I woke up in a strangely, familiar place. It seemed like a random forest-like area. Something felt like I had been here before. I didn’t know how I had gotten there and I didn’t even know where I was, I began to walk towards a clearing in the trees. When I reached the clearing I noticed a girl sitting in the group of clovers. “Athena?” I called out, my voice trembling. “Athena, is that you?” As I got closer I reached out my hand to touch the girl’s shoulder. Right before making contact the girl turned around. She had no eyes and her sockets were bleeding. I screamed louder than ever before waking up in my bed with cold sweats and the shivers.
My father came running in with a bat. “Is everything alright?!” I was speechless, I wasn’t sure if I was okay or if everything was alright. “Did you have another nightmare?” he said with a frown as he sat down at the foot of my bed. This wasn’t the first one this week either.
I began to bawl, tears sprouting from my eyes as if the dam behind my eyes had broken. “I miss her so much.” My father tried comforting me with the It’s okay jig and a tightly squeezed hug.
“Why don’t you and me go for a little night drive somewhere, would you like that?” Wiping my tears, I nodded in agreement. We got in the car and stopped at the gas station first. “Water, soda, chips, want anything?”
“Dr.Pepper please,” I asked, “and something cheesy.” He giggled at my request and trudged inside the gas station. Across the street I saw something particularly creepy. I don’t judge by people’s looks but I was getting the chills from this guy. He was tall, probably 6’2, and was wearing a large black overcoat. He stood on the side of the road staring in my direction.
“BOO!” screamed my father as he jumped back into his truck. “What’s got you all scared?” he asked, questioning my pale face.
“There was just a creepy man.” I looked over to where he was standing but he wasn’t there anymore. “He’s gone now it seems like,” I said with a fake smile. He drove towards the gorge, one of my favorite places for a midnight drive. We did this often’ if we were both awake at 2am, we  thought let’s go for a drive. I enjoyed it a lot. I could talk to him about anything and we both could be mature about it. I think he enjoyed it too. He tells me all the time that I am easy to talk to so I should become a therapist.
We pulled up onto the road that takes us up to Larch Mountain. “Let’s just get on the topic of conspiracy theories, okay, so here’s one that I thought of. What if because humans are such a cruel race, karma is permanent and this world has no other path in destiny than doom.” I said with a giggle as I shoved cheez-its in my mouth.
“Hmm, that’s pretty interesting, maybe...just maybe,” he said as he put his fist under his chin trying to impersonate the famous statue. I giggled, he always knew how to cheer me up. I just wish my sister was here because she was better at it. I guess I must have had a look on my face because I was a little startled to hear, “I know you’re upset about your sister, Nova,”
I looked down at the floor of the car, “I’m sure it’s normal for me to miss her, but I am just so worried about her. I never hear from her and I never get to see her either. It’s not fair.” We pulled into the empty parking lot, our car’s lights flashing onto a small mouse, running for his life in front of the car. He parked and looked at me, “She’s a very busy person, but always know she loves you very much and she will come and visit soon.”
I rolled down my window and look up at the clear sky full of balls of gas and empty space. “I just wish she could at least return my calls or letters. It makes me feel like she doesn’t care about us or her original home here. You’d think she would put time in for her family.” I was still staring into space; the idea of space travel is what took my sister away from me. She was such an open-minded girl; she believed in aliens and was a huge conspiracy theorist. It was interesting to just listen to her ramble on about the endless possibilities that lie in our universe.
“It’s hard being someone who is famous for solving a huge mystery in science. I told her she should've stayed here until she was 18, but they gave her the option to move and she took it. She’s not selfish for taking the job; I might’ve done the same thing in her position.”
“I wouldn’t have left my sister, whom I had a great relationship with. I wouldn’t have wanted my little sister to feel the way I do now, betrayed and abandoned.”
“She didn’t abandon you and she didn’t betray you. She just took a chance that was a take it or leave it chance, and you can’t blame her for making that choice,” he snapped back.
“Can we talk about something else?” I asked, playing with my thumbs. “Play some music or something,” I said as I turned on the radio and raised the volume. We sat there, listening to the radio, pop songs we don’t even like. It was just something to shake the silence. The dark abyss around the car, it was just us right now. Me and my father.
“We should probably head home.” He said, “It’s almost three am.”

When we got home, I didn’t hesitate to run upstairs into my room. The long ride home in silence left me to my thoughts. Thoughts as deep as the ocean, thoughts denser than a rock. My salty tears ran down my face as I threw my body onto my bed. My pillow soaking up my sadness while the blanket stole my warmth. I missed my sister. I cried into my pillow; I weeped until I soaked my bed.
I must have fallen asleep, and then started sleepwalking, because when I woke up, I wasn’t in my bed. I looked around, I wasn’t even in my own house. It was some weird white room. My sister comes out from around the corner. “Ah good, you’re awake.”
“Athena? Is that you?” I asked, confused. I sat up. “How did you get here? More importantly, how did I get here?” Questioningly, I looked around the room; most of everything was white, if not silver. Everything had a different effect, as if we were driving, but in a house.
“I picked you up while you were asleep. No one knows you’re gone and they won’t know, for a while. Time is different here. It’s a lot to take in I know. I’ve been gone for a long time. Longer than you think.” She questioned the look on my face, “I hope you’re not angry, I’ve tried to communicate but it’s not as easy as it seems.”
“You just left me, with mom and dad. They don’t even get along anymore. We don’t go on outings or family trips. They just stay home, dad just sits in his office and mom just sleeps.”
“Look, I’m sorry but I didn’t have a choice. It may have looked like I had a choice but they made it seem like I was needed but in reality they just wanted me to go up into space for them. Let’s get you up and eating.”
“I’m not leaving until you tell me what the hell is going on!” I yelled at her, tears streaming down my face. “It’s been years, and I’m just supposed to go with you and pretend like everything's okay? While you were having fun in space, a lot has happened!”
“That’s understandable, sis, I just want you to know things are very different right now. I didn’t leave you. You think I wanted to leave? Well I didn’t, I was forced. I will tell you what happened over the past five years. Everything you want to know, okay? But you need to eat.” I knew she wasn’t lying to me. She would never lie to me. I calmed down a little bit. She’ll tell me everything soon enough. I got up and she brought me to another room, in this room was a window, from far away it just looked like a dark sky, but as I grew closer, I realized it wasn’t a sky, it was just empty space. I could see stars and planets just outside the window.
“Where are we?” I asked, turning around with a concerned look on my face.
“Uh, I was going to talk to you about that,” she said awkwardly,
“Answer me! Where are we?” I said angrily. Looking her dead in the eye, she just stared at me.  I realized where we were, easing up a little bit, “How did we get here?” I asked.
“Well, see, something is going on, and I’ve made another great discovery. As you see, we are flying through the vast outer space, also known as our solar system. I have been working on this for years, Celestia. I was able to create a material to build a spaceship, one that can withstand space travel, and things like worm holes. I know It’s so much to take in,” she paused.
Standing there, I was speechless. I couldn’t believe what my sister had just told me. “So you’re telling me we’re hurdling into a death pit and mom and dad don’t even know? Athena, what if we die up here? I didn’t even say goodbye,” I said looking out the window, a small planet looked back at me.
“That’s Earth you’re looking at,” she whispered calmly. “I know you’re probably super upset, Celestia, but I have a good reason to bring you here. You will see them again I’m sure of it. I wouldn’t throw you into a death trap; you’re my sister. I wouldn’t do that to you, that would be throwing you under the bus.”
“You already ditched me on Earth before, wouldn’t be surprised,” I said with an attitude.
“I already told you that it wasn’t my choice! Right now that doesn’t matter, you need to understand I brought you here because I need your help.”
“What could I possibly help you with? You’re the scientist.” Athena crossed her arms over her chest, and gave me grandma’s famous scowl. “Fine. I’ll put the past behind for now. But I need more explanation. How did we get here, how come you didn’t tell mom, and what is going on?” I asked, as she lead me through the rooms.
“That’s exactly why I need you, you bring in specific thinking. A view on the mission different from mine. When I look at this spaceship I think of everything we’ve accomplished, when you look at this ship you think about what could be wrong with it. I was able to get you here through a teleportation system that I was able to create in ‘09. Although, you had to be asleep because it’s a quite terrifying experience. I didn’t tell mom because this mission should only take overnight. Out here minutes on earth are hours here. We have approximately 420 hours, or 7 hours on ear-”
Interrupting her I yelled, “So I am going to be in space for like half a month!”
“Well, approximately, yes.” She stuttered out, “unless we can finish the mission on an earlier schedule, as early as splitting the time in half.” Standing there patiently, speechless and amazed, I waved my hand as a signal to go on. “Well we need to travel through a wormhole and retrieve a satellite of ours that fell through. The only communication we’ve received since was a picture of the blue like sand and a sky of lavender. I have the picture if you would like to see.”
“So you’re telling me, a person who dreams of space adventure, is going to travel through a wormhole to another planet, that is blue and has a purple sky,”  I said sarcastically.
“Yes. Exactly,” She said with a concerned look on her face.
“Oh you’re serious? We’re going to a planet we know nothing about. One that’s on the other side of a wormhole, like are we being realistic?” I paused, thinking about it. “I’d want to see, but we know nothing of this planet and you’re not one bit worried about what is on the other side?”
“Obviously, I’m very worried. We can only hope for the best because the worst is death. That’s one of the reasons why I wanted you here, sis. I missed you and I had the chance to see you again.” She said quietly, “take your time, this is a lot to take in. We should really get some food in you, though. The trip here was intense.”
“Yeah. We just need to talk about more of this before we actually go ahead and do it. What is there to eat in space?”
“Well considering this is a different type of spaceship we can actually eat almost anything. At least while the gravity is turned on. What are you hungry for?
“Steamed broccoli like mom used to make?” I smiled, excited and waiting for the right words.
“I won’t forget the cheese,” she chanted, imitating my mother who always forgot the cheese sauce.
“I think it’s pretty neat that we can cook in space. This is all weird but very interesting. How come your discoveries don’t make the news?” I asked as I noticed her smile go to a frown.
“They won’t let me tell people about my discoveries. Other people take credit for what I do most of the time anyways and no one believes me because I am a woman.” I stood there astonished, and confused. It upset me to hear that my sister was being treated poorly at her job. She was taken from home and forced to work so that they could take credit for it.
“So when are we doing this and when are we traveling through this wormhole-thing?” breaking the silence, I asked.
“Well, if everything goes according to plan, we should reach the wormhole in about 6 hours. We should prepare with eating and sleeping, also making sure our travel packs are ready and our suits are still useable.”
“6 hours? Jeez, I’m nervous. We should get to cooking then, or we won’t have time to sleep.”

I nodded in question to where the kitchen was. I followed her around the corner into a room, filled with a dark maroon. I recognized the color instantly because it was mom’s favorite color. The kitchen resembled something similar but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.
“I’m not sure if you remember, but this is just like our old house, the one that burnt down before we moved to Oregon? I had to have it like this, it was the best design. Well, and of course, her favorite color,” she said as she pulled out a pot and a steamer for the broccoli. She began to pull the ingredients from the fridge, while I just stood there in awe of the kitchen I was in. It was gorgeous.
“I remember enough to recognize it,” I said quietly.
“Well, that’s good. So how have they been? Mom and Dad?” She asked patiently.
“I guess you can say they’re okay? They sleep in different rooms.” I looked down at the floor. I noticed there was a design on the tile that I hadn’t noticed before. It was more of a lioness face imprinted on each one but there was something about it that intrigued me.
“I saw that coming from a mile away. Honestly, did you not? They fought all the time over stupid crap.” Anyways that’s not the point, even though they have separated, did they seem happy? Are they happier single?” she pushed eagerly, I think she recognized the look on my face because she continued with, “I’m sorry, I really shouldn’t have asked that.” She stirred the cheese into the melted cream cheese and milk. “Spicy or sweet?”
“I can’t believe you even asked. Do we have jalapenos, or are we doing this with habanero peppers?” She shrugged her shoulders and nodded her head towards the fridge doors. I walked in the direction of the doors  to open them and find it full of plants, I didn’t even realize how big the fridge was.
“You might have to walk to the back, there should be a pepper plant somewhere in there, I know that they’re next to the tomatoes.” Confused, I stepped into the fridge to look in the back, then I realized there was an actual walkway to the back of the fridge, and it was a pretty long walkway. I began to walk, further into this containment space. I walked passed zucchini, beets, carrots, even rhubarb.
“When are you going to need rhubarb in space!” I yelled from inside the fridge. I heard a quiet voice call back but I couldn’t quite understand what it had said. I continued walking until I found the tomatoes, and as my sister said, the pepper bushes. I grabbed a few of each and ran back to the front of the fridge. I looked the left to see fruit trees. “This place is huge!” I stared down the pears, mangoes, apples. There was every kind of fruit tree in there. Running out of the fridge with one hand full of peppers and the other full of fruit, “I had to” I mumbled with a pear in my mouth.
My sister giggled and offered help, grabbing the peppers from me. “We better get started on this cheese.” She cut up the peppers and put them in the cheese while I finished up the vegetables. We sat down, across from each other at this table. It was a gorgeous glass table; the feet looked like branches of a tree that held up this turquoise colored glass. The food was delicious; I still had an apple to eat sitting next to me but the broccoli and cauliflower filled me up.
“Captain, you need to come quick,” a strange man said. He peaked around the corner and was staring down at my sister. She got up quickly and followed him. I ran after them. “It seems we have miscalculated the time it would take.”
“What?” I asked, jogging up behind them. “What’s going on?” the strange man looked at me and then glanced towards my sister.
“We have reached the wormhole sooner than we thought.” She had a very concerned look on her face. “Are you ready, Celestia? I’ll have to go over the game plan.” I stared at her; I had no words. “Okay, we’re going to put on our suits and tie ourselves together and to the ship. We ourselves are going to jump through the wormhole.”
“I’m not ready, I’m not, Oh my gosh I can’t do this.” I said, hands shaking. I was scared for my life. I knew she was too but she had time to prepare for all of this. She pulled me towards the suits and started handing me things. I wanted to cry. I watched her and followed the same, all the while shaking uncontrollably. I felt like I was going to puke.
“We’re going to be okay,” she said as she placed a camera on my helmet. She kissed my forehead before helping me place the dome over my head. We grabbed the rope and tied it tight to each other. We had a little more than a yard of rope between each other. She pulled me back further onto the ship, into a different airtight room. She sealed the door shut, turned off the gravity, and before I knew it we were dropping into the vast emptiness.

Below was a light so gorgeous I didn’t deserve to see it. Memories played in my head from years ago all the way up to yesterday. I saw my mother, my sister when she was still a young teenager. I remember everything. The light was almost touchable. You could feel it hit your skin and bounce off. We were falling through it now.
I looked over at my sister who seemed to be just floating, almost as if she wasn’t moving. Time seemed fake. I wasn’t real and neither was my sister. We were just illusions put into a space of endless possibilities; in a reality that we thought was ours to rule. In an abyss of eternity. We’re merely just humans, a creature that can live, breathe and think. A creature who can hate and love, yet we’re just a small fraction of what we seem to see. I closed my eyes and let my mind wonder. We hit the ground at an alarming speed. Knocked the wind out of me. I laid there taking in each breath I could. When I finally was able to see and focus again I looked around for my sister. When I couldn’t see her in sight I panicked.
“Athena?” I said into the radio, unsure if I had even pressed the right button.
“I’m right here,” she said as she tapped me on the shoulder. I instantly hugged her tightly. I noticed she didn’t have her dome on anymore. She pulled off mine, “We can breathe here; there is a stable amount of oxygen in the air.” Hugging me back, she squeezed until she realized I was gasping for air.
“I thought you were gone, I was so scared,” I said wiping a tear from my face.
“I’m sorry. That was a trip. I don’t know how you felt through that, but it’s something I’ve never felt before,” she said with a smile on her face. “Kind of a huge  adrenaline rush.” She looked around and I watched her face change.
“What’s wrong?”
“Well I think it’s a little peculiar that this planet is directly on the other side of the wormhole, meaning this is also where the rover landed but the rover is nowhere in sight. There aren’t even tracks or parts or anything.”
“I guess that is a little odd. Well we got everything on camera, let’s get this over with.”

We started walking in the direction of the two suns. Another planet could be visibly seen in the horizon. “Well that’s a big moon,” I joked We walked pretty far until we realized we were reaching some sort of river. The water was a very eery orange, something that didn’t look as pleasant to the eye as our beautiful rivers at home. “Should we walk around it or try and cross it?”
“Let’s walk around it for now. I need to sit down and map it as precisely as possible before we head out.”
I looked around for a pin point, something that would be memorable to mark the location. I noticed a dullish purple plant that stood tall next to a rock. “Mark this spot on the map with an icon for that boulder and plant over there. That should be a good marker. This place has a very odd color pallet. I can only imagine what kind of things live here.” Walking towards the river I noticed a movement in the bushes. Startled, I alerted Athena.
She quietly pulled out a knife and began walking towards the plant. I hit her in the shoulder trying to get her to hault. She continued towards the bush when a creature jumped out. It ran past me to another rock. It wasn’t large, like a small rabbit.  “Small land creature, frightened by us, no bigger than a bunny, no smaller than a squirrel.”
“Did we just discover the first life on another planet?” I asked excited.
“No, this is definitely not the first time. The government hides a lot from us. Life from other planets have visited us before.” I stared at her speechless, mouth open in awe. “Yeah I know, I wish I could go around telling people but if they even found out I told you, I’d be thrown in jail.”
“That’s a huge punishment for something so little and stupid. We have a right to know what goes on here on this Earth and outside of it,” I ranted.
“I could go on and on about what rights we have but I’ve got it mapped down, let’s keep moving.” She looked around and took mental notes of the surroundings. I took out my note pad and took the extra time to do a quick sketch of the horizon. The sight was absolutely gorgeous; I could see planets in the sky that I could only dream of seeing with a bare eye. I ran after my sister.
We walked by strange bushes, rock-like formations. There were quite a few short waterfalls that made the river look as if it was made of lava. I noticed a glow coming from behind the trees. “What is that? Why is it getting brighter?” I asked rhetorically. A few moments after I had recognized the orange glow as fire, the strange creatures showed their faces from behind the fortress of trees. They were quite hideous. Things that didn’t look friendly.
Without hesitation we began to run back up the river, past the waterfalls until we got back to the rock we had mapped down. I was already out of breath and I could feel my face dripping with sweat. In this moment of pure fear, I still thought to myself, if I survive this, I need to get in shape.
Taking a deep breath, I checked the surroundings. The fire’s glow gave us a key on how far away they were. Athena hugged me tight for a second. I knew what she was thinking. She wasn’t sure if this would be our last. Time was ticking and I pulled her out of her daydream and began to run.
We were sprinting towards the ladder that hung from the sky. I was faster than my sister but it was only out of fear. My throat stung and the sand burned my eyes. When I had finally  reached the ladder I saw the group of creatures march closer. My sister was still running from me, closely behind her ran the group of living beings.
“Climb! Go!” she screamed at me, looking at me with the face that I had known so well. “What are you waiting for, an invitation?” I began to climb the rope back up the wormhole to our own universe we called home. I looked down to see my sister begin to climb the rope. She looked horribly frightened as if she had seen a ghost. I began climbing faster. I looked down one last time to see my sister being dragged off the rope by the creatures. My heart racing I watched them drag her away. I still continued to climb. “Keep going Celestia! I love you so much!” she yelled from underneath the surrounding pit of beasts.
Tears streaming from my eyes, I was about halfway up the rope. I noticed my arms growing weaker but I continued to climb up further. I could feel the wind coming from the hole and I was almost there. I didn’t look down because I already knew I was high up off the ground. My hands started sweating and I started worrying that I was going to fall. I looked off to the horizon to see my sister being carried away by the group. Some stayed, watching me climb.
I went to reach up for the next part of the rope when my foot slipped. I fell off the rope falling down hundreds of feet. I knew I was falling to my death but it seemed as if I had been falling forever. I had been staring up at the hole, watching the rope get longer as I fell past it. The ground never came to me, I just kept falling. Memories flashed by my eyes, my thoughts still running behind my eyes faster than the speed of light. When I finally hit the ground, I felt my bones break, I felt the oxygen leave my lungs and my life and soul leave my body.
I was quite confused when I woke up in my bed. The sun was shining through the window onto my bed and the house was still silent. My heart was racing faster than the wind was blowing and I still had so many questions that lay unanswered. I sat there and took in all of the information that still survived in my head. I thought about my sister and the feeling of falling through a wormhole. My thoughts wondered and questioned themselves. I wasn’t sure what was reality and what wasn’t.