Chapter 1: The beginning
731 Words
There was nothing that Natalie treasure more than sleep.
Which was why even though the her surroundings was so bright that she could feel the intense light, Natalie still pretend to be asleep.
Sleeping in on Sunday mornings, tossing and turning on the soft, white sheets, lazing around just to postpone starting the day washer highlight of the week Despite being awake, she's wait a few moments before silencing the alarm on the vibrating phone-
Wait, where is my phone?
Natalie's outstretched arm passed through where her bedside dresser should be, triggering the alarm in her heart.
Was her house broken into?
Immediately she sat up, eyes wide open ready to identify any threat.
Instead of her messy and cozy interior of her studio apartment, she found herself in somewhere completely new.
The beauty of the sight she saw was breathtaking. She was inside a dome-shaped building, surrounded by walls decorated with what seemed like pearls in different hues of white. Instead of the smooth wooden flooring, the ground was covered by a layer of soft sand and pebbles. Crystal-like decor draped down the ceiling like a curtain of glass. As a small ray of light passes through the fragments, it refracts and lights up the room like a thousand sun.
Though the interior was magical like a fairy tale come true, Natalie's heart sank.
The only though playing in her mind was WHERE THE HECK AM I?
No laptop, no dresser, no phone and no window overlooking New York city.
And no door.
Only bubbles all around in the air.
This can't be it. How did I get here? If she wanted to leave this place, she would have to find an exit, before anyone notice that she was awake.
That was, if they hadn't been watching her already. She tried to ignore the negative thoughts as she scrambled out of the bed, but lost her balance and almost fell on the floor.
No legs.
There was a light grey tail, scales shimmering under the light, where her feet should be.
Panicked, she checked every other part of herself where she could reach.
Phew. At least her hands were still there.
Maybe I'm a mermaid, she thought, taking a wild guess at the wild scenario.
Trying out her hypothesis, she moved her tail carefully, imitating what she had seen in Barbie movies when she was young.
Waving the fins gently, for fear such a delicate looking part will break. The pebbles on the ground got smaller and smaller as she went further and further away from the ground.
Got it!
With a means to travel around, she was able to inspect the room as she intended earlier.
Natalie swam towards the walls. Her fingers ran along the surface, across the bumps of the pearls and the polished area. The sensation was familiar, almost like a seashell. Maybe it'll c***k under pressure. Pulling her arm back, she readied herself for a punch and swung.
Not only did the wall not even dent, she was pushed back by the momentum.
Must be because I wasn't standing on a stable ground. And Newton's Third Law.
Never had she hated herself so much for thinking about these trivial stuff during a crisis.
Feeling dejected, she moved on to another piece of furniture: the bed she woke up on.
It was a layer of soft moss on top of a giant seashell. She went for a closer inspection. Contrary to the moss she had seen before, the moss was soft and fluffy, with a texture akin to cotton. With one hand, she hoisted up the whole piece of moss, but there was nothing underneath it. There wasn't any secret panel or any compartment. She knocked on it twice, but the sound showed that the whole seashell was solid.
This intrigued Natalie, who was getting more and more curious as to how she got in this room without a door.
Next is... She looked up at the ceiling.
She swam up, but a red gleam in her peripheral vision caught her eye.
Like a shark sensing a drop of blood, she turned 90 degrees towards the source of the gleam, which came from a small gap between two pearls.
Just as she was about to take a closer look, a clear voice rang from above.
"Good morning, Princess. Time to rise and shine."
- Writer
