Book Five: Pocket Dimensions

The garage grew quiet as Lysandra stood around, adjusting her hands, stretching them out as she projected emotions around a secluded area. She shook her head, not understanding why it hadn’t worked.

“Shit.” She sighed to herself, feeling a tingling sensation from using her power a little too long.

Tessa looked over, a little confused look flushed on her face. “What happened?” she grabs Lysandra’s hand, carefully looking at it.

Lysandra groaned. “No, it’s not my hands, Tess.” She rolled her eyes over to the wall across from her.

Tessa furrowed a brow, “what were you trying to do again? You lost me at your hands.”

She pointed ahead at the wall, her hand still glowing faintly under the dim lighting. “I’m trying to open another pocket dimension.”

“A dimension?!” Tessa let out, her voice raised in excitement. “Like... a way to restore things?”

Lysandra nodded as she shook her hands off and tried again. “That’s right.” she sighed under her breath. “I know it’s weird, humans having weird emotional capabilities but...” she closed her eyes shut for a few moments before opening them again.

“I feel like I can bring them back.”

“Bring who back? I’m right here!”

And as Tessa exclaimed that, Lysandra couldn’t help but let out a laugh, a slight laugh. She quickly shook it off and tried to recalculate her thoughts. She realized she took Tessa to these places once before, but something inside her wanted it this time.

“My mom and dad both died when I was young.” She held her hands on her face as the warm glow beneath her palms began heating up the skin beneath them.

“I remember you told me this.” Tessa’s expression on her face turned to sorrow as she got closer to Lysandra whose eyes were just staring at the ceiling.

Lysandra brushed it off, slowly walking toward the wall until she stopped right in the middle.

“That’s why I have to try, even if it backfires.” she continued, determined.

Tessa didn’t reply right away. The excitement she had a bit ago softened into a quiet understanding. She stayed close but didn’t interrupt.

Lysandra placed her palm flat against the wall, and at first nothing happened.

It felt cold, but her hands began to glow again, relieving the feeling of its cold embrace gracing upon her hands.

She closed her eyes again, forcing her breathing to steady as she pushed outward with her ability. It wasn’t physical effort, it was a resistance, like trying to move through something immovable. Her emotions spread outward in waves, each one carrying their own frequency.

The air around her shimmered faintly against the curls in her hair.

Tessa stepped forward slightly, her voice dropping to a whisper, almost intrigued. “Is that supposed to happen?”

And the answer was no, it wasn’t the same as before.

Lysandra didn’t answer immediately. Her focus was narrowed, the rest of the room was fading just beyond her own thoughts. She was in full control, full concentration as she could feel the wall under her palms begin to shift just enough for her to feel.

The area of the wall wasn’t cracking, but it was distorting, almost like the feeling and concentration of it all was shifting how it was perceived.

Lysandra pressed her hand to the wall, and the temperature shifts like it recognizes her emotional imprint. The surface doesn’t break, it reacts to it, like it’s remembering something that was never in the same place they were.

Tessa frowned. “What is it?”

Lysandra’s expression tightened as she pushed harder. The slight shimmering started to expand, crawling outward in lines spread across the wall where she stood. It started to affect the room around them slowly as her eyes started glowing different colors.

“It reacts to feeling this time... not matter.” Lysandra said.

That was when the entirety of the wall changed. The wall was less concrete and more see through. She placed her palm against it once more, seeing her hand go in with ease.

Tessa stepped closer, her breath catching slightly. “Lysandra... you’re a genius!”

“I know,” Lysandra gloated, cracking her knuckles as the light around them circled them, almost in motion with the rest of her body.

The air around her deepened in color, like the emotions that were beyond the wall were reflecting right back into the room. The edges of the garage began to blur, not physically shifting, but conceptually loosening, the space was slowly shifting alongside with the newly opened portal.

As the two of them stood close together, Tessa holding an arm around Lysandra’s, they both looked on.

Especially Lysandra.

She gazed deeper inside of the portal as the air from it shifted all around her. She raised a slight hand, the portal reacting with it in intensity. A slight pulse, a slight sound echoed from the portal. Lysandra caught her breath as Tessa was more curious than ever.

Tessa stepped forward, almost too intrigued by what she heard. “What... was that?”

Lysandra didn’t respond immediately, she let the energy focus on her, staying as calm as she could be. “It sounded like me.”

“It sounded like you?”

“It did, and it kind of sounded like me that day of our school dance.”

Lysandra stepped a little closer, Tessa left breathless. Her eyes began glowing again, her natural colors shifting from the light gazing right through her eyes.

“Be careful, it could maybe alter things!” Tessa tried sounding important, but she rolled her own eyes and followed behind Lysandra.

Lysandra grinned, almost like she wasn’t afraid, or how much she could pretend she wasn’t. “That’s progress, Tess.”

Tessa’s jaw dropped, almost wanting to grab a hold of Lysandra’s shoulder and yank her back, but she was always willing to follow behind her.

Even in the midst of potential danger.

The shimmer inside the wall deepened at Lysandra’s words, like it heard her too clearly and decided to answer in its own language. The sound she thought she recognized didn’t repeat, but it lingered in the air around them.

Lysandra without hesitation took a step inside.

Tessa’s hand shot forward a second too late.

“Lysandra! Maybe we won’t walk into something experimental?!”

But Lysandra kept going through.

“Ah, darn it, oh well.” Tessa watches as Lysandra walks in, turning back to the slightly distorted garage.

“Bye garage! We may be here for a while, or maybe we will never return!” She laughed mischievously, though, the air reacted to the response with displeasure, sinking in as Tessa walked through.

Lysandra didn’t stumble. She quickly transitioned into it. Tessa looked around at all of the glowing orbs and people that were shining brightly.

Lysandra’s fingers were still outstretched, still trying to grab the wall that wasn’t there anymore. “Pretty amazing, isn’t it?”

“Lyssy,” Tessa said, trying to catch her breath.

The world beyond reacted, slightly shimmering against Lysandra’s own power. She was too amused by it to look away from her hand’s reaction to it all.

“Lyssy!” Tessa said, pulling her shoulder to face her.

Then, her expression dropped.

“What is it?” Lysandra panicked slightly. “Did it make me ugly?”

“Ugly?! Since when were you ugly?!”

“Oh, okay. That’s a relief.” She laughed.

Lysandra ran up to a nearby mirror plastered on the wall, slightly crooked. “My eyes, they... reacted?”

Purple and green. And as she blinked, they hadn’t faded away, and part of her hoped it was a part of the memory they were inside of changing them temporarily.

But this wasn’t temporary, it was permanent.

The atmosphere behind her began humming ominously as she slowly turned her head back, mirror cracking, Tessa jumping from it, and Lysandra left gazing upon the new place surrounding them fully.