Chapter 2: Sucked In

Meanwhile, back on Earth, a father, Senior, and his eight-year-old son, Junior, were playing a game. They were pretending to be chased by evil people, but then they pretended they were on the edge of a very high cliff. The pretend bad guys were getting closer...and closer...and closer! The only thing they were able to do was pretend to jump off the cliff. So they jumped, but instead of hitting the ground as they suspected, they felt as if they were really falling down a big cliff! Junior looked behind him, but he could see no cliff. Senior was confused too.

“Did someone dig a hole right in front of our door? Did we fall down a trap door to a secret basement filled with gold, jewels, diamonds, and other precious stuff? Am I asleep? Did we fall down the stairs?” were some of the things running through Junior’s mind.

Then both Senior and Junior noticed as if they didn’t feel like they were outside. But on the other hand, they didn’t feel like they were inside, either. They didn’t feel like they were in outer space. They didn’t really feel like they were anywhere! Ahead of them, nothing could be seen except pitch black. Junior couldn’t see his father, so he felt as if he was alone! But Senior felt safer. He trusted that his son wouldn’t leave him anywhere.

Junior tried to call out for his dad, but no sound came out. He figured it was because he was trying to whisper. So he tried shouting, but still no sound came out.

Senior was trying to make sure that he could feel Junior next to him, so he waved his hand around, but he could feel nothing. He then began to think that Junior had left him and was exploring wherever they were, because Junior always explored unfamiliar places. To make sure that Junior wasn’t too far away, he tried calling for him, but he could not speak.

Junior then realized that he couldn’t feel his own clothes! He tried to touch his stomach. Because he could feel no clothes, he thought he would feel bare skin. But no matter how far back he reached his arm, he could not feel anything. He could not even feel his own skin! He reached his arm so far back he started turning somersaults. Eventually he figured that he was simply gone, but then he realized that if he did not exist, he could not move anything that wasn’t there!

This seemed to be some sort of neutral passageway--neither Senior nor Junior could see, smell, feel, hear, or say anything. Neither of them felt safe at all anymore. However, they also thought that they were not very far from home. They felt as if that any minute this strange feeling would go away and they would be right back in their own house, right where they left off on their game. But this lasted for what seemed to be a very long time. If Junior was existing at that moment, he would have fallen asleep.

It seemed as if Junior did fall asleep, because when he appeared to wake up, his senses were starting to work again. He could feel his clothes again. He could see his father, and his father could see him. They hugged each other, finally knowing that they would never leave each other. Junior asked his dad, “What on earth is going on?! Where are we? What on wherever-we-are is going on?!” But he immediately noticed that he was the only one who could hear his own voice, because his father had turned away after they had hugged. He waved his hand in front of Senior, and Senior looked at him angrily. Senior tried to say, “What do you want?!” Junior then motioned for Senior to read his lips. He then said, “Do you know where we are?” slowly and carefully so that his father could read his lips without thinking, “Huh?” Senior then mouthed, “I don’t know.” But Junior did not see him, because he noticed something in front of him. Senior looked in the direction Junior was looking. They saw a giant square of what looked like static. In the distance, someone could hear a “bzsxzxzxzsxsxxssszxxsxszxzxz,” which was really coming from the static.

Senior and Junior then felt something that is kind of hard to describe. They felt as if they were being pushed forward, but they could feel no hand supporting them. They felt as if the static was sucking them in like a tornado, but they felt no wind. The static was getting bigger and bigger and bigger. When they collided with it, they felt as if they were passing through a layer of sand. Then they saw a piece of glass in front of them. Beyond the glass they could see a man and a woman inside what looked like an office building. The man and the woman looked perplexed, but they did not appear to see Junior or Senior. They were not moving. Senior and Junior could not control where they were going, but neither of them wanted to break the glass, because if they did it may cut into their skin. So they tried to go the other direction, but the glass was pulling them in too! Strangely, when they hit the glass, they could feel it, but it did not cut into their skin. Then they found themselves falling toward the man and the woman, and they landed on an unusual type of carpet. They were inside the office building.

Senior and Junior were stuck on Sprigg.

TO BE CONTINUED