From The Other Side

Chapter 2

Violet's eyes lingered on the new girl. She knew she'd heard the name somewhere, but she couldn't pinpoint what and where she knew it from. Sierra wore particular jewelry, stars and moons engraved in gold and chrome bracelets. She had a green hoodie wrapped around her waist.

It hurt Violet's head trying to figure out what it meant.

Red Creek high hadn't had a new student in three years. Why would she have come here?

Not to mention Sierra seemed to be glowing. Not highlighter glow. Shimmering. Full-on Edward Cullen in sunlight glowing. She seemed nearly ethereal. Like a goddess.

Violet peered out the window again. The hole was there. Why did nobody see it? Or hear it? 

She refocused herself on the matter at hand. The lesson.

"...And there, my wonderful students is how to calculate the square root of a number indivisible by four,"

The bell rang.

Violet glanced Mari's way, apprehensive.

"Ugh, wasn't that lesson boring...?" Sierra chuckled.

"Agreed!" Mari chimed.

Violet shook her head and pulled up her hood, hands in pockets. She continued to the next period, contemplating. Sierra seemed strange. She couldn't put her finger on it. 

The next class was reading. A new unit was to be announced.

"Good morning, boys and girls" Her fifth-period teacher chorused.

Mari whispered, "aren't we a little old for 'boys and girls'..."

The teacher glared at the duo. Her glasses reflected, and her PowerPoint intimidated them into silence.

"Today we start a myth fiction unit. We will all be reading a tale called the Two-Hundred  Years War,"

Violet now knew that something was up. Her teacher was 67 years old, a boomer per se, and hated all things magic, myth, and fable. She outlawed Harry Potter on the list of books to read, she hated them so much. 

"Dude..."

Mari turned her head.

"Dontcha think Mrs. White's bein' a little weird..." Violet leaned in and spoke in a swift whisper.

"I'd say," Mari replied, "the rest of the staff are afraid that the old hag'll teach us that creativity kills, and here she is, Mrs. Isuddenlylikethesupernatural..."

"Now, if Mrs. Violet would stop talking with her partner in class, we could continue,"

That was Vi's cue to shut up.

The powerpoint returned to the characters list and traits to look for in the book.

Seraphina Hunter

Riley Hunter

and the parties that ruled.

The Legion of Angels

and

Hell's Cross.

Violet had read this before. It was all so familiar.

But once again, the bell rang, and students shuffled out before she could contemplate. 

The day went smoothly, but Violet's same thoughts plagued her. As she looked to the sky on the walk home, the hole was still there. Existing, not acting, yet it still seemed to play a crucial part in the day. 

"Sierra, Sierra, Sierra," She thought. Where was that name from?

Upon reaching home, she continued to ponder. Choosing to no longer wallow in her thoughts, she grabbed a book, a sun, a moon, and a planet was engraved on the cover, and an absolute favorite of hers. It was a tale of two siblings and a fight. Similar to the book they were reading in class, but this one was thicker, better written in Violet's opinion, and was hers to own.

She opened the book, soaking in the knowledge. The first part was sketch work, like that of DaVinci, religious looking pieces that had been printed. It looked like the work in the Sicilian chapel, or a church, like a mosaic. Violet, deep down, knew it was fiction, even though she loved the supernatural, it wasn't real, at least, not in her mind.

The graphic for this page was a warrior. A girl with a tattoo of four lines, four triangles, and two circles. The circles outlined the strange band, and there were two lines on each side. Two triangles faced left, and the others faced right. 

The woman wore a dragon braid, or a large french braid on either side of it, coming down to a braid of gingery red, with purple highlights at her waist. She wore shoulder pads, metal, of course. The pads were a dark chrome. Her outfit was that of a knight. Metal pads layered her chest, and she had sleeves that looked like the scales of a dragon. A pentagram shape was on her chest plate as well, inked in red. Her legs had nearly the same pattern as her arms. She wore metallic platform boots, or what looked like them. Her eyes were a teal on the iris, lined in kohl, a tearstain down one side, with black and red smokey makeup.

Her name was Raegan, a warrior and the head of the Heart of Darkness, the enemy in the story. She looked like a spitting image of the new student. 

Violet laid her head to her pillow. 

"Why do I feel as I know her?" She wondered aloud.

She changed her position and continued to study the next page.

The other woman had more brown hair, and tanner skin, almost olive, whereas Raegan's skin was pale. There were no marks on the skin. She did, though, have freckles speckled about her face, and down parts of her neck. Her eyes were honey brown, like chocolate. You could almost soak in them. Her hair was half up, half down, curling at the end with tints of blue in the bands holding it up. She had no tattoos, or visible marks, and wore an earthen robe.

The robe had a lining, which was light in comparison to the forest green base. It was buttoned three times, keeping it together until waist level, where it split, revealing her legs, which were covered by black tights. Her tights were legging like. She wore black heels.

This woman, to Violet, seemed even more familiar. The dazzling red hair, the chocolate eyes. Everything. 

Violet knew that she knew her. The question was from where. 

She put the book down a moment, but found the suspense too much.

And there it lay, her answer.

Her name. Violet knew it.

Sierra Hunter