Patty Liu - Silent Reflections

Hooo-hooo...

A huge owl flapped his wings and flew into the night. Virginia cracked open her sleepy eyes. She had a horrible headache and every muscle in her body was aching. Why is it so cold? Virginia asked herself.

"Wolf, quit hogging the blankets," she whispered.

Hooo-hoo...

"What the...?" Virginia sat up when she heard the owl. She groaned from the sudden movement that jolted her head. "Errr... where the hell are we? Wolf? Melody?" she called out and received no answer. She cleared her eyes and looked around. The moon was still bright and full. She saw that she was all alone. There were huge pumpkins that were even bigger than herself surrounding the area. Thick green vines spiraled in and out of crevices, creating deformed looking shadows all around the pumpkins. Virginia hugged herself to keep warm. She stood up and looked around again and all she saw was an endless field of gigantic pumpkins of all shapes and sizes.

"Wolf?" Virginia called out. Something scurried past her and a branch snapped somewhere behind her. She whirled around, her breath caught in her throat. "Hello? Is anyone there?"

She didn't know which way to go. Every direction she turned to just showed endless rows of pumpkins.

"How in the world did I get here? Where is everyone?" she whispered quietly. "Wolf! Melody! Hello?! Is anybody out there?!" she called out louder and her voice echoed around her.

Something began stomping around the patch in heavy footsteps. She could hear leaves crunching and twigs snapping. She couldn't tell which direction it was coming from.

"Hello?" she called out a bit hesitantly. No one answered. Virginia was beginning to lose her courage. She started to remember the story of the pumpkin monster who dwelled in the deserted pumpkin patch. Oh God, I'm going to get eaten by a pumpkin, of all things, she thought. The stomping continued and Virginia quickly picked a direction and began running. I don't even know which way I'm going in this place. I'm going to get even more lost than I was before, her thoughts screamed in her head. She made her way past humongous pumpkins of twisted shapes and sizes.

Her foot suddenly caught in a vine and she fell forward. But something reached out and grabbed her. Virginia raised her head up and saw the most hideous grin carved in a huge pumpkin head.

"Oh my God! The pumpkin monster!" she screamed. On instinct she raised her right arm and swung as hard as she could at the pumpkin head. There was a thunk and squishy sound. Virginia had a made a terrible dent with her small fist into the side of the pumpkin monster's head. The pumpkin monster gave a shout and shoved Virginia away. She stumbled and fell to the ground. The pumpkin monster began muttering to itself and put his hands up to his head.

"Now look what you did! You broke my head," Virginia thought she heard the monster say. She peered closely at the thing and suddenly the head came off of it. Virginia prepared herself to flee but she looked again and realized she was looking at a regular human being. A tall handsome man who was frowning down on her.