The Paradox Corridor

Chapter 1: Meet me in Saint Louie

James sighed. The bus ride was taking forever. Not that he was really complaining. He was perfectly fine with listening to his best friend Andrew shooting his bottle cap off at everyone in sight, or telling the story about how his mom usually drove at around 80 miles per hour, and how she had once raced his dad on the Autobahn, and had pushed him into a ditch. James had heard it all before, so he was talking to Amber, Andrew's sister. She was telling James about some paper they had found in the closet of their new house, and how Andrew thought it was a blueprint.

"In my opinion," she said, "I think it's someone's old will! But it's not written in English, so I guess we'll never know." James opened his mouth to comment, but then Andrew sat down in between them.

"I think it's a blueprint," he said.

"Yeah, I know. Amber just told me that," James replied, not at all surprised that Andrew was one step behind them. Andrew was a short, thin kid, with dark blue eyes and wide pupils, like his eyes couldn't get enough of whatever he was looking at. He always wore the same jeans, the same green sweatshirt, and his mischievous smile, which scared his classmates and teachers alike. Besides their hair color, he and Amber looked nothing alike. Amber was tall, unlike her brother, and was very smart. Andrew was a class clown, and couldn't care less about grades. (His teachers had given up on teaching him anything past the second grade) Amber, being a girl, always wore different clothes, while her brother usually stuck with his usual outfit. Amber's hair was obviously a lot longer than Andrew's, down to her waist, and had bright green eyes. They weren't identical twins, but they were the same age. She often pretended not to be related to Andrew around people they didn't know, and most people would believe them. All three of them attended the same high school in Arlington, Tennessee, and had been friends since 1st grade. Amber began to argue with Andrew about the truthfulness of his story about the incident on the Autobahn, and as James had no knowledge of the matter, he looked outside at the sky. It was cloudy; again. The black-as-night clouds had loomed ominously over their heads the whole trip, so James had been on edge ever since the trip had started. But his thoughts about the ominous clouds were interrupted by a loud voice from the front of the bus, and they all turned toward the speaker. He was the leader of the field trip, a twenty something named Bob who had attended the same school before he graduated. He announced,

"Alright, people, listen up! As you probably already know, this 2 week long camp's first stop is in St. Louis. For the first day we will be going to the Mills, which is a mall with go-karts and laser tag and such." Some people rolled their eyes and muttered "lame" under their breaths. Not caring in the least, Bob plodded forward like a deaf elephant. "On day two, we will be heading to the movies. The people aged 10-12 will be seeing Smurfs 3. Everyone else will be seeing The Mockingjay Part 2." Everyone cheered. "The other two days spent in St. Louis will be spent at Six Flags. We are at our hotel, so get your stuff and meet me in the lobby." Everyone scrambled out of their seats and, pushing and shoving, headed out. James waited for everyone else to go, then he stood up. As he turned to get his bag, he noticed a piece of paper on his seat that he had apparently been sitting on. He picked it up, thinking it was a candy wrapper or something, and looked at it more closely. It was small, smaller than a notecard. The edges of it, strangely, were black, like they had been burned, but the paper was not even warm, even though he had apparently been sitting on it. He read the words on the paper, but they didn't make much sense to him.

it is the where clues fear horror is , clouds the in, these the the that the near, In up voice time of is finally nigh are sky here gather.

Thinking it was just some stupid Andrew prank, he put the paper in his bag, intending to ask Andrew about it later. Suddenly, he tripped over someone's bag, and hit his head on the ground. Bob came over to him.

"You okay, James?" he asked. James stood up.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he said.

"What took you so long?" James shook his head.

"I don't know, sir. Just tired, I guess." He stood up, and headed out the door, completely forgetting the paper in his bag.