This is a story I wrote together with my friends Olivia Herr and Audrey Yang. Enjoy!
“Okay, before we go ballistic, let’s eat some dinner first, then make a plan to save our parents from the ends of the world!” So they went inside and Olivia and Audrey made PB&Js for all of them! While they ate, they hatched a plan…
“Hmm… so we know that this opposite mist is affecting the world. But where is the Land of Opposites, exactly?” Lexie asked.
“I don’t know,” Olivia admitted. “But there is something strange… if everything is opposites, then nothing would be real!”
Audrey, Lexie, and Emma exchanged a puzzled look. “What do you mean?” Audrey asked, tipping her head to one side.
“Well, what I mean is that…” Olivia found it hard to explain what she was trying to say.
“Come on! Tell us in the most understandable way you can!” Emma urged.
“Okay…” Olivia stayed silent for a few moments, then said, “How about I give an example?”
“Sure! As long as we can understand it!” Audrey replied.
“Well, then. If we want every bit of time to be opposites, then if it was 4:51 am and it passed two hours in reality, it would have passed way more time if we were to look up at the clock and see it’s 1:54 pm too !” Olivia explained. “Understand?”
Everyone looked shocked, but as soon as they recovered from it they nodded, and soon questions that sprouted out of curiosity were flying around the room.
Then one voice rose above the rest:
“Do any of you know how to stop this?”
Everyone turned to find that the speaker was Olivia, who was staring at the ceiling as if she would find her answer there.
“No, we don’t. But we can try!” Audrey replied.
“Okay, that’s a good idea. But what about warning others?” Emma jumped into the conversation.
“Exactly. Now that’s something we have to do later, or no one will understand, much less agree, with us. We need evidence, and the best way to find it is to grab your notebooks and go exploring!” Olivia said.
“Okay, so are you guys ready?” Audrey asked. She had forced everyone to take backpacks full of food and water, a walky-talky, lots of batteries, big and small, plus a big notebook for keeping ideas.
“Um, I think so…” Olivia replied, staggering under the weight of her backpack.
“Alright! Then let’s go!” Audrey led the way into the woods at the edge of Olivia’s backyard.
“Whoa! It sure is gloomy in here!” Emma exclaimed.
“Yeah, and it might be a little too gloomy, even for a forest at night,” Audrey replied, reaching into her backpack and fishing out a flashlight. With a click! she turned it on and the whole forest was immediately lit up with a brilliant light.
“Hey, that’s weird…” Lexie was looking around and around as if something had startled her. “I can’t see the stars. It… feels like something’s blocking them from our view.”
Olivia sighed unhappily. “Yes, you’re right,” she said, looking up at the blank, black sky. “And I have a feeling that this is what we’re looking for. The Opposite Mist.”
Everyone stopped dead in their tracks and huddled together in a group. “I’m glad we have each other,” Audrey whispered. “That’s something I wrote on my list of things that I would like to bring on a camping trip.” She shined the flashlight around them, lighting up the trees and bushes that surrounded the OLEA Society.
Suddenly Olivia jumped up, as though she had seen a bear roaring right towards her and her friends. But there was no bear, only the darkness of night. “Wait! I’ve got an idea!” she cried.
Everyone turned to Olivia, their eyes lighting up with something that had been missing from everyone the past few hours: hope.
“So, what is it?” Emma asked, excitement clear in her voice.
“Okay. So, I was thinking that we could shine the flashlight on the Opposite Mist, and see how it reacts! After all, it’s nothing but a shadow, and I think we could all get some information if we do that experiment.” Olivia explained.
Audrey was staring at a place no other person could see. When she finally seemed to come out of her thoughts, she asked, “What if it takes us to the Land of Opposites?”
“Well, that should be even better! We can discover a whole new world!” Olivia replied.
“I don’t think so…” Lexie was looking doubtfully up into the sky. “But it’s worth a try, at least!”
“Okay.” Audrey agreed and shined her flashlight all the way up into the sky. The moment it hit the dark “sky”, the shadow roared, as if it were coming to life. The wind swirled around the OLEA Society, picking them up and blowing them in every direction until everything was silent and still.