Chapter 1

“As you can see here, the author is trying to symbolize the significance of-” I tuned out of Mr. Fitz’ discussion. We’d talked about this so many times before. I felt no need to do it again. Aside from the fact that Mr. Fitz was annoying me more than usual, I felt weird; different. He continued to talk about the symbolism in the book in which nobody had wanted to read. I tried to tune back into the conversation, but found it gradually harder. I felt dizzy and weak. Something was definitely not right. I tried to stand up to walk to the health room, but never made it farther than a few feet. I only remember falling, and the blackness swallowed me until I could see nothing more of the dull classroom.

~~~

I was in the darkness again. My head was heavy and my heart rate was slow. I found myself lying on a cold floor, alone. I could see nothing, and yet I knew that I was nowhere near home.

“So, Lindy Waters. It looks like you finally decided to show up.” I was startled at the suddenness of the voice. It was low and soft.

“Who are you?” I said quietly, hoping that I would get no reply; that I was just making the entire situation up. My pleas were unsuccessful.

“It would give away the illusion if I told you. What would be the fun in that?”

“What do you want with me?” I said as strong as I possibly could. I shook with the fear that overtook me. There was no way that I could hide it.

“You have to decide for yourself. You brought yourself here. This is just the beginning of the long journey ahead; you haven’t even started yet.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean,” the voice said slowly, almost annoyed. “That you need to choose your ending. Everything you do will ultimately decide your fate. Choose wisely.” The voice had stopped speaking. I could hear nothing more; not even breathing. I was alone again. None of this had made sense.

~~~

I heard the whisperings of people around me. When I could finally see enough, I could see six blurry faces around me.

“Thank god, you’re awake.” Mr. Fitz said. “It would have been a mess to fill out a medical absence form.” I heard him mumble as he walked away from me. When my eyes fully adjusted, I could see where I was: the health room. As the nurses examined me, I heard a voice come through the doorway. It was Hayden.

“Let me in, please!” I heard him yell at Mr. Fitz. He ran to my side and took my hand.

“Are you okay?” I felt weak, but I wanted to lie to him to settle his worries.

“I just want to go home.” I said quietly. I looked into his eyes. I really did want to go home.

“What happened?” He asked.

“She collapsed during class. Got up to walk to the door and didn’t make it. Hit her head pretty hard.” Mr. Fitz said. “Had me worried to death, kid.” I looked at the clock, but couldn’t see the numbers. Everything was still too foggy.

“How long was I out?” I asked quietly.

“About 20 minutes.” Fitz said. It had passed so quickly. I wanted to tell them what I’d seen, but then they would never let me leave. Maybe it was all made up in my mind.

“If you’re up to it,” the youngest nurse said, “we can send you home now, but-” she said as she looked at Hayden. “You have to go straight to bed. Nothing more than rest. Understood?” Hayden smiled. The blanket that was wrapped around my still-trembling body was removed and I was slowly helped to my feet. I grabbed onto Hayden’s arm for support. As I took a few steps, I felt pain in my head; horrible shooting pain. I gasped suddenly for air, trying to make the pain go away.

“Lindy, are you okay?” Hayden asked. I shook my head in horror. Something was definitely not right here. He and one of the nurses sat me in the corner on the floor and I was told to place my head between my knees. I took deeper breaths as the pain subsided, and eventually I felt okay enough to stand up and attempt to make it to the car. I had gotten about five feet before my nose started to bleed worse than it had ever bled before.

~~~

I sat in the dark again, only this time, I could see the outlines of doors. I grabbed the nearest wall for support and stood up, afraid of what would happen. Nothing came; no pain; no blood; nothing.

I walked to the doors and saw the letter ‘A’ on one and ‘B’ on the other. I grabbed the crystal knob on ‘A’ and walked in.

“Welcome,” I heard a voice say. “To your first reality. Observe, and when you are through, enter door ‘B’.” I heard nothing more, and walked through a hallway with empty picture frames. I walked until I reached the end of the hallway and walked through yet another door. Inside it was strangely bright. I had to squint until my eyes had the chance to adjust. At first, I saw nothing. As I walked more into the light, I saw objects appearing. The farther I walked, the more things appeared, until I was surrounded by a scene. I was elsewhere. I heard soft footsteps behind me. I turned to see a little girl with curly red hair and blue eyes, wearing a dress that I’d worn many times when I was growing up.

“What’s your name?” I asked her. She didn’t respond. She didn’t even look at me.

“Lindy,” a voice said behind me. I turned around to see who was addressing me. The little girl turned too. Though she was standing behind me, she never looked around me to see who was talking. I looked to the man who’d called my name; it was my father.

“Come here, sweetheart.” he said quietly. I walked slowly to him. He crouched to the ground and held out his arms. I didn’t understand. What was he doing? The little girl ran to him. She ran right through me, as if I weren’t even there. She jumped into his arms, smiling. He did not smile, however. He clenched her tightly and continued to frown.

“Lindy,” he said. I was looking at myself and my father. I must’ve been about four. “Lindy, we have to leave our home. We have no more money to keep it anymore.” I looked at myself, just a small child, beginning to cry. I watched myself hug my father tighter and tighter, and soon everything started to disappear; the light began to fade, and I was standing yet again outside of the two doors.  

“What is this place?” I asked, hoping for a reply from something.

“I’ve told you. These are your realities. You will be given different scenarios in either of these lives, until I’ve decided that you’ve had enough time to choose. You will then tell me which life you’d like to live, and everything about your life will either change, or stay exactly the same. It’s like a butterfly effect. Your choices affect your life.” It paused, and I sat in the dark for some time before I heard anything else. “You cannot interact with yourself or others in these realities. You are not actually there at this point in time; nothing but a speck of dust in their world.”

“Now, if you would please enter ‘B’, we could get this moving a little quicker, and you can go back to your life until I summon you again.” I walked toward the door, my hands shaking. I grabbed the bronze knob and turned it. Again, I was taken to a hallway with empty picture frames. This time, I counted them; 15. I didn’t know what they were for, but I had a feeling that I would need to know how many there were.

I reached the final door and walked through and was blinded by the same light. This time I was surrounded by things you would find in a bedroom. This bedroom was very large, and was filled with luxurious things that only millionaires would be able to afford. I walked over to a desk, directly in front of the largest window in the room. The outside was just as large as I’d thought, and perfectly maintained.

A door closed behind me. I turned around to see myself, about age nine, walking to the desk and immediately pulling out sketchpads and charcoal pencils. In this reality, not much had changed with my personality. I’d always loved to draw. I sat in the window ledge and watched myself until I heard other footsteps enter the room. It was my father and my mother, polished to perfection, with their fancy clothes and shoes.

Definitely not anything like my home. We’d recently lost everything. We were poor, and the only place that I felt like I wasn’t any worse than the others was at school. At least there I could pretend that nothing was wrong at home.

I sat and watched the three converse until I was pulled back into the room with the doors. The dark was disorienting, and I sat blinking, waiting for my eyes to adjust.

“Now you’ve had a taste of what you’ll experience later. For now, go back to your own life, and think about what you’ve seen. You’ll have to remember it for the future.”

I sat up, in my own bed. Hayden was in the chair next to me. Either something was very wrong here, or I’d hit my head harder than I thought.