I Guess I'm A Traveler

Chapter 15: Then the Grounding (Alex)

Chapter 15

Alex

Then the Grounding

I smiled at Ned again before I shut the car door. He was like my anchor; he was constantly there to hold me down before I floated away in a sea of worry. Not only that, but he was so nice and caring. He was the one that pushed the group to come save Dan and I, even though it was against the rules. It made me feel special.

             “Holy shit,” Sydney had said when she saw me, before I’d managed to open her window and dive inside.

         The problem was that I went feet first and let myself drop, prepared to land on my butt on Syd’s bed, except she must have recently redecorated because my butt landed on the hard carpet instead of a cushioned mattress. When I’d turned around I had realized that her room was redecorated, and her bed had been moved to the opposite side of the room. Now, however, Sydney had entered the room and was staring at me like I was some sort of Woodtopian beast.

            “What?” I asked her, now scared.

            “You look like hell. What happened to you, Alex?” she asked, hurrying over to me.

            I stood up, brushing myself off. “A lot of things… things that I can’t really tell you about. Remember what I told you about before?”

            “Uh… that you think you can somehow go to other worlds or something?” she asked me.

            “Yeah, that. Well, it has to do with that. I was sort of held captive by these bad people in this other world for the past day…”

            “What!” she asked, looking at me. “You were held captive somewhere? We should call the police. Alex, I ca-“

            I quickly cut her off. “Shhhhhhh.” I put my finger over her mouth. “The police can’t exactly travel to an entirely different world, can they?”

            “Uh….” She stared at me as I walked over to her full-length mirror.

            “Oh my God,” I said to my reflection. My dark hair was frizzy and matted, my dark eyes had bags under them, proving them to be tired. My wrists were still red, and it was really noticeable, so I knew I was going to have to wear long-sleeved shirts around my parents for the next few days. My legs were completely scratched up from running around in the forest of Woodtopia. My foot especially hurt from being the one to trip over the damn branch that had been set in my way. On top of all of that, I seemed to be covered in a lot of dirt. “I look disgusting!” I turned to look at Sydney and half-closed my eyes, opening my mouth slightly, and started to limp-walk towards her. Then I said in a sarcastic voice, “Brainssssssss.”

            “Um…” she didn’t laugh and I stopped my impersonation. “Alex, I’m seriously worried about you.”

            “Don’t worry, Syd. I’m fine. I chose this, to be a Traveler. It sucks though, because I’m hurting a lot of people.”

            “Alex, I don’t think you realize how many people were worried about you. Your parents called and asked me where you were, and I had to lie and cover for you. They said that you said you were coming over here, so I figured that maybe you were with Dale, but then Dale called and asked me where you were too. I thought something bad might have happened to you, I’ve been worrying all day and was even debating on whether or not I should tell your parents to call the police to search for you.” She was breathing hard, trying to get all of the words out, but they didn’t seem to be coming out fast enough for her. “I thought that you might have been kidnapped. And the things you told me the other night just confused me more…”