Honesty please, there is a second idea that starts with the same 2 paragraphs, then goes a completely different direction.
Liz
woke alone in a stranger’s bed, every part of her hurting. She
tried to remember getting hit by a train, but her all she could come
up with was an airport bathroom. She’d been on her way home...
No,
that wasn’t right.
She’d
been on her way to Sam’s new house in New York. She‘d felt lousy
the whole trip, gotten sick at the airport, and then she must have
fainted. Actually fainted. How embarrassing.
Which
brought her back to waking up in a semi-dark, seemingly enclosed
space. Instinctively, Liz had opted to lie still, lest she attract
unwanted attention, but her eyes were wide and darting to ever corner
of her periphery. Her … bed, she assumed because of the obvious
cushioning, was either in a tiny little room or in an alcove off of a
larger one. Best she could tell, the head, foot and left side of the
bed fit right up against a wall lined with … books? Maybe? Small
rectangular objects at least.
The
space to Liz’s right was open, which actually made her more nervous
than the alternative. What or who was over there? She debated whether
or not she should chance a peek, finally deciding to let it be. It
was either an unfamiliar empty room, or a crazed psycho kidnapper.
Either way, looking probably wouldn’t help. Anyway, she was
starting to panic. The haze of unconsciousness had lifted, subtly
turning dreamlike curiosity into urgent dread.
Something
had happened between the fainting and this room and Liz had no idea
what it was. She vaguely recalled gaining consciousness
at various points. There had been music and pain and the most
wonderful smell.
People
had been talking.
Sam
had been talking.
Sam!
Sam is here! Liz surprised herself by letting
out a squeak at the thought. Her throat was hoarse, almost dusty from
lack of use; she hadn’t made a sound in such a long time. How
long had it actually been?
Deciding
it was probably safe, Liz turned her head toward the emptiness to her
right. Gaps between drawn curtains showed that it was clearly
daytime. But what day? Other than an old oak desk and a small
television mounted to the opposite wall, the room was unremarkable,
offering Liz no hint of her whereabouts. She sat up slowly and waited
for the room to stop spinning before taking a look at the closest
wall. The rectangles were, in fact, books. A lot of science fiction
titles she didn’t recognize, and a few mainstream thrillers. Liz
prayed she wasn’t about to live one.
Liz
took a few moments to flex and stretch
before allowing herself to peel back the flannel blanket and stand.
It took several minutes of swaying and tottering to get herself
sorted, but her legs were eventually able to support her weight well
enough to pace around the room. She had been lying there a while.
Once
in motion, Liz didn’t relish the idea of lying down
again, so she decided to take a chance and venture forth. To her
surprise, the door opened easily, allowing Liz onto a small landing
with two other doors and a downward staircase. Finding no one, Liz
descended the stairs and ended up in a well-appointed kitchen. She
opened the fridge automatically, but thought better of it. She
wasn’t even hungry.
Her
search of the lower level yielded minimal result. Living room, den,
dining room, kitchen—lots of rooms with no one in them. Liz
estimated it to be a four bedroom home, though she hadn’t opened
any door that wasn’t wide to her. Part of her was afraid of what
she might find, the other part just felt it was wrong. She thought it
reasonable, however, that she should be allowed to explore outdoors
and took her self-guided tour out through the kitchen.
The
backyard was a baseball diamond at least of long, lush grasses
interspersed with towering trees, their frequency subtly growing
toward the edge of the property and blending into the surrounding
forest. It looked like a cozy spot, and Liz resolved to return after
checking out the neighborhood.
But
there were no neighbors. Liz had walked around one side of the
building, through another small yard edged by trees, and onto the
expansive front lawn. More trees, more grasses—very little else.
Not even a road was visible, just a long dirt drive winding into the
woods.
On
the opposite side of the small yard, the house had been expanded to
converge almost entirely with the forest. The walls were glass, if
the roof was any indication, but thick vines completely shielded the
inside from view.
Normally,
Liz would not have had the energy to climb a tree nor probably even
the desire to do so. However, curiosity combined with the
restlessness of days spent asleep and she decided to climb past the
top of the house and take a peek through the roof. Upon reaching the
last climbable branch, she was disappointed to find that there were
another five or so feet before visible contact with the roof. She was
just about to climb down and admit defeat when the light of a
reflection caught her eye. Leaning away from her anchor, Liz
tentatively reached out to the wrought iron lattice. It appeared the
vines here were sparse and loosely packed, more easily moved than
those below.
Two
large bookshelves, a canopy bed, and some cardboard boxes, partially
unpacked, were the most Liz could make out through the grimy glass.
There were posters on the walls with some familiar faces and homey
looking knick-knacks strewn about at random.
Actually,
that black dragon looks just like the one Sam got me for Christmas
last year. And the pattern of those books…
“AH!”
Suddenly,
Liz was on the ground. As she’d maneuvered to get a better look,
her foot had slipped and she’d fallen—much harder and faster than
anticipated. One moment she had been ten feet up, hanging between
tree and trellis, and the next she was lying on her back, nursing a
bruised tail bone. Back inside the main hallway, en route to an ice
pack, Liz remembered the room. The room filled with suspiciously
familiar things. Tail bone forgotten, she took off in what she
thought would be the right direction. It took three tries, but she
eventually found the right door.
Immediately,
Liz knew the room was hers. Maybe not hers, but certainly filled with
her things. The posters and books were the same: old and ratty.
Someone had taken the time to put up and arrange them as she would
have. Her favorite knick-knacks were present, most important
prominently on display, the lesser probably still in a box. Even the
color scheme was exactly what Liz would have picked for herself, had
she any concept of style. It was all reds, blues and purples.
There
was a dresser, armoire, desk, and a fairytale canopy bed—none of
them her own. Though Liz did recognize the book cases. She rummaged
through the desk and shelves and found that her stuff was all there,
put away in someone else’s house. She did not find, however,
anything of a personal nature. Her journals, for example, or her old
mix tapes. High school yearbooks, photo albums, and a box of notes
passed in class: also missing. Liz left the room a mess, not really
caring to clean it up, lost in thought as she was.
Where
the hell am I? Why is my stuff here?
Liz
found herself in the kitchen, unconsciously having decided to get
some water.
What
if this is Sam’s house? I mean, I know her family invited me to
live with them until I was on my feet again, but not here, in the
woods. No one said anything about moving. Do they expect me to be
okay with this?
Liz
already had a glass out, though she couldn’t say from where.
Why
would they move here anyway? Are they kidnapping me? Is that what
this is? After all those years of friendship, they’re holding me
for ransom?
“That
doesn’t make any sense,” Liz told herself.
“But
neither does anything else,” she responded.
Liz
raised the glass, now inexplicably filled with water, to her mouth.
Besides,
Dad wouldn’t pay. They know that.
Oh
yeah.
“I
wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
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