Land of the Unwell

Land Of The Unwell

    It all started with a thick book and a tornado of colors. The ending, however, was one coated in red. 

* * *

    “I’m heading off to the library, mom. I’ll be back in an hour or so,” Eveliah Black said as she grabbed her black sneakers and pulled them over her feet. 

    “Okay, Eveliah dear. Don’t be too long, Jamia and aunt Crystal are coming over at three,” her mother replied from the kitchen, her voice echoing off of the blank, newly-painted beige walls. Eveliah groaned at the sound of her cousin’s name, not looking forward to dealing with her snobby older relative. 

    “Mom, that’s in two hours. I’ll be home before then,” Eveliah called as her hand reached for the shiny golden doorknob that led outside, which was splashed with the deep greens and blues of summer. When she stepped outside, a gust of warm air brushed through her wavy, black hair. Her golden-green eyes scanned the quiet neighborhood, taking in the big, empty-appearing houses. Most people had been on vacation, leaving the rainy weather of Portland, Oregon for the sunny weather of Hawaii and Florida. 

    This day, however, was clear as a crystal. The deep blue sky was free of puffy clouds, allowing the golden rays of the sun to filter through the beautiful emerald green trees that littered the city. A small smile tugged at Eveliah’s lips as she looked at her astonishing surroundings. As she walked along the hot, bright pavement, she thought about what kind of book she would get at the library. She had read many books, spending most days holed up in her cozy bedroom, thick book in hand. 

    A large bright red brick building came into view as Eveliah turned the corner, exiting her neighborhood and arriving at the busy part of the city. The library seemed fairly empty, however, as most people were on vacation or doing outdoor activities; taking advantage of the clear day. 

    Mary-Margret, the kind old lady who worked at the large library, greeted Eveliah when she walked through the sparkling glass door. Mary-Margret and Eveliah were very well-acquainted since Eveliah went there almost every day. 

“Hi, Mary-Margret, how are you today?” Eveliah responded to the old lady’s kind greeting. 

“Oh, wonderful, dear. Beautiful day. What adventure are you going on today?”

“I actually haven’t decided yet. Whatever catches my eye, I guess.” Eveliah shot Mary-Margaret a warm smile before venturing out into the maze of wooden bookshelves and colorful book spines. As she was walking through the fantasy book section, a bright gold book flashed briefly in her sight. She slowed down, turning her eyes back to the book glowing in the light filtering through the windows. She skimmed her fingers over the silky cover; the fabric covering the book was as soft as it looked. Curiosity took hold of Eveliah as she pulled the elegant book out of the shelf. To her confusion, there was no title stamped on the book. She lifted the silk cover up, checking to see if anything was printed on the spine or on the front. Nothing. 

“Mary-Margaret?” Eveliah walked back up to the kind librarian, still turning the book in her hands, looking for anything that could tell her what it was. 

“Yes, dear?” Mary-Margaret said, tearing her eyes from a thick, dusty book placed in front of her, squinting through her small, pointed glasses that hung from a pearl chain around her neck. 

“Do you know what book this is? There’s no title.” Eveliah held up the book for the librarian to see.

“Curious… Curious…” Mary-Margaret mumbled, taking the book from Eveliah’s hands and searching the cover. “I’ve never seen this book in my life.” She handed the book back to Eveliah, shooting her a sympathetic look. “ Sorry I couldn’t help you, dear.” Eveliah just smiled back at her, silently telling her that it was okay. Before returning the book to the shelf, she flipped through the pages. What she found was even more puzzling than the missing title: the pages were all a crisp white. No words could be seen dancing along the page.

There has to be something more to this. Thought Eveliah to herself. After a few moments of consideration, Eveliah made up her mind and turned to Mary-Margret again, who had gone back to her own book. 

“I think I’m going to get this one.” Mary-Margaret glanced up again, looking at Eveliah holding out the mysterious gold book.

“Are you sure? Did you flip through it and make sure you like it?” Eveliah pondered the idea of telling Mary-Margaret that she was just simply curious and knew that there was something more to the book that appeared to be blank. 

“Yes, I’m sure I’ll like it quite a lot,” Eveliah responded, shooting the librarian a smile. 

“All right then dear, here you go,” Mary-Margaret said with her charming, old lady smile, giving the book back to Eveliah after stamping the inside of the cover, which was clean. Eveliah mumbled a quiet thank you before leaving the library, hurrying along the sidewalk so that she could get home and go straight into scouring every page of the book and looking for any hidden messages. 

Her bustling mother greeted her as she stepped through the door to her house. “Hi, Evy, dear. You’re home earlier than usual,” her mother said, phrasing her last sentence as a question. 

“I found a book faster than expected. Speaking of which, I think I’m going to go to my room and read it now,” Eveliah replied, trying to slink away into her room. 

“Don’t be in there too long, Jamia and aunt Crystal will be here in an hour,” her mother called after her, beginning to dust the shelf above their brick fireplace. Eveliah just nodded back, slipping into her room and closing the door behind her. She immediately kicked off her flip-flops and plopped down on her blue-sheet clad bed, her newly checked out book in her lap. She ran her hand along the cover again before carefully sliding it off, revealing a black book underneath. As Eveliah inspected it closer, however, she noticed that the book shone gold under the light, as if golden threads were woven into the book. Eveliah’s eyes widened in awe, hypnotized by the book's beauty. As her eyes flew over the book, she noticed a little square of the book that was a darker black than the rest of it. There also weren’t any golden threads woven in. She smiled in triumph as she traced her finger over the darker square, noticing that the patch was a different texture, more scratchy, which was a stark difference compared to the smooth book. She found the edge of the square and found that it was raised a little higher. It was a sticker. 

Eveliah picked at the edge, her suspicions confirmed when the black square began to peel off. She quickly tore the sticker off, pleased with her discovery. When the sticker was off, curly words written in silver winked up at her. 

“Land of the Unwell?” Eveliah read aloud, frowning as the words slipped from her mouth. A chilly breeze swept through her room, even though her large window was sealed shut. Goosebumps traveled up her arm, chills racking her body. Her eyes searched the room, trying to find the source of the freezing wind. Her eyes widened in horror when she looked down at the book to see that a face was staring at her, opening its mouth and letting the cool air in. She covered her mouth to muffle her surprised gasp as colors began swirling up from the book. Different shades of blues, purples, reds, yellows, and greens swam up from the book and began twirling violently around her, as if it was a colorful tornado. Eveliah could do nothing as she stared into the pure white eyes that looked through the book like a reflection in a mirror. 

As she continued to stare at the terrifying eyes, the colors twirled faster around her, nothing but a colorful blur as they went around in a circle around the petrified sixteen-year-old who was put in a trance by the piercing milk eyes. 

* * *

    Bang! 

Eveliah woke with a start as a loud sound crashed through her bubble of unconsciousness. She shot up from what she presumed was the floor of her bedroom, panting heavily and looking around frantically. As she studied her surroundings, she found that she was not in her bedroom, but rather the library she had just been in thirty minutes before she went unconscious, which she did not remember. 

“What in the world…” Eveliah muttered, taking in the brick walled building scattered with sturdy shelves. However, as she looked closer, she noticed that the walls were cracked, some pieces of the walls missing, exposing the grey sky outside. That made no sense; the library had always been very clean and sturdy, and the weather had been really nice earlier. 

Eveliah frowned and slowly rose to her feet. She walked toward the front desk, which was abandoned. Scattered pages littered the table, broken pens thrown onto the desk and onto the floor around it. Thick dust coated everything in the library, and the wood of the bookshelves looked slightly burned in some places. 

What is going on? Eveliah voiced to herself in her head, confusion and fear squeezing her stomach as her palms coated themselves in a sheen of sweat.

“Eveliah,” a voice whispered next to her ear. She whipped her head around, looking for the host of the voice that had spoken eerily into her alert ears. “Eveliah!” the voice said, shouting this time, almost tauntingly. She jumped, still looking around for the person speaking. Tears began to well in her eyes, threatening to spill onto her pale face. Her heart pumped loudly in her ears and icy fear rushed through her veins.

“M-Mary-Margaret?” Eveliah called, hoping that this was all some twisted joke. No response. 

“You’re sadly mistaken, my dear,” the voice said, raspy and right next to Eveliah’s ear. Unable to hold back her tears, Eveliah let them fall in a river of salt. She snapped her head around, looking for someone, anyone. 

“W-Who are you? Show yourself!” She called into the echoing library. The voice chuckled darkly. 

“Oh, you’ll see.”

Eveliah felt something grip her throat, then another large, sweaty hand clasped over her mouth. She struggled against the strong grasp as she felt the air slowly leave her lungs until she really needed to breathe in again, but she couldn't. The room spun as the tears continued to run down her cheeks. That was before everything turned black. 

* * *

    “Eveliah, Eveliah, you’ll be so scared, you’ll lose your mind.” Eveliah woke with a start to the sound of chanting, as if she was in a school assembly where they chanted weird rhymes to cheer up for a game. Except the situation she was in now was nowhere close to being ‘cheerful’. 

    “Eveliah, Eveliah, you’ll be so scared, you’ll lose your mind!” The chant sounded out again, ringing in Eveliah’s ears as her eyes adjusted to the light. The chant had been more aggressive this time, and she felt a sharp spike of fear pierce through her, sending her into a panic. She tried to move her hands to try to rub the blurriness out of her eyes, but found that her wrists were tightly bound together. 

She whimpered as her blurry surroundings came into view. The grey sky that she had seen through the broken library walls was now ruby red. She was tied to a high, metal chair that swayed when she struggled against the scratchy, thick ropes that were so tightly bound around her wrists and ankles that it cut off her circulation. A large group of people stood in a tight circle around her, chanting and shouting brutal words. The city that Eveliah had once known was now cracked and ruined, the buildings crumbled and the roads cracking. What had changed the most, however, was the people. 

The ‘people’ that surrounded her had skin that ranged from sickly green to pale yellow. Some had chunks of their skin missing, or even body parts missing. There was a crazed, demented gleam in their eyes– if they had any– and their sick-looking flesh wrinkled horribly in the sun that was dyed red. The smell that came off of them was awful and Eveliah had to restrain herself from throwing up all over her now tattered and dirty clothes. The smell of sewage and sulfur filtered through her nose, making her gag on the thick scent. 

“Oh, sweet Eveliah. I would say that you would get used to the smell, but you don’t have the time to,” said a raspy voice, the same one that Eveliah heard in the library.

“Wh-Who are you?” Eveliah choked out, her eyes wide in petrification, her heart pounding against her ribcage so hard, she feared it would burst out. Sweat dripped down her forehead, matting her wavy, jet black hair to her head in an uncomfortable manner. 

“Why, dear, haven’t you heard of us?” The seemingly-leader-guy spoke, standing out against the others with his puke-green skin that sagged. He was missing the left half of his face, and he was wearing a ripping, rich purple cape embroidered with diamonds. He flashed Eveliah a smile, one that held rotting, black teeth. “Oh, of course not! We are the untold story, my lovely. The story that everyone dreads. The story that everyone denies. We are the story that will come true. We are the unwell,” the terrifying man spoke, his eye glinting with evil. 

“The u-unwell?” Eveliah whispered, glancing around at the snarling people crowded around her. They looked very unwell, indeed, just as books describe zombies to look. 

“Yes. We are the rest of the population, the others finding their ways out. We may look like zombies, but believe me when I say that we are in a whole different genre than stupid zombies. Horrible, dumb brutes, they are.” The leader-man rolls his eyes  before turning to someone standing to his right. “Don’t tell Sandra I said that, she’ll be terribly upset.”

“What are you talking about? You people are crazy!” Eveliah shouts, struggling against the rope. 

“I guess she is right, we should cut to the chase. Bottom line is, sweetheart, we’re demons who were sent to this version of the Earth because we weren’t wanted. We were given awful bodies, so as you can imagine, we want new, fresh bodies. Not many people stumble across the Golden Book, but when someone does fall into our rotting hands, we take the opportunity.” Eveliah shook her head, not believing a word. However, she was unable to speak due to her throat closing up with her fear. “It’s my turn now, I do hope that you have a life that I can deal with.” She shook her head violently, tears streaming down her face as she stared into the milky white eye of the rotting man before her. 

“P-Please, leave me alone!” Eveliah found her voice, albeit shaky. The man chuckled darkly. 

“Honey, there are no happy endings.”

The last thing Eveliah saw was the crimson red of the sky, like freshly spilled blood upon the crisp, snow-white pages belonging to a silky, metallic gold book.