Timelapse

Description

Vickie and her adopted sister Vicky are stuck in the basement during a category 6 hurricane when they notice a strange book sitting in the corner....

Chapter 1
Introduction

I stood on the couch, glaring at the TV monitor in front of me. Sitting next to me, Vicky was laughing. In our hands were controllers, hooked up to the game characters on the screen.

Mine was almost completely depleted of HP, and Vicky's was almost about to deliver the final blow... when the power went out. I let out a silent cheer, punching the air, while Vicky threw her controller yelling "God fucking damnit!"

"Yet it is how god hath intended. He sent-ith dis hurricane so that you may-ith lose." I was mock-preaching. "He knew-ith that we would stay, and play this very game. He sent the storm, precisely timed... so that you would lose."

"I didn't lose. You didn't lose. Neither of us did." Vicky pointed out in a whiny, disappointed tone.

"Shhhhhhh." I clapped my hand over her mouth, and hissed, "let me have my moment."

She rolled her eyes, and I ran off to grab another bottle of Root Beer. Vicky and I have an annual tradition of whenever we hear about a hurricane forming, we loot a couple of convenience stores to stock up. The last hurricane didn't hit us, and just went off to Texas, but this one was hitting us head on. Since the power just went out, I assumed it was passing directly above us right now.

The two of us were in the basement, so we didn't have anything to worry about. The room was basically a giant waterproof concrete block. There was one entrance/exit and it was boarded up. The room was full of food, flashlights, batteries, books, and stuffed animals - everything you'd need to wait out a hurricane, or live.

I fell backwards into a beanbag chair. I sat there, and drank half of the bottle in one gulp. "I'm bored."

"It's been barely a minute since the power went out and you're already bored," Vicky stated, probably rolling her eyes again. She was big on the eye rolling.

"Yep," I clarified.

"Read something," she suggested.

I squinted around at the nearby darkness, and after a minute determined that the nearest book was too far.

She didn't respond. I assumed she rolled her eyes, but I wasn't facing her. I finished off the Root Beer, and rolled out of the chair. I crawled across the floor, digging though blankets to find a flashlight. The basement floor was lined with blankets and pillows.

Vicky and I mainly treated the basement as a kind of a clubhouse. We rented out the above-ground part of the house on air B&B, and our primary source of income. Since out prices were low enough to attract most tourists, and we always kept the upstairs in tip-top shape,our 5 star B&B page always kept us in business.

Usually we only spent time up there to use the kitchen and bathroom. Normally, we'd have a power cable going through the entrance for, well power obviously. We had a small generator for times such as these, but we didn't really use it.

I found a flashlight and grabbed it. I stood up, and slowly walked over to where I knew Vicky was. Standing directly behind her, I clicked the flashlight on. A circle of orangey light appeared, highlighting her blonde hair.

Noticing the light that spilled onto her lap, Vicky quickly looked up to see me holding the flashlight. She knocked it out of my hand, and complained about me shining the light in her eyes.

"Technically," I defended myself, "It was shining on your head until you looked up."

"Well obviously I was going to look up," she retorted.

"That implies I have common sense," I said, clambering over the big brown couch to grab the flashlight.

"True," Vicky agreed, watching as I rolled onto the floor, stood up, and wandered until I found The Merlin Conspiracy by Diana Wynne Jones.

I sat down on a pile of throw pillows and leaned against a large stuffed bear after propping up the flashlight so that it was facing me. After opening the book, I realized that this would be a problem. I reached out, grabbed the flashlight, and propped it underneath my chin so that the light was on the pages - not the cover.

"What are you doing?" Vicky asked after I read about a chapter.

"Reading The Merlin Conspiracy." I yelled back.

"Again?"

"Its a good book. Can I have another Root Beer?" I requested.

I heard some shuffling, and all of a sudden a plastic bottle full of sloshing brown liquid was flying through the air straight at my face. I barely managed to catch it before it smacked me in the face. "Thanks."

Despite all the sugar, I soon fell asleep.

Chapter 2
Dream

I stand in the middle of a room. The room is unlit, but as I turn around on the spot, looking for a light source, a single bare bulb directly above me turns on, soon followed by more and more lights, until the entire room is illuminated.

I'm standing barefoot on a cold, hardwood floor. Surrounding me are endless bookshelves, the colors of the spines are drowned out by the harsh orange lights.

A ladder appears in front of me. It is leaning against a bookshelf.

"Climb it." A deep voice echos through the room.

I take a step forward, and rest my foot on the bottom rung. I grab onto the sides, and slowly make my way up. The ladder gets taller and taller, but I eventually reach the top.

The shelf in front of me is covered in books, but they aren't upright.

"Fix it." The voice commands.

I push all the books to one side of the shelf, then one-by-one pick up the colored volumes, and place them upright on the shelf as books should be.

"Hold on tight," the voice warns.

I clutch the top rungs of the ladder, and brace myself as the ladder seems to shrink until I am face-to-face with the next shelf down.

The process repeats again, and again, until it stops at a shelf close to the bottom. There is a single book on the shelf. Well, there is roughly the same amount as any other shelf, but there is one in particular which holds my attention in a way that makes me not see any of the other books.

The book is thick with yellowing pages and a brown leather cover. There are no distinctive markings on it, but it almost seems to glow.

As I stare at it, I heard a lightbulb shatter, and see the room brightness decrease.

The voice is closer than from before when it says "Take it."

I continue to stare at it. Another light shatters.

"Take it!"

I continue to stare as the voice gets more and more urgent, and more and more lights break, until there is only one light flickering above me.

"TAKE IT!" The voice screams.

I grab the book, then fall backwards off of the ladder as the last light shatters.

I landed in a pillow pile. My first instinct was to take the book that was in my hand and throw it across the room. I didn't see its trajectory in the darkness, but I heard a thump as it hit the ground. After a moment, I realized that I was now awake, and the book was probably just The Merlin Conspiracy.

"Vicky?" I called out standing up.

"Yeah. You awake?" Vicky asked.

"If I was still asleep, I wouldn't be talking." I pointed out.

"I don't know," she began thoughtfully. "You do talk in your sleep sometimes."

"No I don't," I protested, moving towards her voice.

"Yes you do." she insisted.

I followed her voice, and found that she was still on the couch. I tried to jump onto the couch from behind, but tripped awkwardly, which resulted in my face being smashed into a cushion as my legs tipped over and fell onto the opposite side of the couch.

"Ohmygodareyouok?" Vicky cried as she crawled over to me with a flashlight.

"No." I managed to turn my head to that I was looking at her, and my cheek was resting on the couch. "I'm Vickie."

Chapter 3
More Things

She rolled her eyes.