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CHAPTER ONEAs the moonlight shone through the stained gl*censored* window of the church, Lia floated down the aisle in a white silk dress that rippled like a wave. Her sparkling green eyes illuminated her face as she reached the altar and opened the cabinet with the glimmering gold key. Suddenly, the world flashed white. Lia landed with a thud next to Livia. She, too, was wearing a white silk dress. The Queen of Time had impeccable taste in clothing, thought Lia as she tugged at the top of her gown (which she found extremely uncomfortable, since she, unlike her fashion savvy cousin, HATED dresses.) Livia turned and smiled at her. Then, Lia slipped her hand into Livia’s and gave it a nervous squeeze as they approached the Queen of Time. “Good evening, my darlings.” She said, smiling a smile that belonged to a toothpaste commercial. “I have a mission for you. Perhaps you have heard of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire?” “Ooh! Ooh! I heard about that! This factory that made shirts and blouses set on fire in the early nineteen hundreds and there were only two fire escapes. One was locked and the other was only six inches wide, so lots of workers were trapped. They were on the ninth floor, too, so a lot of the workers jumped off the building. They developed worker’s rights because of that. Oh, and the workers were all women and girls,” Said Livia excitedly. “Exactly. What I want you to do is to go back in time and help the workers escape,” said the Queen. “Wait, why can’t we just prevent the fire?” asked Lia. “Because if the fire never happened, they wouldn’t have ever invented workers rights,” answered Livia. The Queen nodded gravely. “That is why I need you to be very careful on this mission. Now, when you wake up, go straight to the cabinet of time travel.” “Yes, ma’am,” said the girls in unison. The room flashed white.CHAPTER TWOLia jolted upright, and, remembering her task, leapt up out of bed, threw on a pair of jeans and a green sweater, and ran a comb through her short, chocolate colored hair. Then, she brushed her teeth, laced up her green converse, and crept into Livia’s room. “Ready, Liv?” she asked. Livia turned around. Her dirty blonde hair was pulled back into a ponytail, and she was wearing dark skinny jeans, a navy blue sweater tunic, and navy blue converse. She smiled. “Yeah!” she replied enthusiastically. She grabbed her backpack and they headed downstairs. Livia’s mom was in the kitchen making chocolate chip pancakes. “Hey, girls. Where are you going?” she asked, smiling at the sight of the two of them up this early. “We’re going to the park,” said Lia, the world’s best liar. She glanced over at Livia, who was putting a few pancakes in a ziplock baggie. “Bye, we’ll be back, um…..later,” said Livia through a mouthful of pancake. They walked out the door, Livia’s mom watching them go with a smile of pleasure on her face. Neither of the cousins dared to speak until they had been a block away from the church, for fear of somebody hearing them. “Nice cover, Lee,” said Livia, finishing off her third pancake. “Well, you know…..it’s what I do,” she said with a smile. The early morning light shone off of their bikes, Lia’s red and gold and Livia’s silver and electric blue. “C’mon.” said Livia. She skidded to a stop, dragging the soles of her shoes on the sidewalk. Lia followed. They wheeled their bikes inside the church carefully, staying clear of the chandelier hanging from the ceiling for it looked as if it would come crashing down should the tiniest gnat land upon it. Leaving the bikes leaning against a pew in the front row, they walked up to the cabinet and took out the key. Lia could feel Livia shaking nervously next to her and she realized that she should be scared, too. They held on to it tight, and said; “1911, New York City, March 25th!” Finally, the moment of truth came. Time seemed to freeze as they turned the key, and the room flashed white. CHAPTER THREE Lia landed hard on her bottom. She opened her eyes and looked around, and what she saw seemed pretty normal. Beneath her was the black pavement, and tall buildings surrounded her. The sky was terribly gray, and it looked as if the world was about to end. Livia tapped her on the shoulder and pointed to a group of kids playing with a hoop and a stick. Lia scratched at her thigh. She was now wearing a gray sailor dress with half sleeves that ended just below her knees with a big white collar. She liked the silken dresses better, she thought to herself. Livia was wearing a navy blue dress that had the same sleeves and was the same length. Hers had a small white collar and it had buttons down the back. They both had braids and blue ribbons in their hair, (yuck) not to mention the bloomers they both had on. (ITCHY!!!) At that moment, one of the kids nudged another, pointing at them. “C’mon, we don’t wanna attract any attention,” said Livia, grabbing Lia by her sleeve. They ran down the street, which was especially hard since they were wearing old-fashioned boots. “How do we know where it is?” asked Livia. They had run three blocks, and Livia was already sweating. Suddenly, they heard someone yelling and someone crying. “You’re not stitching them right! That’s it, get outta here! I don’t wanna see you come back ever again!” a harsh male voice drew their attention, and it came from out front of a building across the street. There was a short, thin woman with dark hair dark eyes that looked to be an Italian immigrant. She was sobbing violently with her head in her hands. The man yelling at her, who Lia guessed to be the owner of the factory, was short and fat, with black hair and a thick, busy mustache. The woman ran away, still sobbing violently. The girls exchanged a glance and then ran across the street. “Excuse me?” Livia had not thought this through enough, for it wasn’t until the man had turned around and she was staring at him with his cigar sticking out of his mouth that she realzsed she didn’t know how to get in. “Waddaya want?” said the man gruffly. Livia’s eyes were the size of those of a deer in headlights. She froze, mouth agape. “We would like to apply for a job, if you please.” Livia could only stare at her cousin. Huh, she thought. I could have said that. The man grimaced. “Uh, yeah, sure, whatever. You get a nickel an hour. Now get inside and get started. Time is money, go!” he said, carting them inside. They walked up to the ninth floor and walked in the room. Materials of many different colors were scattered around everywhere. There were seven long tables with benches and sewing machines. Girls and women sat on the benches, sewing the shirts and blouses. The room was dark, dreary, and gloomy. The cousins sat down on the first empty bench they could find. “How are we supposed to do this?” asked Lia. “Umm……OH! I got an idea,” said Livia. She slid over on the bench and tapped the girl next to her on the shoulder. She looked to be another Italian immigrant. The girl’s eyes nearly popped out of her head with surprise. “How often does the boss come in and check on us?” asked Livia, pronouncing each syllable slowly. “Once an hour,” she said in clear english. Lia had to bite her lip to keep from laughing. Livia turned scarlet. “Uh, thank you,” Livia said. She turned to Lia. “Okay, so they couldn’t escape because the door was locked, right? So go unlock the door. Then, I need you to help me. We’re going to go move some of the cloth downstairs. Not all of it, just some. We need a little to start the fire.” She told Lia. Lia nodded and walked across the room to the door. She walked outside and held the door open as Livia bustled past her carrying a bunch of cloth. Lia grabbed some and followed. After two more trips, most of the cloth was downstairs. Suddenly, they heard heavy footsteps. “I’ll hide out here. He’s going to lock you in. I’ll unlock it once he leaves,” Lia *censored*ured Livia. “It’ll be okay,” she said, more to herself than Livia. Livia hurried inside and took her seat. She pretended to be busy sewing a shirt. The boss entered, and he started walking down the row, looking at the shirts. Livia started to panic, for she did not know how to sew a blouse. The boss was three yards away from her, and he seemed to have a sharp eye. Livia was struggling with her blouse, making crooked, ugly stitches. Suddenly, the girl next to her snatched Livia’s blouse, ripped out the stitches, and quickly restitched it neatly. Livia stared at the girl in awe. It was the girl she had talked to before. She flashed Livia a smile, and the boss p*censored*ed by them. Livia felt relief flow through her. “Hey, you!” Livia’s heart stopped. She turned. The boss was staring at her. “Yes, sir?” she whimpered. Her body was trembling violently. “Excellent stitching.” Livia gave a sigh of relief. She smiled at the girl. “Thank you so much. You have no idea what a great thing you just did,” Livia said gratefully. “You’re welcome. Everyone needs a little help around here,” she said. She smiled. Just then, a scream pierced the air like a knife; “FIRE!”CHAPTER FOUR Within five seconds, the room was full of noise and movement. Screams of terror were emitted by all but Livia. Her mouth went dry, and she froze despite the heat in the room. Lia burst in the room. “EVERYONE, OUT! OUT! LIVIA! LIVIA, COME ON!” Everybody started pushing towards the door, and it was a mad rush to escape their fiery deaths. Livia was in complete shock. Suddenly, a short, fat woman knocked Livia over while trying to escape. It was like waking up from a blurry dream. She got up, looked around, and realised that the people on the top floors didn’t know about the fire. She ran to the typewriter sitting in the corner and sat down. She had no idea how to work one, but that didn’t stop her from trying. Livia began hurriedly typing a message. Fire…..on……ninth…..floor……get……out……of…….building. Livia finished typing and joined the others in escaping. The room temperature rose by the minute, and Livia ushered the women out the door. Suddenly, a loud bang sounded. A piece of the doorframe fell, blocking the opening. Lia and Livia joined the others in moving the obstructor. Moments after they moved it aside, women started running out the door over the piece of doorframe. Flaming boards fell from the ceiling, making it harder to escape. Livia tripped, falling to the ground, and felt a sharp pain in her back as one…..two….three…..four women trampled her. Lia ran to her, pushing against the flow of the crowd. She lifted Livia up, and grabbed her by the hand, pulling her towards the exit. But Livia didn’t budge. She had spotted what she had tripped on. As the last few women evacuated, Livia lifted the Italian girl that helped her up and pulled her out the door. Livia left her in the hallway and went back in to retrieve more women that were down. Lia aided her in dragging the bodies down the stairs. They were out of breath by the time they were outside. There were many people surrounding the burning building, some crying, some screaming, some not doing anything but staring. Together they brought the bodies to the medics. Livia watched the medics check each woman or girl. After each one, the leader would bellow commands to the others; “Dead………..P*censored*ed out……….. Third degree burns………..Dead………..P*censored*ed out………..” Livia couldn’t bear to watch. When she saw the girl’s body, she embraced her cousin and began to weep. Just before the world flashed white, the leader finished diagnosing the girl, and he said the word she didn’t want to hear;“Dead.” CHAPTER FIVE Livia felt like she could curl up into a ball and die. It was like she had been stabbed in the heart. Okay, she may have known her for only a day. Still, she felt a connection with that girl. They had accomplished their mission, and they had saved many lives, but still Livia felt she could have saved the girl. They had saved all but three lives. The girls name had been Isabella Montiego, and she would always be remembered by Livia. “You did all that you could. You accomplished your mission, and that’s what you were sent to do,” the Queen had told them. By the time the girls left the church, it was dusk. “Dinner’s ready,” Livia’s mom announced.The girls went to Livia’s room after dinner. “I just feel like I could have saved her,” Livia told Lia. “You did all you could! Stop beating yourself up over this. You’re better than that,” Lia *censored*ured her. That night, Livia had a strange dream. Livia was wearing her white silk dress, and she was walking down the moonlit aisle. She reached the altar and opened the cabinet with her key. A flash of white, and a girl stood before her. She had dark hair, dark eyes, and she was wearing an old-fashioned dress. “Isabella!” Livia whispered. The Queen of Time stepped out of the cabinet. “Recognize your friend, darling?” asked the Queen with a smile. “Thank you, Livia!” Isabella cried. “Why are you thanking me? I couldn’t save you…..” Livia said sadly. Isabella laughed. “You saved my sister and my mother, though!” she said, an appreciative grin spread across her face. “That’s what was really important to me,” Isabella said. “Everyone needs help around here,” whispered Livia.The last thing she saw was Isabella smiling and waving. “Thank you,” she mouthed.
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Normal User
Normal User
"Monsters are real. Ghosts are too. They live inside us and sometimes they win." ~Stephen King