Chapter 3

The silence is spine-tingling. The suspense has Ri and I turning around with each step we take forward. The place looks like a run-down mansion or a very small hotel.

"Watch my back," Ri says and goes for the handle of the door. The door creaks open and a warm red light illuminates the darkroom. It's a fireplace. The crackling fire fills the silence. We walk into the room and a scream erupts causing us to freeze on the spot.

"Ahhhhhhhh! Omg, oh, my freaking god! Like what the, I can't even right now!," A feminine scream rips through the air and I turn around just in time to see someone run past the doorway of the room we in. The house settles into silence again and I take a cautious step forward.

"Let's go find the girl," I whisper to Ri. We walk back into the main large room. There are two doors at the far end of the room. Ri and I share an uneasy look for we know what it means.

"This is crazy. Don't you watch horror movies? Splitting up never ends well."

"I know Ri, but what other choice do we have." He lets out a sigh and moves to open the door on the left. Holding my breath, I walk through the door on the right. I nod at him and he goes through his door. I walk through my door to find that it's a dining room.

"Oh God no! Why, Why me?" I hear crying come from under the decorated table. I lift the table cloth and get into a crouching position to see the girl curled up in a ball.

"Hey, it's going to be alright," I assure her and she looks up only to have me stumble and fall flat on my backside when I see her face. Madison.

"Who are you?" She asks shakily.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you. I crawl over to her and she pulls away.

What, what are you doing?" She stutters in fear.

"Xechnàme," I whisper and my hands begin to glow with light. I do the spell so she won't remember her encounter with me or Ri when she wakes up. Suddenly the table flips over and crashes into the wall behind us.

"Ahhhhh!" Madison screams.

"Are you freaking kidding me!" I exclaimed looking at her night terror. It's a giant cockroach. "That's your fear," I ask, shocked, but she doesn't respond because she's busy screaming.

Orion runs into the dining room area so fast that he does a little slide almost losing his balance. He regains himself and comes to stand beside me."Is that a cockroach?" He asks and I can hear the humor behind the question.

Madison starts running around the dining room and the thing begins chasing her. I can't help the smile that creeps up on my face from watching Madison being tormented for a change. "Do you think it flies?"

Ri remains silent. He seems to be engrossed in her battle with the giant cockroach too. There is a point where she is backed up against a wall and tries to go left but the thing mirrors her movements. "Urm, Zel don't you think we should stop this."

"Urm, right let's get to it then. You get over to Madison and I will try and kill it."

"You going to need a big can of bug spray. Good luck with that."

"Ha, I rather take on the giant cockroach," I say and laugh at my inside joke, only to have Ri stare blankly at me.

"Ālō," I say summoning the magical energy within me. I hurl a ball of light at the giant insect to distract it as Ri goes over to Madison.

The cockroach turns around and walks up to me, shaking the ground with each massive step it takes. The thing is huge its head hits the chandelier and I strain my neck to look into its eyes.

"You know this is actually step up from your true form," I say to the night terror and it lets out a shriek. I move my hands in a semi-circle doing the spell to kill it. "Ayrel lè cremar," I summon my magic.

The night terror catches alight instantly. I watch as it shrinks down rapidly and starts turning back into its true form. A creature I can't help but describe as horrific with its horns and red glowing eyes. It tries to claw at me, screeching in agony while it burns until it finally bursts into ashes.

I dust my hands and walk over to Madison and Ri. "It's okay. It's gone now," he says softly trying to lull her but his attempts fall on deaf ears. She has curled up in a ball again on the floor. This time she is rocking herself as she mumbles a few incoherent things.

"I'm too pretty to be cockroach food. I'm too popular...." She mumbles on and I don't catch the rest.

"Madison," I say sternly but she ignores me and starts hyperventilating this time.

I crouch down again trying to be at her level. She looks at me and fear is evident in her eyes. I can't believe I'm feeling sorry for Madison. Maybe this is my dream.

"Repeat after me okay," I say and she nods. "I Madison am an idiot "

"I Madison am an idiot," she repeats and a smile forms on my face.

"Zel!" Ri exclaims and his face was revealed to me. I could only imagine the look he'd be giving me.

"I'm kidding."

"I'm kidding," Madison repeats and I run a hand down my face. I decided it was time to stop screwing with barbie and put her out of her misery. "This is all a dream," I say the words to shake her back to her reality.

"This is all a dream?" She says sounding confused. Her face lights up in realization and she disappears.

The surroundings around us start to disappear one by one as the room spins. The scene of her dream was being torn away.

We appear on the dream bridge again and I let out a heavy breath.  "Well that was disturbing," I admit and Ri nods in agreement.

"And disgusting," he adds. "The things mortals fear these days. It's ridiculous."

Just then I feel my body pulling my consciousness back. The sun has risen and my time in the realm of the night has come to an end again. "Well, super being or mortal. I have to return to the realm of light," I sigh.

"I feel it too. I'll see you tonight," he says and I watch as his form starts to become transparent, almost ghostly until he fully disappears from the realm bridge.

I let my consciousness return to the light and to my body. My eyes snap open and my body jerks up from the bed as I take a large intake of air. I touch my temples and flinch.

My head hurts like hell. My alarm clock next to my bed beeps and I look to see that it's six am. I stand from my bed and stretch out my hands and legs. I drag myself to the bathroom and begin brushing my teeth when I catch a glimpse of my reflection in the bathroom mirror.

Yikes.

I spend twenty minutes in the shower and when I walk into my room again I decide that I'm going to heed my aunt's words. I'm going to try here. What's the worst that could happen. If it blows up in my face I will just lock myself in my room and stay in the realm of the night for as long as I possibly can.

In all honesty, I won't make it for two nights. I can barely make it one night without any food.

Opening my closet I decided to at least try to appear decent today. I put on a black lace long sleeve top followed by blue jeans, next I find a pair of black gloves and I put my hair in a high ponytail. I walk out of my room to go down to the kitchen to have breakfast when I see Klara at the stove flipping pancakes.

"You back early," she says and her eyes widen when she turns around to face me.

"No hoody today?" she asks.

"Yeah I decided to try something new," I say looking down at my outfit.

"Well, you look beautiful."

"Thanks." I walk out of the kitchen to go into the lounge to put the TV on, and that's when I hear it. This time they sound urgent and the whispers come out rushed.

"Zelenia...Zelenia...Zelenia." The voice comes out in creepy whispers and it's almost hypnotizing.

"What the heck," I say when I realize that I am now standing in front of the basement door. How in the realm did I get down here.

"Zel what are you doing?" my aunt asks confusion clear in her voice.

"I can hear the voices calling out to me," I say touching the door, my eyes are fixed on it.

"Come up here and finish your breakfast," she says and I nod. I give the door one last look before I go up the steps.

What is that voice and what does it want from me? Only one person can answer that question but I doubt she will give me any answers.

"Klara what's behind that door and don't tell me it's just junk because I have been hearing voices."

"Zel," she says, her brows furrowing in worry.

"No, tell me. What are you hiding in there?" I ask this time with the expectation of getting an answer.

"We will talk about this when you get back home from school," she says walking away. She is always so weird about that door I didn't mind it much but it never used to call to me the way it does now.

*****************

"There's your paper Miss. Delores," I say handing over my overdue paper. She looks up at me above her black-framed glasses. Her one eyebrow is raised as she sticks out her hand to take the research paper from me.

"Finally I would have hated to have failed you." She looks it over before placing it in a binder. I move to go take my seat and her eyes follow me to my seat.

"Alright. Everyone take out your textbooks and turn to page one hundred and thirty-seven." She moves to stand in front of her desk and I take out my textbook.

After biology class, I walk back out to my locker to get my literature books. The school day is far from over but I already want out. "Well, well, well it's already ten am and you haven't been to the principal's office as yet," I hear Jace say from behind me. I turn around to see him leaning on the locker next to mine with his hands folded and a smirk on his face.

"Yes and I got a few more hours to go," I say turning my book over to see if I got the right one.

"Keep it up and you might just become that model student everyone's trying to turn you into," he says with a smile on his face.

"Speaking of trouble I haven't seen Fabian." To think Jace and I are menacing is an understatement. Fabian is every teacher's worst nightmare. He can't go a month without getting suspended. He has a knack for pranks.

"His parents got him on lockdown. They took away his cellphone. Sadly, he has no contact with the outside world until his suspension ends," Jason says and I detect a hint of sadness in his voice he is probably missing his best friend. "Anyway I better get going," he says checking his watch. "See you around."

Just as Jason walks away from me somebody slams my locker shut. Well, so much for me not getting into trouble today. I turn around to see Madison with a smirk on her face. I open up my locker again and she shuts it again.

Where's a giant cockroach when you need one.

"Okay, that's it shut my locker one more time barbie and I will bash your face in it."

"You know because of you I missed my yoga class on Friday," she says glaring at me.

"Ha, that's were you wrong barbie. That's your own fault." It's not worth it. The detention and punishment from Klara are not worth it so I decide to walk away before any of this can escalate any further.

"You are such a freak why don't you just take a hint that nobody wants you around not even your parents." I stop dead in my tracks at those words. I whirl around to face her and my blood begins to boil when I see that smug look on her face. I shut my eyes tightly trying to control myself and then I hear her laugh. The anger within me is burning me alive and my fist collides with my shut locker in a loud clang.

I would have walked away but hearing her mention my parents was enough to push me over the edge. It was the feather that broke the elephants back. My control being the elephant. I take a menacingly slow step towards Madison, my eyes are fixed on her in an intense predatorial stare. Her eyes are wide and she holds both her hands up as if to surrender.

"Please no," she says and she looks as terrified as she did last night.

I stop and shut my eyes again. I'm not a monster. I let out a breath and try to calm myself down before I do anything more out of anger."Let me make one thing clear to you, you come near me ever again and the next thing that's going to have a dent in it will be your thick skull," I say and she nods. "Glad we on the same page." I gesture for her to leave with my head and she runs off as fast as she can down the hallway.

Great now I got to fix this locker. Why did she have to mention my parents. We all have a breaking point and Madison is very good at needling people until she finds theirs.

"Deisiú," I say touching my palms to the dented locker and I feel the metal shift beneath my palms back into place.

I remove my hand to inspect the locker and it's as good as new. It's like the entire incident didn't even happen, but it did because Madison saw me. I'm in big trouble I don't even remember the spell to erase someone's memory in the realm of light.

"Zel what?...." Morgan says from behind me.

Oh that's it I'm dead she saw me, didn't she?

"Hey Morgan," I say and she takes a cautious step forward.

"What but...how?" she says stammering. She stares at me and then she looks back at the locker. "How?..." she says moving her finger around as if trying to work out a complex math problem in her head.

"Okay calm down Morgan there is a simple explanation for all of this"

"What?" she asks again in a high pitched voice still in shock. Oh, just great I broke my best friend. Maybe there is something wrong with me.

"Okay Miss Leming let's see the evidence first," I hear principal Burke say and I turn around to see him coming down the hall with Madison who is talking fast while making wild hand gestures.

"But sir she is not normal!" Madison shrieks.

How did I get myself into this situation as much as I try to avoid getting into trouble. Trouble seems to be finding me. Now I got a petrified Morgan to deal with and a lie to come up with for principal Burke.

He comes to stand in front of me and he has a tired look on his face. "Madison said you dented the locker with your fist is that true Zelenia?" principal Burke asks.

"What sir?" I say pretending to be shocked.

"Yes, yes you did," Madison stutters.

"Madison I think you need to lay off the pumpkin spice latte's," I say humorously.

"Principal Burke I know what I saw okay she punched her locker and dented it," Madison rambles.

I burst out laughing and hunch over holding my stomach."Morgan can you believe her," I say through my fake attempt of laughter.

"What?...." Morgan says completely still in shock from seeing what I did earlier.

"See even Morgan thinks you delusional," I say using Morgan's shocked state to my advantage.

"You know what see for yourself, principal Burke." Madison pushes me out of the way so Burke can look at my locker. He takes a step up to my locker examining it and he sees for himself that the locker is fine.

"There is no dent on this locker Madison," he says to her and I hide my grin with a slight cough.

"What," she says in shock and looks at the repaired locker.

"But sir she did something," she says and her eyes begin widening like a fish.

"Madison I am disappointed in you. You come to my office and make up stories about miss Erickson to get her in trouble. That's it Madison detention for the rest of the week," he says and walks off.

"But sir...I swear... I saw it," she whines chasing after him.

Serves her right to mess with me.

I turn to my still petrified friend who is now just staring at me."Morgan I'm going to need you to breathe," I say putting my hand on her shoulder.

"Zel how?" Is all she can say still gaping at me.

"I promise I will explain everything to you Morgan, but you got to promise me you won't tell anyone about this okay?"

"Promise Zel," she says shakily, and I put my arm on her back leading her away from the lockers.