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A WHOLE NEW NIGHTMARE



Love…well, that seemed like the best way to start the story, oh so, long ago. It wasn’t. Who am I kidding? Death, lust, and fear would have been a better way to start the story. BTW, I finally taught that walrus to ride a bike, and I didn’t need my training wheels. Well, this time my clicker works, so, on with the show…er…book folks.
After what I am sure was some time, my eyes fluttered open again. My head was pounding like a sledgehammer. Darkness surrounded and engulfed me, and a plush fabric was laying over me, wrapped around my whole body. Was I trapped somewhere? Could I be buried alive? Seriously, I know Sky hates me that much.
I could hardly breathe. My face was hot and clammy. Where was the string for a dead ringer when you needed one?! Before I knew it I screaming out in fear as I quickly sat up.
Blankets flew backward with the jolting of my body, it seemed that was what I had been trapped beneath? Gingerly, I touched the pulled cotton of the bright pink bedding. These were my blankets, from the house that was burned down. With confusion as to how I could be holding a ruined object I surveyed the area.
The room was two stories tall with a half room width second story. The room, itself, was really large, and painted a subtle salmon color. Posters, pictures, and mixed wall paper pieces covered the walls like the inside of a teen girl’s scrapbook. I blinked a few times because I didn’t know this room, and it wasn’t mine, despite having my bedding and teddy bears. There was no way I could own such a big house or all of the exquisite furnishings that lavished my surroundings.
“Sammie, are you awake yet?”
I froze. My heart was shattering. That was my mother’s voice.
My mother entered the room, causing the door to crinkle against the carpet. I looked up at her with tears in my eyes, and my heart sank.
Was this heaven? It wasn’t possible for this to be anything else because my mother was dead. I saw her body in those flames while I fought Melzabar, and I was still blaming myself for her death. This must be a dream!
“Get dressed sweetheart.” Mother drew back the curtains allowing rays of pale yellow sunlight to pour across the floor.
The brightness overpowered me and I began rubbing my eyes for clarity in vision. “Dressed for what?”
“School, silly,” She replied.
“Why am I going to school?” I shook my head. Last year I had graduated from high school, and I hadn’t had the courage to rush off to state college yet. I had worked so hard to graduate a year earlier than I should have. What was mom talking about?
“Because you aren’t sick anymore.” She was a just as I remembered her, clad in a floral, handmade apron with the smell of white chocolate, caramel brownies lingering around her.
“Sick?” I mumbled as a question, and pinched myself because I knew this had to be a dream, only the pinch hurt. So, I wasn’t dreaming, and I wasn’t in heaven? Where was I?
“Yes, sweet heart. You’ve been taking medication for the flue for a good three days,” my mother replied.
My jaw dropped, and my eyes flew wide. There was nothing that could keep me from flipping out as badly as I was.
In terror I grabbed fistfuls of my hair and shook my head trying to escape the words. Then, locks of my hair fell down in front of my eyes, and I really lost it.
“I’m blonde!” I looked at the dangling strands of hair in utter bewilderment and fear. “What happened to my auburn hair?”
“You’re the head cheerleader, sweetie. You dyed it freshman year, remember? It’s unheard of to have a warm haired leader.” My mother shut the door behind her.
I ran my hands down my body and into my lap, when I happened to feel the leather-bound diary that was Falcon’s and saw my engagement ring. Falcon and magick couldn’t possibly be a dream, not if I still had the two things from my reality that I hadn’t handed over to Mazeena.
Head cheerleader, blonde, and still in high school? What is going on! Where am I?
That was how my day started. One day I’m fighting demons, and the next I am in a whole new world without the man that I love. Normality was something I had always wanted to regain after meeting Bonnie-Kate, but how is this possible?
Swiftly, I unclasped my Arched Wing necklace to drop my engagement ring around the chain, and then I rushed out of my bedroom without thinking about what my Mother would say.
Falcon, I needed to find Falcon, and he had to be somewhere in this world. Hell, even if he was at the North Pole, I would find a way to him.
As I sprinted out the front door, I slipped on a pair of flip flops, and grabbed the nearest coat. I looked kind of funny in my care bear, PJ pants, and a floral, trench coat. Bed head had attacked my scalp, but I didn’t care, didn’t even brush it. Knowing my hair was blonde was enough, I didn’t believe I could handle seeing it that color.
I dashed down the gravel driveway, kicking up rocks with each step.
Was it true that I was still trapped in the horrid hallways that were high school conformity. Wait, high school? Ms. Kozaki was a witch, and she kept a crystal on a chain in the history classroom. I could Skry with it! Now, all I required was a way in which to get to the high school, despite how much I yearned to avoid the sea of snobby teenagers and green-gray lockers.
Slowly, an expensive SUV pulled into the driveway. Jennifer pushed past me, and headed for the car.
I paused. What was up with Jennifer? She was wearing neon, clip in extensions in her hair, and a fishnet sleeved blouse. Was she all Emo now? Hold it my sister didn’t cruise the sale bins at Hot Topic, she rampaged the clearance section at American Eagle, and Aeropostale.
“Jennifer, what are you doing?” I reached out for my punked out sister.
Jennifer turned and smiled. “Come on, Mariah doesn’t have all day.”
My sanity, what little I had left, skidded to a halt. “Mariah?” It was true, I needed medication. Everything time I finally become convinced that the paranormal changes around me were real, and that I was not, in fact, clinically insane, something like this would happen. First I was a semi-normal teenager who was drug into the surrealism of being trapped under debris in Scotland, and now I was a witch confined to the blue skies of normality!
The car window came down, and Mariah leaned out of the car.
“Come on loser. Your Caramel Frappe is getting warm,” Mariah laughed out the window. “Gonna ignore your BFF now?”
Just like an anime character, my jaw hit the gravel covered ground. “BFF….BFF!”
Mariah was joking, she just had to be joking. There was no way on God’s green earth that I would willing spend all my time with Mariah as best friends, let that I would even consider her a person worth having any kind of positive relationship with. Then again, she was going to the school. No reason to look a gift horse in the mouth.
With the determination to find Falcon playing at my mind, I climbed into the passenger’s seat, and flipped off the top of the iced-coffee. Once again, a gift horse, a caramel flavored one.
Sitting in the back seat was a girl from my school named Betsy Cosgrove. She was one of the cheerleaders, and I recalled her being the biggest gossip in school. Although, she may have had loose lips, she was always a reliable source.
Betsy had beautiful, light black skin, and huge green eyes. Her pin tight curls were pulled back into a high pony tail. She smiled, pulling out her camera, and tossing it up to me.
“I got the dirt,” Betsy laughed. “Ms. Kozaki said she had a vision of the future, I know weird, huh? Well, she was all like I need to have a college grad student to assist me at the high school, and like totally pushed in through.”
“What does that have to do with your phone?” I asked. Reliable, yes. Brief, no.
“Then Mr. Rue said the same thing, and picked a Grad intern too!” Betsy giggled.
“They some geeky girls?” Mariah laughed. “Uber lame. It’s Toe Up.”
“Oh, No, they aren’t geeky or girls. Check the pictures. The first guy is Ms. Kozaki’s dude. The two dudes they are brothers. You’ll be shocked, Sam! Totally shocked!” Betsy took a long slug of her iced-coffee. Looked like my group of friends has a Starbucks addiction, but, then again, I had the same problem in my world too.
I flicked into her phone photos. My eyes widened. “Dru.” I almost dropped the phone.
“Yep, he is so gonna be at school, in class with you, like every day. Are you stocked or what?” She waited for my replied, but I was too baffled to even speak. “The second is Mr. Rue’s.”
I flicked to the second. “Falcon!” I screamed as the car pulled into the school parking lot. Mariah was at a stop, idling to find a space to park. Without even considering the face that Betsy had be talking about Dru as if we all knew him, I opened the door and leapt out of the car. I hurriedly headed toward the school door, the thought about what Betsy said starting to kick in. Quickly, the thought was dismissed, I mean, they probably all know him because he is my boyfriend’s brother.
“What is up with the PJ pants?” Someone shouted. I didn’t care. I kept running, going right past them, with Betsy chasing me all the while.
I stormed through the high school halls, pushing past people. Getting to the history classroom was my goal, and nothing and no one was going to detour me from my chosen path. Now that I had solid proof, from the cell phone still in my hand, that Falcon was alive, I needed to find him.
As I entered the history classroom, I turned, tossed Betsy her phone, and then slammed the door in her face, locking it behind me. No time was wasted, within seconds I was rummaging through desk drawers to find that crystal.
A noise startled me, I looked up. “Ms. Kozaki?” I asked. “But the door is…”
“Locked,” Ms. Kozaki said, finishing my sentence. “Doors do not bind me. I suppose you are looking for my Skrying crystal?”
“Yes.” I looked down in shame. “I need to find…”
“Your love,” Ms. Kozaki finished for me, again, blowing on a candle. A flame appeared onto the candle’s once empty wick.
“A while ago I would have freaked out from that…but now…”
“Now you know you are a witch. I sensed the shift of worlds my dear. I am a high priestess. A Templar Woman chosen to guide you to the men holding the Tana De Dan Soul.”
My heart leapt in my chest. “I always wondered. In high school, in my world, you always had something to teach me, some place to send me. Getting a passport was your idea.”
Ms. Kozaki pounded on the desk, and a secret drawer opened. Carefully, she extracted the crystal. “I lead you on the correct path. The choice is now yours to make. I can however offer you this.” Ms. Kozaki handed me the crystal. “I’ll see you, in time,” She vowed.
“See me in time, wait, are you not…?” I swallowed hard.
“Part of this world? I am not a human Templar. Oh, and Sam, just so you know this world is very different from yours. To start with this is not New York State.” Ms. Kozaki vanished.
I turned to see a map laying on one of the desks. With great determination I held the crystal, dangling by its chain, over the map, and watched it swing back and forth. After a few minutes of endless strain on my out stretched arm, the crystal dropped onto a location. “The university. MacMillan Dorms. Got’cha.”

Copyright Katherine Petersdorf