Young Writers Society

Raptor was at a crossroads.

Admit the truth, and he would be forced to reveal something else he knew the others wouldn't want to see. If he didn't admit the truth, he would have to come up with some kind of explanation for why he was wearing a giant suit of armor. He wanted to tell the truth. He wanted to tell exactly what had happened to him, and ask for help they could give.

But he was scared.

"It was for a joke," he lied. He lied unsurprisingly well - it was what anyone would expect from a magician like him. "A friend of mine owns this suit of armor, so I thought I would try surprising him by making him think it was haunted."

He let out a sigh.

"Then I ended up here," he said, "and I don't want to risk losing the armor by taking it off. It's valuable."

June slowly stood up and moved towards the group, gently tapping on the girl who seemed closer to her age. She was wearing a pair of black jeans and a button-up and seemed practical from the way she talked and held herself. She hoped she'd understand her... inabilities.

She waited for the girl to look at her, and pulled her hands to her chest. She fidgetted with her fingers a bit, trying to not look too scared, despite being quite plainly petrified



Reggie frowned and retracted his hand, and Mykel placed the candy back in his bag. He gently ruffled Reggie's hair in an attempt at comfort and felt him gently press back into the touch.

"Don't worry, we won't hurt you." Mykel attempted to reassure the girl, not wanting her to be afraid. "Do you know where we are?" He asked, hoping the answer was a yes, "Or where we might be able to find someone who does?"

Briar turned abruptly the face the one who had tapped her, having the suppress the urge to grab the girl in a headlock the moment she'd registered that she was a person at all. No one ever got Briar's attention like that aside from Queenie, and that usually ended with minimally a few bruises.

But then the girl registered in Briar's vision, and she relaxed as much as she had before, which wasn't much.

"Yes?" she asked curtly. The girl was scared, had she seen something? Or, more likely, someone? That would clear some things up.

As she waited for the girl's answer, Briar thought over the man's words, and she decided that he was still most likely wrong in the head. His comment about Earth was pretty damning evidence, but it could be a side effect of whatever may have been used to keep them quiet while they were transported here.

June shook her head, gesturing to her mouth while she did so, hoping desperately it would communicate the fact that she couldn't talk, and looked around for something to write with. She took one of the pencils she had gathered out of her bag and held it up, trying to ask for paper. She was pinching it between two fingers and supporting it with another, and it was visibly wobbling due to her shaky hands. June hoped the girl understood.

She glanced down at the doll in her arms.

"Is it okay for me to talk to them?" she asked.

Sabrina thought over the question. Sabrina's face always looked the same, but Mary knew she was looking them over really carefully. After another long, tense moment passed, Sabrina finally gave her answer.

"It is," Sabrina said.

Mary looked up at the two again.

"I don't know," she said. "Sabrina doesn't, either. And Sabrina knows everything."


The newcomer couldn't talk.

She seemed so nervous. She almost reminded him of how May had been when they first met. It had become clear afterwards that May was a lot more confident than she had originally seemed, but it was hard for Raptor not to like the newcomer just because of that reason.

And while he didn't have paper, he did have something else.

He bridged the little distance between them.

Then he reached into his bag and pulled out a stick of white chalk. It looked so small and fragile in his hands, but he was careful not to break it when he held it out to her.

"I don't have anything to write on," he said, "but I can see a blackboard in the classroom you're standing near. You could write on it."

He looked around the hallway. "...There's also the walls and the floor, but something tells me you wouldn't want to write on that."

She glanced behind her at the chalkboard, not liking the idea of entering the classroom, but realizing it was the more logical option, she placed the pencil back in her bag and took the chalk with a smile and a nod of thanks. She turned and entered the classroom and began to write on the board.

First off, my name is June. Her handwriting was rather neat and pretty. As pretty as it could be with chalk anyways. And second, I don't know where I am or how I got here, can you show me the way to town? I live in Vianse. She pulled the chalk away from the board and hesitated at looking back to the group, realizing they might not have followed her.



Mykel pondered that for a moment, the child looked young, no older than 8, likely a bit younger. It would make sense why she would have someone else with her, though he didn't see anyone.

"Who's Sabrina? Can I talk to her?" He asked. Reggie was still pouting and sat on the floor cross-legged, unintentionally making himself look even smaller.

Without waiting to see what the others would do, he followed her into the room.

The name on the board looked unfamiliar. He tried placing it, but he just couldn't remember it from any of his classes.

"I don't know how to get there," he admitted. "Where is Vianse?"


She didn't spare the pouting boy a single glance.

"Sabrina is my best friend," she promptly informed the other boy. "Sabrina only talks to me, but I guess you can talk to her, too."

She held her doll out. It was hard keeping a good grip on her, but Mary thought it was important for Sabrina to be near him if they were going to have a conversation.

"Can you hold me closer, Mary?" Sabrina suddenly asked. She sounded scared, but that didn't make sense. Sabrina wasn't supposed to get scared. She was the bravest of all of her friends!

"But I want him to talk with you," she said, frowning.

"He can still talk to me," Sabrina reassured her. "Just don't hold me over the ground like that, okay?"

She gave a little nod before holding her doll close again.

"Sabrina says she doesn't want me to hold her out," Mary told him, her voice very serious. "I think she's scared of heights."

Jackson rubbed the back of his neck. He was still trying to process how he had gotten there, and the fact that Briar was there too, all of the other stuff was just overwhelming. He leaned against the nearest wall and let out a breath. Too much. This was too much.

He thought he heard a noise from around a corner and tensed up. Ghosts.

This place was definately haunted by all kinds of freaky stuff. Dead school children and stuff. They were obviously the ones who brought them all here. Some ghosts got together and summoned a bunch of people from around the world for some kind of freaky death game or something.

He looked at Briar. She was so...normal. Normal for her, anyway. Or, he thought this was normal for her. He'd only known her a couple of days, maybe she did sometimes look...different. If she ever did he thought now would be the time for her to show it. She didn't even look confused.



Briar's eyes flicked over the girl, then back to her writing. Briar didn't recognize the name of the city, but it was always Queenie who was interested in geography and languages and such. Briar had never seen the point. Even now, it wasn't too relevant except for what it was. A place the girl was from and wanted to get back to.

"Do you know sign language?" she asked after a long moment, looking back to the girl herself.

Julia watched everythin happen in front of her. She looked at what the mute girl had written on the board, and rummaged through her brain to see if she remembered a city or country anywhere on Earth. When she couldn't, she raised her hand slowly. Then realized it was stupid, and questioned no one in particular. "Are we all even from the same universes?"

June shook her head, writing on the board I never had to learn it, before addressing the other girls' question with a quirk of her eyebrow. It hadn't been something she'd thought of. Though she guessed it might be possible and at that, her face turned to what looked to be one of annoyance. Esther and her freaking experimental magic again, she thought.

She began writing on the board again, Do any of you use magic? She thought if they did, then they could use their abilities together and hopefully get out of here. June had never been very good with magic, and she didn't particularly enjoy using it, but she would if she had to.

Julia never even believed in magic. Never ever in a gazillion years. But now that all this was happening, she might as well. "No." she answered. She was completely ordinary, no super powers, no nothing.

What gave her reassurance was that she was on Earth and not some far off planet. She sighed, and sent a quick thank you to God.

"Magic is real?!" Jackson immediately exclaimed.

Briar eyed him, hoping he was just gullible. That would be rather useful, considering the nature of the project they'd been assigned to work together on. Right now, though, in this situation, it may not be such a good thing.

"It isn't," she said to him.

He blushed, keeping his eyes on the others, who, by the looks on their faces and their words, appeared to at least passively believe in magic. If this was her crew, she was going to have to do a lot more work than usual to assure that no one hurt themselves and that they could all get back to whatever mental asylum or remote town they came from.

A few years ago, Raptor might not have believed in the idea of learning magic. He knew of magic, but it wasn't something he actually did. He just could give orders to those that could use it.

But May lived a life full of magic. He didn't know if the magic they were talking about was the same kind of magic, but magic seemed like the perfect explanation for what was going on.

"I don't use it," Raptor said, "but I know of it."

He turned to the boy and the girl who had just spoken. He wasn't supposed to reveal his secret, but it was the only way he could think of proving his point that didn't involve removing his helmet.

"Magic is real," he said. "I can prove it."

June's face twisted into a smile, assuming the person was joking. When she realized they weren't, it turned to a frown, and then to irritation. I guess that solidifies the "different universes" theory. She thought. She decided she'd demonstrate the truth of her reality.

June extended her arm, placing her hand face-up and flat, and a small ball of light spawned on her palm. It glowed a pale blue and was roughly 5 inches in diameter. It illuminated her features rather strangely, and her irritated facial expressions became more clear.

She allowed the ball to disappear and wrote on the board. Magic is real.

While Jackson was stunned into silence, Briar's expression didn't change.

If she believed every light trick she saw was magic, she'd have been killed long ago. By Queenie or otherwise. However the girl had done what she did, it wasn't magic. Because magic did not exist.

Without wasting a word, she turned to leave.

"Wait," Jackson called after her, looking pleadingly at the others to back him up in convincing her to stay.

She turned in the doorway and waited for his argument. Father always told her to hear an opponent out, especially when they could not convince you to abandon your goals. Often times, they would reveal to you what they thought you believed was important, or some other useful thing about how they thought.

She didn't want to be around with the mentally unwell when she needed to work on getting home. Father would already be furious that she left, unless her kidnappers had called for a ransom. If they had, explaining herself would be easy.

Considering everything that had happened so far, though, the chances of that seemed slim.