Hey guys!
Guess who's the next blogger in line to write a chapter for the Project storyyyyyy!?
Okay, don't guess, because I want to say it!
IT'S MEEEEEEEEE!!!
Welp, there's my intro for today. XD!
Anyways, since Lost recently posted HER chapter (by the way, if you haven't read it yet, go on over to the Animal Jam Jumble and read it- it's awesome!), it's time for me to finally put mine up! I'm super, SUPER excited to post this, and I hope you guys like it! So, without further ado, here's my chapter for the Project story! :D
(It's kinda long, so sorry about that, eheheh!)
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Swirl felt nothing underneath her feet as she fell through the void between portals. All she could see were bright, jumbled up colors, which whirled around her until she felt dizzy.
She closed her eyes, wondering what would happen next. Where would this portal take her? What kind of strange things lay ahead in the next portal?
That is, if there is another portal. She slightly opened one eye, wondering if she would be stuck in nothingness forever.
Her narrowed eyes opened wide as she spotted a portal outlined in gray stone, the only normal surrounding. She fell towards it, and, as she got closer, she felt herself being sucked in by its powerful force. A blinding light appeared, and Swirl shut her eyes once again.
A few moments later, she felt herself land on solid ground, and she blinked her eyes open. Getting up, she rubbed her head a few times, then observed her surroundings. She was on a dusty, flat piece of land, which looked as if it might have been a field once. However, no matter where Swirl looked, she didn't see one patch of grass.
That's odd. Why is this place so barren?
Then Swirl whirled around, and what she saw made her sigh in relief. A city, its skyscrapers stretching high into the air, sat not too far away from where she was now. Swirl immediately started towards it.
When she reached the edge of the city, she stopped to look up at the huge buildings towering over her, and-
"What?"
Swirl's exclamation came out as an awestruck whisper. The structures, instead of being clean and modern-looking, were dull and dirty. Some windows were completely gone, and some had large holes in the glass. Cracks ran up and down the concrete walls, and some parts of the towers were even just large dents.
Fear beginning to strike inside of her, Swirl cautiously walked a bit further into the city. She glanced around in concern. Stores had tattered overhanging canopies, and all the windows that hadn't been broken were covered with wooden boards. Cars were parked on the sides of roads, and they were starting to rust, as if they hadn't been used in many years.
Everything in this place looks like it's been abandoned, Swirl thought.
Suddenly, a loud creaking noise sounded right above her, followed by the noise of crumbling and cracking stone. Completely startled, Swirl yelped and dove away, falling to the ground and covering her head.
A loud crash sounded, and then there was silence. Swirl warily lifted her head and turned around. A large pile of stone now sat where she'd been just a few seconds ago. Glancing upwards, she saw that they had come from one of the skyscrapers.
"That was close", she muttered out loud, still slightly trembling. She dusted herself off, relieved she hadn't hurt anything in her mad dash, and started off again- this time, in the center of the road. After all, none of the vehicles seemed to be moving, anyway.
After a few more minutes, she still didn't see any signs of life.
"Hello?" she called out through the silence.
Her voice echoed off the walls of the buildings, but nothing answered her back.
"Lost? Sarah? Gracie? Are you guys out there?" Swirl yelled at the top her lungs, her heart beginning to race at the thought of being all alone in a dangerous abandoned city.
Still no reply.
Letting out a shaky breath, she decided to accept the fact that her friends had probably been taken through completely different portals. Plus, if they had come with her, they probably would've fallen through the same portal, and landed in the same spot as Swirl... right?
Swirl continued walking through the concrete jungle, feeling more anxious with each step. But suddenly, as she was passing an alleyway, she heard a whisper.
"What are you doing here?"
Swirl jumped, whirling around in surprise. "Wh-who's there?"
A girl stepped out of the shadows. She wore a tattered tan top, covered in stains, and her gray pants were in the same condition. Her dark brown hair was tied back in a messy bun, and her matching brown eyes glinted in a mixture of curiosity and fear.
"What are you doing here?" she repeated quietly. "I... I haven't seen anyone around this place for ages."
The words tumbled out of Swirl's mouth before she had a chance to think. "Me and my friends came from another dimension and got sent through a portal, and we keep getting split up, and then I fell out of another portal into this place."
Swirl expected the girl to stare at her as if she were insane, but instead, her eyes widened in curiosity. "A... portal?"
Swirl nodded.
"Pardon me for asking", the girl said politely. "But... what's a portal?"
Swirl blinked. "What's a portal? Well... it's... um..." Then she remembered that the only ones who had really heard of true portals before were her and her friends, and apparently, that girl who had sent them down the first one. This stranger probably wouldn't understand, much less believe her.
"Oh, never mind", Swirl sighed. "It's hard to explain." She looked around the quiet, broken city. "Do you live... here?"
The girl nodded solemnly. "But it wasn't always like this, you know."
"What happened?" Swirl asked curiously.
The girl turned to face her. "You say you come from another dimension. Is your world the opposite of this one?"
Swirl nodded. "Yeah, pretty much."
The stranger sighed. "I was afraid of that. If what you say is true... then... this IS your dimension. In the future."
Swirl stared at her. "That can't be true. This place looks nothing like where I come from!"
"Not right now", the girl replied. "But if-" She broke off. "Come with me." She grabbed Swirl's arm and dragged her through the alley, stopping at a fire escape ladder leading up the side of a building. She started up it, and Swirl followed cautiously.
Finally, the girl stopped in front of her, stepped onto the roof, and turned to look out across the city. Swirl copied her, and at once, her eyes widened.
The city looked even worse from up here. Destruction stretched as far as she could see. Piles of materials that once belonged to buildings now lay on the ground, and an entire skyscraper was dangerously close to tipping over. When Swirl looked to the fields beyond the concrete jungle, she saw nothing but brown.
"Soon, if your dimension's citizens continue with what they're doing, your world will look like this." The girl's voice was little more than a whisper.
Swirl kept on staring at the city, her heart beating faster. "How... how do you know?"
The girl didn't turn her head. "It's happened with many dimensions before. I've seen visions of them, and they've all turned out to look exactly like this."
Visions? So this girl has some sort of psychic powers. Maybe she knows more about my world than even I do.
"I know many things you do not, trust me", the girl said, as if she'd read Swirl's mind. Then she gave a small smile. "By the way, my name's Raine, in case you were wondering."
Swirl grinned back sheepishly, feeling guilty that she hadn't asked the girl's name sooner, and that she hadn't shared hers. "I'm Swirl."
Raine was silent for a moment. "So... I'm guessing you want to get back home."
"Yeah", Swirl replied. "I need to find the rest of my friends."
"Well, we better find this 'portal' you came through quickly. If the sun goes down, and you're still here, you'll be trapped in this dimension."
"Like on TV?" Swirl asked, raising an eyebrow and grinning in amusement.
Raine blinked, looking slightly confused. "I... I guess so."
Swirl quickly glanced up at the sky. The sun was beginning to stain the sky pink and orange.
Raine stood up. "Show me where you appeared."
Swirl nodded, and led the way down the metal stairs all the way to the barren field she had arrived in.
"So... what does a portal look like, exactly?" Raine asked, scanning the horizon.
"Well... it's like... some kind of magical circle" Swirl fumbled. Gee, that sounds believable. "And the one I came through was bright green."
Raine sighed. "Well, I don't see anything around here. Maybe we should try the city?"
Swirl nodded, and this time let Raine lead.
When they stopped again, the two girls looked all around, scanning for a green circle. Just as Swirl was about to suggest they try another place, Raine gasped "Look!" and pointed above her. Swirl squinted up at one of the crumbling skyscrapers. A familiar bright green circle, with white lines inside that constantly changed, floated at the top.
"The portal!" Swirl gasped. Then she stiffened. How on earth am I supposed to get to it up there?
"You'll have to climb up to it", Raine said, somehow reading Swirl's thoughts again.
Swirl blinked, taking a step back. "Y-You can't be serious." Climb up inside a building that looks like it'll fall any minute? And to the very top?
Raine raised an eyebrow. "Can you fly?"
"No."
"Then climbing up is the only way."
Swirl glanced up at the sky again, and was shocked to find that the sun was beginning to touch the brown hills in the distance.
She sighed. "Okay, I'll go."
Swirl dashed up to the building and opened the door, but looked back.
"Thank you", she said to Raine. "I... I hope you'll be okay here by yourself."
The girl smiled slightly, then gave a small nod. "Hurry and go. The sun has almost set."
Swirl nodded back, then ran inside, leaving Raine staring after her seriously.
Inside, everything was coated in a layer of dust, and various things were scattered across the tile floor. Sometimes, a small piece of the ceiling would fall off, making Swirl jump out of the way. However, the eerie silence was what worried her the most. Everything was still, and Swirl half expected something to leap out at her from the dark shadows around her.
She groaned. Why did the portal have to appear here, of all places?
Figuring the elevator wouldn't be much help, she began to climb the stairs. Some creaked as she stepped on them, and she flinched.
She kept climbing set after set of stairs, until finally, she stopped, panting, at a door marked "To roof". She waited to catch her breath, then pushed the door open. A cold wind blew as she stepped outside the building onto a balcony, and the sky looked even darker than it had before. Swirl began to rush up the last few sets of stairs to get to the roof, trying not to trip and fall in the process.
Suddenly, a loud crack split the air, and she felt air underneath her feet where there was supposed to be concrete. With a scream of horror, she reached out her arm just as she began to fall, and barely managed to grab onto a stair rail. The pieces of the platform she had been standing on tumbled down past her.
Don't look down, don't look down, DON'T LOOK DOWN, she repeated over and over in her mind.
But she did anyway, and she instantly regretted it. She was so high up that the rusted cars looked like tiny toys from where she was, and, if Raine was somewhere below her, she certainly couldn't see her. Swirl yelled as loud as she could for help, but she was sure the sound wouldn't reach Raine, or anyone else.
Her fingers began to slip, and she gripped the bar tighter, trying to ignore the searing pain in her hand. She turned towards the hills. The sun was almost completely hidden behind them now.
I'm not going to make it, Swirl thought in despair. The portal will disappear without me, and I'll be stuck here forever! She felt her fingers slipping again. That is, if I don't fall. Oh, Lord, help me!
Finally, she could hold on no longer, and she released her grip on the bar, letting herself fall to the ground below.
But something flashed underneath her, and a green portal quickly formed, catching Swirl in its depths and swallowing her. Swirl opened her eyes to see the odd, but familiar, abstract background of the void between portals, and she let out a breath of relief.
"Swirl!"
Three voices shouted the exact same thing. Swirl turned to see Lost, Sarah, Ja, and another girl falling towards her through the empty space.
"This is Daylite", Ja told Swirl once they had reached her. Swirl smiled at the girl, and she smiled back and gave a little wave.
But, as they neared more portal entrances, the mysterious magical force began to pull at them. And then, the bloggers were sent through different portals yet again, on to different adventures of their own.
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So there you have it! Hope you all liked it- I worked hard on it! I've actually had it done for a while now, but I needed to figure out a few things and check over it for mistakes, so I've had it sitting as a draft for some time, XD!
Until next time, remember to PARTY HARD, BE KIND, and JAM ON, guys! I'll see you soonnnnnn!! ;)
