25

Shelby's eyes slowly opened. She was lying on her back, staring at her hand. She rolled over and pushed against the cold floor. Sitting up, she looked around the dark room. The walls were completely blank but black. The floor was blank too, and cold.

The dark Zodiac Mage stood up and looked around the room some more. She felt the walls for a door and surprisingly found one.

She turned the knob and pushed the door open.

"Shelby! There you are!" Jen said happily. The light was so bright on the other side of the door that Shelby had to shield her eyes. Jen smiled at her friend, completely at ease.

"What's going on?" Shelby asked.

Jen grabbed her friend's hand and pulled her into the light. "Don't you remember? It's your boyfriend's birthday!"

"My what?"

Once Shelby's eyes adjusted, she stared in awe at the beautiful place she had entered. The glade was totally transformed. Beautiful flowers of all shapes and colors were littered everywhere. The tiny lake was shining with all different colors as fireflies flew over it. A pile of presents were leaning against a hedge while everyone was dancing to music. From where, Shelby didn't know. An arch littered with flowers was over the entrance of the glade, welcome everyone. Jen lead Shelby to the middle of the group where Malikai was standing. He smiled while taking her hand.

"Hello, my darling."

"Darling? Really?" Shelby asked, blushing.

"Yes, you're my dearest, aren't you not?"

That's when Shelby realized that she was Malikai's girlfriend. How delightful! she thought. Almost a dream come true. What a funny word. Dream...

"I guess so," she said. Malikai kissed her hand and lead her to the rest of the group. Everyone greeted Malikai and wished him a happy birthday. Shelby felt completely at ease. She forgot what was happening a few minutes ago and enjoyed this wonderful event. But there was something wrong with this picture.

She could feel it. Deep inside her core, she could feel that something was off. Something important. She pushed the feeling aside and tried to enjoy herself. Malikai smiled at her as the music started to slow down.

"Want to dance?"

Even though she hated dancing, Shelby nodded. Malikai lead her to the dance floor and took her hand. They began to slowly move around the dance floor as a few of the others joined them. As they swayed, Shelby looked up at Malikai. He smiled at her.

"This is so perfect," she whispered.

"I agree..."

She was completely happy, and peaceful, so you can say.

"...if only it was this perfect."

Shelby stopped dancing and looked up at her boyfriend. "What?"

His eyes became more animal like. His hair began to flow up as if the wind was blowing that way. His smile grew and became sinister. He grabbed Shelby's wrist and pulled her close to him.

"Did you actually think that this is real?" he sneered. "In your dreams."

That's it, Shelby realized. Not a dream...but a nightmare!

All of a sudden, her friends began to fade away one by one, until it was just her and Malikai in the glade. The surroundings grew dark and more evil like. Everything that was beautiful about the glade disappeared. What replaced it looked more like the Otherworlds. Then, that world disappeared. Nothing was left but a black void. Malikai held on to Shelby's wrist as her body dangled. He was all that was holding on to her. She looked up at him with pleading eyes. He wasn't going to let her go...was he?

He smiled, his animal eyes narrowing.

"You think you're safe with me? Well, you are not. Sorry, dearest, but it's time to say goodbye."

Ever so slowly, he let go of her wrist, letting the black void swallow her whole.

Emily, Adriane, and Kara's eyes snapped open. They sat up quickly and stared at the room they were in. They stood up and stared at each other.

"What happened back there?" Kara asked.

"I don't know," Emily said. "It felt like we fell through a trap door or something."

"Not exactly a trap door," said a voice.

A light turned on in front of the girls to reveal the Dark Sorceress. She was sitting on a large throne, resting her chin on her hand. "More like a transportation spell my nephew was hiding from you."

"Why did you bring us here?" Adriane asked strongly.

"To keep you still, of course."

The Dark Sorceress waved her hand and another light turned on, illuminating the whole room. Jen, Juls, Haley, Shelby, Liv, and Roland were lying on the ground, unconscious.

"Why haven't they woken up yet?" Kara mumbled.

"That's easy to explain, blazing star," the Dark Sorceress said. "When you all fell through the transformation spell, you fell unconscious. You three girls, plus your bondeds, woke up because the spell didn't effect you."

"What do you mean by 'effect'?" Lyra asked.

"You see, the spell put all your friends into a deep sleep, in which this sleep inflicted spectacular nightmares. Nightmares of your friends' deepest fears."

Emily looked at her friends. They all began to moan and shiver. The nightmares must've begun to take over, she realized.

"Take them out of it!" Adriane ordered. "Or you'll regret it!"

The Dark Sorceress laughed. "I can't, I'm afraid. Only your friends can break the spell, if they believe in themselves, that is."

Adriane crused. There was no way to break the spell unless her friends did it themselves. Truely genious. The Dark Sorceress stood and waved her hand again. The black curtains that covered all the walls were raised to reveal wall sized windows. The windows showed the Black Grass plains of the Otherworlds and the various wilderness beyond that. She laughed as she watched the skies.

"What do you plan to do?" Emily asked the sorceress.

"What I planned to do origianlly, of course. To over run the web with dark magic and become its ruler. Who could stop me? Surely not you three."

She laughed as the dark magic continued on its way to Ravenswood.

And all the healer, the warrior, and the blazing star could do was watch.