Bella Goth Story Prologue

Bella sat up. Slowly getting to her feet, she looked around her. All she could see was

sand. And sand. And more sand.

“Yes! It’s finally worked. Wait until I tell Mortimer! Now all I have to do is just get back into the time machine and….”

She looked around her.

“Oh. No.” she gasped. “Oh, no no no no NO!”There was no time machine. Nothing but sand.

“Great, now I’m stuck here. And I don’t even know where, or when I am!”She began to cry.

“That…*hic* time machine took me. …*Hic*…MONTHS to build. I had to…. *hic*…. hide it at Don’s house and everything. But I never ever meant to leave my family! How am I going to build another one?” she wailed to the sand dunes.

“All right Bella, think straight about this,” she said to herself. “There has to be a way to get back home. I’ll just head towards that…creepy looking castle in the distance. Yes, that’s what I’ll do.”

And so she did, trekking through hot desert sand in her high heels.

Didn’t think that one through now did we? She thought, Time traveling in high heels, and a dress!

Stupid.

Climbing the stairs of the mysterious castle, she considered the dangers of what she was doing.

This could be some sort of medieval castle. What if they think I’m a witch? And burn me? OH no.

But I have no other options. Its this house or starve in the desert.

So she sighed and pulled herself together, and walked straight through the front door. Bella had never been good with manners.

“Helloo?” she called, “Is anyone home? I got lost and I need some water!”“Please!” she added as an afterthought. Glancing around, she saw a modern kitchen. Thank Plumbob. At least I’m in the right century.

Just then, a young man, about Bella’s age, came walking quickly up the stairs. “No, you shouldn’t be here…you have to get out! Now! Quickly!” he said to her. “Um...there’s nowhere else for miles, and I really need water, but if you don’t want me in your house, I could go…” “No! You can’t just wander out in the desert…hmm… but you can’t stay here. No, you mustn’t stay here.”“Nervous! Nervous, who are you talking to! I thought I told you to clean the kitchen. NERVOUS! Who is in my house!” came a voice from upstairs. “Uhm.. NOONE, Cerc…. Mrs. Beaker! No one’s here!”“Then WHO are you talking to?!” “Myself!”“Ugh, of course.” She mumbled, “Hey Loki! Bring out the shockers, Nervous is talking to himself again.”

“Quickly, this way, we have to hide you before they get down here.” Nervous said to Bella, “They never come down into my room, we can hide you down there.”

But then they heard footsteps at the top of the stairs,

“Which way is it?” Bella panicked,“That way, hurry!” Nervous said quietly.

Bella ran down the stairs and hid behind the desk in the basement. What am I doing? Where am I? Above, she heard muffled voices and then shrieks and electrical zaps.

What kind of place is this? She thought. She sat in that basement for what felt like hours, panicking, mostly about her children. What if I never…No. I mustn’t think that. I’ll get home…I’ll find a way.

Pretty soon, it was silent upstairs, and Bella held her breath as she heard footsteps stumbling down the basement stairs. “Miss? Are you still here?” Nervous said slowly, in obvious pain. “Miss?”

“Yes, I’m here. And you can call me Bella.” She responded, well that was stupid, don’t tell people your real name, ever. Not in time travel. What if I mess up the history of the world? “And your name is Nervous, right?”“Yah, kind of weird, I know, but Cerci and Loki chose it for me, they didn’t care enough to give me a real name.”

“But that’s terrible!” “No, it’s alright, it’s the kind of thing I got used to after a while.” “Nervous, um, Where exactly are we?”“Well this is Circe and Loki Beaker’s hou..”“No,” She interrupted, “Where, like, what country…or city…. or town are we in?” Nervous looked at her like she was crazy. “How do you not know where you are?”Don’t tell him, don’t tell him, “Um…I was driving and I guess I got lost, and my car…broke down, yeah, it broke

down, and so I had to walk. And now I don’t know where I am!” with that, Bella burst into tears.

Nervous looked terrified,“Miss?! Miss Bella? Its alright, we’re in Strangetown, Colorado.”“Oh…*hic*…do you know…*hic*… what…um…the date is?” she blubbered.“Yes, It’s July 17th, why?”“Um…do you know…what year it is?” she said, wiping her eyes. Nervous looked at her incredulously. “You mean you don’t know what year it is?” he replied, his eyes still wide.

“Yes. I don’t know what year it is, could you tell me, PLEASE.” Bella had a lot of patience, but today it was running thin, and she didn’t know how much longer she could stand the questioning. “Well…it’s 1999.”Oh, great, Bella thought, I’m such an amazing scientist. I built a time machine and it only took me back ten years. Ten! That’s it! “Where are you from?” Nervous asked her,

“I’m from Pleasantview, Connecticut.” She responded. “And I just want to go home.” “It’s alright Miss. You’ll get home. Don’t worry.”“Nervous…” she asked“Yes?”“What do you do here? Are you their butler or something?”“No…not exactly. Do you want to hear my story? It’s not a very nice one.”“I’ll hear it. Tell me.”

“Well…” Nervous began hesitantly, “See, they, Loki and Cerci that is, adopted me when I was about seventeen. I was one of the oldest at the orphanage, and nobody had ever wanted me. I got taken away from my mom when I was about eight or nine. She apparently was neglecting me, you know, forgetting to feed me, doing her own thing, ignoring me. So the social worker came and got me. That was the last time I ever saw my mom. I spent the next ten years at the Strangetown

orphanage, until Cerci and Loki came in.”

“I was so happy to be leaving that place, that for a while, I couldn’t get it into my head that they were bad people. To me, they were still my saviors. They got me out of that orphanage.”

“Then the experimenting started. That’s why they came to get me in the first place, to run tests on me and see how I responded. They’re scientists, and they just needed me for my DNA. They named me Nervous Subject, which I guess they thought was funny, but…” and he broke off, looking sad

“It’s okay,” Bella said, “I’ll help you…” but then she trailed off. Help him what? I have to get home, I can’t waste time helping him. What about my children?