Summer break had finally begun. Finally. And it was only one more week until my birthday. I was so excited. My best friend Sammy and I were at the mall looking at music and waiting for people to meet us.
Sammy and I have been friends since 2nd grade. Our friendship has been to hell and back again, but that has only made our friendship stronger. We are complete opposites. I have long, dark brown hair and dark brown eyes, and she has short, blond hair and blue eyes. She's tall, I'm short, she likes pink, I despise it. I'm good at the things she sucks at; she's good at the things I suck at. We kind of even each other out. Two halves of a whole. Friends until the end.
"Alright, Depeche Mode Greatest Hits, or Jarhead soundtrack?" I ask holding up the 2 CD's. "Who's Depeche Mode?" Sammy asks and I just stare at her blankly. "You suck… I'm getting Depeche Mode…" I put the other CD back and we walk around a bit more. "Why are you buying stuff now, your birthday is a week away." I roll my eyes, "yeah, and yours is 6 days away, why are you getting stuff?" Oh yeah, our birthdays are only a day apart. How trippy is that? "No ones gonna buy me this CD, besides, everyone always gets me really random stuff." She says picking up a movie off the shelf.
I roll my eyes, "I would have bought you that… and who's gonna buy me Depeche Mode? You didn't even know who they were!" Sammy puts on a mock offended look, "I did too! I just had a momentary… brain lapse…" I laugh, "I'm sure… brain lapse… whatever Sammy." We both laugh and walk to the back of the store and begin flipping through the poster displays. I stop at an old Poster with a map of Middle Earth on it. I sigh to myself, wishing I could go there. Don't get me wrong; I love my life, my friends, my family. But it all seemed so… mediocre and boring sometimes. Like there could be so much more interesting things in entirely different worlds. If I could just go there, just feel the magic… you know? Probably not… I suppose I should be grateful for what I have.
"SAMMY!" Sammy and I jump and turn around. David and Sean are behind us laughing. They love to do that. Sammy's real name is Samantha, mine is Samara, they both can be shortened to Sammy, David just always says Sammy cause it's easier then calling us both by our names. It's dumb; I know…But David loves it.
We spent the rest of the day walking around and talking, hanging out, whatever. Sean was leaving for Cabo the next day and David was going to New Jersey to visit family, so this was kind of a birthday thing for them and us.
The next week went by slowly. Sammy's birthday was awesome. We went to the beach and Pirates Cove, which is this mini theme park like thing right on the beach. It has arcade games and a roller coaster and bumper cars. But now I was tired. It was about 10 o'clock and Sammy was spending the night at my house for my birthday tomorrow. She was already asleep and my body was exhausted, but my mind was wide-awake. I usually was, but I really wanted to sleep. 11 o'clock slowly ticked by and before I knew it, it was 11:59. One more minute until my birthday. Another year of my life gone… I closed my eyes and wished this year would be the best year yet, and that something would happen.
And then I felt something pinch me. I opened my eyes and looked over at Sammy, but she was fast asleep. Thinking I had imagined it, I looked back at the clock, 12:00 AM. Happy Birthday Samara… And then I felt it again, a pinching on my arm, pulling me. And then it stopped; I sat up and looked around but couldn't see anything. Again something pulling me, and I felt myself falling off my bed, I prepared myself to hit the floor, but when I did, I found myself on leaves.
I look up around me and see… trees? It was still dark, but the moon was high above me, shining brightly and I could vaguely see the outline of pines around me. I stood up, wondering if this was some sort of dream. My hands and knees hurt from the fall and I dusted myself off. I looked around again and it was all just trees. "Now what…?" I whispered to myself. I decided to start walking since my body no longer ached and I was more awake than ever. I walked to what I thought was the South, but I couldn't really tell because it all looked the same.
About an hour later I found myself coming to the edge of the forest. I still say nothing but vast wasteland for acres, but at least it wasn't more trees. I decided to sit and rest for a while so I leaned against a tree and closed my eyes. I must have fallen asleep because when I opened my eyes then sun was bright in the sky and there were four dark men kneeling in front of me, whispering amongst themselves.