Winner of Grand Dame Awards (romance category, 2nd place)!
Cori Ashworth, a 17-year-old girl who lives in New York and Mark Harisson, an 18-year-old boy who lives in London, have their lives turned upside down when they both come across two antique...
I sat on my bed, still shaking from the happenings of the past hour and feeling like my heart was going to burst out of my chest. The time was 11:30 pm. I picked up my copy of 'Gone With The Wind' and placed it on my lap. What had just happened had felt so surreal and scary, yet I was extremely intrigued by it. I'd read about stuff like this happening in stories, but that was only fiction.
It hadn't really felt like a dream, though. More like a hallucination. Whatever it was, it had been incredibly vivid.
I opened the book and flicked through the pages. As I was doing so, I caught sight of the word 'marry'. I looked a little more closely and sure enough, I found myself reading a description of a wedding. My stomach churned. I never knew there was a wedding in 'Gone With The Wind'. In fact, I was pretty sure nobody had ever mentioned it to me and yet, it was a part of my hallucination. Flashbacks of the pale woman telling me to talk about my wedding to Melania began circling around in my head.
I gathered my history papers and laid them on my desk. It was too late for any work. Besides, all I wanted was to go to sleep and forget everything.
At that moment, my phone screen lit up.
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"Hey Audrey," I said to my best friend as I answered the phone, placing it in between my shoulder and my ear so as to hold it up, as I prepared my school bag for the next day.
"Hii, I was wondering if the biology test is tomorrow?" she said.
Biology test? Ugh, that had completely slipped my mind, what with all of today's events.
"I wish it weren't tomorrow, because I didn't have any time to study for it today, but yeah, it's tomorrow," I said with a groan, as I looked at my lesson plan for the next day, "I can't believe she's making us take a test on the second day of school," I added.
"If there's one person who shouldn't worry about it, it's you. You studied so much last year, you'll find something to write," she said, and I could tell she was eating something. She was the only person I knew, who ate while on the phone.
"Let's hope that'll happen," I said, while pulling off my socks and searching for my pyjamas, "In TV shows, the main characters barely study and always get caught up in adventures and stuff and in the end they're still straight A students, but sadly this is real life and things don't work that way," I added.
"Yes, that's true. Oh, also, I forgot to ask you if your dad is alright," she said. I had texted her when Charlotte and I were on the way to the hospital.
"Well, um, he's in a comma right now," I said, struggling to not let my voice shake. I had already done enough crying for the day. "But the doctors all sounded quite hopeful," I said, trying to convince both of us that everything was fine.
"Oh Cori, are you okay? I'm sending you a hug through the phone," she said, sounding worried.
"I'm trying not to think about it too much, because that won't help the situation," I replied, "thanks for the hug, I really needed one."
There was a bit of a pause.
"So, you never got to tell me about your girlfriend from London, " I said, trying to sound a little more cheerful.
"Are you sure you're up to talking?"
"Yes, definitely, tell me about her. It'll help me get my mind off things."
"Well, I met her when I was walking through St James's park," she said, and I could hear her smiling, "As you know, I'm afraid of pigeons and that park if FULL of them. I hadn't really planned on that being the case, so I was trying to avoid them as much as possible while my friends were giving some food to the ducks in the lake. At some point, as I was ducking away from a pigeon, I heard someone close by laughing at my effort," she said sounding happy.
"Was it her?'' I said, as if I didn't already know the answer to that.
"Yes! At first I was mad, because I absolutely hate it when people find my pigeon phobia amusing, but we got to talking about it and I ended up really liking her. She even got my mind off the birds. Before she left, she said that the next day, she could show me and my friends around some parts of London, because she is a history student at the university there and knows quite a lot of information about all the monuments. So that's basically how it all started. We went on a few dates later on, but sadly I don't know if I'll ever see her again."
I found myself grinning at her unusual story. I was really glad she had called me and hadn't left me alone with my thoughts.
"I'm going to go read a bit of that 'Gone With The Wind' book we have to study for our literature class," she said and suddenly I felt queasy at the thought.
"Yeah, good idea, um, also, this is a wild thought, but do you think it's possible to teleport into books and participate in the story? I don't really know why I've been thinking about it," I reluctantly said.
"Wow, I'd never thought of that, I imagine it would be really cool if it were possible, though."
"I'm sure it would be," I replied, realising that she would never believe me if I told her what had happened to me, "We better go read that book," I added.
"Yeah, okay, see you tomorrow."
"See you!"
As I put the phone down I had a sudden urge to investigate what had happened to me earlier that evening. I mentally retraced every single thing I had done all day, up until the point where I was lying in my bed crying. The last thing I remembered seeing was my tear-drop falling on the cover of 'Gone With The Wind'. Maybe that was what got me inside the book.
I had nothing to lose, so I raced to the bathroom as quietly as i could, my book in hand. I let a drop of water from the tap land on the cover. It wasn't a tear, but I hoped it would be good enough. I sat on the edge of the bathtub impatiently waiting for something to happen.
I had never felt so scared in my entire life, but exploring the book was something I had to do. I needed answers.
Soon the room started twirling around. It was happening again! Then everything completely disappeared as I found myself in a white void. I closed my eyes, in hopes of getting rid of the nausea and when I opened them again, I was sitting in a dimly lit dining room, in front of a large, wooden table. There were several other people sitting around it and they all had their eyes closed, as the pale woman I had met last time was saying a prayer.
To say I was shocked would be an understatement.
Author's note: hello beautiful people, I hope you enjoyed this rather long chapter! (I promise chapters will usually be about 800 words long)
Question: If you could teleport into any book (wattpad, published, whatever you like!), which book would it be? Leave your answer in the comments and if you liked this chapter or maybe even think I should change something, please comment or pm me.
