Polly isn't home

By AJR Traill

A portal to another dimension has terrible consequences, but nobody is more deeply affected than Polly. Endowed with mysterious powers, she has the responsibility to fix it all, somehow. From a secluded desert research facility, the occupants of another world weave their way into ours in bizarre ways. However, the greatest threat may come from a

• Language: English
• Publisher: West Publishing
• Release date: Sep 9, 2023
• ISBN: 9780645847208

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cover-image, Polly isn't Home

P

olly Isn’t Home

AJR Traill

Published in Australia.

This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced, copied, scanned, stored in a retrieval system, recorded or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the author.

The right of AJR Traill to be identified as the author of this work is asserted in accordance with the Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000.

ebook ISBN 978-0-6458472-0-8

Written by AJR Traill.

Cover design by Matt Hubel.

Published in Australia by West Publishing.

Copyright © AJR Traill 2023.

www.ajrtraill.com

Ever had one of those moments when your eyes close, thoughts fade, and your mind goes somewhere else? I did. But when I opened my eyes, I wasn’t home anymore.

Polly West

1

Polly had seen many strange things, but this was a situation unlike any she’d experienced before. The white, glowing tunnel was tight, curved walls of netted tendrils like veins. They flashed by as she floated, hurtling through. In her luminous pale hand was the familiar glowing white sphere, hovering above her palm. Translucent purple tentacles sprung from it and wrapped about her entire slim body, protecting her as her long black hair flung before her round blue eyes. Protected as she was by the purple tentacles, her trajectory and, indeed, her destination were completely out of her control. She was at the mercy of the extraordinary elements around her.

So, how had Polly come to be in this bizarre predicament? Of course, that would be a perfectly sensible question at this time, and she wished she could answer it. But this time, she couldn’t. This wasn’t the first time strange things had happened to her. Strange things like this happened to Polly a lot and, to be honest, they were often her fault; there was a weight of guilt on her soul that no 19-year-old should have to bear.

But there was more. There was an ominous sense of dread, as if something utterly terrible had just happened. But her mind was numb. It was as if her memory had shut down and she’d suddenly found herself falling. She simply could not recall what had happened.

Suddenly, the white tendrils of the tunnel glowed brighter until they diffused and vanished. Polly was slammed into something hard. In her outstretched palm, the glowing, hovering white sphere ate up the retreating purple tentacles and then the sphere too vanished back into her palm.

She heard birds chirping and felt a warm breeze on her face. Asphalt lay beneath her hand. Unsteadily, she rose and dusted down her simple black dress and red tights. ‘Well,’ she muttered to herself, ‘this is somewhat anticlimactic.’

She stood in the street where she lived, in the empty road. Right beside her was her home. Other, virtually identical homes lined the sparsely gardened street in the Australian desert residential housing community. All very familiar. Simply put, it seemed she had taken the long and especially scenic route to just a few metres outside her home.

Oh man, had somebody seen her materialise from thin air? A residence in the Great Victoria Desert for employees of a hidden research facility was not a place where a young woman would want to stand out for all the wrong reasons. However, it seemed she was in the clear. Nobody was around. Everybody was at work.

Still trembling after her journey, she dug into her pocket for her front-door key. That feeling that something wasn’t quite right lingered as she opened the front door.

‘Dad?’ she called.

How much time had passed in the outside world as she’d travelled through the tunnel? The living room was oddly tidy, with none of the clutter of cups and bowls and snacks littering the small, adjoining kitchen. The couch looked bright and clean, almost new, and it was in the wrong place. Shrugging it off, Polly pocketed the key and strode into the short hallway.

‘Dad?’ she called again.

He was probably at work. Entering her own bedroom, she found no bedroom at all, no bed, no posters, no closet. There was only a stack of battered boxes, overflowing with knick-knacks, the room seemingly used for storage. But there was a presence here, emanating from something that ought to seem normal but felt entirely unnatural.

Pressed up against the wall like an intruder caught in the act was a strange mirror, narrow, body-length, murky greyness in its reflection. Gripped by an odd sense of foreboding, Polly slowly stepped before it. The greyness persisted; the mirror reflected nothing, not even herself. Raising a slender arm, she waved but saw nothing in the mirror but grey shadows.

The shadows parted. A girl appeared in the mirror, but it wasn’t Polly. Staring out from the mirror, the mysterious girl stood for a long while just as dumbly as Polly. She was short, stocky, probably a little younger than Polly’s 19 years. Her red hair was big and wild and untamed. In her freckled, plump round face was a small, doll-like mouth, but most striking of all were her tiny, glinting dark eyes.

The strange girl took a step back, raising an eyebrow. Apparently, she could see Polly. Chillingly, the doll-like mouth split into a mischievous grin. ‘It’s her,’ Polly heard the girl say.

Polly’s eyes met those of the girl just as surely as if she were in the room with her. The sense of foreboding bled through Polly into acute terror.

The girl stepped further back, enveloped by the greyness, and was gone.

Polly stared into the murk. It was more than a mirror; it was a doorway. Something terrible was on the other side. She could sense it and it horrified her.

Surrounded by some of the hardiest trees and plants in the world, Polly sat confused amongst bushland that lined one side of the residence. To be honest, she was sulking. From the top of the gentle rise, she could see most of the homes, the modest shops and even more modest school. Beyond was the cracked, dusty red desert. Strangely, nothing seemed quite right. Also, she was aware she had been scared out of her own home. Deep down, she knew she conspired with that fear too. The last thing she wanted was to go back in there again.

A shuffle sounded in the empty street below. A lone boy strolled, hands in pockets, sandy hair sticking up in tufts. He was good-looking, with a friendly, laidback air. He halted, turning and locking eyes with Polly. Polly had thought she’d known everybody in the isolated community, but she’d never seen this guy.

‘Everything alright?’ he called.

Clearly not, Polly thought. But who could possibly understand? She replied with a question of her own. ‘Who are you?’ she asked.

He smiled. ‘I’m Austin,’ he replied. ‘You?’

‘Polly,’ said Polly.

He scratched his head.

‘Polly West,’ she offered.

‘I know Hector West,’ he responded at a loss. ‘But he doesn’t have a kid.’

Polly’s stomach knotted at mention of her detested father, except somehow, he had no daughter. ‘Oh, bloody hell,’ Polly groaned. Something was wrong. Something was very wrong. And she had a feeling it was going to get worse. She dropped her head onto tucked up knees, long black hair dangling.

She heard the boy lithely climb the rise, then felt his hand upon her shoulder, gentle and soothing. How did she not know him? More importantly, how did he not know her?

Pulling herself together, Polly brushed his hand aside. ‘Thanks,’ she said.

Austin stared into her eyes with his own cute, squinting eyes. ‘Do you have somewhere to go?’

His question pretty much nailed her situation. ‘Actually, I don’t,’ Polly admitted.

Thinking, he glanced helplessly about then looked back down at her. ‘Look, I’m not doing anything special right now,’ he said. ‘How about you come with me, and we’ll take it from there, huh?’

2

‘So, who are you, exactly?’

As a girl with a secret, it was a question Polly always dreaded. She was at Portal, sitting in a typical spotless white room at a white desk. Across from her, and asking the question, was a man from Security. Behind her sat Austin and his beautiful mother, Lily.

Austin was a lucky guy. His Mum was really cool. Cool enough that it had to make people jealous; Polly sure was jealous. Lily was absolutely gorgeous with red-dyed, shoulder-length hair and tight jeans that she pulled off nicely upon her lean figure. When Austin had brought Polly home with him, she’d at first thought she was meeting a sister or a girlfriend. As well, Lily hadn’t been at all perturbed that her son had brought home a stray. She’d proven her coolness by fetching Polly a beer from the fridge and sitting down for a chat while rock music played in the background. Inevitably, she’d asked Polly questions, and when Polly hadn’t been forthcoming, she’d switched into mother-mode and taken them all to Portal Security. And so, here they were.

‘Like I said, I’m Polly West,’ Polly replied.

The man tapped away at his computer. ‘Are you related to Hector West?’ he probed. ‘Because he’s gone missing as of today.’

So, her father was missing. She looked into her heart and found only ice. So be it. ‘No,’ Polly lied.

The man’s dark native eyes studied her over his screen. Polly had been lying all her life, so it wasn’t hard to innocently smile back.

‘You’re not in here,’ he said. ‘There is no record of a Polly West.’

She should indeed have been listed. She’d lived here all her life, and yet she had not seen a single person she recognised. Something had gone wrong, and she knew she was at the centre of it. If only she could be left alone long enough to fix it.

Chair squeaking, the man sat back and waved a hand. ‘Work with me, please,’ he urged. ‘This is a secluded facility. Heck, even I don’t know everything that goes on in there. You could have put yourself in serious danger coming in here.’ He sat forward again. ‘No, it’s not top secret, we have no military affiliation,’ he pressed, ‘but it’s still dangerous. We don’t bury a facility in the desert and strike it from the map because it’s safe for someone to wander into. Do you realise that?’

He rubbed his firm forehead, taking a moment to adjust his demeanour, perhaps in hope of getting a solid response. ‘Where did you come from, anyway? We’re all that’s out here. Level with me, will you?’

Polly remained silent.

Lily interjected. ‘Calm down,’ she purred. ‘Polly, you weren’t lying about having nowhere to go, right?’

Polly thought again of the horrifying, unnatural mirror in her home. ‘You’ve got that right,’ she confirmed.

‘Well, you can stay with us,’ Lily said. ‘At least until we’ve sorted out where you belong.’

‘Don’t I get a say in this?’ objected Austin.

‘The girl had nowhere to go, so I’ve given her somewhere to go,’ Lily explained with casual ease. ‘Problem solved. You can show her around, introduce her to people.’

‘Well, I guess I never got that memo,’ Austin muttered, lowering his squinty eyes.

For the first time, Polly felt her facade weaken. Disrupting reality was one thing. Invading a happy home was another entirely.

The clustered residential community occupied a vaguely rectangular flat area bordered by low, rocky hills. It was sort of sheltered within a very shallow valley. Typically, the desert was quite flat. The distant mountainous areas, however, more than made up for it, huge ranges of fiery, solid, red rock. The mini-suburb of a community was less spectacular albeit weird. The homes came in two varieties, one-story and two-story. They were virtually identical, having been constructed with identical materials and all at the same time. Dotted throughout were stores within walking distance and in the centre, was a school. The community was lined with streets that led nowhere but to other homes, and at the head of the hot little village was Portal, the facility itself much larger than the residence.

But you wouldn’t have known Portal was larger. Indeed, you wouldn’t have known it was there at all. The guy at Security hadn’t been kidding when he’d said it was buried in the desert. Like the dewy ring of webs about a spider’s lair, only a small nest of silvery installations revealed the facility’s presence. Namely, a broad gated entrance, a large satellite dish, a cluster of transmission towers, and another cluster of ventilation towers. The reason Portal was buried wasn’t to hide it. It was for reasons of safety.

Polly walked along the street with Austin as the hot breeze bounced her long black hair. Austin held his sandy head up high, a pleasant look on his face, but said nothing. The sun was setting, a last blast of heat before the abrupt cold of a desert night.

‘I’m sorry for intruding,’ Polly said. ‘What I mean is, I appreciate it. Thanks.’ She was feeling more than a little awkward.

‘No problem,’ Austin said, but didn’t look at her. ‘Like I promised, I’m going to introduce you to some people. This should loosen you up.’

They came to a house. Austin flung open the door onto a room packed with youths. It was a full-blown party. Again, Polly recognised no-one. The foreignness of it was overwhelming. Unsurprisingly, everyone knew Austin. What followed was a series of complex fist-bumps and handshakes with about a dozen guys who flocked to the door, the coded, wordless communication of boys.

‘This is Polly,’ Austin said. ‘She’s going to be staying with us a while.’

A guy scowled in confusion. ‘Did she come in from town or drop from the sky?’ he asked.

‘Did you just wish really hard?’ squealed a girl.

For a second, Polly thought she saw a head of wild red hair, a head she had seen before.

‘Hi, Polly,’ another girl said sweetly. ‘Welcome to our Area 51. Come on into the bunker and we’ll fix you a drink.’

As the dark night fell, Polly followed inside. Austin soon left her to join the party. Standing alone in the corner, leaning against the wall, she watched him disappear by way of a kind of social osmosis, quickly blending deeper and deeper into the crowd until she couldn’t see him anymore. The house was a jumble of light and shadow and shifting people.

The partygoers had done a great job of making the place look like a nightclub, which was pretty understandable considering they didn’t have one in the residence. Available to them were all the books, music, films and videogames they could want, but no nightclub. Goofy little devices that shone trippy coloured lights over the walls and ceilings were dotted about. It was an impressive collection, probably accumulated through trips into town since the shops here didn’t have much in the way of decorative crap.

With only her drink for company, Polly tried to take it easy. She felt eyes on her and turned. A girl approached, short and squat. She had fiery red hair, wild and untamed, and a round freckled face with a small, doll-like mouth. Her small, beady, dark eyes looked straight into Polly’s. It was the girl Polly had seen in the mirror.

3

The mysterious girl walked straight up to Polly. She was probably a couple of years younger. A flickering red light swept the room behind her. ‘I’m Tanner,’ she said over the music. ‘It’s not often I see a new face.’

‘I just kind of wound up here,’ Polly stammered and pointed vaguely. ‘I came with Austin.’

‘I saw,’ the girl said. She passed Polly a sizable shot of straight bourbon.

‘Thanks,’ Polly said, and couldn’t help gulping it down.

Tanner smiled mischievously, dark eyes glinting. ‘So, are you going to tell me your name?’ she asked.

‘Oh. Polly,’ said Polly.

Tanner raised her glass. ‘Pleased to meet you, Oh Polly,’ she giggled.

Her nerves easing, Polly chuckled and raised her glass in the colourful light. She’d decided very quickly not to mention the mirror. She’d learnt early on that it was best to keep those kinds of experiences to herself.

Tanner drank. ‘Hey, that’s cheating,’ she objected. ‘You have to drink too. Don’t piss on civility.’

Polly smirked and drank too. ‘I look that nervous, do I?’ she asked.

‘Being the wallflower is a tough gig,’ Tanner relented. ‘Most people quit as soon as they can.’

Without warning, the shadowy crowd parted to spit out a lone, sauntering guy, grinning slyly, unappealingly. He ignored Tanner completely, actually turning his back on her to face the taller, slimmer girl. This made Polly dislike him immediately.

‘You already have a drink. That’s good,’ he observed. ‘I see you’re new here. Maybe you’d like someone to show you around?’

Polly opened her round blue eyes wide. ‘Why?’ she asked. ‘This place isn’t exactly large and most of Portal’s off-limits. Besides, I have Austin doing that already. His Mum told him to.’

‘Lily,’ the guy said, leaning a hand on the wall right beside Polly’s head. ‘What a lady. Look, Austin’s a busy guy, lots of friends, friends with everybody. Me, I’m more available, you know?’

‘Yeah, I know,’ Polly muttered. ‘I don’t remember asking, though.’

The guy flinched as a voice snapped, ‘Hey!’ Austin appeared from the noisy crowd, gallantly nudging his hand from the wall.

Hands spread, the guy took a step back. ‘Just trying to be welcoming,’ he mumbled.

‘Let her chill,’ Austin insisted. ‘She’s had a big day.’

With an embarrassed smile, the guy poured himself a drink and slunk away, quickly lost within the sweeping, coloured lights and noise.

Austin ran a hand through his tufty hair. ‘Don’t let him put you off; he’s a bit drunk,’ he said with a smile. ‘It’s a good crowd.’ He gave Tanner a quick peck on her cheek. ‘I see you two have met,’ he noted. ‘Watch yourself, Polly. Tanner’s a wild one.’ With that, he strode off.

‘Thanks,’ Polly called, but he was already gone again into the colours, noise and shadows. She was impressed. It would seem Austin had been keeping an eye on her all along. ‘That was so nice of him,’ she said.

Tanner snorted loudly. ‘Don’t be grateful,’ she said. ‘He’s being a prick.’

Polly raised an eyebrow. ‘What do you mean?’ she asked.

‘You said Lily told him to show you around,’ Tanner explained. ‘And so, he brings you to a party where you don’t know anyone and leaves you in a corner.