Author's Note: I've been writing this for a while now, but I never quite finished it, so I put it in as a book concept. This is the beginnings of the story of Leah Evans, Nik Orams, and Arlette Kingsley. It goes that Leah, a supposedly normal girl, gets sucked into the world of the Seven Realms, learning to harness her supposed powers of a rare Fictional and to fit in with her fellow classmates. All the while, her friend and future lover, Nik, is doing his best to keep his secret: he was long ago recruited by Madame Four, who has a plan to take over all of the Realms in order to make it so that there is only one Realm: all her own. Nik eventually goes fully over to her side at the end of the book in order to ensure his friends' protection. Meanwhile Arlette Kingsley, who claims she is in love with Nik, deals with hardships and trauma as she encounters her long-lost sibling and deals with her parents and friends, who are all on the side of Madame Four. Enjoy!
Leah Evans stood in her neighborhood library, wondering why the heck she had ended up there in the first place.
Her mom had so kindly signed her up for a book club that Leah both didn’t know anything about, and didn’t want to go to. Apparently she was just supposed to stand at the sign, but she had been there for twenty minutes and no one was even waiting with her. But she still stood there, still as a statue.
Leah was bored out of her mind. She was trying to grasp what was her obnoxious reality. Stuck in a library, alone, supposed to be in the middle of a book club session that didn’t even exist.
I suppose that you could ask a librarian, Leah thought. But then they might call her mother, and Leah couldn’t bother her mother. That would be nearly cruel. Her mother was working all day every day, and this time Leah wasn’t at school, seeing as it was suddenly summer break.
It was hard for her mother and her. Only the year before, Leah’s father had unexpectedly left. No yelling or anything. He just said goodbye, tears in his eyes. And Leah hadn’t seen him since.
Leah’s mother had handled it quite well, simply choking up a bit and retreating up to her room. The next day, she didn’t show any sign of crying. She just woke up, made coffee, and left, telling Leah that she was going to go find a different job and that Leah should find something for breakfast.
Leah admired her mother for her strength in that situation, but since then Leah felt a little…left out. Sure, her mother left an hour for her on Sundays, but even at church they weren’t spending quality time. Her mom was working all the freaking time. It was like Leah wasn’t a priority anymore, like her mother had replaced her with money. And sure, she loved her mother, and she loved that her mother wasn’t sobbing or becoming an alcoholic, but still. There was always something missing from a perfect life. That’s just human nature.
“Come on,” Leah muttered under her breath, tapping her foot in anticipation. “Come on, book club. Just start already.”
Sure enough, the moment she said this, a rather large and stern looking woman walked right up to her and stuck a fat finger at her.
“You!” the woman snapped. “Are you looking for book club?”
The woman was a pudgy, short lady and she wore a pink business suit that seemed a tad bit too small for her. She had a tight bun and square glasses that had pearls leading down her back attached to them. She had a thick voice, like it was sort of multilayered. She has a slight west British accent, but it was faint and blended in with her thickly layered voice.
“Well?” she asked again.
“Oh,” Leah said. “I suppose, but, um—’’
“Well then,” the woman grunted, looking rather pleased. “I had a feeling you were. You look like a Holder.”
“A what?”
“This way, then,” the woman said, walking towards the wall. “My name is Mrs Warberton, by the way. My first name is Martha, but I really don’t care to be called that.”
“Of course,” Leah said. Mrs kept walking forward, but Leah didn’t realize that she was heading straight toward the wall. It wasn’t until she was inches away that she realized Mrs warberton wasn’t turning. “Mrs Warberton, wait!” Leah shouted, pulling on her arm to stop. But it was too late. Mrs Warberton ran headfirst into the wall and…kept walking.
Surprisingly, leah followed her right through the wall. The hallway didn’t even seem to warp, although…there was something even more strange. Instead of being on the other side of the wall, or in, well, another dimension or something, they simply appeared at the beginning of the library hallway they were walking down.
“Uh,” Leah asked, “Mrs Warberton? I don’t think we got anywhere. We just appeared at the beginning of the hallway again.”
“All in good time,” Mrs Warberton said, still trotting down the hallway and walking through the end of it again. Still appearing at the end of the hallway. “All in good time, my dear Leah. I know you’re probably very confused. You are a rather peculiar holder, after all. All the others know all about this.” She gestured to the atmosphere around them.
“Quick question,” Leah said as they appeared at the beginning of the hallway again. “What is this?” She gestured to the world hallway around them.
“Realm 7,” Mrs Warberton. “I always forget what this realm is, though. It’s either illusion or delusion.”
This lady made no sense to Leah, but she just nodded like she understood everything she was saying. They seemed to go through the wall ten times, but Mrs Warberton kept her fat nose up in the air and continued to walk forward, seemingly used to endless motion loops like this.
“Um,” Leah said. “If I may ask, where are we going?”
“The first Realm, of course.”
“Uh huh.”
They just kept walking, and Leah wondered how long it took until things around them started to change. (Let’s just make this clear. That sentence didn’t mean that it slowly shifted to Realm 1. It meant that everything around was just suddenly different).
It was around the 24th time that they passed through the wall when their entire environment changed. They had just passed through the wall again, but this time the other side was different.
“Whoa” Leah said. Th eWorld they were in now looked…normal. It looked like a combination of all the places on earth, smushed into one somehow. But it looked normal. There was a combination of temples, mountains, and even tall glass buildings (right alongside the suburban homes). But it all looked in place. Like something from a guardians of the galaxy movie.
“Whoa is right,” Mrs Warberton said, finally coming to a stop and putting her hands on her hips in admiration for this place she called Realm 1.
Leah studied the sky. It was a sort of lilac-gray-blue-green—ok, it seemed to change colors, like it was shifting, although when you looked away from it, you nearly forgot what it looked like and had to remind yourself what the last three colors you saw change were.
It took leah a moment to realize that Mrs Warberton had started walking again. She jogged to catch up with her. “So…are you going to tell me what a Holder is?”
“Oh,” Mrs Warberton looked startled. “Well, I do suppose you don’t know, correct?”
“Correct.”
“Well, then. You’ll find out at Training, but I suppose that a little sneak-peak couldn’t hurt. Ok, a Holder is a species that is given special abilities. There are four Abilities, the Physical Ability, the Optical Ability, the Logical Ability, and, least common, the Fictional Ability.”
“What do they do?” Leah asked, interested.
“Well, the Physical Ability, which is the most common Ability, gives the Holder the power to change their physical self. Perhaps, add limbs or eyes, or lesson the amount they already have. Theres only one catch: they can’t change what isn’t there. They can’t shapeshift into some one with different features than theirselves, and they can’t turn into animals.
“Second, the Optical Ability, which gives the holder the power to alter the visions of others. They can make others see what isn’t there. Not what doesn’t exist, but simply what isn’t there. They cannot let others see what is there, however. That might blind the Optical Holder entirely, and who wants a blind Optical?”
“But do they have to use their eyes if they are enchanting other peopl’s eyes?”
“The energy is channeled through their eyes, so no eyes would be useless.” Mrs Warberton came to a stop, sighing. She looked up at the sky, then back at Leah. “Hold on to my arm.” She stuck her pudgy arm out at her. Leah uncertainly took it, not expecting what came next.
Leah suddenly felt as though she was the sky. She couldn’t feel herself going up, but it didn’t seem like she was. Like she wa screaming athat she was falling, but she knew that she was dreaming. Leah gripped Mrs Warberton’s arm, trying desperately not to show wat she was feeling on the inside, which, if course, was: AAAAAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHH IM FLYING AND FALLING AND WERE GOING UP AND MRS WARBERTON IS ACTING TOTALLY CHILL ABOUT IT AND-AND—AND we’re in the sky now. Totally normal.
It was true. All around her, the colors seemed to change. Mrs Warberton had come to a stop at the top, and they seemed to be in some sort of fortress room. The walls around them slowly became solid, but Leah could still see glimpses of the prior endless changing sky upon the black brick.
Now it was (as you suspected) a room made entirely of black brick, with candles placed randomly around, scattered in an annoying formation. On one wall, half of it was covered in graffiti, all the graffiti white. There were names and handprints all over it. Leah pointed to it. “What’s that?”
“Oh.” Mrs Warberton suddenly looked uncomfortable as she looked at the wall that Leah was pointing to. Her eyes dropped sadly. “Oh, nothing. Just the fallen.”
Leah didn’t quite know what she meant, but by the way that Mrs Warberton said “fallen”, it didn’t sound good. And Leah had a bad feeling that Mrs Warberton had someone close to her as “one of the fallen.”
Mrs Warberton came to a stop, right in front of a black brick wall. If she takes us through that wall and back to the beginning of this room, Leah thought, then I’m gonna kill her.
Instead, Mrs Warberton stuck her hand out to the brick wall, magically making a doorknob appear.
“How’d you do that?” Leah asked.
“Eventually you’ll understand.” Mrs Warberton sounded solemn. She took the doorknob and opened the door that used to not be there at all.
“Welcome to training,” Mrs Warberton said, smiling widely and moving inside, revealing a room filled with other seventeen year-olds like Leah.
“Well, well, well,” said a seventeen year old boy standing in the back of the crowded room. “Looks like someone finally showed up.”
Chapter 2:
NIK
“Well, well, well,” Nik said, staring at the girl who had come in with Mrs Warberton. “Looks like someone finally decided to show up.”
The girl looked at Nik quizzically, then followed Mrs Warberton, who proceeded to the front of the training center. The training center was located in the First Realm, the Realm of Training. It was a large, carpeted space. It was about the size of a football field, in the center of Realm 1. Although you had to go up to enter, it was really far below the surface of the First Realm. Everything was carpeted, the walls, the floors, even the tables. All of the carpet was dark brown and black.
“Looks like we got a Back Again on our hands,” Arlette whispered from next to Nik. Arlette Kingsley was Nik’s best friend. Technically, Nik used to be best friends with her older brother, but then James Kingsley got moved up to 3rd Training, leaving Nik with Arlette instead. Arlette’s real name was Scarlett, but she really didn’t prefer to be called that.
Her parents still call her Scarlett, but she hates them so much that she told all her friends to call her Arlette instead.
She looked like Sabrina Carpenter to Nik, and everyone agreed. She was short, with extra long blonde hair and bangs. The short part helped.
“Yeah,” Nik said. “Let’s just hope the Back Again isn’t assigned to us.”
Back Agains were Holders who apparently didn’t know a thing about the Realms, Abilities, the Inside Out, or basically anything about the real world. Most of the time they came from the Seventh Realm, Earth, but no one could really be sure. They were nicknamed Back Agains because they simply see the repetition of an image of the portal they exited from when they enter the Inside Out.
“I hope we don’t get assigned to her,” Arlette said, showing Nik her crossed fingers. “Let’s hope it’s just you and me.”
One more thing about Arlette: she was apparently desperately in love with Nik, although they weren’t dating. She usually brought it up, but Nik usually tried to avoid those conversations. He loved Arlette like a sister, nothing more. He stayed best friends with her, mostly because he didn’t have anything better.
“Listen, trainees,” Maas Warberton said, clapping her hands. The new girl had taken place among the small crowd of seventeen year olds. “As you can see, we have a Back Again this year. Therefore, there will be a lot more explaining to do.”
Everyone groaned. Mrs Warberton simply continued.
“Now, seeing that this is our current situation, I am going to ask that at least one of you will volunteer to help guide her around and help her get settled. Whoever volunteers will get an extra day to do this.”
No one raised their hand to volunteer. No one wanted a filthy Back Again to take care of during training. It nearly always put the volunteer behind.
“Whatever you do,” Nik said to Arlette, “don’t raise your hand.”
“Why would I do that?” Arlette asked.
“Sometimes your heart gets away from your mind, or the other way around, Arlette,” Nik said.
“Not today, Nik,” Arlette said, rolling her eyes. “Today my mind is 100% in control.”
“Good. Just—’’
“Ms Kingsley, Mr Orams,” Mrs Warberton said from the front. Nik and Arlette turned crimson red. Everyone was looking at them. “I think you two just volunteered to take care of the Back Again.”
Arlette and Nik groaned. Mrs Warberton glared at them, saying to the new girl, “Ms Evans, go sit with the two people over there. They’ll explain everything.”
The girl looked over in Nik’s direction. She had light brown skin and black short hair that was held loosely in a ponytail. She actually didn’t look as confused as other Back Agains, thought Nik. She looked like she was desperately trying to act confident, like she belonged there, but she was failing.
“You are all dismissed,” Mrs Warberton said, waving her hand and waddling out of the room. Nik turned to the new girl, who looked very uncomfortable.
“So,” she said. “Hi. You clearly don’t want me here, but, um, here I am. I really would like to be here. It’s so much more interesting here than Earth, or Realm 7, or whatever. My name is Leah Evans, and as you all suspected, I have no clue what I’m doing here.”
“Talks too much,” Arlette said, walking around Leah in a circle, inspecting her. Usually Arlette was the life and soul of everything, but that day she was clearly suffering from beginning-of-training-skepticism.
“Oh, sorry,” Leah said, seemingly unphased by Arlettes skepticism. “So, what do we do, exactly?”
“You’ll see,” Arlette said, narrowing her eyes as Nik rolled his.
“Sorry about her,” he said to Leah. “She’s not usually like this.”
Leah regarded him.
“Do you know your ability?” Nik asked, answering her prior question.
“Ability?” Leah asked. “Like, the Optical and Physical?”
“Yes!” Nik said, not expecting her to know that. This girl knew more than she let on. “What’s yours?”
“I,” she said, looking at him quizzically, “don’t really know. Can you tell me?”
“Well,” Nik said, “you can start learning what it is after we tell you everything. If you start training fast, then you should be able to figure out your Ability within the first few days.”
“That fast? Nice.” Nik thought she sounded pretty chill, but there was clearly something on her mind.
“Okay, then!” Nik clapped his hands and rubbed them together in anticipation. “Let's get started!”
But before they could begin, a rather too familiar voice called out, “Ooo, looks like, you got the Back Again, didn't you, wittle Nikky?”
Nik groaned, turning to find the holder of the voice.
Sure enough, his stepsister, Alison Orams,or Ali,stood, alone.. She was your typical bully stepsister, with the ego, backstory, and enough make up to impress Lady Gaga.
“Hey bestie!” Ali said, looking at Arlette this time and moving in on their group like a pack of hyenas.
Arlette ground her teeth and smiled an honest-to-goodness smile. Always optimistic, which Nik was surprised about, especially because of their current situation.
“Hi, Ali!” Arlette said through her smile. “Good to see you. This is Leah, and she's the Back Again that was so kindly assigned to us.”
Nik knew Arlette didn't like fighting or negativity of any form, but he was surprised to see her acting so…cheerful. With the Back Again and now Ali, she usually would just grind her teeth and walk away, instead of staying her optimistic, funny self.
Ali glared at her for being so cheerful and practically acted as though Leah, who had evidently caught on to Arlette’s persona and was sticking out her hand in a mock way as though to introduce herself, wasn't even there. Ali turned to Nik, who was standing, a bit smug, off to the side, watching the three girls.
Ali had darkish skin and pitch black hair that was cut at her shoulders. There wasn't much about her except that she would steep to the ground to get revenge, and for that, Arlette and Leah were playing a dangerous game.
“Nik,” Ali asked again.
“What?” Nik asked.
It was at that point that Ali had had her share of the situation. She had evidently asked him a question when he had been zoning out, and that was the last straw, as she could usually only take a few minutes of bullying per day, as she was a bully and a coward.
Sulking, Ali stalked away to go back to training. Leah was the first one to speak.
“She seems nice,” she said.
“Ali Orams,” Arlette said, grimacing. “Nik’s glorified stepsister.”
“Stepsister?”
“We were both children of Morris Orams,” Nik explained. “Children of his affairs.”
Leah gasped.
“Oh, right.” Nik forgot that those were looked upon badly in Realm 7.
“He was never married,” Arlette said, assuring Leah with a reassuring pat. “And affairs are only looked down upon in your realm. In the other realms, it's viewed as more opportunities to have children and to bring light into the world.”
“Oh,” Leah said. But she still looked disgruntled.
“They say he truly loved Ali’s mother,” Nik continued. “But I got stuck with the rat of a mother who went off and ditched me to Ali’s mom. Now I don't have to live with Ali anymore, though, since we’re bunking here now.”
“You guys don't look anything alike,” Leah pointed out.
“Her mom was black and mine wasn't and had blonde hair,” Nik explained.
“What Ability does Ali have?” Leah asked.
“Logical,” Arlette cut in. “She knows when someone is telling lies. Fortunately, she also can't tell lies. Ever. It’s really improved her.”
“What happens if she tells a lie?”
“She can't. It can't even form in her mind and it doesn't even occur to her to lie and if someone suggest it, her brain will shut down and can't hear them. It's like she doesn't know what lies are anymore.”
Leah nodded, understanding. “Who are the other Logicals here?”
“Oh not many,” Nik said. “Those are pretty rare. Not as rare as Fictionals, but close to it. We only have about ten others, but Ali and Shilo are the only ones in our level. And we’ve never met Shilo. Arlette’s brother, Wo, is one, but he’s in level ll.”
“He used to be in Level l, like us, but then they moved him up because he was too smart,” Arlette said. “Nik and him used to be best friends, but now he’s stuck with me, his future girlfriend.”
Nik’s face turned red and Leah looked uncomfortable, opening her mouth to speak. Nik beat her to it.
“Nope,” he said, rolling his eyes. “You’re not my future girlfriend and you never will be. Ever. I don't want one of those. And we’re not talking about this.”
Arlette grinned. “We'll talk about it eventually.”
“About what?” Leah asked before Nik could stop her.
“Arie’s got a huge thing for Nik and she told him,” a voice called from behind them. Nik turned to find Brook, a Level ll. He was Wo’s new best friend since he moved up and a distant relative of Nik’s.
“I'm in love with him,” Arlette said, then noticed who said it and scowled. “And don't call me anything except Arlette.”
“It's such a dumb name, though!” Brook argued. “It sounds like a type of French Toast, so be glad I didn't give you that nickname.” His eyes landed on Leah and he grinned. “Looks like yyoouuu guys got the Back Again this year, didn't ya?”
Arlette groaned. “Leah, meet my brother’s annoying best friend, Brook Verlene.”
Nik, glad to have a distraction, patted Brook on the back and asked, “Nice to see ya, Brook. Anything in particular you came over here for?”
“Yes, actually.” Nik breathed a sigh of relief.
“I heard you guys were talking about Logicals…and some other stuff,” Brook said. Nik blushed at that last part, but Brook didn't stick around the topic, and Nik knew why.
Much like Arlette’s apparent love for Nik, Brook had confessed his feelings towards Arlette similarly. In Realms 1, 2, and 4, this was a lot more common. If you like someone, you tell them, and if they like you back, they tell you back. If not, you just give up. Usually. Unfortunately, Kingsleys and Verlenes, who were both very close family bunches, had a different sort of idea of how love should be viewed, both coming from Realm 6. They thought it should be an everlasting obsession. That if someone didn't love you back, it was a huge offense and that they could never and should never move on. Nik hoped Arlette didn't take it personally that he didn't love her.
He couldn't love anyone. Not with the little situation he was in at the moment.
You’ll see eventually.
Nik was in a situation he couldn’t escape, with a force he couldn't bring himself to talk to Arlette about. Or Wo, for that matter.
When the day was over, which was only a few hours later, Nik deserted to the boy’s dorm and retreated into his bedroom. He had no roommate, because apparently the Orams got “special treatment” because his dad was super rich. Not as rich as the Numerics, but nearly.
Nik tiptoed to his bed, cautious as though there was something after him if he went too fast.
Sure enough, as he crashed into his bed, the whole world seemed to warp around him as he entered the Inside Out.
It wasn't on purpose, of course, but one experienced enough could make someone enter the Inside Out from a faraway distance. Nik scrambled to leave the Inside Out before it consumed him and he was teleported away.
But it was useless. The familiar brightness of the Inside Out mixed with the purple and indigo. It was all a swirl of space, as though swimming through the Milky Way. As desperate as the situation was, Nik couldn't help but feel sorry for the Back Agains that only saw what they had just recently experienced instead of the swirly beauty, along with respect for the ones who handled the Inside Out so calmly. How do they casually walk through this? Nik thought as he tumbled around the void.
A few moments later, Nik stood in what he thought was a Realm 4 living room. He groaned.
“Very graceful in the Inside Out today, Sir Nikolas,” a voice said, materializing in front of him.
Nik groaned again and turned to face the all-too familiar figure before him. A pair of legs, a purple bedazzled cape feathered over a face that Nik had never seen. Long curly black hair drizzled from the hood.
“Hello, Madame 4.”
Chapter 3:
ARLETTE
Arlette led Leah to the dorms as Nik departed with them and Brook headed off to join the Level lls. Leah looked in wonder at all of the color used in Realm 1. The small buildings creeping out of the walls and ceiling and the sideways hallways awed her. The walls and ceiling were made as a 3D map of the seven realms, and Leah was staring at it and touching it like it was a new Ability.
Arlette was an Optical. She knew this because she had started training early, when her superstitious family decided a war was coming and, before a war really did start coming and real training started happening, found out both her and her brothers’ Abilities ahead of time.
Plus, their family was an Optical-full express. The last non-Optical was probably Arlette’s great-grandfather, who was a Logical. It was the same with Brook’s family. Nearly all of them were Logicals, and it was the same with Brook.
