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A whole new nightmare
Love…well,
that seemed like the best way to start the story, oh so, long ago. It wasn’t.
Who am I kidding? Death, lust, and fear would have been a better way to start
the story. BTW, I finally taught that walrus to ride a bike, and I didn’t need
my training wheels. Well, this time my clicker works, so, on with the show…er…book folks.
After
what I am sure was some time, my eyes fluttered open again. My head was
pounding like a sledgehammer. Darkness surrounded and engulfed me, and a plush
fabric was laying over me, wrapped around my whole body. Was I trapped
somewhere? Could I be buried alive? Seriously, I know Sky hates me that much.
I could hardly breathe. My face was hot
and clammy. Where was the string for a dead ringer when you needed one?! Before
I knew it I screaming out in fear as I quickly sat up.
Blankets flew backward with the jolting of
my body, it seemed that was what I had been trapped beneath? Gingerly, I
touched the pulled cotton of the bright pink bedding. These were my blankets, from the house that was
burned down. With confusion as to how I could be holding a ruined object I
surveyed the area.
The
room was two stories tall with a half room width second story. The room, itself,
was really large, and painted a subtle salmon color. Posters, pictures, and
mixed wall paper pieces covered the walls like the inside of a teen girl’s
scrapbook. I blinked a few times because I didn’t know this room, and it wasn’t
mine, despite having my bedding and teddy bears. There was no way I could own
such a big house or all of the exquisite furnishings that lavished my
surroundings.
“Sammie, are you awake yet?”
I
froze. My heart was shattering. That was my mother’s
voice.
My mother entered the room, causing the
door to crinkle against the carpet. I looked up at her with tears in my eyes,
and my heart sank.
Was this heaven? It wasn’t possible for
this to be anything else because my mother was dead. I saw her body in those flames
while I fought Melzabar, and I was still blaming myself for her death. This
must be a dream!
“Get dressed sweetheart.” Mother drew back
the curtains allowing rays of pale yellow sunlight to pour across the floor.
The
brightness overpowered me and I began rubbing my eyes for clarity in vision.
“Dressed for what?”
“School, silly,” She replied.
“Why am I going to school?” I shook my
head. Last year I had graduated from high school, and I hadn’t had the courage
to rush off to state college yet. I had worked so hard to graduate a year
earlier than I should have. What was mom talking about?
“Because
you aren’t sick anymore.” She was a just as I remembered her, clad in a floral,
handmade apron with the smell of white chocolate, caramel brownies lingering
around her.
“Sick?” I mumbled as a question, and
pinched myself because I knew this had to be a dream, only the pinch hurt. So, I
wasn’t dreaming, and I wasn’t in heaven? Where was I?
“Yes, sweet heart. You’ve been taking
medication for the flue for a good three days,” my mother replied.
My
jaw dropped, and my eyes flew wide. There was nothing that could keep me from
flipping out as badly as I was.
In terror I grabbed fistfuls of my hair
and shook my head trying to escape the words. Then, locks of my hair fell down
in front of my eyes, and I really lost it.
“I’m blonde!” I looked at the dangling
strands of hair in utter bewilderment and fear. “What happened to my auburn
hair?”
“You’re the head cheerleader, sweetie. You
dyed it freshman year, remember? It’s unheard of to have a warm haired leader.”
My mother shut the door behind her.
I ran my hands down my body and into my
lap, when I happened to feel the leather-bound diary that was Falcon’s and saw
my engagement ring. Falcon and magick couldn’t possibly be a dream, not if I
still had the two things from my reality that I hadn’t handed over to Mazeena.
Head
cheerleader, blonde, and still in high school? What is going on! Where am I?
That
was how my day started. One day I’m fighting demons, and the next I am in a
whole new world without the man that I love. Normality was something I had
always wanted to regain after meeting Bonnie-Kate, but how is this possible?
Swiftly, I unclasped my Arched Wing
necklace to drop my engagement ring around the chain, and then I rushed out of
my bedroom without thinking about what my Mother would say.
Falcon, I needed to find Falcon, and he
had to be somewhere in this world. Hell, even if he was at the North Pole, I
would find a way to him.
As
I sprinted out the front door, I slipped on a pair of flip flops, and grabbed
the nearest coat. I looked kind of funny in my care bear, PJ pants, and a
floral, trench coat. Bed head had attacked my scalp, but I didn’t care, didn’t
even brush it. Knowing my hair was blonde was enough, I didn’t believe I could
handle seeing it that color.
I dashed down the gravel driveway, kicking
up rocks with each step.
Was it true that I was still trapped in
the horrid hallways that were high school conformity. Wait, high school? Ms. Kozaki was a witch, and she kept a crystal on a
chain in the history classroom. I could Skry with it! Now, all I required
was a way in which to get to the high school, despite how much I yearned to
avoid the sea of snobby teenagers and green-gray lockers.
Slowly,
an expensive SUV pulled into the driveway. Jennifer pushed past me, and headed
for the car.
I paused. What was up with Jennifer? She
was wearing neon, clip in extensions in her hair, and a fishnet sleeved blouse.
Was she all Emo now? Hold it my sister didn’t cruise the sale bins at Hot
Topic, she rampaged the clearance section at American Eagle, and Aeropostale.
“Jennifer,
what are you doing?” I reached out for my punked out sister.
Jennifer turned and smiled. “Come on,
Mariah doesn’t have all day.”
My sanity, what little I had left, skidded
to a halt. “Mariah?” It was true, I needed medication. Everything time I
finally become convinced that the paranormal changes around me were real, and
that I was not, in fact, clinically insane, something like this would happen.
First I was a semi-normal teenager who was drug into the surrealism of being
trapped under debris in Scotland, and now I was a witch confined to the blue
skies of normality!
The
car window came down, and Mariah leaned out of the car.
“Come on loser. Your Caramel Frappe is
getting warm,” Mariah laughed out the window. “Gonna ignore your BFF now?”
Just
like an anime character, my jaw hit the gravel covered ground. “BFF….BFF!”
Mariah
was joking, she just had to be joking. There was no way on God’s green earth
that I would willing spend all my time with Mariah as best friends, let that I
would even consider her a person worth having any kind of positive relationship
with. Then again, she was going to the school. No reason to look a gift horse
in the mouth.
With the determination to find Falcon
playing at my mind, I climbed into the passenger’s seat, and flipped off the
top of the iced-coffee. Once again, a gift horse, a caramel flavored one.
Sitting in the back seat was a girl from
my school named Betsy Cosgrove. She was one of the cheerleaders, and I recalled
her being the biggest gossip in school. Although, she may have had loose lips,
she was always a reliable source.
Betsy had beautiful, light black skin, and
huge green eyes. Her pin tight curls were pulled back into a high pony tail.
She smiled, pulling out her camera, and tossing it up to me.
“I got the dirt,” Betsy laughed. “Ms.
Kozaki said she had a vision of the future, I know weird, huh? Well, she was
all like I need to have a college grad student to assist me at the high school,
and like totally pushed in through.”
“What does that have to do with your
phone?” I asked. Reliable, yes. Brief,
no.
“Then Mr. Rue said the same thing, and
picked a Grad intern too!” Betsy giggled.
“They some geeky girls?” Mariah laughed.
“Uber lame. It’s Toe Up.”
“Oh, No, they aren’t geeky or girls. Check
the pictures. The first guy is Ms. Kozaki’s dude. The two dudes they are
brothers. You’ll be shocked, Sam! Totally shocked!” Betsy took a long slug of
her iced-coffee. Looked like my group of friends has a Starbucks addiction,
but, then again, I had the same problem in my world too.
I flicked into her phone photos. My eyes
widened. “Dru.” I almost dropped the phone.
“Yep, he is so gonna be at school, in
class with you, like every day. Are you stocked or what?” She waited for my
replied, but I was too baffled to even speak. “The second is Mr. Rue’s.”
I flicked to the second. “Falcon!” I
screamed as the car pulled into the school parking lot. Mariah was at a stop,
idling to find a space to park. Without even considering the face that Betsy
had be talking about Dru as if we all knew him, I opened the door and leapt out
of the car. I hurriedly headed toward the school door, the thought about what
Betsy said starting to kick in. Quickly, the thought was dismissed, I mean,
they probably all know him because he is my boyfriend’s brother.
“What is up with the PJ pants?” Someone
shouted. I didn’t care. I kept running, going right past them, with Betsy
chasing me all the while.
I stormed through the high school halls,
pushing past people. Getting to the history classroom was my goal, and nothing
and no one was going to detour me from my chosen path. Now that I had solid
proof, from the cell phone still in my hand, that Falcon was alive, I needed to
find him.
As I entered the history classroom, I
turned, tossed Betsy her phone, and then slammed the door in her face, locking
it behind me. No time was wasted, within seconds I was rummaging through desk
drawers to find that crystal.
A noise startled me, I looked up. “Ms.
Kozaki?” I asked. “But the door is…”
“Locked,” Ms. Kozaki said, finishing my
sentence. “Doors do not bind me. I suppose you are looking for my Skrying
crystal?”
“Yes.” I looked down in shame. “I need to
find…”
“Your love,” Ms. Kozaki finished for me,
again, blowing on a candle. A flame appeared onto the candle’s once empty wick.
“A while ago I would have freaked out from
that…but now…”
“Now you know you are a witch. I sensed
the shift of worlds my dear. I am a high priestess. A Templar Woman chosen to
guide you to the men holding the Tana De Dan Soul.”
My heart leapt in my chest. “I always
wondered. In high school, in my world, you always had something to teach me,
some place to send me. Getting a passport was your idea.”
Ms. Kozaki pounded on the desk, and a
secret drawer opened. Carefully, she extracted the crystal. “I lead you on the
correct path. The choice is now yours to make. I can however offer you this.”
Ms. Kozaki handed me the crystal. “I’ll see you, in time,” She vowed.
“See me in time, wait, are you not…?” I
swallowed hard.
“Part of this world? I am not a human
Templar. Oh, and Sam, just so you know this world is very different from yours.
To start with this is not New York State.” Ms. Kozaki vanished.
I turned to see a map laying on one of the
desks. With great determination I held the crystal, dangling by its chain, over
the map, and watched it swing back and forth. After a few minutes of endless
strain on my out stretched arm, the crystal dropped onto a location. “The
university. MacMillan Dorms. Got’cha.”
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