The extraterritorial

Art, a 28-year-old, wakes up one fine day to find herself in an oversized orange jumpsuit, in a barren land. Presuming that she might have had one too many drinks the previous night, making her imagine things, goes back to sleep.

After a while she tries opening her eyes in an attempt to have sobered up in the comforts of her bedroom.

She looks around, only this time it was the land where she was before. A few familiar faces but wearing eccentric clothes surround her and look at her with a perplexed expression.

"Where am I?", she questions them and they continue staring at her as though they refused to answer an absurd question like that.

She wakes up, scratches her head a little and curses loudly. The people around take her out to an overlord, who sat at a higher position.

He furrows his brows, indicating the people to address the elephant in the room. They exchange looks and push her forward to speak for herself.

"I have no clue as to what I'm doing here or who you are. All I know is that I want to go home."

The overlord snaps his finger and the people take her away. Away to a luxurious room full of flowers which was ironic. This was her room, her own bedroom.

She sat alone on the bed thinking to herself, "Either someone has taken over the whole earth or I'm somewhere else. If the latter was the case where could I possibly be? That too wearing these so not trendy clothes."

Some time passes by and she resumes her long string of thoughts. A ring breaks her reverie and she looks up, it was a telephone. She hesitantly picks the reciever and in a shuddering voice speaks, "He... He... Hello? "

"Oh my god! Art? Is that you? Where are you?", a familiar voice asks.

Just as she was about to answer, a loud push closes the door and Art was standing next to a mirror or she thought because the girl right in front of her was what would be apt to call her 'carbon-copy'.

She holds the reciever to her ears and speaks totally aware of the new girl, "Mom? Is that you? I don't know where I am or who any of these people are.", she spoke.

"What do you mean? Where are you? Aren't you at home?", the mother enquires

"No or I guess you could call it something similar to home. The last thing I remember is how unhappy I was with my life. I wanted to disappear from the face of earth and the next thing I know is that I'm here, in my room which isn't my room."

The new girl stood patiently listening with her hands folded.

At this point Art realised that her wish had come true and she was in an extraterritorial land. She just had to figure out where she was.

She asked the girl, "Who are you? And what is this place called?"

The girl continued to smile at her and at once hugged her. A magical hug, I suppose which cured Art. It cured her of the worries and the strong wish she had to end her life. She felt like herself again.

"All throughout I desperately wanted to go back home simply because this place was home and somewhere new at the same time and I truly hated that feeling but now I want to stay.", Art explained.

The new girl furrowed her brows again in an attempt to explain Art that this isn't right. She must go back home. For this place was Pluto, not her home.

Without any words, Art miraculously understood and asked her what she must do to go back.

She directed Art to occupy the bed and close her eyes really tight. Moments of this, Art opened her eyes frantically hoping to be in the same barren land which she wanted to escape. She was in her room, wound up her in thick linen sheets.

Her phone rang, "Oh my god! Art? Is that you? Where are you?", a familiar voice asked.

"Mom? Yes, it's me. I'm home and I'm not unhappy with my life. Well, sort of you but I'll work through it. Its not worth the sad ending."

After some deliberation, the mom asked her to come over for lunch which Art agreed to and ended the call.

She opened a book lying next to her bed and wrotewrote, Now I understand why people refer to Pluto as a symbol of rebirth. There wasn't anything out of the ordinary in Pluto but that's what stood out! It didn't have to lecture me to change my perspectives about life, all I needed was right there, I just had to look.

She shut the book and yawned as she pulled herself out of her bed. She thought to herself how she had found a super interesting prompt and perspective on the life that she earlier intended on ending.