"Well, the sun has set and we still have no shelter!" Cory exclaimed as he stood behind Jacob.

"I know where we are! There should be another cabin up ahead. This is a camping ground, this will be the last cabin though for miles and miles," Jacob snapped and Cory rolled his eyes.

Hazel could only see their outlines but she stayed close to them to not loose them. Alex was next to Jacob and Cory was standing next to hazel.

"See, ya up there," Jacob said in a proud voice as they walked up the hill to the second tiny cabin they had seen.

Hazel held the gun up and opened the door. She looked around the hazy room to see no one. Good. She examined the room's details the best she could with no light. It was empty. Bare. Except for seven sleeping bags lined against the wall.

Alex ran to them and crawled into one. He sighed happily and rolled around on the floor.

"Alex! Stop acting like a child!" Hazel ordered fiercely and he stopped.

"Well, we should get to bed early so we aren't like walking zombies tomorrow," Cory said as he lied down on the ground.

"Let's just be grateful it isn't zombies," Alex replied and they laughed while  hazel stared at them oddly, even Jacob was laughing.

Hazel rolled her eyes. Typical Cory, acting younger than he is. Jacob might be like that, but they do say that times of crisis bring out the best or worst in people. Could he be like Cory?

Hazel tucked herself into the sleeping bag and found her self on the floor in between Jacob and Cory.

Great. Just what I needed.

Hazel closed her eyes and tried to imagine she had more space, also that Cory wasn't there. When she said it couldn't get worse, it did. Cory had done some pretty unforgivable things in the past, especially middle school, that hazel could never forget. He had gotten better, but he was still on the road to recovery so to speak.

Hazel let the tiredness of her mind drag her into a deep sleep and she started to dream.

Hazel blinked open her eyes. 

"where am i?" she wondered as she sat up as without using energy and looked out her bedroom window.

Home, she thought with happiness and ran down stairs.

Everything was back, her parents, her house, her old life.

"Have a good day at school dear," Her mom said happily with a creepy grin and blank expression and hazel was dressed for school, standing outside the building.

What? How? I was just-

Hazel's thoughts were cut off as someone tapped her shoulder.

"Hazel! You said you'd text me when you got here," Cory told her as he pulled out his phone to a blank home screen with no notifications, but something was weird, his eyes didn't have the same humorous glint they always had. 

"What? Oh, I, um, was running late," She said quickly and smiled nervously.

"You take the bus, you could have texted me when you got on it!" He explained as they walked into school.

"Why would I even text you in the first place? I don't have your number," Hazel said.

Cory laughed and Hazel looked at him oddly, he'd lost his marbles.

"You are my girlfriend hazel, of course you do!" He laughed and had to stop to catch his breath.

Nope, this is defiantly a nightmare, she thought with annoyance. 

The sky started to swirl a black and gray and purple and the milky way was sprawled out above them. Hazel stood in awe at the spectacle. Her mouth formed into a smile and she laughed to herself in disbelief. Space had always amazed her and to see it this close was incredible. A streak of pale blue light shot across the sky.

The inventor of the laser beam playing laser tag in the stars, Hazel recalled the joke from a YouTube video.

Suddenly, the stars and the entire milky way crashed around them. Hazel screamed and jumped back. She held out her hand nervously and touched one of the yellow glittering orbs. They were warm and calming and Hazel felt her pulse go back down.

"I always love this part of day," Cory sighed happily.

Hazel gave him and odd look, "What do you mean?"

Cory straightened up, "Well, when the stars fall before they rise in the night sky of course, you said you loved it to. Are you ok?"

"I'm sure she's fine," Someone else said and Jacob met her with a smile. 

But he looked younger. Hazel looked at Cory, he looked younger too. Like middle school aged she guessed. Hazel looked at her reflections in one of the stars. She saw her middle school self. Long brown hair and hazel eyes.

She cried and stepped away.

"You ok Hazel?" Jacob asked her.

He looked different. With tasseled, messy hair, a  lighter than older Jacob. He was also a lot shorter, same with Cory but Hazel had known Cory back then. His eyes were lighter and a lot less serious. 

"We get to be this age for one hour a day now," Jacob said happily and looked at the stars.

"Y-yeah," Hazel replied as she looked at herself.

What is this. Who am I? No, what am I?

"It's about time," Cory said with excitement and jumped in place.

"For what?" Hazel asked with a worried tone.

"The rising of the stars of course, since when have you not known, you're just out of it today!" Cory laughed.

The stars lifted off the ground like reverse rain and a sort of blue lightning carried it to the sky. The light should have been blinding but Hazel watched it clearly. An explosion of light and color burst like fireworks in the sky, like a thousand stars exploding and turning to dust. But the stars remained in tact and hovering in the sky. Hazel looked at her hand, she was back to normal. She turned to Jacob and Cory, they were back to normal. Cory was taller and Jacob's hair was shorter and a bit darker and his eyes were back to deep brown. 

"We live in the best world possible, who cares about the old multiverse," Jacob snorted and Cory nodded.

"What?!" Hazel exclaimed, "How could you think that?! Our home was still our home! Our family was there! All our memories! Centuries of history and culture just gone!?"

Jacob looked at her, "Oh come on Hazel. It's the same Earth just with this, and a different universe."

Hazel shook her head and took a step back. A breeze played with her hair and she looked back to see a black abyss. She screamed in shock and looked back. Cory and Jacob walked toward her and she lost her footing and plummeted down.

.