the future 

It was all just a normal day until I saw the portal. At first, I didn't even know it was a portal. It looked more like a regular white door, the same closet door that I'd always had. 

What should I wear today? I thought, opening my closet. Maybe my new pink sweater. 

I can't even explain what happened next. It was like my eyes got hit by a thousand rays of light! I shielded my eyes, confused and blinded.

My thoughts started to become fuzzy and unclear, and I felt sort of like...I was spinning?! 

"What's going on?!" I screamed, but as I kept spinning and covering my eyes, it was like my own voice was miles away. And then, all of a sudden, it just stopped! 

I heard a thud on the ground, soon realizing that it was my own feet. I s l o w l y opened my eyes, blinking a couple times. What just happened??

I was back in my normal position, in my closet, yet everything seemed a bit off. I felt heavier and more tired. My clothes in the closet? There were more shades of black hoodies, shirts, pants than I probably would've ever had in my life! 

I hate the color black. Why do I have so many black clothes in my closet? And I could've sworn that my new...pink...sweater was right on this hook. 

I thought I was going crazy. I probably was! Stepping out of the closet, I gasped. "OMG." 

This was so not my room. The walls of my entire bedroom were glass and clear, and I could see through them to the rest of the house! It was like my room turned into a window. Instead of my usual small bed, there was a giant loft bed. It was like I was hallucinating, except I wasn't!

"Mom?! Kara?" I called to my mom and younger sister, noticing that my voice sounded different. 

"What?" I heard a voice yell. Is that Kara? "I'm on a meeting, be quiet!" 

My ears were ringing , and I was still dizzy from spinning. 

I was beyond confused. And scared. I started to run through the house, and all the walls were glass, like in my room. And the furniture was all shiny and weird. At least all the rooms were in the same place. I headed to the kitchen and gawked. The refrigerator was tiny! It was around the size of one of those mini fridges that can go in a bedroom. I slowly opened it, fearful that more crazy things would happen. 

What the heck? I thought. There were maybe a hundred little doll sized pizza boxes all stacked up inside the fridge, and that's all that there was! Maybe this was one of Kara's little doll sets. But that was the least important thing on my mind. 

Speaking of Kara, where is she?! And where's the rest of my family? 

I couldn't even think straight anymore. I needed some sort of explanation! I hurried to Kara's room, expecting to see the regular seven year old girl, playing with slime or something. But instead, a teenage stranger sat on a desk chair, with these chunky headphones on her head. 

The more I stared at her, I realized that she had the same exact dark hair as Kara did, and the same face. I couldn't believe it. My little sister...had turned old?!! 

"KARA!!!" I yelled, not caring about anything in this whole world except for the fact that I might be going crazy. I was going crazy. 

She jumped, and took her headphones off for a second. "What the shock?!" 

"Kara." I repeated. 

"Whatttt? I'm on a meeting. Can you please leave me alone?!!"

I took a quick moment to stroll around her room. Same glass window wall things. Another giant loft bed. And a TV that looked as thin as a piece of paper! It's like...it's like I'm in the future!? 

They were words that I never thought I'd say. 

Kara ignored the fact that I was walking around in her room like a phycho, and put her humongous headphones on her ears again. I glanced at her screen and it looked like the Zoom app was open. 

Hung on a wall was a beautiful mirror, grand, with flowers on the sides of it. It was pretty for about one second. 

I think I'm offically a lunatic. A demented, unstable, mad human being.  

I screamed. At the top of my lungs. 

HOW COULD I HAVE NOT NOTICED THIS UNTIL NOW?!!!!! I thought, still screaming. I was around five foot six, and my hair was down to my waist. And just like Kara, I was wearing all black! I looked so much more mature and my face was looked older! How old was I?! And how? When? I had so many questions and it was tempting not to just stand in front of that mirror for another hour and just observe myself.

Kara jumped again. "What the shockkkkk?!!! What happened? Are you okay?" 

I had no idea what 'what the shock?' meant, but I was guessing that she was scared of her old, screaming sister. And the answer to that question was no. Definitely no. 

"Kara," I said, afraid of the answer to my next question."What is the date?" 

"God, lucky that my class ended just now so they didn't hear any of this!" She grumbled. "Umm, it's October 26. You better tell me what's going on. You come to visit us for one weekend, and have already driven me crazy!" 

What do you mean, visiting? I wonder, then ignore it. 

"NO! What's the year?" I said, trying to be patient. 

"What's wrong with you?! It's the 1900's, you." She said, laughing. 

"What?!!!" I yelled again. How could it be the past?!!

"Actually, what is wrong with you?" Kara laughs again. Since when did my sister become so mean? "It's 2034 stupid. Always knew you were a bit crazy. 

I blinked ten times. Speechless. 

"Wait, so does that mean that you're...seventeen?!" I asked, hoping that all of a sudden she would just take off that costume and say 'LOL! We tricked you into thinking you were CRAZY!' 

But it was obviously not a costume. And I was more confused than I had ever been in my entire life.

"Why are you acting so weird?" Kara mumbled, and went back to typing on her high-tech looking computer. I went up in front of her desk and looked at the screen. She was right, it was 2034. 

"Okay, can you like, please leave me alone?! I have a bunch of homework." Kara waved goodbye. 

I shook my head. This wasn't a prank, or a hallucination. This was completely real! How the heck, or how the shock did I end up in this situation?!!! Everything was completely normal. 

Back when I was in the right year, I would have loved to go into the future! But this is just...I can't. I went across the hall to my room and collapsed onto my giant loft bed, looking out of the glass window-walls, watching cars that were as low on the road as a skateboard would be. I looked at the houses with their clear windows, and surprisingly, no humans walking on the street. 

SO many questions were in my brain. And I couldn't find an answer for any of them. 

And that's when I remembered. The closet! 

It's the portal that I somehow went through to get here! I realized, also realizing that this whole situation felt like something out of a movie. I bolted to the black clothes filled closet, and put my hand on the knob. 

This better work. 

Without thinking about anything else, I went through the door, expecting some sort of light to blind me or flying or something. But nothing happened. Instead, a piece of paper started to flurry through the air from the closet ceiling. It landed right in my hands. 

Why isn't anything happening? I wondered, just noticing the piece of paper. Frantically, I straightened it out and started reading it. 

Hello.

Welcome to the future, the place you would have ended up in, one way or another. Turns out that you're just a bit early.

If you wanted an update:

Right now, you have your own life in Alaska and you work from home.

Today, you visited your family, including your sister. 

There is a current pandemic happening, the third since your original year.

Glass windows are necessary so that humans are able to see the world without going outside.

The rest-

You must figure it out. 

Good luck with your future. 

As soon as I finished reading it, I read it again. It was the creepiest thing I had ever seen in my life. Was I stuck?! What was really happening?!

But before I could wonder or think about anything else, everything... went... black.

the end