What is it?

“What is it?” asked Nancy.

“I mean, it’s a piece of fruit… right?” said Bill, staring at the object at their feet.

“Well, yeah, but…”

“I mean, it’s just a pear… right?” he interrupted, running a hand through his hair apprehensively.

“So… what are you going to do, William?” Said Nancy, prodding with her gaze.

What am I gonna do? Bill thought. He didn’t like being answerless. “What are YOU going to do?” Bill said with a defensive, boyishness.

Nancy shot him a glare. Bill didn’t notice. He felt as though if he looked away from the pear, the fruit would somehow apprehend him.

“Well. What do you think would happen if we ate it?” she continued after a minute of silence.

Bill broke his gaze from the fruit finally and looked up at her, eyebrows raised. “Ate it?!” he asked incredulously.

Nancy frowned a bit and shrugged.

“I mean… that seems like a bad idea,” said Bill, trying to act mature. What WOULD happen though? he thought.

“I’ll do it if you do it,” said Nancy excitedly.

Bill looked back at her, a mouth a bit agape. WHO is she? She's crazier than my brothers. “I… I dunno…” he trailed off. I mean, if just touching it did THAT…

Nancy studied Bill, amused at his thoughtfulness. It seemed a bit out of character for him to be this hesitant. Particularly from what she knew of all the Curt brothers. Nancy’s family, the Mericordis, had moved in next door some eight months ago and were quickly acquainted with the Curt’s often outlandish children. While Bill may have been the more reserved of the lot, he was no stranger to escapades of his own. The Mercordi girls were something all their own, she knew that, but the Curts, they were a different breed. Bill was her favorite though. She had a crush on him since the first time she saw him at school. Something about him was… different, something she wasn’t sure about still.

He looked up at Nancy, noticing her lingering study of him.

“What!” He said, flushing under her gaze.

“I’m just admiring your thoughtfulness, that’s all.” She said nonchalantly, putting on a bit of over-exaggerated coyness. It set Bill to flush even more.

He shuffled a bit, hesitating.

“Ok… So. If I take a bite… you will also take a bite?” said Bill apprehensively.

Nancy’s heart sunk. She realized she hadn’t actually thought through her suggestion, she just wanted to fluster her crush a bit.

“Um, well, I guess… I…”

“OH! Look who’s not so sure anymore, HUH?” Said Bill quickly picking up on her trepidation.

I knew it. He thought victoriously.

Nancy flushed.

“Well, what if we both touch it at the same time, just to see again. Then, we’ll take a bite.”

Bill considered the idea. It sounded reasonable in his 14-year-old mind.

“Alright.” He paused, “Let’s do it! You, ready?”

Bill knelt in his trousers and Nancy in her flamboyant peach dress.

Maybe she should change… Bill began to think as they reached toward the pear…

*bloop*

They were gone. Or maybe the world was gone.

Nancy grimaced under Bill's grasp of her hand.

“Uh Bill, could you…” She stopped mid-sentence seeing his expression.

Bill wasn’t listening. He stared mouth agape at the vast panorama before him. Nancy and he were positioned on a precipice overlooking an expansive valley, and beyond, their view stretched clearly to the horizon. The day was warm and the light, wherever it was coming from, was almost thick – it felt, touchable, dense. It seemed to penetrate beyond the skin to some deeper part of them. Bill put his free hand out in front of him and moved it around.

Nancy watched with a raised eyebrow, and a slight smirk.

Bill’s attention returned to the view.

“Those must be… kilometers high,” he said in absent-minded awe. He pointed at great structures on the valley’s bank. The towers glistened, almost as if they emanated light. “I didn’t get a good look at it last time.”

He took a step forward subconsciously as if a few feet would change his ability to see beyond the vast space between them.

As he stepped, he let go of Nancy’s hand and *bloop* he was gone.

Nancy started at the sudden shock of the vanishing boy. “Um, ok.” She said, irritated, shaking her head, “does he think about me at all?”

“So… I guess if I just drop this thing,” she held up the pear, “Then I’ll go back too?” She hesitated.

Something felt, wrong. Suddenly wrong. Not like a premonition, but like... Her skin prickled a moment, and she reactively dropped the pear.

*bloop*

She appeared back by the pear tree, just as she had been minutes ago.

Bill wasn’t there. Her heart sank. Oh no... She spun frantically to survey around her. "Bill!”

There came a loud crack from the pear tree, a low yell, and then a blur plummeted to the ground near her. “You came back!” Bill said. He looked up, grinning, a broken branch underneath him, his sandy blond hair a mess in his face. He rose quickly to his feet and ran over to Nancy to hug her.

“So…”, she began slowly, a bit dumbfounded. She didn’t want to question the embrace of her crush too quickly, “what were you doing up in the tree?”

“I thought you were trapped there, you know, in that… place," said Bill, a bit bashfully. “I couldn’t find the pear when I came back. So I climbed to get one out of the tree. Then you startled me, and well…" he shrugged.

“We had the pear with us you dummy,” said Nancy.

“Oh… right…” Bill withdrew his prolonged hug, and let out a weak laugh.

“Well, where is it?” Said Bill excitedly, let's go back!

Nancy flushed.

“What?” He paused.

“Well, I dropped it.”

“The pear?”

“Yeah”

“Ok…” said Bill starting to look around her feet.

“No… no. I dropped it on the other side, wherever we were... so I could get back, HERE”

Bill looked at her blankly, “what?”

She looked down at the ground, avoiding his eyes.

“You left a magical pear to another world... in the other world.” began Bill, incredulously.

Nancy looked up at him from under her brows, then looked away, the color in her cheeks deepening to match the bright peach-pink of her dress.

It was just a mistake. Bill told himself, sighing. What about all the other pears? I was going to try one anyway.

He looked up at the tree. Then walked over to the branch he had broken when he fell. He squatted down and touched one of the ripe pears on the ground.

*bloop*

He was back at the exact place he had been with Nancy minutes ago, the magnificent expanse spreading before his eyes. He must have been almost ten kilometers above water level, maybe even more. He could see the curvature of the planet far in the distance.

Is this..? No... those were just stories… He shook his head. …but it’s so, similar.

His attention returned to the precipice, and he saw “Nancy’s pear” a few feet from him. He went to reach for it and as he did so a large black object dropped right in front of him; the precipice trembled at its impact. He yelped in surprise, and reeling back, looking up, he let out a scream.

*bloop*

He was back, crawling away from the broken pear branch. Nancy rushed forward in alarm as the mid-scream-Bill popped back into existence.

“Bill! What happened?”

His eyes were wide with terror.

“Bill!?” Nancy said concernedly.

Bill let out another scream, backing up further and Nancy wheeled around as she heard a heavy thump on the ground behind her.

There stood a hulking black figure, almost as tall as the pear tree. Its form was like smoke - churning and shifting, yet, more solid. It took a step forward, and Nancy yelped as she stumbled back, tripping down next to Bill.

The creature paused, standing still, yet continuously warping. Something emanated out of it, something… wrong. It was heaviness, weight, almost materialized... sorrow. It wasn’t visible, at least, not mostly. Small trails of its "black" would vapor off, yet, it wasn’t a vapor.

Nancy squirmed, her skin prickling. It feels like…just like… when I was leaving last time. She gasped.

It took a step toward them, past the shadow of pear tree into the sunlight of the afternoon. Nancy whimpered and pulled closer to Bill, tears began to roll down her cheeks. As the creature came out from the shadow, its attention shifted upward into the sky. Its form suddenly altered, becoming rigid, yet not solid. Its form still moved, somehow, constantly reorganizing itself. It was powerful, militant.

*bloop*

It was gone.

The pear plunked down a head-length away from Bill’s feet. Bill gasped for an unhindered breath, groaning a bit.

“I, I…” Bill trailed off. “…I’m sorry I left you.”

“What?” Nancy looked over at Bill, confused. Of all the things to come to mind after seeing THAT?... She thought, continuing to sob.

“I’m sorry I left you there…” He trailed off.

Nancy moved back from Bill to see him better, wiping her eyes. He didn’t look right, he was pale, almost dull. What happened to him? “Are you ok?” She asked studying his face.

Bill swallowed, a bit labored, “I, I don’t know.” He shook his head. “I don’t feel “right”.”

“I’ll go fetch your mum for you.” Nancy rose quickly running for his house.

Bill struggled, then...

-----

He awoke in bed. Some color had returned to his face but he felt like something was wrong. It wasn’t something wrong “out there”, but that he was wrong - that existence was wrong. Wrongness... It was... a part of him.

What… happened? What about Nancy?! The thought alarmed him. His head throbbed.

He grabbed a plate of food his mom and dad had evidentially left him and pushed it into his mouth as he combated the headache. He tried to think, Had I seen them? I can’t even remember if… He swallowed…

*bloop*

…and opened his eyes.

He yelped in surprise choking on the rest of the food in his mouth. His heart sinking into his stomach. He lay right where he had stumbled in terror only a few hours ago. And something was wrong, very wrong. It was dark. No. It was… dull, washed out, faded. It was worse than dark.

He shivered.

He pushed himself to his feet, then walked to the edge of the precipice, and gasped. The whole world was faded. The once shimmering spires were fractured, distorted, and scattered golden light shot haphazardly from them, cutting the blackness.

It was blackness…it was… dullness. It was the presence of something that ought not to be. The wrongness. The same thing he had felt, the same thing that had filled him with a sense of regret, sorrow, lostness.

There was a low tremor deep in the planet beneath him. He shivered again. The valley now had great fissures that had formed in the landscape from which a warm glow came.

This world is dying.

Bill startled. The thought had intruded into his mind. Was that… my thought?

I need to get out of here.

Alarmed, he moved food around on the plate he still held, trying to find the piece of pear that must be keeping him there. His heart reeled. No pear. He had eaten it. He had subconsciously pushed it into his mouth, eyes closed, back in his bed.

He immediately wretched on the ground to rid his stomach of what he had eaten.

It was too late. Fear enveloped him.

This is terror. This is what terror feels like. His thoughts raced. Tears began to well up and blur his vision.

What now? What happens when the thing that transported you to another world, becomes part of you?

There is no way back.