PAWN—part 9

(In Green's perspective)

My head hurt and my body ached. My heart was still palpitating in shock, as though it was banging, pleading to jump out and escape my chest.

All I remembered was the house, I was trying to escape, and then the floor below me gave way, and almost immediately, I fell. Gravity, pulling me down like a vacuum, sucking nearly the life out of me.

And now I was here. My head was still groggy from the fall. I opened my eyes.

Sunlight?

The ceiling of the house was now a canopy of trees. The eerie creaking of the floorboards in the old mansion, replaced by the violins of cicadas and crickets. Had the mansion really existed? Was it all a dream? It sure felt like it, now.

"GREEN! GREEN!!" I heard someone shouting, as though right into my ear, even though around me there was no one in sight.

A girly, choked voice. Blue? Was she crying?

"Blue?"

"Green!""We thought you were dead""Thank god! You're alive!"The voices of Blue, Yellow and Red came through to me. My vision was getting blurred by my tears of joy. They're voices were a sweet melody. Music, music to my ears!

"Where are you?"Yellow asked.

"I..I don't know... I was at a mansion just now..but I think it was a dream... I think I am in a different part of the forest..." As I looked around me, I noticed the number "13"drawn crudely on the ground.

If this was really a game, could this be square 13? But how did I jump so far? I guess I would never know...

"I think I'm on square 13.."

"I don't care where you are, Green! All that matters is that you're safe!" Blue's voice chirped, and I noted a sigh of relief.

"How long was I gone?"

"About half an hour..we were worried sick! You disappeared without a trace." Red said, relieved too.

"It seemed like a whole day, to me! I'm surprised, you were worried about me, Red?" I teased. No response. Blue and Yellow laughed.

"It's nice to have you back, Green," Yellow chuckled.

I was relieved to be away from the mansion. As wonderful as it may have been in the beginning, it had turned out to be quite a nightmare.

From the corner of my eye, I noticed a black moth on the floor, resting on something. I turned, just in time to catch it fly away, out of sight.

As it fluttered away with a gentle beat of its black wings, I turned my attention to the thing on the ground, only to realise that it was a paper doll, flapping a little from a cool, gentle breeze. Only the doll was dressed in a green dress, and had no legs. For some weird reason the creator must have forgotten its legs and left it lying around carelessly... ...

As I stared at it a pang of familiarity hit me, the face, the dress, like somebody that I used to know, or maybe just saw before, like the young girl in that dream..Lynette. That was her name, I think.

Then I began to wonder, was it really a dream, after all?