The Merlin Key

[Eripio]

5:30 AM. Blink. 5:30 AM. Blink. 7:21 AM

"Crap!"

I jumped out of bed. Breakfast? Nope. Shower? Yeah, if you count splashing water in my hair and on my face. Towel my hair and face dry? Nope. That's what windows are for. Come on Roy, first day of work. I was going to be late.

Cliché as it was, the hustle and bustle of the city was really hustling and really bustling. I tried to take a sip from my cup of microwaved coffee. Bad timing. I don't scream like a girl. I knew this because some jerk had just cut me off right as I had tried to take that sip. I spilled the probably awful tasting coffee all over my pants. I honked my horn, yelled, and tried to do the hot coffee dance in the confines of my car.

Great way to start the day. I got to Taft High School at about 8:20, having made better time than I thought I would. I grabbed my backpack with the lesson plan in it and my cell phone, pressed the lock button on the car door and half ran, half walked across the parking lot and up the steps. I made it into the school right as the bell rang. No. No. Running. Running. Running. Stairs. Running. Running. Running. Stairs. I won’t bore you with the last two flights of stairs and two hallways I had still had to go. Let’s just say that I ended up standing in front of a class of high schoolers, out of breath, with a big coffee stain on the front of my pants.

“Can I help you sir?” an elderly lady said behind the desk at the front of the room.

I looked at her. I looked at the kids. I looked back to the old woman. A small name plate on the desk said, Mrs. Daly.

“This isn’t 608, is it?”

Mrs. Daly shook her head. I laughed the nervous sort of laugh a bank robber laughs when he asks the security guard to hold his gun for a second while he cracks the safe before realizing what he’s done.


Crap.


Running. Running. Running. Stairs! Needless to say, when I finally did find my class, I was a sweating, disheveled, nervous wreck. The kids, sophomores, were either fighting or doing some sort of semi-violent synchronized dance. I wrote my name on the board, letting them duke it or dance it out. After misspelling my own name, I managed to fix it and turn around.

“Alright!” I said loudly, “quiet down! Let’s go!”

Nothing. I sighed.

“Come on now, fix these desks and have a seat!”

The dance fight continued. One of the kids in the middle finally got brave and stepped up to swing.

“I PEED MY PANTS THIS MORNING!” I shouted at the top of my lungs.

The kids all stopped and stared at me. Except for the one kid, who punched the other in the face and then turned to look at me.

“Fix your desks.”

They did.

“Take a seat.”

They did.

“Thank you.”

The rest of the period went as well as it could have, me assigning reading and trying not to stand too much while teaching the kids how to conjugate verbs and blah blah blah. The bell rang. I’d be lucky if they remembered anything from that class, other than how weird Mr. PeeStain was.

I collapsed in my chair. Exhausted. I stared at the ceiling, rotating slightly back and forth in my chair. I had a couple minutes before the next class started showing up. I hated mornings. I hated alarm clocks that were too close to my bed and thus too easily shut off while still too much asleep. I hated the paperwork I was going to have to do for sending the punched kid to the nurse’s office. I hated wet pants. I looked around the room, spying the large cabinet in the back. Maybe there were some paper towels or something. I got up and walked across the room and opened the cabinet, or tried to. It was locked. Before this terrible day could get any worse I remembered that they’d given me a few keys for the room and the desk and, hopefully, the cabinet. There’s still hope I thought, reaching into my pocket and-

My keys were still in the car. The locked car.

I stared at the floor, feeling a weird sort of desperation start to take hold of me. I leaned absently forward and started banging my head on the cabinet doors. At least I was still getting a paycheck. For now at leas-

The cabinet sprang suddenly open, knocking me back. I fell over a desk and hit the floor, hard. I felt a strong wind kick inexplicably up and start pulling at my hair, and shirt. I rolled over quickly and saw the cabinet suck one of the desks into it, the desk disappearing into an inky black sort of nothingness. The wind got louder. I started to move, sliding slowly across the floor towards the cabinet, its doors wide open like arms.

I screamed like a girl.

Desks and pencils and rulers and chalk and erasers all whirled around the room. I kept screaming as I felt myself leave the ground. The last thing I remember was clinging to the bottom edge of the cabinet, my fingers white with the strain as my legs dangled terrifyingly into that black nothingness at the back of the cabinet. I looked up and saw a desk come flying at me so I let go of the c-

[Nuada]

Once upon a time I stood in front of a fork in the road, gazing at the vast plane ahead and up to the bluish green peaks of the distant mountains. A road sign stood in front of me, tall and proud, which pointed to both directions. Neither of the arrows told me where the road would lead me to, although I did had an idea – one to the promising career in the corporate world, the other to the promising adventures as depicted by Alias and Chuck and 24 and of course James Bond. I chose the latter. Too bad. Too late to feel bad about it. I would be lucky to get out of the airplane alive.

I heard footsteps from behind. I was hiding although it was kind of pointless to hide inside an airplane. Nevertheless, I felt like a little girl who did something that got mom so angry. In a sense, I got those men angry like mom. See, when you were doing something that was not permitted by the US laws – like smuggling electronic goods for example – you ought to do it quietly so that the US lawmen do not catch your trail or your scent. That was the way the business went. That was how it should have been kept, because smuggling was illegal. However, when the nosy “suits” happened to catch the stinking scent of something illegal happening in their backyard, they start snooping around, sending their dogs to the trail. And when finally one of their dogs happened to find a lead, you either kill that dog or you kill that dog.

Unfortunately, I was that dog. Or bitch.

I worked as an undercover for three months under the pretense that I am a finance analyst. Needless to say, my educational background was what placed me in the job. My knowledge in finance and money in general were my most appealing assets, they said. I was the perfect agent, they said.

Watch my middle finger rise up to the occasion, I said.

I hate this job!

I listened as the footsteps grew louder, closer. Three more bullets. I gripped at the hand gun because it was my only lifeline. Three more bullets meant three more slim chances to escape. If I was lucky, I could eliminate three of my enemies, but how many more were in that flight? Two attendants were dead and I saw at least half a dozen men board.

Shaking off all the negative thoughts, I jerked up to my feet and took a quick aim. I took the momentary surprise of my opponent as my advantage and pulled the trigger. The sound of the gun shot was muffled by the silencer but there weren’t too many of us in that plane to miss such a sound. The man fell face first into the row of seats. I had no time to gloat though, because the gunshots came from behind me. I crouched back into my seat, waiting for their frenzy to end. The plane shook as it passed through turbulence. We didn’t mind the warning lights, I fired and they graciously answered. I would rather that they didn't though, because I already ran out of ammo.

I crouched behind a seat, clutching at my now useless gun. What to do? What to do?

That cockpit!

I could bluff and pretend to take the pilot and co-pilot hostage if they were unarmed. They had to be unarmed. Fortunately, I was closer to the cockpit that my enemies. Too bad, though, that I would have to rely on luck to keep the bullets from catching me. Just for a few seconds, please. I took a deep breath, prepared to stare death in the face, then ran the short distance to where the pilots sat.

I made it alive, but it was locked. I banged at it with my left hand, my right was holding the gun which was threateningly pointed towards two men in I heart NY shirt.

“Me-you zeme quoai, shao lao shu!” one said, in a soothing Chinese voice. At least that was what I thought he said.

“Lower your weapon, miss,” the other man ordered. The two were taking steady steps towards me. I didn’t like the look of either of them, especially not with their loaded guns pointed at my face. I should think fast. I cannot be trapped like this after months of digging deep into their modus.

I banged the cabin door as loud as I could. It managed to achieve my desired effect and one of the men ducked while the other fired a shot, which I was too lucky to have caught. I dashed for the only exit I know and was surprised to find no resistance as I pulled the door to the airplane open. I had a parachute put on when I killed the first thug. This was a James Bond moment, I thought, smiling, then jumped into the sky.

Although there seemed to be something wrong. It was 3:00pm, and yet it was dark.

[Eripio]

...something dripped on my face, warm. The ceiling must be dripping again. I hated my apartment. But it was cheap. I grabbed at my blanket and as my hand strangely found no blanket, I wondered when the alarm clock would go off. I opened my eyes, realizing that I wasn't in bed at about the same time that I saw the huge, leathery face hanging just above my head.

I screamed, not so much like a girl.

It half roared, half honked sounding nearly as distressed as I did. I jumped to my feet as the massive face, easily the size of my car, swept up and away into the trees. The ground rumbled as whatever sort of thing had been drooling on me ran off. Thank goodness. Trees. The ground beneath me was wet and the air was incredibly warm. The trees, they were massive, running like wooden skyscrapers into the sky, which I couldn't see, because of the trees. Shafts of sunlight lingered for a few moments here and there, catching the dance of amber glowing motes moving lazily between shadow and light. Vines and hung down amongst the odd foliage that grew up from the spongy forest floor. The leaves were multicolored and sort...swirled in shape. Whenever I looked directly at one of the leaves my head started hurt.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I was dreaming. I was hallucinating. I was back in the classroom, unconscious on the floor. The students were going to come in and find me there, looking like I’d passed out and wet myself. Great. This was going to be my reputation then. I kept my eyes closed and sighed. I just need to wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. W-

Something inside of me…broke, or moved, or opened. I’m still not entirely sure how to describe it. I felt myself leave the ground but when I opened my eyes I saw nothing, nothing but light so blinding that it should have burned my eyes. I tried to cry out, to speak, to breathe…nothing.

“Ethlesee osyah,” a lilting, resonant whispered playfully into my ear, “evrethee os uro yn shumthi.”

I don’t know how else to describe it, and this won’t be quite right, but something tried to touch me, not my body, but…something…me…something more. The world snapped back into focus with teeth rattling force, a terrible, eerie keening echoed from my ears to my toes, stabbing into my bones. I took a deep breath, like someone nearly drowned. I was standing, somehow. Surrounded by thick fog, I tried to calm down, to get a grip…to figure out just what in the heck was going on. I had been sitting on the ground, not ten feet from one of those skyscraper trees. Waiting for a brief moment, I tried to get my bearings. Nothing. Okay. Time to guess.

“That way, “ I said pointing straight ahead and taking a st-

I fell. Out of a cloud. The tops of those giant trees lay far below me. I’d been doing it a lot lately, so it probably won’t surprise you that I screamed. Something you don’t get to see in movies is that when someone falls from really high up, they don’t just scream one long scream that fades into the distance while the hero of the flick gives the heroine one of those “how you doing?” looks. You have to scream, take a deep breath, scream some more. That is, if you want to keep expressing just how actually pee your pants terrified you are. I did, and so, I did. I was too caught up in the holy-crap-I’m-going-to-die to really be all that surprised when I saw the top of a parachute below me. Passing close to the chute I stopped screaming long enough to look over and catch eyes with a startled woman about my age. It would be great if I could tell you that it was love at first sight, or that we connected, or heck, even that she managed to somehow magically save me. Which I suppose, wouldn’t have surprised me much at this point. But no. I just kept screaming. And then I was down into the trees. The world spun and whirled, jolting and jarring as I hit what felt like every branch that has ever been on any tree…ever. Then a train hit me. Or maybe it was the ground. I thought I heard a train. Maybe it was just my heart beat.

[Nuada]

The darkness called to me as if it knew me by my name. Its quiet voice whispered, telling me that it would have claimed me had I not decided to leap off the airplane. It would claim me and the light would not save me. I felt the opposing current against my skin, tossing my hair back, and stealing the breath from my lungs. Sky diving wasn’t that fun after all. Then again, words formed and sailed in my consciousness as if I knew those words all along. I didn’t. I couldn’t make out a coherent bit, I couldn’t even repeat it to you, but I knew somebody was reaching out and talking to me.

I did consider that a bullet actually got me before my bold leap. The darkness might be my eyes dying and soon all my senses would follow. Soon, no more pain from the wind pushing my skin back while screaming in my ears. I would be free. Soon…

My body plummeted towards the earth, my breath, caught in my throat. I let gravity pull me down, let the voice in my head whisper reassurances until finally my body would shut down and eventually hit ground in what I imagine would be a rather spectacular splat. Like when a fly hit your windshield while you were driving fast on a freeway. I can’t believe how ugly I would end up.

But then it hit me. Something did. It felt like the first time I told my dad that I would not go into that company he was working with and he got so mad that he froze my accounts and cancelled my credit cards. Something hit me and I felt my nerves jump. Panic, with all of it synonyms, made my heart flutter frantically in my chest. Well, the good news was that I might not be dead after all.

I jerked the pilot chute free and in a few moments, I opened my eyes to a slower descent. My heart felt like it was ready to leap out of my ears and before giving me a heart attack. I had no idea what had just happened. One moment I felt like I was dying and the other, I was floating slowly down to earth. I blinked at the bright blue sky and the sprawling landmass beneath me. Had the darkness just been me squeezing my eyes shut?

From a few miles off the ground, I had a very nice view of the world that sprawled around me. Planes and mountains covered with trees. I must have fallen in a wilderness, which could pose a problem on food. There was this clear and beautiful lake in a valley surrounded by trees beneath me. Trickling off its water reserves was a river snaking down the path to where the semi-circular mountain formation opened. Such a beautiful place, but I rather not land there. Be—

I tried to grab him. I really did. We all know from high school physics how the pitch of the sound gets lower as it approached you then again gets higher as it moves away from you. Well, I never did guess that the sound I heard came from such a boy who fell from the sky screaming his lungs out. I did try to grab him, but gravity was pulling him too fast. Poor thing. Must be one of the guys in the airplane. Then again, when I think about it, let him have what was coming for him! Whatever he did to displease the other bad boys, I didn’t care. If he were one of the smugglers who tried to kill me, he was better off dead than caught by me, anyway.

As I was saying, I would rather not land anywhere with trees, because the trees – the massive green, no wait, the massive orange, no wait, the massive, purple – the trees. No way! According to elementary and high school Biology, the leaves of the trees were green because it was the wavelength of light reflected by the chloroplast. And yet as I got closer, it was getting more and more apparent that the seemingly moving canopy of leaves was not because of the prodding of a passing breeze, but because of the slightly changing colors and patterns. My high school teacher would freak out. If only I had my DSLR with me.

Regardless of the scenery, though, my parachute would get caught up in the branches of those trees if I ever landed on them. Thankfully, the wind pushed me to the direction of the lake such that I half landed, half fell in the middle of the lake. I gasped as the cold water embraced me, but I did make it to dry land. It would have been easier to swim if I didn’t have all the layers of my clothes. If I knew I was going to jump off a plane, I would have worn something more casual like tank top and skinny jeans, not the gray pencil skirt, blouse with ruffles, and jacket. The jacket, I already shrugged off and was lying on the grass at my feet. I watched the yellow material of my parachute float like an egg yolk while I stood there dripping from my hair to my socks. The place was eerily quiet save for the rustling of leaves.

Now, where could I be?

Modern instincts would dictate that you reach for your phone and check your location on Google Maps. I did. At least I checked the inner pocket of my jacket for the phone and I was not surprised not to find it there. Either it fell before me or it swam in the lake. Whatever. I was lost.

And then I remembered the guy who fell off the airplane. He might have a phone. But then again, from that height, I doubt that the phone would still be working. Plus, did I really want to see how the guy ended up? I sighed then started walking back in the woods, hoping to one day find somebody to show me the way out of it.