Chapter One
It was a lazy Wednesday, and school had been out for at least 5 weeks. Karen sat on the wooden swing under the ancient oak, listening to her CD player and wondering what she could do. Both of her parents were at work, so she couldn't go anywhere. Not to mention, her older brother was busy on the computer, so she knew it would be impossible to ask him to do anything with her.
'I should be at the beach or on vacation somewhere, like everyone else I know! Not stuck at home, dying of boredom!' Sighing, she cut off the CD player, and walked aimlessly around her family's property. After a few minutes, she found herself at the beginning of a trail that led through the woods at the back of the property. Being very familiar with the trail, and having nothing better to do, she quickly found herself surrounded by the calm of the forest and the warmth of the sun. She wandered along, occasionally going into the tree line to investigate a noise, or to explore the terrain. After what seemed like an hour, she came to a place in the trail that forked into 3 paths.
Much to her surprise, in the center of the fork was what appeared to be a swirling, blue-violet portal, almost 10 feet tall, hovering in mid-air.
Karen's POV
I blinked several times. 'I can't really be seeing this. There's no way!' I thought. I walked around it a couple of times, just to make sure that the summer heat wasn't playing tricks on my eyes. It wasn't. The portal-thing was about an eighth of an inch thick, barely a scratch in the air from the side. I didn't know what to do. Should I go through, and hope for the best, or turn away and never come back? Out of pure curiosity, I timidly held out my hand, and put my fingers through. I pulled them out after a few seconds, looking them over very carefully.
My fingers weren't wet, scorched, bloodied nubs, or anything, almost as if I hadn't even put them through. My curiosity soon got the better of me, and, holding my breath, I stepped into the portal. Bad idea! It felt like I was in a space rift for an eternity, both burning up and freezing. Suddenly, I felt myself dropping to the ground. I realized that I had shut my eyes during the "trip", so upon opening them, I was surprised to find myself looking at...more trees. It was like I had never left the forest back home! I was so frustrated, I felt that I needed to kick something or I'd explode!
Looking around for said something to kick, it suddenly dawned on me that I was standing on a stone-paved trail. 'Now, that's not right,' I thought to myself, 'Where the heck am I?' Boy was I confused! Finally getting tired of being so clueless, I decided to follow the trail, just to see where it would take me. I must have been walking for a few hours, because the sun started to set.
"Dang it! What am I supposed to do now if I can't get to the end of this thing by nightfall?!" I hurried down the path, first at a jog, then at a run. Almost out of no where, the path ended, and a huge clearing appeared with a two-story house sitting right in the middle of it.
o.0 "What the-? Where the heck did this thing come from?!"