Martzi
Double Luck
Phoenix Doyle
Phoenix had been sitting with Callie for a while by the time it happened. Long enough to get absorbed by their book. Phoenix was the kind of person for whom, when they got really into a book, the whole world disappeared only to be replaced by the one they were reading about. It was to such an extent that Phoenix didn't even notice when the compartment disappeared around them - they had already been utterly oblivious to it for some time. There was no sensation of flying, no blur of colors, no oppressive silence. Only the world of the 1500's. Until, that is, they were pulled out of their book with an unpleasant jerk by the sudden sensation of a person beneath them.
Phoenix lowered their book with a slight frown as they looked around them, taking a second to reorient themself as they came back to the real world. They became aware that they were in a whole new compartment on the other side of the train. Across from them Callie had disappeared, only to be replaced by a different student reading a book, a brown-haired boy with dark eyes. They didn't think they had ever met the boy, though he looked to be around their own age. And out the window, the weather had changed slightly into a heavier rain. Though that could have happened just while they were reading. How on earth had Phoenix wound up here? They hadn't moved - they'd just sat in one place ever since they'd opened their book! Right? Could they have been sleep-walking? Or more like sleep-reading? They'd never done it before but there was a first time for everything.
And then Phoenix registered properly what had brought them out of their book - they were sitting on someone's lap. How the hell had that happened?! "Sorry, sorry," Phoenix said, hastily sliding off the person's lap and into the seat next to them. It wasn't their fault they'd invaded the person's personal space - they had no idea how they'd wound up here - but they probably could have moved a little faster, if they hadn't been so dazed and confused.
Phoenix took a moment to take in the boy whose lap they'd appeared on. He was another stranger who looked to be their own age, with dark-brown hair and hazel eyes. Phoenix glanced between him and the other occupant of the compartment and asked uncertainly, "I don't suppose you know how I got here?" Perhaps they'd seen something they had missed, absorbed as they had been in their book.
( Zombie. wolfstar )