Time Limit

Lucas

EVEN PANEM BEATS THIS PLACE

"Get up, you good-for-nothing brat!" Mrs Brown, the orphanage manger, yelled as she yanked the covers off me. I yawned. I felt as if I were the North Pole of a magnet, and my bed was the South Pole. "After you wake up, go wash the dishes for me and get ready for breakfast!"

Rubbing my eyes, I muttered grumpily. Oh come on, it's a Sunday. First, you make me wake up before the sun does, and then I have to do all the chores for you. It's such darn luck being an orphan! Being the prankster that I was, I jumped off my bed, dumped all the filthy dishes into the kitchen sink and left the tap on. Then I sneaked out of the smelly orphanage with a Hunger Games book and ran to the gym nearby.

I stood outside the gym and smiled. Here I could escape from the torturous reality of life. I could read as much as I liked. I could chase my dream of becoming the next "Peeta" (I was an ultimate Hunger Games fanboy). In my whole life, this was the only place where I felt I was meant to be. Despite being small, broken down and pestered with rats, the gym was good enough for me. Oh well, Peeta had to deal with rats all the time in the arena......

Today though, I felt uncomfortable. Something queer seemed to be going on. Although I would usually be the only one at the lousy gym with the broken equipment, today I felt that the gym was even quieter. The wind seemed to stop whistling and the leaves seemed to stop rustling. Weird.

But whatever. I should focus on training instead. I hopped onto the running machine, typed "burn 1000 calories" on the screen, then pressed "activate", as usual. I began to jog, then tripped forward.

Owwwwwww! What is wrong with this conveyer belt!?!?!?

How could I have been "running too fast" when I was merely jogging?

The wind and the leaves go quiet, and then the conveyer belt "runs" even slower than a snail. Great. It's my lucky day. I slammed my fist onto the screen and stomped off.

Music that sounded somewhat spooky began playing. I rubbed my ears. Yep, I wasn't hallucinating. A voice inside me told me to get out of the gym immediately. Then one by one, if I wasn't seeing things, pieces of paper just appeared on the ground. They didn't get blown into the gym be the wind. They didn't come from anywhere. For one second they didn't even exist, and the next second they just.....came. Out of nowhere.

I have to get out of this darn cursed place!!!!!!!!!!

I ran. As fast as my legs could carry me. Only I didn't think I wasn't running out of the gym. I seemed to running into somewhere deep and dark. Somewhere like a hole. But this time, I decided to run on. Would it be the right decision?

Then before I knew it, my legs lost the grip of the floor. A dark force seemed to be pulling me downwards. My body was so tiny compared to the darkness that was overwhelming me. As my heart beat faster and faster, I crossed my fingers, praying that I wouldn't fall straight into hell.

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I bit my lip. Thank god, I was alive.

But where was I?

I swept the dust off my shirt. As I stood up, I found myself in the middle of a thick forest. The kind of forest that you would see in Wonderland. Tall trees and leafy bushes surrounded the place. Fruits were so big and round that they were dangling from the trees. I leaped up, grabbed an apple and began to chew. The sweet juice tickled my lips. So this is what non-orphanage food tastes like! Warm rays of sunshine shone through the gaps between the trees, making the leaves reflect the glittery glow of the sun. Then I realised that even I was glowing under the warm sunlight.