The Meadow

I had never liked the cupboard under the stairs. Even in my earliest memories, I feared the strange noises that frequently came from behind the door, imagining all manner of terrors lurking in the dark, from monsters with a hundred teeth to faceless ghouls waiting to grab me. My teenage years were spent daring friends to sit inside the cupboard for as long as they could stand it, the longest managed a total of six minutes before leaping from the cupboard in terror, and contemplating doing the same myself. I never did, the weird grumbles and knocks from inside always stole the courage from me before I could grab the handle.

It all came to a head when, at 18, I began sleepwalking and always found myself standing in front of the cupboard door. It carried on for months, my sleeping self finding its way around every obstacle that waking me tried to place to prevent it. My parents made light of it, as usual, joking about me losing my mind, but they had never understood the fear that become a part of my very being. My feelings changed completely when, after a long evening watching T.V. and working my way through the drink’s cabinet, I finally decided that enough was enough. I headed to the door and yanked it open, full of alcohol-induced courage, and stepped inside. Nothing, just an ordinary storage place with the usual assortment of DIY tools and laundry equipment. It was only when I turned to leave that a strange glow caught my eye, faint, and purple from the far end, where the stairs joined the floor. I leaned closer and could have sworn that I could hear laughter from beyond the glow, high-pitched like a child's laugh.

'You've gone mad,' I mumbled to myself, standing upright again and trying once again to leave, now convinced that all the years of fretting about the noises had finally made me crack.

'Holly...' a tiny, almost inaudible voice chimed from the glow. Fear swept through me at the sound of my name yet, as if unable to stop myself, I turned again and got as close as I could to the light. Now only a foot from the source, I could hear far more clearly, a girl laughing and chattering from somewhere beyond.

'She heard me!' it sang excitedly, dissolving into a round of bell-like laughter. My mind swam, I could see nothing but the purple glow in front of me yet, whoever it was beyond the light could evidently see me. My hand crept up unbidden, reaching to investigate the light when a loud bang sounded behind me, startling me into jumping headlong towards the glowing patch of cupboard.

The cupboard tumbled away around me, everything swirling and becoming part of the ethereal purple glow I was now falling through. Warmth blasted my skin as the purple faded away, giving way to bright afternoon sunlight and the vivid colors of a flowering meadow. Small, sparkling, lights floated around the field, like fireflies but shades of blue and green, rather than the orange I was accustomed to seeing. Convinced I had simply banged my head too hard when I jumped, I made a silly mistake and leaped into the river a few feet to my left, a misguided effort to wake myself up. It was freezing cold and the shock forced me to gasp in large amounts of the icy water. Scrambling back to the bank, I pulled myself out and lay panting on the grass.

‘That felt too real…’ I gasped, rolling onto my stomach and taking my first good look at the strange place I had found myself in. Weird, brightly colored birds flitted along the riverbank, furiously beating two sets of wings. Pink, sheep-like creatures bounced their way through the meadow, bleating as they went sailing through the air with each leap. I rubbed my head, feeling for the sore lump I still expected to find.

‘Holly! You’re here!’ squealed an excited little voice, close to my left ear. I turned and found myself face-to-face with an odd little creature. She was roughly 6 inches tall, balanced on the edge of a large red flower, and positively shaking with glee as she stared at me. Her skin had a pale green hue and her shocking yellow eyes were far too big for her face, giving her a look of permanent surprise. From what I could gather, her little purple dress was made from flower petals, like the flowers in the meadow. Reflex made me scurry to my feet and turn to run, but a feeling of familiarity held me in place before I could take the first step.

I get back on my knees and looked at her curiously, ‘What are you? Where am I?’

‘Oh, you’ve been gone so long!’ she began, hopping from foot to foot, until a worried expression came over her, ‘Wait, you don’t remember?’

‘Don’t remember what?’ I asked cautiously, tilting my head in the same manner as a dog when it misunderstands its owner.

‘You’ve been here before, you were so sweet when you last came here, such a tiny bundle of fun!’ The creature watched my face expectantly, waiting to see if I would remember. Her tiny frown began to give way as my eyes widened. I remembered fragmented images that I had long since passed off as vivid dreams. The odd person before me seemed much larger in my memory, still far smaller than myself but not this tiny. My mind raced backward, trying to pinpoint the time when my fear of the cupboard began. I must have been around 5 years old when I began to be afraid of the noises from under the stairs, but something told me that these memories were from before that. Then it clicked, the game of hide and seek with my sister when I was 4, I had hidden in the cupboard and wriggled my way to the very back so Sarah wouldn’t see me if she opened the door. Then, as now, the cupboard fell away and revealed this very same meadow and the same little green lady. I laughed and sat back on my ankles.

‘You’re Cynthia!’ I exclaimed, her name bringing back images of the far younger me struggling to form the name on my tongue. Cynthia started bouncing around on the flower again, giggling with happiness.

‘Yes! Oh, you remembered! Come along, no-one believed me that you had been here!’ Cynthia scrambled off the flower and climbed onto my knee. She was deceptively heavy for such a small person, feeling like a kitten as she clambered up to my shoulder. Once securely seated above my collarbone, Cynthia pointed to the far side of the meadow and squealed, ‘My village is over there, oh, everyone will be so excited!’

I took off in the direction Cynthia had pointed, frequently stopping to marvel at each new wonder. Little yellow flowers with shiny petals chimed like bells each time the wind caught them as it passed. What I could only describe as a sky-blue ferret scampered ahead of me, pausing briefly to look at me with large green eyes, before disappearing into the mass of knee-high grass once more. I was coming to notice a pattern in the way that every animal here, like Cynthia, had eyes that seemed far too big for their heads, and, when I brought it up to her, Cynthia’s expression went blank and she simply shrugged it away. That worried me slightly, the sudden change from her bubbly joy gave me reason to believe she knew more than she was willing to say. Before long, my long strides had us at the edge of a forest, dark and swirling with thick fog. Everything about it set my nerves on edge, the hairs on my arms and neck standing on end. Cynthia sat quietly on my shoulder, staring straight into the forest. A quick sideways glance at the small woman sat inches from my face confirmed that my gut instincts were right. Instead of the pretty, well-formed face, I had been presented with, Cynthia had become a creepy looking imp, her too-big eyes focused on the fog, rows of sharp little teeth filling a malicious smile, and a strange glow to her skin. My eyes shot forward again before she found me looking and I stepped back involuntarily, given by the same fear I had felt standing outside the cupboard.

‘What’s wrong, Holly? It’s just in there,’ Cynthia giggled, her face had returned to normal and a happy, friendly expression painted on. I forced a smile back and tilted my head away slightly.

‘Can I ask, before we meet everyone,’ Cynthia raised her dainty eyebrows at me as I began, ‘How did I get home the last time? I can’t remember.’

‘Oh, surely you don’t want to leave already,’ her voice chimed, a smile that did not reach her eyes plastered to her features. Her head snapped back towards the forest, as though she had heard something beyond the trees. A brief frown crossed her face and was gone again before I could speak. Turning her attention back to me, she looked worried, ‘Please Holly, everyone needs to meet you…’

Her voice was pleading now and, whilst part of me wanted to help her prove I had been there, the larger part of me knew I needed to get home. Something felt terribly wrong about all of this and I was beginning to feel as though a hundred eyes were watching from the forest, waiting for me to step out of the meadow.

‘Cynthia?’ My own voice sounded worried and, unbidden, I took another step away from the trees. She shot upright, almost losing her balance in her panic. Cynthia kept looking between me and the forest, obviously desperate for me to enter the unknown.

‘You can’t go… Please…’ Her words sounded shaky, almost frightened as she continued glancing back at the woods. Cynthia’s entire body was quivering, and I was unsure if it was rage or fear making her shake. Her eyes no longer looked friendly, having developed a hateful glisten as they brimmed with tears.

‘I have to get home, Cynthia,’ Cynthia’s face contorted, having caught the scared tone in my voice. Before I could think, her razor-like teeth were borne, and she jumped towards my face. Out of reflex, my free hand came up and squatted her away, her tiny body whistling through the air as it sailed towards a large patch of blue sunflowers. I had no time to feel guilty about hurting her as, in a heartbeat, more of her kind rushed from the forest, all screeching as they ran at me. My legs took off running, my mind racing to remember how I had left this horrible place as a child. A dark blot in the sky jogged my memories, Cynthia had helped me that time, leading me to another similar hazy grey cloud and giving me a push through it. I desperately needed to find one of those portals and, God knows, I didn’t care where it led me, so long as it led back to my own world. A soft, purring noise ahead grabbed my attention, drawing my eye towards the riverbank. There, asleep in a tree, was a large cat-like animal, and just beyond it, hovering above the water, was my way out.

‘Holly!! Stop!!’ Cynthia cried out somewhere behind me, her tiny voice full of panic, but I had no intention of slowing down. Adrenaline rushed through me and I bolted left towards the river. The screeching from the other creatures became more frantic at this, and stinging sensations began in my lower legs, causing me to assume they were throwing some form of weapons at me to try and stop me. The distance between the river and myself closed rapidly and, to my horror, I realized I was going to have to jump if I had any hope of reaching the portal. Bracing myself, I leaped from the edge of the riverbank, not knowing if I would make it. The imps screamed and screeched behind me, but I kept my eyes shut, praying I would not feel that frigid water envelop me.

Silence greeted my ears, and I tentatively opened my eyes. That strange purple glow was off to my right, now a menacing beacon at the base of the stairs. I stood quietly, desperately listening for anything from the far-away meadow. Nothing but silence, no screaming or whispers came to me, and I felt my body relax. A sigh of relief left me, and a feeling of calm washed over me. I gently pushed the cupboard door open and stepped into the hall. A bolt of fear shot through me as I turned to shut the door once and for all, Cynthia’s frightened voice was calling me yet again from under the stairs, too faint to understand. It chilled me to the core and I resolve that first thing in the morning, I would find a way to block the portal up so no-one could ever fall in again.