A String Of Worlds

10 - Returned

    Minus landed softly on one of the clouds, but it felt altered. It felt thinner.

    A piece of cloud broke off, Minus fell off of the cloud, and everything else fell too. The world tore itself apart. Bumble flew over to check if he was okay, grabbing him by the arm.

    "So, are you-" Bumble looked at the blood on Minus' cheek. "Oh. Don't worry, you'll get out of here soon!" Bumble flew back in the dome, trying to remember every path until they got to Perry's habitat. 

    "Hey, why did you stop?" Minus said, dusting himself off.

    "I'm sorry, I don't really have enough strength to start flying again." Bumble's antennas drooped.

    "It's alright, Bumble. I don't mind dying here. You were the first one to try and save me, and I thank you for that." Minus strung himself on the floor and promptly went to sleep.

    Next thing he knew, he was being carried up by the same line method Sky used to transport everybody to the clouds. Finally, they were out of the hole. Suddenly, it felt like Minus gained something. A sense of knowledge, to say the least. He was shoved into a wheelbarrow by Perry, along with Bumble. Both boys were the most tired. Minus perked up and saw the hole being buried. He passed out.

( I recommend you listen to the video above while reading.)

    Someone called for their kid.

    "Matthias? Wake up!" It sounded familiar. The kid opened his eyes, sure that the voice was someone he knew. 

    It was his mom! He was in his own house! In his own room! In his own bed!

    He looked down at his shirt. The same gray shirt with the same subtraction symbol.

    "Why are you so paranoid about your surroundings, Matt?"

    "Oh, nothing." Matthias got out of bed and checked his closet. He put on a black sweater and denim jeans. He walked downstairs and made himself some pancakes, gobbling them up quickly. He ran outside and saw everybody doing their own thing.

    Perry was eating a cupcake on his front porch, Bumble, or Brandon, better yet, was riding a scooter, Sky was drawing with sidewalk chalk, Penelope and Liz were having a picnic in Liz's front yard, Umber and Amber were just conversing on another part of the sidewalk near Matthias, Bea was playing with a yo-yo, and finally, Mae and Glitter (even though Glitter was actually Gwen) were checking out their project on trying to make a fairy. A fairy that looked just like Maple. But really, who cared about all that? Everybody had realistic appearances now.

       Bumble had no more bee appendages, Sky had no more wings, and Umber and Amber were human.

    "Hey, what are you doing over there, nerd?" Gwen interrupted Matthias' thought process. 

    "Leave me alone, will you? I'm going to hang out with Sky." Matthias said, getting quite sick of Gwen being around. He got up, pushed him out of the way, and walked towards Sky. 

    "Hey, what are you drawing?" 

    "Nothing. Just this math problem." Sky said. It was a decimal division problem.

    "Hey, Sky, could I solve it?"

    "Give it a go!" Sky handed Matthias the chalk. He wrote down a number. 

    "...Well?"

    "You got it correct, dude!" Sky applauded him.

    "Hey, what happened?" Bea said, coming over and sitting down.

    "Look!" Sky pointed to the math problem. "He did it! He got it right!"

    "Really? I think this calls for a cliche picture ending!"

    "And I got just the thing!" Sky got out a camera and called everybody near her. She set it up with a timer and quickly jumped in the picture.

   "Three, two, one!" 

    Click!