Series Name
Book 1

     A.J. slowly stumbles into the bathroom, eyes barely open. “Sink,” she 
states. A platform comes toward her from the wall, bowl included. “Cold 
water.” The bowl fills with a clear liquid. She reaches forward with 
memorized motions and splashes the water on her face.
     Her eyes snap open. “Oh yeah, that’s the way to wake up.” She looks 
forward at the blank wall. “Mirror.” Nothing happens. “Mirror,” she repeats. 
Still nothing. “Mom,” she shouts, “The mirror’s broken.”
     “No, it isn’t,” replies a female voice from downstairs.
     AJ leaves the bathroom and goes down to the kitchen. She looks in and 
finds the room empty. Mom’s not there. “Mom,” she calls out.
     A masculine voice replies this time, “Your mother and I are in the living 
room.”
     That’s weird. I always see him in the study. She steps across the hall to 
the living room. Sure enough, both Mom and Dad are in the living room, but 
so is Ryan. “Ryan? What are you doing here,” she asks, “You always wait for 
me outside.”
     “Your parents invited me in to reprogram some of the devices in your 
house like the mirror.”
     Ok, I guess that makes sense. “So, how do I make the mirror work?” (So, 
how do I use the mirror?)
     “Say, ‘See me.’,” Ryan states simply.
     “Ok,” she says as she leaves the room and starts back up the stairs, but 
something nags at her. What is bothering me?
     She dismisses the thought as she re-enters the bathroom. “See me.”
     A black spot appears on the wall. The nagging doubt returns with more 
force this time. “What is it,” she asks herself out loud this time. She feels a 
light breeze pulling her forward. The black spot grows and with it the force 
of the wind that’s pulling her in. Soon the blackness has taken the shape of 
her mirror.
     Then it hits her, “I know. Mom should have been in the kitchen, Dad is 
always in the study, and Ryan never comes into the house. This isn’t right. 
This is a dream.” She feels a momentary relief from the realization, but the 
fear of being sucked into this black hole overwhelms the relief.
     The bathroom door closes. Black tentacles reach for her from the 
blackness. She tries to open the bathroom door. Realizing that the door 
won’t open she runs to the farthest point from the black mirror.
     A black shapeless tentacle wraps itself around her wrist. It starts pulling 
her toward its origin. She tries to pull it off her, but it remains fast. 
Another tentacle wraps itself around her waist. As she struggles against the 
pull of the tentacles, she tells herself, “This is only a dream. All I have to do 
is wake up.”
     She turns around and uses the shower to hold her. She looks back and 
more tentacles inch toward her. Her hand slips and she looks forward for 
anything to grab. It’s then that she sees the man before her. If I could just 
reach that man, I could escape.
     She reaches for him, but a black tentacle wraps itself around her free 
wrist and drags her arms to her sides. The wind becomes hurricane force. 
More tentacles wrap around her and tighten. She twists and turns, but the 
blackness keeps drawing her in.
     As she is lifted up toward the dark mirror, a last desperate idea comes 
to her. She closes her eyes and as her feet pass the sink she pushes with all 
her might.
     AJ opens her eyes. Her pillow looks back at her. She tries to move and 
finds that during her dream, her blanket had wrapped tightly around her.
     “Whew,” she says to herself with relief, “It was just a dream. It seemed 
so real and frightening. I hope it isn’t premonition of what’s to come.” She 
rubs her eyes. I’m so tired. That dream must have kept me from sleeping 
well. “What day is it?” She looks over at the clock display in her wall. 
“Saturday. Good, No school today. I might as well get up now anyway.”
     Shaking out the last remnants of the dream, she gets up. She goes into 
the bathroom next to her bedroom. A momentary panic courses through her 
as the dream reasserts itself in her mind. “It’s just a dream,” she reminds 
herself. She turns to the mirror and her face looks back reassuring her. 
After a refreshing shower, she returns to her room.
     She quickly puts on her favorite outfit. A teal t-shirt and denim overalls. 
Socks and shoes follow. “There,” she proclaims with a satisfied nod, “Now 
for the rest of the day.” She lays a small, green sheet on her bed. Green, to 
match her eyes. Ok, Mom will probably invite someone over for dinner 
tonight. “AJ,” she uses her fake mom voice, “dear, I’m inviting the 
Samuelson’s over to dinner tonight. Don’t get messy and dress nicely. We 
have appearances to keep.”
     “I should bring a nice outfit, just in case.” She carefully folds an elegant 
dress, hair brush, makeup, earrings and nice shoes. On top of that, she 
places a wash bubble. In case, I get dirty. Oh yeah, I need to get food from 
Mom. She continues adding things to the pile. She puts the altitude adjuster 
on top and ties off the bundle.
     She opens her window. She turns on the device, adjusts it, and drops it. 
She leaves the window ajar and heads downstairs. At the bottom of the 
stairs, she turns right into the kitchen. There, her mother is poring over a 
cookbook. That means we’re having guests tonight. “Mom? Why are you 
looking at a cookbook? You know that the computer can make anything we 
want.”
     “Yes, dear, but it’s not the same as making it fresh. Are you going out 
again today?”
     “Yes, ma’am.”
     “Well, there’s some food on your shelf in the refrigerator.”
     “Thanks, Mom.”
     “You’re welcome.” AJ makes a break for the door hoping to avoid the 
dreaded words to come. “Oh, and be back by Five. The Jacobson’s are coming 
for dinner.”
     “Ok.” She proceeds down the hall to the front door. As she passes the 
last checkpoint, she greets her dad, “Bye, Dad.”
     “Bye, Honey, be back by dinner.”
     “Ok, Dad,” she says a little exasperated. Geez, they’re like a broken 
record. I can’t wait to get out of the house. And with that thought, she is, 
temporarily. She hurries through her mom’s garden. Up ahead she sees Ryan 
just beyond the holes in the floor that signify where the walls to her house’s 
emergency exit pod will rise.
     Ryan turns to go as AJ reaches him. “Hey, Ryan!”
     “Hey AJ, forget something?”
     She turns back to the house. There hovering just by her Dad’s window is 
her bundle. “Oh yeah, thanks.” She runs back and grabs it, careful not to be 
seen by her father. Then she quickly catches up to Ryan.