Nicholas Nettle's Curious Trip to Nowhere - An Original Middle Grade Fantasy Adventure - Chapter Five

Previous Chapters:

Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four


Chapter Five

Up

The word stumbled awkwardly through Nicholas’s mind, searching desperately for others to cling to.

I… I have to get up.

His eyes opened slowly, finding nothing but darkness. He could feel the cold ground beneath his body. His head felt like a balloon, stretched to its limits and ready to burst. He gradually pushed himself up and into a sitting position, looking around for something… anything to focus on in the darkness.

“Emma?” he said quietly.

There was no response.

“Emma!” he shouted, hearing only the echo of his voice in return. His heart began to beat rapidly as his breathing did its best to keep pace. He crawled around on his hands and knees, feeling the ground around him and desperately hoping to feel something other than cold stone. He felt his clothes and noticed that they were completely dry which only puzzled him briefly before it was put out of his mind by the situation at hand. He felt his pocket. The watch was still there.

“Emma!” he shouted again. “Emma, where are you?!” His voice cracked as he struggled to hold back tears. “Emma...” He said softly.

He sat there for a moment, trying to make sense of everything. He continued to slowly scan the area when finally something other than darkness came into his line of sight. He squinted and tried to focus. There was a light. Nothing but a tiny pin prick in the distance, but it was definitely there. He took a deep breath, gathered his composure, and began to slowly crawl toward the light, feeling his way through the shadows.

After a few minutes, the light had grown considerably, taking the unmistakable shape of a doorway. The light was shining brightly enough now that Nicholas could see a few steps in front of himself. He carefully stood up and began to walk toward the opening. As he approached the doorway, the light became almost blinding and his eyes closed slightly as they tried to adjust. He held his hand up to block the light as he continued to move forward. He cautiously walked through the doorway and found himself in a solid white room with the distinct, yet slight scent of disinfectant wafting through the air. It was silent and sterile. Not in a pleasantly clean way, but in a slightly off-putting and unnerving way that reminded him of a hospital room he had once visited. The room was almost impossibly white and Nicholas found it quite difficult to discern where the floor and ceiling began and the walls ended. The only thing keeping him from becoming completely disorientated was a small wooden table on the opposite side of the room. This gave his eyes something to focus on and help determine which way was up and which way was down.

Nicholas slowly walked toward the table and as he got closer, he noticed there was a small fishbowl sitting on top. As he got closer still, he also noticed a bright red fish with equally bright blue eyes swimming around in a small circle. Nicholas approached the table, somewhat in a state of shock. He bent over slightly and focused on the little fish. A bewildered look took over Nicholas’s face as he tried his very best to wrap his mind around what he was seeing. He was failing miserably. He stood there, motionless, with a blank look on his face, staring at the fish which was now floating perfectly still and seemed to be looking right back at him. The silent staring contest continued for a solid minute.

“What are you looking at?” said the fish.

Nicholas stumbled backward, tripped over his own feet, and fell firmly on his backside. He closed his eyes tightly. “Okay, this is a dream. A very, very intense dream.” He pinched himself on the arm. “Wake up Nicholas. Wake up, wake up, wake up,” he said with his eyes still closed tightly. He slowly cracked open his eyelids and peeked through to find that it most definitely was not a dream. 

The fish went on about his business of swimming in a circle.

Nicholas stood back up and looked around the empty space. Realizing his options of what to do next were a bit limited, he slowly walked back toward the fish. The fish stopped his swimming and locked eyes with Nicholas once again.

“Did you just… um… talk?” Nicholas asked.

“Well I don’t see anyone else around here,” the fish replied. “Do you?”

Nicholas looked around the room briefly before realizing this was probably a rhetorical question. “But… I mean… how can you talk underwater?” Nicholas asked. “Actually, how can you talk at all? You’re a fish.”

“What’s that suppose to mean? You have something against fish? Think we’re too stupid to talk or something?” The fish folded his tiny fins like a pair of arms across the front of his body. “Hmph… I think I might be a bit offended by that.”

“Oh… um… no, please don’t be. I’ve just never heard a fish talk before, that’s all.”

“Well, I’ve never heard a whatever you are talk before either but you don’t hear me insulting your intelligence now do you?”

“I’m really sorry. It’s just th—”

“Come to think of it,” the fish continued, “I don’t believe I’ve ever even seen a whatever you are.” He swam closer to Nicholas and began to look him up and down. “What are you?”

“I’m Nicholas.”

“Nicholas? What’s a Nicholas? I’ve never heard of such a creature.”

“No, no… my name is Nicholas. Um… I’m a boy, well, a human boy to be exact.”

The fish’s eyes widened and he swam back and around nervously for a moment, coming to a sudden stop with a worried look on his face.

“Did… did you say… a human?”

“Um… yes. What’s wrong?” Nicholas glanced around the room again, half expecting a camera crew to pop out at any moment and gleefully announce this was all a hilariously evil prank and he was the star.

The fish glared at him with a concerned look. “I’ve just… well, let’s just say that I’ve heard of your kind before. Trouble, nothing but trouble.”

Nicholas suddenly remembered Emma. She had slipped his mind for a few moments, which was completely understandable considering the fact that he was currently engaged in a lengthy conversation with a talking fish.

“Have you seen a girl like me? My friend Emma. I can’t find her.” 

“What? You mean there’s another one of you here?”

“Yes… I mean, well… I don’t know. I mean, I hope she’s here. I don’t know where she is. I just have to find her,” Nicholas said. “Um… actually, if you don’t mind me asking, Mr. Fish, where exactly is here?

“First of all, Mr. Human Boy Nicholas, I have a name,” the fish replied in a haughty tone. “That name is Nigel.”

“Oh… okay… I’m sorry. It’s nice to meet you, Nigel. Can you please tell me where I am?”

“Well that’s quite simple my boy. You’re in Nowhere.”

“What? What do you mean I’m nowhere?” Nicholas said as his voice began to raise. “I have to be somewhere! That doesn’t even make any sense!”

“Well, quite the temper you’ve got there, Human Boy Nicholas,” Nigel calmly replied. “Perhaps you should settle down a bit and listen a little more closely. I never said you were nowhere. I said that you were in Nowhere… as in the land of Nowhere… as in the place where you are currently present is in fact called Nowhere.”

“Oh,” Nicholas said. His cheeks turned a pleasant, but embarrassed shade of red. “None of this makes sense. I mean… how did you even get here? Do you spend your entire life in this empty room in a little bowl?”

“From where I’m floating, you’re the one stuck behind the glass, boy,” Nigel said. He slowly swam back and forth with a smug look on his little fish face. He stopped and glared in Nicholas’s direction. “If you don’t mind me asking, how exactly did you get here, Human Boy Nicholas?”

“You can just call me Nicholas, you know.”

“Yes. I’m aware of that. I asked you a question.”

Nicholas sighed and looked down at the ground. “I’m… I’m not really sure how I got here. Me and Emma were following the watch, and then we heard a really loud noise, and then there was water everywhere and Emma disappeared and… well, that’s all I remember actually.”

Nigel stopped his swimming and his eyes widened. “Did you say… a watch?”

“Yes. This watch,” Nicholas said as he pulled the watch from his pocket and held it close to the bowl for Nigel to see.

“Oh my. Oh my, my, my. Where did you get that? You shouldn’t have that! You really, really shouldn’t have that and you really, really shouldn’t be here! I think you need to leave, Human Boy Nicholas!”

“What? I don’t know how to leave!” Nicholas said. “Listen, I have to find Emma! Please, you have to help me!”

“There’s nothing I can do for you. You shouldn’t be here, and you certainly shouldn’t have that watch. You best just be on your way before you get me into trouble.”

“Get you into trouble with who?” Nicholas asked with a bewildered look on his face.

“With the rightful owner of that watch! That’s who, Human Boy Nicholas! Now please, please just go!”

“Go where?” Nicholas shouted as he threw his arms up. “Please, Nigel, you have to help me.”

“I’ve already told you, boy, there’s nothing I can do for you. Just be on your way now.”

Nicholas was now thoroughly exasperated. “On my way where? How do you expect me to leave?”

“Well, I don’t have any legs or anything of that sort, but I imagine if I did, I would most likely leave by walking through that large door directly behind you.”

“What are you talking about?” Nicholas asked as he began to turn around. “There’s no door behin—”

Now Nicholas knew good and well that there was absolutely, without any doubt, most certainly no large door anywhere in the room when he had entered it earlier, but much to his chagrin, as he was arguing this fact with Nigel, he turned around and found himself facing what was in fact an enormously large wooden door. At this moment, he briefly considered closing his eyes in order to once again try and convince himself that this was all nothing more than a terribly vivid and cruel dream.

“That wasn’t there a minute ago,” he said.

“Well, it’s there now,” said Nigel, “and I suggest you walk through it.”

“But… what’s on the other side?” asked Nicholas.

“Does it really matter?” Nigel replied. “You don’t want to be here and I most definitely don’t want you to be here and whatever is on the other side is most certainly not here, so it seems that you walking through would solve both our dilemmas.”

Nicholas opened his mouth slightly, thinking he had something to say, but he instantly realized that he had absolutely no retort for Nigel’s strange logic. He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly through his mouth. “Well… I guess you’re right,” he said. “Um… thanks… see you later then… I guess?”

“I most certainly hope not, but good luck to you, Human Boy Nicholas,” Nigel said cheerfully.

Nicholas gave a slight nod in Nigel’s direction. He turned around and walked slowly to the gigantic wooden door, stopped, and then spent a few moments simply staring up at it. Cautiously, he reached out and took hold of a large brass handle and pulled. The door opened surprisingly easily and silently. He could see nothing but darkness through the doorway, but seeing as he didn’t exactly have many other options at this point, he decided to move forward. He closed his eyes, took a very deep breath, and stepped into the unknown.