The Adventures of Captain Riversong Woods, Into the Unknown!

I woke up.

And immediately, I started to pack.

It wasn't that I didn't like my life. I had an ordinary, albeit slightly abnormal family, a good network of friends, and school was pretty good for me.

But I needed more.

My dreams, known for sometimes “telling the future” as my friends liked to put it, told me I needed more.

My dream was too vivid to be anything but the future.

I was in space, I was underground, I was in the ocean. Or at least what I thought was space, underground, and the ocean.

It was like nothing I'd ever experienced. I kept moving from place to place.

There were 5 of us. One looked older than the rest of us. Possibly in his 20s, but very quite possibly into his 3rd or 4th millenia.

He was like a teacher, and us his students, apprentices.

I knew that that's where I had to be. It was destiny.

In my suitcase, I had 5 pairs of pants, 2 pairs of shorts, 10 shirts, 3 skirts, 3 dresses, my iPod touch and a solar charger, 2 notebooks and about 10 pens and pencils. My toiletries were stuffed into a a little bag, and I put some jewelery on the side. I quickly stuffed down two pairs of shoes, boots and some high heels before I put on my own Converse. I then put my Cubs hat on, heading downstairs with my luggage.

My parents were seated at the breakfast table, my mom sipping earl grey tea, my dad his black coffee while he read the sports section.

I cleared my throat. Both heads turned to me, puzzled.

“Er, River? What are you doing with that large suitcase?” My dad pressed.

“Mom? Dad? I'm headed on a journey. I don't know where, it doesn't look like Earth, and I probably won't be able to contact you just yet. But I need you to trust that I am making the right decision.”

Their eyes bulged at the exact same time.

Funny how two people so in love with each other can synchronize their reactions, their thoughts, their souls. My parents were that kind of couple. They never grew tired of each other. They might squabble from time to time, but they never got into any serious arguments.

My dad rose. “WHAT? Are you running away? What about school? You know, you're practically a shoe-in for the creative writing program over at the University of Chicago. Why would you want to throw any of that away? Have we been bad parents? You were always such a good kid, you really don't want to do this...” He paced, apparently stressed by my sudden decision.

My mom continued sipping her tea, then turned to me.

“So you had the dream?”

I nodded. She, besides my two best friends and my hamster, was the only one who knew about the dreams. Though sporadic, and even though I could never tell when they would happen, I knew all too well with this one.

My dad sat, dumbfounded.

“What are you and River talking about, Lily?”

My mom started to explain to my dad that she and I came from a long line of those able to see beyond just this world. We knew of different dimensions, where time and space moved at its own pace, completely separate from the human world. Where different creatures and beings existed, different races.

A whole universe we knew existed, but never knew of what it existed.

My parents hugged me good-bye. They decided to tell everyone that I was spending some time with my family over in Europe, in a small village where I couldn't use the internet, or write letters due to high postage costs.

Lame, I know. But it was all we could think of before I had to leave.

I sat on my upright-positioned suitcase, waiting for destiny to happen.

Suddenly, a hole opened up in the ground, creating a staircase to the unknown.

Not looking back, I began to descend.

***

Hey! Alice Charming here! Just wondering what you all think so far! Should I continue? Or should I just drop it and write some zombie-apocalypse story?

Or maybe both! Mwahahahaha.