Unthersee - The End

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I am running through the space ship of Peter Brown and his crew. It is not easy to make proper steps because the whole space ship is shaking like crazy since we are dangerously close to a black hole.
The fear has no right to show itself right now.
My brain is filled with clear thoughts and plans that are supposed to help us out of this miserable situation.
Just as Peter Browns brain.
I almost reached the engine room when suddenly a pain in my head makes me drop the book I am holding and takes away my chance to rescue the crew in the space ship with Peter Brown.

"What the-" I say shocked and look up.
I didn't walk against the lockers in our school right now, didn't I? Ok, I did.
After looking around carefully I see a few pupils laughing at me and sigh.
Yes, that's me. Merle, that super strange girl that seems to be invisible and when someone actually does see me, they just look at me pejorative or pityingly.

I take another deep breath, pick up my beloved book and go to my locker to take out the things I need for the next lesson.
Then I place the book about Peter Brown on top of the pile of school books and open it to continue reading while walking to my classroom.
Without looking up, I sidle to the back of the room and sit down with my school books piled up in front of me so I can hide behind them and continue reading the book that is more interesting right now.
Even when the teacher comes in I don't look up but he doesn't care.
Maybe he knows I won't participate in class or he doesn't see me or doesn't care about me like the other students.

I don't care either. My grades in class tests are good enough to keep my grades on an acceptable level.
My mom always nags that I never learn but it is enough for me to just listen to the teacher while visiting my favorite places in my favorite books and she can't deny my grades are very good in class tests. Just ignore the grades for my participation in class and I could be a role model for other students.

The class is over just as fast as it always is when the events in my books captivate me too much.
After this class my school day is over so I put on my jacket, grab my books and walk out of the room.
Without hearing a friendly "See you tomorrow." or "Bye Merle." and without saying it either. To whom should I say it? There is no one.

After my school things are back in the locker I set out for home.
I would read on my way home too but after my painful encounter with the locker today I refrain from doing so.
It isn't convenient anyway since the alleys I have to take are bounded by really old and high trees that throw dark shadows on the streets. I also don't want to crash into somebody and be forced to talk to that person.

Actually it is kind of strange to concentrate on the real world around me rather than the worlds I read about. Sometimes I even feel like I am wrong here in this world or like my body walks around in these streets while my soul is far away in the worlds I imagine.

I don't live very far away from my school so I arrive at home quite soon. It is in a rather poor neighbourhood and we live in an old and small house that isn't very special. It is just one of thousands of similar ones but there is something that makes me love our house very much.

Since my father was a librarian he loved to read books just as much as I do so he created a small room filled with these treasures. The bookshelves line every single peace of the walls and they are overstuffed with so many books.
The light is a little bit dimmed so the books won't get damaged and in the middle of the room is a really big and comfy wheelchair which I see as my entrance portal to all those great worlds in the books.

One of my favorite books in this room is about four teenagers that get chosen to safe their planet Unthersee. Each of them is a creature of a different element and they have to renew the illusion that makes the humans on earth think Unthersee was the moon.
I really loved the scenery in the book and the charakters too, especially Aurora, the elfe with the element power of air.
My father did like this book too so he always read it to me when I was younger.
Maybe that's another reason why I like this book so much.
My father was a very important person to me. He was the one I admired the most.

When I think about it, he is the reason I like books so much.
One the one hand he was the one who got me interested in books and his death a few years ago caused me to escape from reality and seek refuge in my imagination and behind book covers. This way books became the place where I could forget all the bad things happening to me in my own life and the place that made me feel secure.

I reached home by now so I open the black front door after I made my key open the old door lock with a touch of aggression since the lock seems to like to annoy me every day because it refuses to just open easily.
As soon as I take the first step in the house I notice a slightly carbonised smell.
"Mum? Are you okay?", I shout towards the kitchen.
"Darling, would you be so kind to go to the supermarket down the street to buy frozen pizza?", she responds while she steps out of the kitchen looking like she just overcame a fight.

And that's typically for my mom.
When my mom gets the chance to cook- what I normally try to prevent by cooking myself like my father did before he died- she causes a real desaster. I mean, I know she just wants to be a good mom, especially since I have to live without a dad, but she would help everyone with just staying out of the kitchen.
I sigh.
"Yes, mom. I'll be back.", I just say and leave the house again.

To be true I am happy she is back this early since she normally has really long working hours and we spend not very much time together.
I guess this is one of the reasons I am not as close to her as I was with​ my dad.
Maybe it is also my fault because I wasn't able to completely accept that she survived the car accident but my father didn't.

I walk down the street again under all those trees. The air is quite fresh and it is a little bit windy and cold but it feels good and almost makes me feel like I am just me, in my world and in my reality.

Suddenly I trip over something. I look down to see what almost made me fall.
It is a book.
A book with no title and no cover and no information whatsoever.
It is simply a white book.
Curious, I pick it up and study it from every side.
What kind of book is this? It looks really old and mysterious and I wonder who made a book with just a white cover and whom it belongs to.
But I am even more curious about the contents of this book. What story does it tell to its reader?

So I open the strange book carefully and I can see- nothing!
The page is completely empty and not even one word fills it. I flick through the whole book but there is no word on any page.
Suddenly my vision becomes blurred and the alley, I stand on, smudges with the trees besides the street and with the blue sky which is filled with fluffy clouds.
Everything becomes one colourful and flickering mass.

And then, suddenly, everything is dark.