“A willow tree,” Eliana whispered.
Her little backpack slid down her arms and flopped into the
bright green grass beneath her worn Converse sneakers. She journeyed to the trunk and laid a hand on the bark, its texture rough
and bumpy with age. She gazed up at the sun shining through
the tree’s thin and skimpy arms. Eliana removed her hands and
spun around where she was, her head tilted up at the sky. The
light swirled and danced around her as she spun, a joyful grin on
her freckled face. But as Eliana spun, she began to notice something peculiar. The light was fading, getting darker with each
new circle and before she knew it, Eliana was falling not back
into the grass, no, but back into a strange daydream. Her joyful smirk turned into a scream for help. She was flying, swirling
downward as the wind soared viciously through her fingers.
Before she knew it, the darkness had dissolved, and a terrified Eliana landed in a new location, somewhere different. Her
world transformed around her and suddenly her scream was broken and she was sitting on a rock-hard bench in a cold and loud
place. Eliana realized immediately where she was: a mall. And
not just any mall, but Baker’s Mall, only fifteen minutes from her
house.
Though she knew the answer, she still inquired, “Where am
I?” She was desperately hoping someone would answer her.
People rushed past her, carrying shopping bags. No one so
much as looked at her. Something wasn’t right. Not only did the
mall not contain the new reconstruction that had been done last
year, but everything she saw was in black and white. People wore
a strange style; not the one that was “in” where Eliana went to
school or at the high school down the street. So where exactly
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