Cleo woke to bright sunshine. Groggy after a night of partying, she closed her eyes against its glare, reaching up to close curtains that weren’t there. She opened her eyes wide, realizing she wasn’t in her own room, or even her own home, for that matter,
She bolted into a sitting position, quickly regretting it as her head pounded. Mom was going to kill her. Her curfew was eleven p.m., not a.m. But didn’t she remember sneaking into her room so Mom wouldn’t see her drunk? She must have been more wasted than she thought.
Her immediate problem, though, was figuring out where she was and how she would get home. Looking down, she saw she was fully dressed. That much, at least, was good. She hadn’t slept with anyone.
She took in the room around her. Definitely a girl’s room. Maybe some kind soul had put her up for the night. She spotted two Advil and a bottle of water next to her on the bedside table. She gratefully downed the pair and slowly swung her legs to the floor.
She followed a short hallway to stairs and made her way down to an open-concept main floor. She saw people in the kitchen. Her jaw dropped as she saw her parents and sister seated at a kitchen table she didn’t recognize.
“What are you doing here?” She was in for it now.
Jessica rolled her eyes. “Having breakfast. What does it look like?”
Dad stepped over to the stove and pulled a plate of pancakes out of the oven. “It’s about time you got up. I saved you some. Do you want eggs?”
“Yesss?” Cleo answered.
“You don’t sound too sure,” Mom said. “Are you okay?”
Trying to piece together what was going on and delay answering, Cleo stepped toward a bay window. It looked out over farmland. Where was Toronto? Had she developed amnesia and forgotten they’d gone on a trip somewhere? She joined her family at the table, shaking.
“Cleo, you’re starting to worry me,” Mom said. “What’s wrong?
Cleo stared at the table, unable to look her in the eye. “I think I have amnesia. How did we get here? And where are we?”
“We’re at home, honey.” Mom shifted from her chair to kneel in front of Cleo. “Sweetheart, maybe you should see Dr. Bart.”
“Dr. who?”
“This isn’t good Meg,” Dad said, abandoning the eggs he was frying. “Maybe she’s having some kind of weird seizure.”
“But we live in Toronto, right?”
“Where’s Toronto?” Jessica asked. “Never heard of the place.”
The puzzlement on her parents’ faces confirmed they hadn’t either. This was getting too weird. Cities didn’t just disappear. Toronto couldn’t have gone missing.
There had been a laptop in the bedroom Cleo had slept in. It was probably hers. She fled the kitchen. Once in the bedroom, she grabbed the laptop and booted it up. Her password worked. She Googled Toronto. Nothing. There was no reference anywhere to it. She tried to check her Facebook, but no site loaded.
Panicking, she Googled Facebook. Again, there was no reference. Three worried faces appeared in her doorway.
“Cleo?” Jess asked, her eyes wide with fright. “Seriously, if you’re pulling a prank, now’s the time to stop.”
Cleo choked on her fear. Toronto hadn’t gone missing. She had. This wasn’t her family. It wasn’t her home. It wasn’t even her world. She hoped her own mom wasn’t giving this world’s Cleo a bad time.
What if you woke up and everything around you had changed? How do you think you’d adapt to a new, yet not completely different world? I love stories with alternate universes. I’m not sure I’d want to wake up in one. Please leave a comment and, if you enjoyed this story, share it!
Spooky concept! Nice one, Dascha.
What if I woke up and everything had changed? As long as I had my friends and family, and they were all ok, I'd be excited and full of anticipation. If I was alone? Well, probably I'd be really, really, really worried 😉