“Oh no…” I whispered to myself and suddenly felt my phone start to buzz over and over again. I pulled it out and saw message after message appear. I guess my phone is receiving all the messages I missed while I was gone. I thought to myself. By the time it finished receiving messages, over ten minutes later, I had twenty-seven missed calls and one-hundred text messages. The very first thing I did was get in contact with Suma. “Suma, something happened.”
“What? Did I send you back to the wrong place?” She asked confused.
“No, the wrong time. Remember how I said time doesn’t pass or something when you summon me? Well, this time it did. I left on a Friday, but according to my clock it is now Tuesday.” I told her.
“Oh, well, I guess whatever was causing you to get stopped in time has worn off. I suppose that is a good thing considering we do not know what was causing it in the first place.” She said looking on the bright side.
“Suma, you don’t understand. I was in your world for days, that means for almost a week no one could contact me or knew where I was…” I tried to explain.
“Is that… unusual on your world?” She asked.
“Yes, very. If someone goes missing unexpectedly for one day we assume they were kidnapped or killed. I have been gone almost a week.” I said urgently and beginning to freak out even more than I already was.
“That is… not good.” Suma said starting to understand. We talked for a few minutes more and she did her best to calm me down as I panicked a bit. I could just picture my mum frantically crying into a police officer’s chest over me. My stomach was in knots, and I started to get nauseated. I told Suma that I needed to take care of a few things and would contact her after everything was settled, then I went to my bathroom and threw up. I sat on the floor of my bathroom thanking my lucky stars that time seems to have at least moved at a one-to-one rate while I was away, rather than something crazy like I was gone for months.
“Okay, I need to call my mum.” I said to myself as I stood up. I turned on my phone and was reminded that it was two in the morning. “No, she will be asleep.” My mum doesn’t wake up until eight o’clock, so until then I unlocked my phone and started going through all one-hundred messages. Most were from family, but a large amount was from work too; some from co-workers, and the rest from my boss. I was pretty tired, so I decided to try and get to sleep, but instead I spent hours lying awake thinking about what I was going to say to everyone. Hey guys! Sorry I went away without telling you. I had to go help my friend fight a wyvern and corrupt nobles. Oh, and by the way, my friend is a bird nymph who summons me to another world and I have nebulously defined magic powers… surprise! Boom, straight to the crazy house. “Maybe I could say I got kidnapped,” I thought aloud. “No, then an investigation would get opened up and that lie would fall apart in a day with my luck.”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Hours of this went by until I finally passed out around five in the morning. When I finally woke up, I didn’t know how long I had slept for, but I knew it wasn’t long enough. I woke up groggy and still slightly sick to my stomach, especially when I realized it wasn’t all just a bad dream. My clock, as stupidly bright as it could possibly be to my weary eyes, said that it was ten in the morning. I had decided last night that a phone call wasn’t going to make up for everything so I would go to my mum’s house as soon as I woke up. I got ready and left as quickly as I could manage.
The drive there was slow and nerve racking. I still hadn’t thought of a convincing lie, and I doubt I could fool my mum anyway. She may believe me when it comes to friends she hadn’t met, like Suma, but disappearing for a few days is completely different. I pulled up to her house and parked the car. By the time I had gotten out and started walking to the door, she had already heard me and checked to see who it was. Upon realizing it was me, she ran outside crying and hugged me.
“WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?!” She wailed and hugged my neck so tight I actually started to see stars.
“I’m sorry Mum, I didn’t mean to be gone for so long.” I said sheepishly and hugged her back. We continued hugging for a moment while she sobbed.
Finally, she let me go and asked again in a shaky tone, “Jake, where have you been?” I didn’t know what to say, she would see right through a lie, not that I had one anyway. And I couldn’t tell her the truth because…. Wait, why can’t I tell her the truth? I thought to myself.
“That’s kind of hard to explain, but give me a minute to think and I will try.” I said to her. “I need to organize my thoughts.” She looked at me funny but agreed. I closed my eyes and pretended to think, but instead I called Suma. “Suma,” I said in my head. I knew this method would work as I had done it before.
“Yes Jake?” She answered sounding sleepy.
“Do you have anything against me telling my family about you?”
There was quiet for a moment, but she answered, “No, not that I can think of anyway. Are you considering it?”
“Yeah, can you summon me and my mum?” I asked.
“Two people? I mean… I can try.” She said unsure.
“Please do.” I asked her and opened my eyes to see my mother’s genuinely concerned face. “Mum, somethings about to happen. Don’t freak out when it does.” I then hugged her neck.
“Oh, well why would you hugging me cause me to freak out darling?” She said and hugged me back. Then I felt that familiar feeling, like my leg started to fall asleep, and it moved up my body until it hit my arms and head, then everything went dark. All while this was happening, Mum started to complain that she felt unwell and she tried to pull away from me, but I only hugged her tighter. “Oh Jake, I think you need to let me go, I’m starting to feel faint.” Then I felt her hand let go of my back and she started to scream, “Jake! My hand! My hand is gone!” And with that, we reappeared in Suma’s cave.