Time Is The Answer

• Katie Grave
• Short Story
• 2017

Time is the answer
Chapter 1
It was a Friday afternoon, I had come home from school just an hour ago. I got changed, grabbed my phone and walked to the local library. When I got there I started to browse the shelves and search the genres. I found the action and adventure section and found a book I thought I might like. I got out my library card, handed it to the librarian to scan and walked out. When I got home, I sat on my bed and soon lost myself in the book.

My unwind didn't last very long though because after reading just two paragraphs my mum came in and asked if I had done my homework yet. 'Ugh, can't I do it tomorrow?', I pleaded with my mum. 'Get to work!', my mum said, determined for me to study. With that, she left the room. When I finished my homework, I thought I could get in a bit of reading before dinner, but no. 'Kayla! Dinner's ready!', my mum's shout drifted down the hall and into my room. Reluctantly, I got up and went to dinner.

The next day I woke up and thought, yes, it's the weekend! So I decided to sleep in for a while. When I finally motivated myself enough to get out of bed it was around half past eight, so I got out my book and continued reading. After reading a couple of chapters I started to think about how many things I had in common with the main character in my book. At first I thought it was just a coincidence, but this girl sounded like an exact replica of me. I began to write down the all the things we had in common. Her name was Kayla; My name was Kayla! She had bronze hair and crystal blue eyes; So do I! The list went on and on until it dawned on me. What if this book is about me? How did someone know everything about me and why did they write a book about it? This was starting to get a little intimidating and I didn't like the sound of it.

Chapter 2
To soothe my anxiety, I decided to investigate. I started with researching the author: Nothing. I started to scour the back of the book and I saw something. It was in very faint writing and it said, Knowledge lies within this book. Seek it, but beware.
What in the world was all that about? The words swirled in my head. There must be information somewhere in this book! I skimmed through parts of the book and found nothing. I went through the front cover and still nothing. I turned to the back cover and again found nothing! Wait a minute!, I thought. What if it isn't just straight-out information but actually a code! The first thought that came to mind was the barcode. It had to be it! I looked at the code, the numbers it contained were these: 5-9-7-8-20-25
I went through all the secret codes I knew of. Pig Latin, Backwards lettering, spoonerism, etc. Until I finally came to one that might work: Number to letter!
I decoded it and it came out as eighty. Eighty? How could that be right? I pondered on it and then came to my answer. Page 80! I flipped through the pages and found what I was looking for. Between page 80 and page 81 was a piece of paper enclosed in a protective screen. On the page it said, recite this poem and you will be free! I recited it without thinking and then a dark hole seemed to basically just consume me. I screamed until I had no breath left. I fell with a thud onto what seemed to be pink concrete. Wait a minute! Pink concrete? I heard a HUGE thump next to me. Louder than you could ever imagine! I slowly look up and right before me was a great big -
'Kayla, time to get up!', my dad insisted. I sat up and thought wow, it must have just been a dream.