Chapter 1
I rummaged through the basement junk. I would one day be queen of the entire kingdom or so my mother, the present ruling monarch’s advisor told me. As the only daughter, I was the only heir apparent for the throne. Yet at 12 I still had no idea which path I should follow. What would make me a successful royal?
The kingdom had seen better days, under my grandmother’s reign the kingdom had prospered. Yet under my mother’s reign, the royal funds had quickly been chewed away. The kingdom was deeply in debt. Through the piles of grime and sludge in the leaky dreary basement I found it. A… chess set? Odd, my grandmother had said what I found would help me become a real monarch. My physical form dematerialized as I became a star amongst the pieces.
Chapter 2
A deep breath in and I returned to the board. I was miniature now, about the size of a small painted wooden doll. Glass chess pieces towered over me in all directions. The board beneath me was hard sturdy wood that echoed loudly when I bumped against it with my fist. The queen on the opposite side came to life and walked towards me.
The ultimate ruler or at least how I envisioned one would look. Her white cape with a golden trim lightly dragged against the ground as she walked towards me. Her shining white boots that had been freshly waxed by a servant clacked against the wood. The woman was twice my size, comically large by human standards.
“My has it been years,” the wooden queen smiled.
“Wh-who are you?!” I screamed.
“I am whatever you envision me to be,” she explained in a way which cleared up nothing “if you’ve found this chess board it means you have a dream.”
“‘Dream’?” I quizzically asked.
“In your case, it’s to rule over the people.”
I sighed, “you’re correct.”
“Are you ready,” she asked, “your dimensional chess is about to be underway!”
“”Chess’,” I repeated back desperate for details to get out of my current predicament, “‘dimensional’?”
“Your many selves,” she responded, “your other selves. In time it shall all become clear.”
With the snap of her white gloved hand, I shut my eyes as the pieces clicked back into place.
Chapter 3
A deep breath in and I returned to the board. Opposite me sat another me, cross legged, on the wooden board. She mirrored me in every way. My reflection? Curious.
The chess pieces began to move on their own. The pawn moved forward with a loud resonating clack. The heavy wooden knight gracefully moved right and up, soaring over the pawns. It flew over my head as I stared in disbelief. I stared at my other self. Her pupils were wide; it terrified me. She would not respond to any words I spoke. Out of terror, I shut my eyes as the pieces clicked back into place.
Chapter
A deep breath in and I returned to the board. Blue bubbles as hard as marbles sat beneath the board. Translucent film ascended outward in all directions like flower petals. Images played out scenes from lives I had no recognition of. The board itself was glass this time, the clack of the marble like bubbles as they collided beneath me resonated deep within. A firefly emerged from one of the bubbles. I shut my eyes as the pieces clicked back into place.
Chapter
A deep breath in and I returned to the board. I sat afloat on the ocean waves. The translucent board bobbed up and down gently with the whistling breeze. The salty air tickled my throat and stung my nostrils. I shut my eyes as the pieces clicked back into place.
Chapter 4
A deep breath in and I returned to the board. A woman with puffed out green hair, purple, creased, wrinkly fingernails, and puffy blue lips and a wisp for instead of legs sat opposite me. The chess board was made of glass. it pinged. As we sat, the wind whistled in my ears. The wind goddess. I recognized her from my grandmother’s fairy tales which now collected fine, gray and white dust on the basement shelf.
The wind goddess assisted my ancestors in cooling the emerging continent. The chess pieces clicked. My rook had taken out her pawn. I heard a crackling fizzle as the once massive liquid shape took solid form. The clouds beneath me were steam of a forming mega-continent. I shut my eyes as the pieces clicked back into place.
Chapter 5
A deep breath in and I returned to the board. The wheat field beneath me was flattened by the chessboard. The breeze rustled the wheat as it collided like dominoes and bounced back. The ebb and flow back and fourth. The person this time was another me. She told me tales of a world similar to my own where my grandmother never ceded the throne to my mother. Her green veins bulged as she yelled in her fury. So this was the one of many mes I would come across. I see, so that horrified other self was also…. I shut my eyes as the pieces clicked back into place.
Chapter
A deep breath in and I returned to the board. A candle wax horse finely carved rested next on the ebony desk next to the board. An elaborately painted wooden doll swallowed the pawns one by one and became one with them. A wildly mismatched king piece was swiftly put into checkmate. I shut my eyes as the pieces clicked back into place.
Chapter
A deep breath in and I returned to the board. The quiet rain pounced upon the wooden pieces. Crystalized, the pieces began to take new shape and life. The entire scene formed a sequence from an old black and white film. I shut my eyes as the pieces clicked back into place.
Chapter
A deep breath in and I returned to the board. A deceased oak tree branch was where I spent my afternoon. The board swayed back and fourth on the branch in the gentle, warm breeze as the sun rested in the sky. Honeybees gathered dripping golden dew all around me to return to their nest with. I shut my eyes as the pieces clicked into place.
Chapter
A deep breath in and I returned to the board. The flaming phoenix ascended and melted the board only for the board itself to be reborn anew. In the process, I surged with hope. At last a momentary escape from my bird cage before being swept back in. I shut my eyes as the pieces clicked into place.
Chapter 6
A deep breath in and I returned to the board. I was in an abandoned village. The empty worn down brown rotting houses sat there in decay. Their windows cracked. Vacant buildings. Not a soul around. This time no person sat opposite me on the chess board I was alone with the giant wooden pieces towering over me.
The chess pieces clicked and bounced off each other and the ground beneath as they moved about. A pristine, bright white soul flooded my vision. Was it my past? My future? Who was communicating with me? Voices filled my mind, pulsing louder and louder in my head. The pitch black sky overwhelmed me, even the crescent moon itself had clouded over. The trickster she was from the folk tales, I sensed the presence of the light goddess. I shut my eyes as the pieces clicked back into place.
Chapter 7
A deep breath in and I returned to the board. The earth was in plain view high above me in the moon’s night sky. I sat at the bottom of a deep crater, the blackness stretched out all around me. The board was coated in a thin layer of fine, gray dust. The pawns moved forward of their own will. This was one match I had no control over in my mind. The person sitting opposite me was yet another me.
She smiled warmly. I shuddered, she was unnaturally gleeful given the circumstances. I realized I could breathe. It struck me as odd, I was in space after all. In reality, I should not even be alive on the moon, so this thought should have crossed my mind sooner. As the other me begins to silently form words with her mouth, I shut my eyes as the pieces clicked back into place.
Chapter 8
A deep breath in and I returned to the board. The chess board was clear this time, it sat above a pond. In the pond’s reflection was a sea of stars. Tiny mountains specked the deep space. The endless pool of blackness rippled in the water. There was no opponent for this duel I was on my own. The mountains rotated clockwise and counter clockwise, even and odd. The Stoney mountains were neatly organized in rows. It terrified me how immaculately placed they were in the pond’s reflection. I shut my eyes as the pieces clicked back into place.
Chapter 9
A deep breath in and I returned to the board. I began to sink beneath the waves, deeper and deeper I rose into the water, a trail of bubbles descended downward to the surface. In front of me sat yet another me, this time she was elegantly dressed. She had no face it sent a chill down my spine.
I sensed it, this was one of my inner selves. My queen took out pawn after pawn, the other me wouldn’t make a single move. My mother had tried to raise me to be an obedient queen who would follow her own whims like the wooden doll in front of me. With a rook and my queen, I put her into check. I had found and defeated one of my true selves in dimensional chess at last. I shut my eyes as the pieces clicked back into place.
Chapter 10
A deep breath in and I returned to the board. The white lilies sat serenely between the benches. The scent of nectar filled the air as honeybees collected for their. A statue sat opposite me on the chess board. It was an elaborately chiseled construct. Birds chirped their serene songs. Content, I shut my eyes as the pieces clicked back into place.
Chapter 11
A deep breath in and I returned to the board. I sat on my cathedra with a glass night stand with a black frame in front of me. The snowy slope, the rocky pathways, the wrinkles in the rock it was all etched into my mind. Today’s food was tea and ham and cheese sandwiches.
A mountain sat behind me, it’s reflection was a mirage distorted in the water. Another me sat opposite. She wore an evil grin, her teeth were jagged, her eyes were a brownish red. Cherry blossoms descended from the trees onto the lilly pads in the lake. The lillypad’s vines descended deep into the reflection. The other me regaled me with tales of an ancient species that once destroyed destroyed the world of old. This one was definitely not a potential self I desired to mimic. I shut my eyes as the pieces clicked back into place.
Chapter 12
A deep breath in and I returned to the board. Today’s meal was cookies and, again, tea. The bittersweet aroma filled my nostrils and calmed me. No cathedra sat opposite me this time. The wooden pieces clicked as they reset to their places on the board. The alternate me from the demon race was still sending shivers down my spine.
The glass chess set was absolutely still in the clouds. The sky was a brilliant blue. The noises and dread from the tales terrified me. I was only eleven; even an adult could not have processed the ancient tongue and still remained sane. The sky rippled outward as a sense of tranquil peace filled me. The light goddess had, at last, given me her blessing. I shut my eyes as the pieces clicked back into place.
Chapter 13
A deep breath in and I returned to the board. Today’s treat was chocolate chip cookies and, yes, again tea. The landscape the chess board rested on this time was hell. My grandmother once confessed to me a secret passed down through the royal family, we had descended from a powerful demon clan in hell. The flames around me felt all too real. The heat in my chest grew heavier and heavier. The pillars of fire spiralled upwards like staircases. I shut my eyes as the pieces clicked back into place.
Chapter 14
A deep breath in and I returned to the board.Today’s snack was white chocolate cookies and, yes, as per usual, tea. The landscape this time was a circus in the clouds. A lion formed from clouds gobbled up the pawns with a swift snap. The cloud elephant crushed chess piece after chess piece.
The dew from the clouds made the air stuffy and dry. Circus animals made bizarre mismatched sounds. The realism of this vision, the thin air had begun to choke me. Was it the demon blood awakening from the last dimensional chess match or another cause entirely? I fell to the board, the demon me stared down at me with her entrancing blood red eyes. I shut my eyes as the pieces clicked back into place.
Chapter 15
A deep breath in and I returned to the board. The setting this time was a foggy brick bridge. It had decayed and begun to rot from lack of maintenance. I put one foot up and then the other as the demon alternate self gazed back at me, her eyes darker and darker reds. Slowly, I wheezed and panted as I walked towards her and gave her a hug.
“I’m sorry I neglected to acknowledge you,” tears flowed from my eye, “you’re still a part of me, that’s fine, but I do not want to hurt those I cherish. The other me vanished into specks of dust on the board. The match had continued to play out as I had come to make peace with this part of me. The dark goddess appeared, her curls of hair rose upward. Her torn dress flowed elegantly.
“You must cherish and love all parts of yourself, never forget this lesson, child,” the goddess of darkness let out a single tear as she spoke.
The goddess of darkness returned the hug back. I now had the blessings of the light and dark.
Chapter 16
A deep breath in and I returned to the board. A brilliant gold pyramid set firmly in the distance. The chess board was quickly covered by the grains of sand. The other parts of me, I needed to accept them all if I had any hope of one day becoming a monarch worthy of the throne. The heat bended the glittering sands. I sipped my tea to ease my nerves. Could I really come to terms with myself? I shut my eyes as the pieces clicked back into place.
Chapter 17
A deep breath and I returned to the board. Those with demon blood were the only people who could harness the elements. Even so, as I sat above a dormant volcano on a chess board, I wondered and mused as I sipped my tea. The trail of steam blended with the volcano smoke. The warm heat soothes my stressed mind Between illusion and reality I slipped. A small pink being with sock like ears and beads for eyes appeared before me, they were no opponent. I shut my eyes as the pieces fell into place.
Chapter 18
A deep breath in and I returned to the board. I sat atop a cliff. The waves beneath washed against the tides. Back and forth, back and forth. It calmed my startled spirits as I sipped my tea and scarfed down a chocolate chip cookie.
“I sense you aren’t here for a duel,” I asked.
“Correct, coo,” Coo replied.
Dead silence filled the air after that,.I sighed, this one I sensed was going to be an even bigger pain. A sweatdrop fell from my forehead. This was uncomfortable to say the least. What even was this thing? The salty sea air filled my nostrils and renewed my spirits.
“Alright, let’s try this again,” I began, “WHO are you?”
“I am your demon coo,” Coo explained, “I awakened in you once you accepted your inner self.”
I twitched. I sensed this was all the explanation I was going to get. I guzzled back the tea hoping it would calm my rising anger. Was I stuck with this thing or…? A large wave washed over me and cleansed my spirits as I shut my eyes and the pieces fell into place.
Chapter 19
A deep breath in and I returned to the board. The me who sat in the cathedra opposite this time was the me with the eerie warm smile once again. I shuddered. Coo hovered next to me as I stress ate cookies.
“You can’t escape yourself, huh?” she chuckled.
“Deep breaths, coo!”
A dead oak tree reflected in the cubed mirror in each direction. The hollowed out black pool interior was filled with bugs of all types which crawled about. Cicadas dryly chirped. The heat pulsed and reflected off each of the mirrors. Heavily, I wheezed. I shut my eyes as the pieces fell into place.
Chapter 20
A deep breath and I returned to the board. The numbers and letters poured over me and around me. They collided off each other, bounced, faded and reermerged. The data was like liquid pools. It whirled about like the wind. A computer. What an odd concept the book itself I was trapped in contained infinite ideas and creativity.
I had made my decision when I went down to that basement searching for that book I was going to become a queen worthy of the throne. The cold calculated smile of the other me gazed back at me. Heat and a chilling cool flared through me. What exactly were her motives as the wooden pieces collided off each other and vanished altogether. I shut my eyes as the pieces clicked back into place.
Chapter 21
A deep breath in and I returned to the board. The wooden statues stretched off into the distance. It reminded me of the old fairy tale of the people inside the wooden horse. The chess pieces clicked and clacked as they vanished one by one. The smile from the other me became more and more menacing. What exactly did she have in mind?
I shuddered at the thoughts as they pulsed through my mind. Then she spoke.
“… let go.”
“Huh?”
“You need to let go of the mistrust in your heart.”
“You trust people don’t you coo?” Coo asked.
“I– alright. I’ll give it a try.”
A humming came from the wooden statues as they emanated a faint glow. A song in an ancient tongue came from within me. The voices of the earth itself and nature filled me. My breathing became heavy as I soaked in my surroundings. Trust.Trust myself and everything else that it will work out.
Wait. It was true a monarch needed to trust her subjects, yet she also needed to prepare for– My other self’s queen toppled my king. Her grin became more evil as this other me erupted into laughter.
“Checkmate,” she cackled.
I shut my eyes as the pieces clicked back into place.
Chapter 22
The dual nature of being a royal. You never knew who to trust and not to trust. The back stabbings and betrayals had seen the deaths of many of my ancestors. This was the lesson I learned from the lost fight with the other me. The chess board had no pieces on it this time. It glowed like fireflies. The other me with the faint smile appeared before me in the pitch blackness. She walked up to me and gave me a warm hug. Joy and relief filled my heart.
“Congratulations, you passed the lesson,” she spoke much more warmly now.
Her smile was much more natural as she embraced me. The board vanished as fireflies flew away into the blackness in order to be reborn. Time lost all meaning in the blackness, my only companions were the floating lights. The only solution to that duel had been defeat. It was a necessary, required part of my healing yet still the loss devastated me. All around me was darkness. I felt warmness and comfort in it. I shut my eyes as the pieces clicked back into place.
Chapter 23
Deeper and deeper I sunk beneath the sea. Little volcanoes emitted lava which melted and cooled as it reached the water itself. The faint glow was all that illuminated my path. The fireflies hummed enchantingly before they became stick people made from fire paper. One would be the same direction as me the one next to it was opposite as they danced and danced. A trail of bubbles went upwards while another descended into the sea depths. A bright light shone, overwhelming my vision as I shut my eyes. My rebirth onto the playing field, at last.
Chapter 24
The fireflies collided off one another and swirled about. The chess board stood on a shadow lake. The fireflies rippled off the liquid darkness. I gazed at its beauty. A firefly landed on the palm of my hand. The heat its light emitted warmed my cold heart and renewed my spirits for the day. The warmth was gentle, almost welcoming. Inviting. I hummed a tune. It was the song my grandma sung to me as a child. Wooden chess pieces collided and just as quickly vanished. The board was welcoming my return.
Chapter 25
A deep breath in and I returned to the board. The trickling rain spattered across the board as a heavy storm tossed me back and fourth, back and forth. Blues and blacks whirled around me. The storm’s burden grew heavier and heavier on my chest. As the wooden pieces clicked and clacked, I began to recognize who or what was causing this torrent to overwhelm me.
The water goddess was as beautiful as she was a nasty foe to face against. The smell of the chess pieces decayed and I aged more and more. One day I would need to bear the responsibilities which came with being a monarch. I would likely have to carry the burden of deaths looming over my head as my mother and grandmother had to bear as queens before me. Deeply I breathed in and out, in and out. I accept I whispered under my breath.
The rain took physical form. The water goddess emerged from the droplets of rain. Gently, ever so gently, she passed onto me her blessing in the form of a kiss on the forehead. My anxieties washed away. I shut my eyes as the pieces clicked into place.
Chapter 26
A deep breath in and I returned to the board. I sat inside the base of a giant oak tree. Pollen rose the chess board upward in a waft of heated air. Fuzzy dandelion puffs ascended upward as the sweet pollen filled my nostrils. I felt the fuzzy dandelion puff between my fingers, the sensation was warm and inviting. Beady eyes stared at me, I smiled back at them in return.
The wooden pieces whirred and clacked against each other as they vanished as particles, merging with the rising sap. The bubbles rose higher and higher as the golden honey ascended upward within the tree. The chess pieces pierced the top of the tree. Adrenaline filled me. I shut my eyes as the pieces clicked into place.
Chapter 27
A deep breath in and I returned to the board. The warm sand soothed me as I felt it between my toes. The sandy beach was a pure pristine white the shade of salt. Across from me stood a wooden soldier entirely unpainted in a salute position. The chess board was completely coated in the shimmering salts.
The pawns marched forward of their own volition. The ocean breeze washed over me. The pawns vanished into thin air as they defeated each other with ease. The board began to spin as sand scattered in all directions, the wooden soldiers began to march forward bringing their spears forward. With only a handful of pieces left, I toppled the last soldier with my queen. I shut my eyes as the pieces clicked into place.
Chapter 28
A deep breath in and I returned to the board. The first winter snow had fallen, the snowflakes fluttered downward as tiny insignificant specks across a vast landscape. The snow fettered the grassy plains in larger and larger numbers. The heat from the board washed away my stress and fears along with the snow which vanished in the blink of an eye. The contrast between the crushed green grass beneath me and the large mounting piles of snow imprinted itself in my mind. I shut my eyes as the pieces clicked back into place.
Chapter 29
A deep breath in and I returned to the board. I stood beneath a cherry blossom tree, the beautiful sakura petals fluttered as they descended to the earth. The sweet aroma which wafted downward from the trees overjoyed me. The bees absorbed the pollen and released a light golden glow into the air. The chess pieces began to grow lilies which, kinetically, the bees lapped up and as a surge of electricity flowed through and between them. I hummed a soft tune, shut my eyes, and the pieces clicked back into place.
Chapter 30
A deep breath in and I returned to the board. Fireflies hovered around me in a warm swamp. Lilypads descended deep into the rippling waters. Pale pink flowers blossomed from them. The water was muddy, the deeper into it you peered the more difficult you would struggle to see.
A toad in a kimono methodically hopped from one foot to another opposite me on the board. He hummed a simple tune children sang where I grew up. It sounded nostalgic somehow. Heat filled my body, I drifted off too sleep. I shut my eyes as the pieces clicked back into place.
Chapter
A deep breath in and I returned to the board. Demons were a byproduct of the white queen’s whims. They were tiny creatures not too indistinct from plush toys. I was one such creature.
Hardly more than fifteen centimeters tall with black buttons for eyes. My body was formed from cobbled together pink cloth. Red stitches etched into me. I sat motionless in a bright colorful room with other demons piled up into the multicolor expanse. I shut my eyes as the pieces clicked back into place.
Chapter 31
A deep breath in and I returned to the board. The young lady was of the nobility, she loved to topple the pawns like peasants. Her neat checkered red and black dress with white lace stuck out to the aristocrats. I watched her play chess with an elderly gentleman, top-hat and all, from the translucent, glass chessboard.
The elderly man seemed perplexed by the odd way she moved the pieces. The girl calculated each move yet she moved the pieces so clumsily.and into odd positions. I doubted I could defeat her in a match. The stone pathway they were rested on lead to a disheveled garden of purple daisies and weeds. I shut my eyes as the pieces clicked back into place.
Chapter 32
A deep breath in and I returned to the board. Before me stood the queen, the towering menacing figure dressed in glimmering white clothes which merged and parted with the blank white slate backdrop. The queen’s shoes clacked against the white floor as she marched without hesitation towards me.
“Fooling around with dimensions I see,” the queen menacingly smirked.
I gulped, “why did you bring me to this place?”
The queen materialized a golden harp in front of her, she began to play.
“Have you learned anything?”
“‘Anything’,” I began, “this world is magnificent.”
“This is many worlds.”
A sky materialized as she played her harp the sounds vibrated, it filled me with strange feelings. The harp felt nostalgic somehow, grandmother used to play one to lull me to sleep when I was young. The sun sunk from the sky as the moon emerged between the clouds. Hours, days, weeks, a vast endless canyon of time elapsed in a moment.
I sat atop my golden throne and stared into the sunset. A vast domain which I towered over laid out before me. I shut my eyes as the pieces clicked back into place. When my eyes reopened I was eleven again. The book sat beside me on the basement floor.
I stared at my hands. That dream like world had been a magnificent place, yet, I cast it and my childhood aside. I made my decision when that other me, the white queen, stood before me. I shut the book which had fallen open when I returned. The memories of my time in that surreal place vanished like particles into the air in minutes as I carried the book upstairs with me up the stairs.
Comicedy 