The Otherworld

The Otherworld


A wall ornament, shaped like the veins of a sprawling leaf, with circular decorations on the end of each black vein, hung in the centre of the living room wall, each circle a mix of brown hues, except for one, which had a bright blue streak diagonally across the centre.

Upon discovery of this abnormality, the discoverer, whose fingernail was in need of a trim, scratched away the rest of the brown from the odd circle out, and found the circular decoration to be a small pane of glass through which a bright, sunny landscape could be seen.

The clouds were sauntering in their blue sky; the grass of the fields swayed in what could only be assumed was a gentle breeze; the sun gleamed above the picturesque scene.

The wall ornament was lifted from the wall and moved around the room yet, any which way it went, the other world, with all its charm, stayed visible through its tiny circular window.

Days went by, and Otherworld remained, the silver moon and golden sun rising and falling in synchronisation with the real sun and moon in the real world.

One day, however, after watching Otherworld for most of the morning, the watcher noticed the silhouette of a person appear on the horizon, waving a welcome from beyond.

This beckoning gesture was madly enticing considering the state of Realworld that day; it led to the start of many attempts to gain passage to the dream-like dimension, all of which did fail.

But the day finally came when the planets aligned, and the miniature window glowed, casting its light and catching the watcher, who disappeared in a flash and was gone.

The real world moved on, and the ornament was buried at the back of a charity shop storeroom, where it remains to this day, the last hidden portal to another world. The Otherworld. The End.