Story Writing Debate

I took a moment to take in everything I saw. The ground beneath me seemed to sparkle under the sun, and I could spot a lake a not so far away. Above me the sky glowed with a soft purple hue and the entire place smelled of fresh, open air. Suddenly, a little girl about my age spotted me.“What are you doing here?” she asked, almost accusingly. Her curly, dirty blonde hair moved with the gentle breeze, and she had the tan skin of a child who spent too much time outside.“What are you doing here?!” she exclaimed again.I didn’t quite know what to say. “I, um,” I didn’t realize I was clutching my hurt ankle.She saw this, and replied, “That’s okay. Do you need someone to fix your ankle?”I nodded. “My daddy owns the city,” she stated. “He can find you a doctor to help you. My name’s Charlotte. What’s yours?”I hesitated. “Um… Kyle. Just Kyle.”Charlotte took my hand and said, “C’mon, Kyle. I’ll help you.” And without even asking for my approval, she squeezed my hand and dragged me to her father’s house.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Charlotte lived in the heart of the city. As soon as we entered, Charlotte rushed in. Inside, a tall, brown-haired man waited for her.“Daddy!” She smiled with a jack-o-lantern grin that was missing a few teeth.“Charlotte!” They embraced each other with a warm hug. “Where have you been?” her dad smiled teasingly.“Daddy, Daddy,” she bounced up and down as she spoke. “I made a new friend.” She gestured toward me.“That’s wonderful, Charlotte.”“Yeah, but he hurt his ankle,” she replied. “Do we need a doctor?”“Hmmm…” he said. “It’s a minor injury. I don’t think we need a doctor. He just needs to stretch it sometimes and allow it to heal.” He paused and turned to me. “So, what’s your name?”“Kyle.” I answered.“So where do you come from Kyle?”I didn’t quite know how to reply. “Um, I don’t know- I mean, I don’t come from here. I was in the middle of a forest… and went through a portal that brought me here.”Charlottes’ father froze. He changed the subject. “So, Kyle, are you hungry?” I nodded. “Good. You can have dinner with me and Charlotte tonight.” He smiled weakly. “Does that sound good?”“Yeah.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------To me, dinner seemed awkwardly silent. Even weirder, only three people were at the table: me, Charlotte, and her dad. I couldn’t help but ask why.“So Charlotte, I’ve met your dad, can I see your mama, too?”Her lip began to quiver, and tears welled up in her eyes. Her dad didn’t look so good, either. I didn’t know if I said something wrong. “What is it?”Charlotte choked up as she spoke. “It’s just…” She started to pout.“There is a person… ” announced Charlotte’s father. “…who goes by the name The Authority. Before his reign was a golden age. But that age stopped years ago when he brought his entire army to our town. We were greatly outnumbered, and we were forced to surrender. Ever since then, he’s been taking our people into his custody. And when he takes them, they never come back. He randomly selects one citizen from our town every day. Day by day, the people continue to disappear, loved ones are lost, children are taken. Nobody quite knows what he does with them.”His eyes were distant, as if recalling a memory from long ago. Then he sighed a deep, deep, sigh. “Last year, he selected Charlotte as one of his tributes. Frantically, I told him I wouldn’t give her up. I couldn’t. I just couldn’t. So The Authority sent his army over to this house and put us under a siege. Days passed, and they just wouldn’t leave. After a few weeks, we had run out of food, and we were starving- until my wife offered herself instead. I insisted that she didn’t, but she said that she had to-for Charlotte. So they took her, and I haven’t seen her since.”Tear’s dribbled down the cheeks of Charlotte’s dad. His tone was grim. “Recently, the Authority decided that our town was running out of people. So he created portals in other universes that lead into ours. He wants to bring in others to serve his purpose, whatever it may be. And that’s his purpose for you, Kyle. He’s looking for you. You have to run. You can’t come back the way you came in.”I was shaking in my seat. “Do you think I could fight him?” I asked. “If we could stop him, I wouldn’t have to run anymore!”“Yeah!” spoke Charlotte. “He has an entire army! How is Kyle going to run away from that?”“You’re too young to fight,” said Charlotte’s dad. “All we need to focus on is keeping Kyle from getting in the hands of the Authority.”“But Dad! He can’t run forever!”“You’ll do as I say, Charlotte. I don’t want to risk losing you.”“We can find Mommy!”He raised his voice, “How do you know Mom isn’t already dead?”Charlotte stared at him and started to cry. “Oh, Charlotte…” Her father put her into his arms and stared to rub her back. “You know I didn’t mean that. It’s all going to be okay. Everything’s just fine. Say it for me.”“Everything’s just fine.” She repeated. “Thanks, Dad.”“Now,” he declared, “we need to pack Kyle some food, water, and clothes for the trip.”------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I thanked Charlotte’s father for everything as I escaped into the night. “Be sure to stretch your ankle every day, and it should be healed within a few weeks,” he told me. I had already given my goodbyes to Charlotte, as it was now way past her bedtime. “Charlotte will miss you,” said her dad. I thanked him one last time, and scuttled off.But after a while, I spotted a small, shadowy figure chasing after me. Thinking it was a part of the Authority’s army, I sprinted as fast as I could, until I heard a little girl’s voice say, “Wait up, doofus.”I turned. Charlotte was right behind me. “Hey! I said wait up!” She was panting.“Won’t your papa be mad?”“Don’t worry, I brought food and water.” She gulped, and continued to breathe heavily. “And besides, I have this,” she pulled out a small pink device with a speaker on the front of it and a button on the back. “It’s a little bit like a walkie talkie, just smaller. I can use it to reach my daddy whenever I want. C’mon. Let’s go.”I headed in the direction I was going, until she stopped me. “Where are you going?”“I’m…running away.”“Don’t you want to defeat The Authority?”“But your papa said it was dangerous!”“Don’t worry,” said Charlotte. “We’ll be just fine. Just follow that small dirt path. After all, all paths lead to the Authority, or so they say.”I wanted to tell her that that was the exact same path that brought me here in the first place, but instead I replied, “Okay, let’s go.”