Two Page Shorts by Nick Venom (top reads .txt) 📕

Skye looked at the back again, seeing that the words had changed. She read out the new world quietly to herself. “Reset is complete. New users will be established once the Journal is opened.” What is up with this journal? Isn’t it a normal journal… Oh, maybe it’s a high-tech one that can change words… Wait, why is it here? She thought in an attempt to understand the mysterious journal attached to her. 

She opened the book, surprised to see that it was somewhat filled. The first page, which had been blank, now had words imprinted on it. In large words was ‘Journal of the Multiverse’ in bold. Below it was the name ‘Guider’ and a moving loading circle to the right. 

“Weird,” She thought out loud before flipping through the rest of the pages. Most of the pages were stuck together with a force Skye wasn’t able to pull apart - which was weird considering that she was able to see every page before the reset had completed. 

The first page that she found with words was titled ‘Historia’ and had a large blue word under it, similar to a button, reading ‘Visit?’ She touched the word, not expecting much from it. 

As she expected, nothing happened at first. She was able to look up and check her surroundings before looking back at the journal. As her eyes hungrily looked around the Historia page, her vision went black. Her head ached tremendously as she struggled to regain her vision. She tried to detach the journal from her hand so she could touch her eyes, but she couldn’t feel anything. She didn’t even know if she had thrown the journal away successfully.

Seconds later, the headache lessened before disappearing. Her vision was also repaired, giving her the ability to see her surroundings. She was no longer in the alleyway near her house and the journal was nowhere to be found. It wasn’t attached to her hands anymore.

She looked around, looking at her new surroundings. She stood on a cobblestone road, surrounded by heaps of people and noise. She noticed there were several stores set up lining the road, selling strange substances in transparent bottles and iron weapons to anybody passing by. 

With her focus on her surroundings becoming more clear as she adjusted to her new situation, she realized that she was no longer on Earth. She was now in a fantasy world, supported by similar fantasy themes she knew about through anime and manga like other races (elves, dwarfs, beastkins, and more that she couldn’t identify) and magic. A man raced by her, chased after guards in iron armor using magic to try and capture him. The guards were fruitful, able to stop him with the help of a few passersby, tripping him or using their skills to stop his movement. The man was arrested, taken away by the guards. Before he left the road, he screamed out “God smite the Otherworlder!”

Skye heard a nearby female merchant talk out loud about the man’s remark. “That man is ignorant, not everybody is like the First Otherworlder. Plus, this Otherworlder will be managed by the Crown.” The merchant said to a customer.

“You really think the King can control the Otherworlder?” The customer asked.

“Who knows, but I’m sure it won’t be another disaster. Let’s just hope war doesn't start because of this.” The merchant joked. 

The customer shook their head playfully. “Hopefully not.” The merchant handed them a brown bag of supplies, watching as the person left for a few seconds, before turning to another customer. 

Skye waited patiently behind the new customer of the merchant for several minutes, looking around at the new sights that passed by her. She didn’t have a watch, but she had her phone on her. However, the time wasn’t displayed on her phone and none of her apps worked. It was as if her phone was broken. 

After waiting, the customer left and the female merchant turned to face Skye. “What can I do for you, honey?”

 “I’m sorry… Can you tell me where I am? I… I don’t know where I am.” Skye honestly stated. “I have no idea what this place is.”

“Are you an Otherworlder?” She asked, furrowing her brows.

“An otherworlder? Well… this isn’t the world I’m from, so I guess.”

The merchant nodded. “Yup, where you are now is Holy Legend, the capital of the kingdom of Great Wolfstein. As you can see-” She pointed at the roofs of the buildings, lined with red, green, and blue colors - and at the men and women dancing in small corners and with each other on the road. “-there’s a celebration going on. The Crown’s Royal Guards announced that the Otherworlder was summoned successfully. We don’t know the identity of the Otherworlder or their past, but they are now part of this world.”

Skye nodded, taking in the information. “What is the Otherworlder’s purpose. Like what is he going to do?”

“There’s a legend that says a person from another world is the strongest and only person able to protect the Crown from the demons and their king. It’s known as the Legend of the Bodyguard.”

“Legend of the Bodyguard?” Skye repeated, thinking to herself. That title sounds familiar.

“Okay, since you’re an otherworlder, you got anything to sell. Otherworlders always have something unique on them. Something unimportant in their worlds.” 

Skye dug through her pockets, looking for something she could sell. Fortunately, she had her pencil in her leggings, taking it out and showing it to the merchant.

“Woah, what beautiful marksmanship. Man, otherworlders truly have interesting things.” She took the pencil from Skye, analyzing it profusely. After a few minutes, she turned to face Sky, ready with a price. “I’ll give you a fair price for it. For how well crafted it is, I’ll give you a silver coin.”

Skye took the coin, unsure of the value of the coin or her pencil. She analyzed the silver coin, amazed by the weight and shininess of the currency. “Woah,” She thought out loud, getting a chuckle out of the merchant.

“If you have any more items from your world, come to me and I’ll give you a fair price. Just ask for Charlotte.” The merchant said.

Skye nodded. “I got it. Thanks.” She turned away, ready to look around but her vision escaped her again. The pounding headache returned with great ferocity. She tried to press her hands to her head to squeeze the headache out, but she couldn’t feel her hands or even her arms. It felt like she had lost her body entirely. 

Within half a minute, the same amount of time as earlier, both her vision and head returned to normal. The headache fizzled away while her vision slowly revealed itself. She could now see, quickly looking around her surroundings. She was back in the alleyway, the journal still attached to her hand. She hadn’t moved an inch. 

“What the hell happened… that wasn’t a dream, right?” An idea shot through her mind as quickly as she completed her sentence, digging through her pockets with her free hand. She searched for her pencil but found a silver coin in its place. This verified that her experience wasn’t a dream but reality. She was truly in another world.

“It wasn’t a dream… How?” She stared at the journal, expecting an answer out of the non-living being. 

“Because dreams aren’t made by the Journal of the Multiverse.” A voice remarked. Skye looked around but found nobody near her. Passersby walking by the alleyway glanced at her before walking away. 

“W-Who?” She muttered.

“I spoke.” Skye’s attention was brought to the journal in her hands. It opened itself to the second page where a bookmark floated out of it. The rectangle bookmark had the illustrations of a cosmic multiverse on it with dark blue openness and the white lines of the universes with the sun in the middle. 

The bookmark had no mouth but was still able to speak. However, it did have two round cartoonish eyes. “Welcome, new writer.”

“Writer?” Skye repeated.

“Yes, you’re the newest writer of the Journal of the Multiverse. I am your helper, you can call me Guider to the Multiverse and All Of Its Universes… or Guider for short.”

“Guider? You’re guiding me through what?”

“Guiding you through the Journal of the Multiverse and its abilities. Currently, you have access to the basic abilities.”

“Abilities? What are you talking about? Why are you here? What is this book?” She asked, raising her voice too much and attracting the stares of passersby. She motioned for Guider to return to the Journal. “Let’s talk about this somewhere else… away from the dumpster.” Guider nodded, returning to the second page of the Journal and closing it. She strolled away from the alleyway and into her one-story home some distance away. She locked the door behind her, sitting down on her couch. She re-opened the Journal, watching as Guider spilled out and floated above the Journal in front of her.

“Tell me everything about this “Journal” now!” She demanded.

“Of course, that is why I was created. This Journal-” His eyes shifted downward to the Journal. He had no arms or legs, unable to point at anything. “-is known as the Journal of the Multiverse. It is a Journal that allows the writer to visit any and every universe within the Multiverse. However, there are many restrictions as, currently, you are allowed to visit another universe for only ten minutes before returning. This is upgradable.”

“It’s like a game then?”

“A game…? Oh, I remember what that is.” Guider said. “Yes, you can see it as a game, however, do remember that you aren’t invincible in the other universes. If you are killed in a universe, you die in your home universe. And there are no redos or try again. Once you die, you’re dead. Many Writers have died because they treated everything like a game or a dream.”

“Well… that’s nice to know. Anyways, you mentioned Writers. What do you mean by that?”

“Writers are the people who are in possession of the Journal of the Multiverse. They are your predecessors who have upgraded their abilities and trekked through older universes to their wildest dreams.”

“Woah.” Skye looked away, still processing the information. “How… How many Writers have they’re been?” 

“You are the 2,905th Writer to be in possession of the Journal of the Multiverse.”

“Okay… what happens when I throw the Journal away or have it stolen… or gift it away?” She asked, turning back to face Guider.

“If you attempt to throw the Journal away with half-hearted feelings, the Journal will not leave your side. Only when you are truly done with it will the Journal allow to depart from you. As for if it’s stolen, it will reset and the thief will become the 2,906th Writer. Although it resets, there is a possibility for the thief to access your information. Every shred of information about a Writer is kept in the Journal of the Multiverse, but none of it is allowed to be seen by other Writers unless there’s a bug in a reset. Coincidentally, you have created a bug by opening the Journal before the reset.”

“Will... Will I be punished for it?” Skye asked, a hint of worry in her voice.

“No punishment as you didn’t know what you were doing. Don’t worry as I’ve already begun patching the bug up. In twenty-four hours, the same time it takes for your Multiverse Visiting ability to reset, the bug will disappear.”

Skye nodded. “What other abilities do I have?”

“There are many abilities, but most are locked. As you gather Istrafik crystals, which you can think of as the currency for upgrading your abilities, more abilities and upgrade options will be unlocked. For now, there are five abilities. 

The first is your Multiverse Visiting ability, which is the ability that allows you to visit other universes. The basic version of this ability is 10 minutes. Your second ability is Location. This one determines where universe you’re teleported to or where in