Forlot: A Girl Who Needs Her Space - Book Thirty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

You can probably guess that we did not bow to Eposis. We did not bow to him for two reasons. One, my friend and I do not bow to anybody but Jesus. Eposis is not a king and will never be one. And two, we were in shock. We were so shocked that we could not move or speak. Well, I was in shock. Karma was just confused.

She was still rubbing her nose. "'Eposis'?" she repeated his name. "Wait a second. Is that your name?"

"The only name that I have ever known," he replied. "I bet that you do not know what it means."

"What does it mean?" I asked as I tried to hide the fear in my voice.

He clasped his big, purple hands together. "I am soooo glad that you asked. Seeing that you ladies are not the sharpest tools in the shed, I will be more than happy to tell you."

"Did he just tell us that we are not the sharpest tools in the shed?" Karma asked me.

Eposis floated closer to us and cleared his throat. "The name is another word for...let us see...what would be a good - or in this case, evil - word to use?"

I would be lying if I said that what Eposis did next did not make me giggle. He reminded me of a genie.

He snapped his fingers, and a red dictionary appeared next to him. He took it and flipped through the pages.

"Darn it," he said. "Where are those glasses of mine?"

He snapped his fingers again, and a pair of old glasses appeared on his face. He adjusted them and continued flipping through the dictionary.

Karma brought her face close to mine. "I think that we should go now while he is distracted," she whispered.

"Agreed," I whispered back. "But where should we go? We cannot go that way because the wall is blocking our path." I placed my hand on the invisible wall.

"How about we go in a building?" She pointed at a tall building closest to us. "You and I can hide out in there until Eposis is gone."

I glanced up at Eposis, and then back at her. "I believe that I know how we can get away from him."

"How?"

"First, let us get in that building. I will show you then."

I grabbed her hand, and we dashed to the tall building. I figured that Eposis would notice us fleeing and place another invisible wall in front of us. To my surprise, he never did. Guess that the guy was too invested in what he was doing.

I wrapped my thumb and fingers around the knob and quietly opened the door. Karma and I squeezed inside, and I shut the door behind us. I then fell on my hands and knees.

"Carmen," Karma whispered. "You alright?"

"Get on your hands and knees," I instructed her.

"Why?"

"All the curtains in this room are parted. Eposis surely will spot us, and I do not think that you want that."

She joined me on the floor. "You have a point there."

We decided to hide in the kitchen that was across from us and crawled on our hands and knees. Goodness. Let me tell you that crawling on your hands and knees is a hassle. It is easier said than done, especially when you are on the carpet. You will scrape your knees if you are not careful.

We were close to the kitchen, when Karma said, "Ow!"

I put a finger over my lips and shushed her. "Shh. You need to keep your voice down."

"Sorry, Carmen. It is just that I scraped myself."

"You did? Where?"

"Right on my knee." She showed me her knee.

I squinted at the cut and touched it.

"Ow!" She covered her mouth. "Sorry."

"The good news is that it is not bleeding," I said. "But I do not think that there is a band-aid around here."

She covered the cut. "We need to cover it, Carmen. I do not want to die from an infection."

"You will not die from an infection. Not on my watch." I looked at my watch. "I forgot about my watch. It will help us."

"Not that I think that you are crazy, Carmen...but how is your watch supposed to help us?"

"I will explain when we are safe and sound back in our own time."

"'Back in our own time'? What are you—"

"Going back in time," the watch interrupted her.

I pulled Karma close to me as we travelled in time. In a matter of seconds, we were back where we started. We were back in the girls' bathroom. We stood, and I took her hand.

"Come on," I said as I tugged her out of the bathroom. "You need to see the nurse."

Karma jerked her hand free and crossed her arms. "We are not going anywhere until you tell me what the heck is going on."

I pushed up my glasses. "Karma. I know that it is hard to believe, but...we went back in time."

Her eyes went wide. "We what?"

"You and I went back in time."

"When the heck did we go back in time?"

"We were in World War II seconds ago."

She pressed her hands to her cheeks. "My gosh. Now it makes sense."

I quirked an eyebrow. "It...it does?"

"It explains why that town looked nothing like Forlot. With the tall buildings and the posters hanging all over the place."

"It was a city, Karma. Not a town."

"There is no difference between a city and a town, now is there?"

I shrugged. "You are asking the wrong person."

She pointed at my watch. "So that watch can bring you to any time period?"

"Yep. And it is not the only magical object." I unzipped my backpack and pulled out the music box. "But I have no clue what it does."