It Never Was

It Never Was

“The moral of every story is always the same. I know that all our college professors will disagree, but let’s all face the facts. The bad guy always loses, they always end up being overthrown or killed or worst of all they become the good guy.” Garrett said and I could hear something hit the wall.

I just sighed, “Okay…what point are you trying to make?” I tucked my knees to my chest as I leaned back.

I listened to Garrett shift behind me. “I’m saying that this isn’t over Amora, that this is the climax.”

“I think you’ve been reading too many comic books,” I said placidly picking out dirt from under my filthy fingernails, “besides who says that there aren’t stories where the bad guy wins and stays bad.”

“Have you ever read one?” Garrett countered and I conceded with a sigh. “Thought not.”

I rolled my eyes at his smug tone, only he could be smug at a time like this. “You know when you talked me into this quest thing, it did cross my mind that following the advice of a strange old man with a magic book and access to alternate dimensions was a bad idea.”

“You didn’t believe it was real. You just couldn’t resist the urge to tell me you told me so when we ended up in some random park in the middle of the night missing half the cash in our wallets.”

“It would have only been your wallet.” I pointed out, “I wasn’t going…” I broke off as something metal clanged in the distance.

“Mora?” Garrett questioned and I shushed him as I listened for a moment.

“I thought I heard something.” I hissed and Garrett made a strangled sort of noise.

“You don't think it was him?”

“No…I think it’s okay.” I rubbed the hair that had stood up on my arms down.

“Abraham said he would come get us in two hours.” Garrett ventured timidly. I stood up and traced my fingers over the rough stone until I came to the bars on the front wall.

“Your wizard said he would open the portal in two hours if we hadn’t been captured.” I wrapped my fingers around the cold metal bar and peered into the gloom beyond. “I’d say that’s no longer the plan.”

“So we escape.”

I snorted, “This isn’t some game Garrett. You don’t just get to press restart when you get a game over. You met a wizard in the park, he transported us to an alternate dimension where the people are none too friendly and left us here to die.”

“You don’t need to remind me!” I heard Garrett scramble up and pace the floor, his footsteps echoing around my brain.

“I’m sorry.” I muttered running my fingers through my tangled hair.

“We have to escape.”

“How?”

“That’s the whole point Amora. There has to be a way.” Garrett sniped, “Just look around or something.”

“What do you think there will just be a key hanging on the wall.” I grumbled to myself as I looked out over the room in front of me.

“What do you see?”

“Um…I don’t know, a barrel, like one of those big wine barrels, there is a creepy torch on the wall, um a banner and something that looks like a medieval torture device.”

“Is there anything that looks like it could be used to pick the lock?” Garrett asked.

“Pick the lock? I don’t know how to pick locks.” I threw up my hands. 

“Sometimes we forget what we know.” Garrett was trying to sound all wise and knowing, but his tone just made the muscle in my cheek twitch.

I reached through the bars and just within my grasp was a small metal pin that looked like a hairpin on steroids. I pressed my face to the bars as I blindly grabbed for it. I exhaled, forcing all the air from my chest to get that extra inch as I felt my fingertips close on it. “Got it.”

“Now pick the lock.”

“Pick the lock…” I grumbled under my breath, “like this is going to work.”

I put the hairpin into the lock and blindly rocked it back and forth for a moment feeling really stupid. Then it clicked and the door released.

No way, there was no way I had just acquired lock picking level one like that.

Level one? Where did that come from?

Garrett whooped beside me as I stepped free and I shushed him vehemently as I strode over and stuck the pick into his door’s lock. My neck was crawling as my back was to the entrance staircase and I felt like any moment someone would be down to check on us. I rocked the pick back and forth until the door clicked and Garrett was freed.

He walked over to the flickering torch and took it out of its bracket.

“What are you going to do with that?” I asked incredulously a frown tugging at my lips.

“What? You always need a torch.”

I rolled my eyes and then licked my lips as I surveyed the room. I picked up a metal pipe that was about two feet long and closed my fingers around it.

“What are you going to do with that?” Garrett mocked and I threw him a look. A smile twitched onto his face.

We started up the stairs.

My breathing sounded too loud, but we didn’t meet anyone as Garrett navigated every corridor like he had lived in this old castle all his life. Once we almost were caught as a pair of guards in clanking armor came down the hallway speaking to each other about the weather.

Was small talk really the same everywhere?

Garrett put his hand over my mouth to keep me from screaming. I just gripped my pipe so tightly my fingers started to go numb. How they didn’t notice Garrett’s flame I didn’t care to find out.

The second door Garrett tried led into a garden and we stepped out into the semi-darkness. Now I understood why we needed a torch. I swallowed hard as we came up on a maze.

No.

I just shook my head as Garrett took my hand and pulled me forward. “It’s only wayfinding level two. It can’t be that difficult.”

“What does that mean?” I asked, but Garrett was silent as we plunged into the maze and took a left. Wasn’t there some logic that said if you just kept going left that you’d reach the center quicker?

I shook my head to clear it as we walked. Random bits of information kept popping into my head, It was like I had crammed for a test and now a week later my brain was finally getting around to cataloging everything. I felt like I was trying to play catch-up, like everything that was happening around me wasn’t quite right.

That’s because you trusted a strange man who claimed to be a wizard with access to real magic. I reminded myself, things were weird because I wasn’t on Earth anymore.

Garrett was really good at mazes apparently. We reached the center and I heard the water splashing down into a fountain. It was a mermaid who had her trident thrusting into the sky. The look on her face was hateful, like she was cursing the man who had taken her from her home in the ocean and stranded her on this rock in the middle of a maze.

I could relate.

“Abraham said that the portal would open into a reflecting surface if we asked it nicely. Do you think the fountain would do it?”

I looked at the angry mermaid again. If she had a choice I’d say no, but she was stone. I stepped forward my hand coming free of Garrett’s and looked into the pool at the base of the fountain. I was surprised to find that the surface was relatively calm and I could actually see my reflection in it. Not that I really wanted to see what I looked like after spending some time in a dungeon. I stared at my face.

“How do we ask nicely?”

Garrett snorted as he came to stand next to me. I remembered when he used to be shorter than me. Those had been the days.

Garrett’s nose scrunched up into his thinking face, “Weren’t we just supposed to say ‘Oh great mirror of dimensions, I revel in your greatness and beseech you to allow us passage home.’”

“Sounds about right.” I scoffed and Garrett shushed me as he stared into the water so intently his eyes watered. A single tear ran down his nose and fell into the pool.

“Garrett.” I said realizing he was actually crying.

He swiped at his nose and offered me a brave smile.

The pool shimmered.

No way…

The image changed to be the park. I knew it was the right park because the third swing still had that caution tape around it. “It worked!”

Garrett’s smile turned genuine and he grabbed for my hand again. I dropped my pipe to the ground with a clang. We splashed into the fountain and I swear the mermaid rolled her eyes at me.

The world tilted sideways and turned black for a moment.

The ground solidified under me, but the blackness remained and my head felt heavy.

LEVEL ONE COMPLETE

The green letters flashed across my vision.

Garrett was hollering with excitement beside me and I reached up to my head. I was wearing something. I pulled off the helmet and blinked in disorientation.

Abraham was standing in front of me, but he wasn’t dressed as a wizard anymore. He was just a guy wearing a jeans and a t-shirt. My stomach churned and I looked around without understanding.

Garrett was saying something, “That was so cool man.”

“Altered reality technology. Cutting edge, one of a kind prototype game.”

Game.

The word buzzed around my head.

Game.

It had felt so real, I looked down at my hands expecting to see the scratch I had gotten when we were captured. My skin was flawless.

My stomach crawled to my throat and I swallowed hard against the bile.

“It was a game?” My voice was barely a whisper.

“Yeah Mora, don’t you remember? I told you about it. Abraham had this technology that can alter reality. I know it feels so real when you are in there, but you should remember now.”

I just shook my head and the boys exchanged a glance.

It wasn’t real.

I slipped my hand into my pocket and froze. My fingers danced over the hairpin shaped object in my pocket.

I pulled it out.

It was just a regular hairpin.