the ground like the wings of a hummingbird, and soon he couldn't make out the warriors' fire through all the trees. The track turned to the left, and the rush of the river stopped receding from Will's eardrums. He set himself against a dark oak tree, trying to silence his breath and scan for anyone who might have followed him, but his body would not comply. Will allowed himself a minute or two of reprieve, but remained anxious, as he knew that the falling snow couldn't possibly fill in his careless footfalls by sunrise. He had to reach the edge of the forest well before then if

I ran outside. I was stunned by what I saw. The sky had turned red like fire. It was uncomfortably hot. I could hardly breathe! I had to find Koia, fast!

I tasted salt but when I opened my eyes everything was black. A few seconds later I felt a thud, and pain coursed through my entire body. I couldn’t identify the source, or what was happening, but I knew I needed to find my way out from under that sailboat. I dove down and tried to swim out but my foot was caught on the main sail. I flailed until it was free, and swam up. I swam so long before I broke the surface

Mio picked up his phone and opened up the music application, and pressed the shuffle button before placing it back into his pocket. The lyrics were slightly muffled through the fabric, but he could hear them clear enough. He smiled, leaning back in the armchair, this is my favorite song, he commented, noticing that the goo in the corner seemed to be collapsing along to the rhythm of the song. His smile faltered slightly as he thought about just how blue it was: deep, drinkable, and dark as the bottom of the well where he’d fallen down as a kid and gotten stuck for days, eyeing the sky through its reflection in the water as he pulled his knees to his chest. He’d always been scared of drowning and heights ever since then. The mass undulated. Mio shuddered as he felt a nausea rise in his lungs, that slowly swelled to encompass his entire