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“Danny…” Christy stammered. “Have you noticed anything weird or out of place today?”

His head jerked in her direction and the wild gleam in his eyes gave her the answer she dreaded.

“Yeah, you too?”

“Just little things. But too many of them to be ignored. My nail polish has all become one shade of grey. And when I pulled the milk out of the refrigerator this morning, it was pineapple flavored. What’s with that?”

“I don’t know, Christy.” He pulled on her arm to hurry her along. “But we better get to our coding class before the professor marks us absent.”

They entered the Tech Building and stood in front of their classroom door. Christy gripped Danny’s hand and stepped closer to his side. “How come our classroom is three doors down from the entrance? It’s always been the first room on the right.”

Danny patted her shoulder with a hand that definitely wasn’t shaking from excitement. “This is beginning to not be okay, not okay at all. I think it’s time to start asking some questions, don’t you? But who do we ask?” He took a quick look inside the classroom door and then spun around to face her. “I don’t recognize any of those kids in there, and, and…”

“What?” Christy elbowed him in the arm.

“They all have uniforms on. Kind of like those kids that go to that private school down the road.”

Danny backed up until his back rested against the corridor wall. Christy followed.

“Are you okay, Danny? You look pale.”

“I feel pale,” he said as he pushed away from the wall. In fact, I feel like I’m going to puke! Let’s get to the office and see if anyone can tell us what’s going on.”

Christy shook her head. “I’m not up for that yet. Let’s skip classes today and just look around, see what else is happening.”

They drove to the local doughnut shop. With tentative steps, they decided to go inside and grab some breakfast and talk over the situation before taking any further action. Two doughnuts each and a cup of hot chocolate later, they decided to head over to the riverside biking park and get some fresh air, thankful for no more freakiness”

The lack of freakiness didn’t last long.

As they approached the traffic light that was one block from the park, Danny slowed the car’s speed to a crawl. The problem wasn’t the traffic, it was the light, both natural and manmade.

All the bulbs in the traffic light were on and they were all green. If that wasn’t weird enough, the intersection was as dark as pitch––like midnight. Their car was in daylight, the cars on both the right and left side of the intersection were in daylight also.

“What do I do now?” Danny asked. “Do you want me to drive through the darkness?”

Christy nodded. “It looks like the darkness is just in this one spot. We’ll be okay––I think.”

Danny eased the car through the intersection and sure enough, the world on the other side looked completely normal in the bright morning sun. But that didn’t last long. In fact, before they pulled into the parking slot next to the river, their mouths were open in stunned silence.

Christy stared out the windshield, her pupils dilated in disbelief. Where the rapidly-flowing river used to be was now what looked like a river of yellow daisies. Half the trees lining the river bank were cube-shaped. And in the middle of it all, stood the Eiffel Tower, or its twin brother.

She looked at Danny who was already staring at her.

Danny’s voice squeaked as he spoke. “I don’t know about you but I’ve had about enough of this. We’ve got to get some help. Something is bad wrong.”

Christy clasped her hands together to keep them from shaking. “The river doesn’t bother me as much as they do.”

“What do you mean?”

“Look at them, Danny.”

She pointed toward the playground and picnic tables where several families were enjoying a morning at the park. Some were biking, playing kickball, or just strolling along the walking path.

“You're right. They act as if nothing is different. But how could it be just you and me? We’re not crazy!”

An ideal struck Christy with the force of a lightning bolt. “Do you think it could have anything to do with the virtual reality game test we did two days ago for that new gaming company?”

Everything stopped. The people in the park froze in place. Two birds hung suspended in the sky above them. Then they heard the voice.

“Congratulations. You have completed the level of No Return and will now enter the Infinity Portal…”

The End

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