Reality's Escape: a collection of short stories

Portal to the Games

Another writing prompt from blog.reedsy.com. This one, though, I was able to hijack— it is actually a continuation from Portal? Virtual Reality? Imagination Station? Another bonus: the word count was too much for the contest, so this version has an expanded introduction!

Alex stared at the wall, the way it wavered and shimmered. He stuck his hand through again and pulled it out, checking to see if it was the same hand he had stuck in. "How long has this been here?"

"I discovered it this morning. It's a portal into whatever book you want!" Beside me, Hallie and Audrey nodded, grinning. They were as excited as I was.

Zachary folded his arms, frowning. "How does it work?"

Alex knelt down, removed the book from its strategic spot, and rapped on the solid wall. He pried the trim away.

"What are you doing?" I dropped to my knees beside him to push it back against the wall, but stopped when I seen the multitude of tiny wires stung between the boards in the wall, folded over each other, soldered in perfect rows to the backside of the trim. "Wow."

"That's good work," my brother remarked. "So you put the book... here?"

I put the trim back, tilted the book till the bottom right corner touched the notch in the trim at about a thirty degree angle, and the wall took on its portal state. "You wanna go in?"

"You just walk in?"

"This isn't Mordor."

He rolled his eyes. "You were already in?"

"Yeah, Hallie volunteered for Rue in the Hunger Games. Audrey was in the capitol, and I was stuck in District Twelve."

Both boys looked at Hallie. Zach cocked an eyebrow.

She stuck out her tongue at him.

"Anyways," I interrupted. "It lets you live in that world, so you change the story when you are inside."

"But how are we going to get back?" Audrey asked. "Unless we leave someone here with the book, to lift it up and drag us back to the portal. But how would we communicate?"

"I don't know... what if I put a second bookmark in?" I suggest. "Like, a bedtime marker? Maybe that would take us back."

Hallie gave a little bounce on her toes. "Let's try it."

"Will you guys go with us?" I asked.

Alex and Zach look at each other. "Uh... yeah? We're not letting you guys go in there alone," Alex said. "Maybe we should tell Mom and Dad. Can you die in there?"

"They're in their meeting," Zach reminded us.

"Right. And I don't know. Should we try?"

"What— to die?"

I rolled my eyes at my brother. "No, to go in! What's our game plan? We'll probably all end up in different places again. Should we all volunteer and try to change the Games?"

Again, they looked at each other. "Sure," Zachary conceded.

We walked through.

This time, when I looked around, I was surrounded by crumbled buildings. A wind picked up dust and flung it into my face. I closed my eyes and coughed. When I opened them, a woman in a plain grey uniform was pointing a gun at me. I threw up my hands. "I mean no harm! I just— is this District Thirteen?"

"Of which you are now a prisoner." She escorted me down into the facility, with its plain, solid walls, to the elevator, and we rode it down, down, down to floor Thirty-nine. I knew this floor— the prison ward.