An Illustrated Novel! || Ivy Rochester accidentally falls into a portal that takes her 1,000 years into an alternate future. Getting back is the least of her worries.
12-year-old Ivy Rochester stumbles on a fluorescent lightbulb...and somehow finds...
Ivy rushed over to the glowing circle, her eyes squinting against its bright lights.
Inside, she could see a familiar room, filled with machinery and equipment. "Uncle Taner's lab!" she exclaimed with a grin. She leaned side to side, trying to get a better view of the room. It appeared to be empty.
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She tried to stick her hand inside to check if it worked. The hand hit a solid surface.
"Figures," Ivy said as she ran back to the screen.
"What is that?" Eloise said, creeping closer to the portal.
"Uhm...a time portal?" Ivy said. Here we go...
"A what?" Eloise exclaimed.
"It's...kinda where I got these clothes from..." Ivy reluctantly said.
"Hold on, this is... What??"
"I know, it's kinda crazy. Long story."
"Wait, so you're saying you got these clothes from that time portal? When?"
"...Yesterday during chemistry class?"
Eloise stared between Ivy's outfit and the portal. "If I weren't seeing all of this," she said, "I would have thought that you were lying to me."
Ivy helplessly shrugged. "I couldn't believe it either!"
"So...how far into the future is that?"
"Do you really want to know?"
"I mean, yes?"
"Oh," Ivy said. She had hoped that Eloise would stop the line of conversation somehow. "It's more than 100 years, that's for sure."
Eloise watched Ivy expectantly.
"A thousand years," she finally said.
"For real?" Eloise exclaimed, hurrying to the portal to take a peek inside. "How long did you go there??"
"It was only about a day if it was even that much," she said. "And I got transported back to the same time that I had left initially."
"Woah..." Eloise peered at Ivy, who was deliberating with the holographic menu. "What are you looking at, anyways?"
"A holographic menu."
"That's so cool!"
"Right?" Ivy exclaimed. She caught herself. "Ahem. Anyways, I'm trying to figure out what to do with this menu. There's only Home, Stats, and Diagnostics, and I've already tried Stats and Diagnostics."
"And what happened to those?"
"Nothing."
"Oh," Eloise said, thoughtfully looking at the portal. "So, are you trying to get back to the future, then?"
"Yeah...I have a couple of loose strings to tie off...and then some."
Eloise looked as if she wanted to ask more, but stopped herself. "Um, so...what happens when you press the Home button, then?" she asked.
"I can't say...just a bunch of diagrams and 3022..."
"So a thousand years in the future is on that screen?"
"Right."
"So...maybe the clothes are trying to take you 'home'? Or to its home, at least."
"You know what...Eloise, you're a genius."
Eloise merely shrugged. "Is there anything else?" she asked.
"No, just a 'Read More' and <Deny> button."
"I wonder what it'll tell you if it reads more?" she mused. "Ooh, I hope I'll get to go with you this time around!"
"You should be able to!" Ivy cheerful said as she pressed "Read more".
The holographic screen disappeared.
"Huh?" Ivy said, looking around. "Where did it go?"
Ivy was met by silence.
She looked around.
"Eloise?" she said, suddenly realizing she was alone in the room. The portal was larger than before, but Eloise was nowhere to be found. "Oh...oh, no." Ivy groaned, running to the portal, which had grown to be taller than her. The room inside it, however, had shifted into another room and space. Wait. Isn't that the school storage room? But where's Eloise? she thought in confusion. She stuck a hand out.
It hit a solid surface.
"If that's the school in there..." she said, slowly backing away from the portal, "then where am I?"
Ivy turned around and looked in the room she was in.
It was a blank room, with nothing but four plain walls and a few crates in the corner of the room. She couldn't see any door.
"What?" she slowly said, approaching the boxes. "Why are these things alone in this room?"
Ivy crouched by them and looked at the label.
HIGHLY VOLATILE. HANDLE WITH CARE.
"Hm..." Ivy said, trying to find any other labels on the crates. She couldn't.
Growing tired of the crates, Ivy got up, walking around the perimeter of the room in thought. As she passed a section, however, the wall shuddered and slid open to reveal a door. This space looks familiar... she thought as she entered the area.
The wall directly across from her was a large window, overlay with a transparent screen that tracked each speeding machine outside as they zipped on their invisible tracks. In the center of the room was a large column, surrounded by numerous holographic screens. And in front of one of the screens, with his back turned to Ivy, was Uncle Taner, busily typing away at something on it.
This is his first lab! she thought, her face brightening with recognition. She stepped forward, about to say something, then paused. I wonder how much time has passed? Would he even remember me? Or maybe he hasn't met me yet, and I'm too early!
Those thoughts soon vanished as Uncle Taner abruptly turned around, rubbing his jaw and stretching his back. "Ahhh," he yawned, his mouth stretched wide and his eyes tightly shut. He opened his eyes as he deeply sighed, first placidly looking at the open door that Ivy had entered from, then slowly at Ivy.
