by Layal Hilal
Before you read the story, READ THIS. This story is not just a story, it’s an interactive story, so you have to write too! That means you have to fill in the rest of the story yourself. I promise, it’ll be fun! But if you want a story with a satisfying ending, this isn’t for you. Unless you’re okay with writing that ending! If you really don’t want to write, I’ll post part 2 next year. Either way, start reading in
3…2…1!
Maria I’m not going to say life sucks. I still have my friends, even if they’re dead. I still have my family, even if I haven’t seen them in three months. I still have my health, even though it’s rapidly declining. I still have–you know what? I’m just going to cut myself off right there, because it’s pretty obvious, even to my oblivious self, that life sucks. “Hey, what’s up?! I’m so tired! They practically fed me slops today! I’m not a pig or something! On the other hand, it tasted delicious, so maybe they were treating me like the royalty I am…What did you get for breakfast today? I hope it was something good, like pancakes! I miss pancakes–and waffles! Especially when you eat them with maple syrup and butter, or extra maple syrup! And…” Great. Sally’s awake. Okay, so earlier, I actually made a mistake. I said all my friends are dead. That is not true. One of my friends is still with me, alive. She’s also a prisoner, but we’re in the same cell and she’s honestly… kind of annoying. Sally made herself my friend when we met somewhere in history on a crazy adventure to save the world. Again. (I think it was in China? Maybe when the Great Wall was being built or something…) I never really wanted to be friends. Sally was just supposed to help on our quest, but after we saved the world, she kind of just started tagging along with us, and eventually, she made us her “best friends for ever and ever!”. And hey, I’m not complaining. I’m just…okay, maybe I’m complaining. “Sally,” I start, cutting her rant about breakfast foods off mid sentence. “I have a really long day ahead of me right now. Can you please leave me alone?” “…Eggs aren’t really my favorite food and sometimes when my mom used to make them I would throw them away! Can you imagine?! I can’t even begin to make myself think about throwing stuff away now! But if it was eggs, maybe I would–oh, did you say something, Maria?” “Forget it.” It’s clear that no amount of talking–or screaming–can ever make Sally hear me. Suddenly, a loud knock rings through the room, jerking Sally and I to our senses. A sharp, commanding voice follows right after, a voice I can’t escape even in my dreams. “Get up! The arena’s calling.” Michael It sounds louder this time. It’s always loud, I guess, but this time, instead of cheers and boos from a couple hundred people, it sounds like the rage of the world crushing my soul into a million flecks of dust. I wonder who I’m going to have to fight this time. Usually, Sarah and I are partnering against a monster, which is overall annoying and painful. But lately, we’ve been getting sent into the ring alone, which is not only harder, but we’ve also been forced to fight stronger monsters. (Well, what would you call giant beasts 25 feet tall, and at least 3000 years old and who fight with the strength of the entire earth and only want to kill you and can use magic and can speak to you and are weird mutation things that look like they came out of Goosebumps?) “Ready?” Sarah asks nervously. Her long black hair falls in a waterfall down her back, at least until she ties it up in a ponytail and pulls on her warrior boots. I nod, not trusting my voice. Maria always says–said–that I’m too proud for my own good. She’s probably right. Sarah rolls her eyes. “You’re terrified, aren’t you.” It’s not a question. An annoying voice that I should be used to echoes around the dimly lit cell Sarah and I share. “Arena time,” it calls impatiently. I sigh, already exhausted, and grab Sarah’s hand. No matter what, I’ve learned I’ll always have to fight in the arena. She gives me a tight smile and leads me out of the cell, into the blinding light of the sun and the arena full of mini-sandstorms. I walk precisely eleven and a half steps forward, and then I stop and close my eyes, just like always. Our opponent always gets the head start, and we’re left stumbling behind. But we’ve still won every fight for twelve weeks. Something tells me it’ll be different this time. I keep my eyes firmly shut, even as the echoing screams of the crowd bang around my head. Even as the announcer declares, “Who’s ready for The. Arena. Fight?!” Even as the double doors swing open on the other side and someone steps out. Even when I hear a gasp, instead of a blood-curdling war cry, like I expected. I open my eyes however, when my opponent says, “What?” I recognize that voice. Sarah I’ve officially lost my grip on reality. That’s how I’m going to sum up what is happening right now. Because this cannot be real. This girl cannot be standing in front of me. She’s dead. (Okay, she’s obviously not dead, but what am I supposed to think?!) I haven’t seen her for three months, ever since she was taken hostage and was then killed. And now…I have to fight her. Why do I have to fight her?! Alenios is crazy. Michael is too scared to ever say his name, but a name is just a name. It won’t do any harm and…Why am I thinking about this? I should be focusing on the freaking girl standing right there, acting like nothing is happening. Well, her mouth is open like the world has fallen apart, like how mine probably is. But, wait, doesn’t she know Michael and I have been here all along? On second thought, we didn’t know she was here. Maybe she was fed the same lies we were? I open my mouth to say something, anything, but all that comes out is a squeak. I can’t help it. This is scarier than any demon/monster I’ve fought so far. Suddenly, I notice that the girl is…glaring at me and Michael’s hands. I pull away quickly. Once again, I try to speak, but the same annoying squeak comes out instead. I kind of want to cover my face in my hands and run away. The girl (I don’t want to use her name. Don’t ask why.) keeps staring at me and Michael. She doesn’t say anything, just stares at us like she wants to drink in every detail. Honestly, that’s exactly what I’m doing. It doesn’t make sense, this person being right here. It just…doesn’t. How is it supposed to be? Maria What. In. The. World. My friends are standing in front of me, their hands trembling and their mouths open. Michael and Sarah are supposed to be dead. Obviously, they’re not, which means I was lied to. Judging by how surprised they look to see me, they were lied to as well. But at least they had each other. I only had Sally. “Okay…um, give us one moment, ladies and gentlemen,” Alinos, the very hated “boss”, says through the microphone clipped to his shirt. He marches down the steps and stops at my side. “Well?! What are you waiting for?! Fight!” I stare at him. “What do you mean?” I ask. Alinos rolls his eyes. “F-I-G-H-T. Do I have to spell it out for you?” He growls under his breath. I look at Michael and Sarah, and then back at Alinos. “Wha…” I don’t understand…But then I see my friends’ faces and realization dawns on me. “No. No no no no no no. No!” Fight my friends? How am I supposed to do that? My bottom lip trembles and I stumble over my feet as I step back, horrified. I’ve fought demons, dragons, even brainwashed cyborg tigers (which was terrifying), but this is a completely new level of horror. “Maria, listen to me,” a quiet voice says. I look up from my torn brown shoes. Michael takes a tentative step towards me, followed by Sarah. “We don’t have to fight,” he whispers. “We can turn against everything and beat the system.” I shake my head. “It’s…it’s not that easy, Michael,” I respond. “Why not?” Sarah cuts in. “Why can’t we just leave? This is our chance!” I shake my head harder. “No, no, I can’t,” I say again, almost crying. “It won’t work!” Michael steps closer. “Just forget about it—whatever it is—and come with us. It’s not going to be as bad as you’re thinking,” Michael is doing everything he can to convince me to go, but I can’t. “Fine,” I say, knowing there’s only one thing that can convince my friends to stop. “Fine, let’s go.” “Really?” Sarah asks. “You’ll come?” I nod. “But first, look at this.” I hold out my arm and shake it so the bangle falls to my wrist. Michael and Sarah gasp and take a step back. The large silver handcuff-looking thing clunks loudly as I thrust my hand closer to my friends. They stumble over their feet in shock. “Do you see now? Do you see why I can’t go? Because he’ll track me, and then you’ll all get caught with me–again.” The tracker beeps loudly and turns neon green, proving my point. Michael lifts his eyes away from the tracker and looks at me. “When did you get that?” He asks me. I hesitate, and he asks me again, more firmly. “When did you get that?” I look up at Michael’s face, filled with confusion and trepidation, and I answer with one word: “Today.” Sally I’m so confused. First, Alinos literally snatched Maria out of our cell and didn’t even let her get ready! Second, for the first time in as long as I can remember, the arena was silent. Come to think of it, it’s still silent. And strangest of all, ever since last night, my hands have been shooting streams of light. Lightning. Sparkles. Energy. Something glowy-y. I don’t know! All I know is that every time I’ve been getting frustrated (or every time I wake up from a nightmare), a bright, jagged river of…brightness kind of shoots out from my wrists (ugh, that sounds like Spider-Man or something) and then it paralyzes me for at least an hour. I’ve been talking nonstop to Maria in the hopes that she won’t notice my…powers. I can tell it’s been annoying her, but I don’t have any choice. I lie back down and the hard slab of rock that serves as a bed and close my eyes. “Sally! Hey! You…worm…thing. Get up. They need you in the arena.” I jerk up and stare at the cell…keeper. “Why?” I ask. “Don’t know.” Alex—he’s the cell keeper—shrugs. “But get up, and hurry.” I pull on a quick fighting tunic and shoes, and I grab a dagger (no one knows we have it) from my bag. I allow Alex to blindfold me and I stumble after him. When he rips off the blindfold, he shoves me into the ring and for a second, the sun blinds me. When the dust clears, I gasp and trip over my feet. What?! Sarah Sally’s here. She just came outside. I wonder why they need her. Suddenly, I remember that Alinos is still next to us, listening to every word we’ve spoken so far. As if he can read my mind, Alinos leans towards us mischievously. “That’s right,” he says, reminding me of Maria’s bracelet tracker. “She can’t escape. And neither can you. Now, for the last time, F-I-G-H-T!” Alinos storms off and hikes back up to his seat in the stands. He glares at me and turns on his microphone. “They will fight. Now.” Crack! Here is what I retain from this moment: A bright light. Sally. An extremely loud scream. And then the world miles below me, fading away. And then someone screams like a broken tea kettle. It takes me several long, drawn-out seconds to realize that’s me. “Calm… Down… Not… That… High…” I look to my side to see Sally propelling us—Maria, Michael, and I—higher into the air, yellow light sparking from her fingertips. I scream again. And again. Michael Something is wrong with the world. Very wrong. Sally can fly, I’m not in the arena, we’re hundreds of feet above the ground, Alinos is dead, and Maria isn’t dead. … Just… What? Thank god I’m not scared of heights, like Sarah obviously is, or I would be screeching right now. The arena literally looks like an ant, and considering how big it is in person, I’m going to assume we’re very, very high. Suddenly, Sally dips down. “Must… Rest…” Sally pants as she drags us along. My eyes scan the horizon for any patch of land, and I find a tiny island. That’s when I realize we’re flying over an ocean. “AHHHHHHH!” I might not be scared of heights, but I’m terrified of water. I writhe in terror, dragging Sally and my friends towards the island. “AHHHHHHH!” I continue screaming until my butt hits hard, hard, hard, hard, hard sand. I twist around in the sand and hug it, practically sobbing from fear. “Okay, we’ll need to do something about that,” a voice—Maria’s voice—says. I look up and see Maria, Sarah, and Sally all looking at me. I take in the sight of Sally and Maria, my best friends I haven’t seen in months, and I stop sobbing. “Seriously, Michael, I think you have a mental issue,” Maria says teasingly. I sniffle and say, “Says the girl who cried for hours after a bee landed on you.” It happened when she was six. Yeah, we’ve known each other that long. Maria smiles and pulls me into a hug. I hug her back, for the first time in twelve weeks. When Sally and Sarah join, we all stay like that for a long time. One week later Maria So what happens next? I don’t know. All I know right now is that we have to get rid of Michael’s—fear isn’t a strong enough word—something of water. So far, everything we’ve tried has failed miserably. Even splashing Michael lightly with water makes him screech so loudly every single bird flies away. I look around the beach, with two miserable attempts at ‘teepees’, a fire pit, coconut and date trees, which have provided food, and my friends, who are trying to force Michael into the water. I laugh and walk across the beach to them. “No!! Mommy, save me! Stop, please!” Michael is screaming. “This may be against my better judgment, but I feel bad for Michael,” I say. “Let’s leave the swimming ‘lessons’ for later, ‘Kay?” Sarah and Sally roll their eyes. “Whyyyyy? It’s fun!” They say simultaneously. I shake my head. “Sure, but not for Michael. Especially not when you guys have been doing this for the past five hours,” I say firmly. (Deep down, I’m laughing my head off.) “Fine,” Sarah says grumpily. She lets go of Michael’s arm and he practically runs back to the beach, screaming in what’s probably terror. Sarah stares at Michael for a minute and then looks at me. I try to keep a straight face, but it’s impossible. Together, we collapse into laughter. Sally joins us a moment later, and soon tears are streaming down our cheeks as we clutch each other in fits of giggles. Once we recover, we walk back to the fire pit and teepees, and ‘help’ Michael down the coconut tree he somehow climbed up. He follows us back to the campsite we created, trembling. I smile as I let my friends walk ahead of me, laughing, talking, and cracking jokes at Michael’s poor, poor expense. I know we can’t stay here forever, someday we’ll leave. But for now, we’ll stay. I’ll stay. And I’ll figure out what to do later. Alinos I will have my revenge. Someday. Just wait. So what happens next? It’s up to you! Will Alinos kill Maria and her friends? Or maybe Sarah and Sally will drown Michael—accidentally. Better yet, will the group of friends ever find their families? Will they even leave the island? How is Alinos still alive? How did Maria and her friends get captured in the first place? Why is Michael scared of water? How did Sally help Maria, Michael, and Sarah in China? Why didn’t Sarah want to use Maria’s real name at first? Who is Alinos, a demon, or what? There was a part when I said Maria, Sarah, and Michael time traveled. How? Also, is Maria still wearing the tracker? If not, how did she remove it? How did Sarah, Maria, and Michael meet in the first place? Why did Alinos put the tracker on Maria the day she was going to fight her friends? Did he know something? Where did Sally’s powers come from?! I left it—all of it—up to you! And there’s still more questions you can answer! So what are you waiting for?! You have all summer to continue this story, and without the Lighthouse, it’s time to write on your own! Get started in 3…2…1! Go! (Oh, and if you aren’t a writer but still want to know what happens next, don’t worry! I’ll be working on part 2 this summer and will post it ASAP!)
The Lighthouse 