Parallel

2. Deepest Darkest Secret

Isn't it awful that when someone's alive they'll be rejected and ignored and what they try to say is overlooked, but after their death, everyone cares? Well, that's how it was for my dad. He was a scientist, and he would pitch new studies and ideas daily. Yet everyone thought he was a nutjob. He experimented with things like space, time, elements, and dark matter. Then after he died, everyone at the lab would call us and try to contact us so much we disconnected our landline. They wanted us to gather his remaining research and hand it over. We refused. I knew they were just jealous that he was conducting tests that even Albert Einstein probably couldn't figure out.

So, here I am. I'm the only one who's ever known his secret. He would tell everyone he was working late. But he was really down here. Right where I'm standing. In front of this massive machine. There was a control pad, with hundreds of buttons, switches, and displays. There's a wall, like a garage door. It's supposed to come up but I can't figure it out. When I was young, my dad would show me. The door would come up, and it would reveal s tunnel-like room that seems to be never ending. I remember it would have structures and obstacles. He told me it was a fun game he liked to play. You had to run as far as you could, and then make it back before the door came down. It's been 6 years. But even if I worked for 600, I could never be as smart as my dad.

I flipped the switch on the side of the control pad. There was a roaring noise, like an engine starting up. I could already feel the adrenaline pumping through my veins. One of these days I will do what he did, and I will finish his job.

I sat at his desk. It's like I could still feel his presence. I would come down here with him so often. There were thousands of papers and mixed up files. I had made a mess of this place trying to encode what my dad was trying to do. It was in some type of strange language I have never seen before. It's clearly English letters, but something is off. I've searched and studied but this is not a national language. It doesn't fit in anywhere.

"This just doesn't add up!" I screamed and threw a stack of papers across the room. I fell to the ground with my head in my hands. I've watched my dad do this a thousand times. I just can't figure it out.

I checked my phone. Crap, it's 3:50 I hope Emily isn't home. I turned everything off and went back up into the real world. I covered up the evidence of me being in there and went back inside.

"What were you doing in the garage?" Emily was sitting at the table.

"Oh my god you scared me! I was just looking for some of my old stuff," I lied.

"Well don't touch mine," she said. I walked up to my room. What am I supposed to do now?

I saw my phone light up. There were a bunch of messages from Tristan.

"Can you come over?"
"I really need to talk."
"Stephanie?"
"Please answer it's important!"

Wow I wonder what he wants, he's never acted like this before.

"Oh okay, I'm on my way is everything alright?" I didn't get a reply for a while. I walked down the duck pond path towards his house. My mind was wandering. I had to plan each step carefully because of all the ice. I reached The Landings, a peaceful little neighbourhood at the edge of town. Tristan's house is huge, pretty much a mansion.

I walked up the front steps and went to ring the doorbell, but before I even reached it, the door swung open and Tristan pulled me inside. He slammed the door behind me and locked it. He pushed me along into his room.

"Wanna tell me what's going on?" I asked.

"No one can know you're here, they'll take you from me," he said.

"What? No ones taking me anywhere- Tristan what is going on?" I repeated.

"There's something in my house," he said shakily. "I don't know where it came from, but it's like... Not human,"

"Tristan you're insane. There's no such thing as ghosts or anything. Is this what you brought me here for? I walked all the way here-" His bedroom door slammed behind us and all the lights in the house went out.

I couldn't see a thing when I felt a hand cover my mouth and I was pushed to the ground.