MYSTober 2024

31 vignettes based on single-word prompts. One story.

12. Fissure

"Okay, kids, we're going to call it there." Brandon's teacher Miss Roberts waved towards the classroom door. "Go enjoy the rest of the day."

There weren't many other children in class with him. The island only had a handful of non-adults. It seemed like there were a lot of just-turned-adults, and then nobody else until the been-adult-a-whiles, and then nobody else until the very-old-adults, as if the people came in waves. Some of his friends had gotten really tall recently, but that didn't make them adults yet, according to the adults.

As he and his friends ran out of the classroom, it seemed like the ground shook. He'd never felt anything like that before. It didn't last long, so it must have just been how fast they were running.

They all raced into the woods. They always went to the woods after class – it was the best place to play. They could hide, climb, run around, and sometimes they'd even see animals. As he was getting past the big oak tree with a hole in its side, about twenty steps in, Jenny slapped him on the back and yelled, "Brandon has to catch us!" before running away.

"I'm gonna catch all of you!" Brandon yelled back, and took off after her.

Friends laughed and giggled all around him. After several hundred steps weaving in and out between the trees, he slapped Roger on the shoulder and yelled, "Roger has to catch us!"

This continued for several hundred more steps until he found Mordecai standing still. He ran up next to his friend and teased, "Come on, you're not playing the game."

Mordecai pointed in front of him. Brandon turned to look at where he was pointing, and immediately yelled, "Whoa!"

Part of the ground was gone. In the middle of the forest, a long thin hole had opened, with a steep drop on both sides. It was like the island had started splitting in half, and then just decided not to finish.

They stood there together, staring out over it. There were roots coming out of the dirt wall on the other side. Jenny ran up next to him and said, "Whoa, where did that come from?"

"It came from God," answered Mordecai.

Brandon looked at him with doubt. "If this is a message from God, then He needs to hire someone new to write them for Him, because I don't know what this says."

"We should climb down into it," said Jenny, a daredevil grin on her face.

"How? There's no way down."

She started searching the ground. "Help me find something to lower into it. The ground gave us a new way to go. We need to explore!"

MYSTober 2024

Table of Contents

12. Fissure