Page 10 of Soaring into the Midlife

She struggled to maintain consciousness. With one final push, we shoved her head out of the gelatin.

She gulped in a desperate breath of air, her face returning to its normal color. "Thank you," she said, then panted.

I shoved my head out, too. “Don’t hyperventilate. Let's keep moving before we end up as a vampire-witch smoothie.”

My sarcasm earned me an amused snort from Zara.

We continued wiggling our way down, but stayed close to the edge so Kendra could stick her head out whenever she needed to.

As we neared the bottom, the gelatin seemed to become stickier, making it even more challenging to maneuver through. Our progress slowed, and my frustration rose.

"Ugh, now it feels like we're stuck in a giant, sugary glue trap," I complained.

"Tell me about it." Zara fought to free her leg from the gelatin's increasingly clingy grasp.

"We can do this,” Kendra said, her breath still coming in quick gasps.

"Right." I gritted my teeth as I forced my arm through the sticky substance. We redoubled our efforts, each movement accompanied by the unsettling sound of suction.

Before I could react, my foot slipped on the treacherous surface, and I plummeted out and downward. Panic surged through me, but Zara's quick reflexes saved me as she grabbed onto my arm, stopping my fall.

"Phew, thanks," I said breathlessly, my heart racing.

"Anytime." She grinned despite our circumstances. "Now let's get the hell out of here."

"Agreed," Kendra nodded, her determination renewed.

With that, we resumed our descent, each step and wiggle a battle against the gelatin's relentless stickiness. But our resolve held strong, fueled by our shared desire to escape this bizarre ordeal and find out what on earth was going on.

It felt like my shoes were glued to the sidewalk as we finally emerged from the gelatin, our bodies coated in the stickysubstance. I blinked in surprise at the bright sunlight pouring down on us. Zara, Kendra, and I exchanged confused looks.

"Shouldn't we be...you know, burning or something?" I asked, waving my hands over my unharmed skin. "I mean, it's daylight."

"Maybe the gelatin is a special sunscreen?" Zara scraped some of the goo off her arm.

"Seriously? Forget the gelatin.Whyis it suddenly daylight?" My frustration bubbled over. "We went into that building when it was night!"

"Let's just catch our breath for a second," Kendra said. We glanced around, trying to make sense of what had just happened.

"Okay, so we somehow ended up in a crazy gelatin skyscraper, fought our way out, and now it's daytime. Can we all agree that this is beyond weird?" I asked, looking back and forth between my friends.

"Agreed," Zara nodded, while Kendra managed a weak thumbs-up.

"Right. So, how is this happening? What is going on?" My mind raced with unanswered questions.

"Um, guys?" Zara glanced around the street. "Where are all the people?"

"Good question." I narrowed my eyes as I scanned the eerily empty sidewalks. There should have been people out and about, walking dogs, jogging, or grabbing coffee. But there was no one in sight.

"Something's definitely not right here." Kendra looked from one abandoned storefront to another.

"Understatement of the century." I snorted. "But hey, at least we're out of that gelatin nightmare. We just need to figure out what's going on and how to fix it."

"Wait." Kendra held up a hand as she squinted at the building we'd just escaped from. "Is it just me, or does that look...normal?"

"Whoa, what the—" I said as we turned to face the skyscraper. Gone was the jiggly gelatin, replaced by a perfectly normal-looking building. It stood tall, with gleaming windows reflecting the daylight that shouldn't have been there. It looked exactly like it had when we’d first pulled up, except in the sunlight instead of moonlight.

"Did that just happen?" Kendra stammered, wide-eyed and still gasping for air.