a l t e r n a t e

“C’mon, its obvious you’re avoiding it,” the green-eyed boy chuckles, leaning against a large tree, pieces of bark finding their way into his unkempt hair. “Shut up, I already told you, Kai. I don’t even�",” Jaxon rolls his eyes.

“You must be in the denial stage, buddy,” Danielle walks up from where the other two friends, Liam and Yua, were sitting on a pile of leaves. The five were at their usual joint, the one they had used since the fifth grade, as a group, individually, or just a few of the five. “Shut the hell up,” Jaxon says, exasperated yet used to the other’s usual mocking.

Kai pushes himself of the bark, running his hand through his hair to remove the small brown wood from his hair.

Liam watched from afar, Yua texting her dad to let her stay out late. As Liam turned away, he spotted a large hole in the floor next to the others standing near the tree.

He points to the hole. “Was that manhole-thingy always there..?” he asks in his usual gentle tone, turning to Yua. Yualooks up from her phone, seemingly a bit annoyed, assumably at her dad. She glances to where Liam had pointed. “no, I don’t think so�"” her expression turns panicked. “Crap, Kai’s about to walk right into it! Kai!”

The others look at Liam and Yua, deliberate about what she was yelling at kai for.

“What is it, you litt-” Kai’s words are cut off by the piercing sound of his shoe squeaking, before the gaping, seemingly endless hole in the dirt engulfs him completely, an echoes yell fading before it can no longer be heard.

The group is left in silence for a few moments, before crowding over the pothole.

“I tried to warn that dumbass,” Yua mumbles, staring into the abyss of the hole.

“Where did that come from anyways?” Danielle yells, angered, yet more than usual.

“I have absolutely no idea, but we’ve gotta help him!” Jaxon says, preparing to jump in himself.

“Jax, don’t!” Liam speaks up, worriedly. He attempts to grab Jaxon by his shirt, but the action was belated. Jaxon had fallen as well, voluntarily. The three watch Jaxon’s tanned figure dwindle, and it doesn’t take long for Yua to go after him, too fast for the other two to comprehend.

Liam and Danielle look up at each other in disbelief.

“Are we the only two sensible ones here?” Danielle yells. Liam stands up, wiping off his pants.

" Most likely,” Liam chuckles in incredulity.

Danielle scoffs, coming to her feet as well before kicking a rock, the granite skipping across dusty, drained dirt. “Stupid pothole,” she says, her voice cracking slightly.

Liam looks up at Danielle, seeing her eyes faintly glimmering with tears. He rubs his pale fingers on the temple of his metallic glasses, looking at her empathetically.

“Hey, it’ll be okay,” he walks up to her, careful of the pothole that had swallowed his friends whole.

“No, it won’t!” Danielle yells, her eyes blazing with frustration. She clenches her fists at her sides, the already sad tension in the air crackling like electricity.

Liam flinches a bit at her outburst, trying not to crack himself. He takes a deep breath, his heart racing, and forces a calmness he doesn’t feel.

“I’ll just call the police, it will be fine, they’ll get them out,” Liam reaches into his pocket, and pulls out his phone, his hands shaking slightly.

“Did you see how deep that�"thing is?” she continues, her voice lowering, tinged with an understandable vexation “They’ve probably already fallen to their death!”

“Just try to stay calm, Dani, please,” Liam says, dialing services as he brushes a fallen leaf off his sweater with the other hand.

Danielle crosses her arms, looking down and into the hole, seemingly contemplating something. Sounds of Liam Addressing a dispatcher seemed to fade into the far distance to Danielle. Danielle lets out a short, melancholy laugh before taking a step closer to the pothole and giving in.

Liam had been fidgeting with his sweater as he informed the dispatcher. After hearing a scrape, he looked up. It was a normal forest, except for one thing. Danielle wasn’t visible.

“Dani?” he calls out, panicked.

“sir, what has happ-”

“Danielle Clarke!” he yells again, internally longing for a response. his eyes wander around the wooded area before landing on the pothole.

“Oh my days�"” he throws his phone onto the floor, running to the pothole.

Great, now I feel pressured,

He bounces his leg on the floor, studying his options as his breathing gets progressively faster.

It was simple, really�" jump or don’t jump. Liam wanted to be his usual,circumspect self, but for some reason, a reason that he tried to fight back, in that moment, his heart objected.

He lunges in, the world he knew traveling farther and farther away in distance from him, the dim skylight fading, disintegrating against the darkness taking over.

Sure not a normal manhole.

“Why did I do that?” he shrieks as he falls further down what felt to him, a never-ending tunnel colored with darkness. Liam clutches the sleeves of his sweater, his main life goal at the moment not to have a full-blown panic attack on the spot. He closes his eyes tightly, blocking out all noise.

Thud

“Liam!” a familiar voice yells, patently relived, happy. Kai.

Liam was lying on a small, spiky grass hill, surrounded by the other four. But something was unusual�"not just the strange lavender hue shining down on the group from the sky, but also the fact that wherever they were seemed to be an exact copy of their town.

“You came, huh? Surprising…” Yua says.

“Where are we?” Liam stutters out, looking at the eerily familiar soundings.

Kai looks serious. “Seems like our town’s twin. Except,” he points to the lavender sky, and everyone looks up. “For that.”

Everyone nods in agreement, and Liam stands up. Jaxon scratches him head. “anyone have an idea of how to, y’know, get back home?”

Danielle looks at Jaxon, annoyed. “ Jax, I knew you were dumb, but that was probably the stupidest question you’ve ever asked. Has this place turned your brains into mush or something?”

Jaxon puts his hands up in mock defensiveness, he was the joking type. “Hey, what was I supposed to say? Lets explore and live here or some s**t?”

Yua’s eyes brighten slightly. “Wait, that’s actually a good idea!”

“What, living here? I’m kind of agreeing with Danielle on this one, sorry guys…”

“No, not living here, looking around. Maybe someone could help us!”

The others nod.

“I guess we don’t have anything better to do,” Kai cracks his familiar smile, much to some others annoyance.