Empêchement

Only Noon

Once I had accepted the house Season had offered to me, she showed me around.

The house had three stories including the attic. The attic door –which was a square hole in the ceiling of the third floor with a gate over it—was locked, but for a good reason.

In the attic, Season had hidden several modern knick-knacks. They were all small or could be fit into a pocket or a small bag.

She had modern-day blankets, books, drawings, and a battery-powered CD player with CDs scattered under it. There was a battery powered lamp for late night reading and modern colored pencils with coloring books and mechanical pencils with college ruled notebooks.

She had puzzles, art supplies and a box with hot wheels in it. She also somehow managed to smuggle a wardrobe's worth of modern clothing.

When she was done telling me about all of this stuff, she turned around and looked at me with urgency and sadness. "I had decided that if I couldn't find anyone willing to take this house, I would burn it. I couldn't risk any of these people finding things that haven't even been invented yet." She paused, letting me take in what she said. "And now that this house is yours when the jackass who started this war is dead, or you can't find someone to pass this on to, you need to burn it."

I looked at her in horror. This attic was filled with hundreds of dollars in modern stuff. I would have to burn music and books, pens and pencils. I knew it was necessary, but the whole idea was horrifying to me. Not to mention the amount of danger I would potentially put everyone else in this neighborhood in. However, I knew she was right, so I sucked it up. "Alright. I-I can do that." I told her hesitantly. The moment I accepted the house, I accepted any of the responsibility that came with the home. I think instead of burning this, I'm gonna smuggle everything back.

After that, Season declared that it was time to go and she locked up the attic and the front door.

On our way back, I nearly tripped in the mud twice. Season laughed both times and told me that I would get used to walking in the slippery mixture.

When we got to the MPD's shop, I realized that we were both tracking mud all over the store. The hem of my skirt was caked in the awful substance as well.

I tried my hardest to stomp all the mud off my shoes as we walked, but when Season noticed she laughed. "It's not gonna work, Ena. You have to just let it happen."

I glared at the mess we were leaving as we walked up the stairs. "That doesn't mean I have to like it." We passed through the second floor, and up the next flight of stairs to The Arrival Room. I looked around, realizing that there was no portal here. "So, if there is no massive ass portal in here, how are we supposed to get home? How does that work?"

"Not sure about the science part, but the wall we came out of is an illusion. The wall is actually there, but when The Portal is on, you can walk through the wall."

"Like in Harry Potter," I mumbled, staring at the wall. I didn't want to go through The Portal again, but Season had told me it got easier each time you went through.

Despite the trauma that still lingered from earlier, my desire to go home was stronger than my desire to not have to experience The Portal again. It was so messy here, and I needed to get away from the filth.

So, I put on my big girl panties and prepared myself.

"Alright," Season started, "You're going to run right at this wall. Do not stop until you're on the other side, and take a deep breath before you enter it."

I furrowed my eyebrows and looked at her. Why didn't she tell me this before I went in the first time? But she was already running towards the wall. I half expected her to hit it, but like magic, went through it with ease.