The boy, seeing that the girl had grabbed his magazine and fled, runs limping to the door. He calls out desperately, but the girl keeps running.
The boy has failed.
He walks back into the safety of his small home, searching for something. A clue, perhaps. Something to lead him to the girl who had just run off.
“Mother!” he calls out. The boy's instincts told him to talk to a parent and complain.
“Yes, Sam?” his mother answers him. She appears in the living room doorway, bemused. Her son never called her. She was wiping her hands nonchalantly on a dishtowel, and her hair was frizzy.
“Mother, a girl just came in here. She took my- my sports magazine.”
“Oh, is that all?” a frown formed on his mother’s delicate brow.
“Mother, it was important!”
“Ah. We’ll buy you another one.”
“Humph,” Sam was caught. He couldn’t tell her what was really in the magazine! She’d tell her friends. Her garrulous friends. What a nightmare.
“Humph yourself. Now go read something else. I’m busy. Or go out and play. Or go out to the store and buy a new magazine…” his mother trailed off as she walked back into the kitchen.
Sam walked out of the house, limping. He looked off into the distance. The boy's family lived in a small, secluded country home. There was no one around for miles. Trees lined the smooth road. It was a picture of peace. He turned to go back inside. He sat down in his chair and pondered what to do about the book. Ignore it? Wait? Just then, there was a noise behind him.
The boy slowly turned to look out the window. It was there. It was scary. It was It. It was a type of animal called a Morphling. It was also a powerful magician, and had made the enchanted window in which he had just entered. Except It wasn't necesarily smart. It sometimes left his spells unprotected, which caused the girl to enter through the window. It was in the form of a badger at the moment.
“Come here…” It hissed. It decided not to tell the boy it was all it's fault in the first place.
“It, I’m sorry! Sorry!” the boy pleaded with It.
“The book is gone with a ssspy…” It slowly crept in through the window, smiling menacingly. “You are veryyy naughty, yesss…”
“But no one can read it but me! Well, maybe there are a few exceptions! But please, It, let me be! You need me!” the boy dropped to his knees. He noticed, once It had come in, the pain he had had earlier was subsiding.
“Follow me. You will have to spy in the house from which the spy girl that just came was from,” It motioned toward the window, and Sam climbed out, only to find himself in a kitchen. A kitchen in another country, and possibly another world.
“Name?” Sam asked, trying to sound brave.
“You will be… Ryan. Now go. You will be working in the kitchens. Your goal is to get close to the Master of this scheme.”
“Yes, It,” Sam (from now on known as Ryan) grumbled.
“Good. Now go.”
“Wait- who is the Master?”
It stopped crawling out of the window and turned around. “A girl. By the name of… Lisle.”
Ryan slowly saw his life flash by. He was never good with the “female species” as his father had once told him.