Imagine your life as a piece of glass. For every loved one that has died, a tiny bit of the glass chips off. So what would happen if your whole world was changed? This is the story of my life. And how my piece of glass CRACKED.
I don't know how I got here. Honestly, I don't know. Mom said it would be fun to join a club at school, especially in high school. She also said it would be fun to go to summer high school. Thanks Mom.
"You'll meet lots of new people," she promised. Yeah, I'll meet all the kids that failed their freshman last year. Great! Note the sarcasm.
So on club day, when all of the clubs try to recruit freshmen, I walked around at lunch, stopping in classrooms to see what they had.
Hip Hop club, Equestrian Club, Origami Club, Call of Duty Club…and not one fit me.
I look like a chicken when I dance and I would fall off a horse the moment I sat down on the saddle and honestly, do I want to be surrounded by a bunch of Asian girls talking so fast that I can't even understand them while they fold paper?
And don't even get me started on video games. My mom is a committed Catholic. She claims that Satan created video games to destroy children's minds.
Bull, pure bull. I sauntered past all of the sports clubs.
None of those would do. Whenever we played basketball or hockey in P.E., I was always picked last. Even 200 lbs.
May Shirlatte was picked over me. Is a fat girl that can't even run better than me at sports?
I'm a little bit over average height and probably won't grow much more considering my mom is five inches shorter than me already.
I'm impossibly skinny, with arms and legs that hang awkwardly beside me.
I have chocolaty brown hair that sits on my shoulders and average blue eyes.
Nothin' special. I live with my mom in our average American house in San Francisco.
Don't know who my Dad is, don't really care. Anyways, back to school.
As I walked past the surfing club, I pictured myself getting eaten by some huge shark.
The warning bell rang. Seven minutes to get to class. I sped up to finish looking at the rest of the clubs.
Skateboarding club, Math club, Ceramics club, and finally the Reading/ Creative Writing Club.
Unlike the other clubs, the room for the Reading/whatever it was club is almost empty. One teacher is packing up the part of the stand in the corner.
The only class I'm good at is English.
"Mom will kill me if I don't sign up for a club," I thought, tiredly.
I walked quietly into the room and over to the sign-up sheet. Only four people signed up. I scribbled my name and email address on the paper.
"Thanks," the man uttered, scaring me and making me drop my pen.
I bend over, grab my pen, and when I'm about to say thanks, the tardy bell rings.
"Great, late for class on the fifth day of summer high school," I thought to myself.
I smiled at the man and ran out the door, hoping that Mr. Brune will be in a good mood today.
…...
Three days later, on a stifling hot Thursday, I found myself sitting in a circle surrounded by five strangers.
"Good afternoon," the teacher said, "I'm Mr. O'Reilly. Welcome to the Reading/Creative Writing Club. I'm sure this class will change your life and I'm so glad to have the five of you here.
Let's start with names. We'll go clockwise. Say your name, age and favorite book."
Looking around the small room, I could tell that these people were society's outcasts.
"Great," I thought sarcastically, "I'll fit right in with the losers and the life-changing teacher."
The first girl starts.
"I'm Ashley Turner. I'm 15. My favorite book is Pride and Prejudice."
After hearing that girl talk in her high, nasally voice, I internally cursed myself and tuned out.
Looking around the room you could tell that the classroom was not in use anymore.
The posters were peeling off the wall and the whiteboard was etched with cuss words.
The only thing on the book shelves was a copy of the Harry Potter series and some other book with no title.
Slipping out of the daydream I realized everyone was staring at me. I could feel the heat rush to my face.
"Sorry, umm...I'm Paige Lleucu…umm…15…Harry Potter," I finished lamely.
"Great! So everyone take out your books I asked you to bring." Mr. O'Reilly instructs, opening his briefcase and pulling out a book.
"What!" I scream in my head, internally freaking out.
"If any of you forgot to check your email, there is an extra on the bookshelf in the corner," he says, eyeing my guilty face.
I stand up, letting my hair fall in front of my face to cover my bright red cheeks.
I head to the corner of the room and snatch the mysterious book with no name off the shelf that was residing next to the Harry Potter series.
Dust flew off the soft leather cover and straight up my nostrils.
I stopped breathing to try not to sneeze everywhere, but in my futile attempt I only made my face redder than it was.
"Great, now I look like a tomato," I thought to myself bitterly.
I plopped down in my seat again, only to be told to get back up. Apparently, the white kid two seats away forgot his book, too.
Wow, my day is just getting better. I get up and trade spots with the girl sitting next to him.
"I want everyone to read the first page with the person to their left.
Each person will read a paragraph. Five minutes, go," the teacher says like we actually want to be here.
At least four out of five of us don't want to be here.
The annoying girl named Audrey smiles happily and turns to the poor soul sitting next to her.
I watch as the boy falls prey to her high, nasally voice. I turn to the boy next to me. He has a Justin Bieber haircut, but red hair, and bright blue eyes.
Freckles are splatted across his face like paint on a canvas at one of those pathetic "art" museums. He's taller than he should be, probably 6'5".
Suddenly I felt really short at my good height of 5'9".
"Umm…I'll start," he says awkwardly.
I hand him my book and zone out.
I look past Mr. Red Head and watch Audrey reading her paragraph. I felt pity for the kid getting sprayed with her spit.
He'll probably get some deadly disease. Right on que, Freckle Face whispers,
"He's going to get some disease from all that spit."
I snort loudly, followed by a loud "coughing fit" to top it off. After I pretend to wipe my eyes, I look up and see Audrey glaring at me.
"Sorry, inhaled some spit," I say loudly, smothering the sniggering of my partner and another girl in the room.
I turn back to my partner and ask in a mock professional voice, just loud enough for Audrey to hear me, "My good partner, please assist me in finding the correct page now that I have recovered from my little predicament."
"Of course, my dear lady!" What's-his-face says with eyes twinkling, but a serious face masking his smile.
Audrey looks at us with disgust and turns on her partner.
"Did you think that was funny? Did you, Adrian?" Her face redder than a beet and her voice even more nasally than usual.
"Poor guy," I think, watching his face growing redder and redder, trying to hold in the laughter. His face looked like it was going to explode off his face.
"N…N…No" Adrian finally splutters, managing to keep his face attached to his head.
"You disgust me," she snarls, shoving her book in her bag and putting her backpack on, she stalks out the door.
"Where is Audrey going?" Asked Mr. O'Reilly, looking up from his reading.
"I think she went to make up a math test," I say, smiling. Yay, my lunch just got better.
….
One week later, I'm back in the same little classroom seated next to the other girl in the club and the guy who was my partner last week.
While at home, I had hidden my book from my mom in fear the she would confiscate it because it was "unholy" and I managed to read half of the book.
"Alright, I need to keep memorizing names, so I'm going to try to guess your names, but I may need a little help," says Mr. O'Reilly, smiling at us. Creeper.
"Umm…Audrey, correct?"
"Yes, Mr. O'Reilly." Today, lovely Audrey had seated herself right in between to Mr. O'Smiley and poor Adrian.
"Umm…Adrian, then…umm…Fred?"
"It's Flynn," the kid next to me says.
"Ok…Flynn, next is Paige, and finally…"
"Ciara." The girl next to me says. She doesn't seem like a "Ciara" to me.
She has long, straight black hair and light green eyes. I think Morgana would better suit someone like her.
Mr. O'Reilly smiles again at us (again!) and pulls out his book. He waves it in front of us. I'm assuming that was supposed to be some sort of a signal to get our books out.
I shove my hand into my sports bag (backpacks are overrated, especially in the summer) and find my book.
I chose not to buy the book considering that the book has no title on it and the fact that if my mother found out that this book was fiction, that she would throw it in the fire and make me attend church every single day for the rest of my life with no "bathroom" breaks.
So I pull out my used book and open it to the page that we're on.
I look across the circle and see that Audrey has decided to cover her book with a cute little cloth book cover that was pink and had kittens on it.
Wow, someone's stuck in preschool. Someone tapped me on the shoulder and I spun around.
"Let me guess, Mr. Responsible doesn't have his book," I say to Flynn with a smirk on my face.
"Says the girl who stole the club copy," he replies, with an even bigger smirk across his face.
I grumble some words under my breath and open the book so that both of us can read at one time.
"Alright, read the chapter and then we'll discuss it. You get ten minutes, begin."
I zone out. I tend to do that I a lot when I'm here. Summer school was so boring. I didn't even have to be here.
Mom made me come here because she thought that it would be good if I was "exposed to the material" and then went to regular school.
Looking out the door, I saw people across the street, at the park playing with their dogs and chatting happily…SNAP!
Someone just snapped in my face when I was daydreaming. Idiot.
I turned to glare at Flynn, but he was reading the chapter. Adrian, on the other side of him, was waggling his eyebrows at me.
He nodded toward Audrey and my favorite teacher.
Audrey was mouthing out the words as she read.
She was also making the stupidest faces. She looked like an old man having a facial seizure.
By now, Flynn had looked up and was watching.
The three of us tried to suppresses the laughter, we really did.
But, Flynn couldn't take it. He snorted loudly and started sniggering.
That got Ciara to look up and see Audrey's face moving in unusual ways. She was worse than Flynn.
She started giggling loudly. Mr. O'Reilly looked up.
"Is there a problem?"
"Oh no, Mr. O'Reilly. I was just finding the book amusing. Particularly when the kid got thrown in the dumpster." Ciara lied flawlessly.
"Ah, yes. It is quite amusing, but please try to refrain your laughter."
"So sorry Mr. O'Reilly. Will do."
"Thank you."
When Mr. O'Reilly got up to close the door Audrey squinted at us suspiciously.
Flynn started to mimic her faces, pretending to read. She saw him, and turned red.
She shot one last glare at us and returned to reading.
This time she kept her mouth shut and face blank. It might seem like the four of us are bullies, but if you were sitting where I am currently, you would understand.
You would understand what we have to go through every Thursday.
We finished reading the chapter and now it was time for the fun discussion.
"Alright," Mr. O'Reilly says, closing his book, "what has happened so far in the book?"
Audrey clears her throat delicately and raises her hand. She reminded me of Umbridge.
Thinking of Harry Potter, I sighed. I would give anything to go into those books. Imagine the lives I could save.
Fred Weasly, Sirius Black, Lily and James Potter, Remus Lupin, Tonks…the list goes on.
I snap out of the daydream.
"…and they are faced with the decision of a life time, to go on or to stay. So they tell the spirit they want to go on. The spirit transports them to a crossroad.
They have the choice of going to a forest, a beach, or an old castle. But, there was a catch. Two of them had to split away from the group. So the two youngest split away.
The girl went to the ocean and the boy went to the castle.
The other four journeyed on to the forest. They traveled for many weeks before reaching their final destination. According to the book, no one knows where that final destination is."
"Thank you Audrey, for that lovely synopsis."
"Wait," I interrupt, "I thought this book is a biography."
"It is."
"That's impossible." Ciara states.
WEEE-ONNNGGG! WEEE- ONNNGGG! The shrill fire alarm sounded through the whole school.
Some idiot probably pulled it thinking it would be funny.
Mr. O'Reilly gets up, and goes over to the door to open it.
He turns the handle and pushes. The door remains closed.
Muttering to himself, he pulls out his keys and shoves one into the door and turns the door handle again.
The door still doesn't open. That was when my nerves begin to hit.
What if there is a fire? What if we are trapped in here? What if no one finds us?
"Why don't you try the phone?" Adrian suggests.
Mr. O'Reilly jogs over to the class phone and dials the office.
We can hear people running past the door. A few times we hear screams.
Flynn swore. Mr. O'Reilly puts the phone down, picks it up again and is now frantically dialing numbers.
Panic begins to take over the room. Audrey sits down in one of the chairs and begins to cry.
Ciara is shaking so hard that I can feel her next to me. I put my arms around her to try to stop her from shaking. She clutches onto my arm to help.
"Flynn," I say in my calmest possible voice, "get your phone out and try to call someone."
He nods grimly and grabs his backpack. He pulls out his phone.
"No service."
I can feel the color drain from my face.
"Try mine."
He heads over to my bag and digs through it. He pulls out my phone and checks it. He shakes his head.
"Ciara, do you have a phone?"
She nods her head and pulls herself from my arms. She walks shakily over to her cross-body bag and pulls out her iPhone.
"No service," she whispers. The dread spread across her face.
"I didn't bring my phone today," Adrian says somberly.
"I…I…don't have…a…phone," Audrey manages to get out.
Mr. O'Reilly is still dialing any number he can.
I look around the room and spot a fire extinguisher near the book shelf.
I walk over to it and hoist it off its hook and into my arms.
I carry it over to where the circle of chairs is. I set it down on the floor next to my seat.
Mr. O' Reilly placed the phone down and grabbed his phone out of his pocket.
"Shit," Mr. O'Reilly swears.
I slump down in my chair and close my eyes.
If there is a fire and no one finds us, we will die, but that's worst case scenario.
What will probably happen is we will sit in the room for a couple hours and finally someone will find us.
We all sit quietly, listening for a sound. No one is running by anymore. The alarm is still ringing, but Adrian tied his jacket over it, trying to snuff the noise.
"Do you hear that?" Flynn whispered.
Everyone holds their breaths and listens. A soft crackling is coming from the wall near the book shelves.
That's where the other classroom is connected to the one that we're in. Ciara's eyes get huge.
"Fire," she breaths.
"Okay everyone," Mr. O'Reilly says calmly, standing up, "we need to shift the book cases to cover the wall. Hopefully that will slow the fire down and someone will find us before the fire burns through the wall."
We get up and drag our stuff away as far as possible from the burning wall.
Flynn goes over to the bookcase with Mr. O'Reilly and helps him shift it over toward the wall.
Ciara and I start to pull some of the extra student desks towards the wall.
Adrian and Audrey lift up the teacher desk and carried it over to the wall.
We shove the teacher desk up against the bookcases and lift the student desks up and placed them on top.
We even add the trashcan for good measure.
Once we finished that, we grab our chairs and added them to the stack as well.
Mr. O'Reilly even started pulling out our notebooks and putting them in the middle of the pile.
We literally added everything we could. We put our jackets over the vents to stop smoke from coming in.
We finished in a short ten minutes and went and sat against the wall opposite of the burning one and waited for the fire.
I was squished between Flynn and Ciara again. Mr. O'Reilly was sitting next to Flynn and Audrey was on his other side.
Adrian was sitting next to Ciara, with his arm around her shoulders, trying to help her stop shaking.
I grabbed her hand and smiled at her supportively. Mr. O'Reilly was muttering to Audrey, trying to calm her.
Adrian took the hint and began to talk softly to Ciara.
"My name is Flynn Brennen Callahan. I have no siblings. I live with my mom and dad.
I have a pet dog named Alfred. My favorite color is burgundy. I hate being asked if I play basketball because I'm tall.
I actually play field hockey. My best friend moved to New York City last month.
I wish I wasn't at summer school, but I failed math last year. I want to be a neurologist when I grow up.
My favorite book is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
If I could change one thing in the books I would save Sirius Black.
I hate libraries, but I could spend years in a book shop.
I want to buy a house in the country side of Wales when I graduate college.
I want to get married and have three children. I've always wanted a fish tank, but my mom hates fish. I love the fog and the rain." Flynn muttered softly.
"Why did you tell me this?" I ask quietly.
"Well, it's what they do in all the movies when they think they're about to die, so I might as well. You know, just in case we don't make it out alive."
"Oh…umm…my turn, I guess." I take a deep breath.
"My name is Paige Kirsten Lleucu. I live with my mom. She is a devoted Catholic and goes to church twice a week.
I hate going to church, but I only have to go once a week.
My mom won't let me read fiction books because she thinks they're "unholy." I do read fiction, but I do it secretly.
I spend most of my time outside, away from my house. I love basketball, but I've never been on a team before.
My favorite color is midnight blue.
I love the smell of the ground just after it rains. I hate make-up.
My mom calls me crazy because I sit on the porch during thunderstorms and try to catch photos of the lightning.
I love photography. I saved my money for three years to buy a three thousand dollar camera.
When I grow up I want to be a photo journalist. I want a house on the outskirts of London. Umm…I want to get married and have two or three kids. I enjoy walking around the city at nighttime.
I love turtles."
Flynn nods.
"Does it smell weird in here or is it just me?" I ask.
We both look to the wall. There was smoke escaping from behind the bookshelf.
"Hey Mr. O'Reilly, there's smoke…" Flynn started, but didn't finish.
Mr. O'Reilly was already up and carrying the fire extinguisher toward the smoke.
He shoved the nozzle of the thing in the crack and sprayed it three or four times. The smoke stopped seeping into the room.
"That should hold it off for some time.
Everyone lie down on the floor so you don't breathe in as much smoke and if you see more smoke coming from the wall, tell me." Mr. O'Reilly said grimly.
We all nodded and scooted down to the floor.
People began to talk again, trying to calm their nerves, but at the same time all eyes were on the wall. My fingers fumble with the necklace around my neck.
"That's a very pretty necklace," Flynn comments, glancing towards my hands.
"Mmhmm… it was my mom's. She got it from my dad, but when my dad left us she didn't want it anymore. I found it in the trash in her bathroom."
"Why were you searching your mom's trash?"
"I wasn't searching her trash," I say smiling, "I had to empty the trash and I saw it in there."
The necklace was truly beautiful. It had a small sapphire and diamond that were held together by an intricate web of silver that was shaped as a heart.
I stopped fumbling with the necklace and let it fall on my chest. I listened for a sign of life outside.
"Don't you think it's a bit odd that no firemen have shown up yet?" I ask Flynn.
"It is strange. Someone must've called the police or something." Flynn replies, his brow creased.
"What do you think Mr. O'Reilly meant about the biography?"
Flynn shrugs his shoulders to his best ability.
"Smoke," Adrian says.
Mr. O'Reilly gets up and grabs the fire extinguisher. He heads over to the bookshelf again.
He sprays as much as he can, but smoke still comes out of the wall. He keeps spraying until the fire extinguisher runs out.
"Alright kids, I'm sure that the firemen will be here any moment, so let's just keep lying on the floor so we won't breathe in too much smoke." Mr. O'Reilly tells us reassuringly.
I'm going to die.
I face the facts. The chances of us getting out alive looks slim.
Glancing over at Audrey, she's hiccupping from crying so much.
The ceiling is starting to be covered up by smoke. Ciara coughs.
Adrian still has his arm around her shoulder, rubbing it with his thumb.
I feel a tear slip down the side of my face. I try to blink the others away, but they keep coming, rolling down my face.
I feel Flynn grab my hand. His are huge and cover mine completely.
The room is getting darker now. I inhale some smoke and have a small coughing fit.
I feel Flynn squeeze my hand. I look over to him and he smiles at me reassuringly. I try to smile back, but end up grimacing.
"What do you think it's like, to die?" I ask him.
"Quicker and easier than falling asleep," he whispers softly, his voice hoarse from the smoke.
I smile and look up at the ceiling.
You can't even see the top now. The room is so thick with smoke that we can only see each other.
I hold onto Flynn's hand tightly. His thumb strokes my hand. I hold Ciara's hand for good measure.
I can barely see Flynn lying next to me. I cough a little.
This is the end. I feel the heartbeats in the room, the warmness of the people next to me, the hands I'm holding, and let the smoke lull me into an eternal sleep.
…...
I don't think that many people can say that they've ever met someone that has died and come back to life. You know, it's not normal.
But you're not a normal person, are you?
I mean, seriously, no normal person would continue reading a story in which the main characters die in the first couple of paragraphs.
So continue on, my weird friend and meet some dead/alive people. Bam. I just blew your mind.
My head hurt like nobody's business. I my eyes started swiveling around, trying to see where I was.
Brightness penetrated through my eyelids. I opened my eyes a sliver.
The sun was shining down in my face. I opened them up all the way.
The sun beat down on my face, warm and comforting.
There were rain clouds in the sky, slowly drifting, threatening to cover up the sun.
I tried to push myself up, but my hands were encased in other people's hands.
I turn my head to the side. Flynn was lying there, but he looked different.
He was still super tall with his orange hair that was longish, but he looked…attractive.
I blushed and turned away. On my other side a blond haired person was laying there…wait…blonde…wait…what?!
I look closer and see Ciara's face, but she has blonde hair that's really short.
Like really short. Like pixie cut short. Wow…umm…weird. Her body is still tiny, but she looks like a popular girl.
Blood red lips, pink cheeks, and long dark lashes that every girl dreams of.
Without make-up!
I slip my hands out of the other's hands and stand up.
My legs and arms are sore and I stretch like a cat waking up from a long nap.
I look up. Wow. We ain't in Kanas anymore. The ground has puddles everywhere, like it just rained.
Everyone is lying in the middle of a crossroad. There are three paths that one could possibly take, but there are no signs to direct you.
The crossroad is surrounded by a forest that is an assortment of colors.
It must be fall here. Some of the trees are bare, but some hold brightly colored leaves.
A cold wind whips through the area, stinging my skin.
"Wait…why am I not wearing my jacket?" I think to myself.
Major flashback happens. Reading club…fire…death. I stumble backwards as it all rushes back to me.
I look down at my friends. They all look different. Even Audrey looks more attractive with her soft light brown curls and pink lips. Mr. O'Reilly took a turn for the better.
He looked about twenty years younger. With ringlets of brown hair covering his head, he looked about twenty five.
Adrian now had black hair that was a couple inches long and glasses.
Where the glasses came from, I know not. I start to fumble with my necklace.
"If all of my friends have changed, then does that mean that I too have changed?" I think.
I run over to a puddle and look at my reflection. I kneel down to get a closer look.
My hair is now chocolaty brown waves that reach down to the middle part of my back.
My face is now way more attractive than it used to be.
My lips are fuller, my braces have disappeared and been replaced with straight white teeth, my nose is smaller, and I look tanner. I pull my sleeve up and to my surprise my farmer's tan is gone.
My boobs grew a size to add to that. I fist pumped mentally.
I stop fumbling with my necklace and drop it. The moment it hits my chest, I regret it.
I look back in the water and see I have a burn mark there.
In the shape of my necklace. Which is a heart. I am going to have a heart shaped scar on my chest.
How cliché is that?! I groan and stand back up.
I trot back over to where the others are lying, still asleep or unconscious or whatever they were.
I go up to Ciara and kneel down. Her head was resting on Adrian's shoulder with his arm around her shoulders.
If I had a camera right now, this would be perfect blackmail material. I lightly slap her face a couple of times.
She doesn't more. I hit her a little bit harder. Her face twitches. I sigh. I hit her one last time.
This time she groans, but freezes halfway through. She bolts upright and screams.
For such a tiny person, that was a loud scream. I fell back on my butt in shock.
Adrian bolted up and looks around frantically. The scream gets everyone up.
Flynn rubs his eyes and sits up. Audrey is already sitting up and looking around, confused.
Mr. O'Reilly slowly pushes himself up. Ciara stops screaming and starts to cry.
"Ciara?" I shake her shoulder. She looks at me between her fingers.
Before I can say anything, I notice her eyes. They look like liquid gold, except a shade darker.
They were stunning.
"You…you…you have gold eyes," I stutter. The words slip out.
I forgot to look at my eyes. Ciara's eyes get huge and she bolts up and runs over to a puddle.
She looks down and falls to her knees in shock.
"I have blonde hair," she states plainly.
Adrian reaches up to rub his eyes, but hits his new glasses. He pulls them off and tries to look around.
"I can't see anything," he says.
He puts the glasses on and walks over to the puddle nearest him. He starts examining himself.
I go up to a puddle, kneel down and try to see my eyes. They're like Ciara's.
They aren't gold, but they are a strange color. They look like dark cobalt blue, but they have purple mixed in.
They are flecked with silver. Everyone is looking in a puddle except Mr. O' Reilly. He is searching a bush madly.
I get up and start to walk over to him slowly, afraid that he may think that I was a bush or something.
He moved onto a pine sapling.
"Mr. O'Reilly…?" I ask.
"Yes…just a moment…he's here somewhere…I know he is…" Mr. O'Reilly starts muttering to himself.
I take a couple steps back and we all watch him putter around, digging through bushes.
"Arrrrgggghhhh!" Mr. O'Reilly yells making us all jump. Now I'm starting to think that he's going crazy. Yelling like a pirate is not a good sign.
He begins to wrestle with something invisible in the air.
He grabs it and tries to put it in a headlock, but falls on the ground and continues to wrestle with it.
As Mr. O'Reilly rolls towards us, we step back and try to see the invisible "human."
Mr. O'Reilly finally stops rolling around and is in the position like he was pinning someone or something to the ground.
"Show yourself!" He yells at the ground. He moves his arms like he's shaking the thing that he was pinning down.
"Now!"
Something flickers beneath him. It flickers again.
It reminded me of when the television would flicker in and out when we had bad reception.
It flickers again, but a little longer this time. The thing looked like a human. Mr. O'Reilly growled.
It appeared. It was a human. But it had strange clothes on. They looked like they were made of bark and leaves.
Mr. O' Reilly smiled. He reached down to the man's waist and pulled a dagger out of its sheath.
"Which way to Asthore?" Mr. O'Reilly asked, pointing the dagger at the human's throat. The person remained silent. He pressed the dagger herder against his throat.
"Left."
Mr. O'Reilly got up, brushed his pants off, and turned to us.
"If any of you try to follow me, I will kill you." He said plainly. This threat wasn't like the one's your friends say when you steal their lunch, this one was real.
A mad man with a dagger was threatening us.
I felt like peeing in my pants.
He turned around and headed to the path on the left.
He started jogging and never looked back. Wow, great luck.
The one person that might have known what happened or where we were just ran away to Asthore (?) with a dagger.
We turned back to the man. He was getting up and brushing himself off.
He pulled a dagger out of one of his boots and stuck it in the sheath.
"Excuse me," I say to the tall man, "but where are we?"
"Scotland."
"How do we get back home?"
"You don't."
We don't get to go home. What!
"Then where do we go?" Flynn asked.
"You know the prophecy. It was in the book. He went to the castle. Four must go to the forest. One must go to the ocean. I will travel with them. Choose now."
"Wait, we have to choose now?" Adrian asked.
"Choose now."
"Well, he doesn't talk much," I think.
We stood in a circle.
"I'll go alone," Flynn offers.
"No," Audrey says, "you didn't even read the book. I read all of it. I know what will happen. You all hate me anyways. "
"Audrey-," I start.
She cuts me off.
"I will be going alone," she tells the man with her head raised high.
He nods.
"I'll see you in the future." She tells us.
"Until then," Flynn says and nods his head.
We chorus good byes.
She turned and followed the tall guy to the road on the right. They walked at a fast pace and they began to go around a bend.
"Wait!" I screamed.
I ran as fast as I could to where they were and slowed down when I reached them. I threw my arms around Audrey and gave her a huge hug.
"I have always been jealous of your intelligence and bravery. I really will miss you," I whisper in her ear. She patted me awkwardly on the back and I let go of her. I turned to the big guy.
"Where does the forest lead to?" I ask.
"You will reach you destination by nightfall if you walk at a mildly fast pace, which I do recommend. That would be safest."
"Thank you."
He nods and starts to walk once again. I smile one last time at Audrey and she turns to follow the man. They soon become small blurs in range of vision.
I walk back to the group.
"We need to get walking. He said we would reach our destination by nightfall if we walk at a moderately fast pace. He said that it would be safest."
"By the position of the sun, I'd say that it's about one o'clock." Flynn states, squinting at the sun,
"We have about five hours max to get to this destination." He confirms with himself.
I give him a questioning look.
"I was a boy scout."
Now it clicks.
"Alright, onward," I say and we head down the middle path, leaving our past lives behind.
….
We had been walking quickly for what seemed like forever.
We had walk through that particular section of the forest and now we were heading up the side of a mountain.
There was absolutely no shade on the mountain and we had no water.
We were nearing the top of it. We were still heading up the mountain side at the same grueling pace we had been walking at when we were in the forest.
Flynn was leading the group and I was bringing up the rear.
I heard Flynn shout and saw him standing up ahead. Thank god, the top.
We picked up the pace and reached the top. There was even a random tree that had shade!
I watched where I was stepping and headed over to the shade.
I collapsed beneath the tree and took a deep breath. I looked up and saw the view.
I stood up and smiled. I felt like I was on top of the world. The other three were standing together with their arms around each other's shoulders, enjoying the view.
I walked over to Ciara and stood next to her.
There were all different shades of reds, oranges yellows, greens, and browns that surrounded us.
We were on top of the tallest mountain in the whole area. The area beneath us was a sea of trees. I smiled. Wow, talk about a great view.
"Look," Adrian said, pointing off into the sea. There was giant lake. Next to it looked like a ruin of some used to be magnificent castle.
"We should keep going," Flynn says, walking over to the trail.
We all nod and start walking into the sea.
….
"What is this?" Ciara asks, fingering a giant iron fence. The fence seemed to stretch on for miles past what the eye could see.
"I have no clue. I hope it means that we're close," I manage to say, my throat hurting as I speak.
I look up at the sky. At the moment, we're in a thicket of pine trees. It was darker down on the forest floor.
It looked like we had about thirty minutes before the sun would go down. We hadn't had water all day.
You would think that all of us would have passed about now, but the worst that had happened was that Flynn threw up a bunch of bile.
There wasn't much life on the forest floor this time of evening.
Bats were starting to come out. Birds began to fly home.
A bitter wind swept through the trees and huge rain clouds loomed in the sky, ready to let the rain poor down.
The trail started to lead away from the fence. We walked silently, aware of all the animals creeping around.
"Hey guys, look." Adrian said, from the front of the group. The trail leads to a main road.
Thank god. I smile and head to the main path. Wearily, we pick up the pace in hope of the end.
Thunder booms through the air. Rain was on the way. We walked around so many corners, expecting some sign of life, but only to find more of the road.
The clouds were right overhead and it started to drizzle.
The thunder clapped and lightning flashed in between the trees. It was raining harder.
We all just stopped and held our mouths open to try to get as much water as possible. The slight rain was now becoming a hard down pour.
The sun was on the ridge, setting.
We started running, hoping each stretch would be the last one.
We slipped multiple times, but only to rise and keep on running.
My legs were so sore, but adrenaline rushed through my body.
Ciara slipped, but didn't get up this time. Adrian ran over to her.
"My ankle," she spluttered. He nodded and helped her to her feet.
He scooped her up bridal style and we started running again.
We were still going at the same pace thanks to Adrian's new muscles.
We came around another corner and in front of us stood the most magnificent castle I have ever seen.
It was lit up with huge lawns and it even had greenhouses. What castle has greenhouses?
We ran as fast as our legs could carry us up the hill to the front of the castle.
I was drenched to the bone and covered in mud.
Mud covered my whole body and my hair was plastered to the back of my neck and my face.
We ran up to the giant front doors and stood under the overhanging. Ciara is shaking in Adrian's arms, her lips blue. Flynn searches for the door handle, but finds none.
"Flynn, over there," I say pointing to the small door off to the side. He flings it open and we step inside.
Flynn closes the door and we look around. There was a huge hall.
There were statues of soldiers and a few pictures on the walls. It all seemed so familiar to me.
"Hogwarts…" Ciara whispers, her voice trailing off.
"Well, well, what do we have here? Late students?" A voice said from behind us, "and a mess that I have to clean up?"
We turn around and see a man with long, matted hair and a cat at his heels staring at us. Filch. He walks up and grabs Flynn and me by the upper arm and starts marching us down the hall.
"Follow me, boy," he snarls at Adrian, who is still holding Ciara in his arms.
We go down the hall and up to another set of giant doors. Oh no no no. Not the Great Hall. Not in front of anyone.
I am covered in mud and sopping wet. I am so cold. I can't stop shivering. Filch grunts and opens the huge doors.
They both swing open and we see that it is dinner time. Everyone is staring at us. We walk slowly towards the middle of the room.
"Headmaster, I caught some late students wandering in the halls…" Filch says, starting off on some rant about the mess we made.
Everyone is staring at us. I see all the food and juice on the tables. My stomach growls and makes me feel sick. I haven't eaten all day. I feel dizzy.
I struggle a little bit. Filch holds on tight while he rants.
I try to sit down so I won't throw up. My senses were in overtime.
Too much food, too many people. People's faces became blurry.
I couldn't concentrate on one thing. People's whispers are getting louder to my ears.
Everything is becoming more intense, and then, silent. I collapse to the floor.
Hello there!
I have a couple of chapters typed up so far but I only posted the first one.
If you think the story is any good, please PM me or review or something so I know to keep posting chapters.
~CloudedNightSky73
P.S. Does anyone like Ed Sheeran? I thought his song "Autumn Leaves," reminded me of the chapter. Tell me what you think.