The World Walkers: Taithmarin: Joel: Stepping onto Taithmarin

[k_a_webb]

Going home seemed like a mistake. Joel didn’t want to deal with the lecture he knew he was going to get. He was never going to be his brother, but that’s all his parents wanted him to be, because his brother was the good son, the son who didn’t keep getting in trouble, the son who wasn’t going to end up in prison if he wasn’t careful. There had never been a time when Joel believed his parents accepted him for who he was, mistakes and all, as they’d wanted a daughter, not another son, but there he was, the son who was never going to be a daughter. Sighing, he reached into his pocket for his keys, knowing he really didn’t have another choice. If he didn’t get some sleep soon he was going to pass out and the only place he felt comfortable sleeping was his own room, with his door locked.

The door opened and Joel stepped through it. He didn’t find himself in his hallway, the way he’d expected to, but he was in a hallway. A hallway that seemed to be in a block of flats he had never seen before, which was when he realised something strange had happened, although he wasn’t entirely sure exactly what it was. Slowly he turned in a circle, half hoping there might be a door behind him. No matter how much he hadn’t wanted to go home he also hadn’t wanted this, whatever it was, to happen, and going back was the only thing he wanted. Home was home – hated and understood.

Joel ran a hand through his hair. He didn’t know what to do next, where he should go, so he stood in the hallway hoping someone would come to him, someone who would explain what had just happened and how he was going to get back. Fortunately that was when a person stepped through the door at the end of the hallway, looking as though he was expecting someone to be there. “Good evening,” he said, their eyes meeting.

“Where am I?”

“You’re on Taithmarin. It’s another world, Joel, a world with magic and magical races and all the things you thought could never be real, but here they are. I’m Alex and I will be your guide for the next two weeks, while you get used to your new home, because, as hard as it is going to be to accept, you’ll never be able to go home. The door only works one way and when it brings you though it somehow wipes you from the memories of everyone who ever met you, from the boy who served you once, to the girl who went to your school for a year, to the best friend you’ve known your entire life. No one knows how it works, only that it does.”

Joel stared at Alex. “You’re just saying that so I won’t want to go home.”

“I wish I was.” Alex bit his lip. “I’ve been back to Earth and I know exactly what it’s like.”

Mirrored from K. A. Webb Writing.