Young Writers Society

You've awoken on the floor in a mysterious building in the small town of Milthes, Oklahoma. There's a small piece of paper in your hand, with a name of someone or something. You've seen this place before, whether in a TV special about the historic town, or in a National Geographic about the rolling countryside near it, or maybe you've been there before. But this time, there's something... different about Milthes.

You have no memory of how you got there, or why you're there. You only know one thing. It definitely isn't 2020 anymore. For one, there are people actually walking down the street, standing close together, but there are other things. The cars are all old, some of the men are wearing old military uniforms, the ladies all wear dresses, and there are no new houses in the town.

There are others like you, too. As you look around the town, you see other people running out of buildings, as confused and as out of place as you are.

Now, it's up to you to find a way home. That is, if you want to go home.

Adeline Violet Hagen - @LZPianogirl
Andrei Petrov - @soundofmind
Magnolia Fortin - @Corvid
Liam Coleman - @JasmineFelicia
Levi Ronan James Bridgefort - @Tenyo



Character Sheet:

Code: Select all

[b]Name:[/b] (first and last)
[b]Age:[/b] (16+ please)
[b]Gender:[/b]

[b]Appearance:[/b] (pictures are optional)

[b]Personality:[/b]
    [b]- Strengths:[/b]
    [b]- Weaknesses:[/b]

[b]History:[/b] (short or long)

[b]Other:[/b]

Can't wait to start writing with you!

Adeline opened her eyes and groaned. Her whole body ached as if she had been dropped from a great height. She couldn't remember anything or anyone, or even where she was. All she could see was wooden beams zig-zagging across the ceiling. There were cobwebs everywhere and Adeline could swear she saw an owl's nest near the rooms lone window.

Slowly but surely, Adeline pushed herself up on her elbows so she could have a clearer view of her surroundings. It was clear she was in some sort of barn. There were stalls and a few had some horses in them, but most of them were empty. Adeline stood up and began walking around the room. It was dark and dusty, but there was enough light that she could see where she was.

She rubbed her right hand against her forward when a piece of paper suddenly dropped out of it. Adeline looked down at it, confused. The last thing she remembered was walking back to her apartment, and she definitely didn't have something in her hand then.

"Strange.." she mumbled.

Adeline bent down and picked up the slip of paper. It looked brand new. She flipped it over and examined the backside. There was the word "engine" scribbled on the backside. The handwriting looked sloppy and the writer must of written it in a hurry. Adeline crumpled it up and put it in her back pocket. She'd come back to it later.

"Why the hell w.." Adeline began to speak but a loud thud noise cut her off. It came from the right of where she was standing, past the few animals and stalls. Adeline slowly crept towards the direction the noise came from. She picked up a rake and held it in front of her like a spear.

"Hello?!" She yelled, "Is anyone there?!"

306 Words

Levi

It could have been one of his better sleeps of those he'd spent away from home- if he'd had any idea where he was or how he got there in the first place. Levi Ronan James became aware of the shards of hay sticking into the back of his neck. Mostly it was dark, with the sunlight rolling in through the window up at the top. The smell of horse manure hung heavy in the hot summer air and up above fattened flies hovered in the higher reaches of a wooden barn.

He gave it a few seconds and rubbed his eyes, but nothing came to him. At first it was a comfortable haze, the slow achy kind that comes from sleeping out in the wilderness, but it wasn't long before the absence became unsettling and the silence started to buzz louder than the insects.

Where in this blighted land was he?

Last night he was sleeping in his dorm. He could remember waking up beneath the thin, crisp sheets, in a white-walled bedroom that he prided himself on keeping immaculate. His blue shirt had still been hanging up, neatly ironed, when he took it off the hanger.

With stiff, aching bones he dragged his hand across his chest to feel the fabric of his shirt, still smooth, now slightly dampened with sweat. He made it high enough to run his fingers through his hair, find his hair bobble and muster the strength to undo and tie it back again. Any other time this action would have been subconscious, muscle memory as easy as a flick or a twitch, but the fatigue meant even lifting his arms over his head made his heart pound.

He decided to wait a few more seconds before trying to sit up, else the blood rush to his head might well knock him out again.

Sometimes there were logical reasons for scary things that happened. Sometimes, if you woke up in a place where you didn't fall asleep, and you were a consenting adult who occasionally drank a little too much, or maybe took some other kind of drugs, you could blame your waking confusion on that. And were Bo a few years younger, he felt, an excuse like that would be a quick and immediate comfort. Not because waking up lost and confused was nice, but because having an explanation was nice. If you knew the why, you could go from there.

But he didn't know the why. And he had just hit his head. Hard.

Last time he checked, his ceiling wasn't a foot above him. Or closer. He hadn't had a chance to even get a look.

Bo let out a groan as the thunk of his skull against what felt like wood made his brain feel like melting wax.

Not even two seconds later he heard someone yelling, and their voice was ringing through his ears. He cracked his eye open and it finally started to focus. He was laying under what looked like a shelf sticking out of a wall, and there were hay bales stacked beside him. A woman was sitting up next to them, but her face was turned away.

This would've made more sense if he woke up and he was alone.

Then he could explain it away as... blackout drinking. Not that he did that anymore. But if he blacked out, who was to say? He would think he'd remember the start of it all though.

But the woman looked like she was waking up too. This didn't feel right. It didn't sit well in his gut.

"Listen," he started, "Whoever's out there, I'm not gonna hurt--"

Too late. Another woman came around the corner with a pitchfork in hand and she jabbed it in his direction. His eye went wide and he shot up on impulse, but that was a bad impulse. He was still under the shelf. He hit his head. Again.

He groaned again in pain and slid his head out from under the shelf, trying to sit up as his head started spinning. He found himself face to face with the prongs of the pitchfork.

"Tell me where I am!" she demanded. Bo's eye was still unfocused, but he could see enough to know one of the prongs was uncomfortably close to his eye.

"I don't know where we are," he said, trying to stay as calm as possible. "I literally just woke up here. I'm as confused as you are. I promise you, if I knew what was going on, I'd be the first to explain it to you and try to help you out."

The woman by the hay bales spoke up. He looked over at her, and she was looking in their direction behind the shade of dark sunglasses. Intuition told him she was blind, and the cane was confirmation.

"Who are you? And could you please stop yelling?"

"I wasn't yelling," Bo answered.

"I don't believe you," the pitchfork wielding redhead accused.

"That I wasn't yelling?"

"No!" she huffed in frustration. "You know something!"

"You still haven't answered my question," the other woman interjected, also annoyed. "Who are all of you?"

The redhead frowned and inched closer to the blind woman, still pointing the pitchfork at him.

"Adeline," she answered.

"I'm Bo."

"...Magnolia."

"Wait, you guys woke up here too?"

All three of their heads turned to see a young man's face pop up from behind the wall of the nearest stall. He had some hay sticking out of his long hair, which he had tied back.

"Yeah?" Bo said, looking to Adeline and Magnolia for confirmation. They didn't object.

"I'm Levi," the man said, stepping out of the stall. "Any idea where--"

Apparently, a lot of people were in this barn. Another guy stumbled out of a stall, rubbing his eyes and scanning everyone over.

"Same boat?" Bo asked.

The man blinked before nodding.

"I'm Liam."

There was a small, awkward silence as all of them sat or stood together in the corner of the barn, and the smell of hay and dust filled the air between them. Bo could tell they were in a barn, but he didn't know where in LA they were. There weren't any barns in the city.

Which... probably meant they weren't in the city. They probably weren't even in LA.

How long had he been out?

763 words

Liam looked around at everyone. As no one seemed to want to say anything, he decided that he would.

"I suppose that we should properly introduce ourselves since none of us seem to know where we are or why we are here."

The girl with dark red hair and rake in hand glared at him,
"Why should we give more than our names? As if that's going to help us."

She got a few murmurs of agreement.

Liam sighed, "To build trust. To make all y'all feel better about it, I'll go first. As you probably all heard, my name is Liam. I'm 23, and I despise honey."

He motioned to the big man who only had one eye. The guy mumbled something under his breath, but then began,
"Call me Bo. I'm 26. I don't suppose this matters but- I'm allergic to cats."

Liam smiled, "Pleasure to meet you."
Bo smiled back.
Liam motioned to the girl with the dark red hair, "Wanna go next?"
She nodded,
"I'm Adeline. 23. I worked at a grocery store."

Liam whistled, "Grocery store? I respect you. I wouldn't be able to deal with some customers. Nice to meet you Adeline."

Adeline shrugged, "I don't know how I dealt with some people either."

The girl with a white cane and sunglasses went next, "I'm Magnolia. I'm 25 years old, and I like peonies."

Liam nodded, "Beautiful flowers, those peonies. Nice cane by the way."

"Thanks."

Finally, the man in the checkered shirt spoke up, "I'm Levi, and I am 18 years old. Pleasure to meet all of you. As an interesting fact, I suppose that I could say I've been at or near the top of my class many times."

Liam grinned, "A fellow person who takes education seriously, pleasure to meet you Levi. Well, now that we know each other a little more, I suggest we find out where we are."

"We're in a barn." Someone replied.

Liam raises an eyebrow, "Where we are in the world I mean."

This time, Liam was certain Adeline was talking, "Last time I checked a barn is in the world."

"You all know what I mean. Now let's get out of here."

He walked toward the barn door with all the courage he could muster. He wondered what was beyond the door.

(389 words)

Magnolia

“Glad to see we’re all acquainted,” Magnolia said, after everyone had been introduced. She lingered towards the back of the group for a moment, feeling out her surroundings with a few pointed swipes of her white cane. “Can’t say I’ve ever met anyone who’s despised honey before. Guess I can check that off my bucket list.”

It’d been a while since she’d been in a barn, seeing as there weren’t really any in the city where she lived -- how she’d wound up unconscious in a stall was a mystery to her, though it seemed she wasn’t the only one. The floor wasn’t especially uneven, so it didn’t seem like it’d be a hazard -- unless you counted the hay and dirt that brushed against the tip of her cane. Magnolia walked across the room to stand a little closer to the others. Safety in numbers, and all that.

“Good idea,” she said, as Liam walked towards the barn doors. “We can’t stay here forever, and anyways, this place smells.” She was trying to lighten the mood, but even then, Magnolia wasn’t lying. The smell of horses and manure wasn’t particularly pleasant to her, and the barn’s ventilation didn’t seem to lend itself to airing out the stench -- which was more than a little overpowering, given how long she’d been lying in the hay bale.

Liam gave a small smile, and opened the barn doors.

They were, as one might have expected, on a farm. The barn was the biggest of several buildings -- Liam could see a farm-house and a shed or two, which could have housed a small tractor, though most of the farm’s active fields were, for now, out of view.

A dirt road ran parallel to the barn, leading past the fenced-in pasture where a handful of cows were grazing. The sun wasn’t yet high in the sky, and the last lingering rays of sunrise could be seen on the horizon.

“Well, at least it smells better.” Liam said. He had no idea where they were, because of course. “Does anyone, uh, recognize this place?”

[word count: 346]

"We're definitely not in Chicago anymore," Adeline said, "Maybe we're down South."

"Chicago?" Liam replied. He looked around at everyone, "Wait, are we all from different places?"

"I'm from the mountains," Magnolia piped up from the back of the group.

"LA."

"I'm from Britain," Levi said. He looked around, waiting for someone to say they weren't from the United States, but no such reply came.

'Well.. this just makes everything more confusing, doesn't it?" Adeline began tapping her foot, a nervous habit of hers. She examined the land around her, then turned back to the group, "I wonder if anyone's in the farmhouse."

"It doesn't look like it," Levi said, stepping forward next to Adeline, "There aren't any lights on."

"Maybe we should go in there. There might be some stuff to tell us where we are." Bo replied.

Adeline nodded her head. The group began walking over towards the farm house when Adeline spotted something peculiar, "Do you guys see that?"

"No," Magnolia replied. A laugh came from someone in the group, but they quickly stopped.

"I see it. I wonder why whoever owns this place has such an old car," Liam said.

Right in front of the farm house was a shiny, brown Chevy truck. None of the sheds looked big enough to fit a car and weren't any newer cars in sight.

"This is weird, man," Adeline mumbled. Adeline instinctively stuck her hands in her pockets. Her right hand brushed against the paper from before, "Wait a minute!"

"What?" Levi responded.

Adeline took the scrap of paper out of her pocket and held it up for the group to see, "This was in my hand when I woke up. Do any of you have one?"

288 Words

Levi

Chicago? Los Angeles? Maybe try Kansas, sweet Dorothy, Levi mused.

'This was in my hand when I woke up. Do any of you have one?'

The paper Adeline had pulled from her pocket was yellowed in colour and folded over once. On the inside something had been written and smudged in ink.

Levi stuck his hands in his pockets and fished through, half expecting, in a slightly amusing foolishness, that his wallet and dorm key might have still been in there. Nothing. Not in his trouser or shirt pockets.

'I don't have anything,' he answered, overly aware of how strong his crisp, southern England accent was compared to the others. 'Could you have maybe picked it up before you got here?'

Bo fumbled around in the pockets of his sweat pants and pulled out a piece of paper, a warm smile breaking on his scarred face. 'I've got one. I wondered what this was. Anybody else?'

Magnolia lifted her hand, where she still had a piece of paper clasped between her palm and her white stick. There was some odd irony to it and Levi knew it would be best to be diplomatic about the situation. Helping is polite, but one also has to be respectful to not make assumptions.

'Looks like you're the odd one out!' Liam held his up and cracked a grin. 'Not stuck in your hair, is it?'

Levi smiled politely at the joke. It was welcomed. Given the situation they needed something jovial to break the looming reality- or lack of. Begrudgingly he looked back over his shoulder into the barn. 'I think I need a minute,' he said softly and headed back into the gloom to sift through the hay where he had been lying. There, half buried near where his head had been, was a yellowed, folded piece of paper.

Frisbee, it read.

As if someone had just spoken the word to him he tipped his head and said; 'Pardon?'

Wordcount: 327 Words.

Bo didn't know what all of the papers meant. It seemed like they each had something written on them, and when he unfolded his he found an address.


Which... was very different than Adeline's "engine." He'd read it, over her shoulder. Adeline's was vague, and could've meant anything or nothing, really, but this was specific. Someone wrote this address down, and it didn't just end up in his pocket for no reason. Someone had to put it there. While he was asleep. In the barn. Or... somewhere else.

He stared at the paper, waiting for the words Milthes, Oklahoma to make more sense, but the surreal, unsettling feeling in his gut only compounded, and he pushed back a wave of nausea. Throwing up would not be the best thing to do right now. Everyone was confused, but holding it together, and he had to do the same.

Liam had followed behind Levi when they'd gone back into the barn to see if there were any other notes left behind. When they emerged, Levi was holding another note in his hand.

"We found it. It says 'Frisbee,'" Liam announced.

"I have no idea what it's supposed to mean," Levi added with a little laugh that sounded equal parts nervous and confused.

"Maybe it's just part of someone's shopping list," Liam joked.

"Frisbee. On a shopping list?" Adeline scoffed.

"Maybe it's a secret code," Magnolia quipped, her voice dripping in sarcasm.

"You know, honestly, you could be onto something there," Liam admitted.

"Oh, sure," Adeline said, jumping onto Magnolia's sarcasm. "A secret code for what? To lead us to our kidnappers? Yeah, right."

"I'm just considering all of the options," Liam defended. "It's not like any of us know what's going on. I'm just trying to be helpful."

"You know what would be helpful is if we figured out where we are first!" Adeline shot back.

"Didn't we say we were going to check the farmhouse?" Levi interjected.

"Exactly," Liam agreed. "And we can do that."

At that moment, the three of them seemed to each meet eyes and come to a somewhat tense but mutual agreement, while Bo stood off to the side, with Magnolia nearby. She was lightly tapping at the ground with her cane. She found his foot, and backed away slightly.

The tap brought Bo out of his daze. His nerves had caught his tongue, but he knew he had to face the music. They were all very far away from home.

"We're in Oklahoma," he said.

Everyone looked in his direction. Adeline's eyes lit up like he'd just proven something right.

"I knew you knew something!"

Ah. No. Bo forced a smile, and a small laugh, and held out the address towards Adeline. The triumph in her expression faded.

"Oh."

"It might be a good idea to check the house though," Bo said. "It doesn't look like anyone's home, but it can't hurt to knock just in case. And if no one responds, we can see if the door's open."

If it wasn't, well, he would always be able to easily kick the door down. Or pick a lock. But he didn't think that would be necessary.

544 words

Liam gazed at his paper, on it was written the words apple and pie. Apple pie. Why, Liam couldn't guess. He glanced at everyone, frowning, then back at his paper. Bo seemed to notice him staring at his paper weirdly, because he asked, "And what's on your paper, Liam?"

"Er- Apple pie. Maybe this is a code, and the thingy to decipher it is at that address that you have. Anyway, what does yours say, Magnolia?"

An awkward silence fell over everyone. Magnolia frowned. And Liam laughed nervously, "Sorry Magnolia. I wasn't watching my words."

Then Liam paled when he had realized what he had done, "That is to say I wasn't paying attention to what I was saying. I didn't want us all to be in the dark, y'know."

The silence grew deeper.
Magnolia shifted on her feet.
Liam felt like he wanted to sink into the earth.

They stood like that for a while. Bo broke the silence, "Magnolia, one of us can read it for you, if you'd like."

She nodded and handed it to him. Liam glanced around awkwardly. He didn't mean to make accidental puns about not seeing. But no one seemed to be glaring at him angrily or anything, so he took it as a sign to not freak out about it too much. Unless Magnolia got mad at him later. But for now, he would forget it.

Bo read the paper. On it had been a name: Julio Augustus Sommers.

Liam thought for a moment, "I'm going to guess that this Julio person probably lives at the address from Bo's paper, and probably needs an engine. Also apple pie and a frisbee for some reason. Maybe they have a kid or something?"

"So we've given up on the code idea, have we?" Magnolia said sarcastically.

Liam nodded, "Yeah, an address and a name? Too. . . Not code-y."

Levi spoke up, "I agree with Liam, but at the same time we probably shouldn't give up on any ideas, no matter how far-fetched they seem."

Everyone seemed to agree and that was the end of that discussion. Everyone then turned in the direction of the house, Bo looked at it with excitement, Magnolia frowned, Adeline grinned, Levi frowned, and Liam looked at it as if he didn't care, because he really didn't, not at that moment.

(390 words)

Magnolia

The walk to the house was uneventful, as was the structure itself. It was a cozy looking building, small but sound. The exterior was an older wooden style, with peeling white paint and a hand-crafted feel to it.

Magnolia’s cane tapped against the side of the house, scanning the area until it rapped against a small set of steps leading up to what she assumed was the door. She’d stopped when Bo did, and stood a few feet behind him as a precaution -- Magnolia didn’t know who lived in this house or if they’d be friendly, and she figured that Bo cut a more imposing figure than she did, given how tall his footsteps made him sound.

“You said the lights were off,” she said, remembering what Levi had said earlier. “They still out?”

The answer was a resounding ‘Yes’. Magnolia frowned.

“Hello?” Liam called out. He’d climbed up the steps, and was knocking on the door. “Anybody home?”

No reply. He knocked again, with similar results.

“I don’t think they’re in.” Levi said. “Did anyone see a car, or something?”

Magnolia suppressed the urge to make a sarcastic comment. Things were starting to get tense; now was not the time.

“There’s a Chevy out front.” Bo said, nodding towards the truck. “Looks old, but--” he looked at the group assembled. “If it runs, it could be big enough to fit all of us.”

“The keys might be inside.” Magnolia said. “Of the house, I mean.”

“You’re suggesting we break in?” Levi raised an eyebrow, incredulous. He didn’t seem very happy with the idea.

“I’m saying we try the door.”

Meanwhile, Liam was peering through the windows. He heard this conversation and walked back towards the door. He tried the doorknob.
“It’s unlocked.”

The group hesitated to go in, especially Levi. They stayed there for at least a minute until Adeline broke the silence, "Come on, let's go in!"

Liam opened the door and all of the group followed behind him besides Levi, "I'm going to wait out here, just incase."

"Sounds good to me," Bo replied. He left the door open for Levi. The group walked into the entryway, where a staircase and two arches on the back and left wall.

The interior of the house hit them like a rock. It looked older than any house Adeline had ever seen. There was patterned wallpaper lining the walls in the entry, what they assumed was the living room to their left, and the kitchen straight forward. Papers were strewn all over a small, dark brown Chickering piano that sat across from the stairs.

"This is strange," Adeline said, putting her hands on her hips.

"What?" Magnolia asked.

"What I think Adeline means is that the house looks like it's straight out of an old film," Liam explained and Adeline nodded.

"Uh-huh," Magnolia said. Obviously, this description didn't help her, but she didn't ask any other questions.

Adeline walked to the archway of the kitchen. Just as she had expected, everything looked like it was from the past. The counters, the appliances, even the floor looked out of place in the modern world.

"So.." Adeline clapped her hands together and held them under her chin, "What should we do?"

"We could break up and look around," Bo suggested. Liam and Magnolia agreed.

"Alright, I'll take a look around the kitchen and this hallway area. If one of you want to look in the other rooms or upstairs, that'd be great."

Adeline didn't even wait for a response before she turned to the kitchen and left the entryway. The kitchen was different, to say the least. The same ugly wallpaper continued into the kitchen, covering all the walls except for at a three feet high area at the bottom of every wall, which were covered by wooden boards. The counters were painted light green and the countertops were made of grey stone. The sink and stove were completely separate things and the stove was about as tall as Adeline herself. Through the windows, a large garden could be seen. In the Southeast corner was a small table that could fit three people.

Adeline wandered around the room, examining everything. The food, the paintings on the wall, everything. They all seemed off, but Adeline couldn't figure out what seemed out of place about them. That is, until she came to the table.

On the table was an envelope and several pieces of paper. Adeline sat down at one of the chairs and began looking through the papers. She didn't think twice about looking through someone else's mail. She was too intrigued to care.

Adeline quickly came to a conclusion that it was a letter from two sons to their parents. It was normal, asking questions and all, until Adeline came to the end of the second paragraph. Words such as "war," "Nazis," and "rookie" made multiple appearances throughout the letter. It was so interesting to Adeline that she totally forgot about the situation she was in. Apparently, one brother had been at war for several months already, while the other was still a "rookie."

Finally, Adeline finished the letter and came to the end.



Adeline stared at the date for what seemed like an eternity. It had to be an old letter, right? An old letter passed down through the family? Finally, everything that was confusing began to make sense. The old car, the ugly interior, the war mentioned in the letter. Adeline refused to believe it was real. She couldn't be in the past. But no matter how hard she tried not to believe it, it seemed like the only logical answer.

Adeline picked up the pile of paper to bring it closer to her face when a photograph dropped out of it and landed on the floor. Adeline slowly bent down to pick it up. It was a picture of two similar looking young men, presumably Louis and Henry, in military uniforms. Adeline flipped it over.



No, Adeline thought to herself, No, no, no, no. She ran over to the back window, photograph and letter still in hand. There was the garden, with the tomatoes and other vegetables. Adeline could have fainted, but instead, she ran to the front room and exclaimed, "You guys! Come here!"

Levi

Levi lingered outside as the hot sun beat down on his head. He strained to listen in but once the others had left the main hallway he couldn't hear their voices any more.

Through the dust-frosted living room window he could see something that looked more like an old photograph than an actual room. There was a large blue couch with two arm chairs, and a desk in the corner with a radio sitting on the edge. It looked old, like something from the 30s. on the main wall above the couch hung a painting of a woman in a dress, watching over the stilted room.

He took a few more steps towards the door, listening closely again. After checking there was nobody else around he started to slowly amble around to the back, where a low wooden face enclosed a half-wilted garden where the lawn had clearly been sacrificed to upkeep several vegetable patches.

There, where it lay after some tragic crash landing into the cabbage patch, was a wooden toy aeroplane which someone had carved some numbers into. The model of a plane, maybe? He didn't know enough about it, and at that moment regretted not having any internet access to look it up. Still, he admired it with some brief moment of nostalgia and lay it back in its grave as some warm breeze whispered at the back of his neck and turned his attention to a lump of green in the grass. It was smooth, like a shell, but as he picked it up the touch of it made his fingers tingle.

A helmet, with a narrow ridge around the edge, not like the British relics he had seen. Maybe this was an American one. It looked new, save for a crack on one of the edges. He braced his shoulders and frowned as he looked around the garden further.

Upstairs the curtains were drawn, but a flash of movement in the kitchen caught his attention as Adeline glanced at him, some paper in her hand, and ran back into the other room.

Wordcount: 345

When they split off, Adeline headed to the kitchen, Liam ducked into the living room, and Magnolia stood quietly in the living room. Bo watched as she tapped around the floor, finding the edges of the couch and the side table. It was an unfamiliar space, and while she might be able to find things by exploring with caution--

"Wanna go upstairs with me?" he asked. He found himself pointing to the stairs she couldn't see, and he lowered his hand.

"Sure."

Bo smiled and nodded his head. "Cool, it's this way," he said, striding across the room towards the curved stairwell. "There's stairs over here."

As they passed through the living room, Bo's eye kept catching on little details that felt out of place. If he had to describe it, he would say it almost felt like he'd stepped into an old movie. Everything in the room felt like it was from a time long before him. Some of it reminded him of things he'd seen in pictures with his grandparents. Books, that looked like they were bound with leather. It was something he would expect to find in a thrift shop - or a very old home. All of the furniture looked like it was made of real wood, handcrafted, made to last. It was simple, but that felt right in a little farmhouse.

There was even an old-timey writing desk with a flip-lid. A little too small for a person like him to sit at, but, cute. In a furniture way.

But the problem with it all wasn't that it was old, but that it was all new. Used, maybe, but the things in the house didn't look like they'd existed for 50 something years. The condition they were in said used, but not aged.

Part of him wanted to think that maybe it was just because they were in an old, seemingly-abandoned farmhouse, but he hadn't seen one thing that looked like it was... well, modern.

They reached the stairs and Bo let Magnolia go first, patient as she found her way up them and into the upstairs hall. A different kind of wallpaper patterned the walls, with a slightly sun-stained green and yellow striped pattern.

"It probably just bedrooms up here," Bo commented. He looked to the left, and saw a bathroom. "And a bathroom," he added. "If anyone needs to go."

He glanced back at Magnolia expectantly. She couldn't see the look on his face but his movement, and the small silence seemed to communicate enough.

"I'm good," she said simply.

Bo laughed a little. "Okay. Looks pretty normal. Let's check the rooms."

The first room had white walls, and looked like it hadn't been lived in for a while. It was tidy, like how a room might be kept for guests. But still, there were personal belongings lying around. Bo immediately gravitated to the two framed pictures on top of the dresser. They were in black and white.

"Photos," he said to Magnolia. "Looks like a family lives here." He paused. "Or lived."

Magnolia nodded, and inched closer to him. "Adeline mentioned that everything looks like it's from an old film," she said. "Does everything still look like that?"

Bo hummed lowly. "Yeah. This - they - uh, the photos aren't even in color."

"Could be an old couple who just never redecorated," Magnolia offered.

Bo wanted to believe that, but apparently his subconscious didn't want it enough to find peace in that.

"I don't know," he said, taking a closer look at the photos. There was another lull in conversation between them as Bo held the small frames in his hands.

"This one - it looks like a couple, holding a baby," he began to describe. "Looks like they posed for it. The mother and father are smiling, but the baby has this dopey expression on his face." He chuckled. "It's really cute, actually. The baby has very chubby cheeks." He smiled, and set it down.

"This one looks like two brothers. Little boys, with their arms over each other's shoulders. Looks like it was taken somewhere outside the house. One of the kids is missing a tooth."

Magnolia was quiet, letting her hand run over the quilt on the bed as she walked beside it.

"But nobody's home..." Bo said, more to himself, as he pulled open a drawer in the dresser. The clothes inside looked old, just like everything else. Nothing, nothing looked modern. The clothes they were wearing in comparison looked like they might as well be from the f--

"You guys!" Adeline shouted from below, her voice muffled through the apparently well-insulated walls. "Come here!"

Bo's head shot up and looked to Magnolia. They hurried out of the room.

"What is it?" Bo shouted as they came down the stairs and back into the living room.

Liam and Adeline were standing together, staring at a yellowed piece of paper in her hands. Adeline looked a little pale. Before anything was said Bo could feel dread clinging to him like a heavy blanket with the weight of uncomfortable truth. This wasn't going to be good news.

"I think it's 1943," Adeline said with her voice hollow, like even she didn't believe it. Or didn't want to.

Liam ripped a photo out of Adeline's hands and turned it around, squinting at something on the back.

"No," he muttered. "No, there's no way. This is just an old photo."

Adeline spun towards him and grabbed the photo, yanking it back. "The letter was sent recently!" she retorted, almost yelling. "It says it right here!" she jabbed her pointer finger into the paper in her hands. It looked like a letter. She was pointing to the date at the bottom. May 3rd, 1943. "Who just leaves fifty year old letters out on the table? This whole house screams antique! Nothing here looks normal!"

Liam backed away a step. "I'm just as confused as you are!" he said defensively, putting his hands up. "This just doesn't make any sense. How did this even happen? Time travel doesn't - I mean, it isn't supposed to exist."

"Thanks for that, captain obvious!" Adeline huffed, crinkling the letter in her hands. At noticing she did so, she let out a sigh and set it down on the coffee table in the middle of the room. She lifted up a hand to her head, in the standing equivalent of a facepalm.

Bo reached down for the letter to look at it himself.

Adeline was right. It said 1943. And the handwriting was nice. Not that that was important.

"Even if it is 1943," Liam started.

"It is," Adeline corrected him.

"Okay, so it is 1943 - even so, like, why here? Why Oklahoma? None of us are even from here."

Adeline pursed her lips, and Bo put the letter back down.

"I don't think we'll figure any of that out very soon," Bo admitted. "If... well I don't know how all of this works. But if we've really been taken back in time, none of us look like we belong here, and we haven't seen anyone out here on this farm."

He looked out the front door. Levi wasn't nearby.

"We're going to need to figure out a way to blend in," he said. "There's clothes in the bedrooms upstairs. It might be a good idea to see if we can find anything that fits before we head out--"

"The truck, you think?" Liam asked.

"--yes, if I can get it to run," Bo said with a nod.

"So we need disguises," Adeline concluded.

"More or less," Bo said. "I'd rather risk looking weird in 1940's clothes, walking into a normal town, than walking into a 1940's town in these."

His eyes drifted down to his nikes in particular.

He didn't want to say goodbye to those. Maybe he could find a bag to keep them in?

Adeline was already pushing past him towards the stairs. "Let's go get changed."

Liam started to follow behind, but Bo was lagging behind. So was Magnolia.

"What about Levi?" she asked.

Everyone paused in their steps.

Bo looked down to Magnolia, then back at the open front door.

"I'll go tell him while I check out the car," he said. "If you get lucky and find anything that looks like it'll fit me, just yell."

Adeline and Liam looked to each other and nodded, and Magnolia moved back towards the steps. Soon, Bo was alone, and soon to be the bearer of... well, troubling news, to say the least.

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Liam followed Adeline nervously upstairs to the bedroom. Magnolia was behind him. He didn't want to believe that they were in some distant time. He hoped that this was just some antique show house.

He took a deep breath and laughed as they reached the top of the steps, "Odd place, eh? And time travel? Who would believe it? Now we'll have some stories to tell when we get back home, eh?"

Adeline and Magnolia ignored him. Tough crowd, he thought as they entered the first bedroom. Liam gazed around him intently. Still old style. Maybe it was some kind of hotel. Adeline was talking to MAgnolia in one corner of the room, by the closet. The closet itself was beautifully carved and had several dresses in them.

"I'll go look for men's clothing," Liam said. After a nod from Adeline, he headed to the next bedroom. It was in the same style as the other ones had been in. The closet was also pretty much the same, "Not much for variety I guess," Liam muttered under his breath. He opened the closet, and there were several suits hung up. He changed into one that was a little big for him. There were those old hats from movies too. He put one on for the fun of it. Liam grabbed a suit for Levi and scoured the closet for one that would fit Bo. He quickly grabbed the largest one he could find and a hat for each of them.

Liam, Magnolia, and Adeline rushed down the stairs to the outside, where Levi and Bo awaited them. Bo raised an eyebrow at the suit Liam handed to him, "I don't think this will fit. . ."
Liam nodded, "I know, there was just nothing else." Bo smiled and shook his head. Levi looked very unhappy at the suit handed to him. He frowned at Liam, "This is stealing, you know. And stealing is a crime."
Liam shrugged, "I know, but what are we supposed to do? Just stick out like sore thumbs? Put your suit on. We gotta go."

Levi eyes narrowed, "And with what mode of transportation are we leaving?"

Liam smiled and pointed at the tractor, "That of course."

Levi shook his head angrily. Bo tried consoling him.

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