Levtirest Book 1: Intrus

Chapter 3: Going Back Again

Victoria and Emily were relieved to go to school the next day to learn that all exams had been cancelled. Emily laughed heartily and cracked a few references upon hearing it. Since the intruder had broken in, and the very next week was when students were supposed to take their exams, the school decided that it would be best to just forget the exams and let the students finish school early. The next Monday would be the Awards Ceremony in which they presented students with awards from each of their classes, and after that, everyone would go home. They said that they sent out an email to everyone's parents that morning, explaining the news. The thunderous applause when the principal gave the news was so loud that Emily and Victoria thought they were in a sports arena.

Victoria told her mother that they would walk from the school to the hotel where they were staying, which wasn't too far. Lucille was fine with it and made the girls promise her to be safe, which they did. In reality, they planned to go back to the portal and do some exploring. Emily had a theory that she wanted to test this time, involving the necklaces. They arrived at the portal, and Emily put something near the large oak. They then put their necklaces together and pulled the lever. Emily looked to the sky and stated, "If the seasons are anything similar to Earth's, it looks like it's just after one o'clock."

"I'm not even going to ask how you know that," Victoria replied. Victoria then hesitated before asking, "Do you really think that man came here?"

Emily replied, "I think it's certainly possible. Now, as for my theory. We'll take off our necklaces, careful to not separate them. I'll put them in my pocket, and we'll leave them connected until we return. I'm curious if that has any sort of effect on the time difference." Victoria shrugged and did as Emily wanted. She knew that Emily always was concocting these oddball, occasionally crazy theories, and the best thing to do was to go along with them. Emily stated, "Alrighty, then. Let's do some exploring."

The girls wandered the woods for a little while. Emily made sure that they were never too far away from the tree next to the hole in the ground. After searching for approximately thirty minutes, they decided to go back. The girls put back on their necklaces, and Emily pulled the tree root. The flash appeared, and they were back home. Emily walked over to the large oak and exclaimed, "Just as I suspected!"

"What?" Victoria asked.

Emily walked back over and showed that she'd put a stopwatch next to the oak, explaining, "I started it just before we entered the portal. This here says that, in our world, it's been less than two minutes. That means that as long as we keep our necklaces together, time either slows down a ton or completely stops in our world while we're in the other world. That'll be very useful for when we come back to do some more investigating." Victoria nodded her head and admitted that the idea had been ingenious, wishing she'd thought of something like that.

The girls returned to the hotel for dinner. The next morning, they ate some breakfast and then left a note saying they were going shopping when they were really going back to the portal. They arrived at the large oak tree and began to get ready. Emily took the time to admire a beautiful bird that was perched on the tree. She whistled to it, and it chirped back, making her smile.

Victoria asked, "Are you ready?" Emily nodded her head. The two girls put their necklaces together, and Emily pulled the lever with her foot. The flash appeared, and the girls were back to the mysterious world. Once again, the time appeared to be not too far off from their time. Victoria asked, "Do we want to keep exploring?" Emily didn't respond. Victoria asked, "Emily?" Emily shook her head.

She apologized and stated, "It just... that looks like the same bird. Did it come through the portal with us?"

"I don't know." Victoria replied. "It doesn't make sense, though, because the man didn't bring us through the portal with him, and we were about as close as that bird." Emily and Victoria looked curiously at the bird.