(Note: Words in italics are thoughts of the main character)
"Aefia, wake up, it's Monday!" Mom shouted.
How do people even wake up this early? It should be considered illegal.
Aefia thought while sluggishly getting out of bed.
***
"Why are you always on your phone every time I see you?" Nada asked while walking to the elevator.
Nada was Aefia's best friend and only friend at school, home, and outside. They lived in the same building, just opposite each other's house.
"I can't play it at school, can I?" Aefia answered.
"But you play it at school, too." Aefia looked confusedly at Nada.
"I mean, I understand that video games and web novels are your escape from reality, but don't you get bullied for it?" Nada explained.
"Why would I care about what Ms. Encyclopedia has to say? At least I am minding my own business," Aefia answered.
Nada smirked at Aefia, "You know if I were her, I would have done the same for being glued to your phone."
"Some best friend you are," Aefia smiled back while clicking the elevator button.
***
The elevator to their building stopped at the 1st floor, which meant they had to use the stairs to descend further to the ground floor. Usually, it is around this time that Aefia puts away her phone, but she decided that she would finish level 34 of the game before putting it away.
"How is the situation with your father going? You haven't spoken to him for two months," Nada asked after exiting the elevator.
"I don't have any wish to talk to that man any time soon." Aefia had a hard time bonding with her family members. The only person she had a proper family relation with was her younger brother. He was the only sibling Aefia had.
"Today is Monday, do you want to walk to school so that we can talk about our weekend?" Nada asked.
"Yeah sure, I am done with this level anyways," Aefia answered.
"I see you got a haircut—curtain bangs and a layer cut. It really matches your personality."
"My mom's side aunt forced me to get it."
"Your aunt did good."
The rest of the way was about Aefia's evil aunts, who could turn her world upside down in a matter of seconds.
Aefia's father is the owner of a huge market place, which was an inheritance from his father. Since being born the youngest of all four siblings, he had to constantly face problems with the ownership of the inheritance land. Her aunts would do almost anything to get the inheritance under their name and often were the reason why Aefia was abused and scolded when she wasn't guilty. They would lie, cry, and fake incidents, focusing solely on Aefia and her brother, which was why she stopped all communication with her father. If communication was shut off, they won't have a reason to lie.
"You are from a rich and well-known family, would you like to switch places?" Nada would ask.
"Yeah sure, if you can endure it," Aefia would answer.
***
"So your three aunts decided to start a new cinema again? I wonder how it will end," Nada laughed.
"I don't see how there is anything to laugh about."
"Anyways, we have arrived at school."
"Another place I would really like to avoid."
***
The rest of the school day went as usual, except that Ms. Encyclopedia, the star student of her class, broke Aefia's phone and threatened Nada to stay away from her for the rest of lunch while Aefia walked around the whole campus, absolutely bored. Since it was an international school, lunchtime was enough to walk one full lap around a two-acre school.
***
"Aefia, my parents are here to pick me up. You are going to have to go home alone," Nada came by at the end of the school day.
"Alright, see you then," Aefia waved Nada goodbye and looked away.
***
Aefia decided to walk back home since she didn't like the crowded afternoon bus and the honks and beeps that come with it. Also, her phone was broken, so there wasn't anything to occupy her during the thirty minutes wait back home. Besides, the street she walked on was made full of shop lots and restaurants, so she could read the sign boards to keep her occupied.
While walking, Aefia noticed a woman with brown hair and brown eyes handing out leaflets.
Home is still seven minutes away; reading a leaflet could keep me occupied.
She walked towards the woman, "Hi, may I have a leaflet?"
"Sure thing, but while others ignore me, why do you ask for it?" The woman asked.
"Well, my phone broke, and the walk back home is still quite a distance, so I decided why not read a leaflet while I walk?"
"Well, I am willing to give you the leaflet, but are you willing to participate?"
"Participate?" Aefia was confused. She thought it was some ordinary business-promoting leaflet, but what is there to participate in it?
"It's a competition. If you want to join, I can hand you the leaflet; otherwise, it's confidential."
How is a competition something so mysterious that handing out leaflets is confidential if the person isn't willing to participate?
"So what is this competition about?"
"It's basically a research. You research about the 'Great Yearly Catastrophe.' The one with the most persuasive and informative report wins first prize, followed by second and third."
The 'Great Yearly Catastrophe' is one of the most questionable things on Earth, and it does have a lot of people investigating it with no proper results. Maybe I can gain some knowledge from this research while competing, since I will be bored from not getting access to my phone. It's broken anyways, so why am I even thinking about it.
"The prize doesn't matter, what do I have to do to participate?" Aefia finally asked.
"Then take this leaflet. Come to the location stated on the back of the leaflet and say that you are willing to participate."
Isthat why the leaflet was 'confidential'?
Aefia took a look at the location and realized it was only two minutes away from her home.
"Do I go at anytime?"
"I best prefer at around 5:30 pm afterwards."
"Alright. Do I need to bring anything in particular?"
"Well, bring a pen and a paper with your parents' contact info, location, and passport number. If you can find any, try getting a printed copy of your first and second page of your passport along with you."
"What is it necessary for?"
If I directly ask 'is it for security purposes,' there is a high chance that the woman would lie and say yes if she is a scammer. But if she says 'for security purposes' without hesitation, there is a high chance that she is telling the truth.
"It is for security purposes, in case there is any sort of emergencies," the woman replied.
"Ok, got it. I will meet you at 5:45 pm with the requirements then. By the way, how do I know you as?"
"You can call me Ms. Tortoise."
"Alright. Have a good afternoon, Ms. Tortoise." Why does she have such a weird name?
"You too."
That 'you too' felt personal for some reason. But I have to run back home and get prepared, it should be 4:45 pm by now!
***
Aefia ran the remaining distance home. Upon reaching home, she made sure she was equipped with the requirements and set it on her study table while she went to change into something she could wear at home and outside. A black hoodie with full sleeves and a zipper, a white t-shirt with a half sleeve on top of a black strap-sleeved frock which has a stretchy rubber sewn at the waist, and jeans.
"Sorry, Mom, I need to complete a group assignment which is due by tomorrow with Nada. I will be back soon." If Mom knows that I am participating in an unknown competition, it's off with my head.
Aefia hurriedly got her shoes and ran downstairs through the stairs.
***
Waiting for the lift will be a problem. And I only live on the 11th floor, it shouldn't be a problem.
By the time she made it to the ground floor, her legs were weak, but she kept running until she came to her destination at Denvers Street, a two-storey bungalow.
A normal house? She rang the bell of the house and waited for someone to open the door. "So you came, 5:45 pm sharp like you said. You are a punctual person by the looks of it," Ms. Tortoise answered. "Come in, I will bring the form and the contract."
The inside of the house was rather like an office reception. A library at one corner of the room, a large open space meeting area, a reception area. "I will wait here then," Aefia pointed at a sofa in the meeting area. I guess I shouldn't have judged a book by its covers.
"Here is the contract," Ms. Tortoise handed her a document with rules, and at the very bottom was a single line for a 'signature'. "And here is the form. Did you bring the passport print?"
"Yes, here it is," she handed Ms. Tortoise the printed copy. "Do I start filling the form?"
"Before that, do you know what a contract is?"
"Yes, I will agree to certain terms and conditions by signing a piece of document."
"That's right, you may sign the contract and fill the form."
"Can I ask one more question? Is there any registration fee?" I don't want to sign a document if there are charges. I don't have the money with me.
"No, participation and registration are both free. In fact, we will be paying you on a weekly basis."
Pay me on a weekly basis? That sounds amazing! Now I can have ready hand cash without having to hear all those lectures of recklessly spending money on stuff!
***
'Rule one, the participant needs to be free at the selected time of the competition, 6 pm on a given date.
Rule two, once a participant chooses to participate, he or she can't withdraw their names from the competition.
Rule three,...'
All these rules are fine by me. Perhaps it will be an easy competition.
"Ms. Tortoise, I have finished filling up the form. Do I do anything else?"
"Alright," Ms. Tortoise checked the form. "Name, Aefia. Age, 15. Parents' name—"
"Ma'am, you don't need to read it out loud, I know all the information is correct."
"Ok, so I will need you to wait for a moment while I retrieve an item for the participation."
An item? For participation? What for?
"Here, can you try this one?" Ms. Tortoise came back a few minutes later with a wristband in the colour blue. "This will help you shift between dimensions without any injuries."
Shift between dimensions?! I am not dreaming, then how is this possible? Do I question my sanity? Is this woman mentally ill? What do I say? What do I do? Do I run out of this place?
"Ms. Tortoise, what did you mean by shift between dimensions?" Aefia said while putting on the wristband to avoid suspicion.
"Oh, it's just a metaphor."
A metaphor! That scared my soul out of my body! What kind of metaphor is that?
"Now just one more thing, I just need to send a message to Mr. Grizzly about a new participant, and then you will follow me to a room to finish the registration," Ms. Tortoise said while holding her phone.
I think I really am insane. Today has been weird enough for me to handle.
"And sent. Now come with me, child, you are one step away from your registration confirmation."
I am one step away from trouble. It's already 6:02 pm. Mom is probably worried by now.
They descended two floors into the basement, and each of the basement floors were intricately designed. If you could zoom into the walls, you would have been presented with patterns as small as an ant. The ceiling was almost as if it was part of a palace from a novel.
How can someone do all that?
"We are here. Now if you have read through the contract page properly, you know very well that there is no turning back," Ms. Tortoise said while entering a room with an archway door.
"Yes, I have read it thoroughly." Aefia, following Ms. Tortoise into the room, saw it was a poorly furnished study room. The only furniture item present was two chairs and a table the size of a regular bedroom door.
Ms. Tortoise handed Aefia a piece of paper with words written on it which made no real sense. "Read the written contents clearly without losing focus."
How do I lose focus while reading such a thing?
Aefia took the paper and read the contents written in it. While doing so, she could feel the air shift around her. The temperature went down and the brightness was lowered. When she looked up from the paper, she realized she wasn't on Earth. She was somewhere between fiction and reality. Somewhere strange enough that human imagination wasn't enough to describe it in words.
This place isn't Earth. Come to think of it, she did say 'shifting between dimensions,' does that mean?
"Ms. Tortoise, wasn't I on—" Aefia looked around but couldn't find Ms. Tortoise in the place she was supposed to be.
"Well, now my suspicions are paying off. I should have run away when I had the chance to. How do I go back to Earth then?I guess I will have to figure out something."
"Actually, you don't." Aefia turned around to see who it was. The woman was the same looking woman as Ms. Tortoise, but there were changes.
Brown hair and turquoise eyes. Didn't Ms. Tortoise have brown eyes? I think I am better run.
As soon as Aefia started to move back, the woman drew a knife.
I think I have hit dead end.