Have you ever misplaced something just for a moment to realize it’s seemingly gone missing? Usually it’s small things. Loose change, or maybe a pencil. It rolls out of sight, and when you check, you usually find it in a few moments.
But what about the things you don’t find? Days turn to weeks, weeks turn to months, and months to years, but those missing things never turn up. Where do you suppose those things go? I often wondered about that myself, but something happened to me that finally put my doubts to rest. Please, bear with me. This might sound a little crazy.
It all started years ago; I was still in middle school back then. My parents usually worked nights, and being an only child meant I was home alone most of the time. Of course, they didn’t see that as a problem, it was a safe community, and I know now that my parents needed the money. Being a kid in the 2000s, there wasn’t much to do. Thankfully I had my Gameboy Advance to keep myself occupied.
So there I was, on the living room couch, my legs propped over the armrest. The game screen flickered to life, and I began to play Pokémon Ruby. I had gotten the game earlier that week, and was making good progress. After just a few hours, I was at the elite four. It wasn’t exactly nighttime yet, but it was getting there. I could feel daylight slowly fading. After a while of playing, I was famished, so I left my spot on the couch to go get something to eat, tossing the Gameboy back as I walked off.
A few minutes later, I returned with a plate full of cheese and crackers. The music of the game sounded muffled, distant, actually. I let out a chuckle as I realized what had happened. The Gameboy must have slipped through the cushions when I tossed it onto the couch. My hands plunged into the depths of the couch as though I was digging for buried treasure. Feeling along the sides of the couch for my Gameboy, I noticed something very odd; the deeper my arm went, the more distant the music sounded. I would have said it was falling down a pit if I didn’t know better.
“C’mon, where are you?… Ow!” I yanked my hand free of the cushion, and there was a light cut along the entire back of it. Not deep enough to draw blood, but it had torn the skin.
I gripped the cushion and dragged it completely off the couch in retaliation. My eyes met with an unexpected sight. There was a circular hole right underneath the cushion. The hole was big, almost as big as the cushion that laid on top of it. The sight was eerie, my spine tingled, and my blood ran cold just from looking at it.
“What the hell? Has that always been there?” I whispered to myself.
I was terrified, yet I could still notice the dull flicker of the Gameboy’s light twinkling from within the hole. It felt like it was falling, and the deeper it plummeted, the more the light faded. Its shrill, high-pitched jingle had waned to a whisper.
Not soon after that, the small light in the darkness vanished. Did it reach the bottom? Had it broke? Or was it so far gone that it simply was no longer visible?
Slowly, cautiously, I reached for the hole. My fingers twitched as they grazed the corner of the couch. I was scared, but there was no way I was letting my Gameboy go. I plunged my hand into the hole. I was shocked to find the other side surprisingly roomy. I even had enough space to swipe from side to side. Then without warning, something grabbed my arm. It yanked and tugged so hard that I feared my arm would be ripped right off.
“Crap! Shit!! Fuck!!!” I stammered as I struggled to no avail. Within a split second, I was sucked into the hole. It felt like I was falling into a dark, soggy well with no bottom. I screamed till my face turned blue. The echo of my voice rang in my ears. Were my eyes even open anymore? I couldn’t tell. It felt like I was having one of those falling dreams, only I wasn’t waking up, no matter how hard I tried.
The feeling of being weightless and being unable to see made my senses numb. I don’t know how long I fell, but a sudden thud knocked every sense back into me. My body was rolling down a hill. By the time my momentum stopped carrying me downward, my whole body was sore and bruised. Slowly, I pushed through the pain and rose to my feet. My knees wobbled, and my legs felt hollow, but I endured it.
Finally, after taking a few minutes to catch my breath. I looked around me and was stunned by what I saw. There were mountains of toys, trinkets, and dolls everywhere I looked. Anything you could think of was right there. Each knick-knack glistened flawlessly. My jaw hung open, and my eyes were ready and primed to pop out of their sockets.
“Wow, where am I?” I whispered to myself. The only sounds I could hear were the echo of my voice and the metallic clanking of more things falling from the sky.
It was like a landfill but shinier. I tried to walk but slipped on a small pile of coins. My hand shot out and grabbed hold of something, and I barely stopped myself from taking another tumble downwards into the dump.
The coins jingled all the way down. Some fell into cracks and crevices, but others continued to bounce and find their way down further and further. It felt like I was standing over a ledge. One wrong move, and I would fall God knows how far.
There were mountains of treasure everywhere I looked. A vast ocean of missing items stretched as far as the eye could see. The only light source was from an arrangement of holes above each pile, high in the sky. Pale beams of light filtered through them, cascading to the pile below like sun rays piercing through dark clouds.
“Look at all this stuff!” I muttered to myself.
Now, you’d think a child would panic under these circumstances? Cry out, scream, or maybe even wet himself. Surprisingly, I did none of those. There were so many things that caught my attention. In a way, this was like a dream come true. I could have anything I wanted here. Every knick-knack, gizmo, and doodad was mine for the taking! My little hands fumbled through every bit of the pile. Already shoulder deep, I felt as if my hand sunk even deeper until it grasped a familiar shape. When I pulled it out, there was a small, green cartridge. The front had that familiar, yet also unfamiliar wording. “Pokémon Emerald”
“Awesome! A new pokemon game!!” I yelled.
I had nearly every game up to this point, but I’d never heard of an Emerald version; maybe it was one of those ROM hacks I’d heard about. I stuck it in my pocket and continued searching. Now, I wasn’t at all familiar with what I grabbed next, but I knew enough to know it was a Yugioh card. “Armed Dragon LV7”.
“A super rare Yugioh card! That’s so cool!” I yelled even louder. “ Wait till mom and dad hear about this!”
The card glimmered all over, from the text to the background image on it. I shoved it in my pocket and dug my hand deeper still. If I could find so much incredible stuff at the top of the pile, surely the bottom would have even better trinkets. Suddenly, my hands grazed against something that felt soft, even organic. It definitely wasn’t made of plastic.
“Oh I wonder…” I said as I tugged on it. At first, the object didn’t give, but with enough force a wet squelch could be heard as it came free. My face contorted in horror as I saw a severed arm in my hand. It had begun to fester and rot. Strips of flesh hung from its bones.
“Aaaah!” I let out an ear-splitting shriek and tossed it away. Instinctively, I ran as fast as my short legs could carry me. I skidded to a halt and then stood before a large flat screen TV. It wasn’t the TV that caught my attention, it was something else. Scrawled in blood on the TV’s shimmering screen were the words:
‘Beware the Collectors.’
“The Collectors? What’s that?” I muttered. Suddenly, a whole television set crashed a few inches away from me, and a landslide began. I slid down even further until I found myself at the base of the mound.
The bottom was dark and moldy. The smell was horrible, as if something had just decided to pass away in the summer sun. It took all my strength to hold down the few slices of cheese and crackers I had earlier.
“Okay, that’s it, I’ve seen enough! I wanna go home…” I whimpered, fighting back the tears that had begun to well in my eyes. I wanted to just click my heels and reappear in my house.
Just a few feet away lay the largest bird I’d ever seen, or what remained of it at least. A vulture, possibly a condor? The majority of its feathers had long since been plucked from its body, along with its insides. The creature had been hollowed out and left to dry in the damp dark. What could have done such a thing to a bird of prey?
It was at that moment that I heard a spine-tingling scream. Now, when I say scream, I don’t mean a shout or even someone yelling. It was a guttural, heart-wrenching screech. The noise continued to ring out, and I followed after it, over a small mound and through a tunnel of debris.
Though the tunnel was only a few inches wide, I was just small enough to wriggle my way through with small resistance. I squeezed out the other side, and what I saw next shocked me to my core. No more than a dozen meters away, a person was lying on the ground in a pool of his own blood. His entrails sprawled out on the floor. Three small creatures stood over the man. They looked gaunt and sickly. Their quivering skin scintillated with the purest shades of obsidian. They had six arms sticking out of their torsos, three on each side. Small pouches lined their backs like the pockets of a shirt; each was stuffed with gold, rubies, and other forms of jewelry. Their black, beady eyes had a soulless glint about them.
These creatures surrounded the man. One held him down while others dug into his body. Two others tugged on his intestines until a wet pop rippled through the air, followed by another scream. Their mouths made strange clicking noises as they devoured him. That was something I never wanted to hear again, even the memory of it causes my stomach to turn.
I was petrified. All I could do was watch silently as those disgusting creatures clawed, gnawed, and stuffed the man’s innards into their pockets. An image of the television screen flashed through my mind. ‘Beware the Collectors’ I thought as I stared onward.
Seeing the man’s bloody remains made me realize everything I had collected until that point was worthless. I knew I needed to find a way out of this place and fast.
Slowly, cautiously, I began to retreat, but my hand inadvertently nicked a toy. Without warning, the toy robot made a squawky ticking noise and colorful lights began to strobe out.
This immediately attracted the Collectors’ attention. Their large, malformed heads snapped toward me. The Collectors shrieked so loudly that the whole place seemed to reverberate from the sound of their eerie, high-pitched voice.
My legs tottered. My arms were heavy, and to my surprise, they were full of trinkets and shiny objects. Honestly, I don’t even know when I had picked all of this stuff up. I let go of the load I was carrying, and it all clattered to the ground. I made a run for it, turning my neck to steal glances at them with each stride. Three of the creatures quickly gave chase and were hot on my heels. I had thought that the creatures were naturally obsidian-colored before, but closer now, I could see it was dried blood.
I sprang through the narrow space I crawled out from. The tunnel was seemingly smaller now, but I tore and clawed at anything in my way and threw whatever I could back at the little killers behind me. It was just enough to slow them down, and I escaped the tunnel, now running down a path between mountains of treasure. Any thoughts of retrieving my Gameboy had left me, I just wanted to get out of there, to go home. I managed to lose one of them as I sprinted. But there were still two hot on my tracks.
“Help! Someone help me!” I cried as the impish creatures gained ground.
No matter how far I ran or the turns I made through this winding labyrinth, the creatures always found me. Their line of sight was never broken for more than a few meager seconds.
Finally, I broke out into a clearing. The only thing in sight was a giant, marooned ship. There was a large hole in the hull, and as I ran up to it. For a split second, I wondered what a massive ship like this could be doing here. Then all those documentaries I saw about ships and planes getting lost in the Bermuda Triangle flashed across my mind. Tiny items like paper clips, pencils, jewelry, and erasers weren’t the only thing that got lost but big things like planes and cars also got lost too.
The violent taps of the Collectors’ footsteps broke my train of thought. I bolted through the breach in the hull.
The ship’s interior was moldy and rusted; every inch of its metallic frame filled my heart with dread. But nothing could compare to the terror I felt from the monsters pursuing me. I zoomed up a set of stairs. Each staircase creaked noisily, ready to snap at a moment’s notice. I nearly fell through as I stomped hard on the last staircase, but I caught myself and staggered forward. The Collectors stopped at the foot of the stairs. They watched for a few pensive moments, snapping and snarling at me before they slipped into the darkness.
I remember wondering why they stopped chasing me then, and I couldn’t fathom any reason, I was glad they did though. But I knew I wasn’t out of the woods yet. Not by a long shot. I made my way up the second set of stairs. My initial thoughts were just to escape the Collectors that were chasing me, but now my thoughts led me to believe that maybe there was a shiny weapon.
My palm met the side of my head, and I smacked it several times. “No, no… It doesn’t need to be shiny…” I whispered to myself.
Looking out into the distance at the mountains of things, my heart couldn’t help but flutter in my chest. Something about this place, it was warping my way of thinking, even my actions, to an extent. I couldn’t let that happen again, or else… The image of the man on the floor flashed through my mind, and the butterflies in my chest quickly turned to dread in the pit of my stomach.
My eyes scanned the deck, and I realized that it was empty. There were no weapons, nothing to defend myself with. All that was left was the Captain’s quarters. The handle didn’t turn, and the door didn’t budge. There was a clicking noise to my side, but when I looked, there was nothing. I knew one of those things was still stalking me. Lurking in the dark. Waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike.
“C’mon, c’mon…” I stuttered as I shoved the door repeatedly.
By this point, I was practically throwing myself at the door, trying to force myself inside. I heard more skittering, clawing, and scratching between my attempts. Finally, the Collector threw itself over the ship’s rails and onto the deck. It stared at me with beady black eyes. Grinning from ear to ear. Its little black gums glimmered through as it approached.
I pounded on the door some more to no avail. The Collector threw itself at me and pushed me to the ground. Its small, black fingers fit snugly around my wrist. The first thing I noticed was its touch, but then its smell. Its odor was a mixture of rusted pennies and rotten flesh. The scent of iron filled my lungs, and I had to hold my breath. It was so overpowering I almost gagged on my own puke. I could feel my heart beating in my ears. Fear coursed through my body, and it was what it wanted. I tried to pry my arm free, to escape, but it didn’t budge. It squeezed my wrist. At first, it was light, but more pressure was added like a vice. My free hand clamped over my mouth to try and stifle a scream. The thought of what had happened to the last man that screamed was still fresh in my mind, and I held it back as a sickening crunch echoed.
My hand felt around in my pocket now, and I pulled out the card I had found earlier. “Armed Dragon LV7”. I held it just inches from the creature’s face, and the round, black orb-like eyes followed it. When it clawed for the card, I tossed it as far as I could, and my wrist was freed as it ran towards the card.
The door was no good. I had to run, but where? My only choice was to get past it and go back down the stairs. No more than a few steps, and I lost my footing. I was on the ground once again. I tried to push myself up, but my wrist screamed out in pain. When I looked up, the creature that had been obsessing over the card tossed it to the side. My back was pressed against the mast, and I kicked at the Collector. It mounted me and began to claw at me. Its talon-like nails dug into my skin, blood spattered with each swipe. I felt as if my flesh was being flayed. I couldn’t hold back any longer, and I screamed.
I thought I would regret it. That a swarm of them would be coming now, but something entirely different happened. There was a bang on the door to the Captain’s quarters. It was so strong, the door nearly blew off its hinges. My head snapped around, the same as the Collectors. With the next shove, the door broke free, and the glass around it shattered. My assailant had stopped attacking me, but my heart was ready to burst just as the door had. What could be standing within the Captain’s quarters? A bear? Something even worse than the Collectors? I was too scared to know.
I shut my eyes tight. There was one more thud and then a violent whimper, it almost sounded like a puppy crying. Then suddenly, silence. My entire body was shaking at this point. Honestly, I just wanted to sink into the ship’s mast and be back in my house, but that didn’t happen. Then I heard the sound of a female voice speaking up.
“It’s okay now, I got rid of him. You can open your eyes.” A woman’s voice rang out, but my body refused to move. Every muscle was tensed up to the point that it was frozen still. “Are you gonna open your eyes, or do I have to do it for you?”
Not a moment had passed before I felt fingertips prying my eyelids open, and I jerked away from her hands. She wasn’t anything as I expected. A small frame and a long, frilly dress. She looked like one of those Barbie dolls I see girls always play with. Her skin looked as polished and smooth as porcelain. Her arms were long and slender. Her bedraggled blond hair was wrapped into a ponytail. I was never any good at telling women’s ages, but I would say she looked to be in her early twenties.
She grabbed hold of me and pulled me to my feet. Her hands rummaged through my pockets, a wave of discomfort and some other unknown feeling rushed through me. Getting frisked by a tall blonde woman wasn’t exactly an activity a middle schooler was used to.
“Hey, what are you-?!”
She grabbed the Pokémon cartridge I had picked up earlier and yanked it out. Her hand closed around it, and tiny bits of scrap metal and plastic fell when she opened it again.
“Is that everything? Did you take anything else?” She asked, her big, glassy eyes flashing.
I was still too scared to speak. What was with that monstrous strength of hers?
“I said did you take anything else!?” Much harsher this time, she hissed the question at me.
All I could do was stutter out a response. “N-No! That was all I took, I swear!”
With this, she seemed relieved and let out a small sigh.
“That’s good. Now, what’s your name?” It was strange how the pitch of her voice was able to change so drastically. She sounded so angry just a moment ago; now, it was as if an angel had blessed my ears with her voice.
“M-Miles, my name is Miles…” was all I could stutter out in response. I had fallen back against the mast once again. My world was spinning.
The woman knelt down before me and took my hands in hers. “Well, Miles, it’s very nice to meet you. My name is Marianne!”
She gave my wrist a little squeeze, and then pulled my hand out, and then closed it. I winced in pain, but this just caused Marianne to chuckle.
“Thankfully, it’s not broken. Can you walk?”
I stood once again, and this time I was able to make it two whole steps before I fell over. Thankfully she caught me this time.
“I guess there’s no helping it. Come on, I’ll give you a piggyback ride.” And with that, she turned around and knelt for me. I hopped on her back, and we rounded the corner to the stairs. Then I looked back and noticed the Collector’s small body, or at least, what was left of it, still writhing and squirming. Its head had been banged to a pulp. The only thing left was a messy clump of blood and tissue.
But even with its head obliterated, the demonic creature still quivered and shook like an animal in the throes of death. Just how hard had she hit that thing? Whoever this mysterious woman was, she definitely wasn’t human.
“Hey, lady?”
“Yes?” she replied.
“Why are you helping me?”
She smirked.
“Well, I always help my friends,” she replied.
‘When the hell did I become friends with someone like this?’ I wondered. But then I decided to keep the thought to myself. It wouldn’t hurt to have a friend in a place like this.
“Hey, lady-“ As soon as my question began, I was interrupted.
“It’s Marianne, and yes?”
“Right! Marianne, what are those things?” My hand shot past her head, pointing out one of the Collectors on a mountaintop in the distance.
“Oh, those are Collectors.” She said it so nonchalantly, as though they were a normal sight.
“Okay… So, what are Collectors?”
“Oh, uhmm…They are small creatures that live in this dimension. They love to keep all the missing things that come to this world to themselves, especially the shiny ones. In a sense, I guess they’re like ravens or magpies but extremely possessive and a bit more violent.”
“In other words, they’ll scratch your eyes out if you try to take any of the stuff here…” I said.
“Exactly; you catch on quick, Miles!”
I couldn’t help but smile. For a moment, I felt as if I was back in school, being verbally rewarded for getting a correct answer. As much as I hated the place and the monotony of it, I yearned for it now.
“So, what is this place?” I asked her.
She pursed her lips as though she was attempting to piece together an answer that didn’t sound too crazy.
“Well, I can’t say for sure, but my theory is that this is some sort of pocket dimension where some of the things that go missing in your world end up. Why does it exist? And why do some missing things wind up here and others don’t? I don’t know. What I do know is that everything you see here was once held dear by someone… Everything here once belonged to someone who misses it very much,” she explained as we exited the derelict ship and slowly made our way through a narrow, winding path.
Her last words reminded me of my missing Gameboy, and then I wondered whether I would ever get it back.
We took a lonely path, yet behind the junk and trinkets that towered around us, I could see there were still some Collectors skulking around. But the fact that I had Marianne with me now made me feel a bit more at ease.
“So, since we’re playing twenty-one questions, what else would you like to ask me?” Her words took me off guard. But she was right, I must have had a million questions running through my mind.
“Uhm… How are you so strong?”
This question seemed to make her hesitate momentarily before she slowly answered.
“I work out… a lot.”
Even though I was a kid, I could tell that was not the secret behind her strength.
“C’mon, be honest!”
She gave a cheeky smirk before answering.
“Well, I can only say that this place transforms everything within it to suit its needs. I probably look a lot different in your world than I do here.
We went through another winding path, it was like a spindly maze of trash and treasure. Of course, I had more questions I wanted to ask, but I wasn’t sure if she’d answer them.
“Do you mind if I ask more questions?”
“Sure, go for it.” She replied. “I can only imagine how confusing all this must seem. I was a little confused too when I got here.”
“Okay, how long have you been here?”
Once again, there was a pause before she answered. “Hm, well, I can’t say. To be honest, I’ve lost count of the time that’s passed.”
My eyes widened as I processed her answer. Lost count? That means she’s been here for years, possibly her whole life. Warm drops of sweat dripped down my face as I considered whether the same fate awaited me.
“You’re scared, aren’t you?” She asked, as though she could sense my heart drumming faster.
“Just a little nervous, I-I’m fine,” I replied, trying my best to sound fine.
“Don’t worry, I won’t let you get stuck here. I’m going to get you back home, I promise.”
Her words made me feel better. But it also made me wonder about something else.
“What about you? Did you have a home before you got here?” I asked her. She stopped dead in her tracks. A jolt of fear surged through me.
“I’m sorry, was that too personal?”
“No… Be quiet,” she whispered as she took cover behind a pile of junk. Within mere seconds, a few blood-soaked Collectors came scurrying down the road. They were about six or seven in number. Each one clicked and screeched as they sauntered past our hiding spot. I was so scared, I couldn’t move, I couldn’t even breathe. I remained so still that I could feel my heart beating in my chest. One sniffed through the piles like a bloodhound. it was ebbing closer to where we were. Marianne’s muscles tightened. The only noise that could be heard was my heart about to explode, and her fist clenching shut, ready to strike.
Suddenly there was a loud crack in the distance, and all the heads of all the Collectors snapped towards it. Their aggressive clicking sound swirled, and they ran toward the direction of the noise.
After a few minutes, we crept out from our hiding spot.
“That was a close call.” Marianne heaved a sigh of relief.
“They were looking for something… They were looking for us.” I said, and Marianne nodded her head.
“Let’s hurry; we can’t risk them finding us before we get to where we are going.” She added, a tinge of urgency in her voice. Considering how well she took care of the first Collector, I felt like I was invincible with her around. But at that point, I realized how much danger we were in. Sure, she could handle one, but what if that was a fluke? What would happen if we were caught by a group like the one that had just passed? I shuddered at the thought of it.
Marianne quickened her pace.
My clammy hands clung to her cold shoulders. Her skin held no warmth. The texture was smooth, too smooth. There were no beads of sweat, spots, wrinkles, or smell. It was off-putting, yet it wasn’t the strangest thing I’d experienced today.
“Hey, Miles, can you close your eyes until I tell you to open them again?” She interrupted my train of thought, but I did as she said.
“Sure, is everything okay?”
“Yeah, everything is fine; just trust me.”
“Okay, I trust you.” I said, catching a glimpse of her smile before I closed my eyes.
We stopped walking. Then Marianne hushed me, and I remained perfectly still. Not a moment later, I heard the jingling of a bell and soft footsteps. A rancid odor filtered into my nose, like the smell of detergent mixed with death. It was awful, and so pungent that my nose almost refused to take in any more oxygen.
Someone or something was coming, and the closer it got, the more terrified I became. The soft footsteps stopped, and the odor drifted around. Marianne began to speak. My ears perked up, and I tried to listen in on their conversation, but I didn’t understand her words,
The strange creature responded in rattles. Its voice creaked like the clattering of chains. I was dying of curiosity, so I peaked just a tiny bit and immediately wished I didn’t. The thing Marianne was speaking to was more horrifying than any fever dream of mine I could conjure up.
It had the body of a human draped in a tattered brown cloak. But from its neck up, it was a millipede. Its grotty body towered ten feet upwards. Luster gold rings wrapped around each segment of its head. Each column had hundreds of tiny wriggly legs. Long rows of teeth dotted its gaping mouth, there were literally thousands of them. The creature’s head craned over Marianne as the both of them spoke.
I gasped in fear. It caught the monster’s attention and arched its head toward mine. Its rattling intensified. Marianne noticed that I peeked.
“I told you not to look! Now, look at what you…” Before she could finish talking to me, the monster rattled once again. Marianne immediately replied to it.
“No, he wants to leave, I told you that already!
Some sort of argument took place. I noticed we were in a market, and all kinds of shiny items littered the walls. There were swords, artifacts, necklaces, you name it.
“No way! That’s completely outrageous. You know he needs that!” Marianne yelled.
“Marianne, what… what does he want?” I stuttered.
“It’s not important, I-” While she spoke with me, the creature spoke up again, and Marianne growled back.
“No, especially not his heart!” Marianne finally let out a long sigh and then asked me a question.
“Miles, do you have anything that you brought with you when you came here that’s definitely yours? Something that holds any value to you?” One thing came to mind but was lost in a sea of things.
“Yeah, my Gameboy. But I don’t know where it is…” A heavy gust of air brushed past me, and from the nearest pile, there was a small thud and a clank, then my Gameboy appeared. Marianne scooped it up and handed it to me.
“If we give it to him, we’ll have a chance at getting you home. Are you okay with that?”
Before she was done speaking, I was already holding the Gameboy out into the open air. It dematerialized from my hand, and I saw it reappear on the shop’s back shelves. I’d made up my mind, no price was too steep to go home.
Marianne began to walk off now, leaving the shop far behind us. In the distance where we were heading, the mountains of treasure began to part for us. The path was straightforward.
“Marianne, who was that?”
“His existence predates even this place. He’s a Keeper, and comes here frequently to make trades in exchange for… things? Personally, I think he’s only a bit better than the Collectors. At least he’s willing to talk things over before he takes everything you’ve got. But hey! Now we can get you back. All we need to do is get to the end of this path on top of that pile, and you will be home free. ” She said, pointing to a hole above a pile, far in the sky which had now widened. Bright light flickered from it like an elevator waiting to be boarded.
It was a clear shot now, and I felt Marianne’s hands grip my legs as she whispered under her breath. “Hang on tight.” She ran while carrying me; this couldn’t exactly be called running though. It was like she was flying with each step. My heart was filled with hope, but all that hope was suddenly dashed when I heard clicking noises all around us. It first started as a whisper, then a chatter, then a cacophony of clicking, chirpings, and shrieks. Collectors were pouring out of every space, and every crevice.
The piles that moved out of our way had Collectors full of them. Marianne was able to vault over the first several, but soon enough, they were growing in number. They were ahead of us and behind now too.
“Hold on!” Marianne cried to me. My chest tightened as I braced for impact.
A small group climbed over each other to try and stop Marianne’s mad sprint, but she barged right through them. Our speed decreased substantially. They bit and clawed at her. I could feel Marianne’s legs slowly. Another swarm was already forming to try and grab a hold of her. She dug her arm into a nearby pile and pulled out a long, rusty crowbar.
She swung once and caved in the heads of two collectors. One flew towards her, and she flung again, its bones snapped like twigs. Another tried to latch onto her leg, and I stuck my own leg out and gave it a kick. It fell away, taking my left shoe with it. The more we fought off, however, the more that came. Then the unthinkable happened, the crowbar that Marianne had been swinging snapped in half.
Marianne was no longer sprinting, nor jogging even. Instead, it was a slow walk; any Collector approaching us was promptly met with her fist in their face. The disgusting creatures howled and cackled even louder as they sensed they were getting the upper hand. More of them poured in, one latched onto her leg, and we fell. I rolled onto the floor, and a collector quickly pounced on me, scratching and clawing. My right hand grazed a hammer. I stretched further and grabbed it. Then I buried it right into the Collector’s temple. It fell off me and began to writhe in pain.
Droves attacked Marianne, and she fought them off as much as she could. As the last of the Collectors fell, I swear I heard something crack. Marianne stopped moving.
“Marianne, are you okay?”
“Yes Miles.” She said with a cracked smile. “All you have to do is make it to the end, and you can go home. Don’t look back, I’ll keep them away from you, so just run when I give you the signal.”
“No, I’m not leaving you here!” I cried. Tears trickled down my eyes.
“I need you to be brave, Miles. Your folks are waiting for you at home.” Our reprieve ended as another wave of Collectors began to charge us.
“Now!” Marianne shouted.
I hobbled towards the exit. I could see the light twinkling from a distance. It was a rough landing. My entire body felt bruised, but I was ahead of the pack for now. My legs carried me like my life depended on it. No, my life did depend on it. Just another 50 meters, I saw it. It was as if someone cropped a piece of reality out. That was my way home. I turned to check on Marianne but slowed down for a moment. Something grabbed hold of my ankle, and I staggered forward. I tried to pull my leg forward, but it didn’t budge. The small, root-like fingertips held my leg firmly in place. My legs kicked at it with all my might, and I was freed.
That freedom didn’t last for long. As I pushed myself to my feet again, something threw its weight on me, and I collapsed under them. It was so heavy I thought I would suffocate. I tried to crawl forward, I tried to claw at the ground, to dig myself away, but nothing happened. Then I remembered the hammer I picked up. My hammer, where was it? My eyes darted feverishly, and I noticed it lying on the ground a few feet away. I must have dropped it during the chase.
But just when I thought all hope was lost, someone struck the Collector from behind, shattering its malformed skull. I looked up to see Marianne standing before me with her arm stretched out. Just as she did on the ship, only now her dress was tattered. Her right hand and left leg were missing. There were cracks all over her body, yet, there was no blood. I fought back the tears as I saw how much damage she had received for my sake.
“It’s okay, Miles. I don’t feel any pain.” She said as she pulled me to my feet. “Besides, I thought I already told you. I always help my friends.” She winked at me.
“Almost there. Just a few more steps,” she said, but as sure as the sunsets, there came another horde.
“Quick, Miles, through the portal, now!” She yelled as she jammed her fist into one but more pounced on her. I had left her before, but I wasn’t going to do it again. I briskly looked around me for something I could distract them with. My eyes fell on a bag. I quickly rummaged through it, and inside I found a flare gun. Pointing the gun away from us, I squeezed the trigger, and a bright light shot out from it. It flew through the air like a shooting star and then landed on a faraway pile.
The remaining Collectors turned their heads towards it. Then, within a few seconds, they left us and went after the burning flare.
I toddled to Marianne’s side. Her face had cracked open, and a hole was in it. A portion of her outer thigh was also missing. Behind her was a trail of Collectors corpses.
I stuck my arms underneath hers and walked backward, dragging her along all the while. I know she said not to bring anything home with me, but this was an exception, right? When I reached the portal, she was actually much easier to carry now. The portal’s warm light caressed my worn, tired face, and in an instant, I was whisked away.
Originally, I’m from Nebraska, so it would definitely be a surprise to know that I came out in a dumpster behind a Chuck E Cheese store in San Antonio, Texas. I looked at my hand, the one I pulled Marianne with, and I found a doll. A broken doll, no bigger than my fist. It didn’t take me long to figure out that the doll was Marianne.
I was swiftly taken to a hospital and reunited with my parents. I’ve never been able to fully explain to my parents or anyone else what exactly happened to me. They assumed it was a strange abduction. My parents were particularly concerned about why I kept Marianne with me. It was strange, especially for a boy my age.
I didn’t care though. Every allowance I saved up my money and I paid to have her fixed up. It was difficult to find someone who was willing to work on a doll that was missing whole appendages, but thankfully I found someone that was confident in getting her back to a good state of being. I didn’t let her out of my sight. She was always kept close to me, and was sure never to misplace her.
Eighteen years have passed since that fateful day, but the scars it left on me has yet to heal. I don’t misplace anything now, I’m too afraid to. I itemize and label all my things. I even put cameras all over my house to ensure everything is where I left it. My eight-year-old daughter Mari thinks I’m obsessive-compulsive, which is not far from the truth. I’d never told her what had happened that day. Neither have I told her why Marianne is encased in plexiglass at the corner of her room.
I had hoped she would spend the rest of her life thinking her dad was a weirdo instead of learning a single thing about the Lost and Found. I’m writing this as a warning to you, the reader. If you ever find yourself lost in the lost and found, then hope and pray that you have a friend there for you.
“Daddy!” My daughter’s voice boomed from upstairs, and my blood immediately froze solid. Her scream echoed through the entire house. I had a gut feeling that something had gone wrong. I bounded up the stairs to my daughter’s room.
“Mari?! What is it!?” I called out as I burst through the door of her room. A lump formed in my throat, and my eyes widened as I realized what had happened.
Mari’s left shoe lay eerily still next to a pit of darkness swirling underneath her bed.
“Mari! Mari!” I cried until my voice was hoarse.
“Daddy, help me!” Her faint voice rang back. It echoed from within the hole. Without another word, I reached for Marianne’s case and held it tightly. Then I stared down the hole. I knew what I needed to do.
“Marianne, I’m sorry, but I need your help again… They took my shiny.”
My hand fumbled the key around my neck as the case clicked open. I withdrew Marianne from the case and held her close. My eyes wandered back to the hole in the floor. I knew it would be sometime before it closed. I couldn’t tell you how I know, it’s just a feeling.
I made my way downstairs, and gathered my belongings. A survival backpack full of rations, a machete, a hunting knife, a collection of glowsticks, flashlights, and last but not least, a flare gun. I couldn’t risk a real gun because of the noise, but this is even better.
I make my way back up the stairs, and look down at my phone one final time before I push the bed aside, and I sit down, my legs dangling over the precipice. Marianne and I fall into the darkness, and I click post.