Ella and the Multiverse: Ella Finn

1 WHITE RABBIT

It was the end of the beginning when Ella peered at the towering grass in front of her. It shimmered and swayed from side to side, covered in purple flowers that smelt of lavender. When she’d stepped through the door which separated her world from this one, she’d wondered how she’d know it was another dimension, but it didn’t take that long. The six-foot-tall rabbit striding towards her might have given it away, and she was impressed with the bright red suit he wore, but the giant pair of human eyes staring at her from the sky clinched it.

‘Don’t worry about that. It’s only your future self checking to see if you’re okay.’ The rabbit held out one paw to her while the other gripped a mobile phone. ‘My name is Jack.’

Ella moved back an inch. ‘You’re Jack, the rabbit?’

He withdrew his paw and pulled a carrot from his jacket pocket. He nibbled on it as he spoke.

‘What’s a rabbit?’

She glanced around her, seeing the sea and a beach to the right of the grass. It reminded Ella of home and what she’d left behind.

‘Where am I?’

The giant rabbit finished his meal. ‘Here? This is Everywhere.’

The eyes in the sky continued to peer at her, so she peered back. There was something in them which made her think the rabbit’s claim might be true. Could that be a version of her in the clouds? A week ago, she’d have thought such a thing ridiculous, but after discovering the Book of All Life and that Elementals existed, she doubted nothing anymore.

Ella offered her hand. ‘I’m pleased to meet you, Jack.’

The rabbit grinned and took her hand. His fur was warm against her skin.

‘The feeling is mutual, Ella.’

She let go of him. ‘How do you know who I am?’

He swivelled on his feet, pointed the phone into the air, and snapped a photo of the giant eyes.

‘Your future self told me you’d be here. I’m to be your guide in Everywhere.’

Butterflies fluttered in Ella’s heart. ‘That’s me up there?’

He sneaked another carrot into his mouth. ‘It’s one version of you.’ As he said that, the eyes disappeared. ‘It will all become clear as we go.’

‘Will it?’

He bellowed out a hearty human laugh. ‘Probably not, no. But we won’t know unless we try, will we?’

Ella remembered why she was there, wherever this Everywhere was.

‘I’m searching for Pandora. Do you know her?’

Jack scratched at his chin. ‘I don’t speak to strangers. But I took some photos of recent visitors who travelled through the same gateway you did.’

He handed her the phone and she was surprised to see it was the same make and model as hers.

Ella found the images straight away, flicking through half a dozen creatures she’d never seen before, even in books or films. A horse with six legs, a woman with fire for hair, a man made of stone, a floating ball of ice with the face of a cat, and a fierce beast with teeth bigger than its head. Then she saw the photos of Pandora, three of them of the person who used to be her friend Dora, looking old and scared as she headed towards the sea.

Ella returned the phone to the rabbit.

‘I need to find her. Can you show me where she went?’

‘Following her is easy. Finding where she went is something else.’

She glanced around her as the dirt grumbled beneath her feet.

‘What do you mean?’

‘As I told you before, this is Everywhere. Which means it leads to every dimension in existence. Be careful where you walk, as anything can be a doorway to another realm.’ He pointed to the spot where Ella had entered. ‘You and this Pandora came through the same door, but after that, she could have exited through any gateway.’

Ella thought about what he’d said. She’d watched a movie once about something called the multiverse. That must be what the rabbit meant.

‘Couldn’t Pandora still be here?’

He furrowed his brow. ‘She might, but this is just one, never-ending corridor. The only things that hang around here are the bad ones waiting to pounce on the unsuspecting.’

The ground moved beneath them again.

‘Pandora is bad.’

Jack dropped bits of carrot at his feet. ‘Tell me more about this person.’

Before she could reply, something moved underneath the dirt, and then disappeared. Ella tried to cram all she knew into a few sentences, concerned about what was moving beneath her feet.

‘Pandora claims to have created every living thing on my planet, Earth. This includes humans like me and Elementals, which we thought were mythological creatures like unicorns, witches and dragons. She said the humans feared her, so thousands of years ago in our time, they tricked her, so she banished all the Elementals, and herself, into a realm they couldn’t escape from. Yet, over the centuries, gaps have appeared between the realms, and a few slipped through. Humanity’s meddling with the climate has weakened the barrier to the point of collapse. Pandora found a way back to Earth, intending to enslave all humans. Until I stopped her.’

Jack looked at Ella with admiration covering his hairy face.

‘How did you do that?’

She told him about the Book of All Life and how she used it to bring Elementals to help her on Earth. And she told him about Light.

Jack nodded. ‘I know what that is.’ He placed one hand over his heart. ‘We call it the Glow. It’s the essence which leaves our bodies when we die, and then travels to the next realm.’

She wanted to ask him so many questions, but the mud thrust against her shoes like a giant burp and she nearly fell over.

‘What’s happening?’

He grabbed her hand and pulled her towards the sea.

‘The snarks are getting restless and my bits of carrot aren’t enough to keep them happy. We have to leave now.’

She ran with him as the ground growled around them like an upset stomach. The wind bit at her ears as the smell of salt water rushed towards her. Ella gripped Jack’s paw.

‘What’s a snark?’

He stopped when they reached the sand. ‘We should be safe here. Snarks don’t like the water.’ He let go of her. ‘Snarks feed on other living creatures, but they have to upset you first.’

A wave ran over her shoes and dripped into her socks.

‘That doesn’t sound very terrible, having to upset you.’

Jack lowered his head to her and she noticed he had different coloured eyes. One was deep blue, while the other was a mix of red and yellow.

‘Are you a tough girl, Ella? Do you weep when people call you names?’

She stuck out her chest. ‘My parents disappeared and I didn’t cry.’ But she’d wanted to. ‘Then I had to live with my aunt and uncle, who were terrible to me and made me live in a barn with the animals. Their three daughters, my cousins, picked on me every day. None of that made me cry. And I had to watch as my friend Dora turned into Pandora and told me I was her relative and what horrible things she was going to do to the world. After all that, I never cried once.’

Jack nodded. ‘Good, Ella. You’ll need all of that strength with what’s ahead of you.’

Before she could ask what he meant, the dirt burst from the ground like an exploding volcano. Mud and grass went everywhere and she saw worms thrown into the air. Before they could fall, a large head like a snake’s thrust up and gobbled dirt and worms alike. As it ate them up, it howled like a wolf.

Ella’s feet were frozen into the sand as the creature turned to her.

‘The furball lies to you, child. It’s only here to lure you to its lair where it will boil you alive before feeding you to its family.’

The creature’s breath stank of mould and damp, while its yellowed teeth gnashed at her.

‘Why should I believe you?’

The snark spat bits of worm at her feet.

‘You’re a stupid little girl far from home. You lost your parents, and then you abandoned them to run away when you found them again. You’re small, and you smell, and something will eat you soon.’

‘How do you know about my parents?’

It lowered its head, with slimy scales close to her face and the stink of death escaping from its mouth.

‘I know everything about you, Ella Finn. You can’t hide anything from me, child. All your friends leave you and your parents don’t love you. Pandora didn’t kidnap them. They went with her willingly to get away from you. You’re alone because everyone hates you.’

She pushed her face close to the snark, feeling its sweat dripping on to her cheeks.

‘That’s a lie. I’ve got a friend called Billy.’

‘Yes, poor old Billy Pudding. You left him behind as well, just like you did with your mum and dad.’ Its tongue slithered out of its mouth and over its lips. ‘And now there’s no one to protect them.’

Heat exploded through Ella’s veins. ‘Protect them from what?’

‘Pandora double-crossed you, child. She’s returned to your home with her Elementals, and all is lost for you there.’ Its face touched hers, the slime of its flesh seeping into her skin. ‘There’s only one thing which can save them now.’

She pulled back from it as a wave washed over her feet. That’s when she saw Jack lying in the water. She dropped to her knees, hitting wet sand as she dragged him up. His curious eyes were glazed over as he choked. She’d seen a video once of someone saving a drowning man, so she knew what to do.

Ella put her lips over his and sucked liquid from Jack’s lungs. She gave it one huge gulp before letting go and spitting the water back into the sea. Jack didn’t move, so she did it again. After the third try, he gasped and water splashed out of his mouth. His eyes were fuzzy, but he was breathing normally. She held on to him as she turned to the snark.

‘What have you done to him?’

The snake-like creature laughed at her, a terrible sound that sent a shiver down Ella’s spine.

‘Why, child, only what I’ve done to you.’ Its slimy neck pushed further out of the ground and it slithered towards her. ‘I’m in his head like I’m in yours. If you give in to me, everything will be fine, and your parents and your friend and your world will survive.’

She glanced at Jack in the sand, feeling the water covering her shoes and trickling between her toes.

‘None of this is real.’

The snark twisted towards her. ‘It is to you and him, child.’

‘Is that so?’ She stared at her palm and imagined a knife in her hand. It appeared in an instant. Then she took it and jabbed it into the snark’s slimy neck.

The creature howled and reeled from her, its head shaking as if it was in a microwave. Green blood sputtered from the wound and into the sea, turning the orange sand into a dirty black.

Then Ella blinked and it all disappeared, replaced with what was real. The snark lay dead, with no sign of a wound or any blood. She no longer had the knife, and Jack stood next to her.

‘We have to go, Ella. The others will be angry now and out for revenge.’

She stared at the thing she’d killed with her mind.

‘The others?’

He grabbed her hand. ‘The rest of the snarks. They always travel in packs. If more than one comes, they’ll overwhelm us.’ He looked at the dead snark. ‘Even though you’re stronger than you look.’

As he said that, the earth behind them shook like an earthquake. Jack pulled her towards the water as a thousand wild howls shattered the quiet.

‘You’re dragging us into the sea,’ Ella shouted.

He glanced at her as they ran through the waves.

‘No, that’s where we’re going.’

They stopped and he let go of her to point at the gap between the sand and the sea. If they’d been standing on a cliff, it would have been the edge. As the noise increased behind them, she inched towards the gap, bending her head to peer into an abyss.

‘How is this possible?’

Jack shrugged. ‘Everything is possible in Everywhere, Ella.’

His eyes sparkled as she turned towards the howling. A dozen giant snakeheads slithered towards them, their yellowed teeth snapping away. She had about twenty seconds to decide: the marauding snarks’ teeth or the impossible gap between the sand and the sea.

It was no choice at all.

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