The Reaction Diaries

Chapter 1~
Miss Delpay

I hate Mondays. No, seriously, I really freaking hate ‘em. I got up this morning with butterflies in the pit of my stomach. I wasn’t sure what that exactly meant, but it couldn’t be good in any sense of the word.

The weather today: cold as all hell with a chance of rain. Perfect day here in rural Wisconsin. The tiny village of Simin was where I spent most of my days; days that were filled with farming, schoolwork, and sometimes reading which was one of the only things that ever kept me from going totally insane. I’m homeschooled, you see; it’s way too far from the school to go there so my parents just hired a random lady when we moved here about a year ago. She was creepy and came way too early.
What time did she get up, like five AM? God damn! I threw on jeans, a tee shirt, and a brown jacket with a guitar on it. I looked like shit but who cares- I’m comfy.

A knock at the door made me jump and realize that I had to go let Miss Delpay in. She was a tiny old lady, with a hunched back and a viscious scowl that made you want to cry and scream like a baby. Creepy old lady, why won’t she just like have a heart attack?

“Good Morning, Davey. Today we are going to be investigating the difference between science and pseudo-science. For this I have brought you some books-“ I followed her into the living room as she slammed a shit ton of hardbacks on a polished table-“and I expect you to read most of them and have a discussion with me.”
”What?! That’s like, three whole books, I can’t possibly finish these all.”
She giggled. “Well, finish most of them, and then get back to me. Read whichever ones interest you.”
I scoffed and flipped through the books. She walked slowly out, her creepy leopard print purse swinging from side to side. These books were probably older than that old coot. And weirder, too. One of them was about Astral Projection, another about Biological Warfare, and a final one about some kind of ancient Egyptian society.
However, there was one in the stack that caught my eye. This one was dusty, with a heavily decorated purple and gray cover that just made me think of an old church for some reason. I opened it up, and on the front page read: PARALLEL UNIVERSES: THEORY AND EVIDENCE.
Hmm, this could actually be interesting…

The book spoke in hard-to-read old person English, but it was endearing (hah! I used a vocab word, you old turd!) nonetheless. It talked about a bunch of crazy shit, like how a man suddenly claimed he wound up one day in the 17th century while walking his dog. He just looked around, and everyone was suddenly dressed in these medieval clothes and crap. It was pretty weird to read about, and I hoped nothing like that would ever happen to me.
After an hour or two, the old hag hobbled back into the room.
”So, Davey, you find anything of interest?”

“Uh- just this one about parallel universes.”
She grinned a large, toothy smile. It sent shivers down my spine. I mean, I know there weren’t dentists until at least 1850, but seriously…

“Do you like the idea of a universe existing next to ours, child?”
”I guess.” What a strange ass question.

“Well, sometimes the eye cannot see that which is truly there. And sometimes, the heart can see what the eye and mind cannot. Maybe you need to shut your eyes and open up your heart, and you will discover a world not too unlike ours. The only difference is, this world is made up of dreams.”
I slammed the book closed and stood up.
”Alright, look. You’re creeping me out. I’m sorry if I come off as a jerk to you sometimes, but you haven’t ever taught me anything in the year I’ve been seeing you. All you do is talk about philosophy and heart crap and junk. Well, guess what? I left my heart with my family and friends back home in California. Sorry.”
She frowned.
”Is that what you think, Davey Nestor? That I teach you ‘heart crap and junk’? Do you really feel that way?”
I bit my lip. Great, now I was gunna hurt her feelings. I mean, she was an okay lady and all, she was just a shitty teacher.

“I…if we did normal school stuff, like math and literature, not this random stuff… I don’t get it. I’m sorry.”
She shook her head and turned to leave.
”Then, I have nothing to teach you, Davey. Books can only get you so far. I’ve known you for a while, and you’re plenty smart, 4.0 student, good looks. But what you need more than anything is to know what life is about. And I shall leave you with that for today. Goodbye.”
I stood up to go after her, then stopped myself. I stared out the window as she drove off in her ancient car, and then jumped as I realized something.

She left her old ass books here!
I grapped them up in my arms and kicked the door open. She was just now pulling out of our gravel driveway. I ran down the wooden steps and began to go after her- it wasn’t hard, because she drove very slow.

That’s when the weird stuff started to happen, and boy, do I mean WEIRD. Like, the sun started flickering and the wind started picking up. It was like the movie Twister but only worse and there was no tornado or anything. Which kinda defeats the purpose of the movie, but oh well.
Anyways so the wind was blowing, and all I hear is this loud growling sound. Haze begins to form around my feet, and the headlights of the old lady’s car soon disappeared. What was going on?
”Hello? Is…is anyone there?”
I got my answer when a terrible, grotesque creature emerged from the mist. It was at least as big as me, was brown and furless, and had two glowing red eyes. Its ears were gnarled and its claws had red streaks on them. I screamed.
What the hell was this thing?
I turned to run away, and I went running through the mist. It was as thick as pea soup, and I couldn’t see anything. I tripped several times, and caught glances back at the thing to make sure it wasn’t ganging up on me. It was close at my heels, and I continued running in the general direction of my house.

But my house wasn’t there. All I found was the gate to my home and a well. This well hadn’t been there before…
I turned around and chucked the old books and the monster, and turned to examine the well. It wasn’t all that sturdy, but it had a crank and a large bucket that could support me. It was the only option I could see at the moment, as it wouldn’t be able to fit down into the well.
My breath was knocked out of me as I felt something huge and heavy bump into my back.

The next thing I knew, I was tumbling down, down, down into the well…

DEAR MRS. NESTOR,

Your son, Davey, shows such great potential. What an intelligent and well-mannered boy he is! In fact, I think he deserves to go to Clearance Level 2! We shall deploy the ones necessary to get this to happen. He has been much instrumental in our research. The Order thanks you for it. Perhaps the Grey Queen’s Regime has met its match, eh?

May the Light shine down eternal,

Janice Delpay