Greg Hinge Michael Gross   © Copyright 2004 by Michael Gross

 “Mom, could you take me to my friend Normans house?” Greg asked. “Yes, just a minute,” his mother replied. Greg was an average 13-year-old kid until (the day he went over to his friend Norman’s house and things seemed different.) “Hey Greg, how’s life?” Norman asked. “Well, it’s been kind of weird.” “Why?” ”Well, I had a strange dream the other night.” “Hmm, what was it about?” “Well, I was lying on my bed in my room, and I heard a terrifying scream that put chills down my spine.” “You don’t say, go on.” “Well, that’s it.” “Huh?” “That’s all your dream was?” “Yeah, that’s it,” replied Greg “Well, I guess it’s your dream,” said Norman. “Hey, where is your mom?” “She is usually bopping around here doing one thing or another.” “What are you talking about Greg?” “You know as well as I do, my mom died in a car crash three years ago.” “They never did find her body.” Suddenly a chill went down Greg’s back, just like the one in his dream. “Are you okay?” asked Norman. “You look kind of pail.” “Umm yeah, I’m okay.” That night while sleeping over at Norman’s house Greg had another terrifying dream. “Huh?” “Where am I? It’s dark, I can’t see.” Suddenly, he senses something is behind him. “Is anyone there?” He asks as he turns around to see. But all he sees is a slightly open door with a light coming out of it. Greg is suddenly in a trance. He starts to walk towards the door, and as he is walking he hears a mysterious voice calling his name. “Greg, help me!” “I need your help!” “Please hurry; he is going to get me!” The door slams. Bang! Then it slams open and a bright light blinds him. Bam! Greg wakes up the next morning shivering in a cold warehouse all by himself. “Huh, where am I?” To him everything seemed gray. Greg shivers as he gets up to look around the place. The warehouse is dimly lit so he can’t see much, but out of the corner of his eye he notices a flyer on the wall. He starts to walk towards the flyer and notices it only has the year on it. As he gets a closer look at it to try and see what it says he trips over something. Greg is knocked unconscious for a few hours. Greg awakes to dim lights and sees a shadow of a figure. He turns around to see what it is, but nobody is there.  “Huh?” “What is going on here?” He looks back down, but the shadow is not there. He tries to forget about it and goes back to looking at the old flyer. “What?” “That can’t be right, it says dooms day.”  Suddenly, writing appears on the paper. It is read, but not by Greg. It says, “I am going to get you, Greg.” Greg yells, “Who are you!” “What do you want!” The voice sounds really familiar, but Greg can’t quite put his finger on it. Again, Greg tries to forget about it and moves on to see what is going on. He looks around to see if there is any way of getting out of this cold warehouse. Suddenly, in the corner of his eye he sees a little beam of light. He looks over to see what it is. “Wow, where did that come from?” Greg does the only thing he can do. He goes out the door to see where he is and try to find a way back. When Greg walks out the door, the first thing he sees is a long row of houses and a huge head with its mouth open. Greg starts to walk down the long road paved with green goop. “Huh?” “Who could that be up ahead in that car?” Greg walks up to get a better look. It looks like Norman’s mom, but why does she looks so pale? He starts to shake Normans mom. “Wake up, wake up!” He says. But nothing happens. Then suddenly, her eyes open. They are red in the middle with a yellow trim that would almost kill anyone if you looked at her. She screams and starts to drive the car. Greg watches the car drive really fast heading straight for a brick wall. “No!” “There’s a wall!” “Look out!” “You’re going to crash!” Greg yells with tears running down his soft pink cheek. Immediately when she gets to the wall she screams again with an ear-piercing scream and vanishes. Greg wipes his eyes from the trauma. “How can that be?” “She was heading straight for that brick wall.” “There should have been a crash.” Then it hit Greg. “Could this be the same car accident Norman was talking about?” With fear of this place he moves on, shivering from the cold. As Greg walks down the green goopy road, he notices that the farther he gets, the harder it is to walk in the sticky goo. But with much determination Greg moves on. Suddenly, he starts to sink in the green goop. “Hey!” “What’s going on here!” Suddenly, green goop men pop out of the ground and start to pull Greg under. “Come down with us!” “Come down with us!” they chant.  “No!” “I want to live, thank you.” “What?” “Huh?” “What is that?” In the air is a huge griffon phoenix-like creature. The beast comes down, grabs and hoists Greg high into the air. As he is lifted, he hears the goop men moaning, “Come down with us!” By this time Greg starts thinking. “Hmmm, I wonder where this bird creature is taking me,” Greg thought to himself. “Well, it’s better than going with those goop men.”  “Strange, oh well.” As Greg flies high into the air he looks at the view and sees something in the distance. “Wow, what is that?” He tries to get his eyes to focus on it. “Hmm, what is a huge orange wand doing all the way up here?” When he got closer he noticed it had a lot of little windows shaped like everything imaginable. They flew on, soaring high through the sky, the wind blowing in his face all the way to the tiptop of the wand. At the top was a huge window shaped like a star and the moon put together. The flying beast flies strait into the window. Splash. Swoosh. Splat. Greg was thrown through the window. But the window itself was not a window. Flying straight through the window felt like flying through water without getting wet. “Ouch! That hurt!” Greg was in a huge library filled with tons and tons of books. He could see for miles. Slash! The flying beast flies straight through the window and somewhere into the library. As Greg watches the flying beast fly somewhere into the distance until he can no longer see it, he smells smoke. “Hmm.” “That’s strange.” “Oh well.” Greg gets up, walks up to a bookshelf and grabs a book. The cover says, “Answers of the Universe.” As Greg gets ready to open it a voice comes out of nowhere and says, “I wouldn’t open that book if I were you.” “Huh, why?” A figure then appears out of nowhere and says, “Because you are not ready for what’s in the book.” “What? “What do you mean I am not ready for this book?” “I mean, you are not ready for this book!” The figure grabs the book from Greg’s hands and puts it back on the shelf. “Who are you?” Greg asks. “I am the all-powerful High Kinawa Draga of this palace of worlds.” Draga was an old creature that was half man and half dragon, and smoke came out of his dragon nostrils when he spoke. “What worlds?” Greg asks. “The ones you saw outside of this paradise.” “I am the protector of this place and I have called you here because I need your help.” “Help?” “Help with what?” “Well, in all the different worlds there is something terribly wrong, and I need you to go in each one and fix it so we can have peace in all worlds.” “We?” “What do you mean, we?” “Why, all the other warlocks, trolls, dragons and a mix of other sorts of beings.” “Well, if you’re so powerful, then why don’t you do it yourself?” “Because I need to stay here and guard this place.” “Okay, okay.” “Tell me something.” “What was that thing I was in before that flying beast picked me up.” “That was the evil world.” “They don’t like to follow command and take a window world, so they made their own.” “What about the vision I saw?” “Huh?” “What vision?” “Umm, never mind.” “So, are you ready to go on your first quest?” “Well, I guess, but what’s in it for me?” “How about I let you read that book you had a little while ago.” “You got yourself a deal!” “Alright, now that that’s settled we can get you on your way.” Suddenly, Draga makes a strange sound and a little orange and white dragon comes flying out of nowhere and lands right beside him. “Cool, could you teach me that sometime?” “Hmm, just do this quest and maybe.” “Okay, now what?” “You get on Liztad and be gone, Greg.” “Hey! How did you know my name?” “I know all about you, Greg.” With that, Greg hops on Liztad and starts to lift off and fly. As they are flying toward the water-type window Draga says, “Don’t for get when ever your in trouble believe in your self.” “Okay!” By the time Draga got to the most important part Greg was gone. “Hey Liztad, did you hear what Draga was trying to tell us?” “Growl.” “No.” “I didn’t either.” “I wish he could of shown me how to call you then and there.” “Oh well, no use in going back now.” “So, where to first, Liztad?” “I want to go to the one that looks like a frog.” “Grr. Fine, we’ll go to the one that looks like a girl dragon with a bow.” “Growl.” “Not!” Greg grabs Liztad’s horns and turns him in some other direction. The only problem is he doesn’t’ know which on he pulled himself into. Splash. “Huh, what happened?” “Where am I?” Greg is on the ground and Liztad is gone. “Wow, this place is sure, uh, plain.” All Greg can see is miles and miles of sand. “Wow, this looks a lot like a desert, but without all the hills and it’s not hot here at all.” Greg looks up and sees black clouds and a dark yellow and orange sky. “Well, if something is wrong with this place, then I think I know what it is.” Suddenly, Greg looks in the distance and sees some strange movement. The sand is hunching up as if a serpent is slithering through it. “Sssssssss.”  “Um, that didn’t sound good.” “Maybe I should run.” “SSSSSSSS.” “Yeah, I should run!” “Awwww!” “SSSSSSSSSS.” Greg starts to run with all of his might as far away from whatever it was behind him. He was so scared he did not even take a second to look back and see if it was still there. “Woo, I think I lost it.” “Ssssssss.” “Aw, what’s that?” Greg looks down and sees a little tiny snake. “Oh, it’s just a little snake.” Greg bends over to pet the cute little snake, but Greg’s little friend, Snaky, did not like the idea. Instead, it opens its mouth and bites Greg on the finger. “Ouch!” “My finger!” Greg falls to the ground with a thump. After a few hours Greg wake up and a blue face is looking at him. “Aw. Where am I?” Greg looks at a thing that looks like a human with some differences. The boy was blue with pointy ears. He’s looked about Greg’s age and is wearing a loincloth. The little blue boy jumps away with fear and hides behind a big pot. “Oh, hey.” “Sorry I startled you little guy,” Greg says. The blue boy does not say anything and moves from behind the pot. “So, um, where am I?” “What happened?” Greg attempts to sit up. “Ouch!” “My hand!” “I picked you up,” the blue boy says. “I saw you were hurt, and so I brought you here.” “Oh, so you do talk, eh?” “Yes.” “Where are we exactly?” “We are at my hut in the middle of nowhere,” the boy says as he starts to make a fire with two stones. “Well, that’s descriptive.” “Ouch, my hand!” “I have a really bad memory right now, so do you know what happened to me?” “A snakearean bit you.” “A what?” “Well, really it was a baby snakearean.” “Oh, you mean the cute little snake thing.” “Yeah.” “Ouch, so when is my hand going to heal?” “It should heal instantly, that is, if you have the antidote.” “Well, um, do you have the antidote?” “As a matter of fact, I do.” “My hand is kind of hurting a lot, so could you, umm, kind of …” “Not another word, my friend.” The little blue boy pokes a needle into the injured hand. “Ouch!” “Hey, that hurts.” 3-2-1, slurp! “Wow, my hand.” “It doesn’t hurt anymore.” “Thanks, thanks a lot.” “Anything for our healer of the worlds.” “Huh?” “The healer of the worlds?” “Yes, you are here to save this world and all the others, are you not?” “Umm, I guess so.” “Who told you that?” “Draga of course.” “How do you know Draga?” “He was the one that made all these custom made worlds for the different creatures to live in.” “Hmmm. That’s pretty cool.” “I was 210 years old when that happened.” “Huh? 210?” “Yes, I am a Bluestoneton.” “They can live a lot longer than you mortals.” “Okay, okay.” “So, how old are you now?” “230.” “Oh, so this world thing happened to you 20 years ago?” “Well, yes.” Grumble. Greg’s stomach makes and I’m hungry sound. “Hey, umm, what should I call you anyway?” “You can call me Blue.” “Okay, Blue, do you have anything I can eat around hear?” “I am starved.” “Yes, I have some snakearean guts, skin, tail and eyeballs.” “Umm, I think I’ll pass.” “What?” “You don’t like guts?” Blue says as he scoops some into his mouth. “No Blue, back where I live we have, hmm, how do I put this, Twinkie guts!” “Yum!” “What is this Twinkie?” “Never mind Blue, I’ll tell you later.” “Okay.” “So what is the problem here anyway” Greg asks Blue as he scoops the last spec of lizard guts into his mouth. “Well, lately more and more giant snakeareans have been appearing.” “You mean that thing that bit me?” “Man!” “Yes, but bigger. And you see, I have no idea why or where they are coming from.” “The more that come, the more places that are taken up so I can’t go hunting for food.” “Well, what about everyone else?” “Huh? There is nobody else.” “You mean to tell me that you are the only one that lives in this places?” “Yes, well sort of.” “You see there were about 70 others.” “What happened to them, Blue?” Blue’s eyes start to fill with water. “They all fell into the snakearean pit,” Blue says as a tear runs down his left eye. As Greg looked into Blue’s sad, sparkling eyes, he saw the fire reflect in them, and he almost thought he saw fire works on the Fourth of July. It reminded Greg of home and how his friend Norman was when his mom died in the car accident.

Michael is 15 years old.

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