Welcome home ?

Trapped in the Stone Age, I realized the gravity of the situation I had found myself in. The stupid-looking necklace had somehow transported me back millions of years, to a time when dinosaurs roamed the Earth. As the towering T-Rex charged towards me, my heart raced and adrenaline coursed through my veins. I turned and ran, darting between the trees, desperate to escape the jaws of the ancient predator.

I hid behind a tree for a split second, hoping the T-Rex would lose me. I pulled the eye necklace from out of my pocket and pleaded with it to take me home. "Hey, magical eye necklace thingy, please take me home now," I said, but there was no response. I saw the T-Rex in the distance, and it was only a matter of time before it got to me. I asked the necklace again, more urgently, "Take me back home, you stupid-looking eye!" Still, there was no response. The T-Rex was getting closer, so close I could feel its footsteps on the ground below. It was coming my way, ready to kill me, and then... everything around me once again vanished.

For a split second, all I saw was a white glare, and when it cleared, I was in the same position I was when I left, bent over with the tip of my finger on the eye. I chuckled with relief, unable to believe that the stupid-looking eye had just saved me from what could have been a terrible death.

I got up from my previous position and realized something was off. Everything was right where it was before I left, except for Ally. I figured she had walked home, but that wouldn't make sense since everything was exactly where it was when I left. I decided to check anyway. I went to her door, only to be greeted by an unfamiliar couple. After an awkward conversation that definitely made me look crazy, I realized that for some reason, Ally and her family no longer lived in that house. I had returned to an earth that had no recent memory of the girl I had just been with.

I didn't cry; everything that had happened to me in the last few days hadn't fully processed yet, and I still felt indifferent. I decided to walk back home, hoping and praying my dad would still be around. The moment I finally got home was one I'll never soon forget. I found my dad sitting on the porch, crying - a sight I hadn't seen since my mother's funeral. I called his name and ran to him, tears welling up in my own eyes. In this moment, my father embraced me for what felt like the first time in forever. He held me close as I cried in his arms, and in this moment, everything I had experienced in the last few days hit me. All I did in this moment was hold my dad as he held me, and cry into his arms as I told him how sorry I was.

The rest of that Sunday ended with a nice father-daughter day. He told me to enjoy it because starting tomorrow, I was grounded, but for now, he was just glad to have his daughter back. The next day, although it started off normal, led me into the predicament to end all predicaments - the day I was trapped in the apocalypse.