The Dimensionals

History class was boring today. Usually it was one of my favorite classes, but Mrs. Carnel just seemed to linger on about the Industrial Revolution. The bell rang “Alright class, please have your reports turned in by tomorrow morning.” I gladly got up and headed toward the door. I walked down the crowded hall and remembered I needed my math textbook for next period.

I arrived at my locker, threw it open, and shoved my textbook into my backpack. But at that moment, I heard something happening at the other end of the hall. I peeked out from behind my locker door to see what was going on. “But why are you here?” I heard a teacher say in a stern voice. A collection of about twenty men dressed in all black full swat gear walked down the hall. Was there some kind of threat?

Before I could think of anything else, one of the men grabbed a blonde girl I couldn’t recognize by the back of her collar, and started dragging her down the hall. Her feet fumbled behind him, but her arms berated the large man. “What are you doing? Let me go!” she shrieked. Everyone had now turned to look at the scene. Another one of the men started to pull a boy by the arm. And in an instant, there was chaos. People started running toward me as the men chased them. The ones caught being dragged away while they screamed and flailed their limbs in protest. It was at that point, I realized I hadn't moved. And as more people ran in my direction, I decided it was time to do the same. I stuck my arm through one of the loops of my backpack, slammed my locker shut and started to run.

I turned my head to get a glimpse of what was going on behind me, and spotted Lucy from my history class. And to my horror, one of the men followed shortly behind her.

I opened my mouth to try and warn her, but before any sound made it out, Lucy was sprawled across the floor. I spun back around to try and help her, but it was too late. The man had grabbed onto the back of her shirt and begun to drag her away.

She flung her arms at him, but her strikes were to no avail, the man marched on, paying no regard to her relentless efforts. He dragged her further away, and her screams blended into the chorus of shrieks coming from every corner of the school.

I straightened my head forward and tried to push my legs harder. I saw the janitor’s closet coming up ahead and I prayed that it was unlocked. I came up to the closet and quickly swung the heavy door open and closed it just as fast. The room was encased in complete darkness. I dropped my backpack, pinned my back up against the door and steadily took in a breath. The coolness from the wood on the back of my neck provided a small consolation to my exponentially growing anxiety. Before I could finish exhaling, I heard a shuffle “Shhhhh!” I immediately snapped my head up from its sunken position. The voice seemed to come from the left side of the closet.

“Are you trying to get us killed?” the voice managed to yell in a low whisper.

I grabbed my phone from my blazer, switched on the flashlight and pointed it in the direction of the aggravated voice. I looked down to see Jacob from my Chemistry class, huddled in a corner behind a small tower of packaged paper towels.

Jacob was essentially friends with everyone in the sophomore year. He was the class clown, but he somehow was the most diligent of his group, focusing on his work in class while his boisterous friends moved in a chaos around him. But contrary to them, he actually seemed nice, at least he was the one time we had been paired up for a presentation on the effects on soil by tropical deforestation.

“Hello? Would you mind getting that out of my face?” he said, as he shielded the light from his eyes.

“Yes, sorry!” I hurriedly replied, my voice being somewhat louder than I anticipated.

I quickly turned off my flashlight and shoved my phone back in my pocket, suddenly embarrassed that he had to ask.

“Can you just shut up?” a voice screeched from beside me.

“Well now you’re louder than her,'' Jacob snapped.

I recognized that voice. I could identify that shrill high pitch anywhere. It was Hannah. The popular Hannah. The girl that everyone loved⁠—even my friends. But I had always had a bad feeling about her. The little comments she would make...I caught myself drifting back into my thoughts again and steadied my mind to focus.

“I wasn’t even that loud,” she shrieked at the exact same volume.

“Yeah you were,'' another voice spoke. I easily knew the voice of Lacey Carter .We had been best friends growing up, but had lost touch since high school started. Our circles overlapped, and we would still sometimes be partners in English, but it wasn’t the same.

“Whatever,” Hannah retorted.

And even though the room was pitch-black, I could just see her eyes roll. There was a moment of silence.

“It’s probably a school shooter,” Hannah continued.

“Then why was a swat team dragging random people away Hannah?” Lacey replied in a condescending tone.

To my surprise Hannah didn’t respond and there was another beat of silence.

“Yeah, that doesn’t really make sense Hannah,'' Jacob added.

“It’s definitely the government,” said a new voice. “The government’s probably harvesting our organs for the one percent,” he continued.

“Ok, it's definitely not that,” I said.

“Who is that?” Lacey whispered.

“It’s Greg”.

Greg was kind of a loner at school. I had never seen him with any friends, and he always sat by himself in the far corner of the lunchroom. But he actually seemed to like it that way.

“Hey Greg,” Jacob said casually.

Of course somehow Jacob knew him, I thought.

The door shot open, fluorescent lighting poured into the room, and two large men stood at the door.

“Get out everyone!” a deep voice erupted.

I automatically started toward the back of the closet, but before I could even make my second step, I felt a heavy grip around my elbow. Then all l saw was the blur of gray lockers before my head sharply connected with one on the other side of the hall. I sat there dazed while the roar of the same man's voice sharpened back into clarity.

“Come on! Get out!” he barked

One by one, everyone trickled out of the small room. First Jacob then Lacey, followed by Hannah and Greg.

“You too!” he nodded in my direction, but without looking my way.

I rubbed my head and slowly started to rise from my crumpled position.

We walked single file down the hall. I glanced over at Jacob and I could see the shine of a metal pipe in his hand that must’ve continued up his sleeve. A rush of panic ran through me. I looked at his face again and he wore an expression of pure determination. I wanted to scream that he would get himself killed. But I saw him look at one of the men in front of us, and thankfully, his features softened. He slowly released the pipe and no one seemed to notice it drop to the floor amongst the noise.

We came to the end of the hall and one of the men motioned for us to stop. He then pulled a necklace from under his shirt that resembled a dog tag, and untwisted the top half of it to expose a jagged bright green crystal. He squatted, and placed it on the floor. The crystal began to slowly spin and it increased in speed until it abruptly stood upright. It seemed to hover a few inches off the ground, and I squinted to see if I was somehow correct. Suddenly, a beam of bright white light shot from the crystal and I turned away and brought my hand to my face to shield my eyes. I slowly turned my head back around and peered through my open fingers. A sort of tear was carefully trickling its way up, ripping its way through thin air with a loud static blare. The hall was eerily quiet except for the sound of distant screams and the loud buzzing. I stood frozen as what was inside started to reveal itself. Colors of blue, green and purple started to appear within the tear. And as it widened I could see the colors steadily swirling around each other, moving in a sea of darkness.

“Alright, go through,'' the man said with an air of utter indifference.

A swell of panic phased through me, but I looked up to see that his gaze did not meet mine. I turned to who the glare attached to.

“What?” muttered Jacob.

He then pointed directly at Jacob.

“Go, through!” he now shouted.

“No, Jacob murmured somberly.

The man then grabbed his shoulder and began to aggressively push him toward the tear. As the man kept pushing him closer, Jacob had been worked into a complete frenzy, he screamed and violently thrashed his arms at the large man, but he blocked every strike Jacob threw his way with one hand and pushed him closer with the other. Then with one final shove, Jacob’s screams silenced and he was gone.

My guess is that I had gone into some kind of shock because all I could do was stand there and stare at the spot Jacob had just occupied. But I didn’t have time to react to the impossible thing that I just witnessed. I was up next. I tried to steady myself and prepare for the worst. But then, I glared at the man who had pushed Jacob and found myself moving away from him. I had to run. For all I knew, that thing had killed him. I had managed to take a couple steps back, but it wasn’t enough. The man grabbed my arm, and with one swift throw, he threw me in.

I was no longer on solid ground. All I could see were blue, green and purple blurs of color whip past me. They whirled all around me as if I were inside a tornado. And the only thing I could see through the cracks of them was darkness. Panicked, I flung my head in every direction trying to comprehend where I was. It looked like I was falling fast as the colors passed, but I couldn’t feel an ounce of wind on me. I looked down and saw a small patch of blue below me. I closed my eyes and waited for the horrible feeling to be over.

My knees made aggressive contact onto a solid surface. I laid hunched over, too scared to open my eyes. But after a few moments, I finally gained the courage and slowly fluttered them open. I saw grass. But in a dark teal color. I tried to stand, but my legs instantly buckled under me. It was then that I noticed the people standing around me. I recognized a few of my classmates' faces, some were laying on the ground exhausted, while others wobbled to their feet as I was. I extended my arms to gain some balance and managed to stand upright. I looked up at the tear, or portal, I guess I should call it? I thought. It was floating midair, about six feet above my head. The same kind of green crystal the man had placed on the floor at school, hovered below it, seemingly giving it power.

There were people as far ahead as I could see: some in school uniforms and others in regular clothes. But they were all in a clump of a line that stretched across a lawn about the size of a football field, and led to a large light gray house. It looked like one of those Chicago mansions I had seen in the city when my mom and I went to my aunt's wedding.

The same men that were at our school stood in two long lines leading to the house on either side of us, silently keeping us there. I turned to look behind me and was met by the sight of abandoned buildings. I squinted, and turned right then left to survey the rest of the street. All the buildings were abandoned..There were no cars either. But most notably, there were no people. No one was on their way to work or walking a dog, and it was especially strange since we looked to be in the middle of a big city. But another unusual thing was that there were no skyscrapers in sight. My eyes trailed up to a mix of extraordinarily tall trees behind the buildings, some looking to reach over one hundred feet tall. They seemed to take the place of where the skyscrapers should be, and they continued into a towering forest on each side of the street that looked to go on indefinitely. Above the trees, I was struck by the sight of a clear lavender sky. I looked down at the strange bright teal grass again. Where was I?

“Jacob!” I called out.

Jacob was struggling to stand a couple feet in front of me. I ran up next to him and held out my hand to help, he took it and pulled himself up.

“Where are we?” he said in a hoarse mumble as he rubbed the back of his head.

“I don’t know,” I wearily replied.

At that instant, out fell two girls out of the portal and. It was Hannah and Lacey. Hannah hit the ground first, and Lacey landed directly on top of her.

“Ugh, Get off me!” Hannah cried as she clumsily tried to push the other girl off.

Lacey lazily rolled to the ground, and they both lay collapsed in the grass, trying to catch their breaths.

The portals kept appearing with new people pouring out of them every couple of minutes. Every once and a while people would stop coming out of one and the green crystal below it would plummet to the grass. Then one of the men would promptly go to collect it, and twist it back into his dog tag.

“Where are we?” Hannah exclaimed while starting to rise.

“We don’t know,” I said while looking into the distance at the house ahead.

The portal began to spark again and I watched Greg plop down on top of Hannah, dropping her to the ground again.

“What is wrong with you? Get off me!” Hannah shrieked as she attempted to elbow him off.

Jacob, Lacey, Hannah, Greg and I all stood in line together, slowly making our way closer to the house. We tried to discuss what was happening, but as soon as one of us would start to speak, one of the men would yell at us to be quiet.

I stared down at my feet, desperately trying not to relive my journey to this place, when out of the corner of my eye I saw something flash past my line of sight. A girl a couple of feet in front of us had broken out of the line and was now running toward the left wall of the swat men. It was Lucy. One of the men started in her direction, but she swiftly darted past him. Strangely none of the other men moved to help him, they all remained rigidly still, staring straight ahead. He had almost caught up to her, and he lunged his body forward in a final attempt. But she avoided his grasp and he harshly impacted with the ground, and the distance grew between them. He then stood and continued his pursuit a few more feet before stopping himself and unholstered the weapon at his waist. He then pointed it directly at her back and screams erupted from the crowd.

Lucy immediately collided with the ground. I didn’t hear or see a bullet, but only an orange electric bolt shoot from the gun and then instantaneously connect with her body.

For a moment she laid completely, but then her head popped up, and she took a long gasp of air—and so did I. I watched as she desperately tried to hoist herself up, but her attempts to rise were futile, and she fumbled back down in defeat. Another one of the men had stepped out of line, and the two men grabbed each one of her arms and dragged her past the length of the line and all the way into the house. It was silent after that. No one dared to step out of line again or even whisper.

As we made our way closer to the house, its full majesty came into view. It had looked so plain from afar, but I now could see the ornate detailed etchings carved into the gray stone, its beauty enhanced by a brilliant shine.

We arrived at the bottom of the short set stairs to the entrance of the house. We were finally close enough to see what was happening at the door. When each person reached the top of the stairs, one of the men would pull their arm from their side and press a small shiny gray cube to the top of their hand. The bottom of it would flash green, and the person would walk inside.

I found myself at the top of the steps watching the boy's hand in front of me get snatched from its clasp position on his chest. And it was now my turn to replace him. I reluctantly stepped up and the man jerked my arm up, pressed the cube to the top of my hand, and it briefly flashed green.

“Next!” he barked, as he motioned for me to go inside.

I looked down and there was a small 257 stamped in white ink in the middle of my hand. But then, the number entirely dissolved all at once. I turned my hand over, and then looked at the top of it again. But it was gone.

A wave of fear found its way to my chest, and I tried to orient myself and took a deep breath. I looked around the room. The large space was split into two levels with a small staircase that led to the second level in the middle of the room. A tall staircase was directly in front of it, where the line continued. The floors were dark wood and I looked up to see an exceedingly expansive ceiling. My gaze trickled down the walls where there were wood carvings of animals I didn't recognize hanging on the light moss green walls. Colorful antique couches were placed in two small circles on either side of the upper level. I examined the lower level to find that it was relatively empty. But at that moment, I noticed something moving to the left of me. I looked to see blurs of light green, blue and pink glowing through two frosted glass windows of a large wood door. As I closer examined it, I noticed a small gold plate that read The Rubicon in shiny black letters below them.

I tried not to worry about what was behind the door. If I was going to get out of here, I only needed to concern myself with the immediate problems. I turned my attention to the top of the tall staircase, where a woman was indistinctly yelling something. The line moved up and I started up the short staircase.

It sounded like she was repeating herself, but I couldn’t make out what she was saying. The line kept moving and I finally got close enough to hear.

“Your designated room is listed on the paper attached to the doors! Your number will be on it! Please sleep in your assigned beds!”

I put it together that the number they were talking about was the one that had been forcibly stamped onto my hand and then mysteriously disappeared. I was suddenly content, I looked at it before it was gone.

We made it to the top of the stairs and I walked past the woman, and started down the incredibly long hall. I turned to see Jacob, Lacey, Hannah, and Greg slowly trailing a few feet behind me. I kept glancing up at the sheets of paper posted on the doors, but I didn't see my number. I made it all the way to the end of the hall to the last door on the right. 257 was first on the list. I stood at the door for another moment and then turned the doorknob.

To my surprise, I was the first one there. The ceilings were almost as tall as they were downstairs. Tall antique wood beds were arranged in a semicircle around the room, and they were clad in heavy red quilts. Two large windows on either side of the room filled the room to the brim with light. They wore thick layers of red drapes that matched the quilts. I looked around the room and spotted 257 on a sheet of paper taped to the foot of the bed directly in front of me. I sat on the bed defeated from the morning, and closed my eyes to try and relax.

I woke up to the sound of loud boots pounding against the hardwood floor. I shot up to see a room that was now filled with people .They all sat on their beds, silently watching the door. Lacey sat in the bed next to mine, and I saw Hannah in the one next to hers. But before I could say anything to them, the door hurled open and the men, now donning only black long sleeve tops and pants instead of swat gear, filed into the room one after the other, holding large wooden trunks. They started to place them in front of each person's bed. They made their way down the line, until one arrived at the foot of mine. My curiosity was piqued as to what could be inside. I don't know why, they were probably empty, I thought. And I watched as they finished placing the rest of the trunks.

“Lights out! And quiet! We will be watching you,” said one of the men.

He flipped the light switch off and slammed the door behind him. I laid back down and tried to fall asleep. But I lay silently awake.

“Get up! Time to get up!”

I groggily opened my eyes. The door was already open and the men were going up and down the hall yelling.

“Get up! Be lined up in the hall in one minute!”

I sat up and noticed that most people were already heading out the door. I launched myself out of the bed, and made my way into the crowded hall.

“Alright, let's go!” a man’s voice bellowed.

And we marched down the staircase and out the door.

We walked a silent twenty minutes down the empty sidewalk, and I glared in the windows of the abandoned restaurants, hair salons, and grocery stores. What could have happened here?

We arrived at the entrance of what looked like a college campus that had been built in the nineteenth century. A dozen tall buildings clad in stone of warm tones of brown were spread across the teal lawn. More skyscraping trees were scattered between them, hiding the better parts of most of the structures. As we grew closer I noticed the same etchings on the house, carefully engraved into large patches of silver dispersed across the brick.

We walked down a long wide winding cement path, and entered the tallest building in the middle of the lawn. One of the men used the gray cube on our hands again, but this time it flashed red. I examined my hand, but there was nothing left behind.

I walked down the bright hall and followed the crowd into the classroom everyone was herding into.

“Please take your seats children!”

The voice came from a woman sitting behind a large oak desk at the front of the room. Her shiny dark hair was tightly swept into a neat low bun, and she had the brightest, almost neon, piercing green eyes I’d ever seen. As I passed her desk they darted up at mine, as though she could feel me looking .I instantly flickered my gaze away to find a seat. It was an exceptionally large classroom and the ceiling reached no less than fifty feet. It consisted entirely of small square gray paneled windows, soaking the room in a brilliant light. I came to the conclusion to sit in the middle of the room. Everyone had now settled into their seats and the room hung in silent anticipation. The sharp sound of heels impacting with the floor resonated throughout the air and interrupted the silence, and the woman precisely positioned herself at the center point in front of her desk.

“Well I suppose let's get straight to it. You children exhibit special abilities in this place, abilities in which most of the people here do not possess. This is called your public class. Here, we mix the four categories of abilities. Now you see, you’re either a material manipulator, a nature manipulator, projector, or fighter. After this class you will go to your separate lessons to hone your ability.”

“Yeah right, tell us why we’re really here,” a boy’s voice exclaimed from behind me. There was a certain glint in the woman’s eyes, and she shifted her attention to a white lamp on the left corner of her desk. Her glowing green eyes intently glared at the lamp, and as she did its base slowly extended upwards and then sunk down in a Salvador Dalí like manner, the white shade now laying on its side. The silence in the room deepened. You would expect a room full of teenagers to be in awe by such a display but where there should have been excitement, there seemed to be only fear. It clung to the air in the room and I felt that fear inside me.

No one asked any more questions and we sat through a long lecture about the four categories. The natural manipulators could warp natural elements like fire and water. But could only manipulate things in their purest form. Then there were the material manipulators, who could distort what the natural manipulators couldn’t. Next were the projectors, who could apparently display any image they created in their minds. And finally, the fighters, who had enhanced senses and reactions times, and were physically stronger than the average person.

“We’ve already tested you for your category and you will receive your results now,”

I tried to take in everything the woman was saying, but every word she spoke seemed more absurd than the last. How did we have abilities here? I tried to process the information, but it was like my brain could not fathom it.

One of the men entered the room, and started handing out sheets of paper to each person. He would first scan their hand with the gray cube again, and it would flash a different color each time. I started to recognize the colors were red, orange, purple, and green.

The man finally arrived in front of me. He scanned my hand, and it flashed purple. He then promptly went into his stack and placed the sheet of paper on my desk. I barely looked down at it and tried to pay attention while the woman spoke but I couldn’t drown out the sound of my heart pounding in my ears. I attempted to keep my body as still as possible to try and look as normal as possible. But as if she somehow sensed I was becoming increasingly uncomfortable, the woman’s eyes settled onto mine, and something about the way her cold gaze landed on me, made me stiffen even more.

“That will be all for today. You’ll find your category and class schedule on the sheet of paper that was given to you.”

I looked down, and on the top of the left side of the page, it read PROJECTOR in bold black letters.

The sun seemed to engulf the entire hall. I looked up to see the same glass windows in the classroom, except the squares came to a tall point that ran down the length of the hall. Ivy and a dazzling array of flowers hung from the glass and covered its entirety. And lockers not so different from the ones at my school, lined the hall on each side. I looked down at the sheet of paper trying to concentrate, but I didn’t read a single word. All I could think of now was how my mom would be worrying about me.

I continued down the silent hall, filled with faces that were visibly as frightened as I was. I went to read the sheet again, the first class read Projection Studies, Mr. Branson, but where the classroom number might have been, it just read The Oak Tree. I headed for the door at the end of the hall that looked like it led outside. How was I supposed to find one tree? This entire place was filled with them. But as soon as I opened the door, it was glaringly obvious. The grandiose tree had to be at least one hundred fifty feet tall, and its shade extended all the way to where I stood.

I reached the base of it and was met by a circular structure dug into the ground. It had five rows of seating and about twenty were people sprawled across the rows on one side. A man I assumed was the teacher, sat on the first row of the other side, quietly waiting for everyone to arrive. He wore a long line dark gray suit with black shiny buttons and his pale skin was in stark comparison to his dark, almost black, short hair and shallow beard. I stepped down into the structure and sat in the middle of the first row.

A few more people trickled in and sat on either side of me. I didn't recognize any of them, but then I noticed Greg walk up and sit in the row behind me. And as if that were his cue, the man popped up

“Hello, I’m professor Branson and this is projection studies one. Why don’t we just begin, shall we?” he said as a smirk emerged on his lips.

He then outstretched his arms and started to wave them in small circular motions, his circles grew larger, and then it appeared. It was like he had given color to the wind and had contorted it into the most magnificent waves, like pieces of translucent fabric being carried by the wind. Or maybe it looked more like the aurora borealis except with every color of the rainbow. It looked like so many things, but whatever it was, it was more stunning than anything I’d ever set eyes on. It spun, encircling us. Someone's family photos were now sprinkled across the spectacle along with a scattering of small white numbers and letters, disappearing then reappearing as different characters as they drifted through the colors. A white cloud materialized in front me and it swiftly formed into a polar bear walking across a small floating iceberg. I whirled around mesmerized, but was caught by the sight of a stunningly tall pine tree entirely engulfed in flames. But what shook me even more was that we now stood completely encompassed by a vast forest. I spun around taking in the full marvel of where I was. But then something caught my attention. Far in the distance, a cluster of trees seem to be moving on a mountain. But as I looked closer, I realized they were actually tumbling to the ground—and they were quickly gaining speed. Then all at once, the entire forest started to collapse all around us. The trees piled on top of each other in a domino effect, and I watched as everyone simultaneously crouched down and covered their heads as the ones closest to us toppled over. The scorched pine plummeted down and I leaped back. The man then abruptly waved his and the fallen trees delicately dissolved into a pure white smoke before completely blurring out of existence. I along with the entire class stood utterly frozen

“And that children, is what we call projection! Thinking up whatever you want inside your head.” he pointed to his temple. “And then displaying it out where others may see,” he exalted with a jubilant grin.

We were tasked with writing a list of one hundred things to project for the semester. And apparently, “The stranger, the better”, but we were only allowed to create miniature versions for now. Full size projection “Would come in due time”. Mr. Branson rose and stood in the middle of the circle.

“Now, would anyone like to come up here and try something from their list?”.

My hand rose instinctively, and I already hated myself as soon as I saw it in the air next to me.

“Aha, we have a taker! Please come to the center of the circle young lady!”

I'd never felt my heart beat so fast. My legs were walking forward, but it was like my entire being had completely abandoned my body and only an empty husk trudged on. And then suddenly, I was in front of the class.

“What was the first thing on your list?”

“I was going to try and do the solar system with a piglet jumping from planet to planet,” I replied.

“Well, well!” he rejoiced exuberantly but somehow still not void of condescension.

I lightly closed my eyes and tried to focus on the image that occurred when the thought initially came. I hesitantly peeked one eye open—nothing was there. I squeezed it shut and concentrated harder on the image, and then opened them. In front of me, the eight planets of the solar system floated in a cloud of darkness, surrounded by a sea of bright white shining stars. I had tried my best to remember what each planet looked like, and to my surprise the mini planetarium actually looked somewhat correct. I spotted the small piglet, it jumped from Earth to Mars, then continued down the planetary trail.

“Class” he straightened himself, class, no one in the history of this course has ever gotten a clear image on the first attempt. He paused to look at me. “I think we may have quite a prodigy projection on our hands.”

Class was dismissed and I began back to the building. I couldn't help but feel a sense of pride, thinking of what I had just done. I felt a breeze and then Greg was beside me

“Don’t get too excited, remember we’re prisoners”.

He then ran ahead of me into the building. And my excitement was quickly replaced with the sudden crushing weight of my reality.

Everyone was congregating toward the other end of the hall as I walked in. I looked down at my sheet of paper to see Avella History I-Benjamin next on my schedule. I checked to see if anyone may be looking and I turned my heel to go back out the door. What was I doing? Why did I always seem to make impulsive decisions? I thought. I walked out the door and proceeded to go around the building to the front lawn. I could see the gate from where we had entered and jogged toward it. In a slightly panicked state, I walked out of the gate and continued down the sidewalk with Greg’s words echoing in my mind.

The house finally came into view, I carefully walked up the steps and slowly creaked open the door. I scanned the room and assessed that I was safe. But just as I allowed myself the slightest bit of comfort, rationality shot back into me in one startling burst. What exactly was my plan? Run away? No, I didn't even know where I was, or how I would get home for that matter. All that I knew was, in that moment, I had to get out of that place. I ventured up the staircase and made the long trek down the hall and into the bedroom. As I walked through the open door, the first thing I set eyes on was the trunk at the foot of my bed, and I was struck by that same curiosity again. As I moved closer, I noticed there was something engraved under the latch in cursive. I squinted and read Dreama carved into the dark weathered wood. I froze, but continued to stare at the engraving. I squatted and ran my fingers over the indentation of my name. I stared at it for another moment and then I hastily unlocked the latch, and threw open the top.

The trunk was filled with clothes, and I immediately started to riffle through them. I picked up a pair of black flared jeans that looked identical to my favorite pair I had thrifted about two years ago. I then picked up a brown tulle dress, and it was just like the one I had bought with my mom at the mall for my aunt’s rehearsal dinner. As I inspected more of the clothes, I began to realize that most of the clothes were mine. Had they been at my house? Were my parents ok? I tried to calm myself down. Maybe they weren’t my clothes and it was just a coincidence. I frantically kept digging, and spotted one of my favorite gray t-shirts. I looked for the hole in the collar that Tix had scratched when I was a kid. It was there, right where I remembered it. I turned the shirt over in my hands and brought it up to my face, and was surprised to be immediately encompassed by a perfumed smell that I didn’t recognize. I continued through more of the trunk and kept pulling out pieces of my clothing. These had to be mine, I thought. But I started to see things that were slightly different. A stain in the wrong spot or a tear where it wasn’t supposed to be. And then there were a few things I didn’t recognize at all. Finally, at the bottom of the trunk, I spotted a shiny oval gold locket. I hesitated, but then grabbed it. I felt at my neck, and pulled out my locket from underneath my shirt. The locket I held in my hand was identical to mine. I looked back and forth between the two, making sure I wasn’t losing my mind. But they were the same. That was impossible. I knew it was, because granddad had made this for grandma in the sixties himself. I turned it over and it had the same initials engraved in the middle JW. Whose was this? I threw the necklace back in the trunk, gathered the clothes in one heap and stuffed them back in. I slammed the lid closed and decided to lay down, exhausted from my own thoughts.

I fluttered my eyes open with the realization that I had fallen asleep. It was now night and everyone was back and asleep in their beds. The bedroom door was open and I heard the creek of footsteps on the wood floor coming from the dark hallway. It didn’t sound like the men, their steps were much heavier. I instinctively stepped out of my bed and went to investigate. My vision started to sharpen through the darkness and I saw a figure in front of the room door opposite mine. I took a step out the door, and was immediately met with the gaze of Greg across the hall.

“What are you doing?” Apparently startled, he snapped his head toward mine, but then immediately composed himself.

“I’m getting out of here,” his voice completely unadorned.

“Are you crazy? You don’t even know where we are!” I tried to utter in a low whisper.

“I don’t care, I have to get out of this place” he said while hastily looking at his surroundings.

“But you’re better just staying here becau—”

“Why do they have my watch?” he now stood eerily still, glaring at me, waiting for a reply.“How did they get it? But why are there two? It’s not possible,” he whispered to himself.

I didn't reply but I already knew what he might be talking about.

“How do they have my dad’s watch? The one he gave me before he died, how do they have it?” He was becoming increasingly flustered now. And how does it have the exact same engraving as mine”. He hastily rolled up his sleeve to expose the gold watch on his wrist. He moved his backpack to the front of him, and fumbled inside until he pulled something out. He held it out to me. It was an identical watch to the one on his wrist.

“See? Read it!”

I leaned forward and squinted to see the words on the back of the watch face, but before I could, he snatched it from my view. "I love you Greg. Be strong, Dad” he read aloud, his voice now trembling.

“I don’t know what this place is, but I can’t stay here.” I stared at him blankly, not knowing the right words. “I’m sorry, but I have to go”

“No Greg, just please think about this.”

But before I could say anything else, he had disappeared into the darkness of the hall.

I laid awake for what felt like an endless amount of time. My only thoughts being—what would happen to Greg.

“Get changed! And be lined up outside of your doors in two minutes!” the voice of a man shouted followed by a resounding thud that shook the entire room.

I squirmed out of the heavy quilts and grabbed my black jeans and gray t-shirt from the trunk. I quickly changed and got in line in the hall. Lacey was in front of me, we shared a collective knowing look, but didn’t speak.

We went through the same routine as yesterday: walking to the campus and getting our hands scanned at the door.

As I entered the classroom, the woman was standing, arms crossed, in front of her desk. I sat in the same seat as yesterday. And she began to speak as the sound of footsteps and chairs were replaced with silence.

“Now that you children have started to get comfortable here.”

Comfortable, that was one way to put it, I thought.

“I should tell you the reason you have come.” she paused. And the room stood still in an elapsing quiet. “You were brought here to be our army.”

I watched as everyone looked around the room at each other with confused stares. “You’re here to serve in the Great Avella War. Our population has been dwindling over the years and we need soldiers,” she continued.

“There have been many children like you here before, and there will most likely be more after you. You will be challenging the great shadow that has tried to dim the light of our great nation of The United Republic of Avella for the past one hundred and two years.” She began to slowly pace across the length of her desk while a look of disgust inhabited her features.

“The resistors are plagued with the notion that our society should not operate as it so gracefully does, with every nation under one resolute law. They have tortured this world for too many years, when we could have had sweet peace!” she exclaimed passionately. She gingerly inhaled a breath. “As long as every citizen follows Avellan law as directed, we will have peace,” she said solemnly.”

I saw someone's hand raise in front of me. “Yes, you have a question 256?”. It was Jacob. “Where are we? Why does everything look so different here? Are we even on Earth?” he asked hesitantly. She grinned at him intently, but there was the suggestion of disdain on her face.

“Whatever do you mean? Of course you're on Earth. But an Earth in a different dimension than your Earth of origin of course. A thunderous boom of nondescript chatter broke out.

“Why did you choose us?” said a girl in the front row.

“We want to go home!” a boy yelled from the back of the room. “Children, children, everything will be explained to you,” the woman yelled as she clapped her hands together.

The voices faded and we were left waiting in a quiet tension. Her lips upturned into a modest smile and she began to speak again.“Our Earth and its people are almost identical to yours, but here, we are in the year 2296. You see, there are many versions of Earth. But frankly put, we seem to be the most advanced and dignified. We have a functioning government contrary to your juvenile leaders and our technology far surpasses anything of your world,” she said as she scoffed through her smirk. You should all count yourself's lucky you’re here.” she drew her shoulders back with a sense of pride. “We need your rare abilities to win this war, that is why you are here.”

Suddenly, something the woman had said replayed in my head. “There have been many children like you here before, and there will most likely be more after you.” A bone-chilling cold overtook my body. I finally saw the full picture. These people would go to different dimensions collecting the same people with the abilities they need, and when they’re all gone, they would replace them with the same people. It explained the locket identical to mine, and Greg’s watch. Another me had been here before. It sounded crazy, but it would make sense. They take the same people so they wouldn’t have to keep searching for those with “rare abilities”. Or were we somehow the only ones?

At that moment, the shine of a light caught my attention. A small red button on the right corner of the woman’s desk had started to blink. Her eyes flickered toward it and she immediately pressed her finger to it.

“253 code 17,” a voice spoke.

I knew they had to be talking about Greg, he had been caught. “Send him to the rubicon,” she hastily replied.

“Are you sure? We may be able to still use him”

“Yes, send him!” she snapped.

As I listened to her words, I was hit with a sinking feeling that Greg was not coming back. The sound of a bell chimed with a brief jingle and the entire class participated in a collective jump.

“Welcome to Avella everyone,” said the woman, as an ominous smile stretched across her lips.