The Author

Chapter Two

Alice pulled her apartment key out of her purse with a shaking hand. She wanted nothing more than to change into dry clothes, relax and try to make sense of everything she had experienced. Unfortunately her key did not seem to fit the lock. The sound of her key in the lock alerted someone inside of her presence and the door swung open violently. A large man with black curly hair and a stained tank top stood facing her.

“What do you think you’re doin’?” he growled.

Alice thought quickly. She didn’t recognize the man and the section of the apartment she could see behind him had completely different furnishings from her own.

“Sorry! Wrong apartment,” she replied breathlessly.

The man grunted and closed the door. But the number on the door was indeed hers. She was not mistaken. What had happened? It was as though she had never lived there. As she walked away, she took out her cell phone to call her best friend and ask to stay the night, but it was showing “no service.” When she dialed anyway, her call failed to go through. She found the nearest pay phone and dialed her friend’s number again. The voice on the other end of the line was unmistakably that of her friend.

“Shelley? Hi, I really need your help.”

“Who is this?” Shelley responded suspiciously.

“It’s me! It’s Alice!”

“I’m sorry, you must have the wrong number. I don’t know anyone named Alice.”

“Shelley, don’t joke around. This is serious.” Alice was beginning to worry.

“I’m not the person you’re looking for.” Shelley hung up.

By this time, Alice’s shoes and jeans were soaked through. Only her top half remained dry thanks to her umbrella, but the wind was picking up and the umbrella was becoming difficult to hold. The cold was also beginning to settle in, and so Alice ran quickly through her short list of options, which consisted of finding a park bench and hoping she wouldn’t get arrested for vagrancy. But the cold and the rain ruled that out. Then the thought struck her. “I’ll get a hotel room.” She looked up the nearest one in the phonebook and set off.

Twenty minutes later, her teeth chattering as she watched her breath hang like a cloud in the air, Alice stood in front of a very fancy hotel. She most certainly couldn’t afford it, but she had her credit card which she carried for just such emergencies. Next to the hotel, she saw a clothing store. The thought of spending the night in drenched clothes did not appeal to her so she went inside the shop. Like the hotel, the clothes in this store were very expensive, but she needed dry things to wear. She found the cheapest items on clearance that would fit her and brought them to the register.

“Hello,” said the tall, slender woman at the register in syrupy sweet tones. When she properly looked at Alice, the expression that formed on her face betrayed the fact that most of her clientele must have the money to afford transport and stay out of the rain. The slightly aloof, slightly disgusted expression remained on her face as she rang up the sales and took the credit card that Alice held out to her.

“I’m sorry. Your card was declined.” The snobbish woman slid the card over the marbled counter toward Alice looking smug.

“What? That’s impossible,” a phrase I’ve been saying a lot lately, Alice thought.

“It was declined, there’s nothing I can do.”

Alice took her card and left. She felt as though she had just fallen flat on her back she was so out of breath. Her life was disappearing before her eyes. With no way of paying for a hotel room, Alice instinctively began making her way toward the library. The rain had stopped, but the cold still stung her nose and stiffened her joints. By the time she reached the library, darkness had long since fallen. Alice was cold, soaked to the bone, and so tired she felt she might collapse if she had to walk any further. This was her last hope.

The library was closing for the night in fifteen minutes. Wishing her hardest to be invisible, she walked inside past the front desk. Luckily the librarian wasn’t there. She found the most hidden corner she could and waited. As the minutes ticked by on her watch she heard footsteps, but they died away. Once, the janitor walked past, but he apparently didn’t see her. After all, she thought as her heart dropped from her throat back to her chest, this is a dark corner, and he probably just has bad peripheral vision. Finally after what seemed like fifteen hours instead of minutes, the lights dimmed and the sound of the lock on the main door echoed over the dark wood floors.

Alice relaxed a little and took out the envelope. She reread the letter, illuminating it with her keychain flashlight. The next to last sentence stood out: “I have made the necessary arrangements where you are.” What was that supposed to mean? As she leafed through the other documents, she realized, My life has been erased! All that’s left are these papers!

Well, if my life has been erased, she thought, then I have no choice but to take the journey, if only to figure out how to get it back.

Alice had read enough fantasy books to know that her next stop should probably be to walk through one of the gateways. Catching one would be the difficult part as they seemed to come and go randomly. Alice decided to worry about the gateways tomorrow, though, because she was extremely tired from walking so much. She took her coat off, rolled it into a damp ball and put it under her head as a pillow. Curled up in her corner she thought she heard a noise above her on top of the shelves, but when she pointed her flashlight there the space was empty. It must’ve been the ceiling creaking; it is an old building after all, she thought. Yawning, she placed her head on her makeshift pillow and fell almost immediately to sleep.

#

            The library had not yet opened for the day when Alice awoke. However, she could hear employees putting books on shelves. Light from the window opposite was streaming through the cracks between the books on the shelf that concealed her. She took out the map and studied the gateways labeled on it. As she scanned the paper she saw a gateway open over the library location. Her heart raced as she moved her finger over the dot on the map. To her surprise, the map faded out leaving a blank paper, then faded back in only now she was looking at a 3D floor plan of the library. The dot labeling the gateway was resting on the third floor computer room, the same room where she saw the gateway the day before. She decided to hurry because who knew how long the gateway would remain open.

            As quietly as she could she gathered her things and crept to the end of the shelves. There was no one to be found in either direction so she moved to the left toward the central staircase which was the only way to the second floor. At the doorway to the grand entryway, she quickly sidestepped to the left and peered around. The librarian was at the front desk looking in her direction. She desperately wished for a diversion, but she had no clue how to create one. Just then one of the computers behind the librarian shorted out, flinging sparks everywhere. Alice saw her chance and crept as quickly as possible across the tiled floor of the large room and up the limestone steps to the second floor. Fortunately, the malfunctioning computer kept the librarian busy enough that she didn’t see Alice moving behind her. Once on the second floor, she continued on to the third, keeping constantly vigilant of her surroundings. The computer room was just to the right of the stairs so Alice made it inside without incident. There, she found herself face to face with the same field of flowers and blue sky as yesterday. She took a deep breath and stepped toward the gateway. She looked at it for a few seconds then stepped through.