Dimensioners

Chapter 2

You never responded to me, Tavian! Did you take the Traveler? It was gone! Poof disappeared just like my sister. Get back to me soon. I can’t be stuck in this Dimension forever.

                                                     ~~ 

After the initial Crisis warning, and the whole thing with that guy on every phone, television, tablet, and computer screen in the world (!), the government decided it would be smart for them to close down every road, inflict a national curfew, and basically act like the parents of a child-who was previously homeschooled- entering middle school.

            So Peggy and Kara were stuck at my house, but that wasn’t the bad part. We got to stay up late talking, eat whenever we wanted (that was a sucky idea) and never ran out of phone battery, because they were constantly on the charger.

            On the downside, we couldn’t leave the house, go to the mall, or restock on food (the reason eating whenever was a bad idea). Eventually, we watched all of the interesting movies, tried on all of my clothes, and tired of scrolling through the same posts on every social media site. All anyone cared about was the stupid freaking Crisis.

            My parents thought it was a load of cow crap. They emailed Georgia’s congressman almost daily trying to persuade them to reopen the roads. No such luck.

            You know when you go to sleep away camp, and most likely, you get into a fight with your bunkmates? You sleep in the same room, get ready in the same room, brush your teeth and hair together, etc.? Well that’s how it seemed to get with Kara, Peggy, and I. After 5 days of solitude, we simultaneously snapped.

            I tried my best to avoid them all day, but in an addition to national solitude, my parents forced us to stay upstairs.

            “We’re working today,” they told us. “So you need to stay upstairs.”

            There were 4 rooms on the second floor of our house, and I was getting tired of my own. Following a nearly silent breakfast, I grabbed a book from my room and locked myself in the office.

            I heard footsteps coming up the stairs a few minutes later, and a few minutes after that, more. 10 minutes later, I snapped the book shut. I could hardly concentrate on one word! I slid my phone out of my pocket and texted Devon. He responded almost a second later. I jumped at the sudden buzz and smiled.

            Me: hey

            Devon: hey!

            Me: this sucks

            Devon: oh you mean national confinement? Its all good. Not

            Me: lol and kara and peg can’t leave either

            Devon: really? I managed to get back to my house before the restriction.

            Me: lucky u

            Devon: ikr

            It went on like that for the better part of an hour, discussing, unfortunately, the Crisis.

            Eventually, we ran out of things to talk about, and I decided to go see what was up with my parents. I tiptoed out of the office and down the stairs, and then slipped into the dining room where anyone talking in the kitchen could be heard.

            Slivers of conversation floated through the door and I strained to hear what they were saying.

            “Vilah… her friends… dangerous, honey… Altorians…your family,” I heard from my mother.