Ethereal

~Marcie~

I think that it all began that one Tuesday.

In my opinion, Tuesday is the worst day of the week. Not close enough to Friday, not far away enough from Monday. Not even in the middle. Just awkwardly waiting there at the beginning of the week.

And this Tuesday, it was raining.

I pulled my hood over my head and ran under the nearest tree as it began. I stared up at the sky in amazement--I had never seen so much rain all at once. My teeth chattered and I pulled my jacket around me, as I glanced through the heavy rain at the street that led to the school.

"Marcie!"

I heard a voice and turned, spotting a distant, blurry figure.

"Charlotte?" I squinted through the rain. It was ridiculous how much water there was--I was completely soaked already.

Charlotte's blonde hair was plastered to her forehead and she wiped it away impatiently. "This is crazy," She muttered, looking around us. The huge redwood tree offered some protection, but the heavy rain still managed to soak us.

"How are we going to get to school?" I shouldered my backpack and looked at the street again. The steep road had practically turned into a river--gallons of water cascaded down into a rushing mess.

"We could--" The rest of Charlotte's voice was drowned out as two things happened very quickly.

A bolt of lightning struck the redwood tree.

And the whole world disappeared.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

There is a kind of half-state. An in-between-time where you're not quite sure where you are and what you're doing but you just are. It's the world of dreams and madness.

And sometimes, apparently, mushrooms.

I rolled over groggily, as if I had been sleeping for hours, and the small fungus was so bright it almost hurt to look at.

"Gaaaaah," I jumped back, falling over as it glowed a bright, unnatural blue.

I heard a noise behind me and got to my feet, startled and wary. A pile of leaves on the ground shifted and a head poked out--a blond head.

"Are you all right?" I rubbed my eyes in confusion and held out a hand for Charlotte. She pulled herself up shakily and I looked around, trying to understand where on Earth we were.

"Not on Earth."

"What?" Charlotte looked around frantically, rubbing her eyes as well.

"Not on Earth. Not on Mars, not on Venus..."

"Who's there?" I stepped forward. We were in a forest clearing, surrounded by towering trees. The voice seemed to be coming from all around us.

There was a snicker. "Not on Mercury, not on Saturn..." it echoed.

"You're very clever," Charlotte called. "Now show us where you are."

The mushroom glowed again.

"Mushroom?" I knelt down to look at it.

There was a derisive shriek. "Not on Mushroom, silly girls! Not on the Sun, not on the Moon..."

"Oh my god, shut up already," Charlotte muttered, looked around us.

"Not on the Stars..."

"So we're nowhere," I said exasperatedly.

There was another shriek and I shielded my eyes from the mushroom's sudden brightness.

"Nowhere! Nowhere!" It glowed brighter and grew.

Charlotte took a step back.

"Nowhere! We are Nowhere!" It chanted. The blue light grew, and the mushroom changed but the light was so bright that I pressed my hands to my eyelids and turned away.

"Nowhere! Nowhere...." the voice took on a more earthly quality and I blinked my eyes open.

Behind me Charlotte gasped.

"Oh," I said, relieved. "It's only a Goblin."