Dreams or Reality?

Chapter 23: Learning & Realizing

CHAPTER 23: Learning & Realizing

The girl, running against the wind. Hair blowing behind her, barely recognizable curls against the force of the gale. The blood that trickles from the edge of her mouth, matching the red band around her stomach, the realization that it's her blood and that utterly unearthly scream. Looking in front of her before she races forward, her eyes, cold and icy with hate.

Waking up my first thought was 'Anna?!' She was the girl from my dream I realized. I tried to think back to other dreams, the earlier versions, had it always been her?

She always had dark hair, I knew that much. Wind always snapped her hair back, making it hard to see curls. The red, I'm sure the bandage had always been there, contrast against the black clothes she wore. Had I been dreaming about Anna before I knew who she was? Before I'd ever seen her?

Well, that explains why she seemed so familiar right when I met her. I had put it down to looking like Demetri. That just leaves one question, why had I dreamt about her? Repeatedly.

It probably doesn't matter, I shakily tried to convince myself. In truth, it felt pretty important but I decided to shove a lid on my thoughts for once. Instead I shifted my attention to the phone call, that seemed like a bigger problem then dreaming about Demetri's sister.

That voice, familiar, snide, a little angry but, if anyone should be angry it's me. Mentally, I checked off females that it might've been.

Katie. Marissa. Georgia. Katrina. Mom. Val. Jenna. Some random girl at school.

I couldn't think of anyone else who could have something against me. It wouldn't have been Sam or Mel because, if it had, I would've recognized their voice for sure. With Jenna or Val I'm not sure if I would've recognized their voice but I trust them to much to randomly turn on me.

Um, Katrina or mom? I dismissed the idea, it seemed too weird. I couldn't really imagine it being my cousin Georgia either, but then again, maybe she's mad that I took the last cookie when we five and murdering my friends and family is payback.

I sorta doubt my chem partner, Marissa, has anything against me except that it's a possibility we didn't get a high enough mark and now she's out to get me. And yes, for you geniuses, that WAS sarcasm.

Katie. She hates everyone, especially me because I'm Mel's friend. Pranks and rumors seem more her thing, I think she'd prefer to humiliate me then leave me grieving. She has a better motive then anyone else but it's still not a great one. But, she would go after Mel not me if that really is her motive.

Random girl at school seems like the best guess, I might recognize the voice but I'd never figure out who it was. Which girl? What do they have against me? My mind went in loops as it looked for a plausible solution. Why was she angry? The familiarness was the worst part. She knew me, but I didn't know her.

I made my thoughts switch topics again. I thought about how quickly I'd believed in magic. I hadn't needed any proof. I'd just accepted it. The only thing I hadn't believed was the fact that half my blood was magic. Now, sitting in the darkness of my room, it seemed silly, a dream, nothing more. I slid my thumb over my wrist. Even without light, I could make out the dark image on my wrist. Screw that other thought, it wasn't a dream.

I didn't want to turn on my lamp, somehow, it seemed wrong. Instead, I moved my wrist into the patch of moonlight thrown across my covers. I cursed when I realized it wasn't enough light to study the mark by. I silently wished I was trained enough to use magic to make a light.

That's when the locket started to glow.

Sine that fateful day when I'd put it on, I'd forgotten about grandmother's locket, a circular pendant engraved with a moon, the catch to open it rusted over. Now the circle was glowing with the strangest silver light. I half wondered, had I done that? And half just enchanted by the light, unlike which I'd ever seen.

Suddenly, the light winked out and the room returned to it's former darkness. Cautiously, I started thinking about light and magic again. Mere seconds later, the locket's light reemerged. Magic? I thought hesitantly, afraid I was right, afraid of what it was if I was wrong. Could I do other things besides make a necklace glow?

Terrified to try, not able to resist, I pointed my hand at the book on my bedside table and thought about using magic to levitate it. The light turned off again but I didn't let that faze me as I continued m attempt at magic. I was about to give up when nothing happened, but before I could, the book went up a few inches into the air. It only stayed for a few seconds but it was enough.

Do I have to keep thinking about it to get the locket to stay lit up? How interesting. Steadily, I thought about magic and a light that would burn without me having to think about it. The locket started burning my skin the moment it lit up. 'STOP! STOP!' I thought frantically, nearly screaming out loud. Apparently burn wasn't the right word. Not in the mood to injure myself any further, I turned on my lamp.

I moved the pendant, now ice cold, away from my skin. Where it had been, the skin was burned bright red. I nearly laughed. And, no, not because I'm slowly but surely losing my mind. It was funny, like I was in the first grade again, just a beginner.

I stopped. What was I-? I didn't finish my thought because an image popped into my mind. Blindly, I grabbed at my sketchbook. My pencil followed a new trail on a fresh sheet of paper. Strangely enough, the first thing I drew was a thick line down the middle. I smudged and erased, only half knowing what I was doing and drawing. Half way through, I put my pencil in my mouth so I could tie my hair back before continuing to draw.

I surveyed my work with a critic's eye. The line down the middle cut the face in half. Really, it was two different faces. On the right was the right half of a face I knew. Demetri. The left was a face that left me worried and confused. Serquin, I realized with a jolt. But a younger Serquin, he looks a lot like Demetri I thought to myself.

Same hair and eyes but Serquin, somehow I'd managed to give him a hard, unforgiving edge in his eye and the angles of his face. Fascinating. But the two people were very different. Serquin wanted to kill me, Demetri, well I'd rather not think about what Demetri might want to do to me.

I'd dreamt about Anna before I'd ever seen her. Whoever is on the other end of the phone knows me, but I don't know them. I can make my locket glow and my book levitate, I can do magic. Demetri looks just like his father when his father was younger. That's four.

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(Four realizations) So many questions!! All to be answered eventually. OK, so, because Jess was left by herself this book is now entered for watty awards 2012. If you like this book, please comment and vote because now that we're entered we'd be really happy if we won!

Comment, Vote and Keep Reading! Thanks for reading guys and sorry I haven't updated recently, next update will be sooner.

-Jodi