Super Short Stories

A World Within

A World Within

Sunlight flashed in my eyes as my mother opened my curtains. “Good morning,” she said in her always cheerful voice. I groaned in reply and covered my head with my blanket. “You have to get up. If you don't get up now, you'll be late for school!” she warned me. She went downstairs, knowing that she wouldn't have to warn me a second time. I sighed, threw the covers off of me, and got dressed for school.

Exactly twenty-three minutes later, I hopped on the bus. I sat in my usual seat, the one right across from my best friend, Sara. She was already waiting for me because she got on three stops earlier. “Hey, Melody!” she called over the engine of the bus. Maybe she was a little bit too loud, for everyone turned to stare at her. I laughed at how she didn't even notice their stares, but then I shied away from everyone and moved closer to the window.

“Hey, Sara,” I said, careful with the volume of my voice. I would rather not have the entire bus staring at me. We grinned at each other. I sat back in the seat and relaxed for the rest of the hour long ride to school.

When we arrived at school, we all grabbed our bags and got off the bus. We filed into the school. Sara and I went to our lockers, which were right next to each other. I held her books as she unlocked both of our lockers, our usual routine. She opened hers and took her books from me. I opened my locker slowly, so that the squeaking was not heard all throughout the hallway. I was unfortunate enough to have the worst locker in the entire school.

I looked away from my horrible locker to talk to Sara. She could always take my mind off of subjects that I'd rather not think about. I felt a breeze blow on me. It felt like a draft. I thought that maybe someone had opened a door. I looked around to see where the wind was coming from. I couldn't see any possibility for the source of the wind. I turned back to my locker and was surprised when I saw that there were no books in my locker. There was actually nothing in my locker, nothing except blackness.

I peered into my locker, wanting a closer look. I felt I needed to satisfy my naturally curious nature. I glanced back at Sara, wondering if she saw what I did. She obviously didn't because she was still talking a mile a minute. She didn't even notice that I was no longer listening to her. I ignored the fact that I couldn't see into my locker and started placing my books inside anyway. Inside my locker was freezing. I could have sworn that my hand would get frostbite after a few minutes of that. Regardless of what I thought, I continued unloading my books.

I suddenly felt myself slipping away from my locker, away from the school, and away from Sara. I felt like screaming, but when I tried, no sound escaped. I felt I was suffocating. I was drawn in closer and closer to the locker. I was positive that it was the absolute worst locker in the school now. The locker pulled me closer still and soon I was within the locker itself.

There was total darkness at first, like I had expected, but soon everything was bright. I shielded my eyes to avoid going blind. Soon, I removed my hands from my face, in order to see what exactly had happened to me.

I was astounded by my surroundings. This was definitely not my school. This place was incredible. It was an entire world within my locker and I hadn't even known that it existed. I tried to wrap my head around the idea.

There were many trees and in each tree was a very intricate house. These were not your typical tree houses made by children; these were much more extreme. There was even one that looked like a palace in the middle. All of the tree houses were interconnected by the tree branches so it seemed easy to walk back and forth between houses. It seemed easy, but it probably wasn't.

I walked around to the side of a tree and saw a little rope elevator. I used it to haul myself up the tree. I was now standing in front of the palace. I walked up to it and knocked on the door. It swung open, seemingly opening itself. I stepped inside, ignoring the eerie feeling I was getting when I thought about how exactly the door opened. It was just the wind, I tried to convince myself. There was no part of me that believed the lie.

There was an empty room before me. There weren't even any pictures on the walls. The walls were painted a pale pink, but the paint was peeling. The room seemed almost like a lobby that you would see in a nice hotel. I saw corridors off to the side, so I headed towards one. A boy ran out in front of me. I stopped in my tracks, so that I wouldn't run into him. “Oh, I'm sorry!” the boy said. He then stared me down. “You need to see our leader,” he announced to me. I followed him to the passage to the left.

I was stared down by a face that looked exactly like mine when we entered the next room. “What?” I asked. I was dumbfounded. I had thought I was looking into a mirror, but that wasn't so. This was a live person in front of me. I didn't understand how we looked so alike, because my older sister and I don't even look this much like each other.

“We are twins,” the girl said, “I was kidnapped when we were just born. I was brought here to be their queen. Not a bad life if you ask me.”

I was staring at her, motionless. I was very uncertain about her story. It seemed just like a story my imagination would make up. “Uh huh,” I said, letting her know I didn't believe a single word she spoke.

“It's true. Really, it is, Melody,” she said. Her voice betrayed her and told me that she was desperate for me to believe her.

“How do you know my name?” I asked her, terrified all of a sudden.

“I told you already; we are twins. My name is Melanie,” she replied.

My head was spinning by this point. “I want to go home now,” I told my “twin.” I still didn't buy her story.

“Okay, well, we aren't exactly sure how to get you home. But you are welcome to stay in the guest room while we figure it out!” she exclaimed. Her voice seemed sickly sweet.

“Fine,” I grumbled. My voice seemed the exact opposite of her sweet one, “Where is it?” She pointed to a door in the front of the room. I dragged myself over to the door and opened it.

I flung myself on the small bed. I waited a few minutes, then I allowed myself to get a look at my surroundings. There were a few pictures on the wall and a window. There was a small mirror on the dresser. I got up and walked over to it. It looked like the frame was entirely made of gold. I picked it up, ignoring the paper that fell to the ground. It was a warning. If I would have read the paper, chaos could have been avoided.

The paper was handwritten and it read,“This mirror has a magical property. It can be used for great good, if the wielder of its magic knows what they're doing. If they don't know what they're doing, the magic can be used for great destruction. This magical mirror can reflect the sun's rays and can be used to catch fire to any kind of material. Use it wisely.”

I took the mirror over to the window and held it in the sun, so that I could see it better. It shimmered and glowed.

Suddenly, the sunlight reflected off of the mirror hit a wall. The wall instantly burst into flames. I jumped back as my first instinct. My second instinct was to drop the mirror. When it crashed to the ground, the mirror smashed into, what seemed, a million pieces. I looked to the doorway and ran towards it. Soon the flames engulfed the bed and blocked the doorway. I was trapped inside a room that was burning fast. There was no way I could make it out of this alive, unless I dared to jump out the window, which wasn't really an option for me because of my fear of heights.

“Hey, Melody! Earth to Melody!” I heard. The voice was eerily familiar, but I couldn't remember where I had heard it before. Suddenly it hit me; it was Sara's voice. “Are you okay? You just zoned out,” she said.

“Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine,” I said, taking very necessary deep breaths, “I was just daydreaming.” Thank goodness, I thought.