Chapter two

    I quickly arose from my bed. it was only 3 oclock in the morning. Elcifer lay in a reassuring mass at the end of the bed near my legs. Unlike the Elcifer in my mind, my real cat Elcifer can't talk. He's just a ten year old black and orange blob of a cat whos seen one two many cat treats in his life. i sat up in my bed and started to scratch him under his chin, he started purring loudly.
   i looked out the window at the full moon. Me and Elcifer often visited the moon in my mind. it was much different than what it is in real life. we don't need a space ship to get there, we sort've just pop up at the moon, and we can breathe also.
   i've been taking journeys into my mind ever since i was 8. i fell asleep in class one day, and when i opened my eyes i was in a bizzare mushroom world. it was very strange, everything felt and looked real, and i was concious,but i was still asleep.i ventured through this mushroom world, remembering that in my class my teacher was telling us a story about mushrooms. i walked up to one of the mushrooms nd tried to take a piece out of one of the giant towering mushrooms, but it was solid like a rock.
   the mushrooms rose to what seemed like 12 feet tall, and were all different colors. some were brown, others white, some were even red with white polka dots. all the souronding foliage was also bright and colorful. every color you could imagine was all around me. it seemed as if i had walked right into a strange painting someone had made. someone who didn't know that grass isn't pink and mushrooms weren't 12 feet tall.
   i countined walking through the very convient path tht lay through the mushroom field.
  "hello?Hello!" i screamed as i walked onwards.
  "hello? my name is charlotte! is anyone here?" my 8 year old voice was very high pitch, and carried on well so i was epexcting to get  reply from somebody. perhaps someone was asleep on top of one of the mushrooms. maybe there was even a whole city ontop of the mushrooms. my young creative mind was screaming with delight and just had to know what was ontop of thoose mushrooms. i walked forwards until i saw a mushroom that looked easy enough to climb up. a few hundred feet up and i found a very convient set of mushrooms that looked like a staircase. i climb my way onto the first mushroom and so on until i reached the last mushroom. i was midway climbing the last mushroom when i was instantly transported back to the real world.
 " Charlotte Grace, if you want to sleep in my class then i will expect you to go to the nurse. there is no sleeping allowed in my classroom." I looked up and saw the angry face of my 2nd grade teacher looking down at me with her arms folded. I could see straight up her nose she was so close to my desk.
   My teachers name was mrs.rattenbourogh , and even as an 8 year old, i was suprised at how someone had married such an evil beast like her. me and the other school kids always waited for the day devil horns would sprout out of her head, and hellish black wings would pop out of her back. and then she'd breathe fire at us and start going on a fire breathing rampage.
  sadly, that never happened. she was just a human.
  often we find it easier to imagine a reason for why someone could be so cruel. ohh she just doesn't mean to be a horrible person, she's a spawn of satan, she has no choice. it' always easier to make it through the day when everything has an explanation, and everything makes sense.
    later that night i travelled back to mushroom land in my sleep.

Charlotte

   I navigated through the bubbling tar pits and the endless puddles of the field. night is eternal, and so is the fog that huddles at my feet.the only creatures that live this deep in the recesses of my mind are the past jaunts and snarls from everyone who ever belittled me. i usually never travel this deep into my mind, but it was essential.
    a few years back something happened that i quickly shoved  into the back corners of my memories. i wanted to forget it ever happened. expel it from exsistence. but that just wasn't possible. all these years later i find myself searching through the place i thought i was never going to be; and i was scared. i've never traveled this far back into my past before, and i honestly don't know what i am expecting to find.
   its a place of nightmares this place. not the nightmares your mind creates when youre sleeping, but the ones you experience when youre awake and functioning. everyone whos made fun of you, anything that ever made you scared. no matter how hard you try to abolish something from your past, you can find it here.
i continued walking through the path that twisted and meandered all through the field. theres nothing to base how long i've been traveling down this path. no sun, no stars,no clouds or moon. theres no sunlight in the darkest depths of your mind. sunlight is what the monsters of your past feed off of. they can't feed off of life itself, so they feed off what creates life, the sun.
  there isn't complete darkness in the field of nightmare, theres always this erie creepy haze which makes it feel like big a demonous wasteland. besides the Erie haze i had a lantern to light my way. it didn't help much, but it stopped me from getting my shoes stuck in the tar pits, or from getting wet in a puddle.
   elcifer my talking cat, the guide to my mind, was resting half on my backpack, and half on my shoulder.
  "me ladie,if you travel at this pace you're never going to have enough time"
  " i know" elcifer had nothing positive to say the whole time we were down here and it was getting redundant.
  " stop worrying about your shoes, if you want to find what you're looking for you need to move", his voice was harsh but i know it was because he doesn't want to be here as much as i do. he was scared, and if he showed it he would never forgive himself. he is my guide, he is my otherhalf. it's his job to be couragous and to help me in whatever way i need it. he knew mostly everything, but that didn't mean he would tell me it. everything was an endless riddle with him. in the early years of the exploration of my mind, it was cute, elcifer was much smaller, and his voice much higher. he was younger and always in a better mood. 10 years later, he's getting older, wiser, and less patient. he never seemed to be in a good mood anymore. Elcifer doesn't age the way real cats age, so i don't know how long he is expected to live, or if he can even die. he ages, so there must be a point in which he can't age anymore.
  " elcifer how old are you?" "that doesn't help our current problem ladie"he spat out harshly
  " i know it's not helping, i'm just trying to make conversation". i continued on through the field, slightly quickening my pace. Elcifer dug a sharp claw into the back of my neck. i yelped and clutched the back of my neck. it didnt feel like it was bleeding, but it stung.
  " stop wondering young girl, we are here for a reason, now lets find him"
  i was fed up with elcifer. hes become meaner and more agresive recently, but he's never inflicted pain on me. he was here to help me not hurt me.
  i reached around and grabbed elcifer and then held him in the air in front of me.
  " if you don't start being nicer i am going to make you walk, then you see how it feels to walk through all the puddles". elcifer quickly relaxed his body from it's tense position, a position full of fear, and gave in.
  "okay princess, i will do as you say" he said in defeat. " Thank you" i said happfully and placed elcifer back onto my back, where he quickly got into his comfortable resting position. " it wasn't that hard".
  we traveled on in silence. elcifer wasnt eager to start talking, i think he actually fell asleep. after what felt like another hour of traveling through the field i spotted what i was finally looking for. he was about 50 feet in front of me, hunched over on the ground. when i saw him i knelt down quickly on the floor. i didn't want him to spot me, who knows what he would do if he saw me.
  elcifer started to whisper in my ear " you need to get closer to him, were to far away" , " i know were too far, but i'm scared" my voice came out as nervous trembles, the endings of my words came out inaudible.
  i started my way closely to the hunched over dark blob that resembled a human. i slowly made my way about 20 feet when a branch snapped under my foot. he quickly sprang up from his hunced position and stared straight at me.

  I quickly arose from my bed.