And there I was, standing smack inside that spooky run-down hut. What could Moby possibly mean by "everything here happens because someone higher up wants it to"? Did he mean that this world was run by a ruler? Or perhaps some even more sinister being?
I strained my eyes, trying to make out the the contents of the hut. It sure seeemed a lot smaller from the outside, because I could've I was now in a hut three times bigger.
"Yes," a voice rasped from a dark corner. "Seems a lot bigger inside, doesn't it? Goes to show what you see isn't always real."
"Huh?" Somehow I sounded more interested than surprised. After all I'd been through today, a flying three-legged checkered allosaur would scarcely raise an eyebrow.
"They call me the Archiver," stepped out a wrinkled old man whose beard almost touched the ground. "New to Blogspot, I see?
"Oh...how did you guess?"
"Guess?" he chuckled. "I have no need for guesses...I know everything about everyone here. Where they came from, where they're going."
Finally! He seemed to be my brightest spark of hope yet. "How? Tell me, tell me!"
"Mmmm. Who did you first meet when you came into Blogspot?"
"Uh...Moby and Telly. No, wait! There was this Toby and Melly before them. I ended up with Moby and Telly after some big flash of light appeared."
"Mmmm. And they brought you here?"
I nodded.
The old man suddenly grabbed my shoulders, startling me. "Why? Why didn't you follow the first two you saw? YOU'VE BEEN TRICKED, YOU FOOL!"

Chapter 8: "Huts"

No! It was as though all the life had been sapped out of me. I slumped to the ground in despair, wishing this whole cruel episode would end now. It was bad enough that I had been taken from home, but now I couldn't even remember where my home was! Chances of me getting back anytime within the next seven thousand years were pretty bleak now.
"Huh?" asked Telly in surprise. "You forgot? But you only saw the light once! It takes more than once to wipe out your memory!"
"It's true." came my weak reply. "I-I can't recall anything before going to sleep and waking up here."
"Don't you worry, we'll get to the bottom of all this, i promise," Moby said. "Now that there're three of us, it shouldn't be hard if we know where to look. Let's start with these huts."
Before us stood rows of tattered huts which didn't look like they housed anyone. Somehow, such serene scenery felt quite out of place in the most absurd place I'd ever been to.
Crrreak! An unexpected gust of wind swung open the doors of the three huts closest to us. Every other hut remained firmly shut.
"It's a sign," muttered Moby. "Remember, everything here happens because someone higher up wants it to. I'm convinced we're supposed to enter these three huts."
Telly and I glanced at each other uneasily. "Should we split up, or enter together?"
"Hmm...I'm afraid we don't have much time left. Can't risk running into that light again, and having to start all over from somewhere unfamiliar."
"So," I swallowed hard. "We enter each hut alone."

Writer's Block

Okie, short one here...in the space of 24 hours, I've decided that Moby+Telly/ Toby+Melly needn't make way for some "more well-written character". I guess it's a case of improvising (improving?) on what you have, rather than starting all over from scratch. Still waiting for the right time and place to introduce another character, or is he/she even necessary? On one hand, I'd probably have to waste another good few pages making you guys care about him/her, but would the story still be able to maintain interest with just these 3 people? (Toby and Melly don't count ;p)
And surely Toby and Melly will have to return soon...which leaves me in somewhat of a sticky situation. I'm afraid there might be too many directions this is going - escaping Blogspot, defeating Mr. Super Villain, uncovering mysteries, Moby and friends. Wouldn't be surprised if some planned characters or plot lines are "combined", possibly even scrapped!
Yawnn...gonna sleep on it for now, maybe something will come up tomorrow. Or I could end up in some weird alternate universe. (Sheesh...shouldn't I be more concerned with globalisation, famines, and the like?) 8->

Chapter 7: "Forgotten"

Moby smiled faintly. "Ah, yes, that's when I first met Telly."
"In a way," she continued. "Blogspot is like the afterlife to me. I considered myself dead after leaping off, and in fact I'm still unsure whether I really am dead. Sometimes I wonder...is this heaven, or hell?"
I nodded my head grimly. "But how long have you been here?"
"That's the thing about this place. Every time that light hits, you lose a bit of your past recollections. Can't be totally sure any more, but I don't think I've seen the light over ten times."
"Same goes for me," interrupted Moby. "I've been here longer than Telly, that's for sure."
"So you don't remember anything about your past?"
"In bits and pieces. I remember this deserted warehouse...some tall men after me, thunder and lightning. Then came the light."
Things were getting more puzzling with every word spoken. What was that mysterious light, and where did it come from? Afraid that I might have lost some of my own memories, I racked my brains, trying to recall what happened before I came to Blogspot.
There was this headache...I'd slept...but wait, what about before that? I woke up, obviously, and...was it a morning? Yes, there had been sunlight.
And the night before...the night before...uh-oh, nothing was coming. Panicking, I tried furiously to make myself remember. It couldn't have been more than 24 hours! There was no way I could've forgotten.
"Mind if I ask in return?" Telly nudged me. "Where were you before all this?"
One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Five seconds passed. Ever had one of those moments when you entered a room, but proceeded right away to forget what you came for? Well, it was happenning to me, just that this one lasted indefinitely.

Chapter 6: "Telly"

"Every time that light comes around, it always leaves us somewhere unknown. That's how we ended up here, no further or nearer away from leaving Blogspot." explained Telly with a tinge of frustration in her voice.
A few awkward moments passed, as we trod towards the huts. Finally I cleared my throat, "So, where did you two come from? When were you brought into Blogspot?"
"Aha, you want an introduction of ourselves," smiled Telly.
"I was in an extremely depressed stage of my life. How I longed for time to be turned back...just two weeks, and everything would've been fine again. I'd always read stories of teens committing suicide, finding them pretty dumb and shallow-minded. But when I was in their shoes, it seemed to be the only way out."
"So one dark, dark Monday, before anyone else was up, I stole the keys to Dad's office block and made my way there. The climb to the roof was truly difficult, granted that my mind was made up it would be the last thing I ever did."
"And there I was. My watch read 6:48 a.m., and already some specks peppered the streets below. Funny how the very moment before you end your life, it always seems the right thing to do. You usually only have your regrets on the way down. In that one second towards the ground, I thought more than I usually would've thought about in an hour. What would happen after I landed splat on the sidewalk? Where would I be? What would happen to me there?"
"Suddenly, mere fractions of a second from death, I cried with all my heart. I cried like I'd never cried before, both regretting and frightened of what would happen next. Then a flash of light similar to the one you just saw hit me. Something weird happened...some time passed, but i had no idea how long it was, nor what happened within it. When I came to my senses, I was already in Blogspot. The same black empty space where you first saw us. And that's when I met Moby."

Writer's Block

Haha, this is the only part of my blog which actually resembles a regular blog...guess I should've started this earlier, but oh well, better late than early rite? Rite...
Wow, it's been a week since I started this blog, and though it hasn't picked up any international awards or something, I must say at least it hasn't been condemned to the Land Of Forgotten Sucky Blogs yet. Things were quite scary in the beginning - there're few things in life scarier than standing on stage with an audience expecting something out of you, yet not knowing exactly what to do.
Thank God however, that at last this story seems to be heading somewhere. Yesterday while bathing (when most of my life-altering ideas occur), a vague "grand scheme" for Blogspot started appearing. Should be introducing some sub-villains, and a "Villain of All Villains", whom you'll have a "Final Hollywood-style Showdown" with. So where does that leave Toby/Melly/Moby/Telly? I must admit, they were sort of created just because I needed more characters...now that's what you call short-sighted planning. No long-term goals for them yet, but you never know. I'm guessing they'll be "transitionary characters", introducing you to Blogspot, before some more well-written character comes along. Something interesting might come out of Toby+Melly vs Moby+Telly, though...
SPOKEN!

Chapter 5: "Exploration"

Moby looked like he wanted to shrug, but changed his mind to avoid further disheartening me. "Perhaps we need to find more people who've been brought in here, so that we can learn how to escape."
Well, that sounded somewhat feasible. Somewhat.
"You see that blue bar on the side? The one with a white arrow on it? Hop on, and wait for the arrow to drag the bar along. That's how we get around here."
Dutifully, I cllimbed onto the bar with some help from Telly. Sure enough, a white arrow started snaking to the edge of it, tugging it downwards.
Before long, the black landscape began fading, giving way to strange symbols splashed across the ground. I tried to make out what they were, but the bar was moving too fast for me to see anything but blurry black shapes.
"Prepare to get off." came Telly's voice, snapping my concentration. The bar halted abruptly. She took my hand, and we got down, making our way to one of the weird markings. The moment we stood over it, it turned blue.
"Now, JUMP!" and...whoosh! Everything went white for a moment, then bit by bit a landscape started to appear. It was rather magical - first rows of mountains, followed by lush greenery, then a clear blue sky, birds, brown earth, and a sprinkling of run-down huts.
"Wow! That was cool." I said for all to hear. "Anyway, are we still in Blogspot, or what?"
Moby nodded. "I've never been in this section before, though."
"So, why are we here? Do you have a plan on how to get us all back home?"

Chapter 4: "Blogspot"

"We're Moby and Telly." said the two, answering my thoughts.
So that settled who I was stuck with, but would it make much of a difference? If only some enlightenment would be laid upon my dazed, confused, and blurrer-by-the-minute mind.
"Let me set some things straight for you," Telly said. "This world is known as Blogspot. Every-"
"What spot?"
"BLOG-spot. Now, like I was saying, everyone here once belonged to the real world. Nobody knows for sure how many people have been brought to Blogspot so far, and for what purpose."
"WHAT?! How then am I supposed to go back home?"
She shrugged. "I can't be totally sure, but it's something to do with defeating the purpose of us being here."
Oh-kayyy...but still something seemed amiss. "How about Toby and Melly, then? Why do you hate them so much? And what was that light just now?"
"They belong to a group known as the Antagonists." said Moby. "Every being here has an Antagonist, who'll do whatever it takes to keep you here as long as possible. The moment you manage to leave Blogspot, they stop being real."
"And as for the light, we only know that it's dangerous...it comes around once every while, and you'd best run away when it does."
I drew in a deep breath, trying to let that all sink in. "So, what next?"

Chapter 3: "Lights"

How do you spell that word starting with "di" and ending with "ma" again? You know, the one with a "le" sandwiched between? Now I had two choose between two weirdos and two...um, weirdies.
"And you would be...?" I stared at Melly Number Two.
"Telly."
Right. Toby and Melly and Moby and Telly. It was as though some dumbo with a twisted sense of humour was plotting this entire scenario in the bathroom or something.
"Uh...do you both sort of, hate those two?"
Moby was just about to reply when a ear-piercing screech jolted everyone. I looked at where the sound came from, and something unusual was going on. A tiny speck of greyish light flickered at the very edge of the black landscape. Pretty soon that tiny speck was tiny no more, and it was gradually turning a lighter shade of grey.
"Run!" Melly and Telly both shouted in unison, each grabbing an arm of mine. Both girls glared at one another, tugging even harder at me. Let's just say it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience marred only by the sensation of being ripped in half.
"Stop it, Melly!" yelled Toby. "It's pointless if he doesn't come by his own free will. Let's go!"
At that point, the flicker of light grew astonishingly fast to the point of blinding me. I winced, closing my eyes instinctively. Then came a period when I completely lost all semblance of time...it might have ranged anywhere from a split second to an eternity. I had no idea.
"Ahhh...my eyes..." I finally reopened them, being greeted by the sight of a pimply-faced boy and a pony-tailed girl. This time around, I could actually see them, not just by imagination. But were they Toby and Melly, or Moby and Telly?

Chapter 2: "Confusion"

"Hello?" I spoke somewhat to nobody. "But can someone please de-confuse me here?"
"Well, we would have, if somebody didn't take their own sweet time arriving!" snapped Melly.
Arriving? Where had I arrived at?
"Ahem." Toby cleared his throat. "I can't tell you where you are or who we are for certain reasons...you'll just have to follow us for now."
All right, so that didn't sound convincing in the least bit.
Out of the blue, I visualised another boy and girl behind me. I turned around, and surprise, surprise! Two exact replicas of Toby and Melly stood there.
"Moby!" cried out Toby. "What are you doing here?"
"They found us!" Melly shrieked. "Hurry, let's run!"
She grabbed my arm while attempting to flee, but the Melly look-alike had her fingers wrapped around my other arm.
"Do not listen to them," said Melly Number Two slowly but deliberately. "Or else you shall never know any other home but this world."

Chapter 1: "Lost"

Swoosh! On some mornings it happens, on some it just never comes. I sprang up from my bed without any need of those annoying tick-tock-tick-tock-ring thingys, as though there was something important going on today.
"Owww..." It felt as though I'd had a sack of potatoes on my forehead the whole night through. Pardon the fancy metaphors, but I wasn't exactly the sort to call a headache a headache. However, getting back to the matter at hand, there was this evil troll drumming incessantly within my skull, signalling the arrival of the God Of Headache. Or so I sometimes liked to believe.
Well, perhaps it would go away later. And the best way to get through pain is...to sleep through it. Praising myself for such high-level intelligence, I sank back into the comfort of my soft, soft pillow. Ahh...begone, you evil troll of Evilness!

"Quiet, he's arriving soon."
"Well, it's about time...another minute more and I'd have grown a beard."
You know those moments when you're supposed to be sleeping, but you're not, and you hear people talking about someone you presume to be yourself? Well, this was one of it. The voices which sounded totally unfamiliar, belonged to a male and a female apparently in their teens.
Bit by bit I opened my eyes, hoping to quench my stirred-up curiousity. Black. Black. Black. Now this was weird, in the truest sense of the word. I was absolutely positive that my eyes were wide open, but it was as though they were still shut.
"Hullo!" A pimply-faced boy popped out before me. No, wait a minute...I couldn't really see him, just sort of imagine him. It was as though I was seeing him with just my mind's eye.
"You may call me Toby," he grinned widely. "And she is Melly."
Something stirred in my head, and I could somehow make out the features of a pony-tailed girl smiling at me, albeit forcefully.
Could this whole scenario actually be a bizarre dream I would wake up from, and relate in humour? There I was, nothing but a black void stretching out before me, with these two strangers who weren't there yet I could see and hear.