Carmen's Tale

                              Chapter 1
      It was a normal day. The sun was shining brightly as if to say “Cheer up Carmen, so what, your parents are getting a divorce, there’s no need to want to run away.”  The sun was a careless being. Sometimes I wished I were the sun. Having to do nothing all day. Besides, the sun was millions of miles away from here. I sighed and spoke aloud to the stuffed bear sitting on my canopy bed, “Wish I was miles away from here.”
      “Carmen,” I heard my mom yell up the stairs to me, “Come here, your father and I want to talk to you.”
      “Okay,” I yelled back with fake enthusiasm. I sighed and turned back around to my faithful bear, “Better go face them, huh, Teddy.” He just stared at me with his glassy, black eyes. As I ran down the stairs, I spotted my mom and dad sitting in the living room on different sofas.
  “You called,” I said. I slowly entered the room, fearing the worst.
  “Carmen,” my mom started, “your father and I want to talk to you.” I felt my stomach do a series of somersaults as if it knew what was coming.
    “As you know, we are getting a divorce, so….” my father trailed off.
    “We won’t be living in the same house.” my mom interrupted. “Do you want to live with your father in New York or do you want to stay with me, here in Kansas?”
    “What!” I exclaimed, shocked. “First you tell me you are breaking up, now you want me to choose between the two of you! How could you!” I yelled at them, hot tears starting to spill down my cheeks. 
    I turned and ran out of the room. I ran up the stairs and into my bedroom. Once I got there, I opened my walk-in closet and grabbed my duffel bag out. I started randomly grabbing clothes and stuffing them in the bag, my vision blurred by my tears. I put on my shoes and socks and threw my toothbrush and beloved teddy bear into the duffel bag.
  “Goodbye bedroom,” I muttered under my breath,” and goodbye mom and dad. I love you.” After saying my silent goodbyes, I crossed the room to my window and threw the bag out. I heard it land on the ground with a muffled thump. I then climbed out of my window and down the conveniently placed oak tree. When I got to the bottom, I picked up the duffel bag and ran. I didn’t know where I was going, I just ran. The tears were coming hot and fast, so I couldn’t see where I was going even if I wanted to.

                        Chapter 2
  When I finally stopped running, the sun was begging to set. I gazed at the orange horizon realizing I had no idea where I was. Or where to go. Or what to do now.
  “ Crap. Smart move Carmen,” I said to myself.
    I surveyed my surroundings slowly. On my right side a vast woodland. On my left side an empty field that stretched as far as I could see and beyond. I was on a dirt covered lane lined on either side by a decaying picket fence. Ahead of me the dirt road continued. As I stared ahead wondering what to do, the space in front of me started to shimmer. I looked on curiously as the air shimmered more predominantly and faster. All of a sudden two kids, both about my age, were thrown out of the simmering air, backwards, landing at my feet.
“Whoa!” I yelled, jumping back. I looked up from the ground just in time to see the shimmering air disappear in a flash of light. When I finally tore my eyes away from the site where the shimmering air disappeared, the two kids that had landed at my feet were standing and brushing dust off of themselves. After the two kids had finished brushing themselves off and stood, I finally got a good look at them. One was a boy and the other was a girl. The boy had on a pair of blue jeans and baby blue shirt that went well with his straight black hair and green eyes. He had a few freckles dotted over his nose and was wearing black sneakers. The girl had long black hair and green eyes just like the boy. The girl was wearing a lavender tank top and a pair of black skinny jeans. She was holding a grayish colored device. It was she who spoke first.
  “Hello, my name is Karin.” the girl’s voice had a strange accent and she didn’t seem too sure of her words.   
  “Karin,” I replied, “that’s an interesting name.”
  “Thank you,” Karin brightened at the fact that she could communicate with me, “My name is Greek, it means “pure.”
    “Ah.” I looked her up and down- she seemed normal enough, well, except for the fact that she and a boy flew backwards out of nowhere and landed at my feet. As I switched my gaze from Karin to the boy standing next to her, he spoke.
      “My name is Josiah,” the boy spoke with the same accent as Karin.
      “Hello Josiah,” I replied with false heartiness, “and what might you be doing landing at my feet on this lovely day.” Josiah looked at me strangely, trying to decide if I was mental or not.
      “We have come to take you with us.” he replied, showing no expression at all. I took a step backwards.
      “Excuse me!” I managed to stutter out indignantly, “where exactly do you plan on taking me?”
      “An alternate dimension.” Karin replied smoothly, like alternate realities are as normal as brushing your teeth.
        “A what?!” I squeaked back still not able to comprehend.
      “An alternate dimension.” Karin said again slower this time as if I was four years old.
    “Dimension 3.0487553, D-3.0 for short,” Josiah chimed in. Wow, I thought, not only are they talking about alternate dimensions, they are cliché as well.
      “Okay, hold up,” I said, more calmly than I thought I would, “you want me to come with you to an alternate dimension called D-3.0.”
      “Yes.” Karin and Josiah replied in unison. I looked at the serious expression on their faces and doubled over laughing.
      “You are kidding right? Is this a joke? C’mon, where are the cameras.” I said, still giggling. Karin and Josiah both looked startled as if they expected me to go with them without thinking they were the slightest bit strange. I turned around, still giggling, and picked up my duffel bag.
    As I started walking back down the dirt lane in the direction I had come from, something big and shiny flew past my head. As I turned around, Josiah tackled me to the ground while Karin faced the portal aiming the gray device I had noticed earlier at the it. The portal had reopened to reveal a deathly white person struggling to clamber out of the gateway. This person had a device in its hand similar to Karin’s, except this one was black. The ghost-white person glanced up from his struggles from a moment and bared its  fangs at Karin and her device. Karin pressed a button on her gray device, and the portal closed with a whooshing sound cutting off the top half of the white body.
    Josiah lingered for a moment with his arms around me and I glared at him as I pushed him off. He blushed as he got up after me. I walked over to where Karin was staring at the skeleton-like body.
    “What the heck is that thing?” I asked Karin, barely able to restrain myself from screaming.
    “It’s a Deleom. They’re killing machines that get set on one thing. They won’t stop till they achieve it.” Karin replied glumly.
    “And what is this one thing?” I asked, already guessing the answer.
    “You.” Josiah joined the conversation, “Now they know where you are, you are in more danger than ever.”
    “Brilliant.” I whispered, my anger and disbelief growing, I started yelling at the two kids. “Not only I am I stuck with two wack jobs who tell me an outlandish story that cannot be possible, that story turns out to be real! Just what is going on here!”
    The two kids just stared at me. My rage slowly subsided and turned to disbelief during the silence. I spun around on my heels, intending to go back the way I had come, and find a different place to run off to.
    When I turned, I saw the shiny object that had flown past my head before I got tackled by Josiah. I reached down and picked it up. I turned back around to face Karin and Josiah, device in my hand.
  “What is this?” I asked them, genuinely curious. Its not every day a shiny device flies out of a dimensional portal. Karin raised her hand to take the device from me, but I held it out of reach.
  “What is it?” I asked again.
  “We do not know.” Josiah finally replied. “We would be grateful if you could put it back down until we figure it out though. We do not want you getting hurt.”
    “How could it hurt me?” I exclaimed. “It’s a metal box.” At these words the box stared to give off waves of light. Then it stared beeping.
  “It’s a tracking device. Put it down now!” Karin yelled at me. I dropped the device back onto the dirt road. It landed with a metallic thud. Josiah pulled out a dull gray device and told me to stand back. He pulled a trigger on the gray thing, and the tracking box exploded.
    “Wow. That was actually kinda cool.” I told Josiah. He smiled at me and caught me off guard. He had an amazing smile.