Chapter #1Out at the Park by: Pin   It was a regular summer day when Tim and his friends decided to take their bikes down to the park near the edge of their town. It wasn't the largest town in the world but even still the park would attract a lot of attention on a day like this, so they would have to wade through families and other gatherings of children to get to their day in the sunshine. The group arrived to the park and put their bikes in the rack near the ranger building and headed towards the hiking trail. This park didn't boast any attention grabbing changes in elevation but it was quite hilly beyond the tree line which made for a nice path for a meander, stroll, or even a mountain bike for the more thrill seeking kind. The friends had been making a habit of getting to a particular spot in the trail where the foliage thinned a little and a small stream ran through. If their parents ever found out they would likely be quite upset about how far away from the rest of civilization the children strayed, but they weren't here, so of course the kids were going to push their limits.
This particular day the group of five friends had decided they would play some form of hide and seek. Of course, it was mainly just regular hide and seek, but they would put some kind of spin on it like being ninjas, secret agents, or one time even escaping aliens. As normal the group had their dynamics, each of them between the age of just-a-few-days-out-from 12 years old to 12 and a half. Their was the oldest, the kid who was a little taller than the rest, the kid who was a little faster than the rest, so on but otherwise they were what you would expect of a group of average pre-teen boys. They ran a few rounds where each person had to start as the seeker with somewhat predictable results all up until the fourth game.
Tim had just come off his time as seeker, which he performed quite admirably according to him, but now it was Peter's turn to seek. As the children scattered Tim decided it was most like a ninja to hop from one side of the stream to the other as he fled. It was barely enough water to reach his ankles at this point and years of erosion had left both banks at just enough of an angle to make it feel cool to jump off of. He started on the right an began to run, then one hop at a time he went left, then right, then left, then right again. Then on his next hop to the left he stepped on a rock which broke from the soil and in his attempts to save himself from splashing in the stream and revealing his location he stumbled, fell, and launched himself directly towards the trunk of a tree! Tim braced himself, trying to crane his neck and absorb the blow with his shoulder when he...didn't. Instead he fell directly onto his side into the underbrush which felt oddly like a hardwood floor. Tim opened his eyes and looked around him to discover the geometry of the landscape that could've possibly saved him from certain collision.
Now Tim was confused. He looked around him and it all seemed normal, save for the fact that anything beyond five feet from him seemed to shimmer or distort as if he was looking through some strange warped glass. After rubbing his eyes and blinking a few times to try and remove said odd effect he heard the other kids running towards him! He could hear them talking about how they knew he had to be over here, yet when they stood on the bridge not far from Tim's current location they seemed to look right through him. It seemed Peter had caught two of them as he along with James and Harry looked around for any sign of Tim. Noticing a foot print the began running down the opposite bank of the stream to try and locate him.
"Guys. I'm right here...Hey! Don't mess with me, I'm right here, guys!" Tim tried to yell at them. Though sound was escaping his lips his friends were completely unfazed. As they ran away Tim began to panic a little more, wondering what kind of limbo he had found himself in. Gathering himself and turning around he noticed something that should've surprised him a lot more than it did. Of course, he is currently trapped in some kind of prismic dimension where no one can see or hear him, so maybe this isn't the worst thing today.
In what could be estimated as the center of this strange pocket dimension was a light blue blob. It was quite small and rather spherical and floating about three feet off the ground. It was shifting and moving, with little pieces budding off then reforming with the blob as if it were some kind of loading widget or a audio visualizer. Being that it's the only thing in the vicinity that wasn't distorted or unable to register Tim's existence, he approached it. As he neared the light bent on it as if it were metallic and shiny, but it wasn't quite normal. Scared but curious, Tim reached out for it. As he did the blob changed slowly and Tim drew his hand back, to then watch it become the blob again. Renewing his bravery, Tim reached slowly and realized the blob was changing into the shape of a hand, still shifting and wobbling, but unmistakably looking like he should put his hand on it. It was cool to the touch, when a faint light traveled from the top of his fingers to the base of his palm and back up. As soon as it reached the top, the blob shrank and as if projected or a hologram words appeared in text before Tim.
"User Registered?" Tim whispered in surprise as he read the text. It bobbed in the air slightly and slowly before blinking away and appearing with many more words floating in the air. Needless to say, Tim was taken aback. What would you do if such a ridiculous situation presented itself to you? Well, Tim did that too. As he inspected what sight was before him he realized it looked like a menu. Not like a restaurant menu, but like a pause menu or the options menu in your phone. The options started with a large scale selection from bins like Laws, Time, Space, and Beings. Tim, obviously out of his element, clicked the Time option to see what time it was. Very simply it popped up with the current time, 11:23 AM, as well as the date, arrows above and below each number, and some weird slider that seemed to start at a very small point and end far off the edge of the 'screen.' Curious about the arrows Tim reached a hand forward and attempted to touch the down arrow on the minutes. Just as he did a large warning popped up saying:
*WARNING* All changes have consequences. Small changes may impact you directly, but large scale changes may have catastrophic results. Edit at your own risk, not all changes can be reversed!!!!!*WARNING*
Tim then touched the box to dismiss the warning and went back to the clock. He ticked the arrow down once, and noticed nothing seemed to change, so he went for it again. after a few clicks of the arrow he noticed something coming towards him. With a twinge of fear he realized the shapes approaching him were his friends that were seeking him earlier. Tim continued to hit the arrow to watch them skip back in time to across the stream, then up on the bridge. He then hit the up arrow to watch them run away. Suddenly realizing the power that he had, Tim got excited at the possibility, not yet understanding the horrors of having such a menu. Thankfully his young mind was more focused on the fun he could have rather than the mischief he could cause or the domination of the universe that he could have.
Going back to the top menu Tim hit Laws only to be met with a long list of options that he could only barely understand like space-time, field theory, electro-magnetic force, and more. Terrified of the warning that mentioned irreversible changes he decided to try and find something much more small scale than messing with time and physics as we know them. So what else was Tim to do but go to Beings. Upon entering the sub-menu Tim was met with a pop-up option that recommended using "vicinity order." Tim could only assume that this would help him locate himself much easier, so he turned it on. Suddenly he was presented with a search bar followed by his name on a bar then the names of what he imagined were the trees and plants around him. On the far right of the 'screen' was a scroll wheel and a progress marker like the side of a website, there also existed a drop down menu. Tim selected the drop down menu and saw options for Flora or Fauna, under Fauna it contained further classifications to refine the search, under Fauna the first option was Humans which he instantly picked. Back out to the search followed by his name he could see the names of his friends as well as a couple he didn't recognize, likely others at the park. Tim's mind was racing as to what he could possibly do with this, but he was also getting almost tired of the stress and bewilderment combined.
Tim obviously had no idea how to stop what he was seeing nor how to leave where he currently was. In an effort to do so he backed all the way out to the beginning where he found a close option in the bottom right hand corner. upon selecting it the menu vanished and the blob reappeared. Tim began to look around for an exit from this existential nightmare of a realm and noticed that there was a stream of light coming from what appeared to be a corner near the tree he should've crashed into. Tim began walking towards the stream when he thought to himself, would he ever be able to get back in here? Turning back towards the blob he walked up, reached out, and attempted to grab it. As he did it squished out from the cracks in his hand as one might expect before forming into a ring around the middle finger of his left hand. Small, minute, something more of a band that wouldn't turn too many heads. It as the same color and not quite real material of the blob. After a quick inspection by Tim, he walked back towards the light and with minimal effort to escape he fell right back through and nearly face planted in the mud and the water.   indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
| Members who added to this interactive story also contributed to these: |
Story Outline  · Recent Additions © Copyright 2025 Pin (UN: thatguy11002 at Writing.Com). All rights reserved.
Pin has granted Writing.Com, its affiliates and syndicates non-exclusive rights to display this work within this interactive story. Poster accepts all responsibility, legal and otherwise, for the content uploaded, submitted to and posted on Writing.Com. |
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
More by this author