I stared up at the sagging, rotted building. Near the top there was an old, crooked, sign that said HAUN ED HO SE. Some of the grey, sad letters had already fallen off. I had walked past here, half an hour before, walking home. But this hadn’t been here, it was just a dirty, trash smelling alley before. Now this haunted house had appeared. I looked around me, seeing if anyone else noticed this decrepit old place. But as I looked around, on what was a few minutes ago a bustling downtown street was now an empty and silent place. I put my hand on the golden brass doorknob, tarnished with weather and age. My heartbeat raised. I turned the cold sad doorknob and pushed. It opened seamlessly, which was surprising for the age of this place. I entered. The floorboards didn’t creak, they kept firm under the weight of my shoes and feet. Then I heard a cheesy voice from a speaker nearby, that said “Welcome! Entry is free for one.” Then it laughed, a hideous laugh you wake up from in nightmares. I looked around me at the silver cobwebs and old wood. The speaker was nowhere to be seen. It was probably hidden, under a floorboard or wall panel. I turned around. I didn’t like the feeling of this sagging old place. But the old door I had just entered a moment ago was gone, replaced with the same, old wooden wall panels that were on the rest of the wall. It was even complete with a silver and dry spider web. Then the hairs of my neck shot straight up. I slowly, stiffly turned around and stared. Nothing was there, just my vivid imagination. I hurriedly turned back around, and stood tippy-toed to get a good view through the thin strips in the shutters. The outside world had become a pitch black. I curled my right hand into a fist, and banged on the rotten wood. But my hand bounced off what looked like then voice spoke again,

“Good luck! You won’t be getting out until you face the scares in the Haunted House!” Then there was that hideous cackle again. I turned around again, and for the first time, really took in the rest of the house. It was like an old Victorian mansion, and everything past the entrance was in perfect condition. Right in front of me was a rich wooden staircase with a soft Persian yellow and red carpet going up it. The staircase ended at a small balcony with a singular wooden door with a golden brass doorknob. At the ends of the handrails were luxurious golden candle holders with tall white candles that burned with a bright orange glow, the black wicks never getting shorter, and the wax never melting. Above me hung a gold and crystal chandelier, glowing brilliantly with twelve of the same white candles. The whole placed looked like it had never been touched. I put one foot onto the Persian rug in front of me, but it fell through the illusion. My entire body fell forwards into and through that Persian rug, into nothingness. And the wind stole my scream.

 

I awoke in a hospital bed, but I felt fine. In front of me was a doctor. She was older, fifty or so, kind, but the smile was… off. Too wide somehow. But it shouldn’t bother me. I smiled back.

“You feeling okay?” she asked, like someone who really knew how to be nice. For a moment, I couldn’t respond. I finally settled on “yeah,” but it came out feebler than I wanted, sending daggers down the insides of my raw throat.

“Do you want some water?” she asked, in that sweet voice of kindness. I nodded, not wanting to feel the pain in my throat again.

“I’ll be right back” she replied, and left the room, the faded green door whooshing shut behind her, almost without sound. Now that there was no one else to focus my attention on, my eyes lazily drifted around my meager room. The walls were painted a light green, now faded with age. Around the room were multiple scuff marks of the previous patients’ bumps and bruises. There was a red door I presumed to be a bathroom near the exit. To my left was a window, covered by a white plastic shutter, just letting in thin strips of yellow, afternoon light. To my right was a plastic curtain with flowers, dividing the room in half. I didn’t hear anyone sputtering on the other side, and the room was awfully quiet. Straight across from me on the green wall was a simple black and white clock, ticking softly each and every second. It was 4:37. I tried to lift my leaden arms and stretch them, but I didn’t get very far. I looked down at myself. I was in a green hospital gown, my old clothes were nicely folded, laying on a white bedside stand beside me. I took them, and struggled to get up. I did, and stood wobbling on my feet for a moment. I then hobbled over to the bathroom, one foot shuffling after the other. In the bathroom I changed, and immediately felt better and stronger. I got up and looked at myself in the mirror. My features were sullen, my eyes drooping, seeming as if I hadn’t eaten or drank in a month. I turned on the sink, and let the cold water run on my hands a minute before I cupped them and drank, the sweet cold water healing my parched throat. I walked out, passing the other hospital bed. It was still empty and clean, freshly washed. I went over to my bed which wasn’t nearly as pristine as the empty bed. I sat down on the edge of it and stared up at the clock again. It read 4:33. I stared at it a couple of seconds, unable to comprehend what that meant. As I stared, it clicked back again, to 4:32. It was going backwards. I got up, and opened the window shade. The other side was just a panel of white light tinted with yellow. I squinted, and waited a moment for my dazed eyes to adjust. But they didn’t. It was was still a large rectangle of light. I hurriedly closed the shade and turned around. And there was the doctor from before, with the same off-putting smile. She smiled, and handed me the white styrofoam cup. “Looks like you’re feeling better already,” she said in that same, sickly sweet voice. I looked down into the cup. It was filled with cool clear water. I raised the cup to my parched lips, and took a sip of the sweet liquid. I looked back down at the cup. The water was turning red, swirling around in the cup. I looked closer, leaning my head over the cup. Floating in the now red tinged water were several of my white teeth. All of a sudden pain rushed through my mouth, and I lifted one of my trembling fingers to my mouth, and felt the insides. I dropped the white cup, the bloodstained water turning the beige linoleum red. My finger felt not my teeth, but the raw bleeding tops of my gums. I took my finger out, and stared and the red blood that coated it. I looked up, to where the doctor had been, just a moment before. But she was gone. I ran from my room into the hall, passing the empty bed. But as I ran past, I noticed it was not empty, but laying on it was a complete rotting skeleton, but with one of its old brown legs shattered.

 

I was back at the old house. I did not know how I got back here, all I could remember was running through the maze like hallways of the hospital. I shuddered, not wanting to think of those horrific memories again. I looked back up at the entire place. My eyes fell on the golden wood door at the top of the balcony. It sat there, taunting me with its own unreachableness. I planted one of my feet firmly on the perfect wood flooring, and tentatively stuck the tip of my grey shoe into the carpet, but it passed through with ease. I thought I would be swallowed up by the darkness again, but my white knuckles held firmly to the wooden railing. I look up to the door again. The only way I could get there was with the carpeted stairs. The dream-carpet covered all of the wood, leaving no room for me to place my small feet. Then, I had an idea. I could wedge my feet in between the posts of the railing, like I did when I was five years old and playing around our own house. I stuck my foot between the first two posts of the railing, having to turn it sideways so it would fit. But it did. I moved my right foot to the other side, between the third and fourth posts, gaining confidence. It was an agonizingly slow process, but eventually, by my strength of will, I got there, my entire body pounding much harder than usual. I gently put my foot down on the golden wood of the balcony. To my relief, it held. My other foot soon followed it, and I stood there, for a moment, regaining my balance, and trying to calm down my breathing. I looked behind me, at the carpeted staircase and wood floor. I seemed to be impossibly high up. I turned back around to face the golden door. I reached my hand out, but then the thumping started. It was a deep thumping, ricocheting of the walls and into the deepest corners of my skull. I clamped my hands to my and squeezed my eyes shut, trying to shut out the noise. But that did not stop it. It vibrated throughout my entire body, unrelenting its attack. I reached out to the doorknob, straining to get used to the noise. I opened the door, and the throbbing only got louder, and clearer, unmuffled the the wooden door. I entered, and the door closed soundlessly behind me. In the center of the room was the source of my madness. In the middle of the room was a red, beating heart, suspended from the ceiling, and tied to the floor with a long, thin red cord. The whitewashed walls were covered in thin veins leading out of the central heart. The heart itself was tiny, the size of one of my now clenched fists, and beating louder than anyone would guess it could. It disgusted and intrigued me with a morbid fascination. And I realized then, this heart kept the whole old house complete, and alive. I looked behind me to where the door was, but the wooden door was gone, now just another whitewashed wall covered in the same red veins. I was trapped. I then realized what I must do; kill the heart. I suddenly felt a heavy weight in the left pocket of my jeans. My hand unconsciously reached down past the hem of my shirt, and I felt the cool handle of a silver knife. I pulled it out and held it in front of me, trying to keep it steady, but my hand disobeyed and let the cold blade waver. I slowly edged forward, the beating growing ever louder with each step. I reached the knife out and, with painstaking agony, brought the knife to the red cord connecting the heart to the web of red veins on the ceiling. I paused for a moment, letting the blade hover over the dark red heart. But I pushed the bright edge through, and it cut like warm butter. The heart fell to the floor, a thick red liquid spewing everywhere, all over my clothes. Then, the whole place shook. I looked around me in surprise. The house shuddered again, and then started falling inwards, the previously red veins turning black and falling off the wall. I backed into a corner, narrowly sidestepping a falling piece of ceiling. I squeezed my eyes shut, and curled up into a ball, trying to protect my own head and heart. I heard the rest of the once white ceiling fall, and dust plugged my nostrils. I opened my mouth, gasping for air, trying to breath in as much as I could.

 

I woke up back in that alley, the dust free from my eyes and nose, the air once again fresh and free. Nothing of the old house remained. I uncurled myself, stood up, and walked away free.

 

 Sydney

Life is a blast! I just went shopping with my sister, the cutest boy in school just asked me out, and we’re going on a roller coaster together.  He’ll probably even kiss me if I’m lucky! Too bad that’s not my life; that life is going to get me a D in math because I wasn’t even paying attention. So, let me start from the beginning. My name is Sydney Gregerbit, it’s math class right now and we’re studying geometry. We are going to fill in a work sheet about shapes, but I’m daydreaming. All that stuff--going shopping with my sister, getting to go out with the hottest boy in school, and him kissing me, wow, I wish that was my life, but instead it’s Victoria Katina’s. She’s the cutest girl and the richest girl in school. Every weekend, it’s said that she goes to Paris with her dad to visit her mom, the most famous actress in the world, Miss Victalina Katina. But yeah, I said, that’s not my life even if I wish for it. I could wish on a star the rest of my life, and I bet you a million dollars that it won’t ever happen to me. My family’s not rich; we live on a farm and make barely enough money pay the city our taxes. It’s a hard life, especially with geometry!

 

Victoria

Ugh, I hate geometry! It’s so annoying! I mean, honestly, who really enjoys geometry? Obviously the people who enjoy geometry are crazy! But hey, it’s not my problem, I mean, I’m popular and I wouldn’t hang out with them anyway!  Oh, duh, wait, sorry, let me introduce myself. My name is Victoria Katina and I’m the richest girl in my class. Oh, I forgot to mention the cutest too! Anyway, I was saying that I’m so excited to go on the ride with him; his name is John Flasik! When my sister was shopping with me we were picking out the dress that I was going to wear on the date and let me tell you this, it is the cutest! The color is a bright pink with a sash and bow. If you don’t know what I’m saying, here, let me tell you this, I’m going on a date with the hottest boy in school! I’m so excited for my date! There’s this girl in my class who thinks she’s so cooland it’s so annoying! She’s all cute and awesome, but then her name is so weird. It’s Sydney Gregerbit, I mean my name is way cool, but I think that John is hitting on her. Anyway, who cares, right? I need to go, I have to finish this geometry assignment! Who cares about geometry? Duh!

 

Sydney

“Sweet heart?”

“What, what is it?” Mom was calling, probably for breakfast. Except there’s one little problem, to get to school at the right time I have to take the bus, and to be able to get to the bus stop on time, I have to skip breakfast. It’s Sydney here by the way, if you haven’t already figured that out. I mean it should be pretty obvious because Victoria would probably just take her limousine, not walk a mile and take the bus. Anyway, I better get started so I won’t have to walk the whole way to school.

 

Victoria

Ding, Ding! There’s my alarm clock.  Better get up and start the shower. Yeah, that’s funny; I would never start my own shower! I mean, duh, who would? Honestly, people similar to that would be so out of my league, anyway, the dates tonight! You know, with John Flasik! I’m so excited! Nothing will ruin this night: nothing! I better get dressed though since I have to go to school! I mean that is so annoying, why go to school anyways? Bye, got to go, so excited.

Sydney

“Miss Gregerbit, do you have something to share with the class?” Oops, got caught I guess. I mean I can’t help myself from daydreaming; this class is so boring!

I said, “No, sorry, Miss Hawkens.” Anyway, now back to me. I checked my grades and I’m still failing this class, which sucks. I just hope my parents don’t notice, cause then they’ll start asking me what I’m doing instead of focusing on math, and I just can’t them that I’m daydreaming, I just can’t! Plus, they would kill me if they found out. Well back to boring math for me, I don’t really want to be embarrassed in front of the class again. Bye now.

 

Victoria

Hi, it’s Victoria here. What’s up?  You do know that was rhetorical, right?  Anyway, tonight’s the date and I just want to get out of this boring math class. My parents think it’s important to be smart, but I don’t. I mean, sure…learning different languages would be helpful for when I become a model. I’ll need to know how to say, “Don’t I look great?” in many different languages. But, I don’t need to learn math.  My math is learning how to walk down the runway and smile at the same time. This other stuff is boring and useless. Well, that’s all for now, wish me luck on my date; just kidding, I won’t need it.

 

Sydney

Slam! That was the back door, I just got home from school and it’s my turn to feed the pigs, water the garden, and last pick up the cow poop. By the way, it’s Sydney. My life sucks, and I really wish I had Victoria’s!! It’s so unfair.  If Hinduism is right, can I please be reborn into a new life! Please, I just can’t take this anymore!

“Please God, I really need a new life! It’s just not fair, please send a star that I can wish on, please!” I know I said I didn’t believe that, but after today I really could use a wishing star.

 

Victoria

“Bed time!” dad called up.

                  “Really, it’s only, 9:00 dad!! Can I stay up a little later? Please?”  

“Nope, time to go to bed and that’s final.” Dad said. After he came up, I looked out my window and hoping to see something entertaining I stared out into the bland darkness.  I knew I was tired, I mean, it’s exhausting to be so cool, but I was bored of being cool. It’s boring after a while with people practically bowing down to you. I want to be normal, not have a famous mom who lives in Paris and makes me the popular one.  For once I want to live in the shadows!

So then, when a shooting star came, that was exactly what I wished for. “I want to be normal, not popular, in the shadows!” After that, I went to bed, ready for the boring, but usual, day tomorrow.

It’s today, and some things wrong, I can already tell. My sheets have little Barbie princesses on them and my room is totally full of garbage, science and stuff. Immediately I thought of the answer, last night when I wished for my life to change, it had and now I was stuck like this forever!! Well, I thought, I’m not going to deal with this  Picking up a photo, I looked to see who I was and fell back onto the bed surprised. I was…Sydney Gregerbit! Of everyone I could have switched places with, it had to be Sydney!!! No way, this was crazy, and now it was serious. I couldn’t even imagine her in my room, or worse, in my bed!! Argh, this was so horrible! I ran outside, forgetting I had pajamas on. I was about to run to school. Fortunately, I did remember and didn’t make it that far.  I dug through her drawers to try and find something nice to wear. Luckily I did, a cute t-shirt and adorable, (I hate to admit), the most adorable shorts ever!  Anyway, I grabbed her backpack and took the bus to school, keeping my head down the whole way. Well, bye for now, I have to go figure out her combination for her locker.

 

Sydney

Oh my, am I in the popular girl’s bed? I think I might die, but not of being mad, of being so excited! No way, this is so crazy, I mean how did this even happen? Wait a second, did this happen because I wished on a stupid star last night? That was impossible, or was it?   I ran to get dressed and was shocked to see how much clothing she had. I mean, wow, that girl can shop.  So then I got dressed and ran to the bus stop. Except for there was one problem, she didn’t ride the bus and she didn’t even live close to the bus stop. Well, that meant I was going to run to school.  At least I’d get my exercise for the week. Bye now, I have to run to school before I’m late.

 

Victoria

Once I finally got to school, I ran to my locker, which I soon realized might look a little weird. I wasn’t me, Victoria, I was Sydney Gregerbit, and she didn’t know my combination. So, as I stood there, looking awkward, I felt a tap on my shoulder.

“Ah! Who is that?” I yelled.

“Hello, it’s me Sydney; or you, should I say? What are you doing? I ran to my locker and realized that I was you, and it would look so weird. Anyways, we need to switch spots for the day, I need to be popular, or you, and well, you need to be me, a total loser. Oh my, I can’t believe I just said that!”

“Wait a second, why?” I asked confused.

“ Hello, because we’re each other. I figured out that, I know it sounds stupid, but we must have both dreamt on a star last night and dreamt about switching places. It’s the only plausible explanation.”

“Fine,” I said, “but I’m not going to be happy about this.” So there, that’s what happened. The whole day went on, with her trying to act popular while I sat in the background. Finally at the end of the day, we met at my locker, or temporarily, hers. She said,

“Okay so here’s the plan, we both wish on the star tonight and at the same time. Got it, this is really crucial for us switching back.”

“Yeah sure,” I said, “It’s a deal.” We both left to our, or each other’s, respective homes to get dressed and wait for the shooting star that night.         

 

Sydney

Okay, so that night I kept my promise and looked out the window. Just like the other night I saw a shooting star and wished.

                  “I wish that I could be myself, nobody else but me.” After that I fell fast asleep because let me tell you this, being somebody else is exhausting.

 

Victoria

Okay…as I promised, I looked out my window and waited for the shooting star. Finally it came and I wished on it, just like I had the night before.

                  “I wish I was myself, only myself, and forever myself. Nobody else.” I fell asleep, into a deep long sleep, and the moment I woke up… I was myself, only myself.   I am glad I am not somebody else.  I would much rather be me, but I think I might be nicer to Sydney after having spent a day in her life instead.

 

Sydney

As soon as I woke up, I looked down. Yes, no silk lining sheets, just plain little Barbie sheets, thank goodness!  I was myself again, only myself. I ran down stairs to see my dad at the table, reading the newspaper.

“Hey, how was your late sleep, you were up for about an hour later last night than usual.” I couldn’t say anything; all I did was nod my head. Finally, feeling that it was a little awkward I ran to hug him. Sure, I didn’t have jewels or servants, but I had a wonderful family and a great life so… from now on I’d be a lot more grateful.

The sun’s weak morning rays were coming in through the front windows, sending shadows behind bookshelves. The dusty air was interrupted only when the first customer of the day opened the door. The gust of wind was enough to make me shiver from behind the desk. Looking up, I made eye contact with Anne, one of the daily patrons of Everwrite Books. I smiled, but continued doing my job: open a shipment, and enter the book into our system. Again. And again. And again.

Usually I would have fun doing this. I would be talking to whoever it was that worked with me, most commonly Adam.

Adam. The thought of him brought up a feeling in my stomach that couldn’t be placed. It was a mixture of sadness, anger, and nostalgia, all at once. Nostalgia for the fun times we had, racing to see who could place the most shipments on shelves. Sadness for the fact that he wasn’t here anymore. And anger that I couldn’t do anything about it.

I slammed a book I was holding down on the desk. The noise echoed through the bookstore like a gunshot. I exhaled, releasing the breath I didn’t even realize I was holding. I grabbed a book and viciously typed it into the system. I could almost see him smiling with his freckled face and hear his voice saying, “Slow down, it’s not life or death.” Yet, in this case it was, and Adam had chosen death.

I took a break from the shipments and started placing books on shelves. The new shipment was mostly poetry, with some of the most celebrated books from e.e. cummings, Emily Dickinson, and William Shakespeare. The poetry shelf was tall, and I was shelving the top shelf. The top shelf was where the most famous works were placed.

I reached up, and immediately started coughing. It was dusty. The last time somebody had replaced these books was a while ago.

I placed the books one by one on the shelf, slowly making my way through the box. It was pretty boring work, especially when there were not any customers.

I was placing the last book when I saw the little flap of paper in the corner of the shelf. Curious, I grabbed it and put a book in its place. By the way the dust flew up, I could tell that the paper had been there for quite some time.

It was a little thing, folded up so many times that it was no bigger than a puzzle piece. On the top of it there was a few words in tiny, neat, cursive handwriting. From, Adam it read.

Immediately I shoved it into my pocket, grabbing the box of used poetry books and almost running to the back room, where I shoved the box down angrily. In the back room it was cold, like shorts on an autumn day.

I felt like screaming. I could feel the weight of the paper weighing me down, making me want to lay down on the hard floor. How could I have never seen this note before? How could I have never looked on the top shelf of the poetry section? How long was it there?

Billions of questions rose up and into my mouth, with nobody there to answer them. The only thing that could possibly answer my question was the note. I stared down at it, the little bump in my pocket. I took a deep breath, reaching toward the paper with shakiest hands. My hands were a blur, they were trembling so hard.

Ding.

I jumped when I heard the door to the store open. Just a customer. I headed back to the front desk, with quick feet and shaking hands. Giving the person a smile, I sunk behind the desk and continued with the shipments. I tried to ignore the weight in my pocket, but it was there nonetheless.

Eventually I couldn’t take the uncertainty, the anticipation. I quietly walked to the back of the store, where there was a small couch and loveseat. I almost ripped my jean pocket taking the note out of my pocket. There it was, in plain sight, with From, Adam still on the top. I placed my hand on it, feeling the rough, dusty edges. I carefully unfolded the note, crease by crease. I felt my stomach drop as the last fold was flattened out.

I could feel the tear ducts in my eyes clogging with water that I would not let spill. It was a letter, or rather, a paper.

 

To Whomever is reading this right now,

If you are reading this, I am probably not around. That’s ok. Had too many Cheez-its, huh? No? I guess that wasn’t funny. Cheez-its aren’t the reason for my death. Anyway, enough about me and my tragic accident.

You may be wondering what this letter is. Well, my answer to that is simple: this can be whatever you want it to be. If there is one thing that life has taught me, it is that. That everything is possible in your head. Once you imagine, you create. I mean, everything started as an idea, right?

Including this. This is an idea that I thought of during the time I had to myself, during all of those times where I sat there, not doing anything. This is the idea that I thought about constantly, and if it doesn’t work out, this is probably in a shredder right now.

Who cares, right? It doesn’t matter. Let’s just move on.

 

If freckles were lovely, and day was night,

And measles were nice and a lie warn’t a lie,

Life would be delight,—

But things couldn’t go right

For in such a sad plight

I wouldn’t be I.

 

If earth was heaven and now was hence,

And past was present, and false was true,

There might be some sense

But I’d be in suspense

For on such a pretense

You wouldn’t be you.

 

If fear was plucky, and globes were square,

And dirt was cleanly and tears were glee

Things would seem fair,—

Yet they’d all despair,

For if here was there

We wouldn’t be we.

- e.e. Cummings

 

So with that, I depart. ‘If earth was heaven’ I would still be here. But earth is not heaven, so farewell, my friend.

 

That was it? I rapidly flipped the paper over and over, looking for something that wasn’t there. I reread the words, coming close to memorization. Was it some sort of code? Was he trying to tell me something?

I collapsed on the loveseat, overwhelmed with what he had just written. I couldn’t comprehend what this meant. I stared at the letter again. The poem was becoming haunting. I stared at the line ‘But things couldn’t go right’ until it became blurry.

I shakily pulled myself to my feet. My entire body was shaky, so much that it was hard to move. I couldn’t see through the tears in my eyes. I tried to exhale, only to have it become a shaky breath that resulted in water running down my face. I hobbled down to the front desk, where I sat in the chair. There was a book in front of me, and I opened it. I needed a distraction right now.

The book was a poetry book, the one that I had slammed down earlier. I opened to the first page and started reading.

 

If freckles were lovely, and day was night,

 

I almost threw the book across the room when I saw the first poem. The one in the letter. I stood to my feet, looking around the store before making my way to the back room. I sat down on a little wood chair, putting my spinning head in my hands. I was starting to get a headache. I took a deep breath. I needed some fresh air.

I wobbly moved over to the back door. Opening it, I felt the cool air fill my lungs. I closed my eyes, letting myself sway slightly with the wind. I turned around, and opened my eyes. I started shakily walking back to the chair.

Suddenly a burst of wind from outside came through the door, which sent my wobbling legs toppling to the floor.

“Oomph.” The air was knocked out of my lungs as my side landed on flat, cold tiles. It felt like bricks were being rubbed against my side, scraping my skin. I tried to push myself up, but only succeeded in putting my head up a few inches.  

I closed my eyes, only to open them again when I felt the beginnings of sleep take over. I was staring at a wall, a grey cemented wall. Where the wall met the floor, little four by six white tiles were placed. On the tiles, one of the sides was painted a more blue-ish color. I followed the blue sides with my eyes, row after row. It was so easy to look at. Just blue line after blue line. But… why was one of them not blue? Inching closer, I saw that this one had been flipped so that the blue side wasn’t in the line.  

I touched the tile, and inched my nails under the edge. It was, unsurprisingly, loose, and came out with a little pulling. I peeked inside the hole, which was just big enough to fit a…

Notebook. In this case, it was a little blue notebook. The edges were frayed, even bunny-eared on some pages. In the top right corner there were two tiny initials: A.C. The rest of the front was plain.

I flipped it over, looking for some evidence of whose journal it was. Then I stopped. A.C. Adam Carter. I rapidly flipped it back to the front. Curiosity was nagging at me like a biting mosquito. I opened it, dying for any sort of answers that the note had left me asking.

 

April 20, after work

Today was alright. That’s all I really have to say. I’m not sure what else I’m supposed to be writing in here. Andy said that all things are strictly confidential, and that nobody would ever look in this journal. I believed that almost as much as I believe that I’m going to recover from this ‘disease’.

 

What disease? What was he talking about? I kept racing through the words.

 

Working in a bookstore has been helping a lot, I’ve been told. I’ve started to become more Adam, and less… Whatever else they think I am.

 

April 21

Why are these people all up in my face? All I said was one word. One word, and they freaked out. I don’t even know what they are talking about. They keep saying Adam. It feels like there is a constant question mark over my head.

They look at me like I’m dangerous. The fear, I can see it. And I can’t do anything about it. I try to tell them I’m normal, that it’s just me. Yet even my own ‘mother’ is scared. At least, that’s what they call her.

They said that ‘last session everything seemed to be better’. What are they talking about? They continually talk about a disease. What disease? What do I have? At school I heard one person say, “A life not knowing, well, that’s a life not worth living.”

 

May 1, lunch break

Last session Mary said that I wasn’t getting much better, that there was little improvement. She calls them ‘hosts’ and that I am the host body. But who is the hostess? I am Adam.

They tell me that the hostess is identified as ‘Sam’. What is going on?

 

I stopped reading, and sat up on the floor. My head was spinning with all of this new information. What was he talking about? Who was this Sam person? It sounded like a whole different being. I kept scanning through the words like a mad librarian. The notebook looked like a diary of sorts. Whatever it was, it was pretty personal.

 

June 15

I get looks everywhere I go. But why? I am Sam. What is wrong with that? I hear chatter in the halls about me every day. I cannot live like I am an outsider, that everybody either hates me or is scared of me.

When will this be over?

 

I stopped reading right there, and closed my eyes. It was unforgettable, etched into my mind. I pictured Adam, his left hand writing these exact words. I couldn’t read this. It was private. At the same time, I just had to see what else was written. I knew it would bug me, nag at the back of my mind until I was insane. I opened my eyes, taking a peek at the notebook. I just had to keep reading.

 

June 11, after work.

Mary is worried that my condition has gotten worse. She says that is has now gotten as frequent as every day now. She is very worried that-

 

I quit reading again, this time skimming through all of the entries. I had to get to the end, where there might be answers. They seemed to have the same pattern, I realized. In one entry it was Adam was talking about these ‘sessions’ and how he seemed to be doing, and the other was then talking about how confused he was, and how ‘they’ kept saying things. What was going on?

As I got closer to February, the feeling in the pit of my stomach got worse. February, the month that Adam’s life ended.

 

December 13

They are desperate for me to remember, and show me documents, pictures, you name it. But what am I supposed to remember? I eavesdrop on conversations all the time, but nobody

says anything to my use. I just want all of it to be over. I want to be free of all of this.

 

December 25, Christmas

I couldn’t enjoy Christmas. It feels like everybody is watching me 24/7. They say that ‘he’ is depressed, but who’s ‘he’? It can’t be me, because I’m happy, for once, thanks to the bookstore. I’ve met new, interesting people, and whenever I need a break I can escape into a book. I’m starting to think that there is hope, that I’m getting better after all.       

 

February 1

It is planned. Maybe if they can’t make me happy, then this is the only way.

My appointments are now every day. They think that it will help me by reading. They give me poetry, thinking that it will ‘ease the mind of troubling thoughts’.

If only they knew the half of it.

 

I paused there, frightened for what I knew was going to come next. This was the part that I had looked forward to, the part where I thought I might have closure. I couldn’t bare to look over to the other page. Whatever was there, it frightened me enough that I was shaking.

Slowly, so slowly, my eyes drifted to the page.

 

February 20

It’s planned. After months of dark thoughts, taunting, and hate, it will be over soon enough. The letter is has been left.

And guess what? I figured it out. After eavesdropping constantly, I finally overheard something of use to me. Multiple Personality Disorder. The disease that was talked about constantly, that I wanted to know about. It will all be over soon, right?

And so I bring you to the end. My creation, good or bad, which remains to be decided. No matter what, always remember that no matter what disease you have, what you have been through, a human’s a human. And every human deserves a better life.

 

The noise I made when I got to the end was a mixture between a cry and a choke. All of the answers were right there, and weren’t even close to what I was expecting. Multiple personality disorder? He couldn’t even stop what was going to happen to him. Now it all made sense. How all of a sudden he was just… gone. When he didn’t come to work that Thursday.

I slowly got up, and found myself walking over to the open door. I looked out, at the boring cement sidewalk. It became blurry, until all that was left of the sidewalk was a grey blob.

I thought about the times I had had with Adam, from the time we met until the last exchange. The one memory that I can recall vividly, word for word, is when he was talking about space.

“It’s so interesting, you know? That how there is billions of space out there, but we’ve only scratched the surface. It makes you wonder, doesn’t it? If there’s life out there, we probably wouldn’t even know about it. There could be another one of you, and another one of me. Like replicas.”

“But we don’t know about it, and even if we lived there, we wouldn’t be the same,” I had said.

“It depends if you believe in fate or not, and I do. See, everything happens for a reason.  We would be different, yes, but it’s the differences that make us human.”

And just like that, part of the letter came back into my mind.

For if here was there, we wouldn’t be we.

           I used to hate that pond.  I had always liked the swampy atmosphere of the park and then they decided to make it more welcoming.  A few years ago West Park was landscaped and several modifications were made that seemed to take forever to complete.  One of those modifications was a pond to collect runoff and prevent flooding.  After that the swampy field of grass turned into a normal field of grass.  At first I thought the pond was nice because someone had planted some pretty flowers and other aquatic plants.  Then that damn muskrat moved in and ate them all.  On top of that there are stupid ducks that people feed all the time. The ducks walk right up to you waiting for the junk foods humans feed them.  I try to teach the ducks that humans aren’t their friends by yelling at them and chasing them away, but then I just get weird looks from people.  At least the ducks don’t walk up to me anymore.  The pond is now a cesspool.  Especially after someone dumped some goldfish in it and now there are hundreds of them.

Anyway I used to hate that pond, but after school started it seemed like all the toads in the world filled up the pond so I couldn’t hate it so much.  Then a month or two passed and I could barely walk through the park.  Teeny tiny toads blanketed the ground.  If you didn’t step carefully you’d squish quite a few and feel like a horrible person.  As I danced through the park and sat on the ground taking pictures, trying not to flatten any amphibians, people would just stare at me.  Then they would look down and let out a noise of surprise and realize I wasn’t crazy.  People have stared at me trying to figure out what I would be doing, offering help as if they think I’ve fallen on the ground and am some kind of damsel in distress.  That is usually when I’m taking pictures of all the slugs and snails slowly crossing the asphalt.  The black slugs are scared of everything so they aren’t very exciting, but the brown slugs are more outgoing and curious.  The snails are on a mission to cross the sidewalk and won’t let anything stop them from completing that mission.  They are rather interesting, especially the one that turned into the Toad Queen.

It was the time of year for the itty bitty toads to be sprinkled throughout the park.  I was walking home from Community High dodging the little toads left and right.  Then I saw a small snail in the midst of the hopping.  I stopped in front of it and got down on the ground.  I figured that this snail would make a perfect photo subject.  After a bit I saw some feet walking towards me and looked up.

“I thought you fell,” a tall slender man said in that way like duh, silly me, you didn’t fall. “What are you taking a picture of?”  He smiled with pearly white teeth and fantastic hair.  He looked like a college student.  He thought I fell?  How? I was on the ground for two or three minutes now.  Wouldn’t he have expected me to get up by now?

My face turned red.  Not because I was embarrassed or anything just because that’s what happens to me when I talk to strangers.  This kind of awkward encounter wasn’t too uncommon for me.  “Oh, no,” I nervously laughed. “Just a snail.”

“That’s cool.”  He didn’t sound very excited about it.  Probably thought it was really lame.  I didn’t care though because I was having fun all by myself with this snail.  Who needs people anyway?  I still couldn’t believe that he thought I fell.  The man walked away in silence no doubt thinking that I’m such a weirdo.  I looked down to continue taking pictures of the snail, but found that it wasn’t there anymore!  I knew snails were actually kind of fast but not so fast that they could disappear in under 30 seconds.  Then I felt something weird on the back of my hand.  I couldn’t quite place the feeling.  When I lifted my hand to figure out what was happening I found the snail on my hand.

Its skin was translucent with jagged splotches of brown.  Its shell was a smooth, glossy, dark orange, amber color that swirled to a point.  The snail’s eyes quizzically moved around as it accessed its environment.  I felt an attachment to this snail now so I couldn’t very well just leave it to fend for itself.  I decided to take it home to care for it, which wasn’t a very good idea considering that I could barely keep a potted plant alive.  Not giving it another thought I walked down the familiar dead end street called Bath to my house.

My cat JJ gave me a silent meow through the warped old glass of the front window. I stepped onto the front porch and meowed back just for the fun of it.  I looked to the right where Mr. Millunchick was sitting on his porch.  He smiled and waved.  I always choose the worst times to do something weird.  I smiled back and acted like I didn’t just meow at my cat, but there was no denying that.  I pulled my keys, jingling with Disney princesses, out of my backpack and unlocked the door.  I walked in and JJ was now in front of me meowing.  This time the meow was audible and obnoxious.  I walked into the foyer and peeled my shoes from my feet.  I entered the dining room and dropped my backpack. I was about to take off my coat when I remembered the snail was still on the back of my hand.  I should find a jar or something to put it in.  I can’t have it wandering around the house.  JJ scuttled around my feet meowing as loud as he could and showed his little fangs to me.

I open the cupboard with all the containers hoping there is a jar in there.  I don’t know what I was expecting though because I should know we don’t keep jars in this house unless they have jelly or paintbrushes in them.  An upside down cup on some paper will have to do.  I lightly pick the snail off my hand.  Its translucent body shrinks into its shell hiding from the rest of the world. I gently placed it under the cup.  Slowly it unfolds from its shell and slides around its glass cage.

When my mother came home she leaned toward the glass intrigued. “Ooooooh, cool snail,” she said.

Shaking his head my father said in that way why did you think this was a good idea? “Keegan, why did you bring that inside?  You should have left it outside. Snails don’t belong in the house.”

“Fine, I’ll put it outside tomorrow.”  I was disappointed that I couldn’t keep my new snail friend, but understood that it was true that snails don’t belong in the house.  Plus, it would probably live longer out there than with me trying to figure out what snails even eat.

The next day I came home from school ready to give up my snail, but when I went over to the cup there wasn’t a snail.  The former soft and slimy snail body had turned to glowing white fibers holding what once was the shell to the top of the cup.  The shell had grown and became a golden butterfly chrysalis.  The threads flashed bright white and then the chrysalis unfolded.  Feathery gold wings unfurled to reveal the tiny curled body of a tiny woman.  Her hair looked like black silk and she looked at me with onyx pupils.  Her eyes were captivating with gold and black flecked irises.  Her skin was brown and bumpy with accents of orange and black on her back just like a toads.

I couldn’t believe what was happening.  It seemed like everything around me disappeared and all that was left was me and this toad like fairy.  This felt like one of those weird dreams were everything feels so real yet nothing is.  A snail that turned into a toad person with wings? That’s not possible and yet there it was right in front of me.  I sat and stared at the little toad lady for the longest time.  Then my phone began to buzz and snapped me back to reality.  The words on my phone said “mom” and I slid the green pick up button.  I continued watching the fairy.  “Hello,” I was calm answering the phone, but wasn’t exactly sure if I should tell my mother about the discovery I just made.

“Hey, Bunny, what are you doing?  Did anything fun happen in school today?” my mother’s voice came through the phone enthusiastic and sweet as always.

“Nothing.” It was an empty answer that usually meant you were doing something that just wasn’t exciting enough to talk about.  Most of the time it was true, but this time it was far from it.  I wedged the phone between my ear and my shoulder and picked up the cup holding the paper underneath.  The little toad lady stood up and braced herself against the glass as I walked to out the back door and down the steps of the porch to the backyard.

“So what did Natalie have to say today?”

“Nothing much.”

“Well, did you talk to any of your other friends today?”

“Yeah.”  I set the paper and the cup of the ground.

“How are they doing?”

“Good.” Slowly I slid the paper from beneath the fairy’s feet so she could stand on the ground.

“You really didn’t do anything fun in school today? Come on there had to have been something!”

“No, not really. All we did during physics was talk about how time is relative.”  As I watched the fairy I noticed some movement in the grass.

“Hey, can you check if we have any milk in the fridge? If we don’t I’ll get some on my way home.”

“Okay,” I went back in the house to check for milk.  I look in the fridge and of course we need milk. “Yeah, we need milk,” I went back out to check on the toad fairy and there were several toads surrounding the cup.  That’s when I realized it.  “The Toad Queen!”  I whispered to myself.

“What?”

“Mom! I found the Toad Queen!  It all makes sense now!”  I was basically screaming about this.  “She’s the most beautiful toad and rules over the toad kingdom!”  At that moment the Toad Queen looked at me and her lips curled into a toothless smile and disappeared.

 

                            

  The Return of Percy Jackson

 

 

Chapter 1

                   Elliot

 

Hi I’m Elliot Jackson. I am 12 years old and in a few days I will turn

 

13...if I live that long. Right now, we are surrounded by a legion

 

of full armored ogres, telkines and a huge golden dragon. Ok,

 

you’re probably thinking, “What the heck? These things aren't

 

real.” Well, they do exist and they are mostly bad news. These creatures

 

have been hunting for half bloods like me and my two best

 

friends Janey and Will since ancient times. Remember those old

 

Greek and Roman stories, well they are all true, even the story of

 

Hercules. This is a lot to take in. I know that you are thinking we

 

are crazy and that is totally accurate.

 

It all started just a few weeks ago. It was the last day of summer

 

and I was having an awesome time playing football with my two

 

best friends, Janey and Will. I said, “Why do we even need to go

 

to school. I already know enough to get me through life”. The one

 

thing we did not know was that it would be the last day we would

 

ever be just normal kids playing around.

 

“Pass.” I called while I was running.

 

Will yelled, “Go back go further.”

 

SLAM! I had knocked into a man with a dark suit and a trilby

 

hat. He was enormous, at least 6’ 6” with fair skin and eyes

 

that were pure black. I heard Will and Janey howling with

 

laughter. That jerk, Will, knew I would hit this dude.

 

“Sorry,” I say to the man.

 

He replied, “You should watch out or you might get hurt.” As he

 

spoke, I saw his teeth. They were as sharp as dog teeth but twice

 

as long. I walk over to my friends and said, “Let’s get out of here.”

 

We were just a few blocks away from my house when I saw the

 

man again. When I saw him this time, it was just for a second then

 

he transformed into a sleek black doglike humanoid.

 

What he said to us was, “You all might not know it yet but, you are

 

extremely strong and willful, therefore, you must die.”

 

You might think that all the things your parents are telling you is

 

just crap. In reality, most of the time, what your parents are saying

 

to you is usually really important. Good thing I listened because my

 

parents’ advice just saved my life.

 

My mom always says that that brain beats brawn. The monster

 

was clearly more brawn than me so I just hoped I had I had

 

enough brain to beat him.

                                      Chapter 2

      Elliot

 

“What the heck do you mean,” I said. “You must have me mixed

 

up with another awesome strong kid.”

 

He says, “Enough joking around. I can smell the sea god in you

 

demigod.” I fought your parents before, all of them. Percy, your

 

parents are Percy and Annabeth Jackson. Janey, your parents

 

are Frank And Hazel Zhang and yours, Will, are Jason and Piper

 

Grace.”

 

Suddenly, he was on me. The guy jumped in into action like a wolf,

 

only at least twice as big. Will and Janey tried get him off me with

 

absolutely no luck. Then suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I

 

see a man with a hood on. He jumped out of a nearby bush with

 

a bronze sword in hand. He sliced the creature across the lower

 

abdomen. As the creature crumbled to dust he said, “You will all

 

pay dearly. You will all die a horrible death.” With that he was

 

gone. Nothing was left of him except for ashes that had already

 

started to blow away in the autumn breeze.

 

Looking at the man with the hood was hard but I could make up

 

just a few details. Sea green eyes and dark brown hair swept one

 

side, like you just been on a walk at the beach. This person has

 

been with me all my life. I know him as dad.

 

      Chapter 3

 Elliot

 

What the heck! My dad was laughing so hard and I saw nothing

 

funny about this.

 

“What’s so funny about almost getting killed,” I ask.

 

“Nothing,” he says. “It was just what the monster said.”

 

“First of all, what do you mean monster? And second of all, why

 

did you find death threats funny? Are they supposed to be taken

 

seriously?”

 

“Honestly I’d love to talk all day but I really don’t want to be killed

 

by a bunch of his friends. They will be here any minute, monsters

 

almost never travel alone”

 

“What did the monster mean by calling us demigods? Is that

 

supposed to be offensive or some something?” I ask

 

My dad explained, “No. He means half man half god.”

 

“I don’t believe you.”

 

“You don’t have to but have you ever noticed that things go wrong

 

when you’re angry like toilets exploding, pipes bursting, anything

 

like that? Have you are noticed that when you think you are going

 

to do bad on a test, you get a 100% even though you never

 

studied? That is your other side coming out, the Athena side.”

 

“Now come on. We really don’t have enough time to talk. Follow

 

me.”

 

We run the next few blocks until we arrive at my house. We dash

 

into the old shed in my backyard. I say to my dad, “What are we

 

doing here? It’s just a bunch of tools.”

 

“Try looking little bit closer and tell me what you see.”

 

“Wait a second. It’s a sword. How? What?” I sputter

 

“Pretty neat, right? It’s the mist. It is what mortals see because

 

most mortals can’t handle all this stuff about the gods and

 

monsters. It would completely destroy them. Knowing the truth is

 

not always a good thing.”

 

As he says this, I know he was not only talking about the mortals.

 

There were hundreds of blades and shields. There were all kinds

 

of weapons like swords, daggers, bows and arrows and a bunch

 

I couldn’t even name. Janey grabbed a bow. Will, on the other

 

hand, grabbed a golden dagger.

 

Quickly, I pick out a weapon. It was not that fancy, just a curved

 

blade that was wickedly sharp. It seemed to glow just a little bit

 

brighter than the rest. It was 3 feet long and made celestial bronze.

 

Engraved in the hilt was ancient Greek word but somehow I could

 

decipher it. The engraving means amorphous or shapeless.

 

“Very good,” my dad says. “That’s the Greek side of you coming

 

out. Even though you have dyslexia, you can decipher it. Also your

 

ADHD is your battle reflexes.”

 

Pretty much all demigods have these killer instincts, including me.

 

“You like that one,” he says. “It turns into any weapons that the

 

wielder wants but be careful.”

 

“Interesting,” I say. The leather grip fits perfectly in my hand.

 

Suddenly, it starts shrinking and it turns into an AK-47.

 

“Seems like you’ve been playing too much Call Of Duty,” Will says.

 

Then I see him. About 100 yards away stands a guy. I can smell

 

him from here. He doesn’t look any cleaner than he smells. He

 

holds a huge club over his head and is dressed in battle armor

 

“Reinforcements?” I ask.

 

“Probably.” Janey says. “Doesn’t look like a good guy.”

 

In the distance I hear a roar and it sounds like the reinforcements are

 

not very far behind.

 

“Come on.” Will says. “We can’t stay here or we will get killed.”

 

I felt myself not moving. Why? I wonder to myself.

 

I say to my dad, “No let’s get him.”

                                        

                                      

   Chapter 4   

                                            Elliot

 

Ok, if the world had an award for most stupid demigod, I would win hands

 

down.  I charged at the thing with the club, he was bigger than I thought

 

and bulkier too. For some weird reason he had a unicorn tattoo on his

 

bicep.  When I reached him I was out of breath he laughed obviously

 

amused at my effort.  With one swipe of his hand, he sent me sprawling

 

across the pavement.  The impact sent me flying at least 25 yards in the

 

air, away from my sword.  Now I was defenseless against an eight foot

 

ogre. I didn't like my odds.  All of a sudden, running away from the beast

 

seemed like a great idea.  He lumbered towards me with his club raised

 

high in the air. His club was full of spikes and stains that looked like blood

 

stains. Wow I think to myself. How am I going to get out of this one?  Well,

 

I think, long live Elliot Jackson. He raises his club and strikes but the blow

 

is blocked by my dad.

 

“Go get your sword. NOW!” he says.

 

So I run and get my sword and it turns into a javelin.  The ogre does not

 

want to fight my dad so he pushes him away and charges at me.  I throw

 

my javelin. Thwack. It hits him in the chest and he crumbles to dust.

         Chapter 5

      Janey

 

“Oh gods.  What is that?”  I say to Will.  

 

Will screams, “It looks like a dragon.”  

 

“Great!  That’s what I thought.”  “Will, we have a little problem.” I  said.  

 

“More like a big one,” said Will.  “What are those underneath it?”  

 

Elliot’s dad chimed in, “They’re telkines and ogres.”  

 

“Hey,” I said.  “Aren’t those monsters from ancient Greek stories?”  

 

Everyone looks at me funny.  So I say, “What?  My life isn’t just hanging

 

out with you morons.  I love reading about Greek gods and monsters.  

 

Come on, let’s go. I don’t like our odds against those guys because one

 

of them almost killed us.  

 

Elliot’s dad says, “We need to go now!  Get in the silver Prius parked on

 

the side of the road.”  

 

We all get in the car.  The monster army was gaining on us with alarming

 

speed.  The car hummed to life and then zoomed away.  We didn’t go

 

slower than 95 mph until they weren’t even visible behind us.  

 

Elliot’s dad says to us, “I have a lot of time to talk so let’s get started.”

 

Chapter 6

 Janey

 

“So, what you're trying trying to tell me is that those guys back there

 

are monsters? And you’ve killed them all before?”

 

He replies, “All except the Golden Dragon, that was a team effort with

 

your parents.”

 

“What do you mean?” Will ask.

 

“That’s beside the point. How you expect us to believe this this crap?”

 

“I believe him” Elliot chimes in.

 

“He is your dad. You basically have to believe him.”

 

“Whatever. I saw it, too.” Will says “Didn’t you?”

 

“Who knows what that could’ve been.” I say.

 

“Whatever. I guess I believe you. It’s just...understand this is so hard to take in all in at once. I have another question; what do they want with us?”   

 

“Honestly, I don’t know the answer to that. They want us dead that’s for sure.” Elliot’s dad explains.

 

“So what exactly …” I starts to say but a flying car cuts me off.   

 

SMASH, I hear in the distance the car land with a sickening crunch.

 

People are yelling and running. A rampaging bull is barrelling towards us,

 

he is half man, half bull.

 

“Minotaur,” I yell “Like the one from the labyrinth.”  

 

“Stand back,” Elliot’s dad says.”He wants me not you,  I have a score to

 

settle with this overgrown bull.”  

 

The Minotaur was missing a horn and for some reason he is touching the

 

spot where his missing horn would be as if realizing who Percy was and

 

what he had done.

 

I could almost hear the Minotaur call Percy’s name but it was barely

 

audible.

 

The bull met Percy head on. Percy jumped into action. He started siding

 

under the bull, clearly trying to strike the center of beast. The bull quickly

 

stepped out of the way. But Percy smacked him with the hilt of his sword,

 

catching him in the left side of his rib cage sending him sprawling. The

 

Minotaur got up and started charging. Again Percy jumps to the

 

side and slices the Minotaur to ashes.  Percy yells at us to get back in

 

the car But what we don’t realize until we are a mile down the road and  

 

Will is gone. A blood red note takes is in place it says just the words

 

“Brooklyn Bridge.”

 

6:00 A.M. Monday 12/31/12

 

“That stupid alarm clock,” I thought to myself. Its persistent clanging in my ears much like the other children’s perpetual teasing back in grade school. Opening my eyes in the morning almost wasn’t worth it anymore. The first image to flood my senses was the crusty old ceiling of a should-be abandoned shack of an apartment. Moving my stare to the left where my alarm clock lay on a dilapidated cardboard box, I cringed because of a sharp pain in my neck. Every morning, the same vertebrae seemed to not want to comply. It was the rebel in the lunch line, the impatient child whose ravenous desires caused him to disrupt the entire system of the cafeteria. Slamming the “SNOOZE” button, I twisted my neck back into place. I sat up in my tiny, spring bed and felt under my pillow for the thirty dollars I earned last night. “This should keep me alive another day, don’t know why I’d want to be.” I stood up to see the door to my one room abode was still locked, so nothing had been stolen. I walked over to my tiny sink which was on the opposite wall from my sleeping quarters. It had two handles, hot and cold, but only the cold one was in working order. I turned this knob and proceeded to wash my face. As I splashed the chilly liquid onto myself, I couldn’t help but scream as I felt the entire room shake. It was a tiny earthquake, but we don’t get many of those in Pennsylvania. Another piece of my mirror fell from the wall above the sink. It had only a few shards still hanging and it cast a broken reflection onto a face with a broken smile. I just kept telling myself , You’re gonna make it, you’ll get through this. I walked to the hole in the wall to the left of my bed that I called a closet and tried to find the tightest skirt I could. All the guys on Salvation St. seemed to like that. I picked a  tank-top and glittery jacket that went to about the bottom of my ribs. I knew that it was cold outside, but I would make more money this way.

Again, I walked over to the sink and took out a tiny Ziploc bag from behind the faucet. It contained all of my makeup, including my Cover Girl red lipstick and dark mascara. As I pasted the crimson paint onto my pale lips I tried to keep them puffed out to make them appear more attractive. This ensemble made me look like a completely different girl. I hated it, but I knew that the makeup was good for business. I sighed and walked out the door to the right of my bed.

I took my usual route through the woods across from my house. I stopped by the old cemetery, as usual, and strode to the tenth aisle. I walked eight stones into the row and came upon a small pebble of a tombstone that had the name “Roxanne S. Jones. 1970-2004.” My mother Roxy was the best you could ask for; always had a homemade meal waiting at the end of the day, had a warm, loving, heart, but always made sure we behaved. After she passed when I graduated elementary school, my father’s drinking really took a turn for the worse. His addiction led to his own grave only six months later. He collided head on with another car on the road after drifting into the wrong lane. Alcohol has that sort of grip on people, it controls them, makes them do things they wouldn’t normally do. Daddy learned that the hard way.

After saying goodbye to my mother, I felt a strange vibe flow through my body as if I had been touched by an electric current. I felt uneasy and I knew that this day, this day something was going to be different. I felt as if someone, somewhere was trying to send me a message, but what message I was not sure of. I continued my stroll with lingering paranoia.

Turning the corner, I looked up and saw that familiar sign, Salvation St. This was the place I met most of my clients. I walked past the old barber shop, then the bank with its golden print in the window,“TRUST IN US.” I wondered for the first time, Why would you trust a bank when their only purpose in life is to obtain more than they already have? Trusting a place with greedy intentions seems hardly reasonable. I felt that that feeling, that thing in the cemetery, was provoking these thoughts. It was causing me to think, question and ponder, but I did not know why. I tried to shake the feeling and focus on my craft. I walked to a dark corner of the street that was near the bank in an alleyway. I did not venture too far into the dark abyss, but simply stayed at the threshold. A few minutes went by, then thirty, and it was nearly eight o’clock. I soon heard the monstrous belltower belching its obnoxious cacophony. Once, twice, three times, until it rang eight times. It resounded in my ears much like my alarm clock, only louder, more thunderous.

“Hello!”

I thought I heard a manifestation of that strange feeling.

“Hello! Are you alright? That belltower is quite the opposite of pleasant, wouldn’t you say?”

It spoke again, but this time I realized that it was not in my head, but rather coming from the big-lipped mouth of an African man standing only three yards away. His language was quite loud, it was as if he was trying to overpower the huge clock, but the ringing had stopped now.

“I would say so,” I replied.“ You lookin’ for any special services this morning?”

He inquired,“What kind of service?”

“Well for only a few dollars, I could give you the time of your life, and-”

“Oh no! No no no, no thank you ma’am. I was married and am far too old for that sort of thing anyways.”

He looked like he was in his late 60’s, but it was still worth a try.

“Well, alright then. Tell your friends I’m here!” I tried to sound enthusiastic.

“I’m sorry to seem clueless ma’am, but um, what sort of business are you running here exactly?”

I simply told him, “Any kind that’ll keep me alive for another day.”

“Well this ain’t no way to live. You should be in school, trying to find a real job, trying to make a life for yourself, trying to be happy. No good can come of this sort of thing.”

He had a calm, kind tone about his voice that quieted down as he spoke. It was a bit raspy, but I assume that was only because of his age. He had a grey, plaid beret that was pulled down over his brow a bit too far. He had large, brown, kind eyes that somehow resembled his voice. He was hunched over and it seemed as if time had treated him well. He was wearing a yellow button-up shirt with brown stripes running up and down vertically. It seemed very worn, the type you find at thrift stores. Over that he was wearing a brown corduroy blazer, also very worn, with a small hole under the right chest pocket. His grey dress pants fit tightly around his waist, but they were straight legged all the way down. His shoes were black with silver buckles and they seemed at least twenty years old. The part that struck me as odd was his smile. When he spread his lips, two rows of glowing pearls shone from his mouth, perfectly aligned, perfectly white. And when his countenance lightened and his cheekbones became exceptionally visible, his wide grin emanated a spectacular happiness. It attracted me like bees to sweet smelling daisies. The happiness was genuine. It was the sort of joy I used to possess as a child.

“I would never wish this kind of occupation on any woman,” he spoke to me as if I were his own daughter. He made me feel so loved, yet I had only just met him. I felt I could be honest with him.

“Well ya see, I’m alone. My mother passed when I was just ten years old and my daddy was reunited with her soon after. I haven’t had a real family in eight years and I’m trying to make do with what I was so graciously given. Now if you don’t mind, I’m trying to run a business here, so goodbye!”

I didn’t really want him to leave, his presence comforted me.

“Ma’am I understand. You feel like there ain’t nobody watchin’ out fer ya? Well I’ll tell ya, there’s gotta be at least a dozen angels watchin’ you right now, hopin’ you turn around.”

“Who exactly are you?” I challenged. He started to seem familiar, but I knew I’d never met him before.

“My name is Henry Clyde Jones, but most people called me CJ. And um, what’s your name, might I ask?”

“Elizabeth, Elizabeth S. Jones though everyone calls me Lizzy.”

I was named after my grandmother, Elizabeth R. Jones and my mother took her middle name, Roxanne. I always liked my name, Elizabeth.

“Well ain’t that a beautiful name,” the words ran through his lips like a smooth stream as a huge smile flashed over his face. It sounded as if he wanted to laugh but he refrained. It was as if he had found some sort of irony or humor in my name.

“Did I say something funny?” I asked, trying my best not to be rude.

“No ma’am, not at all.” He finally let out a little chuckle. “Say, you got time for a story, Elizabeth? Nobody wanna hear me talk no more. It’s a quick one I promise.”

“Um, sure, I guess,” I answered, still a bit unsure of him, but with every word he was drawing me closer.

“Alright yes! OK, here goes it.”

He proceeded to tell me a story that, to be honest, I couldn’t understand all too well. He was so energetic that it caused the once steady stream of syllables flowing from his lips to become a rushing, muddy flood of letters and sounds. But again it was his eyes and his smile that kept me captivated, intrigued. My engrossment was due to a lack of hostility and a complete presence of compassion in his voice. I caught most of the general story and some details. From my understanding, it was about a girl. This girl had gone through some tragedies as a child. Apparently, God had bestowed upon this girl a gift of which she was not aware. This girl loved to draw and paint and had projects all over her room as a child. She continued to practice her hobby even after becoming a hopeless orphan. She grew up in despair, begging for money and shelter. She thought there was no way out. One day, as she lay destitute on the street, a man stopped when he saw her laying in a cardboard box. She had drawn a beautiful picture of God and all his angels in heaven. He inquired,“Did you do this?”

She answered,“Yes, I saw it in my dreams.”

He replied,“Ma’am, I’m not sure if you’re aware, but there’s a great big chapel a few blocks down that has a big blank wall on the inside. I bet they’d love a great mural of that picture there. Whad’ya say?”

Here CJ stopped and looked straight into my eyes, I mean it was as if he had seen a ghost. His eyes perfectly met mine and he began to say,“The girl looked up and saw a sign: Salvation St. The road she had been living on for the past twelve years of her life had the same name as the gift we receive from our Lord and Saviour. This, Elizabeth, is the very same street on which your feet are standing.”

I looked at him, my face changed from an expression of joy to one of perplexity. I didn’t understand what was going on. My head began to hurt. That feeling from the graveyard overwhelmed my body and I felt a bright light. I closed my eyes as tightly as I could and I heard the feeling, which I believe materialized and became a being, whisper into my ear,“Your salvation has come.” I was so bewildered; my imagination, like a ferris wheel off its cradle, was loose and running in every direction. I heard a constant buzzing sound which rang in my ears. I felt a strong luminescence shining from an unknown source. I could feel its warmth on my face but I would not open my eyes to investigate its origin. I cannot exactly describe the feelings and emotions that were running through my body, but I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that the being from the graveyard was instilling all this turmoil into my body. I could not contain myself any longer. My eyelids parted.

At that very moment, all was still. CJ was gone. The buildings disappeared, the roads, clouds, sky, even the looming belltower. That bright light filled the space I was left in, but it did not blind me. Rather it caused me to focus my gaze on the only thing left in this barren place. It was a sign, a metal pole, with a green plaque drilled into the top. There were two words painted on it: Salvation St. I closed my eyes again and in that moment I felt at ease. I had the overwhelming sensation that everything was going to be alright.

The next thing I could remember was waking up in my bed back at home. I opened my eyes and sat upright. The crick in my neck was gone. I looked over at the alarm clock: 8:07 A.M. I could not distinguish my experience as reality or fiction. After all, the mind can be perceptibly deceiving. I felt under my pillow and instead of the usual thirty dollars, I found a little note with a quarter taped to the bottom. It read as follows:

 

Dear Elizabeth,

I am so very sorry about any distress I might have caused you. You seemed very distraught. I hope you are feeling better. There is an open spot in the church choir down the street and I heard you have a beautiful voice. This quarter is for a phone call at a phone booth if you so wish to contact me. My number is 777-7777. If you have any questions give me a holler! Goodbye!

 

P.S. I fixed your mirror. I figure it’d be better if you could actually see back from it. God bless you!

 

-Henry Clyde Jones

 

Astounding rapture consumed my being. It was great joy and obscurity. I had so many questions that I knew would not be answered. I hurried and put on some sweats and a warm coat from my closet. I walked to my sink and was astonished at the fact that I actually did have a new mirror, one free of fractures. It had a beautiful oval frame with gold embellishments of flowers and cherubs on its perimeter. Above sat a sculpture of two angels holding lyres and on the very zenith stood a man, one without a face with flowing hair and a beautiful white gown. He was holding a book in one hand and the other was held out in beckoning gesticulation. I peered at my reflection and stared at myself. I felt beautiful. I had washed away all the makeup and wiped off all the lipstick. A feeling of extreme joy overcame me as a grin appeared in the mirror. It was the smile I saw once on the face of a familiar friend. It was pure joy.

I turned the corner back onto that same street I had been on only a day before, or so I thought. I discovered a telephone booth next to my place of business. I dropped the quarter in and dialed the number, 777-7777. It rang seven times. On the other end I heard a voice I knew was none other than Henry Clyde Jones. He exclaimed,“Salutations Elizabeth! You received my note?”

“Yes, yes I did, and I have a lot of questions, and I-”

“I’m sure you do, and I’m sorry but I can’t answer them all now. I understand that-”

“How did you know I could sing?” I questioned. The only time I sang was when I was alone.

“You get to see a lot from up here,” he told me.

“So do you really think the church would want me to sing for them? I mean I’m worthless, no one wants me.”

“Oh no dear! He wants you and He has great plans for you. He sees you, He loves you, He is bringing your salvation. All you have to do is answer His call.”

As soon as Mr. Jones had stopped his breath, I felt a strange sensation. My vision lifted towards a green street sign with two white words on it: Salvation St. Tears filled my eyes and the grandest jubilee filled my heart as I heard three words from the other end of the telephone. They were three familiar words that inevitably caused a smile to spread across my ecstatic face. CJ let the words flow from his lips and they caused my heart and soul to soar: “So, whad’ya say?”

 

10

            The hallway, associated with people and noise. Rough shoulders mixed with fast paces, what the student deals with while trying to get to class on time. Except, not everyone understands the importance of timeliness and accidents happen, the kind of accident that happened on the otherwise ordinarily boring Wednesday. On this horrendous day, little Katie Dowell was aggressively shoved to floor, just an afterthought of someone hoping to not be late for perhaps another history test. With nobody even remotely trying to help her up, little Katie stumbled to get back up in the dreadfully over crowded hallway.

9

            The cafeteria, a sea of anxiety for anyone on the first day of school. Clicks claiming seats and others trying to find their own friends mixed among the dangerous mass. If you didn’t have any friends in that hour, you had to find new ones. This was mentally impossible for some, like poor little Katie, who didn’t have any friends in that awful school. So when she stepped into the cafeteria that slightly aggravating Wednesday, she skipped trying to find a seat and went straight to the bathrooms. She didn’t even bother to look at the vile food the school called lunch.

8

            The bathrooms, something everybody tried to avoid in the school. Everybody except the girls whose eyeliner had smudged, or thought they needed to add another layer of lip-gloss to their already glossy lips. The bathrooms were part unclean, part no necessities, and part infelicitous messages written everywhere. It was completely harrowing to people with germophobia. That’s why it was very strange that forlorn little Katie found herself there for the fourth time that appalling Wednesday. She, however, just found it soothing to her many panic attacks to read about somebody’s unfortunate, and probably false, pregnancy behind closed stall doors. 

7

            The locker rooms, a mess of bobby pins and perfume sprayed everywhere. Most girls were okay with the locker room, enjoying the little messages of how each and every one of them is beautiful written on the somewhat okay mirrors. However, insecure little Katie was not like most girls, knowing the people who wrote those messages have obviously never met her, and that they weren’t written for her. Again, not having any friends to talk to while changing like the other girls, little Katie found herself in another bathroom stall that dreadful Wednesday. Thinking about the idiotic laps the school forces upon all the students while changing into the uncomfortable shorts didn't help at all. She ended up dragging her feet nervously against the cold hard floor of reality and to that moronic class.

6

            The actual classroom, filled with suffocating people and questions. Teachers who purposely call on students they know were not paying attention just to embarrass them. The teachers always talk about how students shouldn’t bully each other, but what’s stopping the teachers from doing exactly that. Who’s stopping glum little Katie’s teacher from calling on her, knowing full well that she doesn’t like attention drawn to herself. Would anyone actually stop the laughing students who snicker at little Katie for not paying attention to the teacher, who instead was trying her best not to just get up and run out of the room? Yet another unfortunate event to happen on little Katie’s unfortunate Wednesday.

5

            The councilor’s office, pencils perfectly placed in mugs and bright colors, signs of trying too hard. It had the scent of cheap candles wafting around, trying to cover the stench of depression and desperation from both the students and the staff. It was the last place despondent little Katie wanted to end up, but her lack of communication to the people her age around the school worried her teachers, forcing her to weekly visits. When little Katie entered the office, she sat on one of the couches the school obviously only bought in a desperate attempt to try to get the students to feel more welcome. As the overly preppy councilor questioned little Katie overly personal questions that quickly took her straws one by one and stomped all over them, little Katie had an unexpected outburst. On that repugnant Wednesday, little Katie yelled at her councilor to leave her alone and left the office.

4

            The Courtyard, like the hallways, is overcrowded with the rush to not miss buses and to get as far away from school as quickly as possible. More shoving, pushing, boisterous noise, and trash littered the slightly damp grass from the rain that fell earlier that execrable Wednesday. As dismal little Katie made her way to her bus, she tried not to pay attention to the conversations around her, thinking they were all saying inimical things about her. She failed miserably, but on the brink of yet another panic attack, at least succeeded in keeping unshed tears in. Only tripping a handful of times, she had made it to her bus, unprepared for her next challenge.

3

            The bus, revolting in smell and sound, with garbage everywhere and rowdy students throwing things and talking way to loud for an egregious Wednesday. It’s always near impossible to get a seat, unless someone wanted to awkwardly ask a stranger for sitting privileges on the ratty, decrepit seats. As dejected little Katie made her way down the isle of the bus, people moved their bags purposely to the space available, not wanting to be stuck sitting next to her. She eventually found the last seat available, an overly stained and ripped one that nobody’s supposed to sit in. If she sat down far enough, the bus driver wouldn’t be able to see her. For the reminder of little Katie’s journey on the bus home, she sat in silence as other students threw objects and words above her.

2

            The walk home from the bus stop, treacherous for a student who is already exhausted from having a stressful school day, especially bad for cafard little Katie. On that monstrous Wednesday, the bus driver forgot to stop at the actual bus stop, forcing her to walk farther than usual. Little Katie, cursed her bad luck for having tripped, and made the half mile walk home with her unreasonably heavy books, having homework in every class. She made it home just as the rain started up again. Little Katie still got a little wet, but not as soaked as she would’ve been if it had started any earlier. She pulled out her house key and unlocked the door that’s paint had chipped; glad to finally be away from the stress of school.

1

            Home, the only place that could potentially be worse than school. High expectations mixed with the pressure that said expectations create. The smell of disappointed was the first thing that welcomed miserable little Katie home, or to her house, since it never really seemed like a home to her. She threw her slightly damp bag on the first chair she saw and tried, unsuccessfully, to get to her bedroom unnoticed. Little Katie’s mother had been waiting to talk to her that atrocious Wednesday. Little Katie obediently sat as her mother yelled at her for her earlier outburst in the councilor’s office, then nagged about how her grades weren’t as good as she expected them to be. When little Katie’s mom was finally done with her rant, little Katie trudged up to her room. She then closed and locked her door, and didn’t come out again that day.  

0

 

            That is the force that caused big, wonderful Katie to become miserable, cafard, dejected, dismal, despondent, glum, insecure, forlorn, poor little Katie. The big mysterious force that nobody but Katie knows. Now, you might be thinking, what happened to Katie after this last straw was drawn? The answer is simply that it is up to Katie. Millions of people like Katie make the decision every day of their life, but what happens if nobody knows it? What about the person who bumped into Katie? What if their going through the same thing? What of the councilor? Are they doing anything? Of course they aren’t, how can they help if they don’t know. How can Katie even ask for help if she doesn’t know how? If every person she’s ever met has been condescending, or oblivious, or ignorant. How does little Katie know who to go to, what to say? How does little Katie know that the person she does tell isn’t just going to tell her to suck it up, to stop whining, that people in Africa are starving and she’s upset over such trivial things. How they would much rather have her problems over theirs. People need to stop thinking like that; different people go through different things. How are we supposed to know that being homeless is worse than being rejected when we’ve never experienced it ourselves? How are you supposed to know that being rejected isn’t worse if you’ve never been rejected, or ignored, or scolded? How are we, as humans, supposed to know? The truth is just that we don’t. We don’t know. That’s the reason why numerous little Katie’s are having monstrous, egregious, execrable, repugnant, unfortunate, dreadful, appalling, aggravating, ordinarily boring Wednesdays over and over again. That’s the force that is leaving us with that unfathomable choice. So, you tell me; what happened to little Katie? 

 The  Visit from the Planet of Zucchini                  Page 1 

 

        

 

 

 

It was a young warm and no so comfortable Tuesday. Rain hadn’t throng in the young village of Mississippi not even a drop of rain had been felt or heard of for 10 days straight. The small village was desperate. People of the village were on the bare dry streets walking in hunger, stress, and thirst wandering lonely. Kids of young age were streaming on the streets awestruck of where there parents might be seen. Farmers were losing business plants were dying food price was reducing and sales were going extremely down. Everyone was in terrible state. 

 

The only food in this young village that could be grew perfect was zucchini. Zucchini was a type of plant that could be grew at the very end of the village. Young farm boys and older men would go early at sun dusk to the base of where they found grown zucchini for there family in await. 

 

Everyone in the village didn’t mind for this plant and ate anything that wouldn’t harm them. On the other hand, Heather who was a young 8 year old who was very very bossy. She wanted and excepted with high demands for things to be her exact,precise and strict way. Her older sister Martha was afraid of her and her high demands and stayed a far distance away from her sister afraid to get told with more demands. Her dad on the other scale was very mean to her. That was who she was afraid of but hardly afraid of, anyway. She was like the controller of minds. 

 

Every day till today she started to love zucchini for the past 9 days hating it was her middle name. Anytime her father mother or sister brought any zucchini to her 

 

                                                                                                                  Page 2 

 

she would make a fit and possibly throw it on the ground in anger. But today she saw her dad bring zucchini in and she started picking zucchini’s off her dad’s bowl. 

 

Her sister asked her “Why so, have you changed with a snap of one day?’’ she answered “because I should tell you a tale believe it or not it is your choice but a alien came yesterday. Her sister afraid of saying anything in case Heather would be angry with her confronting and questioning, stayed silent and listened to the girl.

 

“It all began yesterday” she said. “What all began yesterday?’’ her sister asked getting a reply as a big frown. “As I was saying, yesterday night it all began when I was sleeping sound asleep and perfectly comfortable dreaming of mermaids who defeated the zucchini of the dinner plate with their power when I heard a “big machine” roar up vibrating me.

 

“Of course, you guys couldn’t hear it only I could these visitors were meant for me not any of you guys” Heather said going outside with her sister and sitting on the sidewalk. “Then, of course my curious minds couldn’t resist the curiosity of what it was so I went outside in my night gown rubbing my dried up night owl eyes and I found a big UFO there.

 

Thanks for making this wonderful story up, I know the reason is because of your friends pure pressure!’’ said her sister laughing. “SHUT UP, I SAW THIS ALL AND I DON’T LIKE TO LIE, IT WAS A UFO!’’ yelled Heather jumping on her. “Anyway” she said calming herself like a quick change reactor. 

 

 

 

 

Heather continued as her sister uncovered her ears. “The weather was dry and dark as usual as I went outside to check. It seemed like no one was in the UFO but there must have been someone in it. 

 

“Then I thought for a second then another then another that it might have been a prank of old Jimmy Falcon’s across the street neighbor, you know?’’ I yelled across the street laughing that this prank didn’t fool me. I thought of a quick song to tease him.

 

“Jimmy Jimmy Jimmy Ufo’s are great but pranks aren’t thanks for the prank now I shall go inside Jimmy Jimmy Jimmy the master of the pranks!’’ I yelled as Jimmy came outside sleepily. “What is it Heather don’t you know it’s 2:00 in the morning!?” he said rubbing his eyes vigorously.

 

He was a young boy who loved teddy bears and had messy hair and big blue eyes. 

So then I apologized to him for waking him up in the middle of the night and saw a purple door open.

 

“Wait, what color was it again I just had a “sneeze” said the sister putting her phone down in no interest. PURPLE Heather had calmly but in a loud voice. 

I went inside the UFO and saw a alien working with a machine and suddenly he turned around.

 

 

 

Page 3                                                                      

 

He was purple and really scary and had 7 eyeballs, like do you think a human ever these days that has 7 eyeballs!’’ said Heather.

 

This Alien told me in some language that I was in danger, it was Mike the Dictionary Zucchini. 

“Who’s Mike?’’ said her sister starting to pay a little attention to her sister afraid if not her sister might tackle her.

 

“Mike, is a robot dictionary that comes from the planet zucchini. Anyway, this robot told me they have come for me.” 

“Who would do anything for- said her sister and stopped.

 

Her sister walked with her to the park. “Mission Heather was the name of this, it might sound weird but they came to teach ME a lesson on why food is precious and be happy with what you have.” she said.

 

“Hey, look I think I just saw a purple dude in the woods, you know strange stuff happens when no one is around.” said her sister nervously. “Probably a guy late for work or something.” said Heather lazily.

 

They saw something come out of the woods and it was purple and had 7 eyeballs as Heather had said. “AHH, it’s him the alien!’’ said her sister. “This is Steve The Zucchini Master remember what I told you the one who helped me last night he is really smart and that’s why I like the food!’’ said Heather hugging him.

 

Page 4

“I hope you are doing as I told you, Heather?’’ said the alien in a serious immersed voice. I have heard this is your sister. Hello Sister what is your name.”

 

Her sister looked at the alien weirdly and pretended to get a call. “Do not, fake with me, I am not a gullible monster of some random west.” said the alien floating closer to her frowning.

 

“Heather!’’ Bring out your Zucchini Chart let me grade it, your sister isn’t in a bright attitude today” said the alien laughing as well as Heather. “Shut up!’’ she said to the alien angrily.

 

“Very well, your sister’s doesn’t have manners for their 500 year old elder, if you know sister I am the ruler of my planet and whoever says mean stuff to me is punished but due to the fact that we are on Planet Earth 100,000,350 miles away from my planet it is against the law to do so” he said.

 

Heather whispered something in her ear. “Do as he says, he promised that if he finds his mission keeper’s family nice he will bring food and joy to the village” she said in a low bossy tone. “Yes, you are indeed right.” said her sister faking.

 

“Stop faking with me to be nice, I know the pattern, since your niceness doesn’t come in hand this town will not get any food. “NO!, I’m so sorry.” said her sister. The alien smiled. I am just joking I know how desperate this town is for food after the amazing record of rain. Let it rain! said the alien.

 

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Page 5

 

 

Soon it started to pour and rain. The alien said goodbye to them and went off in his spaceship. This alien had taught the town a lesson to always love what they have and tested them to see how they would survive. 

Pt. 1

I am William.  You may think I am human, and I am, but not fully.  I have powers sent from the gods,  although what I am about to tell you has nothing to do with mythology (there are too many books about that).  It all  started when my father said I had to find a certain girl, and I thought: Woah, wait a second, I am only eleven years old andyou want me to have a girlfriend?  But then I saw the picture in his crystal ball.  “Okay, I’ll do it,” I said. She had long blonde hair, blue eyes, and enough charm to make you babble like a cretin.  This girl’s name is Angelica, and she is the last female godling alive, even though she doesn’t know it.  We will teleport to the party she is having tonight.  She happens to be the President’s daughter,”  said my father.  

“When are we going?” I asked.  

“Now”

“Welcome to Washington D.C.  Home of the President Benjamin Daniels!”  said father as we arrived instantly outside of the White House. We showed security our godling security cards (all godlings are allowed access into the White House because the president is one)  and we entered the party.  

“William, Andrew!  So glad you could make it!”  said president Daniels as he politely helped us in.  

“With teleportation it isn’t that hard to be on time,”  said my father, Andrew.  I saw Angelica walk by.  She looked at me in a shy way, but then looked away, and I think I saw her blush a little bit.  “So, What do I have to to? I asked.  

“Angelica, will you dance with me?” I heard a boastful voice say.  

“sure” said Angelica, though I could tell she didn’t mean it.  

“Ah, I see.” I said as I filled with jealousy.  

“Come with me to the top floor Angelica, I want to show you something.”  They walked upstairs as I ordered a drink from the bar.  Suddenly, there was a scream as Angelica ran down the stairs.  She explained that there was something that threw a knife at them when they entered the room, and it killed Leonardo.

“I never really liked him anyway,” she muttered.  I suggested that some of the people go up there to investigate.  A group of six, including me and Angelica went upstairs.  I stayed behind for a minute or two outside the door to the top floor, and I heard some yelling outside of the door.

I opened the door to see what was going on, and I saw a brown marionette that was connected by strings to a blue creature.  “It’s not a creature, it’s a puppet!  I yelled as I charged at the blue creature.  It noticed me and jumped into a hole in the ceiling.  We heard some clanging as the creature walked above us.  A clawed hand grabbed the edge of another hole, and a puppet was lowered.  I noticed a couple of the people climbing a large pole leading to the ceiling.  The moment they went out of sight, there were two screams, and that left us with four people.  I took a punch at the puppet, and it was knocked off of its strings, but two more soon took its place. Now it was the puppet’s turn to attack.  They shot knives out of their bodies killing the two remaining people.  it was now just me and Angelica.  “Angelica, run!”  I said.  The puppets were now aiming at us, but I closed the door just as the knives banged against the door.  “I think we should let the others know what happened,” said Angelica.  “Good idea,” I said  “four deaths is news.  We barely made it out alive!”

 

We hurried downstairs, where the people at the party were chatting away.  Someone noticed us, and exclaimed that we were back.  

“We are lucky to be alive” I said  “The other four died.  Those puppets are a force to be reckoned with,”  

“I think the party should be postponed until this problem is solved,”  said president Daniels.  There was much sad agreement from the others at the party.  “Father, can William stay?  He not only saved my life, but also knows more about any of this than anyone else.”  

“I agree William should stay.”  Said the president.  “Can I give William a tour of the house?”  said Angelica  

“Sure!”  said president Daniels.  Angelica showed me around the house.  

“I guess you have had a good enough tour of the top floor haven’t you?” said Angelica.   A knife began to fall on top of Angelica, and with a flick of my hand I blocked it with a forcefield.  “What, how did you do that?”  she said.  

“I’ll explain later, but for now, it’s raining knives!”

 

I forced my hands upwards toward the ceiling as the knives continued to fall.  “We have to go back now!”  I yelled.  I held my forcefield and ran to the door.  I checked the door.  “Locked” I said.  I turned around.  A puppet was walking toward us.  It took out a knife.  “Uh oh”  I said.  He threw the knife at me.  I braced for impact.  still holding the forcefield above me.  Nothing.  I opened my eyes.  “Angelica!”  I exclaimed.  “You’re doing it!”  I saw a forcefield colored red reflect the knife back towards the puppet.  Direct hit.  The rain stopped and the door unlocked.  Dad and the President ran towards us.  “William, Angelica!”  President Daniels yelled.  “What happened?”  “It was raining knives”  I said.  “He’s moving down”  we need to move fast or else the White house will have to be evacuated.”  “Dad, we have weird powers, what is wrong?”  Asked Angelica.  “William, you used your powers?!  We had a talk about this!”  “Dad, it was raining knives, I had no choice!  We again barely survived!”  “I see.”  said father.  “But now he knows.”  “Who?”  Asked Angelica.  “Leonardo, the godling slayer.  I’m sure it’s him that is causing all of this.”  I said.  “Oh my goodness, how did I not know before?”  Said president Daniels.  “Who invited him here?”  I asked.  “I met him only today”  Said Angelica.  “I thought he was one of your friends” Said Daniels.  Suddenly, a knife landed on the floor with a clang.  We all looked up slowly.  There it was.  The blue puppeteer.  I slowly moved my hands into a position to fire a projectile.  I meant to fire a fireball at the monster but it failed and I threw a stuffed bunny.  “No, fireball, not stuffed bunny, fireball!”  I yelled after I hit the puppeteer with the bunny and it ran up through a hole in the ceiling.

 

After a short walk downstairs, we found a strange thing on the floor.  i reached down to touch it, and I pulled my hand away just as it sparked with electricity.  “a jellyfish tentacle.”  Said Dad.  We all looked up slowly.  Above us were thousands of jellyfish, and they were flying.  “Oh, my, gosh,”  said Angelica.  “Tell me about it,”  I said.  “Leo does not have this much power, he can’t.  The Jellyfish were too powerful,”  said dad.  “If it wasn’t Leo, than what was it?”  I asked.  “I don’t know, but we should just leave them alone for now,”  We slowly walked, avoiding the various jellyfish tentacles on the floor.  As we were making our way, a cat meowed.  One thing you should know about us godlings:  cats are to godlings as catnip is to cats, so the moment I heard that cat, my cat sensors went berserk.  All of us went over to the cat and started petting it.  It meowed again.While we were busy petting the kitty, we didn’t notice the puppet behind us, but luckily, the kitty did, so it destroyed the puppet by biting and clawing it to death.  It meowed again, and began washing its face cat style.  We swarmed it again.  Right now you might be thinking:  “But William, what about the jellyfish?”  Well, they’re jellyfish so they just float around until they notice you… Which they just did.  The cat turned into a flying jellyfish (Fun fact:  Cats have shape shifting powers.  That’s why they’re so cute!) and mixed in with the crowd.  We came back to our senses and I immediately launched a kill-everything-but-cat bomb (Yes, they exist)  and they all died except for one, which morphed into a godling.

“Hi, my name is Cleo Nelson.  And you are...?”  We stood there, stunned.

“Uh, hi”  I said.  “I am William, this is Angelica this is-”

Suddenly, I heard the sound of someone getting stabbed.  I swirled my head around.  There was My dad, and President Daniels, dead, with knives in their chests.  I looked at Cleo.  She was also dead.  I saw a knife flying at Angelica.  Time stopped.  Literally.  Angelica and I were the only things that could move.  I had finally done it.  I had stopped time.

 

Angelica was still bracing for impact.  I tapped her on the shoulder.  

“Am I dead?”  she asked

“Close, but not quite,”.

She opened her eyes and saw the knife, inches away from her heart.  She backed up, and looked at her father, lying dead on the ground.  She began to cry.  I managed to hold back my tears, but I had no mentor now.  No father.

I looked at Foogle who was a cat again.  It was sitting there taking a bath.

“I thought you got stabbed, Cleo!”  I said.  She morphed back into godling mode.

“I was pretending to be stabbed so they wouldn’t stab me,”.  I had a look of disbelief on my face.  This cat was unbelievable!  Angelica walked over, her eyes red from crying.  I restarted time, and I heard the noise of a portal.  I looked back, and saw a human, and a cat.

Pt. 2

My name is Maizie.  I am a sort-of-normal house cat in the year 2020.  I occasionally go on space trips with my owner, Taco.  His real name is Zach, but we all call him Taco.  We are both sixteen, in a way.  I am 16 in cat years, and him in human years.  Anyways, I woke up, ready for a nice breakfast and wonderful day.  I then realized how dark it was outside.  I looked at my alarm clock.  five in the morning?  I then remembered that today was vacation day.  I went BALLISTIC.  I ran around the house twelve times, jumped on Taco and sat on his head until he woke up.  After a big breakfast, I ran around the house twelve times again and saw my friend/sister, Cleo.  

“Good mornin’ Cleo!”  I said as I jumped on her.  

“Hey, you don’t have to kill me because of vacation day.  Where are we going anyways?”  “Haven’t you forgotten, we are going to Alphapocus, the only other habitable planet in the world.  Of course no other creatures live there as far as we know.  It was only discovered yesterday, so we will be the first non-explorers to go there!  We got in the spaceship and flew to Alphapocus.  After about 5 hours of flying, we made it to Alphapocus.  We put down our portable mansion, and decided to rest after a long time of flying.  We all fell asleep.  In the morning something was wrong.  Cleo was missing.  “HOLY EXTRATERRESTRIAL COW!”  I screamed.  “CLEO IS MISSING!”  After  a long bit of yelling and screaming about how Cleo was missing and how we were all gonna die, I realized Cleo’s computer was on.  I checked out the article, and it said; “Aliens discovered on Alphapocus!  Are they friend or foe?”  I gasped.  Cleo had been abducted!

 

I ran to Taco.  I told him what happened to Cleo (Luckily there are translators so he can understand me).  

“We must go on a quest, of royal bravery, so we can have knighthood!”  He said.  

“Dude, we are from 21’st century Michigan, not 3’rd century England”(Monty Python Reference).  

“Whatevs, we must save Cleo!”  We packed our bags with food, water, and other various necessities.  

“Waaait a sec”  I said.  Shouldn’t we just go in the ship and use the tracker to find her?  I suggested.  

“No, it is more heroic to do this”.  Said Taco.

So we headed out of the vacation house and looked around.  We saw no sign of life.  I walked forward and saw a rock with some carvings on it.  It showed a war with lasers and space ships.  But what surprised me the most was the dirt raining from the sky.  I looked at the stalagmites sticking up from the ground.  I walked over to one.  It was made of metal.  It wasn’t a stalagmite, it was a spire to an underground skyscraper!  I looked at the rock.  the dirt and rock falling.  I realised it was the apocalypse for this planet.  It had been covered with the dirt and rock covering all of the cities and villages.  Something rushed past me with super-human speed.  

“Who’s there?”  I said.  Something moved behind me.  I turned quickly, but nothing was there.  I then remembered I was with Taco.  

“Taco, you okay?”

“Oh, I am okay.  This is the best i’ve felt in centuries!”  I heard a demonic voice say.  I looked towards him.  It was Taco, but something was wrong.  His eyes were blood red, his skin was a dark shade of purple.  “Oh, don’t be afraid Maizie, I am only taking your friend’s body, and I wouldn’t suggest hurting me, because that would hurt Taco, and I would just escape into some place on the other side of the world.  The reason I am here is to give you information.  I mean you no harm,”  At the sound of this, my body relaxed.  “Cleo has been captured by a galacticore, the most evil and dangerous species in the universe.  They are ruthless cannibals who can’t help but take any living thing back to their planet.  They are also the smartest species in the universe, and they are working on two things that no one else has:  Teleportation, and time travel.  They have tough hides that even the strongest laser cannot pierce.  the only way to kill them is by hitting their tiny eyes, but they always wear goggles which only a stupendo-laser, the most powerful laser in the universe, can destroy.  They live on the planet galacticourse.  My goodness, look at the time!  I really must be going.  I hope my information is helpful.  Goodbye!”  The color in Taco’s face and eyes went back to normal.  I stood there in shock.  

“Ugh, what happened?  I felt as if I left my body,”  Taco said as he looked up at me.  “Maizie?  Is something wrong?”

“Oh, something is terribly terribly wrong,”  I told him about my conversation with the… Thing.  

“So Cleo’s been captured by a so called galacticore?  The evilest, smartest, and most dangerous being in the universe?  This is bad, real bad.  worse than the Bad News Bears, worse than Sir Alex Ferguson leaving Manchester United, worse than a television in the 1950’s.  Maizie, this is not good at all.

 

We went back to the hut.  We packed our things and set off.  We then realised that we didn’t know where Galacticourse was, for it hadn’t been discovered yet.  We set off towards the undiscovered area of space.  We saw a spaceship that was not from earth.  We flew towards it.  We requested a video call to their ship and they answered.  A yellow skinned being in blue kingly robes came on the screen

“Hello, I have never seen your type before.  What is your species?”

“I am a human, and this is a cat,”  said Taco.

“What’s a human and what’s a cat?”

“We are from planet Earth.  Humans just started space travel, so we don’t know much.” I said.

“I see.  My name is Ganondalf the yellow.  I am a Hysterian.  What is your purpose for calling?”

“We want to know if you have seen any galacticores nearby, because my friend Cleo has been stolen.”

“We were attacked, but I don’t know what it was.  We managed to chase it away, and in the window, there was a creature that looked alot like your cat jumping into a portal, so it probably was a galacticore ship,”

“Alright, can you tell us where Galacticourse is?”

“I can’t tell you, for it is hidden very well, but I can board your ship and insert it into your autopilot.  We will have to get to a planet, for our boarding system is broken.  If you just follow us to our home planet, Hysteria, I can get on your ship and add all of the planets missing from your autopilot,”

“Alright, we’ll just follow you,”  said Taco.

We followed Ganondalf and the rest of the Hysterians.  Finally we made it to a blue planet.  We landed, and Ganondalf entered our ship.  “Hello guys, Welcome to Hysteria!”  You can check out some attractions for a little while if you want.  It takes a little while to add planets to autopilot.  We walked outside, but instead of a nice city, there was a portal.  We looked at each other, and jumped in.

 

We ended up inside the white house, except it was a bit different.  There were three creatures.  Two things that I knew were godlings (I had a feeling), and Cleo!

“Cleo!”  I said, but a forcefield appeared between us

Pt. 3

The ending

A puppet lowered from the ceiling, Suddenly the air vent broke and the puppeteer died in the fall (anticlimactic, isn’t it).  It turns out that Cleo was in the Galacticore ship, and she jumped through the portal mentioned by the hysterians.  the Nelsons reunited and everyone lived happily ever after.

The Blue Stone

 

    I woke up to a lot brighter light than I would expect at 7 in the morning. Unless, oh no. I accidentally hit the off button instead of the snooze button on the alarm clock again. I don’t know why I’m recording what happened during this time. At this point I’m probably recording these events so this can be evidence for if my boss strangles me to death for coming in at 10 instead of 8 three times this week. In my defense, I just can’t find any of those schedule alarm clocks that know your schedule and wake you up at the right time for your job. So that means I’m stuck with these antique clocks that switch off if you hit the wrong button when you’re very clearly groggy and unclear of your surroundings. As you may have guessed, this situation has happened many times before and my boss has been getting more and more frustrated each time. At this point it’s just a way of life to get chewed out by my boss for being late.

    Anyways, my name is Harry Iggins and I’m one of many researchers trying to find a way to circumvent the speed of light to make travels across space much quicker; because right now, you have to be put in a state of a sort of hibernation so you don’t die of old age during the trip to some planet or moon hundreds of light-years away. But currently, we have absolutely no idea at all of how to do it. We are lucky enough for the Cosmos Federation to give constant funding to the Lightspeed Research Organization or LRO for short. But right now, as our search is bearing no fruit, the federation which governs almost the entire universe is quickly losing faith and the patience to keep funding us. If we don’t find a big breakthrough soon, everybody who works here will lose their jobs. Not to mention that there’s another company who’s pouring money into their research division so they can finally get to the parts of the universe nobody else has been able to travel to by achieving great enough speeds to get to those galaxies due to them traveling away from us at an incredible speed. If the Onimous corporation ever gets the answer, they’ll make sure that they’re the only ones with the information in order to monopolize the market on commercial space travel.

    So here I am. Stuck as one of hundreds of researchers just scrambling around with absolutely no idea of what to do. As far as we know, there isn’t any way we can possibly do it.

But then I saw something incredible. I was walking home from the lab on planet SP873 which has a very earth-like atmosphere and I was looking up at the sky and at the sunset and saw some small, glowing blue rock hurtling at an insane speed. But immediately after the sun started to go under the horizon, something invisible hit the sidewalk next to me with incredible force. Then the blue object came crashing towards the exact spot where the invisible object crashed. But there was no blast from the blue rock; instead it just stopped. By then the sun had fully set and the street lights turned on. I knew I had to pick it up; but it could be an unstable radioactive isotope. I thought it’d be good to go tell my boss about it and bring him to it. So that’s what I did. I raced back to the lab and knocked on my boss’ antique doorknocker. The door swung open to the very agitated look on his face. He exclaimed in a very grumbly voice, “Iggins?! What on this planet has you knocking on my door after the end of the work day?!”

“Sorry to trouble you sir, but I just saw the most incredible thing!” I said.

My boss then asked,“Alright, where is it?”

To which I replied, “On the sidewalk.”

He responded quickly. “Why didn’t you just take it to me?”

“I was worried it might be radioactive.”

“Oh. Well anyways, let’s go see.” He said in a much more relaxed tone.

So we walked on over to the smashed chunk of sidewalk with the still                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             glowing blue rock in the small crater. I then told my boss the story of it and how mysterious this thing was and how we should run several analysis tests on it. He seemed to believe me and agreed that we should analyze it. But first we had to get some anti-exposure gloves to handle the substance. He told me to stay here and keep watch on the rock-like thing while he went to fetch some gloves. He said someone might try to take it. So I waited, and waited, and waited some more. Once he finally came back with the gloves we decided to have one person see how heavy it was. I then tried to pick it up; it was way too heavy for me to pick up, so my boss tried himself and he was a very big and bulky man, but even he couldn’t pick it up. So he went to go get the heavy lifter exosuit. It was a yellow robotic suit that you wore and it enabled you to pick up things up to 1 ton! When he came back with it on it was able to pick it up and bring it back to the lab. But as we were headed back, I saw out of the corner of my eye three shady figures that seemed to be watching me and my boss. But I thought nothing of it.

As we went to the lab and called everybody in to work an all-nighter, we put the rock on a scale and found out that it weighed one-thousand pounds! In order for that to be true, this thing would have to be incredibly dense for it is only a foot around.

As the other scientists started arriving, each and every one of them asked why it was that they were being called back so late at night. We didn’t say anything; we just pointed toward the blue stone. They just started going on and on about how it was just a blue rock and how it was just something they could find and pick up on the sidewalk. So we asked people to try and pick it up off of the digital scale. For everyone the result was the same; they couldn’t pick it up. They then thought we bolted the rock down as some kind of prank. So my boss then used the HLE (Heavy Lifter Exosuit) to pick it up and there was no sign of any bolts. They then finally believed us. So we started the work. We looked through as many digital archives in stones we could find and there wasn’t anything at all about a stone that matched the description of the one we had. We had to assume that we had discovered a new substance. So we had to see what was inside this thing. but we couldn’t cut open the only one of these we had. So we put it in a thing to analyse it and see what it was made of. While it was in there and we were waiting for the analysis, the security cameras spotted some shady figures headed towards the front door. The system then immediately alerted us to their presence. We looked at the camera feeds and noticed that they had an Onimous co. uniform. They must have been the ones that I thought were watching from a distance. Then there was a loud bang on the door. They yelled to open up for them because they said they were scientists here. But we had done a roll call and everybody was here so we replied that. They then said that they were just transferred here from the SP34 system and they had heard about the all-nighter they were supposed to work. We then replied that we saw their uniforms and we insisted that they go away. We then heard beeping and we all ducked for cover from a time bomb. 3...2…1…beeeeeep and it blew up the door and only a few minutes after, they were walking in and insisted that we hand them the stone. We didn’t budge so they then started to wreck some of our equipment yelling at us to give them the stone. One of us called the police saying that there were three men in here smashing up stuff demanding that we give them a blue stone that we were researching. A few horrific minutes later the robots arrived and they said,“Cease and desist immediately or we will have to use force.” The three men stopped immediately and were calmly arrested and taken away. We were then able to finish the analysis and find out that these rocks were made of super-condensed photons and can travel faster than the speed of light. The next day we submitted the research data and they started to clone the stone and put them in spaceships so they could travel faster than light.

As for the Onimous corporation? They went bankrupt very shortly after the Cosmos Federation started putting out the reliable faster-than-light spaceships. And our lab? We shortly afterwards began searching for a way to improve the stones’ speed. And we lived pretty happy for a long time afterwards.

The End