Multiverse of Magic & Mistakes (Completed)

1.1.4 Chapter 4

Bath, UK, Earth, June 2019

Violet Olivia Talloway pushed open the door to her physics classroom and breathed in the familiar clean science lab smell. The previous class must have been learning about magnets, as various small curved metal objects, most painted with one end red, and the other end blue, lay scattered around the room.

Dr Io, the friendly physics teacher must be running late. So, must the rest of the class, for Vi was alone in the classroom. She resolved to help tidy up and put the magnets back in their box on the teacher's desk. She started with the desk she shared with Eli. Violet reached out for the first magnet, but just as her fingers were about to touch the metal it disappeared, simply vanishing from the desk in front of her. Vi reached out to the second magnet on the other side of the table. Again, just as she was about to touch it, it was no longer there.

Vi hurried to the next desk. The same again. Every time she nearly touched a magnet it vanished. Just as her fingers were about to touch the object it was no longer there. What was happening? Where were the magnets going? Vi ran over to the next desk, then the next. Same again. After all the magnets had gone, other classroom items began to disappear. First the smartboard, then the stools, the vast collection of textbooks at the back of the room. All of the desks. Everything vanished one item at a time until Violet was left alone, screaming, puzzled and terrified in a vast black void.

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Vi awoke with a start, pushing her hair, back from her face. The bedcovers had been kicked to the floor, and her sheets were damp with sweat. Another night of strange dreams and restless sleep. All her dreams were like that. In the week since Clara's party, she felt like she had barely slept. All her nights were full of items disappearing one by one, buildings disintegrating until Vi was left alone, floating in an endless abyss of space and time. In all her dreams she was screaming. Screaming and alone for the rest of eternity.

What did it mean? Why was everything vanishing? Was she going mad?

Potentially going mad or not, Violet had to head into work. She had been working Saturdays and some evenings at Gulliver's Travel Agency throughout the last year. Gulliver had called her a few days ago, asking if she could take on more hours over the busy summer season. Middy had let out such a strange noise when Vi had called Lily to announce, she had got a "proper summer job" that she had dropped the phone and rushed over to her wheezing and hacking pet. Hairballs, Vi had assumed, stroking his back. When she later tried to imitate the noise to her parents, she realised it almost sounded like the cat had been laughing at her news.

It was a minimum wage, fairly dull affair; the job mainly consisted of entering customer details into various hotel and flight booking systems and re-arranging brochures on the shelves. But Mr G (as he was known to his staff) had seemed impressed by Vi's persistence and ability to decipher clients terrible handwriting on their travel booking forms. Lily also had a summer job, at the Rainbow Roast Café which was only a few doors further down the high street, so on days when both Vi and Lily were at work, they would usually meet at lunchtime and bemoan all the rude or indecisive customers they had encountered.

Vi showered, dressed in her hideous work uniform (black shoes, black trousers, and garish globe-print shirt), put on some make-up and twisted her hair up into a neat bun. There! She looked presentable, even if her brain was a mess and her body ached from lack of sleep. Vi picked up her purple school bag, which has been re-purposed as a work bag and headed downstairs.

As she reached the bottom of the stairs, Vi heard a vociferous mixture of hissing, scratching, meowing, and running water. As she entered the room, Vi could see the source of the racket. Middy was locked inside his cat carrying case on the countertop, and he was making his displeasure loudly known. Her father was standing by the sink, running cold water over several scratches upon his hands and forearms.