The Book, The Vial, and Me

The vial had a sparkly, blue liquid in it.

           “It’s time,” a man’s deep voice said.

“I’m still not sure if we should do this,” a pitchy female voice replied hesitantly.

“It’ll work this time, I can feel it.”

“Okay. I’m ready. Whatever happens, don’t panic!” the pitchy voice replied.

The man popped the cork off the vial and slowly poured it onto the book. Instantly it started to glow a dull, pulsing blue.

           “Jump in,” the man commanded.

The young woman walked up to the book, and put her finger in it. Her finger disappeared and a sudden force pulled her into the book. An eerie scream echoed off the walls of the hidden room. She. Was. Gone.

Words. Words, words, and more words. That’s all that came out of me. Dribble. Red. Drip. Bloody. Runny. Dark- that’s what they said. I had cut myself with a piece of paper on my finger. A paper cut. Why do those have to hurt so much? It’s strange how it hurts even more than a scrape. But what’s even weirder is that I’m not bleeding blood.

I’m bleeding words.

           Words that describe the blood.

           But, how?

I call my best friend; He’s the only person I can tell. I mean, the only one who would believe me. Like, come on, my parents would never believe me! I can already hear my mom’s pitchy voice saying, “Honey, it’s impossible to bleed words. It just can’t happen.” She would either say that or, “Are you feeling well, should we go to the doctors?” Anyway, the whole point is she wouldn’t even consider that strange phenomenon.  

So, I’m on the phone explaining all this to Darin. He is totally confused, so I sigh, say goodbye, and hang up. I run into my bathroom and wrap a band-aid around my finger. Walking back and down the stairs I prepare to tell my parents about my problem…

“Serafina, I don’t understand, what do you mean by your blood is words?” mother fidgeted around unhappily.

“Mom,”-I pause,-“Dad, I told you I was working with paper upstairs, and I cut myself! Suddenly, words started coming out of me! Crazy as it sounds, well, it’s true!!!” I exclaimed in a whiney voice. Trying to convince them is hard. I know what I saw!

Dad answered roughly, “Mom and I need to talk okay? Just give us some time to digest the information you told us. Now go call someone or whatever people in this world do.”

“Huh?” I say.

           “I mean, uh, go to your room.” Dad says hurriedly.

I stalk off, when suddenly an idea hits me. I turn around and hide behind the living room wall to eavesdrop. Yes, I know I probably shouldn’t, but this is really important. I tuck myself neatly in the corner, and out of view. All I hear are whispers.

“We should tell her. She’s old enough to know.” I faintly hear my mom say.

“No! This has to be kept a secret. Not even Serafina can know about us and the vial and you know-” he grits his teeth-“Us coming here with the book.”

“Well, its good we have no mirrors, and that we are extra careful with what she uses and sees. She hasn’t “bled” often either. Only once and a while. Plus it mainly happened while she was young.” Mom said quietly.

           I slowly back away and walk hurriedly to my room, careful to not make any noise. Vial? Book? What in the world is dad talking about? Why can’t we have mirrors? I never really thought about that.  

Abruptly, the conversation stops, and footsteps come my way. I dash away to my bedroom.

Today, I’m going over to Darin’s house. His house is normal.

           “Make sure to not go outside, watch T.V, or LOOK IN THE MIRRORS!” Mom says very sternly. “If I find out you disobey me…” Mom sighs. “Have fun-” she waves her hand dismissively, but continues,-“OBEY THE RULES!”

           “I got it, I got it, okay? I’m not a baby, I know the rules!” I say, embarrassed, for Darin and his mom are standing behind me, waiting to pick me up. I quickly turn around before mom can give me the face. When she gives you the face, you know you’re in trouble. Mom sighs. Lately, she’s been sighing a ton. I wave goodbye, and get in my friend’s car.

           We pull up to their house. It’s really pretty. The house is medium sized, with cute yellow shutters, and flower pots under the windows filled with pink and orange pansies. In front of the doorway they have a trellis with gorgeous vines climbing up it. Inside is just as impressive. It looks really cozy, and kind of reminds me of Goldilocks and the three bears. It’s like any minute Goldie will pop around the corner eating baby bears porridge. I look around the house as I follow Darin upstairs. Suddenly, I really got to go to the restroom. “Umm… could you point me to the bathroom?” I giggle nervously.

           “Over to the right,” he says as he leans closer to me, pointing to where it is.

           “Umm…thanks.”

           “No problem.” Darin walks towards his room. “My room’s here, so when you’re done I’ll be in here.” He says. I speed walk to the bathroom and close the door. Once I’m done, I go to wash my hands, and I notice there’s a huge mirror above the sink. I’m debating whether I should look in the mirror or not. Finally, I decide to. Taking a deep breath I take a peek at the mirror. It takes all my willpower not to scream.

           Why? Why? Why did I look in the mirror? Why couldn’t I have been a good girl and just listened to my mother? I take a glance at the mirror again. All I see are…words. Words. Words, and more words. Now, where have I seen that from?

I’m freaking out in the bathroom, and no one knows. When I look at the mirror I see my outline, but not my reflection. The space inside isn’t my head or face or body. Its words. Words that describe what I look like. Pretty, brown hair, hazel eyes, tall, white shirt, gold necklace, pearl earrings… On, and on it goes. Knock, Knock! Someone beats on the door.

“Serafina! Are you all right?” Darin’s voice says, full of worry. I don’t bother to answer. Instead I sink to the ground, with my back on the wall and my head in my hands. Thoughts swirl all around in my head. I faintly hear Darin say he’s coming in. I hear whispering in my ear, “Serafina?” I look up. Darin is sitting on the floor next to me smiling.

“Now, wait, show me one more time!” Darin exclaims. I step in front of the mirror and he looks at my reflection. I turn towards him. “Cool!” He smiles. I never realized this but, now that I’m merely a few inches away from his face I see his smile is a little crooked, but, really cute. He starts yammering on while I study him. His hair is brown, but in the light you can see strands of blond hair. Whenever he talks he waves his hands around in the air. To be honest….

“Serafina? Are you listening?” You could tell he was slightly annoyed by the tone in his voice.

“Uh…yes, but, uh… refresh my memory?” I say a little ashamed I didn’t hear him. He grabs my hand with a huff, and leads me to his room, planting me in front of his computer screen. It had a whole bunch of gibberish on it. I wrinkle my nose, “What?” I turn to look at him.

“As you can see-” Darin says in his best scientific voice-“I am creating a computer software program that can give information about anyone in just a few seconds!” He lets out a big puff of breath. “Wanna try?” He motions me to sit in the seat before I can say yes. He starts to enter numbers and letters on the computer. “Now! What should we ask first?” He looks at me questioningly.

“Just to make sure it works, how about if we ask, what is my favorite book?” I say, hoping it works.

“Here goes nothing,” Darin types in my question. A loading sign pops up. Loading…. Loading…. Loading…. Words appear on the screen. They say, “Serafina likes the book …She doesn’t have a favorite book. Only a favorite series.” The computer screen goes blank. Darin looks at me.

“So? Is that right?”

“Yes!!!” I shout amazed!

“Okay then, let’s ask why your reflection is words.” He starts to type.

“Wait, and why I bleed words!” I add. He nods at me. Click, clack, click.

 Unexpectedly, the screen goes red. Big block letters appear on the screen. ERORR! ERORR! ERORR! I jump back, startled. Mumbling under his breath, Darin starts to type away. Finally, the screen goes back to normal.

“I don’t get it; I got rid of all the bugs and everything!” Darin pouted.

“It’s okay!” I say. “How about you take a break and go get us a snack?” I push him out of the room.

“Sheesh…fine, if that’s what you want.” I hear him thumping down the stairs. Finally alone, I eagerly type a question in the computer. That was a mistake.

At home I stomp over to my parents. “We need to talk.” I say harshly.

Mom and Dad look at me, their eyebrows narrowing.

           “Now, young lady, do not speak to your father-” I cut mom off,-“Why? Why did you lie to me for FIFTEEN years! Did you think I would never find out?” I scream. “My whole life I thought you two were born in Ohio! Nope. Actually, you came from a book!” I cross my arms and feel my eyes start to burn. My parents start to stammer. “Why?” I say quietly as I sink to the floor. I let the tears flow. “Why?” I ask again.

           My dad sighs. My mom sighs. I sigh. “So let me get this straight, you two stole a magic potion, and poured it onto a book. Then, you came to here, to the real world. But, why did you come here?” I question.

           “I know it might seem a little crazy, but we wanted to experience the real world! We wanted to see, feel, and hear the noise, see the world!” Dad answered, happily and dreamily.

           “Honey, we also wanted to raise you with a better life than we had.” Mom added. I nodded. Of course, that made sense. Kind of. It’s hard to know that technically you’re a character in real life, but you’re actually a character in a book, too.

           “I want to see the book.” I said quietly. Mom and Dad nodded and went up to their room. A few minutes later they brought back a book. It was brown and dusty. I blew of the dust, and looked at the title. It read “The World” in gold letters.

           “What was it like? In there I mean.” I point to the book.

           “It was nice, but it didn’t feel right. Everyone did the same exact thing everyday, same weather, same clothes, same house, same looks, same everything.” Mom said.

           “Oh.” I kind of imagined it perfect, I mean in every book I’ve read everything turns out all right. I guess not this one.

           “Why was I bleeding blood and why is my reflection words?” I ask.

           “Well-” Dad started-“Your body hasn’t really adapted to this world quite yet, you see we figure you’ll adapt about at age seventeen.”

           “Sweetie, we love you no matter what.” Mom says. They both hug me.

I hug them both back. Burying my head in their shoulders, I say, “I love you ,too.”