Going Gone by Jason Man
A lifetime of memories seem to fade away
Gone are the times we have shared together
My mind is slipping, it’s thoughts begin to decay
Clouded and foggy like stormy weather
A once vivid image of her face
Has been reduced to curves and lines
Forgetting the feeling of her embrace
My memories are trapped under brambles and vines
I am losing them as well as losing what’s true
I can’t seem to remember when we first met
When was the last time I said I love you
I am not ready to leave you yet
I lay my head dreaming of that girl
I wonder who she is
Her smile shining brighter than a pearl
Belonging to a man I once knew, she is his
In the warm early dawn
She is all but gone
Elementarian by Evelyn Reid and Jay
October twentieth was coming to an end. School was over for the day, and Henry was at Gianluca’s Pizza. The sign read, “Pizza so good, it’s otherworldly!” That was debatable. The pizza was cooked right here in this world, so it couldn’t be otherworldly. But every restaurant needs its slogan, and that is what Gianluca’s decided on.
Henry was sitting at the bar with his friends Jay and Autumn. They were enjoying a cheese pizza with cheese so artificial, it might as well be plastic! As one could tell, Gianluca’s did not exactly pride itself on its quality food.
“This cheese is impossible to bite through,” Henry complained.
“Yeah, but it’s a good place to just chill, so at least they have that going for them,” Jay replied.
Henry and Jay had been friends since Kindergarten, but Autumn was a new addition to the group after moving here this year.
Henry looked outside. It was getting dark. The three of them had to leave soon or they would be caught in the night. The group stood up to leave. Henry found it was quicker to get home by going behind the pizza place, so he said bye to his friends out front and made his way outback.
Everything seemed normal at first. Raccoons ate plastic cheese from the trash, people hurried to get home, and the back allies were starting to get dark. Then something rather odd happened. The ground beneath Henry began to ripple. He couldn’t move his feet anymore. It was as if the cement turned into quicksand! He started to melt through the ground and called out to his friends.
“Guys! I think something’s happening to the ground!” Henry exclaimed, hoping his friends weren’t too far away yet and could still hear him.
Jay and Autumn raced over to where they heard Henry’s voice, but he was gone. They thought nothing of it as both of them were tired and went on with their walk home. Little did they know, Henry was in another world.
Henry had sunk through the cement and could feel it rippling past him as he went further and further down. Then all he felt was air. He was falling! Looking up, the cement had turned to sky and looking down, the ground was like nothing Henry had seen before. There were parts of the ground that were covered in lava rivers through blackened rock, and other sections that had regular rivers of water that ran through ice and snow. Henry aimed to land on a soft-looking piece of pastel green grass in one of the ice sections. Once he landed, puffs of snow shot up around where he had hit the ground.
A pair of glowing dark blue eyes stared down at him from a tree nearby. The eyes jumped down, and with them was a creature unlike anything from above the cement. The creature resembled a fox, but its eyes were glowing and its fur was water, seeming to float around the creature. The fox-like animal was made of water, which shouldn’t be possible considering gravity would pull the water down, yet here this animal was, made of water, right before Henry’s eyes.
The water fox looked peaceful, but it began to growl at Henry. It lowered itself into a hunting crouch and crept forward, teeth of water showing through its snarl. Henry was startled at first, but then he thought that since it was just water, then maybe it wouldn’t hurt. Then the teeth hardened into almost ice, sharp, pointed, and deadly. It barked and two more jumped from the trees, ready to fight. This surprised Henry, as foxes were independent hunters. But these were not regular foxes. They seemed to have synchronized movements. Henry knew it was the end of him if he didn’t do something. He started slowly backing away. Eventually, he stepped onto hardened magma. The fox-like creatures stopped and stared, then crept back to the trees.
Henry sighed in relief, thinking he was safe. Until he heard a low growl from behind him. He whirled around to find a leopard-like animal made of lava. Heat radiated off it and its eyes glowed a bright red. Henry didn’t know how much of this he could take! Then a figure swung down from a nearby tree and took the creature out with one hit of a dagger, hitting it in the throat. The figure walked towards him, revealing she was a girl. She was wearing a dark ninja-like outfit and a black hood.
“You should be careful. These animals are highly territorial, so if you enter their territory and they see you, you could be toast,” Henry looked at her, bewildered. “First time in another world?” she asked him.
“As a matter of fact, it’s my first minute,” he responded.
“No wonder you're acting like such a rookie!” she teased, tossing him a spare dagger. “I’ll teach you proper technique later, for now just stab and you’ll eventually hit. Come on! I’ll show you my base! It’s the only place not populated with these creatures,” she said, beckoning him to follow her.
She led him to a quiet patch of trees and bushes split down the centre between the ice and fire habitats. Pushing away the branches, she revealed a well-hidden log cabin. It was surrounded by bushes growing bright pink fruit and workbenches with blueprints of what was labeled to be a teleporter.
“Is this your base?” Henry asked her.
“Yeah, it’s right on the edge of the territories, so none of the creatures come near here. Those blueprints are the way out, some materials are missing though. The fruits are sweet and safe to eat. I have been living off them for months now,” she told him.
“Why don’t they come near the edge?” he questioned.
“I told you, they’re very territorial. If one from the ice goes to the fire, the fire creatures attack it, and vice versa,” she explained. “By the way, what’s your name, rookie?”
“Henry,” he said, “what’s yours?”
“Josephine! Nice to meet you!” she said with a smile.
“So how’d you get down here? Did you fall through the ground behind a pizza place too?” Henry inquired.
“I have been traveling to many worlds. It’s kind of my thing. My teleportation device broke after I came here, though, and I’ve been trapped since. You say you melted through the ground?”
“Yeah, the ground turned to quicksand underneath me!”
She looked puzzled for a moment, then a look of realization crossed her face. “You said this happened a couple minutes ago?”
He nodded. “Why?”
“Because a couple minutes ago, one of the foxes accidentally came in and turned on my unfinished teleporter before running further from the border. I thought nothing of it and turned it off, but I think I made you come here!” she exclaimed, looking at him apologetically.
He wanted to be mad, but she looked so sorry. “It’s fine. Now I have an adventure instead of school tomorrow!” he joked.
“It’s okay if you're mad, I get it. But since you’re here now, could you help me with my teleporter? Then we could both get out of here,” she said.
“Sure thing! What do you need?” Henry replied.
The two of them spent what seemed to be a few hours collecting materials for Josephine’s machine.
Eventually it got too dark to work and Josephine set up an extra bed and they went to sleep for the night. The sounds of rushing water and flowing lava put them both right to sleep.
They awoke the next morning to a loud screech. Well, Henry did. He woke up Josephine. “Hey! I just heard a loud screech. It sounded like a giant bird!” he whispered nervously.
“Oh!” she laughed, “Those are smoke and vapor birds. They fly where they please and are of no danger. They are just quite loud is all. You get used to it!”
“Well, they’re unnerving,” he told her.
“Yeah, but like I said, you get used to it,” she replied. “Now, let’s start the day!”
“This early?” he asked, blinking into the sunrise.
The sun wasn’t yellow, though. It was sky blue and the sky was pastel yellow. The sun didn’t hurt to look at either.
“What even is this place?” he asked.
“This is one of many worlds. All reachable by traveling through dimensions. I call this one Elementarian. Unlike most dimensions, there are no signs of human life. Not even evidence of human extinction,” Josephine explained. “This makes survival harder as there are no ways to tell how others defended themselves and found materials.”
Henry and Josephine took the materials they had gathered the previous day and began working on the teleportation device. Henry was working in the ice territory while Josephine worked in the fire area.
Henry found the directions hard to follow because of complex instructions and he had trouble reading what was said in place because the snow had smudged Josephine’s handwriting. After several hours of working, Henry messed up for the fifth time.
Hot and tired, Josephine yelled, “CAN’T YOU DO ANYTHING RIGHT?!”
“IT’S NOT MY FAULT I CAN’T READ YOUR HANDWRITING!” Henry yelled back.
“WELL MAYBE IT’S NOT MY HANDWRITING! MAYBE YOU DON’T KNOW HOW TO READ! JUST LIKE YOU CAN’T DO ANYTHING ELSE!” Josephine countered.
“WELL AT LEAST I DONT BRING RANDOM PEOPLE TO OTHER DIMENSIONS WORKING ON WEIRD SCIENCE FAIR PROJECTS!” Henry yelled and stomped away.
He didn’t know where he was going. He just knew he was going as far away from her as possible.
Back at her base, Josephine was fuming. Her work was more than a flimsy science fair project. She threw down the blueprints and flopped onto her bed, continuing to yell at nothing in particular.
Night fell, and Henry slept on the ground, hurt she had yelled at him. Josephine was back at her base. Finished with venting, she began to feel bad about the argument. The next morning she went looking for him, and found him curled up under a bush in the middle of lava territory. She was surprised he had survived the night.
Henry woke up to Josephine staring at him in amazement. Then he realized he had blindly stumbled into lava territory in the dark of night, hot and angry. He sat up.
“What are you doing here? Are you gonna yell at me some more?” Henry asked her.
Looking hurt, she replied, “I was looking for you. I felt bad for yelling at you yesterday and wanted to apologize. I see you don’t want me here, but you can’t survive out here all alone. Will you give me another chance? I’m almost done with the machine. It only needs a few more things and then I can get you back home.”
“Fine, but maybe we should take a few breaks here and there so we aren’t at each other’s throats,” Henry told her.
“Yeah, we should. And this time, I’ll help you if you can’t read my writing. I know it’s not exactly neat,” Josephine said.
“It wasn’t your handwriting. I can read that fine. The snow had smudged the writing in a few spaces and I couldn’t understand other parts,” he explained.
The two made their way back to Josephine’s base and continued work on the machine once more, this time working on the same parts together to prevent another altercation.
“How long have you been here?” Henry asked her after half an hour of working.
“Oh, only a few months. It’s not as long as I’ve spent in other worlds, ya know?” she replied.
“A few months? I’ve been here two days and I hate this place. You look around and think ‘Huh, this is nice.’ and then something comes out and attacks you just because you’re standing on the ground. It’s exhausting and the temperature has no middle ground! It’s either really hot or really cold,” he complained.
“Yeah, but this spot’s really nice because there are no animals to attack you here. They don’t come near the border,” Josephine pointed out.
“How much more do we need for this thing?” he asked her.
“I just need to tighten this last piece into place and then it should be good to go!” she told him as she tightened the last piece and stepped inside. Then she pulled Henry inside.
The inside was a little small, but fit them both. It was circular and had tall walls lined with blue padding. A thick window sat on either side. Josephine pressed a few buttons then sat down on a wooden bench with blue velvet padding. Henry sat down too and looked out the window. Hundreds of colors flew by, some of which Henry had never seen!
Noticing his amazement Josephine asked, “Cool, huh rookie?”
“Definitely!” Henry smiled.
The machine bumped to a stop and the colors turned to Earth. They had appeared in front of Josephine’s workshop, just outside the city where Henry lived.
“What’s this place?” Henry asked her.
“This is my workshop. It’s where I built this machine in the first place,” she explained. “The city’s that way. Want me to come back with you?”
“Sure,” he answered.
Henry and Josephine made their way to the city and as they passed Gianluca’s where this all began, Henry saw a flyer on a pole that said ‘Missing’.
“Hey, is that me?” he asked, confused.
“Looks like it. That’s weird, you weren’t gone that long. Just a few days,” Josephine said.
An older poster was higher up and had Josephine on it. It said she was last seen several years prior.
“I thought you said you were down there for a few months, not years!” Henry exclaimed.
“I thought I was. Some dimensions have different time frames than ours. They go slower or faster, but usually not by this much,” Josephine told him.
“I better let everybody know I’m alright!” Henry said.
He pulled out his phone and texted everybody that he was fine. He lied and said he’d been sleeping over Jay’s house to work on a project and forgotten to tell anyone. Then he told Jay that he had lied and that he would tell them the truth later. He also told Autumn about the lie and said he would tell her later with Jay.
Autumn, Jay, and Henry met up at Gianluca’s later that day. Henry brought Josephine along with him to introduce her to his friends.
“Dude, where’ve you been?” Jay asked Henry when he arrived.
“I’ve been in a different world with Josephine,” he responded, introducing Josephine to his friends.
“A different world? Yeah right. Seriously though, we were worried something happened to you,” Autumn told him.
“Guys, I’m serious. It was a different world!” Henry persisted.
“I could show you if you wanted,” Josephine spoke up.
“Alright, fine. For a minute I’ll say you guys aren’t crazy. Where are we going to see this ‘other world’?” Autumn asked.
“Just follow us,” Josephine told her.
The group made their way to the edge of the city where Josephine’s workshop resided. When they got inside, Jay and Autumn were still doubting this whole ‘other world’ thing, but the sight of the teleportation device had almost convinced them that Henry and Josephine weren’t lying.
“What’s that?” Jay asked.
“That’s my teleporter. It’s how I get to and from different dimensions. Care to join us to where we were?” Josephine asked.
“Woah, woah, woah. You’re not going back there for real, are you? Your machine broke last time and you got stuck,” Henry pointed out.
“Yeah, but that’s because I didn’t close the door properly. The energy leaked in and shorted the circuits,” Josephine said, opening the door.
“You know what? Let’s go. Come on Henry, you’ve already been there. What’s the problem with going again?” Jay asked.
“Well, last time I almost died like, three times,” Henry countered.
“Whatever, I still think you guys are lying. I’ll come with you and then we’ll go back to the city,” Autumn said, climbing into the machine.
Henry Josephine, and Jay followed her in and Josephine closed the door behind them. Pressing a few buttons, Josephine started up the machine and the group was thrust through the whorl of colours to Elementarian. When the teleporter came to a stop at Josephine’s base, Henry and the others walked out.
Pushing aside the bushes he said, “Believe me now?”
His friends stood there, shocked. Finally Jay said, “I guess you aren’t crazy after all!”
They all laughed. “Now let’s head back before we’re gone for weeks again. Rookie over here and I learned that time moves slower here the hard way,” Josephine explained.
“Rookie?” Autumn asked as Henry rolled his eyes.
“She insists on calling me that as if everybody travels to other worlds,” Henry said, punching Josephine in the shoulder playfully.
“Hey!” she exclaimed as they all laughed.
They got back into the machine to go home. Once more, they passed through the whorl of colours with hues they had never seen anywhere before.
Leaving behind the world of ice and fire with deadly creatures made up of their habitats, the group stepped out into the sun, only the sun was the moon and it was no longer day.
“What? It was just ten a.m., how is it night already?” Autumn asked, bewildered.
“Like I said, Rookie and I found out that dimension moves way faster than this world,” Josephine said.
“Yeah, but I didn’t think it moved this fast. We were in there for a few minutes. It should have been equivalent to a few hours, a day at most,” Henry pointed out.
That was when the wolf ten times bigger than a real wolf should be stepped over the group, crushing the machine behind them. As they whirled around, they saw they were not at Josephine’s workshop, but in the middle of a giant forest with birch trees as big as skyscrapers and bushes, small as a hand watch.
“Josephine, I thought you said you and Henry fixed the machine?” Jay asked, startled by the size of the wolf.
“I thought we did. I must’ve misread one of the smudged notations,” Josephine told them.
Hearing a growl, the four of them turned around expecting some terrifying creature. Instead, they saw a little salamander the size of a palm.
“Awww!” Autumn exclaimed.
The salamander suddenly grew twenty times its original size and unhooked its jaw to reveal thirteen rows of serrated teeth coated in a glowing green substance. The sala-monster roared at the friends, and they scattered into the trees where they would eventually group together and find some way to survive this new world.
Reflection by Anonymous
As she returns to the real world, her connection with everyone in life fades. While on her way back to New York, she listened to sad songs to tune out her thoughts, which didn’t work, never did. Her mind suffocated her. She thought of the same question she has been thinking for years, why am I not good enough? The young lady looked at herself from her mom’s rearview mirror. She stared and pointed out all her flaws and answered the question she was thinking in her mind. She knew why she wasn’t good enough, even her own reflection knew why she wasn’t good enough. Thinking by herself in the backseat of her parent’s red honda she questioned why she didn’t fit in and how she could change that. Every single flaw of hers was another reason she hated herself. Scrolling through social media made her uneasy. Why can’t I be skinny like these Instagram models? Why can’t I have beautiful green eyes? She heard her rapid pulse and began sweating. Her anxiety is getting to her. She touched her chest and felt the beat of her heart and knew she overworked herself over her features again. She looked out at the window staring at the patches of ice melting. She wished she could be the ice, just disappear and melt away.