Chad

I was worried the next morning. I found a note taped to my forehead, and wondered how it got there. I took it off and rushed to the bathroom, knowing that I'd drunk too much last night, but didn't care. After I took care of that, I picked up the note and tried to read it, my head throbbing.

Chad(stupid),

What are you, an idiot!?

Oh, yes, that's right, you are.

Listen to me. Well, read these words:

You are to come to the garden when you wake up to see me.

We are not pleased with you and you are going to get me in trouble.

The court is going to wait until we get there to start.

Hopefully, we will be lucky.

But I seriously doubt that.

Jewel the Fairy

Her again? One, I am not stupid. Two, why did she think I was going to go to the garden when she told me that I was in trouble? Three, who is this court? I was starting to think that this was all a dream, and that any minute now, I will wake up, and I will go find Sonny and tell her exactly how I feel. But then I thought it over again, and I knew that I would never do that. Even if I had a dream that I'd lost her forever. That would be stupid.

I didn't want to make Jewel mad. I knew that she could probably do something to me that I really didn't want to happen, so I just had to suffer through whatever this was. I smelled my clothes, and immediately smelled alcohol. I jumped into the shower after grabbing one of my Mackenzie Falls uniforms, and got the smell away.

I got dressed, and ran outside. It was two in the afternoon, and she may have left it early in the morning. I wouldn't be able to tell, so I just hoped that she wouldn't be too mad at me. It took me a little while to get there considering how far away it was and how many times I stopped for gas, food, or a bathroom break.

Soon, I saw the shop Sonny and I had gone shopping in, and the restaurant we dined in. So, I pulled into a parking spot and made my way down the path to the garden. There was a woman sitting on a bench next to the pond. From what I could see of her, she had red hair and was wearing a white shirt and jeans. Her shoes were a little too big for her, but it suited her. She turned when she heard me coming and sighed.

"Why did it take you so long to get here?" she asked.

"Excuse me?" I replied.

"Well, I've only been waiting here for, I don't know, three hours. I figured you would be here earlier. But then again, you were drinking." she said.

"Jewel? Is that you?" I asked.

"Duh, it's me. I had to blend in while I waited. Now, come on. We need to get there now. They are going to be oober mad at me." she explained.

"Who? And why?" I asked.

"You'll see. They're the judges of the court. There are six of them. They are trying to decide what to do to get Sonny back. Of course, you will be tried because you were the one who gave her over to Ben. What were you thinking?" she replied.

"I thought that he was going to help me figure out this thing and then take my necklace, not Sonny." I told her.

"It doesn't matter. You shouldn't have talked to him in the first place!" She was clearly getting upset. She was doing something with the water in the pond, and it was starting to swish around.

"Oh, so I was just supposed to know that he was bad by looking at him?" I asked.

"Did you not notice the black…everywhere!? Come on." she said.

"Come on…where?" I replied.

"Jump in the water."

"Are you crazy!? Why would I do that?"

"Because this is the way to get to my world. Come on." she explained.

I wasn't going to like this, but I believed her. I needed to do this, and trust her. I counted to three in my head, and jumped into the swirling water.

***

Sonny

I'd been cleaning all day and I was getting tired of it. I wanted the place to be presentable when Ben got home. While he was gone, I'd taken a bike ride. I didn't know why I did, it was just something that my brain kept yelling at me. I realized why I did afterward.

Last night I'd remembered everything, and then Ben wiped it away from me again. Before he could, I'd tattooed the spot on my brain and it actually stayed. I'd wound up in the same spot as yesterday, and remembered everything again. But I was going to act dumb this time. I don't know anything about my former life, as far as he knows, and that's how it's going to stay.

I was going to have to figure out how to get out of here. It wasn't going to be easy, because I had no idea where I was or how to get back, but I was going to do it. Maybe it wouldn't be that hard. Maybe it was something that was too obvious to notice. Or maybe it was impossible without magic.

I could only hope that someone had noticed my disappearance and come searching for me. In the meantime, I had to pretend like nothing was wrong, and I had to find something to do in my spare time. This meant that I had to snoop. Luckily, I was pretty good at snooping. Back in Wisconsin, I would have to do a little snooping to find out if maybe this guy liked me, or even Lucy.

I sat on the couch and turned on the TV. I made sure to look around before I got up, which was a waste of time since I knew that Ben could pop up anywhere he wanted. I slowly got up off the couch, and made my way to the back room. When I got here it had been locked, but now I knew that I had to get in it. There might be something important in there to help me.

I tried to doorknob, thinking that with any luck it would be open. No such luck. I decided to try and pick it open. I looked all around the house and finally found a bobby pin in the bathroom. I bent it open and stuck it in the lock. Unfortunately, I think this knob what charmed. It spit the bobby pin right out like there was something on the other side of the door.

I was not going to get used to the magic here at all. I decided that I would try to break down the door, but then I thought that it would probably break me, not the door, and that Ben would definitely notice the broken door. So, I went back to the couch and tried to think of what I was going to do.

"How is my Sonshine today?" Ben asked from behind the couch.

I pasted on a fake smile and replied, "Wonderful! I just got done getting the place clean for you. Now, we can sit and watch a movie, or do something else together."

"Well, I was planning on taking you somewhere today. You're going to meet my mother, if you don't mind." he said.

"Why is that?" I asked.

"Because she wants to meet you. It's a long story. Every time I get a new girlfriend my mom thinks that she is going to be my future wife. But…I think she may be right about this one." he said. He walked toward me, but I turned around. I did it mostly to hide my surprised, but yet disgusted, face. I also did it to keep him from kissing me.

"What's wrong, love?" Ugh! I wished he would stop calling me that.

"I…I'm just happy is all. I didn't expect to hear that, and it made me kind of scared. I'm…well, I'm nervous." I replied.

He turned me around. "There's nothing to worry about. We love each other, right? Then we will make it official." He mumbled something I couldn't hear.

"What was that?" I asked.

"Oh, nothing. It was nothing." he replied.

He then pulled me into a kiss. On the outside, I was trying to be calm and collected, but on the inside, I was sobbing.

***

Chad

Traveling through water is a lot like traveling in a swirling rollercoaster. It makes your stomach do flips, your eyes roll in the back of your head, and your lunch try to come back up. It didn't last long, and I was grateful because of my stomach.

As soon as my eyes focused on what was around me, I saw that Jewel was unfazed by our little trip. We weren't wet, so that surprised me.

I wasn't going to get used to this magic thing.

She immediately started walking, and I followed her. It wasn't too long after that that I was standing in front of a building that looked like the White House, only it was gold. Jewel gave me an unspoken minute to take it all in, and then we proceeded to go in it. She led me to one of the rooms on the first floor.

It was large and looked like it had once held an opera production. There was a stand in the front of the room with six men sitting in it. They were all old and almost looked exactly the same. They all had white hair, but at different lengths.

"What took you so long?" one of them asked.

"He was…sick. We're here now. Let's get down to business." Jewel said.

The older men looked me over, and I could feel that there were now people behind me staring at me even though there had been none when we came in earlier. There was a sign hung up above the men. It was a portion of a blackboard, and it had a word written in chalk on it. It said "Chad and Sonny". I was really starting to think I should run for the hills.

"We're here to figure out what you need to do to fix your problem. We haven't had anyone not listen to they're fairy and go to a rogue fairy in at least eight years." the one on the right end said.

"Excuse me." I said. He nodded toward me. "I was never told about 'rogue' fairies. What are they?" Everyone in the room gasped.

"Jewel, did you not tell them about rogue fairies?" the one next to the one on the right said.

"I…I think so. I mean, I always do."

"Did you or did you not tell them about the rogues?" The one on the left was glaring at her with such intensity that I thought that she would burst into flames at any minute.

"I didn't. I'm sorry." Jewel said that with her eyes on the ground. She knew she was in trouble for something. That's what I thought at first, but with a closer look, I noticed that she was actually ashamed of her mistake.

"Rogue fairies are always the same. A fairy and a human will have a baby, and that baby will be a fairy. The parents put so much time and effort into that child, that if they have another, it doesn't get enough attention. We don't know why we are like this, we just are. The younger child becomes a rogue, and offers the answer to the riddles we give with a payment.

"The bad thing is that the most prized possession of whoever it is, is also the answer to it. For instance, your most prized possession is Sonny. You may not think you own her, but her heart is yours. You have the power to protect it, break it, love it, or crush it. She belongs to you, and you value her most. That is why Ben took her. You see, Ben is Jewel's little brother. He knew that she didn't explain the rogues, and he went after you.

"He could have Sonny anywhere. We know what dimension he is in, but it is…strange. It's like the one you read about in Alice in Wonderland. We have no idea how long it will take to find where he is keeping her, but if you search hard enough, you can find her in two days. Jewel will go with you and you can take one other human with you." the third from the left said.

What were these people talking about? This was just way too crazy for me. I missed Sonny like crazy and I felt on the verge of just hitting someone. For some reason I felt like I had to sit down. My neck and shoulders suddenly tensed up. I thought about Sonny. Really thought about her. It was something I hadn't done since she'd been gone. My eyes were starting to get blurry. I didn't notice it was from water building up in them.

Everyone was looking at me now. I may have not been able to see well, but I could feel their eyes. For a moment, everyone was silent, and then one of the men whispered to another man. It was so quiet that you could hear what he said.

"Yes, this is very serious. You know how the rogues are." he said.

"What? How are the rogues?" I asked.

He looked at me. My vision was getting clearer. I was starting to get sober again. I felt the tears going down my cheeks and wiped one off, astonished. I hadn't cried in a long time. That man was right. This is very serious.

"They tend to take things for themselves. Which means he's brainwashed your Sonny into believing she loves him."

That was when the tears dried up completely. My heart started racing, and my arms felt numb. Thinking of that jerk with Sonny…it made me want to kill someone. No, not someone. Him. I was going to get Sonny back if it killed me.

"When can we leave?" I said, knowing that this was going to be my main task for the next couple of days.

"In an hour. We have to get everything ready for your trip, and you have to go back to your world and get someone to help. Of course, your taking Jewel, too."

"I have no one in the human world I can go to right now." I said. I was trying to think of people that might help me, but they were all off on the other side of the world. I wondered if maybe they could take me across the world, but I didn't even know where everyone was right now. Wait a minute. "Oh, never mind. I've got this."

They all nodded at the same time and they all just kind of poofed. They were gone, and smoke was in their place. I was just hoping that Ben wasn't putting his hands on Sonny. Kissing her…that was one thing. I didn't like that. But if he was…touching her…I would kill him on the spot. If Sonny was brainwashed and she learned what he did to her, it would crush her.

Jewel wasn't moving. She'd sat behind me during the…meeting(?)…and now she was looking at the ground. I could tell she felt that it was her fault for forgetting to tell us about the rogues. I sat beside her.

"Jewel, you can't blame yourself. It wasn't your fault. It was mine. But it won't matter who's fault it is when we get her back. That's the only thing that matters right now. We have to get my Sonny back." I told her.

She laughed. She looked at me and said, "And to think that if you would've admitted that she was 'your Sonny' before, then we wouldn't be here right now. I never would've met you."

"But the thing about all this is that this brought Sonny and I closer together. I think I've realized just how much she means to me, and because I do…I don't think I will ever let her go. I have no idea how she feels, but I hope it's the same as me." I replied.

"Well, there's something they didn't tell you in the meeting. We were going to keep it from you because we felt that it would be unnecessary information. We didn't think it really mattered, and we didn't want to worry you." she said.

"Are you going to tell me?" I asked.

She nodded and then said, "If we don't get to her by the end of the second day, if he's brainwashed her, all of her memories of before will be gone. We're scared that she will forget because…she'll never come back. She will belong to Ben forever."

I took this in, and it just made me want to start this adventure even more. "Well, then we are just going to have to start now. Let's go get Amy, and then we'll come back. I hope she'll believe me and come."

I took her hand and we ran back to where we came. I noticed that there was a little pond here, too. "Why is the portal in water?" I asked.

"Because every dimension has it. Every species has to have water to survive. That way, we know that we will always get to that world." Jewel replied.

I nodded and we jumped into the swirling water. Well, it was more like she pulled me into the swirling water. It was amazing that we could travel through water and come out dry. Again, I was so not going to get used to this magic thing.

She did me a favor and we came out of my pool. I bent over for a minute to let my stomach settle. Uh oh. This time it wasn't going to do that. I ran to the pool house. There was no time to get to the bathroom, so I just puked behind the house. I came back, and went into the house. I could hear Jewel laughing no matter where I went.

I grabbed a drink from the fridge. I was going to need to brush my teeth. Jewel came over by me and said, "No time." She grabbed my arm and brought me outside. She stopped next to the pool and breathed in deeply. The wind started blowing harder, and it almost pushed me into the pool. A black lab came running towards me. I moved out of the way just before the dog knocked me into the pool. I knew what was going to happen next.

As I predicted, Amy came running around the same corner the dog did. She stopped when she saw me and Jewel. She started walking towards us with a bewildered look. I looked over at Jewel, and noticed why Amy looked like that. Jewel had gone back to her fairy state.

"What's up with that?" I asked.

"How do you think we're going to make her believe us? Unlike you, I had a plan that is going to save us some time." she replied.

"Did you ever think that maybe she's just going to think that you are some crazy person who is dressed up like a fairy?" I said.

She looked thoughtful for a moment. "You know, you may just have a point there. I'm just going to have to do some magic to make her believe."

"You aren't going to brainwash her, are you?" I asked.

"Of course not. Only rogues do that. Working fairies think it's wrong and an invasion of humans' lives." she replied.

"What's going on?" Amy asked, as she got a foot away from us.

"This is my friend Jewel. I'm going to ask you for a huge favor, and it's going to sound ridiculous, but you have to believe me. It's very important to me, and even if you don't believe me just say that you will try." I told her.

"Okay, like I said, what's going on?" she repeated.

"Well, a while back Jewel came to me and…" is how I started explaining everything. At the end of everything she looked at me like I was crazy. I knew she was about to say no, that she wouldn't help me and that I needed to go with her so the people with pretty white tight jackets could help me.

Instead she said, "Well, you're right. I don't believe you, but you sound like you really need my help. So, I'm game. Just let me grab some things since you said we're going to be gone a dew days."

She ran off before I could say anything. Really? Did I actually just get a little lucky and she agreed to come? This was going to be great. I ran into the house and went upstairs. I started packing and there was really only one thought going through my head at the moment.

In a little bit I was going to be saving Sonny and telling her that I loved her.