Path-illogical: Artificially Filled by Kris P. Kreme
After moving Kira doesn’t fit in, not how she dresses, not her thoughtful mature demeanor, and certainly not the fact she refuses snacks to avoid artificial fillers. But she’s determined to change that, so when popular kids invite her to a gathering at an ancient path in the woods, a dare may offer the chance she needs.
Take the path alone for a half hour, then return; popularity can be that simple. But is there more to the maddening tales of what happens to anyone walking this path alone? Kira always avoided artificial filling in foods, but the path has a fitting fate in store as she finds herself pursued by balloons.
Can she avoid becoming one herself?
Kira is a girl out of her element, still adjusting to the changes of moving from a city out west to the middle of nowhere. But attending a little social gathering with some popular local kids up on Mount Madness may have Kira changing in ways all the local boys will love.
She’s always been a fairly quiet girl, but had her friends back out west and was hoping that by accepting the invitation to a small social gathering with four other popular kids in the senior class at her new high school would help ease her into such an abrupt change of living in the mountainous new town. For Kira, the move has been difficult for so many reasons. Her dad is a big-time attorney who represents plenty of famous and wealthy clients, but his latest case is representing the town beneath Mount Madness.
It seems that a series of disappearances, potential mind and body altering chemicals leeching the soil, something strange has been going on, and her father is just the powerful attorney to call. But since the investigations and court cases will stretch over several years, he uprooted Kira no less than the trees near the abandoned access road at the crest of the mountain.
She feels a bit silly having dressed for a social gathering in a nice red dress, nothing too fancy but a dress, when clearly jeans and t-shirts would have been far more practical. Kira also feels uneasy about the popular kids who invited her, whether it’s the twin brothers Devon and Danny, their rather openly perverted friend Randy who clearly has eyes for Kira, or the lone girl in the group, Alice who seems fairly blunt and envious of the attention Kira is getting.
None of this is anything Kira has been used to, hanging out in the woods, fending off unwanted attention, especially since Kira is just a skinny girl, nothing fancy and nothing all that noteworthy about her appearance. But in a town as isolated as the one beneath Mount Madness, she supposes a west coast girl with fashion sense would stand out anywhere.
Worst of all for Kira, her attempts at fitting in just aren’t going well, whether it’s how she dressed, her quiet thoughtful attitude, or especially the moment she politely turns down the beer and snacks they have at the little wooded gathering. She knows there’s no use explaining that her family is very health conscious, that she avoids all the artificial fillers they put in so much of the foods and beverages most teenagers enjoy, particularly the ones she is hanging out with.
With jokes about Randy wanting to give her a filling of his own aside, Devon and Danny get to the real reason they chose this location for their social gathering, and why Kira, the new girl, was invited.
They’ve done this a few times this year since the infamous ancient path was discovered, and only when a new kid wants to be part of the coolest group at the high school. So far no one has actually done the dare, but as part of their initiation dare, the new kid has to walk a half hour down the path alone, then take another half hour to return.
It’s a simple seeming dare, that the others guarantee will make Kira popular, and they will stick with her all year to ensure that popularity… but only if Kira dares to walk the path alone. As they point out, the path is the very reason Kira’s father is in town, the disappearances, the bizarre changes both mentally or physically, all having something to do with the path, with walking that path.
Faced with a choice of remaining the weird outsider her entire senior year, of never having many friends, being that west coast girl who ate gluten-free all-natural foods, Kira manages to fight off the anxiety the isolated dark path seems to give off. She makes her choice, and will take their dare.
Walking the path, taking the dare, Kira realizes fairly quickly that it was dumb. Why should she even want to be friends with idiots like those kids? They all behaved as though they were immature kids still and not eighteen and ready to face the real world.
But facing this particular path of the real world might just take Kira towards an artificial destiny. Sticking to the path, vowing not to get lost if she just stays on the path, keeping track of the time, Kira soon starts to think they were playing a prank in even being scared of a creepy but ordinary seeming path.
By the time she comes across the first big round floating red balloon, she is sure of it. Clearly they set all this up, like a surprise party in the woods, tried to get her worked up and scared. But clearly they went and set the various large red balloons up as there are a number of them all over the dark wooded path.
Unfortunately for Kira, the local kids had nothing to do with the mysterious round red balloons she finds floating around her, and when she hears the hissing, one in front of her mysteriously losing air but only getting smaller… Kira realizes too late that the balloons may be losing air, but parts of her are gaining it.
Will Kira manage to avoid touching the red balloons, especially as they seem to be floating right at her with a predatory intent? Will she make it back to the others in time, or is Kira going to truly be Artificially Filled?
She wanted to be real popular, but taking the dare on Mount Madness may have her popularity be as fake as she becomes in the latest maddening tale that’s more than just crazy… it’s Path-illogical.
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