𝙹𝚞𝚜𝚝 𝙸𝚖𝚊𝚐𝚒𝚗𝚎 ✍︎ 𝙰𝚗𝚗𝚊 𝙱𝚊𝚒𝚕𝚎𝚢

𝚆𝙸𝚂𝙷𝙸𝙽𝙶 𝚂𝙿𝙴𝙻𝙻 ✍︎ 8

Anna was no longer in her bedroom, she was in a world of light. Or rather, she was falling.

She fell faster and faster, harder and harder. She could hear birds chirping in trees around them... leaves rustling... but she just kept falling and falling... not knowing where she was...

"OUCH!" Anna shouted to herself as she hit the ground with impact hard enough to hurt but not enough to injure. But she didn't really care how hurt she was.

Standing up, she muttered to herself. "Where am I?"

It was true, of course, for she had no idea where she was. She was on a dirt path in the middle of a dark forest, tall, ominous trees surrounding her on almost every side.

Anna was confused. Was she overreacting or not reacting enough to what had just happened. And what had just happened?

She looked up, expecting to see a portal back and her bedroom ceiling, but instead she saw sky and tree branches above her.

"Ow!"

Alex had fallen too, and had just landed in the exact same spot Anna had been.

"Where are we?" She asked, looking around in awe.

"No idea," Anna answered. "Hey, is Conner-"

"AAAAAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHH!"

Conner was the loudest of all three triplets, hitting the ground hardest as well. He spoke manically from the ground with his eyes shut tight. "Am I alive? Am I dying? Am I dead-"

"You're fine!" Anna laughed.

"Anna, is that you?" Conner asked, still with his eyes shut. "Alex?"

"We're both here," Anna answered. "We're all alive!" She had never been so happy to see both her siblings.

"But where is here?" Conner asked. He had opened his eyes and looked around, hastily getting up.

"It's some kind of... forest," Alex said, shrugging. For once, she didn't know an answer.

But it was unlike any forest the triplets had ever seen. The colours were bright and vivid, and the air so crisp. It was as if they had fallen into a painting.

"Look!" Alex pointed to a point a few metres away. "All our pencils!"

And as they looked, they saw Anna's and Alex's and even a few of Conner's (which Anna had stolen dutifully) pencils littering the path. They also saw the dirty socks and the school bag, but-

"I thought you said that you dropped books in?" Conner asked Anna.

"I did," Anna said, looking around. "Loads of them. I can't understand why they aren't here... but this is where they all went..."

"But where is here?" Conner asked.

Anna nor Alex had an answer. They hated to say it, but the Bailey triplets were worse than lost.

"This is your fault, Anna!" Conner shouted at his sister.

"My fault?" Anna echoed. "We wouldn't be here if you had just knocked on my door instead of barging in like the house was on fire!"

"I knew you were planning this!" Conner retorted. "I had to stop you!"

"I wasn't 'planning' anything! I just wanted to see if it was possible! You didn't have to follow me, or Alex, if she came through after!"

"Oh yeah?" Conner asked. "What would I have said to mum when she got home. "Hi, how was your day? Oh, fine, Anna and Alex just fell into a book! What's for dinner?" How would that have turned out? Give me a break!"