The Gateway That Led To You

Chapter 10

Rapunzel's POV

"Ouch!" I landed with a thud.

"Where... Are... We?" Eugene asked, getting up.

"Beats me." I stood up, looking around.

"Come on, let's go find out." Eugene held my hand.

My guess is that we're in a town. A quite deserted town I might add. There was no one in sight! This is the place where the gateway leads?! It's no where close to the rumours of it! What have we gotten ourselves into? And how do we find a way back?

"Hey, excuse me!" Eugene waved to a boy and he walked over to us. He looked like a punk if you ask me. He had tattoos, dyed hair, ears pierced and all.

"Sup?" He asked.

"I'm Eugene, and this is Rapunzel, we're lost -"

"Rapunzel?" He scoffed. "You don't seem to be fit of that name missy. What kind of hair is that for a name of Rapunzel? Where's your long hair?" He asked in a mocking tone.

I was silent. Does this person know I had long hair before? For a name of Rapunzel, what did he mean? Does someone here have the same name as me and has long golden hair?

"Rapunzel is just a name." Eugene said. "Why do you care about her hair?"

"You don't fit the name Rapunzel like the books." He replied.

"Like the books?" I asked. "What books?"

"Do you guys not read or what?" He snapped. "Whatever, I ain't got time for people like you." With that, he pushed me roughly and walked away. Yup, a total punk.

"Hey, where do you think you're going?" Eugene grabbed his arm.

"Away from stupid people who can't read." He replied, got free from Eugene's grasp and went away.

"Come on Eugene, he's not worth asking." I sighed.

"Fine." Eugene sulked.

"Do you have any idea what he meant like the books? Does that mean that there's a book where Rapunzel is in it or something? Where Rapunzel has long hair?" I asked Eugene.

"I have no idea, but it sounds like your name is in a book that these people read. And it fits some description of you. Other than being locked up in a tower. He didn't mention a tower, right?" Eugene stated.

"No. We ought to find out what this book is, maybe it'll give us a clue." I suggested.

"Good idea." Eugene nodded.

After some walking, we met a few kids that were playing hopscotch. Kids are more helpful, right?

"Excuse me." I said as they looked at us. "We're lost, can you tell us where we are? What is this place?"

"Mummy said not to talk to strangers." One of the girls said.

"Please, we just need some directions." Eugene said. "We are new to this place."

The children were whispering around but none of them answered us. I was deciding to call it quits and find someone else to ask where we are. But after another minute, they stopped and turned to us.

"Here is Alternia. Welcome newcomers!" A boy greeted.

"Al...Ternia?" I asked. "Ok..."

"So, what's around here?"  Eugene asked.

"Buildings here and there, duh." He replied.

"How did you come here?" A girl asked.

"Um..." I started, not quite knowing how to reply. Do we just tell these kids we walked through a magical gateway and got here? Will they understand?

"You wouldn't believe it anyway." Eugene replied. "Is there a place where we can get more information about this place? Somewhere where does more people? Since the town looks quite empty."

"You can go visit the school library." Another boy suggested. "Alternia High School has a huge library! My brother is there."

"I see, where do we have to go to get to this high school?" I asked.

"We can bring you there!" He replied.

And so the children became our guides and showed us around town along the way. The more I looked, the more troubled I was finding a way home. We might never get back!

"Here it is, Alternia High School!" A girl announced. "You'll find what you need in there."

"Thank you." Eugene and I said. The children ran along back.

"Looks like we're on our own." I sighed. "I still can't make much sense of this Alternia place."

"Me neither, let's go." Eugene said as he walked up the stairs. He suddenly yelled in pain and fell down.

"Eugene? Eugene!" I panicked. "What happened?!"

"I felt like something sharp stabbed my stomach." He replied, clutching his stomach. "Like a knife was in it!"

Eugene slowly got back to his feet. "I'm ok now. Maybe it's something I ate?"

"Perhaps. Come on." I said and pushed the doors open.

There were plenty of students. Eugene and I quickly stopped the ones nearest us. "Excuse me, where is the library?" We asked.

"Go down the hall and turn left and left again." Was the answer. We thanked them and went our way. Thank goodness they were helpful. We blended in quite well with the students.

We found the library and there were only a handful of students in it. "So, where do you think we should start looking? The library's huge!" I exclaimed.

"I'd say-"

Eugene got cut short when a whole lot of students suddenly rushed in. "Let's hide here today." One of them said.

"Hide?" I repeated. "Sorry, I didn't mean to eavesdrop."

"Hide from the gang." One of them beckoned to the door, panting.

Hide from the gang? What gang? I wondered. Eugene and I slowly opened the library doors. We saw that a shadow spread across the hallway and many students were running or edging to the sides. It's like they were making room for someone. What was going on?

We peeped through the small gap of the doors. Since everyone seems to be afraid of whatever that's going on and hiding, we better do the same to be safe.

A group of five walked down the idle, smirking. The students around were trembling with terrified whispers. I saw that there were 4 males and 1 female. Something didn't seem right about the female. I tried to look closer as all I could see was a glimpse of her hair as many students were blocking. And that's when I saw her.

"Gothel!" Eugene and I gasped at the same time.

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