Chapter One
Realities Differ
Eurydice Dawson had always known that she wasn't normal. For starters, she had jet black hair and pure silver eyes that were flecked with white and grey like a winter storm. Secondly, she had been born in Salem, Massachusetts while her parents had been vacationing there. Or so they told her. Most of the other kids her age avoided her for that reason, saying that she was a witch.
Eurydice believed it at times, too. Once when a boy named Frankie pushed her off the monkey bars in first grade she gave him the Evil Eye and the next day the school got a phone call saying that Frankie had fallen down a flight of stairs and broken his leg. Many other strange things had happened since then, most of them benevolent.
Sometimes when Eurydice would sit down by the ocean she would see things with long scaly tails that carried tridents-but dismissing them as wild hallucinations-she mentioned them to no one. During her midnight watering, she could here the creatures singing entrancing, sorrowful melodies. Yet, the water always seemed so inviting to her, so comforting despite the creatures' presences. Eurydice and her older sister had often spent all day swimming in the summer, occasionally catching glimpses of the fish creatures.
On a darker note, whenever Eurydice ventured to the town cemetery she could see ghosts and translucent wraiths and they whispered to her, telling her things. Usually it was just gibberish, such as one woman from the nineteenth century era who had been hysterically muttering, "I left the pie to cool on the window sill!"
She didn't dare mention the ghosts to her parents, knowing that it'd land her a private room in a psycho ward. Considering that her parents already somewhat doubted her mental health, she wasn't going to take any risks by giving them proof enough to ship her to the loony bin. Besides, she herself wasn't entirely sure that the ghosts weren't just hallucination brought on by lack of energy or something along those lines.
Eurydice wasn't a morning person, adding on to her lack of sleep and weird resting patterns. She was known to get up and go on walks through the woods during the darkness of twilight. Lately it had been harder for her to sleep. Her mind was far too stirred up to relax. The walks she took only 'confirmed' her peers' accusations of her being a witch on her way to gather herbs for potions.
One of the strangest happenings in Eurydice's already strange life happened a year ago when the Dawson family had been traveling to London by plane. A bolt of lightning struck the plane during a thunderstorm. As the plane had plummeted towards the ground-babies crying while their mothers screamed, elderly couples muttering prayers, relatives calling out to each other-Eurydice saw something reach out to their plane through the black storm clouds.
Immediately, the plane had righted itself and stopped falling in its tracks. When they got through the turbulence and landed at the airport, the only evidence of the ordeal was the scorch marks found on the left wing where the lightning had struck the metal. The near tragedy had been a subject of investigation for quite a few months.
Eurydice lived in Berrington, Maine. It was rather far south, being not too far away from New Hampshire. Berrington was a rather sleepy town, close to the ocean. Her house was surrounded by forest and stood on a cliff overlooking the calm sea. Eurydice would commonly dive off the cliff into the ocean, not too far below.
Berrington looked like one of those autumn postcards of the northeast coast. It was dotted with forests, all the homes Victorian with little front porches and gingerbread trimming. The town church was white with a tall steeple and the town commons was made up by old fashioned cafes and gift shops. The town itself was located on a cliff over the ocean just like Eurydice's home, attracting many tourists each year for the annual Lobster Festival that the locals held.
There had never been any crimes or drug abuse in the area, and it was about a six hour drive to New York. The previous summer the Dawson family had vacationed in New York and its activity had made Berrington look like a graveyard. Come to think of it, nothing exciting ever really happened in Berrington and it was quite like a cemetery, only much friendlier and more welcoming.
Still, Eurydice loved it in Berrington. That was, until strange things started happening to her. Eurydice had an older sister named Electra. Electra looked much like her little sister, only with short and punk black hair and startlingly blue eyes. Electra had always been an oddball, having ADHD and being a huge daredevil—willing to jump off a roof for a quarter. Then-a month ago-Electra had disappeared on the day of her sixteenth birthday.
At first the Dawson family thought that Electra had just run off with some boy who she had become friends with named Ashton Roberts. The Dawson family had known Ashton fairly well and knew that he and Electra were likely to do something like that and somewhat dismissed the matter, until she didn't come home. And when strange things started appearing in the woods.
Just a week ago Eurydice had been walking through the woods like she usually did, looking up at the changing autumn leaves. Her parents were back at the house, most likely talking with the police who were still searching for her sister.
Eurydice's hands shook as she walked, shoulders trembling. Her mental resolve had always been very strong. She put up with her peers taunts everyday, the sting of their insults never cutting through her tough outer skin. But since Electra—her best friend and sister—had left her, her strength was slowly beginning to flake away, revealing the lonely and vulnerable girl beneath.
Suddenly, the forest became all to quiet. The birds stopped singing. There were no squirrels scampering through the overhead branches. Eurydice felt eyes bearing into her back, watching her. Uneasy, she raised her gaze from the path to the forest around her.
Then, out of nowhere a giant black dog leaped out of the bushes, knocking her to the ground. Its paws alone could crush bony Eurydice and its breath smelt of a thousand corpses. Its growl had shaken the ground and Eurydice couldn't even scream, only stare into its red eyes in horror.
Searing hot globs of spit landed on Eurydice's face and chest as the beast growled, putrid steam exiting its mouth. Just when she was sure it was going to bite off her head and finish her, a bolt of lightning struck the beast in the back.
It yelped and Eurydice had jumped to her feet, running only a few yards before the beast saw her and struck her in the back with its claws. With a cry of pain, she had crumpled to the ground, three deep gashes on her back. Her flesh felt as if someone were jabbing carving knifes into her spine and thousands of glass shards were being shoved into her.
The dog limped back over to her, the air filled with the smell of burning fur and crackling with electricity. Where the lightning had struck the animal it had left a blistering, oozing patch of skin. The beast was easily six feet tall and the branches above its head were snapped and splintered, charred black from the lightning bolt.
Eurydice stifled a frightened sob as the dog opened its gaping maw, preparing to engulf her. Eurydice never cried, but now she felt a single, icy tear race down her cheek. The dog's stinking, hot breath blew her hair straight out behind her and the stench burned her eyes. Its yellow teeth inches from her face, Eurydice knew that this time no one would save her.
Overhead, the sky grew dark and thunder rumbled. The pain in Eurydice's back was unbearable, and she found herself almost accepting a quick death. A heavy rain began to fall and the wind howled. The beast growled and snapped its jaws, its red eyes looking into Eurydice's. It claws were sinking into her skin, slowly tearing her flesh.
Then, growling, it opened its mouth for a final, fatal bite. Its jaws moved at one hundred miles per hour, and before Eurydice could realize what happened, another lightning bolt whizzed past her face, striking the beast directly inside the mouth, propelling it backwards. The beast yipped and whimpered wildly, flames engulfing its body, and then with a poof, evaporated into dust.
Realizing with a wild joy that she was alive, Eurydice leaped to her feet out of shock, but once again fell to the ground as the pain in her back raced through her like a red hot poker. Lying on the ground, she thought, I was saved by a random bolt of lightning twice for nothing. My back is shredded and I can't walk. By the time someone finds me, I would've bled out. I'm going to die out here. Alone. Forgotten.
As she lay on the ground, rain drenching her, she began to realize slowly that she didn't want to die here. She couldn't die now. She had to find Electra. She had to live to find out what had become of her beloved sister.
As her crimson blood flowed across the fallen leaves, darkness began to overtake Eurydice. She was so cold and tired. Surely a nap wouldn't hurt. With a start, she thought, No, can't close eyes. Have to live. Have to live...
Her eyes began to shut and Eurydice fought back, helplessly. Looking through the falling rain which created a hazy gray sheet, she swore she saw her sister Electra standing among the trees, holding a sword and shouting something to two boys who stood beside her. Then darkness took her.
When Eurydice had awakened three days later she was in the hospital and there was no sign of her sister or the giant dog that had attacked her. The surgeons were puzzled by what had attacked her, finally blaming it on a pit-bull judging by how deep the wounds were. She had gotten blood transfusions, stitches, IVs, and been forced to stay in the hospital for three more days. Eurydice had told the officials what had happened, but they didn't believe her. They said that she was just in shock, which she had to admit was probably true.
The attack had happened last Friday, and now on Eurydice's first day home from the hospital, she found herself gazing out her bedroom window to the spot in the woods where she'd been attacked.
Her Greek immigrant mother and American father, Mina and Spencer, had told her that they found her what they thought was about a half hour after the attack, half dead from hypothermia and blood loss. She had been deep in the woods and as soon her parents noticed that she wasn't in her room and that it had suddenly started storming, they had raced outside to look for her.
Eurydice sighed and looked at the stitches on her shoulders and back in her mirror. They looked like Frankenstein's. Her mother always called Eurydice a beautiful and gifted child, and truth be told, she was in a rather different way. Over that past few days she had hardened and darkened her old self fading into the background.
She studied her reflection. She was olive skinned like her mother and sister, although currently after her wounds she was pale. Eurydice was thin, which she had been since birth. Her glossy, raven black hair fell past her shoulders in soft curls, although a small chunk of hair was missing from the attack. Her icy silver eyes were serious and cautious, sunken into her skull and lined with dark shadows from worry and lack of sleep.
A slash on her cheek from her attack marred her, leaving a maroon scab that ran all the way to her jaw. Her left pointer finger was crooked from an old accident when she'd been learning to ride a bike nine years ago. A few old scars dotted her face from various falls and there was a cut on her bottom lip.
A few weeks before, Eurydice would have been spotted with a crooked smile. She'd gotten lucky and been born with white teeth, but one of her front teeth stuck out just slightly from the rest, just like her sister's. She typically had marker scribbles on her hands and a string or rubber band around her wrist.
Eurydice didn't look exactly like the prankster that she typically was. She looked like some supreme deity, someone of power and reason. Electra at least looked like the daredevil that she was, with her mischievous smile that rarely left her face. Eury on the other hand could be grinning, frowning, or laughing depending on her sometimes unpredictable mood.
Sitting down on her bed, she stared at the ceiling. She hadn't always been so quiet. She and her sister Electra were both tricksters with bright personalities that everyone who knew them enjoyed. Not to mention, Eurydice was a real smart alack. Not anymore, though. For the last month, she had withdrawn to her room, playing her drum-set or electric guitar by herself. Still on its stand, Electra's bass guitar looked like it was just waiting to be played.
She and Electra may have both been attractive, but they were a preppy girl's worst nightmare. They both typically only wore band t-shirts or zip-up sweatshirts with jeans. While they may have been friendly pranksters, they typically only spoke to fellow loners and drifters like themselves.
Being popular had never been one of their concerns. Eurydice's only real best friends had been her sister and at times Ashton, although she associated with others daily. Popular or unintelligent people just tended to annoy Eurydice, especially boys.
Thinking about Electra, Eurydice was surprised to feel moisture on her face. She was crying. Angrily, she wiped the tear from her face with her sleeve. Hopping up off of her soft and warm bed, she paced past her instruments and book shelves, turning at the computer desk and repeating the cycle a few times. She stopped at her window again and looked outside. She looked like a ghost in the window; pale and sad from in her yellow Victorian home. Outside the golden leaves shook in the breeze and the turquoise ocean rocked back and forth. Beyond the back porch, the forest started.
As she looked down on her yard she thought about what had happened one week ago on that very day. That beast had almost taken her life. That day the sky had been completely clear, with no sign of storms. Eurydice had decided to go for a walk after she had gotten back from the high school, trying to escape the stresses of ninth grade. And then the beast attacked her. The first lightning bolt and storm had come out of nowhere with no apparent source.
In an icy whisper, she asked to herself, "But realities differ, don't they?"
