LittleGumball
Slammin' Salmon
I hope I never post another one of these ever again.
I've been having writer's block on anything and everything I'm writing that's important, so I started a really dumb fanfic. :3 Read it or don't, I don't really care, and I'm actually not really feeling like posting this, but I should stop being self-conscious about my writing if I wanna get published irl someday. So here's part of my dumb fanfic, I'm actually stuck on this too, I really don't know what I was going for with this, haha. Like everything I've ever written, I know the end and the beginning and I can't fill in the middle. Yay! Enjoy... or not. Probably the latter.
By the way, this starts out boring. As is with everything I write. ^^
This is it. The ultimate moment of glory. My time to shine. If I don’t pull this off, we’re all done for. Finished. Goners. Out of luck. Beaten.
Dead.
As I jump through the air and draw back my arm, I recall my adventure. How I got here. It all flashes before my eyes just one more time…
The first time I met him was the first day in approximately four years I had broken my schedule. I had a steady schedule at my job as a cashier for a local convenience store, which paid well due to my hard work, experience, and, if I’m being completely honest here, sucking up to the higher-ups. I followed that strictly. My twelve-to-nine schedule was nice, it gave me plenty of room for leisure time and staying up late and sleeping in. On Saturdays I worked from eleven o’clock to four, and on Sundays I worked from ten to five. I always dreaded waking up on a Sunday.
Saturdays were the days I took my dog to the park. Sundays were when I would go out and do something with my roommate, who would always drag me to some movie that was usually boring or go out to some restaurant when there were clearly leftovers in the fridge that we could have instead, or to some event place that I couldn’t care less about. At literally all other times of the day, I was asleep or on my computer.
That Thursday afternoon, I was sick of my new boss telling me what to do. I had been there a whole year and a half longer than she had, and I was sick of her constant nagging, so I left my shift, ignoring her threats to fire me or dock my pay or whatever it was this time. I knew it was a mistake, but I really didn’t want to have to deal with her that day. I walked the three miles home, collected my dog from my apartment, and went to the dog park. I purchased a bagel from a vendor I had never seen before because I was feeling dangerous.
“Look at me, Sam,” I said to my dog, staring out at the other people playing with their pets. He looked at me, and I looked at him. “I’m breaking schedule. Can you believe it? It’s 3:30 on a Thursday and I’m not at work. I’m here with you. Isn’t it exciting?”
He was, in fact, excited, despite the lack of color in my tone.
I walked until I found a bench to sit on and planted myself on it, still watching the other people. It was disgustingly happy. I should have been a part of it, but I wasn’t feeling up to it just then.
My dog sniffed the trees around me as I ate my bland bagel. When he returned, I tore off a piece of it and fed it to him. “Hope you like it better than I do, bud,” I told him. He sat, licked his doggy lips happily, and stared at me hopefully, the edge of his tail sweeping the ground in anticipation. I considered giving him more, but petted him instead. My gaze returned to the people running and throwing things and the man in green that was watching me and the children and all the different types of dogs barking and running around.
…Wait a second. That guy was watching me.
I turned my head sharply toward him. Yes, he was definitely looking straight at me, because when I looked at him he began to walk toward me.
I had a sinking feeling, but I was going to stand my ground no matter what. Nothing would hurt me as long as I wasn’t dumb, and if there’s one thing I’m not, it’s dumb.
“Sam,” I murmured, “in case something happens, I want you to know that I love you very much, and I’m sorry I haven’t been feeding you treats lately, I’ve just been too lazy to buy them. And I’m sorry if you get kicked out of the apartment because I’m the only one that loves you.”
Sam wasn’t paying very much attention to me. He was too busy growling at my visitor. “Stop that,” the man snapped when he was in vocal range. Instantly Sam obeyed.
I opened my mouth to yell at this… guy for talking to my best friend that way, but he cut across me before I could even make a noise. “Excuse me, I hope I’m not bothering you or anything, but I was wondering if you could help me out with something,” he said to me kindly. He smiled a little bit.
But smiling wasn’t going to calm the beast. “No,” I replied flatly.
He seemed taken aback. “I… really, it shouldn’t take too long, I just want to –”
“No.”
We stared at each other as I rested my hand Sam’s head. He had lovely blue eyes. Once I really looked at him, I realized he would have been kind of good-looking, if it hadn’t been for the silly green garb and the rudeness to my dog.
“Look, miss, I think we started out on the wrong foot here. My name is –”
“Look, sir, I don’t care what your name is. I’m not going to help you out. I don’t have time, I shouldn’t even be here in the first place, and you were rude to the most important thing in my life. So far you haven’t exactly made the best impression.” I offered the most sardonic, condescending smile I could muster up.
The man’s face shifted from friendly to fierce. “Listen to me,” he hissed, leaning toward me threateningly. “I need your help here. Specifically yours. If you don’t help me out everyone will die.”
I dismissed him with a ‘pfft,’ which really riled him up. “Come on, really? I’m not making this up; you wanna see why I’m telling the truth? I can prove it to you, just give me a chance!”
“Yeah?” I asked lazily, raising my eyebrows. “How, Mr. Urgent?”
“For the record, my name is Link. And I can show you if you’ll come with me to a certain –”
“Why does it require me getting up? I don’t want to –”
“Well you’re gonna have to! Does Hyrule’s destiny really depend on such a lazy girl?”
He seemed startled by his own words, and I took advantage of this moment. “Link, is it? Look, buddy, I don’t have time for this. Just tell me why you need me and what I need to do and I’ll see if I deem it “worthy” enough to attend to. Got it? I shouldn’t be here, I have a job with a whiny boss that I’m supposed to be doing, and I might just get fired anyway, so you know what? Let’s go on an adventure, hon.”
His blue eyes met mine. “Uh… what?”
“You have five seconds to tell me where to go, Link.”
He straightened his posture and looked down at me. He still wasn’t making a very good impression. “You know that chapel next to the bowling alley?”
I hadn't been there in a very long time, but I’d seen it many times on the way to doing something dumb with my roommate. “Yeah, you mean that St. Paul’s place or whatever? Yeah, why?”
This stranger – there was no way he could have a name like Link, I mean, come on – grinned at me. “You’ve never been to the back room, have you?”
Yeah… a little creepy. “Never seen past the color of the front door. Again, why?”
“Come with me and you’ll find out.” He winked – again, creepy – before turning and walking away toward the direction of the chapel.
I sighed. “Come on, Sam,” I said, rising to my feet and ruffling the fur on my dog’s head. I tossed aside the bagel and followed the man in green. “I’ve got nothing better to do, and Sarah’s gonna be pretty mad when I get back no matter how long I’ve been gone. Just keep on your toes, yeah?”
Sam barked happily. Well, if he was excited then I might as well be too. I allowed myself a momentary smirk. This could be fun.
When we finally reached the chapel the mystery man glanced back for the first time. “So you did come,” he said when I stepped up next to him. “Good. Let’s head in.”
He pushed open the door and went straight in. I took a deep breath. It had been a very long time since I had been this close to a holy place. I steeled my nerves and pushed the door wide open to make sure nothing would surprise me. It creaked forward on its hinges. Spooky, but not unsettling enough to make me turn back. It was only a chapel. An abandoned one, yes, and for good reason, but it was just a building.
“Just a building,” I muttered to myself. “Just a building…”
One foot inside. Sam barreled in past me and started sniffing everywhere, tail wagging. “Well that kind of ruined the moment,” I said to myself. It seemed to be safe now that Sam was in there investigating everything. He hadn’t barked or growled yet so I put the other foot inside.
I could already feel the ghosts pulling at my clothes, whispering into my ears, passing through my hair. It was almost like they were actually real.
“Ghosts aren’t real,” I said quietly but firmly, closing my eyes and clenching my fists. “It’s just my imagination going crazy. There aren’t really any ghosts here. They’re not real. They’re not real…”
“Hey!” the stranger shouted from in front of a distant doorway, making me jump. “You coming or what?”
I scowled across the room at him as his echoes died down. “Give me a moment,” I responded, staring at the exact pathway I was going to take. All I had to do was…
“No! Just get over here!”
…ignore all the distractions. There were no ghosts because there was no such thing as ghosts. Clearly Sam was okay with everything because he hadn’t barked yet, only whined with excitement. The stranger could wait because I needed to do this on my own time, or else I wouldn’t be able to fight the memories.
“Did you hear me? I’m talking to you!”
Yes, the shooting happened. Yes, it was horrible. Yes, I was the person who found it first. Yes, I saw it. Yes, there was blood and bodies everywhere. No, there was no culprit to be found. No, for the umpteenth time, he was not going to find me and finish me off. Yes, this place was cleaned. No, there is no such thing as ghosts. Yes, I am okay. Yes, I will be okay.
While I was busy closing my eyes and dealing with my painfully good memory, my good buddy old pal “Link” swept me up off my feet and carried me to the door he wanted to go through. “You’re taking too long,” he said over my yelling and struggling with a half smile of triumph.
“Put me down!” I screamed over and over, my voice reverberating back to me a hundred times off the domed ceiling.
“Okay, okay!” He obliged. We were two steps away from his stupid door. “Jeez, woman, you should have warned me you were gonna freak out.”
“Excuse me,” I started with a biting tone, “but I have a bit of a history that I need to deal with here before I can do anything, and I hate being picked up so don’t you ever do that again, do you hear me, son?!”
Without realizing it, I had gotten louder and louder as I kept talking. “Sorry,” the stranger muttered when my echoes had stopped speaking to each other. He did his best to avoid my gaze.
Sam trotted over to me and nudged his head under my hand to force me to pet him. “So are we gonna go, or what?” I asked.
The man in green glanced at me, then jerked his head toward the door with yet another mad grin on his face. “Let’s go.”
He threw the door open and I followed him inside. What I saw was not at all what I expected. There was a large mirror that served as the wall furthest from me. The room was dark, but the mirror emitted a faint glow that dimly lit up the place. Scribbled on the walls were drawings and symbols that I couldn’t interpret even if I tried. Evenly spaced along the two side walls were many ancient statues of birds. There was a large sheet that looked like the sail of a boat hanging from the ceiling. I could hear music and horses whinnying even though there was nothing I could see to make the sounds.
I tried to speak, but realized my mouth was hanging open. I shut it, swallowed, and tried again. “What is this?”
“I have no idea,” my companion told me honestly, “but all I know is our destination lies through that mirror right there.”
I stared at him. “…Through the mirror?” I asked, making sure I heard him correctly.
“Yes. Through the mirror.”
“You mean, like… through the mirror? As in walking right through it?”
He sighed. “Yes.”
Without really realizing what I was doing, I stepped toward the mirror cautiously. I put out a shaking hand to try and touch it, but thought better of it and lowered my arm again. Maybe I should wait for instructions.
Even Sam was amazed. He sniffed at the mirror’s edge curiously. I gently pushed his nose back so he wouldn’t accidentally touch it. “No, Sam,” I whispered absentmindedly, staring intently at the mirror, which seemed to reflect the room I was in as well as another grassy area if I looked deeper into it.
“Link” stepped up next to me. “Wanna go through it?” he asked mischievously. His voice was also hushed. It was strange how the room made us want to be quieter. Maybe it was a respect thing. I remember telling myself to research this strangeness someday.
“Yes I do,” I murmured, trying to see what was going on past my own reflection. It was like this mirror was the gateway to another world.
“You have to be touching me in order to stay safe,” he instructed. I nodded without looking at him. He tentatively took my hand, and with the other he latched onto Sam’s collar.
Wait a minute. Gateway to another world? No, no, no, I shouldn’t do this, I couldn’t do this, I had a life, I had a roommate, this was too wild…
Too late.
“Come on, lady!” my companion said ecstatically and pulled Sam and I through the mirror and into whatever was on the other side.
I've been having writer's block on anything and everything I'm writing that's important, so I started a really dumb fanfic. :3 Read it or don't, I don't really care, and I'm actually not really feeling like posting this, but I should stop being self-conscious about my writing if I wanna get published irl someday. So here's part of my dumb fanfic, I'm actually stuck on this too, I really don't know what I was going for with this, haha. Like everything I've ever written, I know the end and the beginning and I can't fill in the middle. Yay! Enjoy... or not. Probably the latter.
By the way, this starts out boring. As is with everything I write. ^^
Part One
This is it. The ultimate moment of glory. My time to shine. If I don’t pull this off, we’re all done for. Finished. Goners. Out of luck. Beaten.
Dead.
As I jump through the air and draw back my arm, I recall my adventure. How I got here. It all flashes before my eyes just one more time…
The first time I met him was the first day in approximately four years I had broken my schedule. I had a steady schedule at my job as a cashier for a local convenience store, which paid well due to my hard work, experience, and, if I’m being completely honest here, sucking up to the higher-ups. I followed that strictly. My twelve-to-nine schedule was nice, it gave me plenty of room for leisure time and staying up late and sleeping in. On Saturdays I worked from eleven o’clock to four, and on Sundays I worked from ten to five. I always dreaded waking up on a Sunday.
Saturdays were the days I took my dog to the park. Sundays were when I would go out and do something with my roommate, who would always drag me to some movie that was usually boring or go out to some restaurant when there were clearly leftovers in the fridge that we could have instead, or to some event place that I couldn’t care less about. At literally all other times of the day, I was asleep or on my computer.
That Thursday afternoon, I was sick of my new boss telling me what to do. I had been there a whole year and a half longer than she had, and I was sick of her constant nagging, so I left my shift, ignoring her threats to fire me or dock my pay or whatever it was this time. I knew it was a mistake, but I really didn’t want to have to deal with her that day. I walked the three miles home, collected my dog from my apartment, and went to the dog park. I purchased a bagel from a vendor I had never seen before because I was feeling dangerous.
“Look at me, Sam,” I said to my dog, staring out at the other people playing with their pets. He looked at me, and I looked at him. “I’m breaking schedule. Can you believe it? It’s 3:30 on a Thursday and I’m not at work. I’m here with you. Isn’t it exciting?”
He was, in fact, excited, despite the lack of color in my tone.
I walked until I found a bench to sit on and planted myself on it, still watching the other people. It was disgustingly happy. I should have been a part of it, but I wasn’t feeling up to it just then.
My dog sniffed the trees around me as I ate my bland bagel. When he returned, I tore off a piece of it and fed it to him. “Hope you like it better than I do, bud,” I told him. He sat, licked his doggy lips happily, and stared at me hopefully, the edge of his tail sweeping the ground in anticipation. I considered giving him more, but petted him instead. My gaze returned to the people running and throwing things and the man in green that was watching me and the children and all the different types of dogs barking and running around.
…Wait a second. That guy was watching me.
I turned my head sharply toward him. Yes, he was definitely looking straight at me, because when I looked at him he began to walk toward me.
I had a sinking feeling, but I was going to stand my ground no matter what. Nothing would hurt me as long as I wasn’t dumb, and if there’s one thing I’m not, it’s dumb.
“Sam,” I murmured, “in case something happens, I want you to know that I love you very much, and I’m sorry I haven’t been feeding you treats lately, I’ve just been too lazy to buy them. And I’m sorry if you get kicked out of the apartment because I’m the only one that loves you.”
Sam wasn’t paying very much attention to me. He was too busy growling at my visitor. “Stop that,” the man snapped when he was in vocal range. Instantly Sam obeyed.
I opened my mouth to yell at this… guy for talking to my best friend that way, but he cut across me before I could even make a noise. “Excuse me, I hope I’m not bothering you or anything, but I was wondering if you could help me out with something,” he said to me kindly. He smiled a little bit.
But smiling wasn’t going to calm the beast. “No,” I replied flatly.
He seemed taken aback. “I… really, it shouldn’t take too long, I just want to –”
“No.”
We stared at each other as I rested my hand Sam’s head. He had lovely blue eyes. Once I really looked at him, I realized he would have been kind of good-looking, if it hadn’t been for the silly green garb and the rudeness to my dog.
“Look, miss, I think we started out on the wrong foot here. My name is –”
“Look, sir, I don’t care what your name is. I’m not going to help you out. I don’t have time, I shouldn’t even be here in the first place, and you were rude to the most important thing in my life. So far you haven’t exactly made the best impression.” I offered the most sardonic, condescending smile I could muster up.
The man’s face shifted from friendly to fierce. “Listen to me,” he hissed, leaning toward me threateningly. “I need your help here. Specifically yours. If you don’t help me out everyone will die.”
I dismissed him with a ‘pfft,’ which really riled him up. “Come on, really? I’m not making this up; you wanna see why I’m telling the truth? I can prove it to you, just give me a chance!”
“Yeah?” I asked lazily, raising my eyebrows. “How, Mr. Urgent?”
“For the record, my name is Link. And I can show you if you’ll come with me to a certain –”
“Why does it require me getting up? I don’t want to –”
“Well you’re gonna have to! Does Hyrule’s destiny really depend on such a lazy girl?”
He seemed startled by his own words, and I took advantage of this moment. “Link, is it? Look, buddy, I don’t have time for this. Just tell me why you need me and what I need to do and I’ll see if I deem it “worthy” enough to attend to. Got it? I shouldn’t be here, I have a job with a whiny boss that I’m supposed to be doing, and I might just get fired anyway, so you know what? Let’s go on an adventure, hon.”
His blue eyes met mine. “Uh… what?”
“You have five seconds to tell me where to go, Link.”
He straightened his posture and looked down at me. He still wasn’t making a very good impression. “You know that chapel next to the bowling alley?”
I hadn't been there in a very long time, but I’d seen it many times on the way to doing something dumb with my roommate. “Yeah, you mean that St. Paul’s place or whatever? Yeah, why?”
This stranger – there was no way he could have a name like Link, I mean, come on – grinned at me. “You’ve never been to the back room, have you?”
Yeah… a little creepy. “Never seen past the color of the front door. Again, why?”
“Come with me and you’ll find out.” He winked – again, creepy – before turning and walking away toward the direction of the chapel.
I sighed. “Come on, Sam,” I said, rising to my feet and ruffling the fur on my dog’s head. I tossed aside the bagel and followed the man in green. “I’ve got nothing better to do, and Sarah’s gonna be pretty mad when I get back no matter how long I’ve been gone. Just keep on your toes, yeah?”
Sam barked happily. Well, if he was excited then I might as well be too. I allowed myself a momentary smirk. This could be fun.
When we finally reached the chapel the mystery man glanced back for the first time. “So you did come,” he said when I stepped up next to him. “Good. Let’s head in.”
He pushed open the door and went straight in. I took a deep breath. It had been a very long time since I had been this close to a holy place. I steeled my nerves and pushed the door wide open to make sure nothing would surprise me. It creaked forward on its hinges. Spooky, but not unsettling enough to make me turn back. It was only a chapel. An abandoned one, yes, and for good reason, but it was just a building.
“Just a building,” I muttered to myself. “Just a building…”
One foot inside. Sam barreled in past me and started sniffing everywhere, tail wagging. “Well that kind of ruined the moment,” I said to myself. It seemed to be safe now that Sam was in there investigating everything. He hadn’t barked or growled yet so I put the other foot inside.
I could already feel the ghosts pulling at my clothes, whispering into my ears, passing through my hair. It was almost like they were actually real.
“Ghosts aren’t real,” I said quietly but firmly, closing my eyes and clenching my fists. “It’s just my imagination going crazy. There aren’t really any ghosts here. They’re not real. They’re not real…”
“Hey!” the stranger shouted from in front of a distant doorway, making me jump. “You coming or what?”
I scowled across the room at him as his echoes died down. “Give me a moment,” I responded, staring at the exact pathway I was going to take. All I had to do was…
“No! Just get over here!”
…ignore all the distractions. There were no ghosts because there was no such thing as ghosts. Clearly Sam was okay with everything because he hadn’t barked yet, only whined with excitement. The stranger could wait because I needed to do this on my own time, or else I wouldn’t be able to fight the memories.
“Did you hear me? I’m talking to you!”
Yes, the shooting happened. Yes, it was horrible. Yes, I was the person who found it first. Yes, I saw it. Yes, there was blood and bodies everywhere. No, there was no culprit to be found. No, for the umpteenth time, he was not going to find me and finish me off. Yes, this place was cleaned. No, there is no such thing as ghosts. Yes, I am okay. Yes, I will be okay.
While I was busy closing my eyes and dealing with my painfully good memory, my good buddy old pal “Link” swept me up off my feet and carried me to the door he wanted to go through. “You’re taking too long,” he said over my yelling and struggling with a half smile of triumph.
“Put me down!” I screamed over and over, my voice reverberating back to me a hundred times off the domed ceiling.
“Okay, okay!” He obliged. We were two steps away from his stupid door. “Jeez, woman, you should have warned me you were gonna freak out.”
“Excuse me,” I started with a biting tone, “but I have a bit of a history that I need to deal with here before I can do anything, and I hate being picked up so don’t you ever do that again, do you hear me, son?!”
Without realizing it, I had gotten louder and louder as I kept talking. “Sorry,” the stranger muttered when my echoes had stopped speaking to each other. He did his best to avoid my gaze.
Sam trotted over to me and nudged his head under my hand to force me to pet him. “So are we gonna go, or what?” I asked.
The man in green glanced at me, then jerked his head toward the door with yet another mad grin on his face. “Let’s go.”
He threw the door open and I followed him inside. What I saw was not at all what I expected. There was a large mirror that served as the wall furthest from me. The room was dark, but the mirror emitted a faint glow that dimly lit up the place. Scribbled on the walls were drawings and symbols that I couldn’t interpret even if I tried. Evenly spaced along the two side walls were many ancient statues of birds. There was a large sheet that looked like the sail of a boat hanging from the ceiling. I could hear music and horses whinnying even though there was nothing I could see to make the sounds.
I tried to speak, but realized my mouth was hanging open. I shut it, swallowed, and tried again. “What is this?”
“I have no idea,” my companion told me honestly, “but all I know is our destination lies through that mirror right there.”
I stared at him. “…Through the mirror?” I asked, making sure I heard him correctly.
“Yes. Through the mirror.”
“You mean, like… through the mirror? As in walking right through it?”
He sighed. “Yes.”
Without really realizing what I was doing, I stepped toward the mirror cautiously. I put out a shaking hand to try and touch it, but thought better of it and lowered my arm again. Maybe I should wait for instructions.
Even Sam was amazed. He sniffed at the mirror’s edge curiously. I gently pushed his nose back so he wouldn’t accidentally touch it. “No, Sam,” I whispered absentmindedly, staring intently at the mirror, which seemed to reflect the room I was in as well as another grassy area if I looked deeper into it.
“Link” stepped up next to me. “Wanna go through it?” he asked mischievously. His voice was also hushed. It was strange how the room made us want to be quieter. Maybe it was a respect thing. I remember telling myself to research this strangeness someday.
“Yes I do,” I murmured, trying to see what was going on past my own reflection. It was like this mirror was the gateway to another world.
“You have to be touching me in order to stay safe,” he instructed. I nodded without looking at him. He tentatively took my hand, and with the other he latched onto Sam’s collar.
Wait a minute. Gateway to another world? No, no, no, I shouldn’t do this, I couldn’t do this, I had a life, I had a roommate, this was too wild…
Too late.
“Come on, lady!” my companion said ecstatically and pulled Sam and I through the mirror and into whatever was on the other side.