The darkness wasn't intimidating; in fact, it was safe. I was calm, and happy at the same time. I was floating in murky black; almost like black water, but goopy.

I floated there for what felt like a millennium, my brain protecting its main life source. Me.

My consciousness was gone-I had no meaning. My only job now was to sit; wait, and heal-Although healing seemed beyond reach.

I felt nothing. No pain, no aim, no worry; nothing.

Then suddenly my consciousness jerked. It felt like it was calling to me. It jerked again. I felt as if someone had tied an invisible rope to my wrist and was tugging insistently.

I followed suit, unknowing and relaxed. It wouldn't hurt me. Surely not!

POP!

I had suddenly popped into a different world.

How did that happen?

Confused, I looked at the squiggly white and black stripes in front of me. I blinked owlishly and stared at them. They began moving slowly, as if the pause had been unleashed and it was taking a minute to speed up properly.

Then the white became more pronounced and began to take shape. One line turned into a chair, and one line turned into the end of a hospital bed. I felt dazed, and watched as most of the black began shrinking away. But one thin squiggly black line formed a stethoscope, and one formed a black and white eye chart.

I blinked again. Where was I?

I became aware of the fact that there was a machine beeping next to me, and I was lying on a white hospital bed. Then I became aware of the pain. My right foot hurt tremendously, my left hand felt like it'd been sawed off freshly (though when I looked it hadn't been-just wrapped in bloody bandages.) and the right side of my forehead felt like I had half a migraine but with an aching feeling that made it much worse.

I was hooked up to many I.V.s and my eyes hurt to move them.

And, the most important of all, sitting in the seat next to me smiling was…

"Dad?" I croaked incredulously.

"That's right." He said happily. His tanned weathered skin was hard and his wild squarish black beard was wilder than ever. The crinkles next to his bright eyes were pronounced. I had a feeling he'd been slightly worried about me.

"You gave your mother quite a scare. She's here now." He said.

"Oh no she'll be pretty mad at me. She'll never let me out of the apartment again!"

He smiled once more.

"Perhaps not. But you at least should have left her a note."

"Yeah…I forgot…" I mumbled, gripping the blanket with my right hand.

I heard the door open and squeezed my eyes shut as my mom entered with tears in her eyes.

"Rhia! You're awake!" She cried and threw her arms around me.

Her elbow length brown hair fell around me as I patted her clumsily on the back.

"Mom, I'm fine…mom, don't…It's nothing…really…I'm fine…" I mumbled as I sat there awkwardly. It wasn't often I was hugged. In fact I preferred not to be.

She pulled away and sat down in the seat next to my bed on the other side of my dad.

"How long have I been asleep?" I asked slowly.

"Three weeks." Said mom tearfully.

Three weeks? THREE WEEKS? I wasn't that bad a crash!

…Was it?

"How bad was the crash?" I asked them both.

"Pretty bad. They couldn't wake you up…Until now." Said my dad somberly.

"Oh." I said quietly.

"Well, I'd better get going, the Cyclops Forges are in a riot. An hour ago or so; someone lodged a dynamite stick and set the main Forge on fire. Unfortunately it was lit with Blue Gubraithian fire so now the place is in an uproar. If I ever find out who threw it…" He trailed off with a dark tone, then turned to mist and swept out the open window into the cold night air.

Obviously, he was in a worse attitude than what he let on.

"What's Gubraithian fire mom?" I asked. I had never heard of it.

"Everlasting fire. The blue kind burns Cyclops and other fire-resistant creatures." I noticed that she had been careful not to say 'monsters'.

"Now, you'd better tell me where your friend Lucas is because I have a word to pick with him!" she said in a very motherly and strong voice, which was very strange to hear my peppy, outgoing, never-caring mom use it.

"No idea mom. Just, don't give me (or him for that matter) a pep talk. Please. Don't. Just, don't." I said desperately. She pursed her lips and her brown eyes sparked with anger.

"Well…Alright then…" she said, although I'm almost sure she would've argued if I had been in any state to argue back.

"You know, I've been sleeping here." Said my mom proudly, brightening at her supposed motherly-ness.

"Aw, mom, you don't have to that! I'm fine, really, I'll be OK on my own." I said exasperatedly.

She pursed her lips again and looked at me.

"No, I'm not sure you will be."

"Mom!"

"All right, all right, OK! I'm going! But if Lucas comes to see you, tell him I'm watching him…" She left off threateningly.

She tried to hug me but I winced, so she flapped around trying to find a safe place to pat. Finally, she settled with the top of my head.

"Be good!" She called behind her as she left, and I knew she was off to go shopping.

I didn't even bother to answer and settled in to watch TV.

Awhile later a nurse came in carrying a mountain of chocolate, cards and other candies and plopped them on the table next to my bed.

I sat up (and immediately wished I hadn't) and asked what they were for.

"They're from well wishers and friends. They're for you." She said with a sniff as she walked away. Obviously she didn't approve.

Just because when she was hospitalized nobody sent her chocolate didn't mean she had to be so huffy about it! (That was mostly just a guess.)

I grinned as I helped myself to Chocolate frogs and sugar mice. (Candies from the Harry potter books-people actually make them now!)

Suddenly the door burst open just as I took a giant bite out of a marshmallow bunny.

The whole group of Gremlins was there, Sienna, Lucas and so were Michael and Connor-not to mention Connor's twin brother Riley and two girls I didn't know, and one looking exceptionally sour as if she had been dragged along against her will.

To my astonishment, one of the girls pulled a small thin stick out of her jacket pocket, looked outside the window facing the hallway to check that no-one was watching and conjured up 12 chairs for everyone there out of pure, thin air. Everyone sat down as if it was normal and helped him or herself to my candy.

"I noticed that you got hit by a car. What happened to your love of life?" asked Jake while taking a bite out of a dairy milk bar. Mike biffed him around the head.

"Judging by your stunned expression, you didn't know that I'm a witch?" said the girl nicely, ignoring Jake's outburst. She was the one that wasn't sour.

"I didn't know they existed." I said, still stunned.

The girls smile widened, showing perfect, white teeth. She had dirty blonde hair and large violet eyes.

"Yeah, we do. My name's Hayden and this is Mallory." She said gesturing to the huffy girl. "She's a witch too."

"How do witches fit in with this…Greek Religion?" I asked.

"Oh, well, the three Original Salem witches were promoted to goddesses because they helped the gods out of a sticky situation. We're their descendants." She said proudly.

"Oh." I said. I was flabbergasted and had no clue what to say.

"I sent you the Harry Potter candies. Those are the real kind, not the fake ones those mortals make. They tried to copy the ideas from the books, but they didn't turn out so well. J.K. Rowling gave us witches some good ideas though." She said dismissively.

"So the Wizengamot on Mount Olympus were…?"

"Wizards, witches, you do the math." Finished Mallory scathingly.

"Wow." Was all I could say; I was so astonished at this new information that my tired brain whirred. I had been alive and knowing the Gods for fifteen years of my life and not known that Wizards and Witches were real. I grinned.

"Cool!"

"Yeah, the Wizengamot was the only name we could settle on. The head Elder witches wanted it to be Order Of Merlinus, you know, after Merlin (they made him a god) but the younger witches-the newly bred ones-protested. They wanted something out of J.K. Apparently the younger witches of our kind have developed a taste for Harry Potter books. J.K.'s their Hero now." Said Hayden.

Hayden and Sienna smiled at me.

"And err…they know about you guys too?" I asked, my eyes darting at my mortal friends now playing spin the bottle with a bottle of homemade butterbeer Mike had just drained. Mom had gotten the recipe from .

"Yep!" said Hayden happily.

"Yeah, Rhia, we know all about you but we didn't know about the weird stuff called the mist that we saddoes"-he gestured to the Gremlin clan-"can't see through." called Jake from the floor.

"Hey, Rhia, Why didn't you tell us before?" asked Angora, blushing brightly as her cheek was kissed by Connor.

"Err, because I didn't want you to freak out and think I was a dorkus? I answered while gulping down another chocolate frog.

Angora laughed and Jake snorted.

"You know you were out for three weeks!" Sienna cut in.

"Yeah, I think I noticed soul sis." I answered absentmindedly.

We called each other soul sisters because well, we were best friends.

Mike leaned over my bed and kissed Sienna. (They were BF and GF)

I cleared my throat and said: "Guys, if you want to kiss, don't do it on top of me please!" I said, rolling my eyes as Mike obeyed my orders. It made me feel sort of weird when people kissed because I had never had a boyfriend. And now that all my friends were getting boyfriends and girlfriends, I noticed that I really wanted a bf, but I didn't want Connor; so I was kind of glad he was getting along well with Angora.

I watched Sienna and Mike for a few second then looked away.

Sienna's father was Italian and her mother was Demeter, Goddess of the Harvest. Sienna was possibly the prettiest girl I'd ever seen. She was very quiet; Her gold/green eyes sparkled happily at any conversation directed towards her, and her brown olive skin shone like moonbeams. She had long, straight auburn hair and her nails were painted pale green. She had a runner's body and she loved dancing. I, on the other hand looked completely different, and she outshone me by far. I was skinny, but wasn't perfect and I had hips. I had skinny wrists and spindly fingers and light brown, straight, shoulder length hair and plain green eyes. I was messy and always seemed to look untidy, no matter how nice the clothes were that I was wearing. I always seemed to have a new injury or bruise every week. I wasn't remarkable and I thought that most girls were prettier.

Unconsciously I folded my arms across my stomach.

Suddenly I wanted them to leave; I wanted to lie here and wallow in self-pity forever. I didn't want to speak-I didn't want to hear.

So, I sat there chewing my way through a small pile of sugar quills, marshmallow bunnies, chocolate frogs, sugar mice and cherry liquorish while everyone around me jabbered and laughed away-everyone except Lucas, whom they seemed to be ignoring; probably because it was his fault I was in here.

I absentmindedly chewed long piece of cherry liquorish staring into space. I could feel Lucas's eyes on me, but I didn't want to talk to him. It was his fault I was hurt and barely able to walk.

When everyone waved goodbye and departed, I said goodbye halfheartedly.

I picked at my blanket and stared at my lap.

"Look, Rhia, I'm sorry." I heard Lucas say.

I looked up. I thought he had already left.

"I don't want to talk about it. Unless you have a good reason for ignoring me and not paying attention to what you were doing, save your breath."

"Rhia! I'm sorry! Please just forgive me!" He cried desperately.

I stared at him.

I had never seen him so desperate since…well, never. That was when I truly looked at him. His hair was messier than usual, his t-shirt was lopsided, he looked absolutely hopeless and it looked as if he hadn't washed himself for-well, pretty much the three weeks I was conked out.

I mean, sure, we were best friends, but he didn't need me that bad.

"All right, all right! I'll forgive and forget, just don't have a cow!" I said, alarmed at his hopelessness.

He smiled in relief and was immersed in golden light. I averted my eyes as he showed his true form, and disappeared.

Ok, that was weird.