Barcelona. June 23rd

"It's finally over!," yelled a girl, jumping down the last three steps of the stairs that lead her and her friends out of the Faculty of Economics of Barcelona. "We've just ended our Selectivity exams and we're going to have three whole months of non-stop partying!"

Her name was Anna, and she wasn't a very tall girl. She had straight, shoulder-length, black hair and brown eyes. With one hand, she held a bunch of papers: class notes and summaries of the different subjects that they had been studying for the past three weeks. They had just done the Selectivity exams, the exams to enter the University.

"That is, of course, if you pass the Selectivity and don't have to take the September test," replied a boy who walked a few meters behind her. He wasn't very tall for his age, but he couldn't be considered to be short either. He had dark hair as well and his eyes were light brown.

"Shut up, Raül! Of course I'll pass. And in October I'll enter the Faculty of Journalism… and maybe find a handsome, caring man."

"October? Didn't you say you'd look for one at tomorrow's party? It's Saint John's Eve, remember?" said another of her friends, a girl with wavy, long, brown hair and beautiful, deep blue eyes.

"You're so right, Mariona! We should find you a good man, too. Wouldn't it be a wonderful birthday present?" Anna replied, taking her friend's arm.

"No man would be interested in Marimandona, she's way too bossy." The two girls turned around and gave a killer look to Pau, Raül's best friend. He was quite tall, over the average height. He had messy, light brown hair and green eyes, which, Mariona thought, were the only attractive thing that he had.

"I think that Anna said a man, not a boy like you, my dear Pau Bosch," she answered, with an ironic tone in her voice. "That means that your opinion is not needed, thank you." Before Pau could speak again, she added, with a sarcastic smile: "Oh, and by the way, since I'm such a bossy person, I order you to keep your mouth shut."

"I'm so glad I won't be hearing your orders everyday anymore…" Pau said, comically.

That had been their last year together in high school. On October they'd start going to different faculties: Mariona wanted to become a biologist; Anna, a journalist; Pau, a surgeon; and Raül wanted to run his own business after studying Economics. Their lives would change for sure, but little did they know how much… especially Mariona.

The following night there was a party at the beach to celebrate Saint John's Eve. It was a very popular holiday, with fireworks and bonfires: it is called the magical night. The four friends had planned to have dinner late so Mariona could blow her 18th birthday candles at midnight and, afterwards, go somewhere to dance and see the sunrise on the beach.

"Ask for a wish before blowing," Anna reminded her best friend when Mariona had the small chocolate cake with eighteen lit candles in front of her.

"Of course I will, Anna…" she replied, closed her eyes and blew. Anna, Pau and Raül applauded and some people that sat on tables nearby joined.

"What have you wished?" Anna asked.

"Anna, she can't say or it won't come true!" Raül reminded her, like she was a little child.

"Knowing her, she must have wished for a handsome, tall, dark-haired guy to become her blue prince tonight," said Pau, trying to laugh at her but, at the same time, with a very slight tone of sadness in his voice.

"You could be that blue prince if you wished, Pau," replied Mariona, ironically. "It's a shame that I'm too bossy for you."

Pau hugged her and kissed her cheek. "I'll be here to make sure that no evil witch tries to turn your prince into a frog." And he hugged her again. "You're an adult already, Mariona! Congratulations, you made it! But remember you can now go to prison."

"Oh, Pau, you just spoiled the sweet moment!" the other three said at the same time.

They left the restaurant and headed to the city's port. The beach wasn't far from there and they could get there walking for about five minutes. There was an open-air disco near the beach and they got inside. They had been dancing for a while when Mariona said that she wanted to buy a drink, and she walked to the bar. While she waited for her drink to be served, a tall, dark-haired boy with sapphire blue eyes came to her. He seemed to be a foreigner, but she couldn't tell where he came from. He didn't look like the typical North European tourists that invaded the Rambla in summer, nor did he look like an immigrant from South America or Morocco; he was actually unclassifiable, and, although he spoke perfect Catalan, he wasn't from there either. He was handsome, but Mariona hoped that he would just ignore her.

"Hi, how are you?" he started talking to her, as he had heard Mariona's thoughts.

"Fine, thanks," she said, and took her glass as if she wanted to leave.

"I'm Razek," he kept on talking. "I'm 19 and I study at the Faculty of Biology."

"What a coincidence, I'll start studying there on October." Mariona replied, feeling interested in the topic.

"Oh, really? What's your name, so I can come and talk to you when I see you around the place. You'll like it there, I'm sure."

They chatted for a while but Mariona tried to avoid what was obvious that Razek wanted: to flirt with her. He had invited her to another drink and danced with her all night long. "At least," she thought, "he hasn't kissed me, although he has tried many times." He had insisted on having her telephone numbers, though, and in the end she wrote it for him on a paper napkin.

"Who was that guy that hasn't stopped following you all night?" Raül asked when they were heading to the beach to sit by a bonfire and see the sunrise.

"He was so hot! Did you get his telephone number or his e-mail address?" Anna interrogated her friend about Razek.

"Yeah, in the end he gave it to me." Mariona explained the efforts that the boy had made to try to kiss her.

"Next step is the wedding. Congratulations, Mariona, you got your wish," said Pau.

"Come on, Pau, I wasn't even interested in him. Poor thing, I didn't know how to get rid of him," said Mariona, and Pau was about to say something else when Raül interrupted his friend.

"Don't listen to him, Mariona, he's already drunk… You're hopeless, boy, we can't take you anywhere!" he joked. Pau groaned and was quiet for the rest of the night.

At around seven o'clock in the morning, Mariona got off the Metro and walked down a couple of streets. They had seen the sunrise an hour ago and, since they were so tired, they had all gone back home. She opened the door to her bedroom and threw herself on her bed without even changing her clothes. She fell asleep in a matter of seconds.

Mariona's dream

The sky was getting dark and, although it was still evening blue, many stars shone brightly with their silver light. On one side, there was a long flat area with its growing crops like a soft carpet, shaken by the soft breeze. Only the mountains with round summons that rose to the sky, majestically, broke the plain landscape. On the other side, the sea extended to the horizon, mirroring the two moons that illuminated the twilight. There were no clouds in the sky and everything slept in peace. All of a sudden, the ground started to tremble and the mountains broke into small pieces that fell like meteorites to the sea. Storm clouds were forming all over the place and a lightning lit fire on the flower buds and crops. The moons darkened and disappeared, there was chaos on the land. A dark silhouette stood from the nothing and grew to the sky, opened its arms and started shooting fire balls to seven towers with strange symbols. The world drowned in darkness...