Chapter 1
It all started with a swing. It went all the way around the bars, and upside down over and over again until I was flung into the sky. Don't believe me? You try it. Then again, don't. I didn't mean for it to happen. Unfortunately, it wasn't a coincidence either. I was on a swing at the park, thinking about the Harry Potter books. They were so good, so different, so...me! I was obsessed. I still am. And yet I wonder if it was all a dream. A dream from which I still have a souvenir. Magic.
Okay, by now you probably think I'm some lunatic who can't write a single paragraph without changing the topic at least 3 times. I should start over. I'm Ashley Doyles. I'm 11 years old and I believe in magic. I read too much and I'm obsessed with the Harry Potter books. Well, I think that about covers it. Let me go on with the story.
One day at the township park, I was sitting on the unmoving swing, thinking about how cool Hermione Granger was. Until suddenly the swing, all by itself, started to move. I looked up, confused. There was no breeze. What was happening?
The swing started to go faster and faster. I tried to stop it, but my toes couldn't reach the ground. I tried to leap off, but some invisible force was holding me back. The swing swung higher and higher, I called out in distress. The parents, the kids, the dogs, none of them heard me. The chain swung around and finally over the bar. I shrieked as gravitational force kept me pushed onto the fast moving swing. Finally, the chain broke. I was flung into the sky. I looked down and saw the people in the park going on with their activities as if they couldn't hear or see my distress.
I went up for about 10 seconds, gripping the bars so tightly that my fingers began to turn white. Suddenly, the blue of the sky faded into a bright purplish pink color and the world dissolved around me.
The first word that popped into my mind was "portal". And that's exactly what it was.