Reality Check

Lost In Time

Like Ivy (by Dayglow)

"Am I inside some strange simulation? What in tarnation is going on? I get the feeling I'm participating in a demonstration, they're just playing along . . ."

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It was in the dark of night, hidden by a fort of blankets, where Bethany rested Pick The Plot on her lap. With the light of a flashlight, a glow illuminated off of the book, causing the words to look like they would jump out at her. This would be a long, long night of reading.

Opening the first page, the first nine words were: "Owen wanted to scream at the horror before him."

Thrilled, Bethany began to read.

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Pick The Plot (Chapter One)

Owen wanted to scream at the horror before him. But he found himself unable to form more than a terrified squeak.

Air rushed up against him as he fell through the sky, a blur of green trees racing past him. And then, as he got closer to the ground, he did scream. He screamed the whole way, falling through large leaves and branches. He expected that once he hit the ground, that'd be that. The end of everything , just like the title of the sixth Kiel Gnomenfoot book. Surprise filled him once his back collided harmlessly with the solid earth, and only then did the scream die in his throat.

He blinked a few times, and it took him several seconds to realize that he wasn't in Nobody's prison anymore. No white nothingness, no gigantic comic book, and no faceless man in sight. That wasn't good. Not at all. Only a minute ago, Owen recalled, Nobody had been pushing him into the pages of a book. And he'd fallen down from the sky, landing (thankfully, without a scratch) on the dirt.

Wait, the dirt?

Owen slowly climbed to his feet, and the realization settled in that he was outside. But as someone who was accustomed to the manicured lawns, asphalt roads, and suburban houses that occupied his town in the real world, this was incredibly different. Everywhere he looked was a sea of green, filled with twisting vines and streams, and more trees and plants than he could count. The air was saturated with humidity, a drowsy heat hanging in the still air. Sunlight was strewn across the greenery, shining down from in-between the tall, leafy trees.

A jungle . Whatever version of Pick The Plot that Nobody had placed him in, Owen was in a jungle.

WHAT PATH WOULD YOU LIKE FOR OWEN?

Dinosaur attack.Fall into quicksand.Obtain poison ivy.

Dinosaur attack! A sudden thought banged around Owen's head, intense enough to give him a headache. He winced, lifting a hand to his forehead. Since when were thoughts painful? And why had he thought 'dinosaur attack' when there weren't any—

A roar echoed across the jungle. Owen jumped five feet in the air, his heart rate speeding up quite quickly at the sound. What was that ? It couldn't be good news. With the bad chain of events he'd recently gone through, Owen wasn't very surprised that another bad thing was coming his way. Just his luck!

First getting separated from his friends in Jupiter City, then trying and failing to fight Nobody, and — up until a few minutes ago — getting thrown into a Pick The Plot book. He should never have asked Charm to give him powers. All because he wanted to have abilities like The Flash! His best friend was right – it had been a crazy idea. But in Owen's defense, he hadn't known he'd end up, well . . . in a jungle filled with whatever-had-just-roared.

He remembered something about dinosaurs . . . Nobody telling him that dinosaurs would be here. Since he'd been trying to get away from him, Owen had forgotten all about it. Of course, until now. And while he used to adore dinosaurs when he was younger, seeing a dinosaur now didn't seem so cool– not when he was trapped inside a book with them. And although he really, really hoped otherwise, he doubted Nobody would put him in a book that had friendly dinosaurs.