Hello all! So, I recently re-read my favorite book series, and I am seriously on a craze right now. I have loved these books since my middle school days (AWK). I cannot express my love in these meager mortal words.

What other way to deal with an addiction other than to write about it? HAHAHA. That's the way to more addicted. OH WELL.

Tell me what you guys think! And if you haven't read Gregor the Overlander, you haven't lived life. Run to the nearest library IMMEDIATELY.

Prologue

It was in Disney World that I realized the truth.

In the middle of the Rock and Roll Rollercoaster, right at the peak of the upside down loop, the ride decided to malfunction. With the loud shriek of metal-against-metal, the ride slammed to a stop, violently jerking the poor passengers against the back of their seats. We were suspended, upside down, hands hanging in midair, silent, as the panic started to descend.

I was, to say the least, the furthest from a risk taker you'll ever meet. YOLO? No sir. I'll pass. So playing football with my sister in the yard can hurt me? Yeah, I'd rather not. Fifteen years old, and I've never broken a bone, sprained something, twisted anything, or had to go to the hospital for any reason related to myself. I've never even been stung by a bee. Yes, I live on the safe side of the tracks. So deciding to ride the Rock and Roll Rollercoaster, a ride that went from 0 to whatever in less than a second then proceeded to slam the defenseless riders through a course of twists, sudden turns, and one upside down loop, was rather uncharacteristic of me. Yet, decide my conscience, I rode it anyways.

I sometimes wonder what would have happened if I had listened to my conscience. It haunts me at night. How much easier would life be if I had simply opted not to go, like I had every time before when I had been offered to ride?

Anyways.

We were hanging there as my heart lurched somewhere far down, and my blood started to coil. The tips of my fingers began to tingle as panic started to surge through my body. The screaming from other passengers that had previously been from ecstatic joy morphed into shouts of terror as they realized the predicament they were trapped in.

I heard my sisters begin to scream and cry, and my parents try to console them. I didn't scream, just started jerking and wiggling, trying to free myself from the seat. I started to panic, throwing myself violently against the bar that was currently pressing very uncomfortably against my shoulders and neck.

Deep breaths, Mara, I reminded myself. Calm down.

Like I normally did when presented into an emergency situation, my mind instantly cleared itself. Like a slate wiped clean, my priorities started to line up.

One, get out of the car. Two, get your family out of the car. Three, start helping others get out.

My trembling fingers pushed up against the bar, but it refused to budge. At that moment, the lights flicked on and the intercom told us to remain calm and stay in our seats.

The harsh lights illuminated the room, making me immediately squint my eyes. In the distance, I recognized a large, dark form slam against a wall before scurrying away and disappearing from sight. My brain registered it as unimportant, focusing solely on the bar. If I could push up, against the pull of gravity, I might be able to squeeze myself through the headlock. I wedged my hands between my shoulders and the bar, and I started to push up. I could hear attendants start to flood the room, hastily freeing the people stuck on either ends of the 'coaster first. Unfortunately, my family was in the middle.

I continued my task, my trembling arms painstakingly raising my body, inch by inch, until I could start to pull my face through. My head, as suspected, got stuck about halfway through, and I had to fight against the urge to spazz until I got myself free. Claustrophobia was a deadly fear to have. My cheeks were smashed painfully against my head as I pulled harder. With a pop, my head was yanked free. My hands flew out, and my foot caught on the edge of the car, the only thing that kept me from plummeting the thirty feet to the ground. I cried out in fear, my hands scrabbling to find a hold as my body started falling. Finally, one had snagged against the hanging compartment bag that was supposed to hold stray items like sunglasses and purses that may fly out of the car. One of the attendants told me to hang on. I clung onto the net as tightly as I could, but I had never been a very strong girl. It was miracle I hung on as long as I did. Long enough for someone to push a ladder up under me and manage to catch me as my fingers released hold of the net.

Everyone made it out of the rollercoaster shaken up, but unharmed. My family was laughing almost as soon as we got out of the building.

It wasn't until we were back at the condo, and I was reliving the experience that it dawned on me. The huge form I had seen when the lights went on… that had been…

A rat.

My eyes had seen it, but my mind hadn't digested it. Now that I had time to think, the upside-down form had most definitely been a massive, almost six-feet-tall, living, breathing rat.

The thought made my muscles clench up and chills run down my spine. Goosebumps rose by the hundreds over my arms and legs, and the hair on the back of my neck stood erect. My thoughts instantly flew to a book series I had read back in seventh grade, when I was all legs and braces and awkward… even more so than I was today, if that was even possible. To this day, it was my favorite series, even though I hadn't picked one up since I was twelve. Instantly, the name conjured in my mind.

Gregor the Overlander. The story of a young boy who got sucked down into the dramas of a world far beneath the city of New York, where it was war and bats and huge rats.

My mind wrestled with itself for hours. It couldn't be true. Sure it could. The books were fiction. What about the rat you had seen? A mutation; an escaped science experiment. What if it wasn't? But it was. Back and forth, back and forth. The rational part of mind, and the other part that desperately wished that it was an Underland rat I had seen. Because if I had seen an Underlander, that meant that my favorite books had come to life, and, with them, my favorite character of all time.

It'd been nearly impossible to concentrate on anything else the entirety of the trip. On times when I was gleeful, I managed to convince myself that yes, it was true. And instead of watching Mickey Mouse pass by on top of his parade float, I was fantasizing of myself in Regalia, hacking away at legions of rats with Gregor and Luxa by my side. But, in the despairing loneliness off nights, sheer logic claimed my mind, and I sunk into the sorrowful belief that it couldn't be true.

It wouldn't be until three months later, during my family's unexpected trip to New York City, that I would get a chance to prove my rational self wrong.

Soooooo? What'd you think? Read and review!

XOXO