Another Place, Another Time

Yoni Weiss
10-17-19

Another Place, Another Time

Chapter 1: Fears & Nightmares...

Alice E. has a big imagination. She has weird dreams about strange things nobody really thinks
about. Like good being bad and vice versa. She also dreams of a strange place that’s always in her
dreams. It’s black and white like an old movie and it has lots of good things but in her case, bad things.

Horrifying, bloody, dark dreams. Why would such terrifying things in her dreams? She’d always
keep these things to herself because she was afraid of one thing, doctors.

She remembers the incident with grampa that brought her fear to life. She remembers the
screams, violence, bloodshed, and horror. She never really wrote her dreams down in a book or
anything, but she did have a name for the place in her dreams, ZO.

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Chapter 2: Alice...

Even though she has many fears and nightmares, Alice E. is a calm thinker. She never raises her
voice and never gets mad at anyone for anything. She’s also shy and always acting carefully. She cries
herself to sleep every night because she’s worried that her parents will divorce. They fight so much that
she feels weird when their not.

The fighting reminds her of Grampa. Once a month she’d get a letter from grandpa but every now
and then, she won’t. That brings out all her worries. She remembers the incident. She was walking
with her friend, Dorthy when it happened.

She shook her head in fear and quickly grabbed her pills from her medicine cabinet. It helped her
forget. “Never had, never will.” said mother in the past. “Now take your pills.” She gulped them down

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and started looking through the letters she got from people years ago that never bothered to read. She
found one weird note:

Dear Alice,
You are invited to a house, unlike any other one. This house knows your hopes and dreams and

wants to make them come true. Only a handful of kids have been invited to this house and you're one of
the lucky ones. We hope you come.

Sincerely,
The House On Maple Street

Alice crumbled it up and threw it away. Like it was that important. She got dressed, brushed her
teeth and went downstairs.

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Chapter 3: A Ray Of Sunshine...

“Good Morning sweetie.” Said mother in a condescending voice. “Goodmorning mom.”
sighed Alice. “Your father and Dorthy are at the docks waiting for you!” Said mom trying to act cheerful.
Alice ran to the docks as fast as she could with delight in her eyes. Like a ray of sunshine on a cloudy
day.

When she got there she noticed Dorthy’s younger brothers, Bill, and Will there. The ray of sunlight
in her started to fade inside her. “Alice, Alice, Alice!” Screamed Bill and Will at the top of their lungs.
Alice would always call them the annoying duo in her head. “Hey.” Said, Dorthy with a smile.

“Hey, kiddo,” Said Dad in a VERY condescending voice. Alice sighed. “Hey, dad,” “Great day for
fishing eh?” He said with a smirk. It was never a great day for fishing. Always cloudy, never sunny.

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They started fishing. No one got anything. “I’m gonna go get us some PB&J.” He said with a big
smile on his face. Dad was always smiling. Well, except when he was fighting with mom.

All of a sudden Dorthy, the annoying duo and Alice noticed some sort of a boat but it had wheels
on the bottom. Then, a ray of sunlight reflected off the water onto the docks. A train track appeared,
going beyond the horizon. “Let’s go!” said Dorthy. “Let’s go beyond the horizon!”

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Chapter 4: The Beginning Of The End...

The wind in their hair. The sun on their faces. It was truly magical. Well, it WAS magical.
“Alice! Look” Said Dorthy pointing to the mountains. “Some sort of castle?” “We should go there!”
Yelled the annoying duo.

All of a sudden, the train track shifted to the direction of the castle. “Whoa!” Said everyone as it
slowly approached the castle. Something about this was familiar to Alice. But not in a bad way or for
Alice, not in a good way. They climbed up the mountain as the sound of waves crashed beneath them.

They got to the top and found the gates to the castle wide open. Strange really but when they got
inside, they found a ton of people walking around. “HELLO!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Yelled the annoying duo.
Everyone froze. Then, the people started charging towards Alice and the others.

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The people grabbed them in all kinds of places and started giggling. “Yummy snack, yummy
snack!” They screeched as they started biting and licking them. Alice and Dorthy screamed and the
annoying duo cried as teeth dig into their arms. Luckily, Dorthy fought back and helped Alice and the
annoying duo escape. They ran and ran, not looking back as they hid in a cornfield.

Dorthy put her hands over her brother’s mouths, so no one heard their cries. Suddenly, Dorthy felt
two hands grab her shoulders. She screamed. They ran out of the cornfield as a scarecrow chased
them. Running and running and running and running.

Bill started slowing down for he was running out of stamina. The scarecrow shoved him to the
ground as it’s face opened up and started eating him. Dorthy and Will screamed and cried as Alice used
all her strength to pull their arms back so the scarecrow didn’t eat them too.

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Chapter 5: A State Of Shock…

They started running as fast as they can with tears in their eyes. After a while, they stopped. They
found themselves in the middle of a large forest. They used twigs and leaves as bedding. No one could
sleep well that night.

The sound of crying filled the air as tears rolled down everyone’s cheeks. Alice fell asleep to the
sound of whimpering. She woke up to a small light all around her. Fireflies were everywhere. She
looked behind her and saw that Dorthy and Will weren’t there.

“Dorthy! Will!” Yelled Alice. “They’re not in this dream.” Said a quiet voice. Alice looked behind
her and saw a small grey cat with eyes as black as night. “Walk with me, Alice.” Said the cat. “It’s a
nice night for a stroll.”

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They started walking through the forest. “What’s your name?” Asked Alice. “Call me by what I
am.” Answered the cat. “Where are we?” Asked Alice. “Where do you think?” Asked the cat. Alice
started remembering her terrifying nightmares.

“Now do you know where we are?” Asked the cat with a big smile. Alice froze with fear. “We’re in
ZO.” She said quietly. “You are correct.” Uttered the cat. They continued walking. “Now...” Said the
cat. “Tell me about your grandfather?”

Alice froze again. “My gr-grampa?” Asked Alice with fear in her voice. “Yes, absolutely, indeed,
a-” “Stop Talking!” She yelled cutting off the cat. “Oh, Alice…” said the cat in a smooth voice.

“Sometimes you need to open up to someone every now and then or else you’ll be depressed. So
depressed that you’ll start hurting yourself. So depressed you’ll start to have suicidal thoughts. So

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depressed the thoughts will become real. You’ll kill yourself or even kill other people. You don’t want to
become a crazy person that says things that make no sense, do you now?” Said the cat with a look of
terror and fear on his face. “You don’t want to be locked up in a mental hospital for the rest of your life or
even be put on death row? What will it be Alice? Electric chair or lethal injection?”

“OKAY!” Alice yelled with anger. “I was walking in the park with grampa and my friend, Dorthy
when he screamed all of a sudden. He took out his pocket knife and started running towards a woman
pushing a stroller with a baby inside. He killed them both and started running to other people. Dorthy
and I ran and ran. He killed 24 people that day.

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Chapter 6: A Chat With A Cat…
“I’m surprised he’s not on death row.” Said the cat raising one eyebrow. “The hospital has hope
that he’ll get better,” whimpered Alice. “See Alice, it feels good, to tell the truth,” said the cat with a grin.
“I have a question,” said Alice as she wiped away her tears. “And I have an answer,” said the cat.
“Are you real?” asked Alice. “I’m as real as your shadow. I can talk because I want to talk, not
because I’m make-believe. Cats choose not to talk, but I’m not like the others. I always have a feeling
that this is some kind of story and millions of eyes are watching me, but not all at once,” said the cat
getting philosophical.

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