"Tell my mother, tell my father: I've done the best I can!

To make them realize this is my life

I hope they understand!

I'm not angry, I'm just saying..."

Huge gasps of air filled the vehicle for the big finale "Sometimes goodbye is a second chance!"

I laughed after our big performance. I loved singing in the car with my brother, and I knew by the look on his face that he was having fun as well. I tightened my hand into a fist and brought it up to my lips as if I was holding a microphone,

"This was yet another performance by-" I held my hand towards my brother, cuing for him to finish but he only looked at me questioningly so I brought the imaginary microphone back to my lips "-Brobro and Sissy! You heard it first here in the dark grey Hyundai!"

I laughed again, being the funniest person alive and all, and before long my brother was chuckling beside me as well.

We were driving back home from a family reunion; a weekend of camping, eating, and chatting with relatives we didn't really know. It was around 2 A.M. but the sky was still bright from the midnight sun; we could tell, however, that it was the middle of the night because of the lack of traffic on the country road and the chilly, damp air that was coming in from the broken window in the back of the car.

I had been driving for about two hours and the best thing to do to stay awake and pass time as we drove was to sing with old songs we knew all the lyrics to.

I was having too much fun that I kind of forgot the responsibility I was holding while under the steering wheel. I was too focused on getting my brother to laugh more that I didn't notice that the car was turning ever so slightly towards the opposing lane. We had been on the open road for so long that I had kind of forgotten that we weren't alone in the world.

It happened so quickly, and yet it was as if time was somehow in slow motion. All of a sudden, there were these impossibly bright lights right in front of me that just kept getting bigger and bigger. The sounds I heard were muffled, and yet it was as if it they were echoing from the walls within my head: the piercing, booming sound of a truck's horn.

I remembered hearing the sound as the two vehicles crashed into each other: screeching tires and the sound of glass breaking. Ah, yes… And the sound of Zane's and my own shocked and terrified screams.

Then there was a darkness for a while. I must have passed out because when I opened my eyes again, everything was quiet except for the sound of my own heartbeat that thrummed in my ears.

Thud, thud, thud…

My whole body ached. I was cold and I was shivering. My breath came out in a cloud of steam.

Then I remembered Zane. I tried to call out to him but my voice didn't work. In fact, it felt like something was pressing down on my chest, making it hard for me to breathe. I blinked a few times to try and get rid of the dizziness but it didn't work.

I slowly tuned my head to my right, finding it difficult to get my body to listen to me. I wish I hadn't.

Zane was still in the passenger seat next to me, leaning forward but kept up by the seat belt around his torso. The airbag must have activated because the white fabric was now deflated on the dashboard in front of him. His face was bruised and blood trickled down his nose. My mouth quivered and I felt the tears stream down my face, as I fought to find my voice.

"Zane…?" I finally croaked and grimaced at the pain that blossomed in my chest from the exercise. But there was no answer. A sob broke out from my lips and I tried to fight myself free from where I sat but I was stuck.

My breathing became faster and faster until I struggled with every gasp, barely letting go of one breath before I'd greedily swallow another. "Zane!" I called out again, this time much louder and far more panicked, but I got no answer.

The panic engulfed me and I struggled against my confinement, only vaguely realizing that what was keeping me in place was my steering wheel that had crushed down on me in the crash. Looking around fervently it dawned on me that we must have swerved off the road and then crashed into a huge rock. If I had been in my right mind I would have realized this was one of our country's beloved and protected so-called "elf rocks". But I was not in the right mind and neither would it have mattered since I didn't believe in the old folklores.

I reached out to Zane, my hand shaking. I was cold and numb. I couldn't feel my legs and my chest and stomach hurt so much. I managed to touch my brother's left temple but he didn't react "Zane?"

I didn't feel his body temperature. My hands were so numb. But if I couldn't feel his temperature then that meant we had the same temperature, right? And if we did, and I was alive, then he should also be alive, right?

…Right?

I didn't take my eyes off my brother. The blood that was trickling from his nose was also coming out of his mouth. His chest didn't move. There were no white puffs of smoke coming from his mouth like mine because of the cold atmosphere. And his neck was still in that weird, unnatural position.

My big brother was dead.

The silence of the bright summer night was soon disrupted by my grieving wail. I couldn't muster a very loud sound but it overcame the thudding in my ears. My limbs screamed in pain every time my sobs shook my body.

A while passed as I sat there alone. I wanted to hug my brother but I was stuck. I couldn't feel my lower body but I did a feel a warm, sticky sensation in my stomach area.

As my cries died out, I heard the thudding in my ears again, like drums rhythmically thumping to the beat of my heart.

Thud, thud, thud…

And it kept slowing. I could barely feel the cold after some time. I had cried so much but my tears didn't seem to be anywhere near drying up.

Thud, thud, thud…

Slower, ever slower… I felt myself get tired and I knew I was going to die. I didn't know how to feel about it. I didn't think I wanted to die. But I was just so tired…

Thud… Thud…Thud…

With the last bit of strength I had, I reached out to my brother. It was difficult and a small pain blossomed in my stomach again after a while, but I grit my teeth through it. I managed to grab the hand of my brother. I couldn't feel the sensation of his hand, my hand was so numb, but I saw his hand grabbed in mine and that's all the proof I needed that he was there with me.

"I'm so sorry." I croaked which ensued a coughing fit. My eyes were still leaking, the only sensation I still felt being the warm trail of water that trickled down from my eyes.

Thud… Thud… Thud…

I kept my eyes locked on our intertwined hands as my eyelids became heavier.

And I fell asleep.

THUD THUD THUD

I gasped and bolted upright in my bed.

"Rise and shine, lassie, another morn has risen!"

I was still panting but I managed a half croaked "Just a sec!" Before I scrambled out of bed and snatched my pants off the floor.

I hurriedly made my way towards the door as soon as I managed to pull my pants to my hips and was just about to open it when my senses came back to me. My pants had been on the floor in front of the unlit fireplace, just where I had left them the night before. My bare toes were touching cold stone floor and the bed I had woken up in certainly wasn't mine.

There was some more banging at my door, followed by the same unfamiliar voice that had woken me up a minute prior, "'ey, lassie, ya all right in there?"

My heart began to pump harder in my chest. feverishly, I looked around, swiping my far too long bangs out of my face as I did so, and realized with dread that I was in the same place as where I had fallen asleep the night before.

I was still in Kharanos.

With shaking hands, I reached for the key in the lock and turned it slowly before carefully opening the door just a crack.

"Ah, there ya are. I was startin' to ponder whether I shoulda broken up the darn door."

Outside my door was a dwarf with a shiny, bald head and long, bushy orange beard with two braids in it. He wore brown overalls over a red, long-sleeved shirt and under his arm was a light brown fisherman's hat.

"...Who are you?" I asked tentatively once I was sure the the dwarf hadn't gone to the wrong door, seeing as he hadn't apologized sheepishly and scurried off upon seeing my face.

"Ah, where are me manners," he muttered before nodding slightly at me, "the name's Drumrick Goldengrog, but everyone calls me Shiny Drum, pleased to meet yer acquaintance."

I quick glance at his shiny head gave me a hint as to where his nickname came from, but I kept that theory to myself. To be honest, I was getting rather agitated by this dwarf that had so noisily woken me up- though, admittedly, I was glad to be rid of my nightmare. "Can I help you with anything, mister Drumrick?" I asked him, getting to the point but hanging on to my well-trained manners.

"On the contrary!" The dwarf grinned, "I'm here to help you."

I furrowed my brows at that. "What do you-"

Before I could finish my question I was yanked out from behind my door and out into the hallway. I stumbled before I managed to steady myself and was about to lash out at the miniature creature when something else caught my full attention.

Right in front of me was a large circle of brilliant shining lights in multitudes of colors that seemed to dance with one another. The circle reminded me of a mirror, and yet where the reflection of me should have been, there was some kind of an image that I couldn't quite grasp. Like an unstable reflection in rippled water.

Before I could find the words of which to describe this scenery, or remember who exactly I was sharing this magical moment with, I felt a sturdy sensation at my back before I was pushed into the mirror of lights. And through it.

I doubted I could ever reasonably describe the sensation that followed. It was as if there was no gravity in existence, and yet I was falling. As if I kept dropping down endlessly, and yet somehow I wasn't sure if where I was going was 'down'. Or whether I was going anywhere at all.

And then the sensation ended almost as quickly as it began, despite it having felt like it lasted for the longest of times during it. I was shot out of the mirror of lights and found myself sprawled on wooden floorboards.

"Nothin' like the first trip through a portal, eh, lassie?"