By: Amanda Dolan

A young girl with peach-colored hair and a short, white dress sighed. She had a glowing, golden halo floating above her head, and small, white angel wings. This was Angelica White. Angel trudged over to her neat, light purple and sky-blue bed and flopped on it.

“Angel!” a voice called from outside. A grin spread across Angel’s face. She knew that voice. She rushed to her window to find Kat propping her bike against Angel’s house. Kat waved widely at Angel, then gestured for her to come outside. Angel sprinted down the stairs, grabbed the house keys, and slammed the door aside. She shoved her pale-blue helmet on her head, hopped onto her white bike, and sped over to Kat, who was grinning.

“What is it?” Angel asked her. “What did you find yesterday? Was someone acting suspicious?”

“It wasn’t someone, it was something,” Kat replied. “And I’m pretty sure that you’ll want to explore it immediately.” Angel’s eyes grew as wide as saucers. If Kat thought that she would love it, then she would. Kat knows her too well. Kat and Angel raced to the other side of the street where Kat’s house was and dashed into her backyard.

“It’s here?” Angel scrunched up her face. “I kind of expected that it would be somewhere else, in a cooler place. Uh, no offense,” she added, catching Kat’s hurt look.

“The place doesn’t matter,” Kat huffed, tilting her head and placing her hands on her hips. “What matters is what I want to show you.” She led Angel to a few dark green bushes and pushed two of them to her sides. Angel noticed a trapdoor in the ground, sticking out from another bush.

“Wow,” Angel stared in awe. “We have to go in.” She jumped up and down, squealing. She shoved the bush that sat on top of the trapdoor to her right.

“Alright, just let me get Ava,” Kat said, smiling. Angel knew that smile. It was an I-can’t-wait smile. Kat headed towards a thick rope that hung out a window in the house next door. Abruptly, Ava slid down.

“No need, I’m here,” Ava smiled and hugged Angel. “That was pretty cool, yet scary. It’s very dangerous, considering that if you accidently let go, you would fall and hurt yourself,” she paused, considering something. “Or you could get a rope burn.” Kat rolled their eyes. That was so boring, Kat’s expression said. If she thinks that’s cool, try being a spy!

Angel shifted her head to face the trapdoor again. Her arm slithered out, reaching for the trapdoor’s handle. The trapdoor creaked open as Angel pulled it open. She peeked inside of it, only to find grass a few feet away. She just stared at it, motionless. Ava and Kat peered down into the hole. Ava gasped.

“How fascinating,” she mumbled. “But very strange,” she fiddled with a small, pink backpack. “Let me quickly take notes,” she pulled out a light pink pocket notebook and a dull pink pen. As she quickly scribbled something with her neat handwriting, Kat slapped her forehead and snatched Ava’s notebook.

“Enough with the scientific facts!” Kat hollered. “You can take notes down there, but we’re going to leave you behind if you do.” Ava huffed and mumbled something under her breath, but reluctantly stuffed her pen back in her bag.

“Fine,” she grumbled. “Now please pass me my notebook.” Kat placed the notebook in Ava’s hand and watched her shove it into the bag. As Ava slipped the straps over her shoulders, Angel turned back to the hole. For a while, no one said anything. The three girls just stared at the hole. Then, Angel made up her mind.

She leaped in, expecting to land on the grass since it was only a couple feet away, but instead, she found herself tumbling down, surrounded by nothing. It was as if the grass was an illusion. She heard Ava screaming somewhere in the distance, somewhere above her. She squeezed her eyes shut, making the world that she saw shift into darkness. Angel hit the grass without any pain, nor a single scratch. It felt like she had fallen onto her bed and not onto the very solid, and very hard ground.

“Angel?” a quiet voice asked. “Kat?” Angel’s eyes slowly opened, revealing a world that looked nothing like Cambridge. Short, purple, fresh-cut-looking grass swayed in the gentle wind. A few bright yellow, miniature mountains surrounded the area where she had landed. Bronze-colored roses were scattered all over the soft grass and the miniature mountains. Although there were tiny, bright yellow mountains and bronze-colored roses, there weren’t any trees. Angel was lying on her back next to Ava. Ava was lying on her stomach. Angel spotted a pair of black sneakers with white laces.

“Hi Kat,” Angel pushed herself up. “I noticed that you landed on your feet.” Kat smirked and helped Ava up.

“Duh,” Kat replied. “I always land on my feet, just like cats. I might even be part cat.” Kat had a smug expression and was staring off into space.

“Wow,” Ava pulled out her notebook and pen while inspecting the world. “This place is fascinating. I don’t think we’re in Cambridge anymore.”

“Uh, obviously,” Kat rolled her eyes again as Ava gave her a scornful look. “Is it not obvious?” Kat continued, ignoring Ava’s glare. “There is purple grass and yellow mountains and brown roses,” Ava crossed her arms as Kat waved her arms widely. “It’s so obvious!” Ava sighed and uncrossed her arms.

“Two things,” Ava glared at Kat. “One, the roses are bronze, not brown,” Kat rolled her eyes.

“Whatever,” Kat dully replied. “They’re the same,” Ava sighed heavily, and gave Kat an annoyed look.

”And two,” Ava continued. “I’m dreaming, right?” she paced back and forth, muttering to herself. “Come on. Wake up self, wake up,” Kat and Angel exchanged glances.

“If you’re dreaming, then I’m having the same dream as you,” Angel replied, watching Ava pace back and forth. Ava paused, and stared at Angel as she was about to argue, but before she could, a loud CRACK echoed from the other side of the mountain. The three girls stood still for a moment or two, staring at the mountain, wondering what could possibly be over there.

Should I go to investigate? she thought to herself. Or should I let Kat find out? Angel almost snorted, picturing herself, missing out on the fun. Maybe Ava should go? She is the sensible one… Maybe she’ll know what to do? Angel paused. No way. She’ll ruin the fun and adventure, being all ‘oh, it’s too dangerous’ and ‘oh, we should get out of here’.

Finally, Angel settled on what she should do. She was going to investigate. She dashed to the side of the mountain and climbed it. When she reached the top, her jaw dropped open. At first, she thought it was going to fall off, but she was too awestruck to even consider it. She stood motionless. Her hair blew to her left in the soft wind as she watched a small town in the distance. Kat and Ava sprinted up the tiny mountain and stood next to Angel, looking out into what was probably an entire realm.

“Oh wow,” Kat sounded like she was in a trance. “I’ve never seen anything cooler than this place before, and trust me, I’ve seen a lot of cool things.”

“What’s this place called?” Angel questioned Ava, not taking her eyes off the tiny town.

“Let me see,” Ava replied as she dug into her backpack, pulling out a dusty, dull-blue book. “Hmm. It doesn’t say.” Ava said sarcastically as she shoved the book back in her bag and zipped it up.

“Let’s go ask some of the people down there,” Angel leaped off the top of the hill and slid down. “Hey, this is like a slide!” She called. Kat raced over to Angel, sliding on her special spy shoes. Little did they know, the creatures in the town weren’t humans, and that town was where many evil creatures lived.