FEB. 14: I found a Valentine card in my locker signed by Paul, and was ecstatic! It turned out to be a joke and my tears keep coming. At least Paul wasn’t the one who did it.
Maxim couldn’t continue and closed the book. He mulled over what he had read as a strange emotion seeped through him. This peculiar, uncomfortable sadness was out of the ordinary for him while he thought about the girl. He had a desire to help her, but it was unsafe for him to get involved in anyone’s life without jeopardizing his own existence. Could he do nothing when someone’s problematic life literally fell into his lap? If only his father would come home to advise him.
Maxim retraced his steps to the gate, and decided to leave the backpack on the path a few feet from the view of passerby’s. He unlatched the gate and left it ajar, so the girl would have easy access. That was the least he could do for her.
* * * * * *
There was a sense of relief when Oddily found the gate open after returning with a foot stool. She was doubtful, but still managed to tiptoe through the opening to search for her backpack. The thought of her journal falling into the hands of anyone other than herself made her nervous. The same fear gave her courage to do what she must.
She stopped for a moment and took a deep breath to steady her nerves before heading down the path, and on seeing it, she cried out, “My backpack!”
She limped forward and picked the bundle up, hugging her possession as though she’d reunited with a dear, long lost friend. She quickly checked her bag, grateful to see her beloved journal along with the camera.
“Starla and her friends weren’t kidding,” Oddily spoke softly. “I did enter these grounds.”
High above, Maxim sat in the bough of a gnarled tree and waited for Oddily to hobble back toward the gate. Satisfied with the outcome, he covered his mouth with his sleeve to stifle the laughter. The wild mop of hair bobbing on her head appeared to be too large for her thin body, and the sight of her struck a chord of amusement.
How does a girl like her survive in the world? The new thought sobered him. He shuddered to think of the sorrow he had read in her journal, and the fear he caused her only a short time ago.
Suddenly he shook his head, chiding himself for getting involved, and jumped down out of the tree. Nexa was right. It was forbidden to interfere with the lives of people outside the confines of their hidden world.
Maxim! He stopped short by the sound of his sister's frantic voice. Did you take my game glasses? They were on the cart next to the girl. Oh no, do you think she took them?
Settle down Nexa. I rummaged through her backpack, and I didn’t see them. Maybe you left them somewhere else.
No, she has them. I know she does! What are we going to do? We have to get them back!
You need to calm down. I’ll retrieve them before she figures out how to activate them.
Max, they are already activated! I left them on pause when Tinley came in with the girl.
How long before it activates again?
It's set for ten minutes.
What setting are they on?
They’re paused on the Labyrinth!
Maxim knew his sister was referring to the imperfect virtual reality game he designed for her when he was only eight years old, and it had many flaws. I’ll get them back sis. I promise!
What if she tries them on, or shows them to someone else!? This advanced technology can’t be exposed without the risk of others discovering who we are.
Stop it! I’ll go and get them back right now.
Be careful to keep yourself hidden.
Maxim had the same thoughts resembling his sister's doomsday attitude but pulled himself together. He placed the hood of his sweatshirt up over his head and sprinted down the dirt path, past the gate. He doubted the game would affect the girl too adversely, but that was of no big concern to him at this point. What would happen if the virtual game fell into the wrong hands was frighteningly crucial. It could change the course of technological discovery before it’s ready, and he couldn’t allow that to happen. It was the one fear his father drummed into him and his sister's head since birth. He had to ensure the continued safety of their private lives.
Ten minutes went by. Nexa, you're not going to believe this, but I lost her.
Are you serious?!? He detected a new wave of panic in his sister's voice.
I don’t know how she disappeared so quickly, unless she hitched a ride.
What are we going to do? We can’t lose those glasses!
Listen to me. She goes to Forest Ridge High. I know this from rummaging through her backpack. We’ll have to wait until tomorrow, and then I’ll follow her home after school.
* * * * * *
Oddily sat by the side of the road, hidden from view while she leaned against a giant tree. She was too tired and stupefied to drag the footstool all the way back home. Her body ached severely now, and she needed to calm down a bit and pull herself together. While she rested, she caught sight of a guy whiz by and began to watch with fascination while this tall hooded figure sprinted up and down the road like a lean, graceful gazelle. He seemed bewildered by not knowing which way to go, and he yelled profanities at himself the whole time. Oddily had never heard cuss words sound so beautifully regal and elegant. Then like magic, he left, vanishing, as if he were a figment of her imagination.
CHAPTER 6
When Oddily reached the road dipping down into the familiar meadow, she knew she was almost home. Thankfully, Starla’s Mini Cooper wasn’t in front of the house yet, which was an immense relief. She often prayed for her to be late from cheerleading practice, or to hang out at a friend’s house. If she arrived home before Starla, she had a better chance to be free from the mean girl's incessant badgering.
Oddily flinched from a sharp twinge in her thigh, but why she felt so sore remained a mystery. Starla’s fan club was right. She had gone beyond the line of safety because her backpack showed up on the other side of the gate. Her reasoning mind told her something must have happened, but what?
After entering the backdoor, she slipped into her room, and went to the mirror to survey the damage. She viewed her same unattractive face, wearing a torn dress and sweater that had long ago lost its shape. Besides being full of dirt, she had black and blue marks as well as some dried blood from scratches. Oddily stared at the goose egg on her forehead and winced in pain when she touched the lump. How could she not remember what happened to her? She shuddered with confusion, and fear for her sanity.
She stepped away in revulsion and lowered herself to her bed, hiding her face in the pillow. Not more than five minutes went by before the front door opened and slammed shut. Music started to blast from Starla’s bedroom with random conversation and lots of laughs. Then her heart stopped when she heard Starla’s demanding voice, “Oddily, where are you?”
Oddily rose from the bed and with a slow pace walked down the hallway to Starla’s room. The two girls were still with her. Her best friend, Kendall had stretched out on the bed with Starla, and the other sat on the floor glancing through a teen magazine.
“Where is my camera?” Oddily hated the whine in Starla’s voice.
“I found it with my backpack. I’ll be right back!” Oddily turned and limped back down the hallway all the while grimacing with pain. She retrieved the camera from the bottom of her bag and rushed back to Starla’s bedroom, but didn’t enter. Instead, she tossed the disposable camera onto the bed. Starla eyed the number of pictures taken and smirked.
“You didn’t use the camera!” she yelled at Oddily, who remained silent while she stood at the door jam.Oddily sensed the hatred radiating out from behind Starla’s dark blue eyes.
“You know what this means, don’t you.” Starla threatened her when she didn’t get a response.
Oddily shrugged with a blank expression, wincing at the discomfort her movement caused across her sore shoulders.
Starla had a different look on her face—one that was both teasing and watchful. “You can leave now, O
ddily.”
Geeez thanks boss, she wanted to say, but Oddily’s comment would only come back to haunt her later. Keeping her mouth shut was the only safe way to deal with Starla, so she edged away from the doorway and returned to her own room.
CHAPTER 7
Another torturous school day was underway for Oddily. She sat in history class with her dreamy eyes focused on the blinking device she had found in her sweater pocket. Whatever the thing was, it didn’t belong to her, but she found it fascinating. She decided to use it as a distraction so she wouldn’t have to make eye contact with Paul in the seat next to her.
She had to admit the sleek looking glasses appeared a bit abnormal if they truly were spectacles. With aqua blue frames splattered with strands of silver and sea green lenses, she imagined the device belonging to a beautiful mermaid…if mermaids wore such a thing.
Oddily bit her tongue and squirmed in her seat, appearing as a cat catching a mouse. Out of the corner of her eye, she could tell Paul was flirting with Starla—and her foster sister seemed pleased. Had he developed a crush on her? What a silly question—what guy wouldn’t?
Was that why Paul kept looking at her? Oddily wasn’t sure what to think while she slipped on the device, except wonder if Kip knew about their playful interaction.
Unaware, Oddily didn’t know that Paul’s attention was immediately drawn to her. He started to laugh, supposing her intention was to humor the class. He was wrong. In fact, other than hearing raves of laughter drifting off from some faraway place, Oddily no longer believed herself to be in the classroom. Her face had frozen with a silly expression as a bright rainbow of blurred pastel colors began to take form, making it clear to her that the peculiar object had transported her to an intriguing new place.
Oddily’s new surroundings put her in a momentary stupor. She found herself standing on a narrow path between two high hedges—neat and green and attractive. Some internal instinct warned her to be more frightened than she was, but her mind had gone numb. Maybe she was in shock.
“What is this place?” That became the only sensible comment popping out of her mouth.
If only she could climb the hedge for a better view of her surroundings, but there was no way to climb it, no limb strong enough to hold her up. Not knowing what else to do, she walked along the hedge for a few yards, until she came upon an open arch in the hedge to her left. She turned into the arch but then stopped and frowned. If she wandered away from the path, she may get lost. But then again, wasn’t she lost already? Oddily decided to follow the new path.
She faced another choice almost immediately, with the option to turn right. She passed through one more arch, but stopped again when she realized there was a more confusing option now–going straight, or choose between two arches just a few feet apart on the left side of the hedge.
Oddily began to worry. After a few more twists and turns, the maze didn’t seem quite so intriguing. There was an eerie silence and stillness about the place that gave her the creeps. She could feel the hairs on her arms rise. After all, putting on a pair of glasses from her pocket didn’t usually entail an experience like this. She kept looking over her shoulder as she made her way down the path.
Finally, Oddily decided to head back in the direction she had come. She began moving faster, almost running, but the path curved to the right and fell away. It sloped steeply down a hillside, so that she had a sudden, unexpected view of a huge labyrinth in the valley below. Her pulse quickened at the sight, and a scary thought entered her head. How long could a person survive without food or water?
There was no doubt that Oddily wanted to return to her seat in History class but how? She moved on, wandered aimlessly and her heart almost stopped when she felt a tug. But it was only a thread from her sweater that had been caught when she brushed against the hedge. Funny…she’s never thought much about virtual worlds before. But now she was very interested.
Then, very faintly, she thought she heard a slight rustling sound. She stopped in her tracks to listen more closely. Yes, there it was again. The rustling sound started again, slightly louder and just up ahead.
As the rustling became more distinct, Oddily moved more slowly, more cautiously. When she rounded the next bend, she noticed just in time someone move across the path and vanish through a gap in the hedges.
A shiver went through her. Panic…that was what she was feeling.
“Pssst,” The sound came from behind her this time and she spun around, practically colliding with a body. A bald-headed boy with silver eyes, whom she guessed to be eight or nine years old, stood directly behind her. He was watching her, and she met his stare with wide eyes. His creepy features made her heart flip-flop in her chest.
“I am Oliver,” the boy spoke with an unusual, quirky sound to his voice, a strange intonation.
Oddily didn’t respond, remaining frozen where she stood.
“Come with me!” he beckoned her with his hand.
Oddily refused to move.
“All right,” the boy smiled creepily and then headed back towards the hedge. “Play the game the way you want.”
“Wait!” Oddily called out. “Can you get me out of here?”
“That’s up to you, depending on how many points you have stored up?”
“What do you mean?” her face took on a forlorn expression.
“You know—the points collected so far in the game. You can buy tools to help yourself get out of this mess and win…remember?”
“I’m sorry. I don’t know what you're talking about,” a new surge of fear swept over her.
“Sure you do!” He said in a flat, matter of fact tone.
Oddily became lost for words because Oliver sounded disturbingly insane.
“Nexa, you know how to play the game.” His words broke through the silence.
Oddily blinked hard, “Who is Nexa?”
“You are, of course.”
That did it! Oddily put distance between them. She ran back down the path in an attempt to get away from him. When the boy followed, she picked up a strange object that mysteriously appeared on the path and threw it at him. “Get away from me,” she shouted.
When the object made contact with the boy and his body shimmered, a voice from nowhere announces, “Congratulations! You have completed level one.”
Oddily began to chew at her lip when she noticed the fallen object disappear and a hole open up in its wake.
“What just happened?” she asked. “Why did a hole appear?”
“It’s the entrance to level two,” Oliver spoke with no real surprise in his tone.
“Level two—you mean there’s more?” Oddily became more confused than ever.
“Sure, the game has twelve in all.”
Oddily stepped forward and got an eerie sensation in the pit of her stomach when she peered into the hole and spotted a stairway leading down into darkness. “It looks spooky,” she stammered.
“The next level will be harder,” the intonation of Oliver’s voice started to mess with her head. Besides his appearance, there was something off about the kid, as though the boy had no real feelings or emotions. Then again, why should he? Everything about this experience was unreal!
Oddily was still staring down into the dark hole when she heard a strange vacuum sound approaching in the distance.
Oliver said, “You better follow me unless you want to outsmart the beast and advance to level three.”
“What are you talking about?” As if in response to Oddily’s question, an enormous brown dog leaped onto the path as its massive head turned their way.
Without hesitation, Oliver jumped into the hole and started down the stairs. Oddily hopped in after him and scrambled down the rickety, cobwebbed stairway. The air had a pungent, musty odor which made it difficult to breathe, but she didn’t care. The dog’s growl, resonating down into the hole was scarier than stale air. She continued on, listening intently until the terrifying sound of the dog disappeared.
“I can
touch you!” Oddily said after she grabbed both the back of the boy’s shirt, and an old wooden railing.
“Of course you can.”
Is that possible though?” she asked despite her disbelief. “After all, you’re not a real person…right?”
“If you say so.”
Suddenly the light from the hole they entered from above diminished. They were enveloping in darkness so Oddily felt her way, step by step, the rest of the way down the planks. She faithfully followed behind Oliver, hardly believing this was happening to her. She wanted to return to her own world, but still didn’t know how. She felt trapped inside a virtual game.
Suddenly, a wave of nausea threatened to overwhelm her. “Oh no, I think I’m going to puke.”
“What is puke?” Oliver asked.
“You don’t want to know,” she gulped.
Oddily kept swallowing her spit to calm her stomach, and continued her journey until Oliver announced that his foot landed on level two. As if by magic, dim, yellow lights blinked on, exposing a long tunnel made of the living earth.
“How did you do that with the lights?”
Oliver gave Oddily a blank stare. “I didn’t do anything! Are you sure it wasn’t you?” Her silence gave him his answer.
The two continued their journey in single file because of the narrow tunnel. Oliver went first, then her, as they wandered through the uncertain lines of the earthen walls. Deep tree roots pierced the tunnel with water dripping down from above, causing moisture with hunks of earth falling periodically from the walls.
She clung close to Oliver as she stumbled over the uneven floor, terrified the passageway would collapse on them. All kinds of fears crept into her mind, but she brushed them aside in an attempt to be strong.
After some time, they rounded a bend in the otherwise straight path and Oliver stopped so suddenly, she bumped into him.
“What’s the matter?” She whispered.
“Something is waiting for you up ahead. You must continue without me.”