Thanks to:
Yunami The Dragon Elle Cotys child ~ I'm emailing you right after I send this part out. I'll tell you some of my ideas for the story.
Title: Eyes of a Lover
Author: Aya
Rating: 15+
Spoilers: The Forbidden Game
Disclaimers: I own all the characters not recognized. L.J. Smith characters from The Forbidden Game are hers.
Note: I'm getting tired of seeing all these stories where Jenny changes her mind and goes with Julian or she brings him back. Personally I think Jenny and Tom are perfect for each other, why not bring in a daughter and let Julian have a real chance. So instead of making this a challenge I decided to take it up for myself!
Summary: After three years of film making Callie Locke is coming home. The ambitious, successful, and sexy actress rocks the world of her small hometown when she returns, but someone's back from her mother's past and he's rocking Callie's world.
Note: (~) means that the dialogue is basically in L.J. Smith's words, only said by a different person.
Chapter Six: The Game
Callie stretched at the dinning room table rubbing her stomach. "Dinner was awesome momma!"
"Well it should be. I spent hours," she started to say.
Audrey lifted her eyebrows, "Excuse me, miss I spent hours cooking, well so did I."
"You too," Jenny dismissed teasingly with her hand.
Audrey grunted and Dee laughed. "You shouldn't be laughing Dee you sat on your butt and gripped and complained about it taking to long for 'them girls' to cook!" Audrey pointed out smiling.
"Well that's Dee Dee for you!" Tom bellowed laughing.
Jenny looked at him. "Are you drunk?"
"No-I," Tom started saying then saw the look in Jenny's eyes. "Okay, maybe just a little tipsy, but that's it."
"Tipsy my ass," Dee muttered smirking.
"Oh busted!" Drew grinned lightly elbowing Callie in the ribs.
"He's not busted, he just not getting any tonight," Jenny grinned evilly.
Tom's eyes widened as he looked at Jenny who couldn't wipe the satisfying grin off her face. His eyes turned pleading.
Drew and Callie groaned, "Ewe!"
"Jen! Please don't do that!" Tom whined.
"Well, a, Dad maybe if you got on your knees and," Callie started saying.
"I believe he's been on his knees one too many times this week," Jenny smiled as Tom blushed.
Callie's eye jerked to her mother. She plopped back into her chair looking shock and disgusted. However her brother Drew missed the double meaning and looked at his mother confused.
"What's he been doing on his knees?"
Callie who had lifted her glass of water to get a drink chocked and busted out laughing. "Sweet pea I don't think you want to know!"
Jenny turned a half horrified half amused look to her daughter. "Callie! I'm surprised at you!"
Tom pierced his lips. "You shouldn't be this little brats had a mouth on her ever since she could hold a conversation with Dee."
Noting he didn't look too amused Dee rolled her eyes. "Tom, get bent."
"The tension is rising. Good-bye!" Callie grinned as she left the kitchen.
"Callie do go and watch T.V. we were going to go for a drive," Jenny hollered following her daughter into the living room.
"When's Uncle Joey coming? I mean he is going to make to see me before I leave right?" Callie asked.
"I-I don't know if he'll make it. He's been busy with his corporation, Becca, and the kids."
Callie cast her eyes down as she took the remote in her hand. "Yeah I guess he would be. Not like he'd want to see me anyway," she mumbled the last part.
"Callie Locke that is not true."
"Yes it is! I haven't seen him since I left to become an actress. He never thought I'd make it. I know he's disappointed in me. He didn't want me to change my mind on being a Marine Biologist. He said it was my first choice that I should always stick with my first choice. 'It's always the best idea.' Mom it was too practical for me. I wanted to be an actress and I am and I'm good."
Jenny sat in a sideways position next to her daughter, who'd taken a seat on the couch. She wrapped her arm around her shoulder and laid her chin on her hand. "Don't be mad at him. He was always practical minded himself. Stubborn he is."
"Yeah, well if he doesn't stop being stubborn he won't have a niece anymore!" Callie growled out and shrugged out of her mothers embrace getting up.
"Callie," Jenny whispered helplessly.
A loud pounding came to the door followed by a shout of laughter. Callie turned in the hallway so that her head turned to the door as she recognized the voices.
She ran to the door and swung it open. "Hey bitches!"
"CALLIE!" Jenny screamed.
The tiny group of girls screaming and hugging out weighed her scream. A pounding of screams of 'your hair isn't blue' coming from Callie, and 'You are so hot, marry me' coming from Will and another 'what about Janine?' from Callie and then it was silence. Callie glanced around not seeing Janine among the group.
"Guys, where's Janine?" Callie asked her voice cracking.
"Um," Kirsten murmured.
"Kirsten what? Tawny? Ami? Where's Janine?"
"She umm, got in a car accident about a year ago," Jeremy half whispered.
Callie's eyes watered. "I'm guessing she isn't okay."
Will had gone still at the mention of his dead girlfriends name and Callie looked over at him in time to see a tear drop down on to his close.
"Will, I'm so sorry," Callie's voice cracked as she went to him and wrapped her arms around him.
He loosely slid his muscular arms around her waist and buried his head into her shoulders. His, slightly shaking as he cried.
"Why, why didn't anyone tell me? I didn't even get invited to the funeral."
Will slightly pulled away. "We did, we even tried calling you. We figured with all the fan mail you get you hadn't gotten to it yet and your bodyguards weren't allowing any calls because you had a stalker at the time."
"This is the only time I'll do it," Callie whispered then spoke so everyone could hear. "Curse me being famous. I'm so sorry you guys. I would have been there. Oh Janine."
"She was buried on September 3rd," Tawny said.
"In the Town graveyard," Kirsten put in.
Callie brought her hand up to her mouth and gave an uneasy sigh.
"That's unbelievable," Callie muttered.
No one said anything for a while. Just stared at each other, taking in the news for Callie, remembering the shock and sadness for the others.
"Will, I would have been there."
"I know," he smiled.
"I'm glad. I would have dropped everything."
"We know you would have," Ami said grinning as she hugged her best friend.
"I can't believe you went normal Ami," Callie smiled.
"Well, when you loose your best friend and get kicked out of your parents house after high school graduation I kind of had too."
Callie smiled sadly at Ami knowing her parents would have done it sooner or later. "You never lost me."
Ami lifted her gaze up. "You never wrote. I got three letters from you in three years."
"I don't have an excuse other than I was busy."
"Friends aren't important then?"
Callie cringed; it was bound to happen, this conversation. "You, all of you, are important to me."
Ami was about to say something when Jeremy butted in. "Could we not. Ami you can very well wait 'till tomorrow!"
"I guess."
"I'd like to go see Janine's grave."
"I knew you'd want to see it, but would it be all right if we went tomorrow? I'd rather not think about her at the moment. And hey, I brought a game," Will smiled hopefully.
Callie hesitated. "Tomorrow then. What is that? Is that like a blank box with a Candy land game inside? I like Candy land and all, but I'm not in the mood to play it at the moment."
Will was holding out a white box that glistened from how white it was.
"Callie honey, we're going for a drive would you all like to join us?" Jenny asked properly.
"No thanks Mrs. L," the all chimed at once.
Callie grinned. "Yeah, me either."
"Well your loss," Jenny said as she grabbed her coat and went out the front door followed by the other.
"Have fun, definitely going to have more than I am at the moment," Dee said to them.
"Bye Dee!" Callie laughed out.
She hurriedly shut the door and shooed them all into the living room where Will had all ready started setting the table.
"Okay what the hell is that?" Ami asked as Will started building it and forming it's house shape.
"I think it's a house," Will offered.
"Oh."
"How is this a game? It's a paper house!"
"~ It's a game," Tawny said. "~ See, there are instructions on the back of the lid. Scary instructions.~" She grinned evilly. "~ I like them!~"
"~ But how can you play a game with a paper house?~" Callie asked.
After a while all pitched in building it, with Will doing most of the work still because he was the only one who could actually build something with out it being a dangerous hazard.
"~ Look, here's some furniture to put inside-are you done with the first floor yet Will? You see, this is the parlor, and here's a little parlor table. Gothic Revival, I think. Mother has one. I'll put it here.~"
"Where are the dolls?" Tawny asked searching for them.
"There aren't any," Callie informed as she looked as well.
"~ Yes, there are," ~Tawny said and grinned. She'd curled her long legs up and was reading the instructions to herself.~ "~And they're us. I t says we each get a paper doll for a playing piece, and we draw our own face on it, and then we move the pieces through the house, trying to get to the turret at the top. That's the game.~"
"~You said it was scary," Jeremy objected.
"~ I didn't finish. It's a haunted house. You run into a different nightmare in every room while you're trying to get to the top. And you have to watch for the Shadow Men.~"
"~ The What?? ~" Callie asked in shock.
"~ The Shadow Man. He's like the Sandman, only he brings you nightmares. He's lurking around in side, and if he catches you, he'll-well, listen. He'll 'bring to life your darkest fantasies and make you confess you most secret fears.~"
Kirsten looked up from her side of the directions and aimed her glance at Jeremy. "~Go get some of Drew's colored pencil. We're going to need to draw a lot. Not just the paper dolls that are us; we're also supposed to draw our worst nightmare~."
"~ I think I'm going to like this,~" Tawny smiled.
When the time came for them to draw there worst nightmares Callie encountered a problem. She knew what she was afraid of; she just didn't know how to draw it. How could you draw being scared of not being loved, of not being able to love others in return?
Finally as the others called out being done Callie drew ferociously with a red colored pencil and looked down to see a heart.
"Callie are you done?"
She looked up at Ami. "Um yeah. Sorry. What did you draw Will?"
Will glanced up flipping his hair out of his face as a boyish look crossed over it. "~Can't tell you. It's a secret. ~"
Callie pierced her lips and then stuck her nose out in the air. This gesture rubbed out a giggle from Will as he handed his folded up piece of paper to Tawny.
"~That's right, they're secrets," Tawny informed. "~You don't get to see them until you reach the room they're in.~"
"~We need just one more thing, ~"~ Kirsten said. She paused dramatically and then said~, "~The Shadow Man.~"
"Anyone want to listen to some music while playing this game? Just a little," Callie asked.
Jeremy looked up with a smile. "Hell yeah."
"No we need to be able to read the cards out loud," Tawny said.
"So we'll keep it low." Callie grinned.
Tawny rolled her eyes and sighed in defeat knowing it was hopeless in debating in music being on or off. It always went on.
"95.5!" Will added.
"Of course," Callie said sarcastically.
Kirsten snorted in disgust. She hated that station, but the rest of the group loved it. So basically she always suffered when it came to music choices.
"Oh wait, leave it on this station please. This is 'Man of Constant Sorrow'. Please?" Kirsten begged suddenly.
^ I am a man of constant sorrow;
I've seen trouble all my day.
I bid farewell to old Kentucky,
The place where I was born and raised.
(The place where he was born and raised)^
"Oh gods!" Callie moaned.
"Hey it isn't that bad."
Callie gave Kirsten a hopeless look. She stood by the stereo until it was done even though her friends had already started playing the game.
"I can't handle this shit," Callie said changing it quickly.
"Hey!" Kirsten said.
"I'm sorry."
"It's fine," Kirsten mumbled.
"Callie, it's your turn," Will said looking down at the directions on the board. "Oh man. We forgot to take the Oath."
"The what?" Callie asked.
"~The Oath of the Game,~" Will said. ~His voice was sinister. "~It says here that we each have to swear that we're playing this game of our own free will, and that the game is real.~ Let me read the instructions: ~ 'There is a Shadow World, like our own but different, existing alongside ours but never touching. Some people call it the world of dreams, but it is as real as anything else' and then it says that entering the Shadow World can be dangerous, so you play at your own risk.~"
"Oh, I swear," Callie said first.
"Ditto," Tawny said.
"No, you have to say 'I swear'," Will said.
"I swear."
"I swear."
They all swore and continued on playing the game. Callie could have sworn she heard things scuttling around the house, light banging noises, things that the game said would happen, but the music was loud, so she couldn't be sure.
"I'm just scaring myself," she whispered.
"Callie it's your turn."
"Roll for me."
"I can't, you have to," Will said.
Callie sighed, went to the table rolled the dice and read the words aloud. "You hear a clock strike nine," she started then stopped. "This is so stupid."
Callie threw the card down as she heard a chime from her upstairs clock. She then walked to the stereo to turn it up and found the song 'Dolphins Cry' by Live was just starting.
"Good song!" she said as she turned it up a little louder.
Callie started swaying and dancing to the voice and singing along with it. She failed to notice that the clock had just struck eight.
"Callie," Tawny looked at her friend dancing.
^The way you're bathed in light
Reminds me of that night
God laid me down into your rose garden of trust
And I was swept away
With nothin' left to say
Some helpless fool
Yeah I was lost in a swoon of peace
You're all I need to find
So when the time is right
Come to me sweetly, come to me
Come to me^
Gusts of wind filled the room blowing Callie's hair in her face. Callie didn't think anything of it and continued dancing. The front door opened and Callie turned to see Audrey, Michael, Dee, her mother, her father, and Zach coming in. She waved.
"What are you doing?" Jenny asked as she saw the paper house.
"NO!" Tom screamed realizing what it was.
As he screamed the clock struck nine. ~ It was a sensation of air rushing by them, as if a hurricane had come in through the closed sliding glass door. A black, roaring hurricane that burned even as it froze. It hurt her like a physical thing, shaking her body and blinding her. She lost track of the room. Finally she lost track of that too. The pain stopped for a while, and she just drifted. ~
The next thing Callie heard was a splash as water caught her fall. Water filled her lungs as she swallowed the water and pushed up into her nose stinging the back of her head.
~~~~~
"Oh no, Tom!" Jenny said looking around the room at the others.
"We're in the game too, but we didn't play. I don't understand."
"Tom I'm surprised at you," a familiar exotic voice came.
Tom stiffened from his position on the floor beside him he could swear he heard an intake of breath from Dee and Jenny. "Julian."
"You're came in the room at almost the same time the clock stroked. You got pulled in, and now you'll all play."
"You can't have Jenny," Tom grounded out.
Julian glared at him. "I don't want Jenny, I want revenge. I died for her and what did she do? Marry you!"
Jenny's eyes widened. "Julian please, don't do this."
"You don't even have the ring anymore. What did you do with it?" His voice sounded like death if there was a sound.
"I gave it to," Jenny started saying as she heard a sputter from the small pond they landed by.
They all turned and looked seeing Callie brushing her hair while doggy paddling to the side to get out.
"Why do I have to fall in the water?" Callie asked angrily. "Isn't anyone going to come and help me?" she asked even more angrily as she slipped.
When no one answered and just stood there, well some staring some standing, she noticed the looks on their faces.
"What?"
To be continued.
Comments please! Sorry about the mistakes. I wanted to get this part done and out. It's extra long so I hope you all like it! This is basically since I've made you guys wait so long and all. Comments please!
Yunami The Dragon Elle Cotys child ~ I'm emailing you right after I send this part out. I'll tell you some of my ideas for the story.
Title: Eyes of a Lover
Author: Aya
Rating: 15+
Spoilers: The Forbidden Game
Disclaimers: I own all the characters not recognized. L.J. Smith characters from The Forbidden Game are hers.
Note: I'm getting tired of seeing all these stories where Jenny changes her mind and goes with Julian or she brings him back. Personally I think Jenny and Tom are perfect for each other, why not bring in a daughter and let Julian have a real chance. So instead of making this a challenge I decided to take it up for myself!
Summary: After three years of film making Callie Locke is coming home. The ambitious, successful, and sexy actress rocks the world of her small hometown when she returns, but someone's back from her mother's past and he's rocking Callie's world.
Note: (~) means that the dialogue is basically in L.J. Smith's words, only said by a different person.
Chapter Six: The Game
Callie stretched at the dinning room table rubbing her stomach. "Dinner was awesome momma!"
"Well it should be. I spent hours," she started to say.
Audrey lifted her eyebrows, "Excuse me, miss I spent hours cooking, well so did I."
"You too," Jenny dismissed teasingly with her hand.
Audrey grunted and Dee laughed. "You shouldn't be laughing Dee you sat on your butt and gripped and complained about it taking to long for 'them girls' to cook!" Audrey pointed out smiling.
"Well that's Dee Dee for you!" Tom bellowed laughing.
Jenny looked at him. "Are you drunk?"
"No-I," Tom started saying then saw the look in Jenny's eyes. "Okay, maybe just a little tipsy, but that's it."
"Tipsy my ass," Dee muttered smirking.
"Oh busted!" Drew grinned lightly elbowing Callie in the ribs.
"He's not busted, he just not getting any tonight," Jenny grinned evilly.
Tom's eyes widened as he looked at Jenny who couldn't wipe the satisfying grin off her face. His eyes turned pleading.
Drew and Callie groaned, "Ewe!"
"Jen! Please don't do that!" Tom whined.
"Well, a, Dad maybe if you got on your knees and," Callie started saying.
"I believe he's been on his knees one too many times this week," Jenny smiled as Tom blushed.
Callie's eye jerked to her mother. She plopped back into her chair looking shock and disgusted. However her brother Drew missed the double meaning and looked at his mother confused.
"What's he been doing on his knees?"
Callie who had lifted her glass of water to get a drink chocked and busted out laughing. "Sweet pea I don't think you want to know!"
Jenny turned a half horrified half amused look to her daughter. "Callie! I'm surprised at you!"
Tom pierced his lips. "You shouldn't be this little brats had a mouth on her ever since she could hold a conversation with Dee."
Noting he didn't look too amused Dee rolled her eyes. "Tom, get bent."
"The tension is rising. Good-bye!" Callie grinned as she left the kitchen.
"Callie do go and watch T.V. we were going to go for a drive," Jenny hollered following her daughter into the living room.
"When's Uncle Joey coming? I mean he is going to make to see me before I leave right?" Callie asked.
"I-I don't know if he'll make it. He's been busy with his corporation, Becca, and the kids."
Callie cast her eyes down as she took the remote in her hand. "Yeah I guess he would be. Not like he'd want to see me anyway," she mumbled the last part.
"Callie Locke that is not true."
"Yes it is! I haven't seen him since I left to become an actress. He never thought I'd make it. I know he's disappointed in me. He didn't want me to change my mind on being a Marine Biologist. He said it was my first choice that I should always stick with my first choice. 'It's always the best idea.' Mom it was too practical for me. I wanted to be an actress and I am and I'm good."
Jenny sat in a sideways position next to her daughter, who'd taken a seat on the couch. She wrapped her arm around her shoulder and laid her chin on her hand. "Don't be mad at him. He was always practical minded himself. Stubborn he is."
"Yeah, well if he doesn't stop being stubborn he won't have a niece anymore!" Callie growled out and shrugged out of her mothers embrace getting up.
"Callie," Jenny whispered helplessly.
A loud pounding came to the door followed by a shout of laughter. Callie turned in the hallway so that her head turned to the door as she recognized the voices.
She ran to the door and swung it open. "Hey bitches!"
"CALLIE!" Jenny screamed.
The tiny group of girls screaming and hugging out weighed her scream. A pounding of screams of 'your hair isn't blue' coming from Callie, and 'You are so hot, marry me' coming from Will and another 'what about Janine?' from Callie and then it was silence. Callie glanced around not seeing Janine among the group.
"Guys, where's Janine?" Callie asked her voice cracking.
"Um," Kirsten murmured.
"Kirsten what? Tawny? Ami? Where's Janine?"
"She umm, got in a car accident about a year ago," Jeremy half whispered.
Callie's eyes watered. "I'm guessing she isn't okay."
Will had gone still at the mention of his dead girlfriends name and Callie looked over at him in time to see a tear drop down on to his close.
"Will, I'm so sorry," Callie's voice cracked as she went to him and wrapped her arms around him.
He loosely slid his muscular arms around her waist and buried his head into her shoulders. His, slightly shaking as he cried.
"Why, why didn't anyone tell me? I didn't even get invited to the funeral."
Will slightly pulled away. "We did, we even tried calling you. We figured with all the fan mail you get you hadn't gotten to it yet and your bodyguards weren't allowing any calls because you had a stalker at the time."
"This is the only time I'll do it," Callie whispered then spoke so everyone could hear. "Curse me being famous. I'm so sorry you guys. I would have been there. Oh Janine."
"She was buried on September 3rd," Tawny said.
"In the Town graveyard," Kirsten put in.
Callie brought her hand up to her mouth and gave an uneasy sigh.
"That's unbelievable," Callie muttered.
No one said anything for a while. Just stared at each other, taking in the news for Callie, remembering the shock and sadness for the others.
"Will, I would have been there."
"I know," he smiled.
"I'm glad. I would have dropped everything."
"We know you would have," Ami said grinning as she hugged her best friend.
"I can't believe you went normal Ami," Callie smiled.
"Well, when you loose your best friend and get kicked out of your parents house after high school graduation I kind of had too."
Callie smiled sadly at Ami knowing her parents would have done it sooner or later. "You never lost me."
Ami lifted her gaze up. "You never wrote. I got three letters from you in three years."
"I don't have an excuse other than I was busy."
"Friends aren't important then?"
Callie cringed; it was bound to happen, this conversation. "You, all of you, are important to me."
Ami was about to say something when Jeremy butted in. "Could we not. Ami you can very well wait 'till tomorrow!"
"I guess."
"I'd like to go see Janine's grave."
"I knew you'd want to see it, but would it be all right if we went tomorrow? I'd rather not think about her at the moment. And hey, I brought a game," Will smiled hopefully.
Callie hesitated. "Tomorrow then. What is that? Is that like a blank box with a Candy land game inside? I like Candy land and all, but I'm not in the mood to play it at the moment."
Will was holding out a white box that glistened from how white it was.
"Callie honey, we're going for a drive would you all like to join us?" Jenny asked properly.
"No thanks Mrs. L," the all chimed at once.
Callie grinned. "Yeah, me either."
"Well your loss," Jenny said as she grabbed her coat and went out the front door followed by the other.
"Have fun, definitely going to have more than I am at the moment," Dee said to them.
"Bye Dee!" Callie laughed out.
She hurriedly shut the door and shooed them all into the living room where Will had all ready started setting the table.
"Okay what the hell is that?" Ami asked as Will started building it and forming it's house shape.
"I think it's a house," Will offered.
"Oh."
"How is this a game? It's a paper house!"
"~ It's a game," Tawny said. "~ See, there are instructions on the back of the lid. Scary instructions.~" She grinned evilly. "~ I like them!~"
"~ But how can you play a game with a paper house?~" Callie asked.
After a while all pitched in building it, with Will doing most of the work still because he was the only one who could actually build something with out it being a dangerous hazard.
"~ Look, here's some furniture to put inside-are you done with the first floor yet Will? You see, this is the parlor, and here's a little parlor table. Gothic Revival, I think. Mother has one. I'll put it here.~"
"Where are the dolls?" Tawny asked searching for them.
"There aren't any," Callie informed as she looked as well.
"~ Yes, there are," ~Tawny said and grinned. She'd curled her long legs up and was reading the instructions to herself.~ "~And they're us. I t says we each get a paper doll for a playing piece, and we draw our own face on it, and then we move the pieces through the house, trying to get to the turret at the top. That's the game.~"
"~You said it was scary," Jeremy objected.
"~ I didn't finish. It's a haunted house. You run into a different nightmare in every room while you're trying to get to the top. And you have to watch for the Shadow Men.~"
"~ The What?? ~" Callie asked in shock.
"~ The Shadow Man. He's like the Sandman, only he brings you nightmares. He's lurking around in side, and if he catches you, he'll-well, listen. He'll 'bring to life your darkest fantasies and make you confess you most secret fears.~"
Kirsten looked up from her side of the directions and aimed her glance at Jeremy. "~Go get some of Drew's colored pencil. We're going to need to draw a lot. Not just the paper dolls that are us; we're also supposed to draw our worst nightmare~."
"~ I think I'm going to like this,~" Tawny smiled.
When the time came for them to draw there worst nightmares Callie encountered a problem. She knew what she was afraid of; she just didn't know how to draw it. How could you draw being scared of not being loved, of not being able to love others in return?
Finally as the others called out being done Callie drew ferociously with a red colored pencil and looked down to see a heart.
"Callie are you done?"
She looked up at Ami. "Um yeah. Sorry. What did you draw Will?"
Will glanced up flipping his hair out of his face as a boyish look crossed over it. "~Can't tell you. It's a secret. ~"
Callie pierced her lips and then stuck her nose out in the air. This gesture rubbed out a giggle from Will as he handed his folded up piece of paper to Tawny.
"~That's right, they're secrets," Tawny informed. "~You don't get to see them until you reach the room they're in.~"
"~We need just one more thing, ~"~ Kirsten said. She paused dramatically and then said~, "~The Shadow Man.~"
"Anyone want to listen to some music while playing this game? Just a little," Callie asked.
Jeremy looked up with a smile. "Hell yeah."
"No we need to be able to read the cards out loud," Tawny said.
"So we'll keep it low." Callie grinned.
Tawny rolled her eyes and sighed in defeat knowing it was hopeless in debating in music being on or off. It always went on.
"95.5!" Will added.
"Of course," Callie said sarcastically.
Kirsten snorted in disgust. She hated that station, but the rest of the group loved it. So basically she always suffered when it came to music choices.
"Oh wait, leave it on this station please. This is 'Man of Constant Sorrow'. Please?" Kirsten begged suddenly.
^ I am a man of constant sorrow;
I've seen trouble all my day.
I bid farewell to old Kentucky,
The place where I was born and raised.
(The place where he was born and raised)^
"Oh gods!" Callie moaned.
"Hey it isn't that bad."
Callie gave Kirsten a hopeless look. She stood by the stereo until it was done even though her friends had already started playing the game.
"I can't handle this shit," Callie said changing it quickly.
"Hey!" Kirsten said.
"I'm sorry."
"It's fine," Kirsten mumbled.
"Callie, it's your turn," Will said looking down at the directions on the board. "Oh man. We forgot to take the Oath."
"The what?" Callie asked.
"~The Oath of the Game,~" Will said. ~His voice was sinister. "~It says here that we each have to swear that we're playing this game of our own free will, and that the game is real.~ Let me read the instructions: ~ 'There is a Shadow World, like our own but different, existing alongside ours but never touching. Some people call it the world of dreams, but it is as real as anything else' and then it says that entering the Shadow World can be dangerous, so you play at your own risk.~"
"Oh, I swear," Callie said first.
"Ditto," Tawny said.
"No, you have to say 'I swear'," Will said.
"I swear."
"I swear."
They all swore and continued on playing the game. Callie could have sworn she heard things scuttling around the house, light banging noises, things that the game said would happen, but the music was loud, so she couldn't be sure.
"I'm just scaring myself," she whispered.
"Callie it's your turn."
"Roll for me."
"I can't, you have to," Will said.
Callie sighed, went to the table rolled the dice and read the words aloud. "You hear a clock strike nine," she started then stopped. "This is so stupid."
Callie threw the card down as she heard a chime from her upstairs clock. She then walked to the stereo to turn it up and found the song 'Dolphins Cry' by Live was just starting.
"Good song!" she said as she turned it up a little louder.
Callie started swaying and dancing to the voice and singing along with it. She failed to notice that the clock had just struck eight.
"Callie," Tawny looked at her friend dancing.
^The way you're bathed in light
Reminds me of that night
God laid me down into your rose garden of trust
And I was swept away
With nothin' left to say
Some helpless fool
Yeah I was lost in a swoon of peace
You're all I need to find
So when the time is right
Come to me sweetly, come to me
Come to me^
Gusts of wind filled the room blowing Callie's hair in her face. Callie didn't think anything of it and continued dancing. The front door opened and Callie turned to see Audrey, Michael, Dee, her mother, her father, and Zach coming in. She waved.
"What are you doing?" Jenny asked as she saw the paper house.
"NO!" Tom screamed realizing what it was.
As he screamed the clock struck nine. ~ It was a sensation of air rushing by them, as if a hurricane had come in through the closed sliding glass door. A black, roaring hurricane that burned even as it froze. It hurt her like a physical thing, shaking her body and blinding her. She lost track of the room. Finally she lost track of that too. The pain stopped for a while, and she just drifted. ~
The next thing Callie heard was a splash as water caught her fall. Water filled her lungs as she swallowed the water and pushed up into her nose stinging the back of her head.
~~~~~
"Oh no, Tom!" Jenny said looking around the room at the others.
"We're in the game too, but we didn't play. I don't understand."
"Tom I'm surprised at you," a familiar exotic voice came.
Tom stiffened from his position on the floor beside him he could swear he heard an intake of breath from Dee and Jenny. "Julian."
"You're came in the room at almost the same time the clock stroked. You got pulled in, and now you'll all play."
"You can't have Jenny," Tom grounded out.
Julian glared at him. "I don't want Jenny, I want revenge. I died for her and what did she do? Marry you!"
Jenny's eyes widened. "Julian please, don't do this."
"You don't even have the ring anymore. What did you do with it?" His voice sounded like death if there was a sound.
"I gave it to," Jenny started saying as she heard a sputter from the small pond they landed by.
They all turned and looked seeing Callie brushing her hair while doggy paddling to the side to get out.
"Why do I have to fall in the water?" Callie asked angrily. "Isn't anyone going to come and help me?" she asked even more angrily as she slipped.
When no one answered and just stood there, well some staring some standing, she noticed the looks on their faces.
"What?"
To be continued.
Comments please! Sorry about the mistakes. I wanted to get this part done and out. It's extra long so I hope you all like it! This is basically since I've made you guys wait so long and all. Comments please!