The Universe in the Journal
Have you ever found something that looked as if it didn't belong in this world? Or wondered where that thing could have come from, if not here?
As Maddie walked down the cracked sidewalk from the bus stop to her house, she realized that she had read all of her books and she needed more. There was a brand new section in her local library and she had yet to explore it. She texted her dad that she would be at the library and to expect her home in about an hour. He responded instantly and told her that was fine.
Maddie walked toward the new section in awe as she looked at all the books she had not read, or even heard of. Most of the books were brand new and most had yet to be read, but one book in the middle of the new biographies was slightly worn. Most would assume that an old book slipped in with the new ones by mistake and let the librarian handle it, but Maddie has quite the imagination and jumped to the book like it was the last piece of food she'd have for months. The book was light green and had no writing on the cover whatsoever.
The fact the book had no writing on the cover just added to Maddie's interest. She opened the book cautiously and peeked inside. On the inside of the journal there were pages among pages of writing, each page was filled to the brim with notes on who knows what. None of the information on the pages made sense! There were a few recurring words that made things even more confusing. Maddie couldn't help but wonder what those usually normal, ordinary words or even new words meant. One of the most confusing terms that kept coming up in the book was witches. If this was in the biography section shouldn't it be true? There was no such thing as witches as far as Maddie knew.
She walked up to the Librarian's desk and asked if she could check it out. The Librarian looked confused and said, "All of the libraries books have covers, I don't know where that came from but it's not ours. So if you want it you can take it." Maddie nodded, confused as to how the book got, not only on the libraries shelves, but in the new section too. She hummed as she twirled one of her blonde pigtails in wonder.
As she walked home Maddie lightly skimmed through the journal, trying to figure it out. When she got home her dad asked her how it went, but she was too busy looking through the book to notice. When she got to her room she read through the entire journal, hardly believing what she was reading. When she was done reading the journal she looked down at it and looked through it again to make sure she hadn't dreamed it all up. She had not, the book was the same as when she read it.
Maddie was so excited she thought she might burst, she had found a book from a person from an alternate universe! It was the only explanation, after all if someone could turn into an object, it would be all over the news if that really existed. Yes in the book it says this girls friends can turn into objects! This was a scientific breakthrough, proof of an alternate universe!
Maddie knew her best friend, Sam would know what to do if he was in this situation, but she did not, so she called him up and told him to come to her house as soon as possible. A few minutes later and the doorbell rang.
At the front door Sam started to get anxious, it was unusual for Maddie to tell him to come over out of nowhere, without any explanation. Before he knew it he was met with a familiar pair of green eyes. "Oh thank goodness, I need your help come on!" and with that Sam was dragged into the house by Maddie.
"By the way will you ever tell me if you wear those eye changing contacts, red can't be a natural eye color, and I mean you must have dyed your hair too, that's the whitest hair I've ever seen." Maddie asked, the thought coming from nowhere. Sam sighed, " Where did that come from? Is that why you asked me here because if it is I'm leaving." Maddie shook her head but said nothing, continuing to drag her friend upstairs.
After explaining what happened to Sam and showing him the book, Maddie explained her theory. At first Sam argued the girl could have just accidentally became best friends with cyborgs, but Maddie explained that the girl knew about it, even in the very first entry in the journal. Finally Sam agreed with her but asked her what they should do about it. Suddenly Maddie had an idea. "In a book I read once," Sam groaned, it was all about books with her, "the character was in a similar situation, and to talk to the ghost the protagonist wrote the ghost back in the journal. So why don't we do that?" Sam shrugged, "I'm cool with it."
Maddie took the journal and began to write some of the many questions she had for the alternate universe people. From things like How did this journal get to this universe? to things like What's your favorite food? Sam was growing bored with Maddie's random questions and the silence in the room did not help.
"Do you really think this'll work, I mean even if it did work wouldn't the people on the other side need time to write back? You should slow down and write one question and then wait for a minute and stop acting so uncool." Sam said slightly pulling on the collar of his yellow jacket. Maddie paused in her writing for a minute before putting down her pencil and leaving the questions she had wrote.
After about ten minutes and still no reply Maddie and Sam were about to try something new when the last letter Maddie wrote started to glow. After the last letter more words started to appear, most answering Maddie's questions. The writer even answer some of the more ridiculous questions like Do you think tomatoes are fruits or vegetables? and Are there any good books about books in your universe? Then the writer told them of her predicament.
In my world there was an evil witch named Medusa, who did horrible things I don't even want to talk about, but she's been missing for a while. Nobody's reported anything about her, but I think somehow she came to your world. Be on your guard, though it may not help she almost defeated my academy's best witch slayer. Sorry we got you into this mess. -Maka P.S I think we may be able to talk sort of face to face if you look at that mirror.
Suddenly in front of the duo was a mirror that wasn't there before, it was a small compact mirror that would fit in your pocket. They took the mirror from the space where it was magically floating and looked at it quizzically. Then the mirror started to glow similarly to the way the notebook had. A sound much like that of a ringing phone filled the now somehow even quieter room. The mirrors face had been taken over by a continuous ripple effect.
When the screen cleared it appeared as if nothing had changed, Maddie and Sam were still looking intently at the small mirror and their reflections seemed to be looking back at them, but somehow their reflections had different clothing than them. Maddie couldn't hold back the gasp that came through her lips. How did the mirror do that? Something then happened that scared them senseless, the reflections began to move around when they didn't!
Their 'reflections' waved to them and their mouths started to move, yet no sound came out. Sam held his hand next to his ear in the 'I can't hear you' motion. The people on the other side of the mirror seemed to understand and began to talk to someone beyond the bounds of where the mirror could see. Maddie and Sam's ears were soon flooded by the sounds of people yelling, what they were yelling about though was inconceivable.
Their reflections soon came back into the view of the mirror as the shouting died down. The girl waved at them before she began talking, "Hello, you must be pretty confused right now. Most people in your universe don't communicate by mirror right? Well if you would let me explain in further details, I would love to help." The young 16 year olds nodded their heads excitedly.
"As I explained the first time we 'talked' everyone here thinks the witch Medusa is in your universe. Our intelligence teams have informed us that if she did get to your world, she was forced to go there and will be looking for anyway out. If she finds out about this journal or this conversation you will be in even more danger than anyone else in your universe." Maddie and Sam looked at her with wide eyes, sure in the journal she had said something similar to being killed but actually hearing it was terrifying.
"Typically we would be almost ready with our plans to get someone over there to help defeat Medusa but our top researcher is somewhat ill at the moment, so progress in going a bit slower. Hopefully he will be well soon." From all Maddie had heard so far this girl was Maka, the one who wrote back to them in the journal, but she didn't know who anyone else was. Not that she was expected to but in the journal it explains most of Maka's friends.
"So why do we look the same?" Sam finally questioned. "Oh that's simple, we're your alternate universe selves." Maka exclaimed happily. "Okay then what's alternate-universe-me's name?" Sam asked again, still doubtful. "Soul" Soul replied. "Why are your names so weird?" Thus the plethora of weird questions continued to flow from Sam's mouth. "And I ask too many questions." Maddie couldn't help but mutter under her breath.
After that fateful encounter Maddie and Sam dreaded having to go back to school as if nothing had happened. Yet at the same time they still had to be cautious for the witch. Even worse than that was the fact that they couldn't tell their other friends about the journal either, Maka had explained that if their friends knew anything and Medusa found out, then she could and would do anything to get answers. It was very hard because their friends noticed that they had been hanging out together more and acting sneaky. Almost half of them just thought that they were dating and were too shy to admit it and to just come out and tell them but the others had their own crazy ideas. Everyday Maddie and Sam had to make up a see through excuse to get away from the constant questions.
Finally one day Sam was so annoyed at all the questioning that he almost set the school on fire, on accident of course, kind of , needless to say his friends stopped the questions for a while. Progressively they started to ask questions again and this time it was almost worse than the last time. Maddie almost caved in several times but then reminded herself of the hurt she could cause her friends and stayed strong.
After school one day Maddie and Sam were walking to Maddie's house to discuss how to deal with their friends, as they got closer to her house they noticed that Maka and Soul were standing on the sidewalk. "How did you get here?" Maddie asked. "Our top researcher got better and made us a portal in no time, so we came to your universe." Maka explained. Once again all Maddie and Sam could do was nod, these people thought the weirdest things were normal.
Maddie and Sam gave the newcomers a tour of the town, to let them get a feel for where the witch was. While they were walking around there were several times when Maka would lean in and whisper something to Soul but Maddie and Sam could never hear what she said. Then when Maka and Soul were looking at a Starbucks with confused looks on their faces a shadow passed over Maddie and Sam and suddenly there was a blonde woman in front of them .
When Maka and Soul saw what was happening Maka got into a battle stance and Soul transformed into a blender?! "What?" Maka screeched in surprise. The woman laughed, "Looks like the transformation is different here." She said in a pleased voice. "Medusa, what is your goal?" Maka asked the semi-introduce Medusa. "I have no goal, I was simply pushed in here by my enemy and want to get out." Medusa laughed again.
Out of nowhere Maddie jumped in and punched Medusa repeatedly in the face, until she was bruised all over. "You little brat, you dare to punch the great witch Medusa?" Medusa yelled. In response Sam kicked her in the face, knocking her unconscious. Maka and Soul's mouths hung open. "How did you do that?" Soul asked in disbelief. "I don't know, but she was getting really annoying so I punched her." Maddie replied somewhat surprised at her own actions.
"I guess you don't need special powers to kick butt huh, Maka?" Soul asked "Nope!" Came Maka's excited reply. "Guess we better get going, Dr. Stein said the portal won't be open long." Maka said "Stein? As in Frankenstein?" Maddie asked in shock. "Yeah, how do you know our professor?" Maka questioned. In response Maddie and Sam shook their heads.
"So how was your day sweetie?" Maddie's dad questioned with deep interest. "You don't even want to know." Maddie exclaimed. "Oh yes I do honey-bun, come on tell your Papa what happened!" "No! Dad back off." "Please, Maddie, Papa wants to talk to you!" "Well I don't want to talk to you!" Maddie explained as she ran away from her dad.