Spinning a Story

This amazing proposal was put forward by Anisha and I am really thankful to her for creating this incredible chain.

I was nominated by Saanvi and I’d like to thank her for allowing me to be a part of this, below are the rules for the same:-

1. You have to continue the story from where the previous person left off. Make sure your addition is around 200 words long. Don’t go more than 20 words above or below.
2. One person should continue after you.
3. Every person who participates allots themselves a number. I’m number 5. Keep updating this number as this thing exchanges hands. If you’re number 10, you can only nominate the host again because she will then end this story.
4. Link to number 0 and the person who wrote the part before you so that readers who haven’t read the previous part(s) are able to. There’s no need to link to all of the people who wrote before you since the host will keep adding all the parts in her number 0 post.
5. Obviously, copy-paste this list of rules in your own post.

You can find the first post here: https://magicquill17.wordpress.com/2020/06/23/spinning-a-story-for-my-200-followers/

Part 0
Ashton didn’t understand the logic of Physics being taught at school. According to him, it was basically overanalysing a rolling ball. He could not grasp why or when in his life would he ever need to calculate the velocity of a rolling ball. Or the amplitude of a simple pendulum, as the towering Miss Rhonda was teaching them to at present.

He checked his watch for the umpteenth time in two minutes. Time always seemed to slow down here.
Just as he was nodding off, his eyes were inadvertently drawn to the crude ball-and-string diagram on the whiteboard. Maybe it was because he was so dizzy, but the black-marker pendulum seemed to sway slightly. He squeezed his eyes shut and opened them back again. The pendulum stopped. The sound of the duster being whacked on the table snapped him out of his reverie.

“…and you better pay attention, people, because I’m gonna test you on Oscillations next Tuesday. This is…”
Ashton yawned. Her tirade would continue for another two minutes and then she’d resume teaching, hoping the threat of the test would make students listen. Not him, though.

His eyes went to the pendulum again. As he looked, it started– what was that word Miss Rhonda had said?- oscillating slightly again, seeming to hypnotise him.

Part 1
The hypnotist, however, seemed novice, because Ashton would fall into lulls, only to be snapped out of it with a heightened sense of reality. But this time it was different. A blocked nose and itching throat were not good signs. He peered down at his arms and saw blotchy red patches that hurt when touched. “Oh no,” it dawned upon him that a member of the feline species was in his vicinity.

For the first time in his academic career, he raised his arm. “Excuse me Miss, I need to go the nurse right now.” “What happened to your face?!” To be fair to Miss Rhonda, his face had indeed turned ghastly pale. Her eyes darted from his hands to his eyes, the back down at his neck- dare one say, oscillated- and she decided to let him go lest she catches whatever that has infected him.

Ashton was strangely calm though, because this wasn’t a deadly infection, it was just an allergic reaction, nothing that an epipen couldn’t solve.  However, one thing was still bugging him, and it was the strange motion of the chalkboard drawing. Was it just his eyes playing a trick upon him? But then he saw it.

A small Siamese cat was standing upwards, holding a piece of chalk, about ten feet away from Ashton in the middle of an empty hallway.

Part 2
Ashton stopped dead in his tracks. His feet seemed to have conveniently stopped receiving messages from his brain, and thankfully so, lest he should allow curiosity to get the better of him and make his allergies even worse in the process of acting on it. So he stood right there, gaping at the oddity- hypnotised yet again, only this time by the sly, crystal blue eyes that bored purposefully into his. And then, almost imperceptibly, the cat winked.

The bell rang overhead, as if to say ‘Earth to Ashton!’, and he was jolted back to the present, where his fellow schoolmates were now pouring out of their classrooms and swarming the hallway, obscuring his view of the Siamese wonder. Or had it even been real? Shaking his head, he wove his way through the noisy crowd and turned the corner to the medical room.

Once inside, he flung his backpack onto the lone iron-framed bed with its sterilized white sheets and flopped down next to it, heaving a sigh.

“Struck again?” said Miss Jocelyn, who insisted on being called Dr. Jocelyn even though she was but a nurse, bringing him his usual concoction. Ashton screwed his eyelids shut, pinched his nose and pushed the horrid thing down his throat in two quick gulps.

Part 3

With the potion down his guts, he went into the land of nod, solitarily to meet those crystal blue eyes again. 

Ashton found himself leaning against such a skyscraping tree that he could see the clouds hugging the lush green canopy which sat over it as the hat of the sorcerer. Unwinding at the blissful sight, he saw a beguiling figure walking towards him. 

“Remember me?”

With the words stuck in his mind, he noticed her eyes. It was the Siamese cat from Miss Rhonda’s class but it looked different. Before him stood a handsome elegant jane who was in her early twenties. He was perplexed and yet unshaken. 

Standing beneath the endless sky, Ashton and the blue eyes stood in a loud silence. Gaping at the daylight, embracing the stars and the everlasting purplish dark azure, it was this oscillating motion of the heavens that made them contemplate the unending loop of the universe. How startling yet easing it is to conceive the gospels of the world which bounds us to an infinite cycle of breathes. 

She placed her eyes upon Ashton wanting to answer his curious mind, explain the laws binding us to this place and the obligation to apprehend it, alas there was a paralyzing force that ceased her motive.

Part 4

The once clear sky grew darker, strong gusts and a roaring noise filled the air. 

“maybe we should run!”

But Jane knew better. The warnings had begun, and running would only make things worse. She needed to bring Ashton to the queen before too much damage was done. 

“this is a world you created Ashton, and it is falling apart.” 

Her words echoed in his ears for a millionth time, but his mind still unable to understand. Of the in numerous things he was expected to process, only one truly made sense. His dreams had taken an extremely unanticipated turn. 

On their way to the castle, Jane revealed to Ashton the story of this world. A hundred questions clustered his mind but somehow, he wasn’t the slightest bit alarmed. It almost felt like he belonged here.  

Beyond those castle gates, prevailed the city Ashton had grown up envisioning. From the smallest houses in the far corner to every one of the hundred rooms in the castle, Ashton had seen it all before. what was happening ? had he really created this world ?

While he contemplated the numerous explanations, Jane went on about his commitments to this world. If only he had been listening. 

Part 5

As he walked towards the gates that towered before him, he felt an eerie force build up in his sternum, as if he was finally delving into a realm that felt like home. It was then that he became conscious of the fact that the strange Jane had fallen silent.

He turned around with the pestering need to have his questions be answered, only to be left staring at the wiggling tail of the feline walking away. Agigated, he called out, “Jane!!” , rushing towards the little creature. The eyes that had seemed to draw him in earlier, now reflected a strange knowingness. The screech of the doors opening startled him, but hypnotized, he walked into the green expanse of uncertainty.

Little pink and blue houses greeted him, with the courtyards bustling with activity. As he walked still in a trance, the homes transitioned to a colorful marketplace. The buzzing market with its luscious tan footpaths, and cute little shops, suddenly fell mum. He realized that people had started to deviate from his way, forming a sort of red carpet for him to walk through.

Children whispered in their parent’s ears, and the adults seemed both startled and happy, as they bowed in his presence.

The golden castle stood in his vicinity, the gates opening before him, compelling his feet forward. As the gates to the castle opened, a strange light blinded him, blinking open his eyes to phosphenes, only to come face to face with a life sized portrait of himself.

I nominate Deeksha to continue the story.