《A Salty Wish》


 Daily Life

    ¡°Ew, this shit is terrible,¡± shouted a girl in a volleyball uniform with blue and black stripes, holding a dark blue energy drink. Her words echoed across the half-full classroom.


    ¡°It can''t be that bad,¡± another girl replied, also in a volleyball uniform.


    ¡°It can be. This is literal mud water,¡± the first girl argued.


    ¡°But Emma might like it,¡± the first girl proclaimed in a hushed voice.


    Both of the girls walked up to a desk at the back of the classroom. The desk had a view of what was outside the massive window.


    Another girl was there. She had messy black bedhead hair, wearing a white t-shirt with a skirt.


    The first teen girl asked in a cheeky tone, ¡°Hey Emma, how are you doing?¡± She hid the energy drink behind her back in a somewhat obvious manner.


    ¡°Nothing.¡±


    Emma replied in a squeamish voice. Looking down, Emma thought to herself that she really didn''t want to deal with these girls today or ever, afraid that they might do something horrible to her like the last few times they interacted.


    ¡°Are you really sure, though? I thought that one thing just happened to you?¡± the other girl insisted.


    Confused for a moment, Emma was about to speak when suddenly a cold liquid hit her forehead and began casually dripping down.


    ¡°Haha, are you sure nothing happened, Emma? Last time I checked, you have mud water in your hair,¡± the first girl teased.


    Emma just wanted to run and hide then and there. Thinking about it for a bit, Emma thought to herself, ¡®at least it''s not as bad as it is with Luna and them.¡¯


    Half a second later, the door to the classroom swung open furiously, and as soon as it did, the entire class went silent. Another girl was at the door. She had raven black hair, a white shirt with dark blue text that said "Elms," and a volleyball uniform too. It was none other than Luna.


    Seeing her, Emma looked like she was ready to give up on life.


    ¡°Hey girls, practice is in a bit. Get up and go,¡± Luna announced to the two girls in volleyball uniforms in the classroom.


    Looking around the class for a bit, Luna noticed someone.


    ¡°Emma, mind getting me some snacks? Thanks, give them to me in the first gym.¡±


    Emma reluctantly replied, ¡°No problem, Luna.¡±If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    Luna left the classroom, and the usual noise of the class began again. Coming to terms with what had just happened, Emma left the classroom in a hurry and headed towards the nearest vending machine. Emma said to herself, ¡®Although that was very odd timing with Luna, nothing really bad happened. I just got a wet shirt and sticky hair. This is way better than usual...¡¯ Thinking about the things that Luna and her gang usually did, Emma wanted to shrivel up into a ball and die.


    After hurriedly offering the protein bar that Emma got for Luna, she immediately left the school, faced the afternoon cloudless sun, and ran back home using her special shortcut she had used over the years since Luna''s arrival. The path she took usually had multiple dirty alleys with the occasional dead mice or other animals and large chunks of trash in the middle of these alleyways.


    After a few minutes, she finally reached an apartment complex in the middle of the city of flowers, Anchorage. It looked relatively new and clean, unlike Emma at the moment, who really wanted to take a shower.


    Getting to her apartment door, Emma opened it with half her strength after unlocking it. As she did, Emma saw a figure. She was an older woman still in her late 30s, with neat black hair nearly the opposite of Emma''s and dark brown eyes.


    ¡°Hey mom,¡± Emma said in a happy tone.


    ¡°Emma, what''s with your shirt? What happened, sweetie?¡± replied Emma¡¯s mom.


    ¡°Nothing much, just felt cold and decided to spill some juice on my head,¡± Emma lied, not wanting to worry her mother.


    ¡°...¡± Emma¡¯s mom looked at her with a confused look that was riddled with hints of disappointment in Emma''s decision-making skills.


    ¡°I¡¯ll head to the showers now, then,¡± blurted Emma.


    Emma took a long hot shower. It rejuvenated her and made her finally feel a sense of cleanliness. A few minutes passed, and Emma had already gone to bed early, a habit she had ever since Luna and her gang had terrorized her.


    **


    2014 April 14th. It was a Tuesday.


    As the day passed by, Emma noticed something amazing. Luna wasn''t here today. Of course, she could still come back after school, but Emma had already decided she was going to leave early today and try her utmost to avoid Luna¡¯s gang of bullies like she usually did.


    After school finished, Emma dashed out of the school wearing a cap and mask she borrowed from her mother''s closet. This time she had a feeling that she could escape school unscathed today.


    She had to stop for a bit after noticing two of the bullies from yesterday were blocking her path. Remaining unnoticed by the bullies, Emma attempted to run from them, and she did.


    Before Emma left the school, she heard a group of people gossiping over something that sounded pleasant.


    ¡°I heard Luna was extremely depressed for some reason. I don¡¯t really know why, but I do know that she is, I think?¡±


    Ever since the bullies came into her life, she had constantly wished that Luna and her gang would drop dead or at least catastrophes would happen to them. So in response to this news she had a big bright smile.


    Two weeks passed by, and Luna hadn''t come to school at all these days. Emma had it rather nice. In this time, she had been able to go to her favorite club at school and reconnect with some friends who had decided to leave her when Luna approached her, afraid that they''d be caught up in the conflict. The bullies had rarely bothered her. Sometimes they had only asked Emma to buy them some snacks and drinks, which was rather tame.


    The path she used to get home changed after Luna¡¯s disappearance. She no longer walked through the disgusting alleyways. Instead, she walked on the city''s clean sidewalks on her way back home.


    Passing by an intersection, Emma stubbed her toe and let out a soundless scream. She inspected what it was.


    An iron box that had text in bold red ''WB'' and a symbol of a wolf with swan-like wings taking flight.

 Iron box

    Still feeling pain in her pinkie toe Emma picked the odd iron box simply because she wanted to know why the damn thing would be in the middle of the street.


    Picking it up she notice a green tag on the iron box it read ¡®return to chugach national forest in the insides of a pond filled with black rocks in noon if possible¡¯ and in bold read on the bottom of the tag ¡®DO NOT OPEN¡¯


    After reading this Emma brown eyes squinted at the words chugach national forest and her mind was filled with constant questions


    ¡®How did something from the Chugach mountains come all the way here in anchorage? Why leave the thing inside of a pond, is the owner of the iron box trying to lose it?¡¯


    Confused by the owner of the iron box return area, Emma had one big glaring question in her mind, should she return the iron box she did find on the floor first. Plus it could be something really important to the owner of the iron box. Her curiosity was gnawing on her to find out. Emma had always been a child who had wanted to explore the unknown; it was what her late father had encouraged her to do as a child. He had always told her that the better she knew about the world the less dangerous it is.


    Confused on what was the right answer, Emma let her curiosity take control of her. But before she did she wanted to tell her mom that she was going to be arriving home late today. She really did not want her mom to worry too much about her.


    **


    After calling an uber it took her around 2 and half hours to finally reach Chugach national forest. She was greeted by a sign that''s dark brown displaying the words in golden text ¡®Chugach national forest¡¯ and a lake that reflected the clouds and mountains,  a forest that had a seemingly endless amount of trees.


    ¡®Where am I even supposed to find this pond?¡¯ That question had ignited her desire to explore the beautiful sights.


    Running through the forest, taking pictures of it every step of the way, hiking on trails, and exploring the footholds of the mountains were the all things she had before actually beginning looking for the black rock pond mentioned in the tag. By the time she had actually begun looking for it was already nearly noon she was rushing looking for all the places where she had encountered ponds.


    Stolen story; please report.


    Looking for the pond was nearly impossible for Emma. She had failed countless times thinking that it was the right place to lay it down. Soon Emma just gave in and decided to lay on the grass near one pond that was in between the foothold of two mountains.


    As noon came something strange had happened. The pond in front of her reflected the sun and the rock in it had changed color, they were all pitch black!


    Relieved that she ended up finding the strangely beautiful looking pond Emma pondered to herself ¡®This must be why the owner of the iron box said wait till noon¡¯


    Picking up the box she headed towards the center of the pond and laid down the box. Emma didn''t want to leave just yet though she still wanted her questions to be answered about the box for her. So she waited to return to the spot near the edge of the pond.


    thirty minutes had passed by and nothing seemed to happen. It had already been dark outside. Two hours had passed Emma was still waiting eagerly for the owner to appear, after three hours passed Emma thought that the owner of the iron box may never appear so she took the box out of the pond soaking her shoes again fearing that someone else might take the iron box for themselves.


    She had wanted to keep it with her till tomorrow to wait again for the owner of the iron box. Heading home Emma had grabbed out her phone to call an uber again as she did Emma had seen the numerous messages her mom had sent her. WIth a face that was filled with worry Emma had texted her mom back with ¡®sorry mom, I Was busy and forgot about the time I was supposed to come back home¡¯ and quickly called an uber.


    The uber had taken a while to reach anchorage. At that time Emma was twiddling her thumbs and occasionally looking out the window, she was extremely bored. With the iron box sitting on her lap and nothing to do her curiosity, till one point she couldn''t handle it anymore with her curiosity nearly eating her alive she quickly opened the box to find a black cushion covering the insides and a regular piece of paper that had something written on it


    ¡°Congrats you failed to not look through someone else''s property, oh well if you did there''s no need to leave the box in the new location I set up, I will come shortly to pick up the wishing box so keep it with you,  see you then¡±


    Emma¡¯s face ignited red at what was said, and remained silent through the entire trip back home.


    Emma had returned to Anchorage and begun her way back home using the path she had used in the past with Luna. Passing by the arcade Emma noticed something within her peripheral vision: it was a girl with black hair and red streaks in hair wearing a blue shirt with black jeans playing a game with another girl with blond hair wearing black a shirt and white sweatpants.


    Emma had known them both, they were Luna and her friend.


    The very sight of Luna made Emma''s hearts collapse with the sparkly in her eyes destroyed thinking about all the things Luna had done to her, being dunked in water, drawing things on her face, calling Emma an ant because that''s all that she would amount to life and many more things that she had done to her the entire school year.


    Clenching the Iron box tightly Emma ran home faster than before thinking


    ¡®Dammit, why could Luna just never come back, I wish you just died¡¯ her face looked visibly exhausted and she finally reached home, met by her mother''s gaze that was fixated on her eyes looking as if they were about to be flooded with tears .


    ¡°Emma, what happened to you are you alright¡±


    ¡°Sorry mom I just got distracted for a bit taking my time¡± Emma said with a visibly artificial smile on her face and left the living room slowly. She headed towards  her bland room and dropped off the iron case near the door and went to lay on her comfy bed with tears, not prepared for school at all tomorrow.


    ¡®Why couldn''t Luna just die already¡¯