dandelions || 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘩𝘰 (COMPLETED)

i - "welcome to the glade."

WELCOME TO THE GLADE
-
"i think that you are the one for me."
• • •

CLANK.

she woke up abruptly, feeling half-deafened by the screeching sounds violently clogging her ears. where was she? shadows crept in on her, reaching out and trying to drag her into the darkness. it felt like being in some form of paralysis: she was too frail to move, couldn't speak, could barely breathe, and her whole body felt like it was being sucked down into the cold, harsh metal she was lying on.

trying her best to shuffle into a somewhat more comfortable position, she weakly grabbed hold of a crate to her right and hauled herself up against it, using every ounce of might she had left in her body, and huddled her legs as if they'd shield her from any incoming threat. she felt weak and defenceless — she was too drained to fight anything or anyone off and knew that no matter how loud she screamed, her raspy voice wouldn't pierce the four metal walls she was trapped by.

i'm going to die. she thought. and there's no stopping it.

her mind was flooded with questions, the answers nowhere in sight, and every thought she conjured up seemed to crash together like a storm brewing deep inside her brain. no name was jumping out to her as being her own, and as much as she tried desperately to remember anything at all, no memories from her life before wherever she was now seemed to be within her grasp. if she even had a life before this.

of course, she knew the basics of how the world worked and even movies and books she knew the plot of, she just couldn't for the life of her pin any faces or specific instances to them. and she wasn't sure which was worse: knowing about everything yet not knowing who, or why, or even what, for the most part; or knowing nothing at all.

it seemed any recollection of her past had been completely wiped from her memory — until one thing came back to her. one thing that felt familiar, and she could tell was a flashback and not her imagination. what started as a muffled murmur nestled far in the depths of her limited memory gradually formed into a woman's voice drilling the same thing into her, over and over:

"wicked is good."

her eyelids drooped as she thought more about the one phrase she still had clutch of, however random it appeared to her, and she continued trying perilously to fight off the thing that was blocking her from having an insight into her past — and trying to figure out what on earth "wicked is good" meant.

she concluded it made utterly no sense, and let her head relax against a crate behind her.

she was almost drifting off when suddenly she felt her temporary box home come to an abrupt halt, and every effort she made to pull herself into the sitting position she was rested in proved worthless as she was jolted across the metallic, grimy floor into a careless heap.

what happened next was even stranger than the journey upwards. some sort of doors were pulled open above her.

the sunlight flooding the box through the gaping hole above felt blinding as she glanced up slowly in an attempt to avoid aggravating whatever could be above her. it took all her effort to lift her head up from its resting place on the ground, her neck feeling as if it were lifting the heaviest weight in the world, and as she blinked slowly and adjusted to her surroundings she heard a voice with a british accent come from a blonde boy crouching next to her. "bloody hell — it's a girl!"

"really?"

she hadn't noticed all of the gawking faces peering down at her until now, and at first it seemed as if they were floating lifelessly above her.

am i in heaven? no, heaven surely can't be this dirty. hell, maybe? seems like it so far.

she let her thoughts wander as she drifted in and out of consciousness, just about managing to make out a few of the things people were uttering down at her and the boy beside her.

"impossible. how could this have happened?"

"well, clearly it's not impossible, alby, or we wouldn't be staring down at her right now."

"what do we do with it?"

"it? slim it, zart. this greenie's a she, not an it."

"is she pretty?" she was startled by that question, but it caused her to come to the realisation that she had no recollection of what her appearance was like at all. yet another thing to add to the list of things she didn't remember.

"i guess so," the british boy shrugged.

"what's that next to her, newt?"

the blonde — newt, she presumed — reached down by the girl's abdomen and grabbed a note which she hadn't noticed previously.

"she's the last one... ever." he looked back up at the strangers crowded above, a frown plastered across his face. he looked just as confused as them — and the odd arrival by his feet.

she had no clue what any of it meant, but judging by the concerned looks spreading infectiously throughout the people's faces, she gathered it couldn't be positive. they must've caught on to her confused expression since the boy next to her offered his hand and helped her to her feet.

"welcome to the glade, greenie. and don't worry if you've already noticed that you can't remember your name — it'll come back to you within a few days. it's the one thing they leave us with." he smiled slightly, the frown almost gone, as she clambered up and out into her new environment.