Rise Of The Guardians: Bloody Mary

2) The Parallel

Jack spun around disoriented. He searched desperately for a sign, an object, anything that could place him back in reality. Everywhere he turned there was only blackness that stretched infinitely out before him. It was as if he had been swallowed into an endless abyss. Then his gaze drifted upward. Hovering in the darkness was something that almost resembled a mural. He recognized it as The Pole, and the other Guardians, but something was very wrong. It was painted from below them, and they were moving. Tooth zipped around, and Norths feet slapped an invisible barrier between him and Jack as he walked.

“It’s pretty cool huh?” Mary smiled at Jack who couldn’t tear his eyes away.

“Yeah, but what exactly is it? Where are we?” Jack asked finally turning to look at her.

“It’s called The Parallel, thats where we are, I mean. It’s a world that exists parallel to the one we are usually in. And you can get in here through any reflective surface. We got here through the shiny floors The Pole. That’s why we are looking at the place we just left from the view of the floor,” she explained, “Think of it like a million doors all leading to the same room. And as long as the doors stay open, the room has to be decorated the same as the room that the door leads out of. But when you close the door the room can be any style you want.”

“I think I understood until the door metaphor.” Jack said looking back up at the mural, which he now realized was the floor of The Pole, hovering above him.

“Yeah. Well, hang on. If we close this door…” Mary waved her arms above her head and the floating mural dissolved leaving them in total blackness, “then The Parallel doesn’t have to follow the same laws of the universe as it had to when it was open.” And with that Mary jumped into what Jack thought was going to be a flip, but then stopped half way, so that she sort of hung in the air, upside down.

“Ok, now I’m even more confused. How are you doing that? Are you flying?” Jack questions as he felt a smile creeping across his face.

“I'm not flying, I’m just standing. Now that all of the doors are closed, gravity can be wherever you want it to be. So I just changed it to opposite of your own.” Mary laughed as she began to float upward and away from him, and watched as Jack tried to mimic her half flip and ended up spinning furiously into the abyss, “And that’s a cool trick and all,” she continued, “but other, more useful stuff changes as well.”

Jack regained a bit of control, once he had covered a distance of three city blocks. He looked back at Mary who was now a speck in a distance, and tried to yell back at her, “Like what?!”

All of a sudden it was as if Mary’s leg stretched the entire distance between them. Her whole body seemed to turn into rubber as it was stretched and pull by the leg to eventually reshape itself standing in front of him. Jack felt a little sickened by this odd transformation, but tried to hide it. She smiled at him, “Well, as you just saw, space doesn’t follow the same rules. We were really far apart, and I only had to take one step to be next to you again. What’s useful about that is that because space works independently from normal, The Parallel can open up into any space in the world. So where exactly are we heading?”

“Oh, right, I forgot, ice skating,” he stammered trying to compose himself. He didn’t really understand what was happening in this weird parallel world, but that didn’t matter that much as long as she was there to figure it out, “We were gonna go to my home town, in Pennsylvania.”

“That doesn’t really help me much, Jack. Can you picture it?” She asked. Jack nodded, and she extended her hand to him, “Great, take my hand and picture exactly where you want to go, and I’ll find a big enough door.”

Jack took her hand and pictured his home in his mind. The tall forest trees, the snow covered ground, the frozen pond, the little falling snowflakes. He looked at Mary whose eyes were darting around as if searching through the nothingness for something. Jack looked around to see what it could be, but saw only blackness. Then it seemed as if his eyes were adjusting. Tiny bits of snow began to fall from above, but were somehow kept from hitting them by a strange wall that was forming above them like the mural of The Pole. He then realized that it wasn’t snow, but tiny pinpricks of light. It was as if the darkness was just a blanket and someone had poked holes in. Also above the wall were these weird, blurry clouds, vertical and hovering, but also letting light into the infinite dark world. Just then Mary let go of his hand, and exhaled as if she had been straining herself.