Another Life Altering Event by Sahira Dharamshi, cappuccino

As she sits at her desk a glimmer outside her window catches her eye. Tracy tentatively glances up, wondering us as to what it may be, and looks at what appears to be a glittery outline in her back yard. With curiosity finally getting the better of her, the young girl gets off her desk chair and grabs her coat following the mysterious glimmer. Tracy moves a little bit slower than usual as she has been stuck in her chair studying for exams all day. As she starts walking down her front porch steps, she pauses to give her legs a shake to ease out the stiffness in them all whist keeping a close eye on the glittering outline.

 

    On a normal day Tracy Solomon is not one to go after mysterious things; she prefers to remain in her comfort zone and ignore what she cannot find logical answers to. However, for the past few weeks, ever since her father’s disappearance, she has been dreaming about him urging her to “chase answers to what seems unanswerable.” Tracy’s therapist told her this repeated message was just a way of her subconscious expressing the feelings she was supposedly holding in around her father’s sudden disappearance. Everyone thinks he is dead, that he got involved in some dodgy dealings with work but, Tracy can’t shake the feeling that he is still somewhere out there…wherever there may be. The dreams she keeps getting feel less like dreams and more like a message and as crazy as it may seem to others Tracy knows it is not coincidental that this glittering outline has appeared tonight. Tonight, marks one month since her father’s disappearance and she feels as if she owes it to him to see if she can “chase answers to what seems unanswerable.” As Tracy opens her front door, she realizes that the glittery outline seems to be highlighting a door which ignites a great fluster in Tracy.

 

   “Oh my gosh, as if there is a magical floating door in my back yard right now! Come one Trace, you’re dreaming again, wake up girl, wake up!” Tracy begins pinching her skin in a desperate attempt to wake herself up as the bizarre situation sets in. Tracy was expecting to be led to something or someone and that the glittery outline was someone shining a torch  to get her attention, not quite a random door appearing.

 

   “I’m not opening you because I am clearly dreaming; my studying was so boring I fell asleep at my desk and this is all just a dream. I’ve seen enough fantasy movies to know that whenever the person opens the magical door their life gets altered forever, and I have already had one life altering event. I am not sure I am quite in need of another so thank you but no.” After Tracy finished her monologue with the door, she turned around to head back into the house but hears a slight creak followed by a little cough. Startled, she turns around again and is met with a very small man with a very long beard.

 

    “What the…”

 

    “Tracy Solomon, before you go into another rant why don’t I just explain what is going on here so we can get to the chase.  I am afraid we don’t have much time. My name is Aquoro, I am a close friend of your father and he really needs our help. Your father has been an ally to our realm which he discovered many years ago. His work had him on a site visit and he came across one of our portals. At that time we were suffering; we had humans constantly trying to find us and trying to capture us to study so we were always in hiding. However, your father was different. He respected us and most importantly he wanted to protect us. He knew our population was dwindling and sought to find the portals across the globe and hide them from humans and unfortunately, he went missing during this process. We fear he has been captured by an enemy from another realm. You see my dear girl there was a time where we could all roam in and out of our realms crossing over into your world and humans would leave us alone or befriend us. Sadly, somewhere along the way humans started looking at us as test subjects and wanted to examine us in their laboratories which meant we could no longer come here and instead had to remain in our own realm. For some, their own realm is not enough, and they want to take over other creatures' homes. These creatures are known as the Interitus which is Latin for…

 

  “For destruction” Tracy chimed in.

 

    “Yes, we need to find him, and we need your help. He has always spoken so highly of you and how much you would love to know these worlds and creatures existing there and  he assured us  you wouldn’t be scared of us, you would respect us too. We need your help in particular because the Interitus also look for human allies; they obviously knew your father would not be one of theirs so they have taken him.  However, if you can pretend to be their ally you can find out where they keep their prisoners and how we can set him free. I say we have no time as the Interitus attempt to convert any humans or creatures from other realms they have captured into soldiers for the war they are raging against us. At the end of the month they will try and wipe your father's mind and make him believe he is there as a soldier for them instead.”

 

    Aquoro reaches out his hand to Tracy as he stands in the door way and says “Please Tracy. We need to begin your training today.  I promise we will protect you throughout this journey and I shall continue to explain more to you on our way to our training site but, the magic I used to conjure this portal is going to fade soon. I know this is a lot to digest but, somewhere deep down you always knew your father was out there and now is your chance to get him back.”

 

     With that final sentence Tracy takes Aquoro’s hand and begins her journey of what will definitely be another life altering event.

 

About the author

Sahira  is currently a university student and am hopes to further her writing career as writing is something, she has always been passionate about from a young age. She enjoys creating worlds for others to escape into! 

 

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