Oculum by Philippa Dowding

Author:Philippa Dowding
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cormorant Books Inc.
Published: 2018-04-15T16:00:00+00:00

William1

The door opens only one way: outward.

I know this now.

I walked through the door and stared at the spot where it just closed behind me. But from Outside, there was no trace of it. The door was only visible from inside Oculum.

I ran to the wall, pressed my face against the glass, and looked into Oculum. Miranda1 stood where I just left her, but she was vague, shadowy. I banged upon the door and called her name. I could see her, but she didn’t look like Miranda1 anymore. Instead, I saw a strange, wriggling figure rise and leap, distorted through the opaque wall. The Sentries were filmy, shifting shapes that moved like terrifying shadows beside her.

If I did not know what they were, I would not know that a girl stood there with Sentries. I would see only wavering, shimmering figures.

I would only see Fandoms.

The trees nearby were invisible. From Outside there was no trace of them. I fell to sit, my back against the door, or where the door once was. I peeked above me, but all around me was darkness. There were stars though, filling the sky, too many stars.

I trembled and shook.

I was alone. And shut out of the only world I had ever known.

I touched, again and again, the book in my cloak pocket. The book from my Mother: For the Children of Oculum. I read it over and over, and I had learned the truth about Oculum; it is a closed world and we were not meant to stay inside it forever! We were meant to leave, when we were ready. Without the book and the poem inside it, I would not have had the courage to go through the door, but sitting in the Outside that first night, it was little comfort.

I spent the first dark night with my back against the door. Strange, fearsome creatures with sharp noses and wicked teeth sniffed and hissed at me, and I threw whatever I could find to send them scattering. The next morning, though, came a transformation. The sun ascended into the sky, a shocking sight. Then the world grew rosy, and I could see, for the first time, where I was.

A new world.

Above me the great wall rose above my head, curving away, disappearing beyond my vision. The wall dug into the earth at my feet and ran to the left and right of me as far as I could see. The open space above me held the sun and the clouds in a bright blue sky. The sky went on and on, forever. It took a long time to calm myself and to look up without fear at the wide-open world.

I stood in a wasteland of rubble, wheeled metallic shapes, black boxes of all sizes, and more strange items that made no sense. I opened some of the boxes and found markings inside, letters, numbers, words: Insert, Delete, Enter. And other partial words, PrtSc or PgUp.

There were enormous machines in the wasteland as well, abandoned and broken.

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