The Red Notebook

It was a Sunday afternoon at the Whitmire household. Dad, Mom and their teenage son and daughter appeared to be doing nothing out of the ordinary. James was busy looking at wallpaper swatches for his office, deciding which new print he wanted to swap with his current design. Alexa was in their bedroom on her tablet looking at island destinations for their next family vacation. Hannah and Kyle were growing so fast, Alexa wanted take at least one or two more big family trips before they went off to college. While Alexa was planning a nice relaxing vacation, she could hear Kyle and his older sister Hannah butting heads downstairs. They each kept demanding the other leave the family room. It was typical sibling behavior; a small marathon of arguing with no clear winner in site.

Everything seemed to point to a normal day. It was spring and there was an overcast. It looked like it might rain. Cars drove up and down the street. You could hear birds chirping and the occasional neighbor outside, overall it was a nice average mid spring day. However while she was enjoying this relaxing afternoon, something caught Alexa's eye. She put her tablet down on the table beside her as she noticed something red behind her dresser. Alexa's curiosity was peaked. Walking slowly over, she bent down and reached for this red object. Alexa's was just barely able to touch it without having to move the dresser. Once her fingers grasped it; Alexa realized it was a red notebook. A plain red spiral notebook. It didn't appear to be all that old. It was only slightly worn, definitely written in but it nothing about its appearance was odd. At first Alexa immediately thought it had to be Hannah or Kyle's. She knew they loved pranking each other and figured one of them hid it behind her dresser. It would not be the first time she found something of theirs hidden in her and James' bedroom. She remembered when they were children Hannah hid Kyle's favorite toy car on top of their old armoire. It was tall, so she knew Hannah just threw it hoping it landed and stayed hidden. Kyle had such a fit, they didn't find it for three days. Alexa laughed lightly to herself reminiscing about days gone by as she opened the red book to see who it belonged to. Yet when she open it Alexa gasped as she read what it said.

"Dear Alexa,

If you are reading this that means you have reached the time. Everything you know is about to change. The life you know isn't real. If you keep reading the charade will all start to collapse. The choice is now yours. Do you want to know the secret or do you want to continue to live in this false created reality?"

Alexa nearly dropped to the floor as she stood reading this. Not only did this not make any sense, but it was written in her handwriting and dated with today's date. Alexa was baffled, she knew she didn't write this yet it was clearly her handwriting. Then she came to her senses. In disbelief followed by mild annoyance she began thinking this was some sort of stupid joke Hannah or Kyle decided to play on her so she almost threw the notebook across the room. She knew Hannah had once forged her signature on a school note when she wanted to leave early. So it wouldn't be completely implausible to see her fake this so called "life changing message" too. Just as Alexa was about the toss the book, she thought no. Let me keep reading, what lie did Hannah and or Kyle decide to come up with. She was actually a little intrigued now. How far did Hannah and Kyle take this? What was this big secret they decided to spill in this notebook? It actually seemed rather funny to her now. So with that Alexa took a deep breath and turned the page. Then with a flash of light, a gust of wind and a loud cry all was changed forever.