A couple months had passed since Ken had disappeared. We did what we could to find him, but we weren't able to make any progress. All of Sheldon's acquaintances in our world did not know of a way back. There were times I wanted to give up and times where I just wanted to stop and cry but I've managed to keep myself going. If my friends weren't around, I would be a pretty big mess.

"Mona?" said a familiar voice.

"Five more minutes." I said.

"Then maybe you should have slept at home." the voice said.

I opened my eyes when I realized I was in class. Our teacher, Mr. Smith was looking right at me, with a concerned expression on his face. He wasn't the oldest teacher out there but he definitely wasn't the youngest. His head was recently shaved, his hair was a light brown and his eyes were a dark green. Usually, he's a decent teacher but I know that there are a lot of things bothering him, like the fact that he's never been in a relationship. He gets really worked up if anyone brings it up.

"S-sorry!" I exclaimed.

The whole class laughed.

"I know it's been hard since your brother disappeared," he said, "but life still goes on."

"Got it." I said, "I'm awake now."

"Can you solve the problem on the board?" he asked.

"No." I said, "I slept through everything."

"Guess I'll have to call on someone else then…" he said.

After that, class went on like normal. When it was finally time for lunch, I sat in the cafeteria with Vera, Matt, Justin, and Sheldon.

"This sucks." I said.

"I know." said Justin, banging his head on the table.

"Dude," said Matt, "you really don't need to do that."

"I need more stories…" the journalist complained.

"But didn't you get one?" asked Vera, "You got to interview Sheldon…"

"But I want a NEW one." he complained.

"Stop your whining." I said.

"I want to die." he said, banging his head into the table again.

"Seriously, stop doing that." said Matt.

"Are you an idiot or something?" asked Sheldon.

"S-sorry." was all Justin had to say.

"God, it's been a couple months and we know NOTHING." I complained.

"We know." said Matt, "I know you're having a tough time with this."

"I'm s-sure we'll find him eventually." said Vera.

"And what if we don't!" I reacted.

"Eep!" responded Vera.

"Ah, I'm sorry." I said.

"I should be the one apologizing," said Sheldon, "it's almost as if I traded places with your brother but I can't really help much."

"Don't be so hard on yourself," said Matt, "you've really helped us."

"Yeah," I said, "if it weren't for you we would have been killed by that spider."

"Oh, right." said Sheldon, scratching the back of his neck, "Those things aren't normal in this world."

"It's been a couple months," said Matt, "I would think you'd have that drilled into your head by now."

"What are we going to do, anyways?" asked Justin, "We have no way to find Ken."

"All we CAN do now is wait it out." said Matt, "I'm sure we'll find someone useful eventually."

"What if… there's someone researching other worlds?" asked Vera.

"I'd hope so." I replied.

"If that were the case," said Matt, "don't you think whoever it was would have come forward after the news of Ken's disappearance."

"Who knows?" said Justin, "Maybe we're talking about someone that hides in the basement all the time?"

"Isn't that what you do?" asked Vera.

"I don't even know what he does in the basement." I commented.

"Isn't what you're thinking what Matt does?" asked Vera.

"What I do in the basement is none of your business!" exclaimed Matt.

"Why are we even talking about this?" I asked.

"So asking people hasn't gotten us anywhere, huh?" said Sheldon.

"Yeah," I said, "whether in person or on the internet."

"Tch." replied Matt, "I've tried a lot of those travel to another world methods I found online…"

"You shouldn't trust the internet anyways." I said.

"Hey," he said, "I'm willing to try ANYTHING to see Ken again."

"Good point." I said.

"It's pretty obvious none of that stuff worked." said Matt, "Maybe I need to look deeper on the internet?"

"I don't know." I said.

"Haven't you looked?" asked Matt.

"Yeah," I replied, "but I never got any useful information. I haven't even checked my messages on any of those websites in a while."

"Why don't you check again?" suggested Sheldon, "Even if there might not be anything new, it might be worth checking now…"

"He's got a point." said Justin.

"Fine," I said, "I'll check tonight."

After getting home, doing my homework and eating dinner, I turned on my computer and went online. I looked through the message boards I had signed up for, but I only saw what I expected. There weren't any new messages on any of them. When I was about to turn my computer off, I got a phone call.

"Hello?" I said, after answering.

"We've got a problem." said Matt.

"What?" I asked.

"According to Sheldon," he said, "more portals are going to come but we won't be able to come through."

"That sucks." I said.

"That's not even the worst part," he added, "more monsters will be coming over here."

 

***

I've spent all this time alone in my room. My parents aren't really happy with me staring at a computer screen all day every day, but I can't really help myself with how fascinating everything online is. My mom's pretty disappointed that I won't go outside and talk to other girls. I'd rather just sit at my desk typing away at my keyboard. To be honest, I spend so much time here that I don't even put that much effort into how I look.

My black hair is pretty long going down to back and I've got grey eyes with glasses in front of them. I would often just be looking at various things on my computer but one day, I heard some guy had disappeared into some portal. Ever since that day, I have been looking all over the place for information. I just want to know more about those portals… and other worlds.