Curved Knife"

I was on my way to my friend Carmen's to get her Polish notebook. A shorter blonde with blue eyes opened the door. No one would have believed me if I'd said the child was three years younger than me; I'd have said she was older. Her name was Bailey, and she was Carmen's younger sister.

"Is your sister here?" I asked cheerfully.

"No, but she should be back in five minutes; she's gone to the newsstand," Bailey replied without enthusiasm.

"If you want, wait for her," she said after a moment.

"Okay, I'll wait," I replied politely.

Bailey raised her hand, inviting me to come in.

A war of colors was raging in the hallway. The walls had been painted blue, but it wasn't the same blue as two years ago. Now it was leaning towards sky blue. The carpet was a light green, which matched the yellow furniture perfectly. The door was painted a shade of purple, bordering on pink, and the frame itself was red. Even the jackets hanging on the rack were colorful. After I entered, the rack was enriched with new colors, slightly out of place with the rest, namely my black jacket. I'd been wearing black for a year, and two months ago I went to the hairdresser to dye my hair black. When I got home, my mother was furious with me for not letting me dye it. Now, as I sat in Carmen's kitchen thinking about it, I didn't regret my decision, because at school everyone complimented me on how well I looked with black hair.

A minute later, I heard the door open, and a moment later, I was in her room with Carmen. Suddenly, everything in front of my eyes began to blur, creating a multicolored vortex. All the colors made me feel dizzy. The vortex slowly began to separate the colors, and from them, a strange land began to form. When the vortex disappeared completely, I decided to look around. Suddenly, I felt myself floating in the air. My feet were already high above the ground. I slowly began to move between the treetops—if you could even call them that. Their leaves were black, and the branches resembled the hands of a man crying for help. The grass there was a dark, yellowed green. Suddenly, I felt a strong wind pushing me west. I passed various strange places, from a village of floating houses to a forest of groaning trees. I don't know how long I flew, but I know that when my feet felt the icy ground, I was in some dirty, dark castle. When I turned my head to look around the castle, I saw a terrifying creature staring at me with yellow eyes. Its face resembled a cat's head with a crocodile's snout and human eyes. One could easily say its turtle-like form resembled a human, except for the fact that it had two pairs of arms, each ending in three clawed fingers. Its legs were shaped like a rabbit crossed with a chicken. I don't know what scared me more, the fact that it had protruding, very sharp teeth, or the fact that it looked at me as if it wanted to eat me. I only remember that it started approaching me, and I lost consciousness.

I felt a slight jolt. I slowly opened my eyes, but that probably wasn't a good idea. What I saw left me speechless. The same strange creature that had made me faint stood crouched over me. It had a curved, silver knife in its hand. Its hands began to approach mine dangerously, and a moment later, they were gripping them tightly. His third hand, with the knife, was still above me, as if waiting for a sign to start stabbing me. Suddenly, I regained my composure and kicked him in the stomach. He didn't even flinch, just started laughing. Without a thought as to whether anyone might be nearby or not, I started screaming.

"Help! Help!" I shouted.

"Be quiet, there's no one here anyway!" He hissed through his yellow teeth.

"What are you trying to do to me, and where am I?" I asked anxiously.

The creature only tightened its grip on my hands and smiled nastily, showing all its saliva-dripping teeth.

"Are you...you...wanting to eat me..." I couldn't finish as its teeth sank into my neck.

"AAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!" I started screaming horribly.

Suddenly, I felt someone nudging me and shouting.

"Ewelina!" What are you screaming about!? - The creature was no longer standing in front of me, but my friend.

- What happened? - I asked, surprised by the whole incident.

"I don't know, but I think you fell asleep when we got to my room. The weirdest thing is that I only turned away from you for five seconds to see what time it was, and when I looked at you, you were already asleep," Carmen explained.

"Strange, really strange..." she added after a moment.