Falling into Fiction

02 Please, Anything but Coraline

I wake up with a groan, wincing from the massive crick in my neck that I have from falling asleep while reading. Sunlight streams in through my bedroom windows, and when I go to grab my book so it can be safely deposited on my desk, I realize it isn't there. Weird. Maybe Mom came to check on me and moved it when she saw me asleep.

She could've moved my head a bit so I wouldn't have such a crick, but okay I guess. I'll take what I can get.

Sliding out of bed, I head to my bedroom door and put my feet into my slippers... which aren't there. I take a quick glance around the room, looking for my slippers, and I notice that not much of this stuff is actually mine. Now that I think about it, this isn't my room at all. Pretty sure I was reading my book in a full size bed, not a king.

How I didn't realize my change in surroundings as soon as I woke up, I have no idea. Confused, but not yet frantic, I leave the room to see if my bathroom is still in the same place. When I see its door right next to mine, I breathe a little sigh of relief. I must be losing it. Maybe I just imagined that king bed.

I round the corner to make my way to the kitchen where I'm sure my mom is making breakfast, only to step out onto nothing. Turns out somebody remodeled our house while I was sleeping because there are now stairs leading down where the dining room floor should be. My foot drops down onto the first step and lands, but the unexpected action throws me off balance.

A yelp leaves my lips as I tumble down the stairs I've just found in my single story house. My tumble ends with me in a heap at the bottom, and I roll onto my back and look up at the ceiling. Since when have we had a popcorn ceiling?

Okay, okay. Wait. This is not my house. I think the fact that I just fell down a set of stairs in what should be a single story home is a pretty good indicator of that. I thought I was losing it, but I guess I'm just in denial now. Amazing.

What if I've been kidnapped or something? Kidnapped and taken to a bigger, nicer house with a bedroom that has a king size bed in it? And wait, I'm pretty sure I saw an iMac up there on my desk that wasn't there before.

I hiss in pain as my body makes the effort to stand. It doesn't seem like anything is broken, but I'm going to be very, very sore for a while. Since I've finally come to the conclusion that this isn't my house, I decide to be quiet while I scope the place out. Well, as quiet as I can be after the loud fall I just took down the stairs.

This floor actually looks pretty similar to the open floor plan of my house. In my house, the entryway, living room, dining room, and kitchen are all one room, with a half wall separating the kitchen from everything else. The only difference here is that there are full walls surrounding where the kitchen would be instead of half walls.

I tumbled down the stairs into the side of the room with the entryway and dining room. All of the furniture is different, but it's all in the same places as my own home. It's like I woke up in some weird Coraline-like reality, where everything is the same but better.

No offense to my actual house, but this one is a bit nicer. I just hope this isn't actually like Coraline and I don't get buttons sewn into my eyeballs.

The kitchen has music coming from it, something classical. Since whoever is in there obviously didn't hear my fall, I cautiously make my way toward one of the kitchen doorways. A peek inside just shows my mom cooking eggs at the stove, a sight that I wasn't expecting to see after the conclusion I made earlier.

Feeling slightly better that I at least have my mom here, I head into the kitchen. "Um, Mom?"

She slides the eggs around the pan once more before moving over to check on the bacon. She doesn't look up as she says, "Monica, you're up early."