The Lockdown Looms
Teri is just trying to get home without breaking things
Transmigrated Teri is a WIP that is part of a “post 200 words a day during July” challenge issued by
. Episodes posted daily will be of various lengths and sometimes will stop in the middle of the scene. You have been warned!The set up:
Teri Travers, a nearly-50 bitter “office lady” who has not led a happy life gets in a massive car accident after being sent home on the first day of COVID lockdown in 2020. She (and her dog) wake up in a strange new world that is also strangely familiar…that’s right, she’s been transmigrated into the world of her favorite 1990s fantasy novel series, the massively popular, critically disdained, and incredibly tropetastic Allisar Fireborn Chronicles by the infamous Chadwick Jarvaldson, aka “Fuckin’ Chad” to all his very annoyed fans who are still waiting for the final book to be published.
Previously: When Teri rolled the dolly cart past them with her box and her plants, Ellie gave her a polite wave and Devon called out good luck, but everyone else ignored her.
It was fine. She was fine. It was all going to be fine.
March 16, 2020, continues back at the doggy daycare center, Barkingham Palace…
It was not fine.
Teri sat in her car in the overwhelmed parking lot at Barkingham Palace, her hands once again white knuckling the wheel for no reason, since she was parked. The place was crawling with panicked people coming to pick up their dogs, and Teri thought that she should have expected as much, given how close to the university it was. She had already recognized three professors, a dean, two students who clearly lived off their parents’ money, and the vice-president of the student affairs department go inside.
She had made the mature decision to just wait out the rush, mostly because her incipient rage might end up with her breaking something if anyone gave her attitude. All she wanted to do was go home and lock herself in her bathroom so no one, absolutely no one, could talk to her.
Her phone pinged and she instinctively picked it up.
“DID YOU HEAR THE NEWS?” Her mother shouted.
“Mom, what are you doing in the kitchen?”
“IT’S MY KITCHEN!”
Teri counted to five as she took a deep breath. “I saw the news and I’ll be home with Theo soon.”
There was a long pause…too long. Teri knew her mother had already lost the thread of the conversation.
“Theo isn’t here, I think he got out!”
“No, Mom, he’s at doggy daycare. I’m picking him up now.”
“Why did you take him there? Did you steal him?”
“I did not steal your dog! Oh my God, just hang up, I’m coming home with Theo.”
There was another long pause what sounded like the receiver being put down on the counter.
“Mom? MOM!”
More rustling sounds, and then she picked up the receiver again. “He’s not out back! Theo got out! We have to find him!”
Teri clinched her jaw. “I’ve got Theo with me now. I’m coming home. Hang up the damn phone!”
“DON’T CUSS AT ME, I’M YOUR MOTHER!” Her mother shouted and then slammed the receiver down to hang up the phone. Teri once again debated the merits of just pulling the ancient landline phone off the wall, but it was the only phone her mother could figure out how to dial anymore and even Teri could not stoop to leaving her mother with no way to call 911.
Thinking about serving time trapped in the house with her mother for an indeterminate lockdown, Teri clutched her phone so hard she heard the case creak. Looking up at the entrance to Barkingham Palace, she saw the line for pick up was out the door.