Stories Written By Me

Chapter 1: The Key

No way, I thought as I stepped off of the ferry and on to dry land once again. An inflated monkey almost hit me on the on the head. The monkey was from an advertising company for the Lincoln Park Zoo. I had just crossed over from Michigan and was now in Lakeview, a part of Chicago near the zoo, (as you could probably tell.) There were screaming kids begging their parents to see the elephants or the kangoroos. There was a guy on the corner selling cotton candy. He looked at me like I was another tourist and beckoned me closer. I didn't know if to come to him or not. I was thirteen, I had just come from a cruise all over Lake michigan with my best friend Tommy.

When the cruise had been over Tommy's mom had been there to pick him up. Tommy was the type to get scared without a grown-up by him at all times. I was his friend because his parents and mine trusted me to take care of him. Sometimes I thought of Tommy as my little brother. I had to go with him everywhere.

I looked down at my watch, quater to seven, I thought. My dad said he'd  be here at six thirty. It was beggining to get colder the night breeze blew through my curly hair. He's never late, I thought. I looked back at the guy selling the cotton candy. He had a long beard and disheveled hair. His clothes were stained with muck and mud. I suspected that he didn't smell to nice either. 

I walked toward him slowly, and then a very strange thing happened. Suddenly all of the people were gone it was only me and the cotton candy guy. he opened one of his hands and through the gloom, and throgh the mist he saw a key. It wasn't a very big key that was for sure. But it was a key and a key like nothing I'd seen before. It seem to glow in the dim light, ilumiting its borders.

"Take it," the man said. I did.

Chapter 2: Nightmare

I should have been afraid of the man, but for some reason I wasn't. He felt like a friend I had never met. I took the key from him and almost instantly the light came back and all the came people with it. It was as if somebody had thrown a switch. The gloom had cleared. I wasn't the type to get scared for basically no reason, but the whole thing had flipped me out. I put the key into my back pocket. I sat down on a nearby bench. The bench was rusted and old and it smelled like burning medal. The chill had gone and the temperature seemed to have raised twenty degrees.

A car pulled up, my dad got out and walked over to me. Was he late? How long had that taken. I looked down at my watch and saw to my horror that it was now exactly six thirty. Slowly and stiffly I got into the car with him. As it began to pull away, I scanned the zoo for any sign of the misterious man, but he was nowhere to be seen.

I didn't sleep well that night, I was still thinking about the events of the day. How it was all possible? How could time move backwards like that? I thought. I'll try to get some sleep, I thought to myself, who knows what will happen tomorrow.

I had a dream that night, but like none other that I had had before. I was with Tommy. We were running, I couldn't tell what from. Then I saw it. Its eyes were huge and bloodshot. Its nose was small but it had two. Its jaws were wide and and snapping, ready to bite our limbs off it had to. It was like a mix between a lion, a human, and kind of an alien. Tommy was screaming, his eyes wide with fear. I was yelling too, my arms flailing helplessly. Then it got, me sucking me in like a piece of spaghetti.

"Nooooo," Tommy wailed, but there was nothing he could do, I was dead meat.

Its saliva was warm on my face. I kicked at its mouth trying to break free but it was hopeless, I was doomed.

I kicked one last time, then I fell back, and everything went blank.

Chapter 3: The Phone Call

I had still not forgotten about my visit with the strange man I met, and the nightmare I'd had that night, until school started that September. I had kept the key hidden away in my room. Now I took it out and looked at it. It was September 3, school would start tomorrow. I stared at it, wondering why the man had given it to me. I was going into 7th Grade this year, and everyone in the school said that the 7th Grade teacher was the meanest of all of them.

Suddenly the phone rang.

"I got it," I yelled.

I ran downstairs and picked it up.

"Hello," I asked," who is it?" There was no reply.

"Hello," I said again. I was about to hang up when I heard it. It said only five words, meet.....me....at.....the....zoo.

"What!!!" I yelled into the receiver. I was nervous, should I really meet this guy at the zoo? That's where this whole thing had started, at the zoo. For some reason I felt an urge to go there and get this over with once for all. Without asking my mom, I put on my shoes and left.

It took me 30 minutes to get there. I was nervous as to what was going to happen, but I stepped inside of the zoo gates anyway.

Chapter 4: The Meeting and the Mission 

The zoo was empty. There was nobody in sight. It was as if everybody had cleared out when I arrived. I was starting to get a little nervous. I was slim with dark eyes that seemed like they were always daydreaming. I had a feeling that wasn't going to be able to daydream now.

I had brought the key with me, assuming that would need it. I turned around to see if there was anybody behind me, but there wasn't. Maybe I had taken to long, maybe the person I was suppost to meet had already left. What would I do then?

The gates smashed closed. The temperature, just like before seemed to have dropped twenty degrees. I heard the scrunch of footfall on leaves. I whipped my head around to see the cotton candy man, staring at me.

He walked toward me.


"Listen," he said in a quiet tone of voice,"you're very special." His voice was almost a whisper, and the only way to hear it would be to get very close. the only problem with that was that his breath smelled like rotton tuna fish.

"Special how?" I asked.

"The Earth will be wiped out. All will die. All except you, my friend. You have a power, an immunity power, and you must use this power to go into the future and save us."

"Who are you?" I asked. "How do you know this?"

"I am nobody and you also are nobody now. The Earth will be knocked out by a disease. You must find the makers of this disease and get rid of them. It won't be easy, but were counting on you."

"How do I get to the future?" I asked.

"With the key," he replied in a low voice.

It all became clear now. The day when time moved backward, someone had simply activated the key. I would have to find out how to activate the key and only for me would time change.

"You'll find out how tomorrow, I'll show you how to work the key." He said.

"I have school tomorrow," I said.

"No you don't," he replied. He took the key out of my pocket and waved it around.

"Huh, what did you do?" I asked him. But I didn't need him to tell me, I looked down at my watch, it was now September 2.

Chapter 5: How To Work the Key

I still wasn't sure if I shuld believe this guy. I mean, come on, a disease wiping out everybody. He must be insane. But yet, I was almost sure that he was telling the truth. It could be the only possible explanation for the time changing.

I went to bed that night with a gassy, almost sickening feeling. Then it happened, I had the same dream that I had had before except that now it felt... it felt.... different. As if I was seeing it in a whole new light, from a totally new perspective. I woke the next morning at exactly 5:00 a.m. It was weird almost looking at my alarm clock and wondering how some treturous thing, like what was going to happen, if I didn't stop it, was possible. I slipped on some pants and a shirt and went downstairs.

Then I paused, leaning my head against the banister. I was feeling so tired, it was if my body was 100 lbs heavier. I rubbed my hands in my eyes.

There was a banging sound, like someone chopping wood.  I looked up and screamed.

The key was hovering above me, it was starting to lower though. I knew that soon it would reach me, and who knows what it would do then. I decided on the only thing to do, I reached out and grabbed it. at that exact moment the temperature dropped 20 degrees. I knew only to well what that meant.

I could feel the key writhing inside of my hands. Then, without noticing that I was doing it, my hands were making a strange motion across my face. I screamed even louder, but nothing happened. Nothing even moved.

Now, The key was lay still. Suddenly I was tired. I went into bed, and at that moment, the temperature came back. But I was to far asleep to notice it.

Chapter 6: It Begins

I woke up about 1 hour later that day. Sweat was dripping off my face as I rolled out of bed and into the bathroom to brush my teeth. The bathroom always had a bright lightbulb, but I never knew why. It took my eyes about 5 minutes longer for them to adjust this time though.

Soon I was done and I plodded wearily back to my bed to put my clothes on. I never got there though, because on the way I tripped on a bump in the carpet and landed face first into the it. It seemed harder than carpet should be. Also, I never remembered seeing that bump there before.

I opened my eyes with a splitting headache. Then, I pulled my head up from the carpet and gasped. I was inside the zoo once again.