The Beginning. 

6/12/09-6:00 am- Nevada: Age 11

My bedroom door slammed open and I jumped out of bed. My mom stumbled into my room with tears streaming down her cheeks. 

“Get up Evie, we are leaving. Pack everything you need for the new house. You have 10 minutes.” my mom said quietly. 

I was so confused. Why are we leaving? Why is she crying? What is going on? I started grabbing some of my favorite clothes, my blanket, and my favorite stuffed animal bunny named Bun. I yanked my backpack out of my closet and shoved everything in. I picked up a few more miscellaneous things and waited in my room. My mom came back and grabbed some of my bags and we snuck out of our house and got in the car.

“Where is dad?” I stopped in my tracks and asked my mom.

She just looked at me sadly and got me in the car. Little did I know that was the last time I would ever see my house in Nevada. 

6/12/09- 7:00 pm- Middle of Utah

My mom and I drove for 13 hours straight. I only said 10 words. I was so confused and I wished my mom would tell me. 

“Where are we going?” I asked my mom quietly.

“Evie. Dad is not a good man. We are leaving Nevada for good and going to Alabama. You have a grandma there who you have never met. Try and get some sleep, honey.” My mom said to me. 

6/13/09- 8:00 am- Oklahoma

I woke up from my sleep tired and groggy. 

“Mom, where are we now?” I asked her. 

“We are in Oklahoma, we have about 10 hours left. Try and read your book.” My mom said dismissively.

6/13/09- 7:19 pm- Alabama

I was shaken awake from my nap by my mom. 

“Evie we are here. Your grandma is waiting out here to meet you. Grab some of your bags and go say hi.”

I slowly got out of the car and saw a nice lady that had the same features of my mom standing by the front door. I smiled and walked up to her and she hugged me.

“Oh my sweet Evie, I can’t believe I am finally meeting you.” Grandma said.

“Hi grandma.” I said, but the name grandma felt weird to say. 

Grandma led us to our rooms and mine was a super pretty light pink color, with a big bed with a canopy. I unpacked some of my items and went to bed.

6/14/09- 8:30 am- Alabama

I woke up to the smell of pancakes. It never smelled like pancakes at home, usually just my dads cigarettes. I got up and went out to the kitchen.

“Good morning sunshine!” grandma said.

“Good morning.” I replied back.

I ate breakfast and then mom made me go upstairs to brush my teeth and hair and get dressed. I walked downstairs to the living room and watched cartoons for a while.

“Hi Evie. You should go play outside. There are a few neighborhood kids. Try to make some friends.” Grandma said.

I found some chalk in my grandma's garage and started drawing on the sidewalk. 

“Hi. What are you doing?” this random boy said to me.

I looked up and saw a blonde boy with blue eyes staring back down at me. 

“Um hi. I’m drawing with sidewalk chalk. Wanna join?” I asked the boy.

“Sure.” he said. 

6/14/09- 1:25 pm- Alabama 

“What's your name?”

“Evie.”

“I’m Finn. When did you get here?” 

“Yesterday.”

“Where'd you come from?”

“Nevada.”

“That's super far. Why did you move?”

“All my mom said was because my dad wasn’t a good man, but it's really just none of your business.” I got up, grabbed my chalk and went back inside.

Finn made me so mad asking me all of those questions. I wish I knew the answer as to why I am here now. I can’t even be happy moving to a new state. I missed my old house and my neighborhood friends. 

6/14/09- 6:20 pm- Alabama

“Knock Knock”

I woke up from my nap on the couch and went over to the door. Finn was standing there with a cupcake.

“Hi Evie. I am sorry for making you upset earlier. I made you an apology cupcake. Hopefully you forgive me.” Finn said. 

I took the cupcake and invited him inside to watch cartoons. Me and Finn ended up falling asleep watching cartoons and my mom brought him home later in the night.

Finn ended up becoming my best friend. We hung out everyday and did random things around the neighborhood. Our favorite activity was going to our treehouse we found deep in the woods and creating parallel universes. The rest of summer was just me and Finn everyday.

8/20/09- 8:00 am- Alabama

It was the first day of 7th grade and the first day at my new school. My mom took me and Finn to school to help with some of my nerves. As we pulled up to school my heart was pounding. Finn grabbed my hand to calm me down. 

“It's okay Evie. I'll be by your side all day.” Finn said reassuringly.

School ended up going good except for the fact that Finn was a popular kid. Kids every minute were high fiving him and girls were squealing and saying hi. A lot of the girls would blush when he walked by but I never thought of Finn that way. 

Me and Finn finished middle school together and then entered high school together. Finn was the star football player his freshman year and gained a lot of popularity, but he never left me behind. Everyday I was so grateful for him and always let him know that. Me and Finn bonded over our absent fathers. His dad left him about a month before I moved to Alabama. His father James was an alcoholic, so Finn was really against drinking. He never said he hated it but I knew he did so I never even mentioned it. My mother Jamie told me why we moved in the middle of 8th grade. My dad was a very abusive man towards my mother, but I never even knew because of how well they hid it. 

Junior Year.

9/16/13- 7:00 pm- Alabama

“Come on Evie! You never go to any parties with me and this is the last one of the football season! Come celebrate with me!”

 I rolled my eyes and continued reading my book.

 “Finny I don’t want to I am sorry. I hate parties as much as the Grinch hates Chritsmas.

You have fun and come hang out here afterwards.” 

“Whatever. Bye” 

I laughed as Finn stomped away like a toddler. 

9/17/13- 5:30 am - Alabama

I woke up to the sound of police sirens. I scrambled off the couch picking my book up off of my chest. I guess I must have fallen asleep reading. I checked the time, it was  5:30 AM. I started thinking to myself, where is Finn? I ran outside and saw 5 cop cars lining my street. I ran over to Finn’s house and saw his mom, Annie, sobbing. 

“What happened Annie?” I asked softly.

 “F-Finny is missing.” she stuttered out. 

“Oh he was going to a party tonight, maybe he just isn’t back yet. Have you tried calling him?” I asked her.

 “Yes, he won’t answer and his location isn’t loading. Before he left he said he was going over to your house after the party. Have you heard anything from him?” she asked. 

“Let me double check. Nothing. They will find him. I know it. He's probably off being his usual young self exploring.” I said to try to lighten the mood. 

Annie laughed a little, “Yeah, I hope so.” 

It’s been 5 hours since Annie told me Finny was missing. I have called him on every app that lets me call him and there has been no answer. I texted everyone that even had a small chance of being at the party and no one knew anything. His friend on the football team, Parker, was over at Finn’s house with Annie and I. 

“Last night, Finn got to the party and was just super happy. He got there at about 10 and left at about 11:30 because he wanted to make it back to Evie’s house before she went to sleep.” He pointed towards me. 

“I was near him the whole night and didn’t see him drinking at all. He never does. Before he left I told him to text me when he got home because I wanted to make sure he made it back safe, and he agreed and left.” Parker said. 

“Yeah, I always expected Finn to at least try some alcohol, but he refuses because his father left us due to alcoholism. He always just went to parties to have fun with his friends.” Annie said with tears falling out of her eyes. 

“Parker, we should go look for him. There are some spots around the neighborhood that he might be in.” I said.

“Ok. Let's do it.” He said.

“Please be careful.” Annie said as we walked out the door. 

We got into Parker’s car and started driving to me and Finn’s secret places. We had a big treehouse we found deep in the woods behind our houses. Me and Finn would always go back to the treehouse to escape from reality and hangout. Me and Parker started to walk back to the treehouse. 

“How far back is this treehouse?” Parker said winded. 

“We only have a couple more minutes. I hope he's back here.” I replied.

We got to the treehouse and saw Finn’s truck sitting outside of it. We looked around the outside and saw his phone sitting on a log with hundreds of messages and calls. I started to climb up the ladder with Parker trailing right behind me. 

“Finny! Are you up here?” I yelled as we got up to the top. 

No response. Just the sound of me and Parker’s heavy breathing and the birds tweeting their morning tune. 

“Everything looks normal, and exactly as we left it.” I told Parker. 

“Do you just want to sit up here and wait for a couple hours and see if he comes back?” Parker asked.

“Yeah, sure.”

9/17/13- 11:06 am- Alabama 

“We’ve been up here for hours. Do you want to check a couple other places and then maybe let the cops look for him?” Parker asked.

“You can head back. I am going to sit up here and clean up. Update me.” 

“Ok see you later.” Parker said as he climbed down the ladder. 

9/17/13- 11:11 am- Alabama

“Finny if your around here please just give me a sign.” I sighed and laid back down. 

“Help me Evie! I am right here!” 

I shot up and looked around. He wasn’t here. I looked over the window of the treehouse and jumped backwards.

“What. Is. That.”

I peeked back over and saw a large purple hole in the ground swirling. It looked like a portal. I scrambled down the ladder and yelled into the portal.

“Finny! Are you in there?” I screamed.

“Yes! Come help me!” Finn yelled but it was muffled. 

“Ok. I’m coming in.” I yelled back. 

I jumped into the portal and fell through darkness. 

9/17/13- 11:14 am- Alabama but a parallel universe

As I fell through the portal I saw nothing but the pitch black and all I heard was a deafening silence. I hit the ground with a soft *thud* As I opened my eyes I saw the treehouse. This portal took me to the same place, but with some weird differences. This parallel universe had no color. No it wasn’t black and white, it was just bland. There were no trees surrounding the treehouse, it stood on wooden stilts. The ground was dirt with no kind of grass. I looked up to the sky and saw the sun trying its absolute hardest to shine through but these dark gray clouds were covering its rays. 

“Finny! Where are you?” I yelled out into open space.

I was jolted forward by a force and turned around awaiting something terrible. It was just Finny. I jumped into his arms and hugged him as hard as I could. 

“Where the heck are we?” I asked Finn wearily. 

“Remember all of those parallel universes we used to make up in the treehouse when we were younger? Well I don’t know how, but I think we are in one. This is the one with nothing but the treehouse and those evil robots we made up.” Finn said nonchalantly.

“Oh yeah I remember this. Did you say evil robots?” I yelled.

“Yes but remember when we created this universe, the evil robots didn’t come out until dark. We have time, but we need to escape as soon as we can.” Finn said and he pulled me by my hand. 

9/17/13- 11:30- Alabama but a parallel universe

Me and Finn walked around the treehouse to try and find any type of clue on how to get the portal back. 

“We probably need to think of everything we created in this world. Like how to escape it. I bet we talked about it.” I told Finn.

Me and Finn sat down on a log surrounding the treehouse and tried to think of anything we remembered from when we were younger. 

“We know the robots come out at dark so we probably have to figure out a way to survive through the night. What time did you see the portal? Do you remember? The last time I saw the time was 11:10 am and that was when I heard your voice. When did you get out here last night?” I said.

“Same time as you. Maybe the portal opens every 12 hours so the next time it will open is 11:10 pm tonight?” Finn speculated.

“Yes, probably. We need to look for ways to make the treehouse more sturdy and protective since we have to survive up there.”

Me and Finn gathered up anything we could find. We got a bunch of wood and we found matches and a flashlight sitting around. We boarded up the treehouse and sat there. 

9/17/13- 5:50 pm- Treehouse

“Finny wake up! The sun is setting. We need to get ready.” I whispered to Finn.

We got set up and grabbed the spears we created out of wood, the matches, and the flashlight and sat in the farthest corner of the treehouse. The only sounds were me and Finn’s fast, scared breaths. 

“I am so scared Finn, but I am so glad I found you. I knew you weren’t just missing.” I whispered to Finn.

“Me too Evie. I was so scared when I fell in here. I was going to run by the treehouse on my way home to get our favorite game to play, but then I fell into the portal.” Finn whispered back. 

Me and Finn sat and waited until there was no light shining through. We huddled together and waited for any kind of sound from the outside. We heard wheels rolling on the ground, and weird computer talk. We were sitting calm until something started beating against the wood. We grabbed our weapons and sat up waiting for the worst. 

9/1713- 11:07 pm- Treehouse 

The sounds of the robots kept getting louder. Me and Finn hadn’t moved in what felt like hours. 

“Is it almost 11:10? We’ve been sitting here for so long.” Finn complained.

“Yes I think so.” I responded.

 *Crack*

The floor of the treehouse was separating and me and Finn got separated. Finn fell and was hanging on with the tips of his fingers. 

“Finny!” I yelled.

“It's ok! Try to get out of here!” He yelled back.

“No! I am not leaving you again!” I said.

The floor ended up cracking all the way so we both fell down to the ground. The portal was open so we fell right through to our normal world. 

“We made it!” I yelled and jumped into Finn’s arms.

“Thank you for finding me Evie.” Finn said.

“I could never leave you behind.” I replied back.

9/17/13- 11:14 pm- Alabama in the normal world

Me and Finn got into his truck and sped home. We got back to our houses and Annie was waiting on the front porch. 

“Oh my god, Finn, Evie! You’re back!” Annie yelled and ran up to us. 

“I missed you mom.” Finn said.

“Where were you guys?” My mom came up behind us and asked.

“The treehouse.” I turned and smiled at Finn.