Aaron sat in the back seat of the car, disconsolately flipping his phone from hand to hand, and swearing whenever he dropped it. He took especial pleasure in practically screaming the epithets, testing out how good the 'sound proof' window between the front and back parts of the car really was. Judging by the reaction of the unnamed driver, it really was sound proof- or the driver was used to having pissed off kids in the back of his car. Bloody hell, but he was bored. And had evidently run out of swear words, nigh impossible though that seemed, because he was stuck saying stuff that made him sound like some 1980s British old man.

Ever since that unspeakable day, he had both pleaded sick, and eventually just refused to get up and go to school. His Mum was probably on the verge of either grounding him for the rest of the year for his disobedience, or calling a therapist to see what was wrong with the child who had never done such a shocking thing before. Hah! His parents knew nothing about his life, and he was happy for it to stay that way. Anyway, it had been about a week since then when the woman came. Aaron hadn't paid much attention to her at the time- he was too wrapped up in his own problems to care about some random- at least until she started talking about going away. That was when he knew that he had to face the consequences of his little (or maybe not little) fiasco with lightning at school. He deserved whatever punishing circumstances they put him in, for the hurt he had dealt to Isabella.

...Isabella...

No. With a vigorous shake of the head, which of course re-messed his already messy hair (and Aaron was someone who definitely couldn't work the i-just-got-out-of-bed look), he forced himself back on track and away from the guilt-ridden mental image of his ex. Which was one of the reasons he was leaving; he just couldn't handle the thought of having to deal with Isabella again. His parents had been all for throwing the stranger out of the house for suggesting Aaron go with her, but Aaron had fixed on the fact that he could escape the painful reality of what his life had become and start over, something that would make his new-found resolution to not care what other people thought of him and change from who he was much easier to carry out. The fact that the person could just stick out her hand and quell his parents' objections, forcing them to sit meekly on the couch without a word settled it for him. Especially after the lightning incident, he was more and more convinced that there was a magical aspect to these unreal occurrences.

Aaron was unceremoniously thrown out of his self-absorbed reverie as the car swerved, taking a sharp turn into a dingy, decrepit alleyway that did not bode well for a comfortable presence of mind. Uneasily he attempted to catch the driver's attention, never mind the basic rule of car safety (no distracting the driver; for those who ignore the obvious), but evidently the driver had decided to disregard his frantically waving passenger as he drove towards a brick wall.

Drove towards a brick wall?!

Disbelievingly, Aaron saw the driver flick a switch as he put on the speed. It was like some stupid scene out of 'Harry Potter', running, or in this case driving, into platform 9 & 3/4.

And just before they smashed to their deaths, the wall vanished, everything vanished. Aaron felt the world around him ripple and bend, with a strange sense of deja vu overwhelming even his fear. The world was a shade of wobbly black.

Later

"He's coming to,"

"He's blinking,"

"Poor thing, the passage is always hard the first time round,"

"We should be warning them beforehand,"

"No, they would never believe-"

"Mum!" he mumbled incoherently, blinking sleepily as he interrupted. "I said I felt sick, okay? I need my sleep,"

"Oh dear,"

"He thinks he's at home,"

"I'm sorry dearie, but I'm not-"

"-neither of us are-"

"-your Mother,"

Aaron jerked upright, with understanding rapidly dawning on him. Taking in the bare, bleached room with neat, plain white beds, some of which were surrounded by curtains and others that looked like they had only just been vacated, he tried to reconcile himself with his drastically changed surroundings. Searching his memory, he realised that the last thing he remembered was being in a car that was heading directly for a brick wall. Making the only logical conclusion, he said:

"I was in a car crash?"

"That's what they all say,"

"No, you weren't in a car crash,"

Taking in the faces of the two women in front of him as his brain desperately tried to comprehend the impossible situation he was in, he noted that, despite seemingly being on quite good terms, the two woman were as different as apples and oranges. One was quite slim and wore a pink checkered blouse that accentuated the flowing skirt she wore. Her straw-coloured hair framed a friendly, smiling face that was a sharp contrast to the woman who stood beside her. This woman wore a too-tight dress that Aaron winced to see on such a expansive frame. Her black hair was streaked with grey, and pulled into a bun that did little to soften a face that, despite its obvious 'fullness' was pinched and mean. Aaron immediately decided which he liked better out of the two, and so it was to pink-shirt that he appealed.

"So if I wasn't in a car crash, what did happen?" Pink-shirt looked upset, and started wringing her hands together as she answered. The mean-looking one didn't even spare a smile- not that he expected her to.

"Well... you better sit down,"

"He's already sitting down,"

"Okay then... maybe you shouldn't hear this so soon after fainting,"

"He'll be fine; just get on with it!"

Pink-shirt gave Aaron one last sympathetic glance, then plunged into the most confusing explanation he had ever heard.