…<\/p>\n
Lisa shivered, mouth folding into a rigid frown. \u201cOllie, don\u2019t you dare pull one of your stunts! Don\u2019t you dare?\u201d She paused expectantly, scanning the garden and numerous paths for a sign of movement. It was a trick: it had to be a trick. Cruel, thoughtless, traits corresponding exactly to Ollie.
\nHer brother would emerge, eventually, smug grin eating into youthful features, eyes wide with satisfaction, to splutter a feeble and somewhat predictable excuse.
\nMinutes passed.
\nNothing.
\nLisa frowned. She had to make an effort, an attempt to find her troublesome brother; perhaps she would scrape a punishment. Despite her lethargic mood, Lisa rose to her feet and staggered through the corridor. The garden seemed a logical place to begin. She dragged the front door into stunted motion and slid between the narrow gap, continuing along the pathway.
\nHer head jerked.
\nA box.
\nIt was barely a shoe-box, constructed from bark-brown mahogany, surfaces pressed against Dad\u2019s precarious fencing. It began to expand, to widen, as if triggered by her presence. Her hand outstretched, lingered fingers inches from the lid. Lisa found herself placing each food inside, expression vacant. Composure gad slipped from her grasp.
\nWhat was she doing? There had to be a rational-
\nThe box glinted, a paranormal glow, just as Ollie had moments before his disappearance.
\nReality seemed to entwine, to elapse.
\nLight faded into a rich darkness.
\n\u201cLisa! Lisa!\u201d
\nOllie.
\nLisa gasped at the sight of her bedraggled brother. \u201cOllie, what on Earth have you done? You\u2019ve take this too far!\u201d She cried, snatching a glance at the wooden space. It resembled the box, only larger, deeper, a cruel imitation.
\nLisa shook her head, dismissively. Her thoughts were tangled, indecisive, an incomprehensible mess of images and anxieties; the box had shifted her perception of truth. She scrounged for a source of light.
\nOllie leapt into his sister\u2019s arms. \u201cI had to explore, to investigate. I followed the animals into the box,\u201d he recalled. \u201cIt adjusted to my size. I clambered inside the box, expecting an innocent wooden structure. It\u2019s a real-life Tardis.\u201d
\n\u201cIt doesn\u2019t make sense Ollie. The mammoth? The red squirrel? They\u2019re not here.\u201d
\nOllie paused in thought. \u201cI suppose the box cast them into a different place, a different realm. There could be other boxes, boxes just like this one, scattered across the globe,\u201d Ollie explained, with a sudden and unlikely maturity.
\n\u201cI see,\u201d said Lisa. She longed to be home, secured within four walls, to fall into her mother\u2019s embrace \u201cNow let\u2019s discuss the plan,\u201d she posed. \u201cYou do have a plan, don\u2019t you? You\u2019re going to get us out of here, right?\u201d
\nOllie considered his response. \u201cNo,\u201d he managed, looking to his sister. \u201cI was rather hoping you would offer a solution.\u201d
\n\u201cI have nothing.\u201d
\nLisa gulped.
\nRealisation began to sink in. The siblings hadn\u2019t a plan, a glimpse of natural light, a conceivable direction in which to continue.
\nThey were trapped. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
… Lisa shivered, mouth folding into a rigid frown. \u201cOllie, don\u2019t you dare pull one of your stunts! Don\u2019t you dare?\u201d She paused expectantly, scanning the garden and numerous paths for a sign of movement. It was a trick: it had to be a trick. Cruel, thoughtless, traits corresponding exactly to Ollie. Her brother would […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uea-fly-festival"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14271"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14271\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14273,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14271\/revisions\/14273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}