On the Other Side

Anita was absolutely terrified; she had no idea where she was.

Panicking, the child whirled in place, observing her new surroundings. This place looked a bit like home. There were mountains, and plants, and caves that resembled the world she knew. And yet, there was something not quite right about it. An intangible difference, a strangeness that Anita could feel inside her bones.

At a loss of what to do, she started pacing back and forth, crying frantically for the only two souls in the world who could help her. "Mom, Dad?! Mom, Dad?!" Anita waited for them to come to her aid, for their voices to reach out and embrace her with their words.

What came instead was a grave, tired voice. "Hello there."

Anita stopped pacing and turned around.

It was an elder that she had never seen before. He appeared kind but weary, defeated even. "I'm not going to hurt you. None of us are." He gestured to something behind him. Only then did Anita notice the crowd of sullen, unfamiliar faces in the distance, all staring in her direction. "My name's Henry," the elder continued. "What's yours?"

"Anita," she said in a small, frightened voice. Anita gaped at Henry with wide, pleading eyes. "Did you bring me here?"

"No, of course not. None of us did."

Anita stole another glance at the mountains, caves, and plants around her. All so familiar, and yet so wrong. "Where am I?" she asked him.

Henry sighed. He answered Anita slowly, as if this would ease the pain behind his words. "You're in captivity."

There was something about the word "captivity" that sent Anita into a panicked frenzy. She immediately spun around and dashed away from Henry. She set her eyes on the horizon ahead and went zooming toward it, just like she would do back home.

And for the first time, Anita collided right into it.

Henry and the others watched somberly as Anita banged into the horizon over and over again, desperate for escape. But try as she might, the poor child couldn't break through. It was as if she had reached the end of the world, that distant place where the ocean and the sky finally came together and touched.

"That's not going to work," Henry pointed out glumly. "You can't see it, but there's a wall surrounding this entire place, trapping us all in here."

Mortified, Anita stared at the invisible barricade. "I don't understand," she blabbered. "I don't understand what's happening, I don't understand how I got here."

"Damn it, Henry, I told you to ease her into it!" Another elder, a female this time, came forward from the crowd. "I told you not to be so harsh!"

"It's the truth that's harsh, not me," Henry shot back hotly. "And newcomers deserve to know the truth, don't they?"

Ignoring Henry's question, the second elder hurried toward Anita, trying to salvage the situation. "Hi Anita, I'm Gail." She spoke in a soft, gentle tone, as if she were handling something delicate and fragile. "Tell me, what's the last thing you remember? Where were you before this?"

"I was near home," Anita recalled breathlessly. "Out with family. And then something big--"

"Snatched you from above?" Henry finished for her.

"I was with family, too," added Gail. "Back when they took me."

"I was with friends," came a voice from the crowd.

"I was actually inside my home," another one called out. "Can you believe that? They actually went into my home and took me right out of it!"

"You see?" said Gail sadly. "We all have the same story. We're all in the same position as you."

Baffled, Anita surveyed the crowd of gloomy faces. "How long have you all been here?"she asked.

"For some, it's only been a short while. But for others, like Henry and myself...well, let's just say it's been a very, very long time."

"Does anyone ever leave?" There was a sliver of optimism in Anita's voice, the tiniest glimmer of hope.

"No," Henry replied bluntly. "No one ever has."

"But this place isn't so bad as far as prisons go!" said Gail after shooting an agitated look at Henry. "See Brian down there?" She gestured toward the prison floor. Someone, presumably Brian, was lying there motionless, staring up at the sky with hollow, bulging eyes. "A long time ago," Gail continued, "Brian found himself in a prison that was claustrophobically small. According to him, he would be up against a wall on one side of the prison, and whenever he turned around, he would suddenly find himself on the opposite side." Gail shuddered, visibly disturbed. "As you can see, Brian's experience there has left him a little...withdrawn. At least here, there's plenty of space to wander around, and you have other prisoners to talk to. Brian was the only one in his old prison." Gail gave another shudder.

"That's enough," said Henry suddenly. There were notes of alarm in his voice, a quiet solemnness that seemed to imply danger. "They're here."

Something about those last two words made the crowd disperse. Some of them dove into crevices and hid inside caves. Others lapped the prison over and over again, unsure of what else to do with themselves. Only Henry and Gail remained at Anita's side. Anita was just about to ask what was happening when she saw them.

The giants emerged from beyond the horizon, as if they came from another world. They were strange looking creatures, almost like an octopus but with fewer limbs. A few of them approached the invisible barricade.

"Don't worry," said Gail when she saw the horror in Anita's eyes. "They can't get through the wall."

But it was hard for Anita to stay calm when she was looking up at a monstrous giant. The creature pressed itself against the wall, peering down at her with large, white eyes. Its mouth stretched into a wide, taunting grin. It tapped its claws--or were they fins, or maybe tentacles?--against the wall, as if it were trying to smash through the barricade.

"It can't get through," Gail reassured her. "Trust me, I've been around for a long time. We're safe in here."

More and more of these creatures were emerging from the horizon. They were everywhere now, swarming the outside of their prison, like they were waiting for Anita and the others to come outside. "What are they?" asked Anita in a hushed voice.

"We don't know," said Gail. "We don't know what they are, where they come from. But we do know it was they who brought us here and imprisoned us."

"Why?" asked Anita, gaping at the monsters towering above her. "Why did they bring us here?"

"We're not sure," Henry interjected. "Our best guess is they're studying us."

"So they just...watch us?" Anita found this difficult to comprehend. But as Henry spoke in his grave, tired voice, the reality of her situation, of her new life sank in.

"That's right. This...this right here is all they ever do. They come here, watch us, and then they leave, returning to their world beyond the horizon. But eventually they come back--they always come back--and do it all over again. Today is the same as yesterday and every day before that. And tomorrow will be the same as today and every other day that follows."

Gail pivoted toward Henry, anger flashing across her eyes.

"I'm sorry, Gail," he said, though he really didn't sound sorry at all, "but Anita needs to know the truth, not some sweet version of it. And the sooner she learns the truth, the better off she'll be."

Henry's words were like tentacles, wrapping around Anita's body, squeezing out all of her hope and optimism, until the only thing left was terror. "What-what is this place?" she choked.

Henry looked at her with sad, defeated eyes. "They call it The Aquarium."