On The Other Side (✔️)

CHAPTER 4

As far as Thomas was concerned, it was physically impossible to fall through an object. Yet that had just happened. Now they were falling into a black-and-white tunnel, the colors spinning endlessly, sometimes merging into one another to make grey.

Thomas couldn't see the bottom. The only things he was aware of was Nick screaming and feeling the sensation of falling. After what seemed like an eternity but was probably only a minute, Thomas, Nick and Ed hit a floor hard. No- it wasn't a floor. More like... an invisible carpet. They were floating on air.

"Ouch! That hurt!" Ed pronounced the first words the three of them had said since they fell, apart from a lot of yelling and screaming.

In state of complete shock, the three boys just lay there for at least ten minutes, very slowly processing what had just occurred.

"What in the world?" Ed said to no one in particular. "Don't expect me to know more than you." replied Thomas.

Nick lay down with his face on the floor, which probably meant he was unconscious.

"Okay..." Thomas was looking for something to say. But he didn't find anything, so he just stood still, trying to understand what had happened.

He took in his surroundings. They were still on the force field (it had to be a force field- it was the only explanation.) Thomas saw nothing around them. Just white, always white, going on and on for as long as he could see, without a single object or life form. Not any that he could see, anyway. He looked up, expecting to see the black-and-white tunnel they'd fallen through, but it was exactly the same as around him. Pure white. It was the same scene below him, everywhere. The only things breaking the white were himself, Ed and Nick.

"We fell through a mirror." Thomas dumbly said.

"Thanks for stating the obvious. What would I do without you?" Ed snapped.

Thomas got up and looked for an exit out of this place, and so did Ed. Nick was still on the floor. They seemed to be flying, and Thomas was afraid the force field might stop working at any moment and they'd fall to their deaths. They walked around, looking for a way out, when Ed suddenly banged his head against something. Thomas rushed to him, only to run straight into an invisible wall. His head was ringing. So they were in a room with invisible walls, as it seemed. But every room has a door, therefore an exit, so when he finally managed to get up, he remembered to be more cautious with where he walked, but wasn't the least bit discouraged- in fact, it seemed better to have a possible way out than have to walk for who knows how many kilometers in a vast field of nothingness.

An hour later, Thomas found an exit.

It was hidden in the bottom-left corner of the force field, which was kind of ironical, since that was where he was in the beginning.

Thomas signaled for his friends to come. He was relieved to find out that he was right, there was a door. So maybe, maybe they had a chance of getting out of here, whatever here was.

Thomas stepped out of the force field room and fell right off the edge, which just proved he hadn't learned his lesson. He felt surprised that he'd fallen, scared at the fact that this time he'd fall endlessly and annoyed at himself for not remembering to check if it was safe to go. All three feelings at the same time merged into happiness that he was sensing something, because it proved that he wasn't dead and in paradise, which he'd thought in the beginning.

Thomas shouted he was okay. Ed hesitated, and followed, making sure to land on his feet this time. Nick was still dazed- he'd fallen on his face when they'd fallen into the mirror. Luckily, the force field seemed to cushion their fall, otherwise Nick would be in paradise- the real paradise, not the nightmarish heaven they were in.

Nick finally gathered his senses and managed to crawl to the edge of the force field platform. He pitifully fell off the platform and landed next to Ed and Thomas, on his back this time.

This really wasn't Nick's lucky day.

The two others decided to rest for a while to let Nick recover from his unfortunate landing. They lied down, and settled in for the night- Thomas's watch, who had survived the fall, was the only way to tell between night and day in this nightmarish place.