“NaNoWriMo 2020 Pt. 25”

Author’s Note: This is a Take Ten to Write story and has not been proofread for errors. If I feel inspired or if there’s interest in the story, I’ll post a revised, edited, and extended version at a later date. Happy reading!

Additional note: In honour of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), all 30 stories written in the month of November will (hopefully) create a single multi-part story that will reach its conclusion by the end of the month. Stay tuned for a new story part every day!

Read the compiled NaNoWriMo TTtW story here!

Prompt: Birch.

SKYE’S POV

I return to my room to find none other than Winston waiting for me. As soon as he sees me, a grin spreads across his face.

“Ah, perfect timing,” he says. He steps aside to reveal Ryan behind him; somehow, he managed to beat me up to my room and change into his uniform at the same time.

“What’s going on?” I ask warily, keeping my distance from them.

“We wanted to show you a very special feature of your room,” Winston says. He nods at Ryan, who walks to the wall. He digs his nail into the wall and flips open a panel. He presses a button and the entire room seems to… shiver.

The walls hake slightly, each breaking up into smaller panels that flip to just show white. Soon, the wall is completely white–even the furniture turned white at some point during this strange transformation.

“Come here,” Winston says, waving at me.

I i slowly walk over to him, still trying to process what just happened.

When I reach him,

The smile is still on Winston’s face as he directs me toward one of the panels. “Place your hand here,” he says, pointing at what looks like a scanner in the wall.

I glance at Ryan. He’s frowning slightly, but hasn’t offered me anything since that last cryptic warning he threw me over his shoulder on my first day here.

Even though I have a bad feeling about this, I raise my hand just like Winston said to.

And the room explodes in colour.

The birch trees around me stretch up to the ceiling, spotting the whiteness with contrasting black stripes. The sky is clear, apart from the smoke rising to the left.

I take a step forward, but before I can look for the source of the smoke, two figures burst through the trees.

No, wait. That’s me! Me and Mason, the day that we had just found each other!

Ryan lets out a strangled-sounding squeak but doesn’t say anything else. Winston watches the entire scene through narrowed eyes, as if searching for something.

The panel warms up beneath my hand. I yank my hand away. The scene fades.

Winston turns to me. “Thank you,” he says, “for that very informative memory. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some work to do.”

Final Comments: Huh…

Overall Rating: 🤨