The Crossroads

The Crossroads
By Sabrina Von Meow

Jason flew his small, one-man plane over the ocean. Many older, more superstitious pilots had told him not to risk the trip through the Bermuda Triangle, but he hadn’t listened. So far, he was glad he hadn’t listened. It was beautiful, both the sky and the sea were bluer than he had thought blue could be, the sun was shining brightly he could see his destination in the distance. Moments later, a dark cloudbank passed over the sun, the winds rose and began to swirl in a sudden storm. A gust of wind caught the tiny craft a dragged it towards the center of the storm, he tried to regain control of the airplane, but failed. ‘I’m gonna die! I’m gonna die!’ was all he could think as he was sucked into the swirling winds.

He awoke to bright light streaming through the trees, well, tree. He sat up and discovered himself to be in the middle of a barren wasteland with only one tree.
“Hey, you must be new here.” A voice called. He looked up, above him, in the tree, sat a girl. She had short black hair, and winding tattoo scrawled around her left arm. They stared at each other for a moment before Jason asked, “Where Exactly is ‘here’?”
“Just a little ways away from the Dreamland capital, welcome to the Crossroads.”

“The Crossroads? And that is…?” He asked.
“Maybe it would be best to explain over a beverage of some sort.” She replied as she hopped down from the tree, “Come on, town’s this way.” He hurried to catch up with her,
“How far is town?”
“Only a little bit this way.”
They walked for what seemed like forever, “Only a little bit, huh?” he said sarcastically.
“Careful with the attitude, you don’t want to get shipped off to Gothica.” She said, “Besides, look behind us.”
He turned around and glanced behind them, they had barely gone all that far at all.
“What the…”
“I know, but it only takes as long as you make it take.”
“Huh?”
“We’re here.” She stopped, reached out and grabbed at the air. She pulled it aside like a curtain, the air seemed to split open to reveal a bustling town. “If I hadn’t stopped at the right spot, we would have walked forever through the wasteland.”
Jason was confused to say the least, as he walked through the split in the air, only to find himself in a crowd of people who all seemed to be off in their own world.

“This way.” She grabbed his arm and pulled him through the crowd to a small café. As they walked through the door, a little song played, alerting the young woman behind the counter that there were costumers. The dark haired girl who had brought him there walked up to the counter and said, “One beverage and one liquid please, and both in cups.” The woman nodded and disappeared behind the counter soon to reappear walking through a doorway with two cups that had lids and straws. The dark haired girl reached into her pocket and pulled out a small piece of paper with a drawing of some sort on it, and handed it to the woman. The woman smiled and took the paper, looked at it, and carefully put it in her apron pocket. The girl handed him one of the two cups, guided him to an empty table with two seats, and sat down.
“So…” she began, “I’m Bisque, and you are…?”
“Jason.” He answered, “Where exactly are we, and what is in this cup?” He stared cynically into the cup, he was about to remove it when she interrupted him.
“No! Don’t take off the lid! It ruins it!”
“But what is it?”
“It’s beverage.”
“But what is in it?”
“Taste it and find out
“But…” he started.
“If you’re wondering what’s in it, don’t bother. It’s a secret.” She said, “As to where we are, we’re in Dreamland, at the Crossroads.”
“That doesn’t exactly answer where in the world ‘The Crossroads’ is.” Jason took a sip of ‘Beverage’, whatever it was, it tasted good. Bisque sighed, and pulled a small notebook out of her back pocket, she had to flip halfway through the book before she found a blank page, and began to sketch a map.
“Here’s where we are,” she pointed to a spot towards the top of a blob labeled ‘Dreamland’ near an area labeled ‘Entrance’.
“You see, the Entrance is where outsiders like you show up, that’s just outside Dreamland, next there’s this middle section that’s split in two, the Wastelands towards the north, and the Grey to the south. Last of all,” She pointed to the fourth blob on the paper, “is Gothica. That’s where I was born and raised.”
“I see an Entrance, but no Exit.” Jason commented, “How can I get out of here and get back home?”
She sighed, “I was afraid you would ask that.” She used her pen to point to the vast space beyond Gothica, “This is where the one and only Exit is.”
Jason sipped at the mysterious liquid in his cup, “How do you get there?”
“For the most part you just don’t. That’s why Dreamland is so over populated; too many people don’t even try. If you do try, you’ll probably get stuck in the Gray, or die or get lost in the Wastelands, one or the other, and if you reach the Exit, after making it through Gothica that is, there’s still no guarantee that you’ll make it through the Exit. In fact, the  Exit might not even lead to your home, all we know is that it’s the only way out.” Jason stared at the map for awhile, then stared out the window at the hundreds of overly happy people outside.
“I want to try.” He stated.
“That’s crazy.” Bisque shot him a look.
“I don’t want to be stuck here in rainbow happy land forever.”
“That’s Dreamland, and I don’t either, but it’s better than Gothica.”
“You said you grew up in Gothica, that means you made the journey here, that means it’s possible.”
“Possible, yes, easy, no. This isn’t some hike, I nearly died!” She glared at him.
“Well, then why am I lingering here? I’m going, whether it’s easy or not.” Jason stood to leave.
“Wait. You know nothing about the Crossroads. It’d be better if you didn’t go alone.”
“Who would you suggest?” He raised an eyebrow.
“Someone who knows all four realms.” She answered.
“Someone like you?” He suggested subtly.
“What?!” She shot a look, “No!!”
“Why not? You know all four realms, you’ve made the journey before!” He attempted to persuade her.
“It was horrible, and I will NEVER do it AGAIN!!” She yelled at him.
Everyone in the little café turned to stare at them; he heard a few mutters about Gothica.
“Well this time it won’t be horrible, it’ll be your second trip, and you won’t be alone this time.” He sat down again and stared at her. She glared daggers at him, “I. Said. No.”
“Well you were the one that said you didn’t want to be here, so I guess if you’d rather stay here in this place that’s only ‘Better than Gothica’, rather than just take a chance and leave the Crossroads behind, than be my guest. Thanks for the drink.” He stood up, and left, leaving Bisque staring at her little, hand drawn map.

To be continued…