"Sydnee..." Someone called my name, but it seemed distant and far away, "Sydnee!" I jumped and my pen hit my mouth hard.
"Wha?" I looked around confused like and took note that I was in the science room, I guess I fell asleep in Professer Ansems class...
Jennifer laughed at me, "How is it even possible for you to fall asleep in here with all the explosions? Its the least boring part of our apprenticeship."
I shrugged and wiped the sleep out of my eyes, "I dunno...How long was I even out?"
She looked at the clock and squinted, "I cant tell...maybe 30 minutes?"
I rubbed my lip where my pen had hit me, it was bleeding a little, "Thats almost half the experiment, how did I not get caught?" I sucked up the blood off my lip, it wasnt much. She bit her lip, "What?"
Pointing to Ansem she set down her notes and pen and walked over to the wall. Ansem had an annoyed look on his face, that was never a good sign. I follwed Jennifer and sat in the corner. It wasnt like us to get in trouble, we were the good kids. Even if I had fallen asleep, we didnt usually get punished. Ansem started demonstrating again. Despite my best efforts to to not fall to sleep, I did. My head was against the wall and I was dreaming of the up coming Sakura-con. I was doing a skit with Jennifer and DJ Wonderbread, my two best buds. We were dancing and all of the sudden a shrill scream reached my ears and I jumped up, "Ohmahgod! WHOS DYING?" It was completly silent, unnautraly silent, "G-Guys?" I was afraid to open my eyes. I felt cold and everything was still. I slowly opened one eye and almost imeadiatly regretted it. I was in complete darkness, surrounded, and alone. I pinched myself, I was awake, "...Ludmila? Sean?...Caitlynn? Keelen?...Holly? DJ Wonderbr-I mean Cheyanne?" Complete silence, not even my own breathing was heard, "JENNIFER?!" I began to panic, Jennifer had to be there, she was always there, "This isnt funny. Come on, I know you're there...you are there...right?" I began to think I was dead.
I spun around and an all to real tap was felt on my shoulder, "Yo' Sydnee!" Jennifer was standing there with her cheezy smile and unmatching clothes.
"Omahgod! Jennifer. I thought I was dead." My heart beat went back to normal and I caught my breath, I almost flipped out there...
"Yeah...its me...Jennifer..." She sounded a little nervous like, not at all like herself.
I tried to understand why she was acting so weird, "Um...are ok? Your sorta spacing out on me..."
She blinked and shook her head, "Oh. Of course, I'm better than ever."
Something was not right here, she never said stuff like that. The norm from her was something along the lines of 'Psh! Yeah!'. I changed the subject and tried to push that out of my head, "So do you know how we got here? Or how we get out of here...kinda creepy..."
She smirked, "I know how I got here."
"Thats great...but how did I get here?" She was pushing my buttons.
"I called you here." She folded her hands in a stately matter.
What was her problem, "What does that mean? We were both in trouble...How the hell do we get out of here?"
"Just cooperate and I wont have to hurt you." I rubbed my eyes, there was no way that could be Jennifer. Yet she still stood there looking noobier than ever.
"You arent Jennifer." I backed away slowly as she smirked.
"Good, thats a start..." The illusion lifted and there stood a teen, around my age, 17. He had silvery dark blue hair that covered his face and gray eyes. He was wearing a black coat, gloves, and boots.
"WTF is that? You cant just pretend to be my friend. You did a crappy job by the way." I folded my arms and turned my head away, he was hott but I could sense danger.
He sighed, "Listen...just come with me peacefully and I wont hurt you. Refuse and..." He held a book in his hand.
"Oh joy. You're going to fight me with literature, how scary." I sacastically waved my hands in fear, "Anything but literature!"
He rolled his eyes, "You think your so funny. I'll give you one more chance...Come with me or I will be forced to-"
"Read me literature? Please. I have no reason to trust you." I held my hand out and a bow formed, it was long and graceful, "Hit me with your best shot."
"I'd rather not..." I drew back my bow and let an arrow fly. It hit his arm and tore open his coat, blood dripped down his arm, "You leave me no choice."
His book flew open and the pages rapidly flipped, "Oh shit." I ducked down as pages came flying at me, they ripped through the air and sliced through my skin. Blood leaked down my arm and off the tips of my fingers, "Whats a little blood loss?" The pages kept swirling around me with razor edges, who knew paper could hurt so much? I shot a few arrows without aiming, they usualy found thier target. The pages never stopped slicing and sliding through my skin, "Oh god that hurts..." A paper got my cheek and blood dripped down my neck, it was leaking so easily. I shot an arrow and caught four or five pages in it, they fell to the ground. I aimed at the book, the teen had just been calmly standing there. There was no way I was going to win, he wasn't even hurt, just the cut on his arm. My arrow slid over the book, just missing it by millimeters, and got his side. The pages fell to the ground and I gasped for breath, it was so painful, imagine paper cuts as long as your hand all over your body. He staggered a little, the arrow wasn't stuck in his skin, but it sliced open his side pretty good. I wiped my lip as my bow dissapeared, I didn't have the strength to keep it with me. I looked at my arms and skin, the cuts weren't deep, but still bled freely. The cuts were long and thin, they stung a little though. I made a fist and licked the cuts on my knuckles, it didnt seem weird to me at all.
Meanwhile, the teen was holding his side trying to stop the blood flow, I looked at him from under my hair as I cleaned my hands. He was muttering to himself, "Fucking arrow...gah..." His book was floating in the air and I walked over to it, dispite the stings of pain coming from my cuts.
"Your gunna live, I didnt aim for and vital areas...Who are you anyways?" I dont know why I was so calm, I was in complete darkness with a total stranger that imitated my best friend and tried to kill me. I felt like I knew him in some way. I couldnt explain it, it was just a famliar feel.
He smiled a little, "You dont remember me?"
I should know him?! I felt really brain dead now, he knew me and I was supposed to know him, "...I should know you...?"
He shook his head with amusement and released the death grip on his side, it was starting to dry now, "I should hope so, its only been what-two or three years-well I suppose you wouldnt..." It seemed like he was arguing more with himself, "...Well it was nice seeing you to, but you have to go now..."
I have to go now? What was he talking about? "What do you-"
"See you later!" He waved and the darkness melted away.
"Wait!-Uh-" I scrambled to find his name, but I couldnt remember anything, nothing. I reached out, "No dont go..." there was a flash and I opened my eyes. Jennifer was shaking me and we were in the experimentation room.
"Sydnee! Wake up, god. Were gunna be late for the lecture!" She was sort of frantic and pulled me down the halls of Radiant Gardens castle.
I blinked, there was no way that had been a dream, "Jennifer, I was in the darkness and there was a guy with blue hair and we fought and I was bleeding and-"
"Not now! You can tell me about you fantasy later, make a story or something..." She dragged me down the hall, we were almost there.
I groaned and yanked my arm out of her grip, "Jennifer, it wasnt a dream. I'm being serious!"
She turned to me, "Later! Your going to be so dead if you miss another lecture, I cant take notes for you again. You havent been yourself latley..."
"What are you saying?" I was perfectly fine. Never better, "If your uniterested then just say so...I'm going exploring. Screw the leture, see if I care..."
"But Sydnee they're boring with the other appentices they dont have anything interesting to talk about..." She turned down the hall and headed into the lecture room.
"I dont wanna...."She didnt come back out, "Psh. Whatever..." I liked to explore the old castle alone anyways.
I headed toward the basement, it was the most interesting place, partially because we wernt allowed down there. I had been an apprentice longer than anyone else, since I was 12. There had been other apprentices, but I couldnt remember who they were, they just dissapeard one week when I was on vacation a few years ago, Master Ansem never told me what happened. What bugged me wasnt that he wouldnt tell me, its that I couldnt remember a single thing about the others, all I knew was that there was six of them. Its been a two and a half years now and they were replaced one by one. I always went into the basement in hopes that I would find a file of one of them or something to remind me of them. I was now 17-almost 17, in three days I would be 17. I lived with the missing apprentices for two and a half years, they were my family, when they went missing my heart broke, I didnt know what I was going to do. A few days later though, I couldnt even remember their names. I came across the door to the basement, it was locked. I sighed and took my pen out of my pocket, "Always locking the door..." I picked the lock and it fell uselessly to the ground. Leaving my thoughs, I slid the door open, letting the cold damp breeze of the basement fill my lungs. It was a perculiar smell, that of mystery and secrets. A mischevious grin played on my face as I took my first step.
"SYDNEE." Master Ansem was heard behind me.
Oh shit! I was caught! This was my second time being caught, he warned me not to venture down there, "Y-yes Master Ansem?" I squeaked and avoided his gaze.
He used his disapproval voice, "What are you doing? Havent I warned you? Do I have to let you go? You're one of my best apprentices, I dont want to, but if you cant follow orders....."
"Oh no-no-no! I-" I stuttered, he couldnt let me go. This was my only family my real family dumped me here when I was 11 and never picked me up, "-I-you cant-I mean this is my only family!"
Ansem held the bridge of his nose with his fingers, "I know, just please listen to orders. Dont venture off, we cant loose you too."
"Ok...Yes...Yes Master Ansem." I hung my head and walked down the hall, I would just go out to the garden then. He never threatened to cut me loose before. Not even when I dropped his notes into the lake on accident. He never went that far...That had been a funny time at the lake...I reflected on my actions on my way to the garden. It was a beautiful place, red roses, purple irises, lillies, bulbs, snap dragons, berries, cherry blossoms, petunias, and many more flowers burst from every direction. I sat on a bench and layed among the flowers. It was peaceful, a soft breeze blew among the bushes and carried the flowery scents around me. I thought about the earlier times with the missing apprentices, they were just black figures in my memories, but still good memories. I remember when I had been playing tag with one near my age and broke my arm. The scientist had showed me how to bind my arm correctly and given me medicine to ease the pain. One of the older ones-he always had a pontail-would tease me and tell me that my arm would have to be cut off, it would never heal. That was when I was 12 and a half. It was funny, I actually belived the one with the ponytail, but was convinced otherwise when the quiet one told me not to worry and had the guy with big sideburns make me cookies. The one near my age, we were insepriable, best friends you could say. This was one of my only memories of them, just black figures in my mind, with deep mumbling voices...I laughed a little and closed my eyes. It was nice to relax and not worry about my notes or anything else.
A rustling sound was heard next to me and I lifted my head off the bench, a little squirrel was by my face, "Hey there little guy..." He jumped around and ran away, "Wait where are you going? Dont leave me..." I sighed as he dissapeared into the berry bushes. He was a cute little guy-a free little guy. I wasnt allowed outside of the caslte, there was supposedly dangerous things happening outside of it. I walked around and ran my fingers over the soft roses. I layed in a random spot and let the butterflies tickle my nose and the bees buzz over me. I was soon fast asleep. When I woke it was dark outside. I streched and looked around, I was still in the garden, "No interesting dreams..." I thought back to earlier that day when I had the dream about the gray eyed teen.
I headed back to the castle and was greeted with a big bunch of hugs, "YOUR OK!"
"Uh-yeah...?" I pushed everyone off and brushed myself off, "No duh, thanks for the obvious...why wouldnt I be ok?"
"You were gone for a whole day!" Jennifer commented.
"Yeah, we thought you dissapeared!" DJ Wonderbread patted my back.
"A-a whole DAY? I was just taking a nap...in the garden...no big deal..." I didnt relise it had been that long...I just took a nap....
Master Ansem came around the corner and gave a sigh of releif, "Oh thank goodness, I thought you had...it doesnt matter, your back and ok..."
"Ok yeah...." I was weirded out, "I was sleeping on the grass...so I'm just gunna go shower..."
"Everyone back to work..." Ansem broke up the crowd and everyone dispersed.
I rubbed the back of my neck and sat on my bed after my shower, "A whole day...." I shrugged, "Meh." I had been pretty sleepy.
After I changed I looked in the mirror and jumped in fright, the gray eyed teen was behind me in the reflection, I spun around, "Hey there...remember now?" He waved to me with his gloved hand.