TheDamDemigod135 I lay awake at night thinking of ur prompt. It was awesommme

AND I ACTUALLY FINISHED YESTERDAY AND THOUGHT I HIT PUBLISH BUT I DIDN'T :D 👍🏼

So yea go follow them now or else >:3

Prompt: A group of museum workers get warped into the sub space between realities and they have to find a way to get home.

I'm sorry it took so long I wanted to make it really good :]

Hope u like it!! （＊＾Ｕ＾）人（≧Ｖ≦＊）/
________________________________________________________

I remember once. It was long ago. I was young and foolish. So carefree, or maybe careless. It was a story that shook the nation; possibly the world.

However no one believed me. I don't blame them.

The summer air was crisp and warm and my night-guard uniform was itchy and uncomfortable. My heavy leather belt was an impossible weight to bare; laden with a large and unnecessarily heavy flashlight, all the keys to every door and every room in the entire uninverse, and my very favourite thing, possibly the only reason I ever accepted that damned position: a police-grade taser. It was big and bulky and commanded about as much respect as my uninform did. It had made me feel powerful, independent. I was Dave McCarthy. I was the new museum night guard.

"Stacey, let go of the boy..." my stepfather at the time was a very tired man. He was only 32, but was often mistaken to be in his late fourties or early fifties. He had streaks of grey in his neatly trimmed hair, but he didn't seem at all tidy. He looked like a man who survived on 50 coffees a day and was barely getting by. We had never really gotten along; he was obsessed with the idea of me becoming a man- my mother on the other hand loved to pretend that I was still a small child.
"Davey, you need to clip your pockets shut," she would say. "That's why there are buttons, see? And your collar needs to be flicked out a bit, there we go!" It was infuriating how she fussed, but looking back on those moments, I wish I'd been a better son to her.

My mother, Stacey McCarthy, was in her late twenties. I was her only child; my biological father had passed away when I was young and she refused to give me a sibling that didn't share his blood. She always told me that it was for my sake, but I knew what it really was. The relationship between her and my stepfather was very one-sided. My mother did all the housework, fussed over every tiny detail, but never complained. She just did as he asked. While tired, my stepfather, Paul Curries, was a very commanding man. On the night of their wedding, my mother had refused to take his surname, insisting that she keep my fathers. Paul seemed fine with that at first, but I saw them together after the ceremony and Paul was pinning her against the wall. I remember standing there, peeking behind the door of the bathroom as he spoke some very angry and very rude words to my mother. When they came back from their honeymoon, she had had a slightly healed black eye.

The evening breeze had slowly cooled and turned into the night air. I had trudged up the stone steps to the large wooden doors at the front entrance, chest puffed out and badge gleaming on my chest, to be greeted by three of my classmates and close friends: Terrence, Trevor, and Steve. They too seemed to be proud of their newfound independence.

Inside the museum, the tiled floors were cold and the hallways were empty. We waited in the main entrance, lights off, huddled together, as an uncomfortable silence pressed in on us.
"This is..." Steve seemed to fight for a word.
"Scary?" Terrence's crackling voice echoed around the chamber-like room. "You aren't scared, are you?" Terrence was a sarcastic boy. He had short brown hair parted in curtains around his forehead, and he was a lot taller than the rest of us, however puberty had not yet dared to touch his voice. He'd sounded like a 10 year old child. Steve was very quick to react to Terrence.
"No, Terrence, I was trying to say eery." Terrence looked confused. Trevor stayed silent. He didn't talk much. "Creepy. Eery is a synonym to creepy." When Terrence continued to look befuddled, Steve sighed exasperatedly and said: "A synonym is a word that means the same as another word, like awful and dreadful, or begin and-"
"I really don't have time for your nonsense, Steve." Terrence strutted around the empty room like a peacock. I finally spoke up.
"Aren't we supposed to be... you know... patrolling the corridors or something?" I remember Terrence's signature smile crawl onto his face. He grinned at me. I winced. Terrence's signature smile always meant mischief I was not allowed to say no to.

There were a lot of colours dancing in Terrence's eyes. We lay dazed and confused on the ground. He stared at me, eyes wide. He opened his mouth to speak, then closed it, and then opened it again. Finally, he managed to mutter:
"Dave... what did you do?"

We were lying on the floor of the entrance hall. I had had no memory of how we got there. However, I do remember one thing, and it was the most bizarre thing I think that any man could ever see. The next minute, a young Trevor was shaking my shoulders and pulling me to my feet.

An older and very confused Trevor was vomiting violently a few moments later. Young Trevor stood trembling nearby.

And before anyone could say anything, a formal and very professional looking woman had marched us off to her office and was threatening to call the police.
"Who in hell are you guys, and why are you-" she jabbed me hard in the chest. I choked on my breath. "Impersonating my son?" In the back corner, four young boys no older than 6 sat on large red beanbags, sucking on large fluorescent pieces of candy. It seemed like a normal scene, until you realised that they were really just younger versions of Terrence, Steve, Trevor and I. Trevor didn't speak a word as usual; he just clutched the waste-paper basket to his chest and stared down at his feet. The blonde haired lady had continued to yell and accuse us of a variety of things I was sure I had never done. Finally, Steve spoke up, pushing his round-rimmed glasses up onto his nose.
"Excuse us ma'am, but we are not here to cause any trouble. We were just doing our rounds at the museum, and-" I guess it had suddenly hit him that it was now daytime. He turned his accusation on Terrence. After a pause and a nasty glance in Terrence's direction, he continued. "Terrence here will tell you all about it, miss." He closed his mouth firmly and turned towards Terrence, who was spinning around on his chair, rolling about as though he didn't really care. He probably really didn't though, Terrence being Terrence and all.
"Don't look at me miss, it was Dave's fault." He continued to spin and spin as I stared at him. I was so young then; so naive. I didn't truly realise the person Terrence was, and I was not, and never have been, the person to question my relationships.

Slowly but surely I met my mother's eyes. I opened and shut my mouth a few times, before choking on the sentence:
"Am I dead?" She looked at me with a quizzical expression perched on her pointed face. At this point, I wasn't even sure if this was my mother. She had never been this firm or assertive before. "Terrence made me press that button. Did something bad happen? Am I dead?" and I lost all my dignity and swallowed my pride. It had all spilled away from me like a flooding river, and then the tears came. I felt overwhelmed, like little 6 year old me in the corner sitting on the beanbag sucking on a lollipop.

Over the next few days I had grown on my mother, after all, I was her son.

"So you had followed Terrence into the prohibited section of the museum, and you were sneaking around in the exhibit when you found a button?" It was a Saturday morning, and both Younger Me and Older Trevor were bustling around together at the stove-top, cooking pancakes for breakfast. I gave a curt nod.
"Yes. It was bright red, and Terrence said that it would send off an alarm, and then we could pretend that there were intruders..." My mother took a sip of her coffee as she sat reading the newspaper. Even now, looking back on it, that would always be an odd sight for me to see.
"But it wasn't an emergency button, was it?" I shook my head.
"No." My mother sighed.

Over the past few days I had been non-stop checking to make sure that everything was real. A few things had occurred to me: Whatever this place was, this was the past. There could very well be another place, being the future, that we could have travelled to. Steve had reckoned that we may have accidentally time travelled into another reality. Terrence reckoned that there could be aliens.

This place was also, very, very real.

Trevor didn't speak much, but that doesn't mean that he doesn't speak at all. Trevor had short, dark blond, almost brunette hair, he was tall, but not as tall as Terrence, and he had a small side fringe. Overall, he was a very neat, very calm boy.
"Why aren't we trying to go back?" An uncomfortable silence fell over the breakfast table. We all spoke in turns around the room.
"Boys... it was lovely to meet you all, but I can't look after you forever." My mother had uttered softly. Terrence, on the other hand, was being Terrence as usual.
"Nah, I don't want to. School is boring, I don't want to work or get a job, I just want to stay here and live my life the way I want to." Steve muttered under his breath:
"Don't we all... but Terrence, we do need to go home. What about your parents? Or your sister? Won't they miss you?" Terrence laughed.
"Screw them. I never liked my family that much anyways."

It was then that my mother had stood up, something I had never done, and strode right over to Terrence, grabbed him by the ear, and said:
"Alright, listen, young man, I've had to put up with your nonsense for the past week, and I've had enough. To tell you the truth, I don't really like you and I want you out of my house and out of my hair. If you really don't want to go back, then fine. But don't come crying to me when you end up homeless on the street." She had let go of his ear and shoved him forcefully backwards. I had never seen Terrence look so shocked. Trevor, Steve and I all got to our feet. Terrence stumbled upright, his face red. My mother picked Younger Me up, grabbed the plate of pancakes, and walked swiftly out of the door.

"So, Steve," My mother strode along the footpath with confidence, and probably also impatience to get rid of Terrence. "You theorise that if we go into the museum and press the button, you'll be transported back to your own..."
"Reality." Steve finished for her.

A chill went down my spine as we entered through the large wooden front doors. As, in that reality, at least, my mother had owned the museum, we could walk right past reception and go down any route as we pleased. And at last, we had stumbled upon it.

The exhibit was of the solar system. Large and colourfully painted planets orbited around a dazzling centre Sun.
"Daniel, where is the button?" Terrence snorted behind me.
"Your name is Daniel?" Mum mother shot him a nasty look and he feel silent.
"Why don't you show us, Terrance, since this is all your fault?" Terrence blushed and climbed over the railing that barricaded the exhibit. He walked to the back, behind the sun, and seemed to be pulling at something. My mother, concerned that we did not damage the exhibit, hurried over the railing towards Terrence. We shuffled over the railing after her.

I didn't remember any of what happened as to how we arrived, it seemed that only Terrence did. I didn't blame Terrence, either. He may have acted stupid, but he's as smart as a whip and has the memory of an elephant. He seemed to recover from any injury quite quickly. I suppose that's because he's had practice.

As we emerged beside Terrence, it became evident that he was pulling at a control panel. Eventually, the worn plastic snapped off and inside was what had seemed to be a battery pack and a large red button. Steve hurried forward excitedly, but my mother put out a firm hand and held him back.
"I just want to warn you that this may not go the way you want it to. And that it has been a pleasure looking after most of you boys." Terrence gave her a sour look. My mother removed her arm, but I stuck mine out instead.
"Wait... may I have a word with you?" I looked up into my mother's face.
"Of course, dear." We leapt down off of the exhibit, clambered over the railing and stood in the hallway. I took a deep breath in and asked the question that had been burning at my heart and my lungs and setting all my insides on fire.
"What happened to Dad?" My mother emitted a sharp intake of breath.
"He's... he's in the hospital, dear... in this...reality... I don't think he's going to make it..." I sighed.
"That's... that's okay. In my... reality... Dad didn't make it either..." We stood in silence for a moment, our eyes welling up with tears.
"Would... would you like to see him?" I felt a pang in my heart. I will always remember this next decision; I regretted it more than any other decision I have ever made.
"No." I shuffled my feet slightly. "It would be a lot to explain... and he wouldn't recognise me... and I have to go, and..."
"...and you wouldn't be able to handle seeing him?" My mother finished the sentence for me. Our sadness seemed to spill out into the hallway. Trevor peeked his head around the corner and tapped me gently on the shoulder. I gave a sad smile to my mother, and we walked quietly back up to the exhibit.

I have my mother a hug goodbye. I had never told her about my mother in my own reality, but I gave her an extra big squeeze to show her that I was proud of how far she'd come.
"Oh, and don't ever marry a man called Paul Curries." I told her.
"Paul? But I work with him, he's a lovely man,"
"Don't."
"Alright, alright..." We let go of each other and I tuned away to the button. I waved goodbye to Little Me. Terrence reached out and pressed the button.

All was quiet for a moment except for a few mechanic chunks. The only thing that happened was that the Sun started to glow and the planets began to orbit. Terrence irritably jammed his finger into the button, and the display turned off, and on, and off, and on again.

It felt like the end of the world.My heart sank into my stomach. It seemed like everyone else's did, too. And then, like a lightbulb went off inside his head, Terrence turned to me.
"Dave. You press the button." My mind sort of blanked out for a moment, before I finally stuttered:
"Are you... are you talking to... to me?"
"No," said Terrence sarcastically. I was to talking to that other guy behind you. His name is also Dave." I rolled my eyes at Terrence and stepped forward to press the button.

If I'm being really honest, I never expected it to actually work. I don't know how it worked, and I don't think I ever want to know how it worked, but soon enough I was laying back down on the museum floor, still in the daytime, with Terrence beside me, stars dancing in his eyes, and a whole lot of other people who stood around us, all of whom looked absolutely gobsmacked.

"Davey!" My mother embraced me in a tight hug. "Days! Days we've been looking for you!" She pinched and pulled at my cheek aggressively.
"Ouch... mum..." My stepfather stood over us both, not bothering to say a word to me. This made me quite angry. I had been missing for about a week and he didn't even care. "You know, Paul," my stepfather seemed shocked and appalled that I would dare address him by his first name. I usually just called him Mr Curries. "You know, Paul, my mum can do a a lot better than some selfish idiot like you." I grinned at his expression. "You never really cared about us. You only cared about yourself, and what you could gain. My mother is a lot stronger than some creepy, manipulative, pain in the neck like you. Speaking on my mother's behalf, I don't think we have a need for you anymore-"

The blow sent shockwaves down my spine. I crumpled backwards onto the concrete pathway outside of our apartment, my vision blurry, my head spinning. That was when my mother took a stand.
"You know, Paul," she spat. I think Dave's right. I don't think we do have a use for you anymore." And she raised her hand and slapped him back so hard that he too, crumpled, and he lay unconscious on the pavement. She then proceeded to yank off her wedding ring and put it in his mouth. "I hope you choke."

To this day, that was still the best moment of my entire life, despite getting slapped in the face. With the divorce finalised, we had little money, but we were free to be and do whoever and whatever we liked.
"I'm sorry Davey," my mother frequently apologised for the "mess" she had gotten us in. "Tell me more about what happened." She gave me a warm smile. My mother was the only person apart from Terrence, Trevor, and Steve that believed our telling of what had happened. In the media, they passed it off as that we were kidnapped and hid in the roof space for a week, before falling through the ceiling, with miraculously, no broken bones or health concerns.
"You owned the museum," I told her as we sat at the table of our infinitely small apartment. "I was only six years old, and Dad was in the hospital. But you were very strong!" I grinned widely at her. "You were very strong, and you never married Paul, and you stood up to Terrence, and you drank coffee and read the newspaper, and we had a house as well, and-" My mother laughed, then sighed.
"I should have never married Paul..." she smiled sadly. "But... I owned the museum, you say?" A smile spread across her beautifully tired face.

And that, is how I came to where I am today, sitting in my office, owner of the museum. A photo of a very old, grey-haired version of my mother and me sat in a picture frame on my desk. There was a knock on my door. Terrence poked his head in.
"Hey Davey," he smiled at me. "Are you still writing your story? There's work to be done, you know." His smile broadened. Terrence may have been a massive pain, but that never stopped me from marrying him. "Davey, stop writing as I speak." He began to approach me and attempted to close my laptop. "Honestly," he scoffed. "Are you writing what I'm saying as I'm saying it?" He laughed his infectious laugh. "Steve's finished his shift at the hospital, and Trevor's finished teaching his last class. We're gonna meet up for coffee, come on!" And I smiled at the last few words on the screen, closed my laptop, and headed off into life.

________________________________________________________

So I hope you enjoyed it!! No I didn't forget about it, I just spent ages on it, haha ^^

Here's a present for the long wait:

(Hope the photo loads haha)