The Two Worlds Read online

  The Two Worlds

  by Alisha Howard

  CHAPTER ONE

  The day I found Turgor I learned three things: grass can talk, the sun can frown and there is life on other planets.

  Let me explain.

  I was just an average seventeen-year-old that happened to take a nap in science class. The day hadn’t started out the way I would have planned. I was running late, had missed my bus, and my grandmother Mary wouldn’t budge on letting me take her old Oldsmobile out of the garage. This meant I had to cough up bus money and brave the horrible public transportation that Jackson offered.

  It was the middle of August, and the humidity bored down on me as I trekked up our massive hill to the main street where the bus stop beckoned. When I finally made it there, my sandy brown hair was standing on end from the heat and my carefully placed eyeliner was starting to run. Perfect.

  “You look like hell,” my sister, Nia, greeted me as I stalked into the school towards my locker. “What happened?”

  “Alarm clock,” I grumbled, opening the locker a bit too hard. It bounced back with a claaaaang. Nia winced. She had been awake enough to take the school bus that stopped at our house every morning.

  “Late night?”

  “Forgot I had a book report for English that’s due,” I sighed. “Had to pull an all-nighter.”

  “That sucks,” Nia sympathized, falling into step with me. I smirked to myself. She didn’t have a clue what I was talking about. Nia’s straight a, teacher’s pet record was untarnished.

  We walked in silence for a few moments before Nia perked. “So guess who asked me out this morning at breakfast?”

  I quirked an eyebrow. Guys were always asking Nia out, and who could blame them? With long legs, honey-brown skin and big brown eyes, Nia was irresistible to any high school male. She was also picky. “Another jock?”

  “Yeah, but not just any jock. Lamar Delucca.”

  I raised my other eyebrow. Lamar was the stereotypical popular jock—All American, rich, and great looking. But for some reason, he never had a girlfriend. Rumor around school was that he preferred the same sex, but his clout with everyone made him immune to harassment.

  “Didn’t know he was interested in your type,” I quipped, chuckling.

  Nia threw me a glare. “He’s not gay.” She sighed. “He’s just shy. Anyway, he asked me out, and I said yes.”

  “When’s the date?”

  “This Friday. We’re going to see Kill It Before It Dies.”

  “Sounds fun.”

  Nia sighed again, happy with herself. I rolled my eyes before we went our separate ways, off to class. The first stop for me was dreaded science.

  Shuffling in, I avoided looking at the small brown human with skin like a prune sitting at the front of the class, preferring to look at the clock instead. Only forty more minutes left.

  “Good afternoon,” the small prune screeched.

  “Good afternoon,” came the deadened response.

  The human prune stood up and turned to the chalkboard. “Today, we’re learning about osmosis.” She turned to the class and looked down her nose. “So pay attention. Open your book to page one eighteen.”

  As Mrs. Temely droned on, I pulled out my notebook and started to draw nothing in particular. Soon, though, a small elf emerged. It was staring up at me with a crooked grin. I grinned back and used a colored pen to give it fiery red hair.

  “Ms. McLaughlin?” it said. I frowned. Elves weren’t supposed to talk.

  “MS. MCLAUGHLIN?” I jumped and looked up. Mrs. Temely was looking at me with a very disapproving and shrunken face.

  “Yes, Mrs. Temely?”

  “What have I told you about daydreaming?”

  “I wasn’t daydreaming. I was—”

  “Not paying attention.” The class snickered. “Now, if I catch you doodling again, I’ll send you to detention. Got it?” I nodded and stared at the chalkboard, my mind wandering. I thought back to Nia’s conversation about Lamar and felt a snippet of envy. Nia and I were complete opposites. Where she was popular, I was an utter failure. Unfortunately, I was a C student at best, and despite my efforts, I could never dance as well as she could. She made the cheerleading team the first time she tried out, and the cheerleaders’ laughter at my tryouts was still ringing in my ears. I directed my stare at the clock.

  Taunting me, it stared back, refusing to move. I gave a smothered sigh and looked back down at my desk. My eyelids were feeling heavy, and I closed them for a moment, promising myself to open them on the count of five. Of course, that didn’t happen.

  CHAPTER TWO

  The sun looked down at me and frowned, making the ground I was laying on warm.

  “Hey!” I cried out, jumping to my feet. Looking around, I noticed that there was nothing but a sea of blue-green grass around me, and the little patch of ground I had been lying on had now sprouted grass as well. Panic kicked in. Where was I? Where was everyone else? And better yet, did I just see the sun frown at me? Since when does the sun have eyes? And facial expressions?

  Breathing hard, I looked around me while all of the horror stories the five o’clock news aired about missing persons came rushing at me. Crying out I began to run, hoping to find someone to help me. The grass swayed as if to move out of my way as I ran through the thickness, attempting to find a way out of this horrible place. The smell of dew floated across my nose, tingling my senses. I planned on running until I reached a telephone, police station, or stranger with a machete to help me get out...

  Tripping, I fell and landed hard on my chin. I moaned and lay still for a moment, hoping that whatever I tripped over would just disappear and I wouldn’t have to face it at all.

  “Ouch,” it said, still hidden in the blue grass. I jumped to my feet, ignoring the searing pain, and was about to jet off into the horizon again when I realized I recognized that voice.

  “Nia?”

  She sat up suddenly, frowning and rubbing her leg. “Why’d you run over me?”

  I stood there flabbergasted. “What are you doing here?” I shouted. “Where in God’s name are we?”

  She rolled her eyes and put her fingers to her lips. “You’re disrupting the Minces.”

  “THE WHAT?”

  “The Minces, Kay.” Nia stood up and lowered her voice to a whisper. “The grass?”

  I looked around my feet and noticed that the grass had developed miniature eyes and small slits of mouths. They were frowning as well. I took a couple of deep breaths and started screaming again.

  “Ouch!” I yelled as one of the smaller Minces took a tiny, yet noticeable bite out of my leg. Swearing, I hopped on one leg, stepping on other Minces that got in my way, and Nia gave a grin.

  “Okay,” she said, advancing upon me, “we’re going to have to do this the hard way.” Raising her finger to her mouth again, she shushed me. Looking satisfied with herself, she began to stroll away.

  “Hey,” I began but then stopped. I tried speaking again and realized that I couldn’t talk. Apparently me standing in the middle of the Minces with one leg up and flapping my mouth like a fish amused Nia, and she began to laugh.

  “What’s so funny?” I mouthed at her, furious.

  She appeared to understand me and said, “You. Come on. You’re not hurt. I just created another patch of skin for you.”

  I removed my hand slowly from my ankle and noticed there were no bite marks.

  “Put your leg down, and let’s go. We’ve got a bit of catching up to do.”

  I glanced at her, then at the Minces, and back at the sun before finally following her through the tiny population that stood glaring up at me. As we walked, Nia asked, “What took you so long?”

  I stared at her.

  “I
mean, you’re obviously an Awakener. And it usually takes Awakeners a couple of before they actually enter Turgor. But you’ve taken your sweet time.” She looked at me. “Well, I guess the important part is that you’re here.”

  I thought as we walked on. Turgor? When we were kids, my grandfather would sit us around the fireplace at night and tell us about the imaginary planet of Turgor. His favorite topic was the Death Walkers, creatures on the planet that could control the inhabitants’ timely demise. Nia and I would sit captivated for hours as he excitedly told us another piece of Turgorian history. The fond memory tightened my throat, and I automatically blinked away tears that were creeping to the surface. No time for that.

  We couldn’t possibly be here, I decided. Remembering that I had closed my eyes in science, I realized I was asleep. As we walked, I made out a small gate, only two and a half feet tall at most, standing alone in the middle of the grass. I glanced at Nia, who seemed to know where she was going, and kept walking towards the gate. Nia paused for a moment when we reached it, glancing at me before shaking her head.

  “Nah, I’ll give you your voice back when we get in. The Mince can get pretty upset when you yell. It disturbs their sleep.” I rolled my eyes as she walked behind me and gave me a violent shove. In a flash I felt my flesh tingle then crawl, and out of nowhere the gate that had only stood two feet tall was now towering into the sky. I looked over in alarm for Nia and watched slightly disturbed but definitely amazed as her normal sized body shrunk until she in whole was standing next to me.

  She shivered. “I can never get used to the shrinking part. Oh, hi.”

  I turned around to face a huge blue wall. Gasping, I fell back, looking up at the wall bent down squinting at me.

  “I should step on you the way you stepped on Uncle Morty,” it said, its voice high. Staring up at the wall, I recognized its small eyes and slanted mouth.

  “Sorry, Anny,” Nia said, coming to my rescue. “She’s new here, an Awakener. Kay, this is Anny, a Mince. Anny, this is Kay.”

  Anny gave a high-pitched harrumph and stood back up. “She had better watch where she steps next time,” she threatened.

  Nia nodded and grabbed my arm, rushing me inside the gate. “Anny can be kind of cranky sometimes,” Nia whispered in my ear, but I wasn’t paying attention.

  I gaped at the world in front of me. If I hadn’t been bitten by grass a few minutes earlier, I would have thought I just happened to get lost on the way home and stumbled upon a new age suburbia, complete with tidy houses and neat lawns. Kids skipped rope while parents looked on, dogs barked excitedly at imaginary squirrels, birds chirped, and kites flew in the sky.

  Except, it wasn’t normal. Something was different. I stood still for a moment and then noticed. The kids that were skipping rope weren’t holding the rope. It moved on its own. The dogs barking at the imaginary squirrels had extra legs or extra eyes. Mailboxes moved from one spot to another, getting in the way of traveling people and offering to take their mail. The telephone poles slightly leaned towards each other, whispering.

  “This is just a dream,” I chanted to myself under my breath. But why was it so hard to wake up?

  An incredible mixture of people and creatures unfolded in front of me. There were normal people in jeans, t-shirts, shorts, miniskirts, and tennis shoes all talking, laughing, joking, arguing, and having a good time. And then there were not so normal people, people who had orange and green tints to their skin, incredibly small people, and huge people.

  “Death Walkers,” Nia informed me, nodding at one who walked by. Despite a misplaced eye, nose, and for one unfortunate soul a mouth, they looked normal. Nia spotted a bus that largely resembled a regular city bus, except for the fact that it was levitating, and guided me on board.

  “Who...what...?” I began, looking around at the passengers and forgetting that I had just received my voice back. On my left sat a young gorgeous man, who had yellow flaming hair, reading a newspaper entitled Brozek Ledger.

  Nia noticed me looking at it and explained, “The Brozek is the city’s newspaper.”

  “We’re in a city?”

  “Yep. Brozek’s the name.” Nia checked the window. “We’re headed to Senior Lynch’s house right now. He’ll be able to explain things for you.”

  I turned towards her, forcing my eyes off the flaming guy next to me. “Look, this is a dream, so I’ll play along. Why can’t you tell me? Why are you being so secretive?

  Nia sighed impatiently. “Lynch’s going to kill me. This isn’t a dream, by the way. Okay, sis, you—we are in the city of Brozek. We are on the planet Turgor. You are an Awakener. Don’t ask me what that is or how you became one. The Senior Awakener is supposed to tell you that. Turgor is sort of like a land of magic. Everything has been touched by magic in one form or another. Even normal things. Life is magic.” She leaned back, apparently satisfied with the answer she had given me.

  I stared at her with my mouth open. When I figured out she wasn’t going to give me any more answers, I sighed and stared out the window. The cool air on the bus soothed me, and I began to drift off to sleep. As my eyes closed, something raced by, causing the bus to rocket violently and the bus driver to shout with equal venom. I started, and Nia grabbed my arm, holding me in my place.

  “Don’t worry,” she said. “It’s just the Harpies.”

  “The what?”

  “The Harpies.” She yawned, stretched, and looked at me. “Women of the sky, part woman, part bird.”

  I reached across the flaming dude and pressed against the window. “You’re joking.”

  “Nope,” she said, “and we’re here. Pull on the cord.”

  “Here” was a small brick house that had two round windows in the front and flowers lining the white stone path that led to the front door. A huge oak tree towered over the house with its branches reaching out almost protectively. Birds conversed on the limbs, glancing towards us as we walked up the path.

  “I just don’t understand it,” trilled one blue bird.

  “What’s not to understand?” the other blue bird sang, flapping its wings. “Roshi’s no longer safe. We’re going to have a meeting tonight to find out where to go.”

  “We should stay and fight!”

  “For how long, Meke? What of our children?” The second bird flapped its wings again, and I was distracted from their conversation by Nia ringing the doorbell. A very short man with snow white hair and incredibly bushy eyebrows answered the door. I stared at him with my mouth hanging open, wondering where in the world his eyes were—they appeared to be hidden beneath mounds of hair—and why no one had plucked the poor man’s eyebrows.

  Nia elbowed me before greeting the man, “What’s up, Paul?”

  “Nia, how are you?” the man responded, looking warily at me. He sniffed and then looked back at Nia, clearly annoyed. “Please tell me this isn’t another Awakener.”

  “Actually, it is.”

  He sighed and opened the door to let us in, surveying me as I walked through. “Seems like all sorts of people are becoming Awakeners these days.” He headed towards his kitchen, adding, “What happened to the good ole days of purposeful selection?”

  Nia frowned. “She is purposeful, Paul.” She turned to me and gave a small smile. “Sorry, Kay, this is Senior Awakener Paul Lynch. Senior Lynch this is Kay, also known as Kathleena, my sister.”

  “Hi,” I offered and nodded towards Paul.

  Paul raised his eyebrows in greeting and poured himself a cup of coffee. “Soooo...you’re Nia’s sister, eh? Well then, you must be special.” He looked at me—or so I thought—and continued. “This means you’re here to have a little history lesson.”

  Nia nodded and gestured for me to sit down on the brown, lumpy couch that had suddenly moved up behind us.

  Paul stood in front of us and looked over to his right, where a small chair of equal color appeared. He plopped down and took a gulp of coffee. “Very well, then. I could give you a century’s worth of history wi
th just us sitting here, going over the whole purpose of Turgor, the wars that have been plaguing this planet since the beginning of time, and the inhabitants that live here. But that would take forever, and I’d miss my soap operas. And from what I’ve been told you already know much about Turgor. You just haven’t come to believe that you’re actually in it. So, I’ll give you a quick summary. You, as we have already stated, are on planet Turgor. This means that you are no longer on Earth.” He pointed to his temple. “Well, you’re not on Earth mentally. Physically, you’re still slumped at your desk sleeping, waiting to wake up. Your grandmother is at home also taking a nap. Your grandfather Lamont’s away on business.”

  “Wait,” I interrupted, “what do you mean business?”

  Paul shifted in his chair and snipped, “Don’t interrupt me, please. If you give me a moment, I’ll get to that. Now, as I was saying, you’re still physically on Earth. The history of Turgor is a simple one. It’s a planet that only certain people or creatures can live in and visit. There are various means of living in Turgor, and it is by those means the people here are defined. For some, they were born here and are considered Wizards, children of two magical beings. For others, they are Death Walkers, those responsible for Death and who can control it. Walkers have physically died on other planets, and their minds have transformed them here, giving them a second life and a purpose. You have Awakeners, which is what you and I am, Kay. We come here through our dreams. Right now I believe I am dozing in front of my fire in New Zealand. We have incredible gifts, Kay, powerful. We have the power to bring things to life, to Awaken them.

  “Nia is perhaps one of the most powerful beings in Turgor. Yes, don’t look surprised. She’s a Creator. Those who came before her made the world what it is today. They created Turgor. That’s probably why she found out about this place long before you did. She created a way for herself to visit here, probably through her writing. Like I said, there are a vast number of ways you can transport yourself here, but only if you’re meant to be here and have a purpose. Yes, dearie, now you may talk.”