When Sam woke up, she found herself sprawled on the floor with a throbbing headache.
"What happened?" she mumbled putting a hand to her temples.
She got up to her knees with a painful moan. Apparently, her fall had caused a few minor bruises. Still feeling a bit disoriented, she looked around and discovered that she was still in her room. Everything looked just as it did before. No bizzare wind, no paper flying about, no evil green tornado. Even the journal remained on the dresser where Sam had put it last instead of falling to the floor. The only odd thing was that she was in front of the door where she ran to instead of the vanity.
"The hell?" She shook her head and got up to her feet, "Damn wedding. It's making see things that aren't there. Can't believe I fainted cause I thought there was some monster tornado."
No longer feeling any dizziness or pain, Sam turned for the door and reached the doorknob just as it started to turn.
"Great. I must have been up here too long. Last thing I need is another lecture from Mother. "Folding her arms, she stepped back and started to glare just as the door opened, "I know, I know. I'm late. I got si-"
She stopped and widened her eyes as the door finally swung wide open. Where she thought her mother was standing, there another familiar, yet extremely unexpected, face.
"Daniel!"
He didn't answer. He didn't even look at her. Instead, he walked right into his room and headed straight for the nightstand. Sam followed him as started to rifle through the contents of its drawer.
"Daniel!" she repeated louder, "Daniel! Hey! I'm right next to you! Daniel!"
He continued searching the drawer without answering. Finally, he found what he was looking for and shut the drawer with a triumphant smirk.
"Okay," Sam tried again, "Now that you're done with that, could you please-"
She gasped as Daniel turned around and walked straight through her as if she weren't there. Sam just stood there mouth agape as Daniel continued towards the door and left.
"What the hell?" she muttered, "Am I...Am I dead? Oh my god, this wedding killed me! I'm dead! But, if I'm dead, why didn't he see me? Isn't he dead too? What is this? Hell? Oh god, I should have been nicer to Mother!"
"Actually, I don"t really blame you," a deep voice said behind her, "After all, your mother is a psychotic loon."
Sam turned around and discovered another shock. The voice from behind had come from what looked like a demon. If it weren't for the green skin, bright crimson eyes, and vampire-like fangs, the figure behind her could probably pass for an average young man with really tall hair. Upon closer inspection, she saw that his hair wasn't tall, it was on fire! In fact, it was fire! The white flames danced to and fro from up on top of his head down to the ponytail tied behind him. He leaned back against the dresser smirked in amusement at the astonished girl before him.
"Oh my god," she finally said, "I am dead! this is Hell and I'm dead!"
"Relax," the figure said, adjusting his black frock coat, "You're not in Hell and you're not dead." He pointed his thumb at the door, "But he is."
"Well, if this isn't Hell, then where am I?"
"You remember getting sucked inside the journal?"
"Yeah. So?"
"So, it should be obvious where you are then."
"I'm inside a journal?" Sam asked doubtfully.
"Yep."
"This isn't happening," She shook her head and began pounding at her temple with the palm of her hand, "This is not happening. I got sick, I fainted, and now I'm in some sort of coma or something having a very weird dream."
"You're going to give yourself a concussion if you keep doing that."
Sam stopped and glared at him as her hair finally became unpinned and fell back to her shoulders.
"I'm sorry, who are you again?"
"I suppose you could say that I'm sort of the narrator of this little book. I know everything that happens in this story."
"I told you, I'm not in a stupid journal! I'm in a coma and I'll be leaving when I wake up!"
"The only way you'll be leaving is to follow this story to the end. And the only way to the end is to follow me."
"I've got a better," she began pinching herself in an attempt to wake up.
"Well, when you're done with that," the phantom stood up straight and walked towards the door, "I'll be waiting out here."
Sam glared at the door as it closed behind him and continued to pinch herself. After a few moments of getting nothing pain and aches for her efforts, she growled in frustration and glared back at the door. This couldn't be real. How in the world can one get stuck inside a book? Sure, there was the usual way by reading. But to physically get stuck inside a book? This had to be a dream. She had to admit though, this is certainly one vivid dream. An extremely vivid dream. And she did want to know what happened to Daniel. And she needed to see all the pain and sorrow Mrs. Masters caused his family for herself. After all, her own life might be at the mercy of that evil witch's hands.
But what if the journal didn't have that inside? What if Daniel never wrote about it? He did say he wasn't into journals. What if that phantom thing just showed her useless stuff? Who was that phantom, anyway? She may not have read the entire thing, but she knew that there was no way Daniel wrote about any phantoms. What's he doing here? Kind of suspicious for him to be in a story that doesn't involve him at all.
Still debating with herself, Sam continued to glare at the door until she noticed a bit of purple on the floor. She looked down and saw that her little violet had fallen with the rest of the hairpins after her hair had fallen loose. She knelt and picked up the little flower, looking at for a few moments. With a frustrated groan, she stood back up and fastened it back into her hair before heading towards the door.
