Round 7: Two in a crowded room while others fade away (3/3)

[olymficsmod]

"We're close to the White Palace," says Min as they step over a brook. "Do you want to go there now?"

They're back on the ground, soil firm beneath their feet, though Jia still feels like she's floating. She'd probably spent too much time in that tree.

"Sure," says Jia, moving her way around the water bend. "What's the White Palace?"

Min's expression darkens. "It's the other side of this land. My mother rules the West, and the Queen of the White Palace rules the East. There used to be an alliance, but then a war broke out... and the power was split."

"Oh." Jia frowns. This certainly doesn't sound like the peaceful land she'd always thought this place was.

"It's not that bad, really. Though," Min continues, "it's a lot different, and there's a lot more peasants." Her mouth curls with disgust. "Actually, the Palace consists of the Village and the castle-waste of space, in my opinion. Plus, the Queen's ugly and a total bitch."

"Is she?" says Jia.

Min nods petulantly and shrugs when she looks at Jia again. "But we can still go there, since you seem to want to see it so much."

"I-I didn't," says Jia, "I never said-you're the one who brought it up!"

"Did I?" Min smiles wanly. "Come on. It's not far from here."

They make their way out of the forest and onto a gravel road, one that leads far off in the distance. Min points to what seems to be a lumpy mountain among the clouds. "That's the Palace," she says. The White Palace, from what Jia can tell, is stark bright and covered in snow, making everything around it seem even whiter. The sky above them is not the blue Jia is so used to, but instead a pearly calming color, soft above them.

"Is that the Village?" asks Jia, pointing to where she can see some people and perhaps a few houses down in the valley below the mountain. Min nods.

"Yeah. The Village actually isn't too bad," she says. Tthough with all the peasants running around, you'd expect it to be covered in shit." She rolls her eyes. "They do have croquet, though, which makes up for it."

"Croquet?" Jia says blankly; but Min doesn't give her any time to think as she grabs her wrist and tugs her down to the small town.

Their journey there is minimal and smooth, although Jia feels like the world is stopping and working in slow motion now. As she tries to adjust her eyes to the sudden light all around, as opposed to the dark forest at night, her brain attempts to make sense of all that's happening. Of all that's already happened. She can't quite recall everything, and even as she tries to look back on the night, it seems so far behind when it's morning already. Jia wonders when it had turned morning. When she had first seen the sun after the night. Had it been when they were in the tree? Or maybe it was when they were with the Jabberwocky... Jia shivers. The sun shouldn't come up with the Jabberwocky; it would make no sense. Maybe the sun had already been up while they were in the forest, after they had escaped from the lizard... but the moon had been fresh and full at the time... Jia shakes her head, and pries through her memories.

"Jia?" Min turns to her. Her eyes glimmer in concern. "You all right?"

"I'm fine," mumbles Jia, although remembering things is becoming harder and harder. She can barely remember anything from yesterday, only mere outlines and traces of what had happened. And perhaps that housefly had just been her imagination...

"Well good, ëcause we're here!" says Min, and Jia's forced to push away her thoughts and focus on Min. Jia looks around: there are horses and carriages carrying people back and forth across the Village. All the buildings and houses are as shockingly white as the palace up in the mountains. People are shouting and yelling, but there's a definite smile in each of their voices, and it's nothing like the Red Castle.

Down the street, there's a larger, whiter carriage, lead by two larger, whiter horses, with larger and whiter knights. Sitting in the open carriage is a beautiful woman, with a crown made of pearls and a necklace made of diamonds. Her dress seems to shimmer in the morning sun as she stands up and waves at the villagers, a broad smile on her face. It's evident that she's the Queen; Jia frowns a little and reflects on Min's previous words.

"Hey Min," she says, turning a little. "Didn't you say that the queen was-"

"Let's go to the center of town!" interrupts Min. Not even paying attention, she grabs Jia's hand and pushes through crowds and crowds of people on the cobblestone streets, away from where the White Queen had been. She leads them further into town, until they're surrounded by even more people than before.

Min nudges Jia's body and nods to the front. "Look!" she shouts.

Jia isn't sure what they're supposed to be looking at, though deafening cheers and screams are roaring in her ears. She glances to Min, to see that Min is grinning at whatever's in front of them. So Jia pushes people aside, trying to figure out what exactly people are so excited about. Finally, she just stands up on her tip-toes and looks over two short peasants in front of her, watching the scene from above.

A large Unicorn is at one side of crowd, while a mangy old Lion is standing idly at the other. The Unicorn thrashes around, evidently trying to find an opening for him to attack; to Jia's surprise, not only does the Lion look rather tired, but bored as well. From this, Jia can conclude that the Lion is winning, even though he doesn't seem to be putting up much of a fight.

Then suddenly, the Unicorn charges headfirst for the Lion. Jia gasps along with the crowd-but it's not much of a surprise when the Lion merely steps to the side, and the Unicorn almost runs into an old woman instead.

"Awesome, isn't it?" says Min's voice by her ear. "Best thing in this town. Aside from the croquet, of course."

"What is croquet, anyways?" Jia asks, turning to her as the people cheer again.

Min grins. "You don't know what croquet is? I'll show you. It's a little farther off town, but completely worth it."

She shoves her way back through the crowd and Jia struggles to follow her. Only when they manage to avoid the masses does Min stop again, and turns to make sure that Jia has followed her. Then she smiles and kisses Jia lightly on the cheek, saying, "You look like I just fucked you."

Jia blushes a bright red, and adjusts her tousled yellow hair. "Th-Thanks," she stutters, although she's not entirely sure if that had been a compliment. Changing the subject, she says hastily, "What were they fighting over, anyways?"

"Oh, plum cake," says Min offhandedly. "They're the King's. The Lion and the Unicorn, I mean. Well, the plum cake is too," she adds.

"Ah." Jia nods, still trying to digest these words. "So, croquet?"

"Right, of course!" With a happiness that Jia had never seen before, Min runs down the street, not even bothering to hold Jia's hand. Jia sprints after her, but stops quickly when she sees Min stride over to a park in the middle of town.

It's mostly just a large patch of grass, about half an acre wide. Trees are planted here and there, and along with them are small ruts sticking up from the ground (probably for playing croquet.) Jia assumes that the park is manmade. She looks around for Min, and spots her over with some men, next to a rack of upside-down flamingos and balled up hedgehogs.

She starts walking toward her when the sound of a shout stops her; peering closer, she realizes that Min is arguing with one of the men. Curious, Jia leans in a bit more to listen to their conversation.

"What do you mean, I'm just a child?" Min snarls at the man. "You're just a filthy old peasant; you're the one who doesn't deserve to play here!"

"For your information," the man says haughtily, "I am not a peasant. I am an archbishop, and-"

"Oh, archbishop, right." Min rolls her eyes. "That's just what they call snooty old peasants like you who think they're better than everyone else when they're not. The only people who deserve to play an ounce of croquet are people of royal blood."

"And you are of royal blood?" The archbishop's eyebrows go so far up that they almost disappear into his hairline. Jia stifles a giggle.

Min's cheeks turn pink. "Of course I am of royal blood! I am the Red Queen's daughter, and I say that I can play croquet whenever I want!"

"Well you are of no matter to us." The archbishop waves his hand and turns away, refusing to look at her any longer. "You cannot play croquet, Red Queen's daughter. Go, run off and play with your little friends."

He laughs with the other men with him. Min's eyes darken, as she watches them, like she's going to attack. Jia stops breathing for a moment-but then suddenly Min spins around and starts stomping towards her, looking like she's trying very hard not to lose her temper any further.

"Who the fuck does he think he is!" she explodes once they're out of earshot. Min grabs Jia's hand and yanks her out of the park, ignoring Jia's tiny squeak. "Archbishop. That's just a fancy name for a poor, low-down piece of trash! I bet he can't even play croquet! I'd kick his ass! And then he'll just be another self-righteous asshole who doesn't deserve to live, and no one will care about him anymore. He doesn't even deserve to be talking to me. I'll make him one of my servants and have him clean my shoes every day. Who's an archbishop now?"

They stop in the middle of the path. Min breathes heavily. Jia hesitantly looks at her, and gently touches her arm.

"Min? Are you-Are you feeling okay?" she asks.

Min shuts her lips firmly, evidently trying to prevent herself from screaming. Then she glances to Jia and says through gritted teeth, "Yes, I'm fine."

"Is there any way I can help you?" Jia says softly.

Min seems to have an inner battle with herself for a moment, and then looks at Jia again. "Let's just go somewhere. I don't care where. Anywhere. I'm just sick of people treating me like I'm a baby." She spits the word out like it's poison.

Jia takes her hand and inclines her head to a small nod. "O-Okay," she says, and then leads them away.

***

They stop at a stone wall at the edge of town. After buying pound cake from a nearby market, Min hands a slice to Jia before settling down on the ground. Jia slides down next to her, relieved to rest her sore feet.

They eat in silence.

Then a hacking noise comes from above. Jia thinks at first she's imagining it-but when she's pretty sure she's heard a very loud and exaggerated cough come from above for the the third time, she looks finally looks up.

Sitting above them on the wall is a large white egg (or at least, that's what it appears to be), with long white legs dangling off the edge. Half of the egg's body-shell, rather-is docked in a green outfit, while a cravat is fastened neatly around his waist. He's looking down at them expectantly, almost desperately, eyes watering.

"Is there something you need?" Jia asks politely.

At the sound of Jia's voice, Min looks up: first at her, then to where Jia is staring. Her eyes narrow at the sight of the egg.

"I-" The egg's eyes dart nervously between the two girls. He licks his lips. "That looks mighty delicious."

"What? Oh." Jia looks down at the cake in her hands. "Do you want some, then?"

The egg nods eagerly.

Min bends her head down and leans into Jia. "What do you think you're doing?" she hisses. "You can't just offer food to people in the street!"

"Yes, but he looks hungry, doesn't he?"

Jia holds up her slice of pound cake to the egg, and in one swift motion, he swipes it out of her hand, tosses it into his mouth and gobbles it up, and then smacks his lips together.

"Mm, that hits the spot," he says, licking the crumbs from his fingers. "Where are you girls heading?" He peers down beneath his hand.

Jia opens her mouth to answer, but Min quickly says, "That's none of your business." She shoves the rest of her own cake into her mouth, swallows, and then gets up and says to Jia, "Come on, we're leaving."

"I-but wait!" the egg shouts indignantly.

Min regards him coldly as she starts walking away. When she realizes that Jia's not following her, she spins around and glares.

"Well? Aren't you coming?" she snaps.

"Yeah, but-" Jia glances up at the egg, who again is looking back and forth between them. "He said he wanted us to wait."

"So?" Min snorts and reaches out to grab Jia's wrist. "Come on. We don't have time for this."

"But Min-"

Min lets go of her."You're saying that you'd rather spend time with a talking inanimate object instead of me?"

"No! That's not what I meant at all! I just think-"

"You're going to listen to someone you've given some of your food to, but not someone whom you've spent the past days with? Someone you've kissed? Someone who knows you more than you know yourself?"

Min's eyes glow with fury. Jia recoils.

"Min, I just-I just thought-"

CRASH!

Both girls spin around to see large white shards scattered on the ground below the wall where the egg had sat, even though the egg has disappeared from sight. Among the shards is a large green cravat; but there isn't a single trace of clothing with them. Come to think of it, the shards sort of look like parts of a broken egg shell.

The king's men rush over and jump off their horses, starting to put the pieces back together again..

Min sniffs. "Good riddance," she says from Jia's side. "Come on, we better get going."

And Jia follows her, feeling like she's leaving something behind.

***

It seems like each adventure is slowly fading away, from journey to journey, dissolving into the air. Jia struggles to keep herself in the moment-only, she doesn't even know what the moment is. Maybe this is all just a dream. Maybe one day she'll wake up and remember everything that's never happened to her.

But not today. Because today she's on a briny beach, sitting on the sand next to Min, listening to a large old Turtle sing. What seems to be a Gryphon is sitting on a boulder next to the Turtle, watching him intently.

When the Turtle finishes warbling, Min and Jia clap politely. The Gryphon flaps its feathery wings, cawing appreciatively.

The Turtle beams and bows his head. "Thank you, thank you, thank you very much."

"You sounded horrible," says the Gryphon, smiling. (That is, if Gryphons can smile.)

"I know. Are you up for another one?" says the Turtle.

"Sing the Ode that I wrote!" says the Gryphon.

"But that one is terrible," says the Turtle, batting his head playfully against the Gryphon's body.

The Gryphon frowns. ëI like to think that that one is quite lovely myself, thank you very much."

"Well I'm not going to sing it."

"Why not?"

"The lyrics are nonsense! Why would you skin a sheep?"

"Because their skin is quite lovely!"

"That's shear my old friend-you shear a sheep."

"You can skin a sheep too!"

While the two animals continue arguining, Jia moves closer to Min. "Where are we?" she whispers.

Min frowns at her. "You mean you forget? We're on a beach, of course. I brought you here to listen to the Mock Turtle's tales."

"Oh." Jia searches through her head, trying to recall any of this being mentioned to her. She finds nothing.

Min merely laughs and leans over to kiss her on the cheek. "You're cute when you're confused," she says, grinning widely.

The Turtle and the Gryphon pause and turn to them.

"Aw, isn't that sweet?" the Gryphon croons.

"Makes me wish I had a mate myself," the Turtle says wistfully.

"Thanks, you guys," says Min, getting up and dusting her dress off. She gazes at them, not looking fazed at all. "It was nice talking to you. Jia and I will be going now."

"Ohohoho," says the Gryphon. "Are you now? You girls feel safe, going through the forest alone?"

"Of course. I've got Jia with me." Min grins and tugs at Jia's wrist. "Come on. We should get going now." She starts leading them away.

"Wait-Wait, but where are we going?" asks Jia, running after her.

The Turtle and the Gryphon laugh.

"Look at how lost she is," crows the Gryphon.

"Are you sure you can trust her to come with you?" the Turtle says to Min, chuckling.

"I trust her," says Min, pulling on Jia's hand. "Even when she's crazy most of the time."

She and the two animals laugh. The Gryphon peers down at Jia.

"Tell me, dear girl, do you know where you are now? Where you come from?"

Jia furrows her eyebrows in concentration, trying to block out everything else in her head, where nonsense is swimming about. She tries and tries to remember, to remember where everything is, where all of this had started, when everything had happened: she goes through each memory, each dream. In the very back of her mind, though, she can see a long dark tunnel, with a faint bright hole in the distance; but the rest of it is all dark, empty.

"I don't... I don't know," she whispers.

The Turtle howls with laughter.

Min, however, just snorts and rolls her eyes. "You guys are fucking insane," she says to the two animals. Then she turns to Jia. "Want to go back to the castle?" Min asks gently.

Jia nods numbly, still searching. "Yeah," she says. "Let's go."

***

Days and nights pass, though Jia doesn't know this for sure by the way her mind is stilted slightly. Min leads her into places, through alleys, in between trees and thrushes and buildings. Jia follows her with an open mind and an empty heart, turning right and left and left and right until she doesn't know if she's right or wrong anymore. They keep running and running, not long enough for Min to make a crude remark, not short enough for Jia to remember-but does she want to remember anyways? The world whizzes past them like a thought in the breeze, and Jia holds her hand out to catches it. She misses.

They finally end up in a large polished room, though Jia doesn't quite remember how they had gotten here. She tries to focus at the matter at hand; except the matter at hand is that she doesn't have her head on straight and she doesn't know how to fix it.

Min's eyes meeting hers for the first time in a while suddenly stop her mess of thoughts, and Jia holds onto her gaze, trying to find something in them. But Min merely says, "You've been quiet an awful lot, Jia. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm-" Jia clears her throat, finding her voice. "I'm all right."

Min shrugs. "Okay," she says. "I trust you. Now come on, follow me." She goes to the curtain at the end of the room.

"Where are we going?" says Jia as she follows her, watching as Min pulls back the curtain.

Min glances to her. "The castle, of course," she says. "The Red Castle. We always pass through this room whenever we go in or out."

"We-We do?" Jia doesn't remember coming here before. She doesn't remember at all.

"Yes," Min says patiently. "Now help me move this curtain, it's always so heavy."

She and Jia push the purple velvet aside until there's a slight opening between the fabric, which they slip through. The other side, to Jia's disappointment, is exactly the same. The only difference between the two rooms is a glass table in the corner, and a small golden door on the far wall.

Min runs over to it, with Jia trailing behind, still lost in her thoughts. Min rattles the doorknob, until it suddenly lets out a loud sneeze and shouts, "Well that won't do you a lot of good!"

"Open up!" Min says to the door. "Come on, let us through!"

"No," the doorknob says sullenly, apparently a bit offended at Min's ruthlessness. "Squeezing my nose isn't going to help, you know."

"Goddammit," curses Min. She spins around and starts pacing the black-and-white floor. "Stupid fucker... help me, Jia!"

Jia, who'd just realized that they're standing on a chessboard, jerks up. "Yeah?" she says.

"Help me find a key," says Min.

"I still won't let you through!" shouts the doorknob, but neither of them listens. Jia runs to the table she had seen earlier, while Min studies the grounds.

A small golden key lays on the table top. Jia blinks for a moment to make sure she's not hallucinating. Then, gingerly, she picks it up from the glass surface and holds it for a second. She'd expected that the key would morph into something, or at least sprout and grow wings; but other than being a little heavier than size would suggest, it seems to be completely ordinary.

After a moment of contemplation, Jia calls across the room, "Min, I... I think I found it!"

Min walks over to her and beams when she sees the key in Jia's hand. "Yes! That's it!" She grabs it and fiddles it into the hole on the doorjamb. The doorknob makes an odd sound like it's being choked, but Min pays no attention. After a brief click!, the door swings open, and a small breeze flutters through the room.

"Let's go!" Min says cheerfully.

Jia dubiously glances between them. "Aren't we a little too big?" she says, eyeing the doorway which only comes up to their waists.

Min laughs lightly. "Oh yes. I forgot." She pulls out a small blue vial from her dress pocket and hands it to Jia. "Here. This will make us smaller."

Jia feels a bit skeptical, but takes the vial from her anyways. After squeezing three drops of the liquid in her mouth, she hands it to Min, who does the same. Both of the girls shrink at an alarming rate, but it's over as soon as it had started.

Min smiles at her and takes her hand, before leading them into whatever's beyond the door. And what is beyond the door is, as far as Jia can tell, a desert. It doesn't seem to be anything more, even though Jia had expected something more interesting, something more exciting. For a moment, though, she swears she sees a raven sitting on a writing desk-but then it disappears, and she wonders if it had been just a figment of her imagination, and if she's merely hallucinating.

But I can't be hallucinating, she says to herself in her mind. Because Min had said that everything here is real. But Min had also said that Jia's also a little crazy, which Jia isn't sure if she should believe, too. But she should trust Min, right? Min knows what to do. Min knows everything here. Min knows where they're going. Or at least, nags another part of Jia's brain, so she claims.

Jia shushes this part of her mind. Why should she doubt Min? Min has all the answers, Min comforts her-she likes Jia. She wouldn't lie to Jia. Min knows where they're going, and even if she doesn't, she knows how to get them out of trouble. Sure, she had led them to the Jabberwocky-but that had just been a poor judgment of safety in her part, and Jia isn't going to start blaming her for that now. Everyone makes mistakes, and Min makes them too. It doesn't mean that Jia should think of her any less.

They walk on for a good while in silence, with Min occasionally humming under her breath and Jia observing the land around them. It's all desolate, abandoned. The air is dry and thick with heat, though not thick enough to make her thirsty at all. But she's in a desert-she should feel thirsty, right? Maybe Jia is just losing her head. Min wouldn't like that.

Jia strains her eyes as she looks around. Nothing seems to have changed in the desert; they hadn't seen a single cactus, or at least some sort of strange desert animal that this place would have. Jia wonders if they really had passed through that polished room and this desert every time they had come in-and out-of the castle. Surely she'd remember. But as she searches through her mind, no memories come to her-no memories between the Insect House and the Main Hall, no memories between leaving the Castle and staring at the night sky. She frowns to herself a little and wonders where they're going, anyways. How are they supposed to find the Castle in a place like this?

Squinting into the distance, Jia tries to perhaps find a door or maybe a large figure waiting for them ahead. But there's nothing. Absolutely nothing. All there is is the white, white sky and the invisible sun beating down on their necks, and suddenly Jia's head feels even lighter than before. Where are they? Which direction are they walking in? What if they're just going in circles, going absolutely nowhere, or maybe have been veered off course, or are even just going back to that annoying talking door? Jia's hands grow clammy as she thinks more and more-they don't seem to be going anywhere in particular, and Min looks completely carefree, like she's barely paying attention to where they're walking. All of a sudden, a strange panic overcomes Jia as she turns to Min, fear rising in her throat.

But then she pauses and stops herself, urging her body and mind to calm down. Min knows where she's going. Jia had told herself this earlier. Of course Min knows where they're going; she always does. Why should Jia doubt her now? Min will lead them somewhere safe, and then they'll be together at another place, content and happy. But the paranoia nags at the back of Jia's mind, so when Min turns to her expectantly, she asks her question anyways.

"Hey, do you know where we're going?" she asks in the most casual voice she can muster.

"Nope," says Min cheerfully.

A chill runs up Jia's spine, and suddenly she feels cold even in this blazing weather.

"N-No?" she says, and her voice is quiet, to her immense surprise. "What do you mean?"

"What do you think I mean?" Min scoffs. "I mean, no. I don't know where we're going."

A lead block settles in Jia's stomach. Min doesn't know where they're going. Min doesn't know where she's leading them. Min doesn't know-Min doesn't know anything.

Min doesn't know.

Jia stops suddenly, dropping Min's hand. Min turns around and stares at her, eyebrows raised.

"What?" she says, seemingly annoyed.

"Isn't this your castle?" Jia's voice sounds too loud for her ears. "Isn't this your home? Shouldn't you know where you're going?"

"Well," says Min. "Yes."

"Then why don't you?!" Jia all but shrieks.

Alarmed, Min walks over to her. "Whoa, calm down," she says, putting her hands up in self-defense. "You weren't like this when we first came here."

"That's because I can't remember when we first came here!" Jia shouts, sounding nearly hysterical. "I can't remember-I can't remember anything, anything we did, anything we said, all that we- all that we experienced-"

"Are you all right?" Min says concernedly, leaning down and looking deep into Jia's eyes.

Jia nearly explodes in that moment. "Oh yes, I'm fine!" she yells sarcastically, tearing her gaze away. "I'm just great and fine and dandy-no, I'm not fucking fine!" The curse word comes out of her lips strangely, like something foreign. "I'm not okay at all! Do you see-Do you see where we are? We're in nothing! Nothing! We're in the middle of nowhere, because you-you have no idea where we're going and we're not going anywhere and we're utterly and completely lost, and we're hopeless, an-and it's all your f-fault!"

She's crying at this point, collapsed on the hot stand, tears streaming down her face. Min kneels down beside her and rests a small hand on Jia's wrist, trying to make eye contact.

"Jia-" she starts.

"Don't!" Jia pulls her hand away. "Don't you see? I'm scared, Min! I'm scared! I'm scared that we're lost, and I'm scared that we'll be stuck here forever, and I-I'm scared that I'll never go back home! There's nothing we can do-we'll just be in this desert for the rest of our lives and we'll die here and be buried in the sand, and- and no one's going to come and no one's going to kn-know and I c-can't-" She blubbers into her palm and tries to wipe her tears away, but they spill even more furiously, splashing around her and scorching the hardened sand underneath her legs.

Min's soft voice says, "Oh-Oh Jia, don't be like this."

Jia sniffs.

"Come on, Jia."

A hand touches her own. Jia is cautious in taking it, but when she feels the warm hand turn over small in her palm, she grasps onto it. The hand helps her up, and leads her away, in a direction that Jia can hardly make out. Jia continues crying softly and sniffling into her hand, eyes blurred from seeing anything clearly beyond her own wrist. But she doesn't care-all she wants is to get out of here, now, leave and be gone.

They walk a little longer before Jia feels the sand turn into hard stone beneath her feet. She glances up and looks through her eyelashes, to see that they're in the Main Hall of the Red Castle. Min is looking at her, still worried. Jia's insides turn cold at the sight.

"Are you all right now?" Min asks gently.

Jia pushes back the tears still threatening to spill from behind her eyes. "I want to go home," she says. It comes out a bit quiet, but she knows that Min will be able to hear it.

Min blinks, and then leans her head in as if she hadn't heard correctly. But her eyes as wide as saucers give herself away. "What?" she says.

"I said, I want to go home."

Min stares at her for a good ten seconds. Then her expression hardens.

"You can't," she says.

"I can," says Jia. "Now tell me how to get home."

Min clenches her jaw and her eyes narrow.

"No."

Jia looks into her eyes and sees that there's something there, something unreadable. "Well fine," she says fiercely. "I'll just go figure it out myself."

She turns on her heel and storms out the hall, to the left corridor where she and Min had gone her first time. When she hears footsteps following her, her hands curl into fists at her sides. From behind, she can hear Min call, "You won't figure it out!"

"I will!" she shouts back. The footsteps quicken, and Jia walks even faster, faster and faster until she breaks out into a run. She can hear Min running too; somehow this knowledge pushes her to run even harder.

"What do you think you're doing?!" yells Min. "Running away from me like this? Being the scaredy cat that you've always been?"

"I'm not the scared one; you are!" shouts Jia. "You've always been scared, of what you knew was right, of what the world is supposed to be-finding comfort in things you know that can always be changed!"

Min is silent at these words, though Jia can hear that she's gaining speed. Then Min's voice finally yells, "At least I know who I am! You don't even know-Poor little Jia, always looking to other people for comfort, faking your own sanity-What am I now, a forgotten security blanket?"

Jia refuses to turn around, although she can feel the tears swelling up inside her already. She charges through the endless maze of halls, lights flickering from the shadowed corridors, sunlight seeping through the glass windows above.

"What happened to staying here forever?" screams Min. "With me! What happened to me?"

Jia tries to pound these words out of her head. "You don't know what you're talking about!"

Min's sardonic laughter rings through the next corridor. "Do I, Jia? I don't know what I'm talking about? If I didn't, then why did you listen to me-why did you stay with me?"

They run from hall to hall, through dark and light.

"I DON'T KNOW!" yells Jia, and tries to find somewhere to go, anywhere-but she's faced with another blank wall so she just keeps on running, running and running.

"LIKE HELL YOU DON'T!" shrieks Min, sounding near deranged. "WHEREAS I, I KNEW WHAT TO DO, I KNEW WHAT TO SAY-I KNEW YOU, JIA! I KNEW EVERYTHING ABOUT YOU! I THOUGHT YOU TRUSTED ME!"

"HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO TRUST YOU IF YOU DIDN'T KNOW WHAT YOU WERE DOING HALF THE TIME?!"

Their voices echo off the walls, reverberating with each footstep.

"GET BACK HERE!" Min screams, just as Jia turns a corner and spots a door. She runs towards it and tears it open, not knowing what to expect.

To her great surprise, she's back in Min's bedroom-even though she doesn't know how she had gotten here. She stops in her tracks and gazes around. The room is as still and white as ever, completely undisturbed. Jia stares at it all like she's seen them efore, in a dream.

Footsteps sound near the doorway. Jia spins around to see Min leaning against the door frame, breathing heavily and watching her. Min seems as shocked as she is.

"What do you think you're doing?" she growls.

Her voice seems to trigger something inside Jia, and she turns away. She has to leave, she has to escape from Min-she runs, desperately trying to find her way home.

"Get back!" shouts Min from behind her, and the chase starts once more.

And Jia pays no heed to her words, but instead looks straight ahead-her eyes widen when she sees her own reflection staring back. Then she blurs for a moment; she sees something in the distance...

Min's panicked voice cries, "Wait, Jia, don't-!" but Jia blocks her voice out. She closes her eyes as she continues to run, and braces herself for impact, for pain, for nothing...

"Jia, what are you-"

is all she hears before her body makes contact with the mirror, with herself-and everything turns black. In the distance, she can hear a crash, a shatter, a voice continuously shouting through the darkness, "Jia! Jia! Jia!"

...and then she's falling...

"Jia! Jia! Jia!"

A hand slaps her hard across the face. Jia opens her eyes to see two blurry figures above her, staring down at her.

"Should we get some help?" says a voice worriedly.

"I-I'm fine," Jia murmurs, shaking and rubbing her head. She glances back up to see two familiar faces staring down at her, concerned.

"Are you sure?" says Suzy. "You look really pale-Well, paler than usual."

"I'm fine," repeats Jia, this time with a bit more confidence. She falters when she sees where she is.

"What happened?" she asks.

"You hit your head on a log and passed out," says Fei, indicating something behind Jia's head. Jia turns around and sees a log resting on a small grassy mound. Nothing else seems to have changed.

"I told you, I'm fine," she says.

When she turns back to her friends, she sees a strange expression on Suzy's face.

"What's that?" says Suzy, reaching out to touch Jia's cheek.

"What's what?" Jia lifts up her own hands to feel her face as well..

Suzy frowns and pulls back. "There-There's red stuff."

"Oh." Jia touches her other cheek. "Must be blood from the fall, or something."

"No, it's not." Fei leans in to examine her. "It looks like lipstick."

All of a sudden, memories wash over Jia like a bucket of ice cold water. Memories of Min... memories of a castle... memories of a Cat... memories of a world forgotten...

"Does it? That's what I thought," says Suzy, looking pleased as she glances at Fei.

Fei nods. "Yeah. Didn't know you wore make up, Jia." She giggles. "Come on, we should probably go see if supper is ready."

"Yeah! I wonder if my mom made us smoked chicken..."

As the two girls run off, Jia glances around. It all looks the same, the way it's always been. The tree across from her, the hill on the side, the sun standing still in the sky.

She moves off the mound again, and pushes away the log. She isn't too surprised when she sees a small hole behind it. "That wasn't very funny, you know," she says to the hole. "And I really thought that all of that did happen."

She's about to turn away when something in the cavern catches her eye: something glinting, bright. At first she thinks it's nothing; but the second flash of white is unmistakable, like a wide, wide smile. Jia waits for a moment, for another response, for anything else-but nothing else comes.

Yet, as she turns around, she swears she catches a glimpse of a pair of shining black eyes staring up at her, so real that they make the world around them look fake.

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Poll Round 7: two in a crowded room while others fade away