The Day Her World Changed

When the day began, she was not expecting the world to change. Julia lived in a world that was much the same, each day much the same as the day before it and much the same as the day that would follow it.

There had been times, when she was younger, when she expected the world to become magical, full of all those wonders she read about in stories. She had thought that one day her prince would come to take her away to some magical kingdom.

Now, though, she was older and every prince she’d met had turned out to be either a frog – the good ones – or a toad – the rest. There had been no magical kingdoms and no wonder; no unicorns and no dragons.

The day the world changed though, was much the same as any other day. There had been a storm the night before, and the sea was still wild, still rough, as she walked along the dunes. The dunes hadn’t changed much, looking just as wind-blown and desolate as they’d always looked for all the years the family had been holidaying in this same place, year after year.

Then, she slipped and fell, ending up at the bottom of a dune where she found the trapdoor. The trapdoor she had never seen before in all the years of the annual holidays. It took her only a few seconds to open the door and in those few seconds Julia’s world changed forever.