Adorn

[Prologue] Nine years earlier

Five minutes was all I had, and instantly, I was made into a believer. Then, it was stripped away. Too soon, too fast, I didn’t…I never wanted the moment to end. All the stories about ‘mirror Earths’ were true, so true, that I actually saw it with my own two neon blue eyes.

Daily, I recall everything that I experienced in that brief moment on a foreign Earth. Mostly, I remember landing on my knees and hands.  The wet soil from the ground seeped between each finger, cold and warm at the same time, if even possible. On this Earth, it was, the possibilities seemed endless. I wanted to see more, experience more.

And…I did.

What I had mistaken for shadows passing between the tallest trees I’ve ever seen were actually not shadows at all, but two boys. They both looked so strange. Clothes I didn’t recognize blended in with the surrounding vegetation. Their weapons, strangely shaped, like a crescent moon gripped tightly in their small fists.

Then something happened that changed everything.

My right knee moved forward, I wanted a better look at these boys. I didn’t intend for a loud snapping noise to echo all around me. One boy stopped, looking back over his shoulder. I saw his lips move as he spoke to the other boy who stopped to look where the other was pointing. Relief washed over me, knowing I wasn’t found.

I slowly backed away, accidently sliding my knee over another branch.

Snap.

The taller boy of the two who was leading shifted his body. Even for being so young, he held authority in his stance. My breath hitched inside my throat. His eyes connected with mine. I couldn’t blink. I didn’t dare blink, or look away. He saw me and I saw him.

That moment was real.

The image of the two boys became rippled from a translucent force field. The slightly shorter boy ran up to the other and pointed. I can still hear him shout, pointing directly at me before I disappeared from sight.

“Look, it’s a girl!”

Then, like a flash of lightning, I was gone. Sucked back into my own world where I’ve been told for years that I had just bumped my head. Lies continue to pile onto lies. I know what I saw. It was real, the ground, the soil that was cold and warm, and…the boys.

Two boys that have never left my memory bank.