Young Writers Society

Author's Note: I binge wrote this chapter before school today, so I apologize if the ending is a little rushed - I just wanted to get past this part of the novel. Hopefully it's not too bad, but I'll definitely rewrite that part in the second draft. 

Words: 1,786

Last Line(s): “Let's go inside, my little star,” he said, but she had to think really hard to understand what was being said. Her eyelids started to close, and she snuggled more into his shirt. As they stepped out of the cool night air and into the warmth of her home, she could no longer stay awake. Her grip on his shirt loosened, and the world descended into a comforting darkness.

Her eyes flickered open as light streamed in through an unfamiliar window. For the first few moments that followed her waking up, Cass felt deeply disorientated. She groggily stared at the room around her; she was too distracted by her oddly realistic dream to try recalling the events of the day before. But as her gaze landed on the nightstand beside the strange bed and saw the golden locket glistening in the sun's rays, her memories returned.

She sat up.

She absentmindedly reached out for the locket and slipped it on. She watched it rise and fall with her chest, then started the tedious process of getting ready for the day. The clothes she had worn during her brief excursion out into town lay folded on the end of the bed. She wasted no time in slipping them on. Once she was dressed, she walked over to the mirror in the corner of the room. A yawn and messy bedhead greeted her.

She studied her appearance.

After that dream, seeing herself felt oddly unnatural. She felt like she should have been looking at someone else in the mirror—someone much smaller, with dark, dark hair and purple eyes that eagerly peered out at the world from a scaly face. She raised a hand up and touched her smooth, warm cheek. A jolt of excitement raced through her as she continued to look herself over.

That hadn't just been a dream. That had been one of Aldonius's childhood memories! A grin began to spread across her face. Remembering one of her dreams had to mean something important. Her grin faded ever so slightly when she realized Aldonius had likely started retaining her memories too. It was an uncomfortable thing to realize; he was still a stranger to her, and after lying to her...

The smile completely disappeared.

She turned her attention away from her reflection and sought out her hiking bag. It didn't take long for her to pull out a portable toothbrush and hairbrush. Returning to the mirror, she did the two ordinary tasks—which now felt downright bizarre when being done on another world. As she pulled her brush through knot after knot, she tried to keep her mind off of Aldonius and her most recent dream. She needed to think more about how to return home. Even though ending up on this world was an amazing experience, she just wanted to return to the comfort of Earth and their little, quiet town.

But her mind was stubborn, and it refused to switch tracks. 

She had just seen the world through Aldonius's eyes. And as she thought back to the memory, she felt a strange mix of happiness and sadness settle in her chest. Her nonexistent smile turned into a frown. Childhood memories were supposed to be treasured. So why did she—why did Aldonius—feel so much regret whenever the memory came to mind?

Her question remained unanswered as she heard a knocking on the door. She returned her toothbrush, toothpaste and hairbrush back to her bag, then went to go open the door. Aspen was leaning up against the doorway, her messy hair thrown into an equally messy ponytail. Despite clearly having just gotten out of bed, Aspen looked good. Cass felt her heart skip a beat as her best friend slipped into her temporary room. 

“Morning, Cassie,” Aspen said. 

“Good morning,” she replied.

Though Aspen honestly looked like she was still half-asleep, her tone suddenly switched from casual to serious. “Are you feeling better now that you've gotten some sleep?” she asked. She looked Cass over. Her gaze lingered on her neat hair, then slowly traveled to the hiking bag in the corner of the room.

Cass let out a quiet sigh. “I think so.”

Aspen grinned and slung her arm around her shoulder. “That's great!” She gestured at the door with a nod of her head. “I saw Lira on my way over. She said her dad had already taken care of getting breakfast for us—they have professional cooks, Cassie! I haven't been somewhere fancy in ages.” 

A small smile began to creep across her face. “What if the food is different than what we're used to?”

“Then it'll be an adventure,” Aspen declared.

Now a giggle was threatening to break free.

Aspen looked aghast when she heard the very beginnings of Cass's laugh. “Do you not believe me?” she asked, dramatically throwing one hand on her chest. “I'm very, very offended, Cassie. I thought...I thought you trusted my culinary instincts more!”

Cass couldn't hold it in any longer. She started to giggle as Aspen made her reaction more and more exaggerated, to the point where she had taken a step back and was staring at her with a look of mock horror on her face. She knew that Aspen was trying to get her to laugh, and she gladly went with it. After everything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours, she certainly needed it. 

When her laughter finally died down, Aspen led her through the seemingly endless maze of hallways to a dining room with an absolutely enormous table. Three spots had been laid out, but it was nearly impossible to make them out among the array of breakfast dishes. Aldonius must have known what was what; when she sat down, she instinctively grabbed for foods she didn't even know the name of. 

Lira eventually joined them, though she ate far less than Cass and Aspen did. When they all finished eating, they were led into Mr. Ream's office, where they were then directed to go to the mayoral laboratory for tests to be done on the lockets. Cass and Aspen sat on cold metal tables as groups of magical scientists inspected every inch of the lockets. When that seemed to provide no answers, they moved onto asking the two friends question after question about their lives.

Aspen gladly told them everything she could think of, but Cass barely offered more than a few words. She knew that it was supposed to help them return home, but her heart—or maybe her soul—was telling her that this was not how the lockets were meant to be treated. They were sacred and special, and were never meant to be studied as strange little trinkets.

After lunch, the two were given their freedom. They wandered through the streets of Rey and observed the multitude of sights, though the experience was dampened by the addition of a mayoral guard. Aspen was sure it was to protect them, but Cass knew it was to protect everyone else from her—Rodet, undoubtedly, had told the mayor and the king about what had happened in the streets the night before.

They returned home at the cusp of dusk, and ate another hearty meal before being given free reign once more. Aspen disappeared off into the hallways with little explanation, and Cass found herself slipping back out in the darkness of Rey's streets at night. There were no notable incidents this time around. And no matter where she looked, she was unable to find Aldonius.

She returned a short time later, said her good nights, and then went to bed. Another memory came to her as she slept. This time, Aldonius was a couple years older, and he was begging his father to stop working for just one minute—his dad hadn't played with him in over a week, and he just wanted to spend time with him again. 

This cycle repeated itself for the next two weeks. Each day that passed made Cass grow more restless and Aspen grow more thrilled. She loved exploring new places, and didn't care about being poked and prodded by strangers. Cass spent her time sitting on that cold metal bench dreaming of her bedroom and her home, of her cute little town that she never wanted to leave, and of the way that she had always been the invisible one in the room. Now everyone kept looking at her when they walked through the mayor's building and the streets of Rey, and every brief meeting with Rodet made her fear that he'd attack her again. Even Lira tried her best to avoid her when Aspen was off on one of her nightly escapades.

The one person who might have truly understood her was nowhere to be found. No matter how many times she peeked into his favorite tavern or one of the nearby inns, she couldn't see the unforgettable face of her future contracted. She desperately needed to talk to him and get answers, but she was beginning to suspect that he had left the night they had their conversation. 

On the dawn of their fifteenth day in Rey, Cass awoke with two things in mind: what she was sure was a very recent memory of Aldonius returning to his home, and the realization that the sessions with Rey's most brilliant minds were getting them nowhere. As she stood in front of the mirror like she had each morning for the past two weeks, Cass let out a heavy sigh and imagined the trees she had seen swaying in Aldonius's memory.Their leaves had all been shades of magenta and violet; she hadn't seen anything quite like them in Rey, and not back in her little New England town.

Wherever his home was, it was certainly beautiful.

She slowly ran her brush through her bedhead. Maybe today would be the day they would finally start making progress. Her free hand fiddled with the locket dangling above her chest. Rey was suffocating her. She hated she was being treated like a prisoner, though it was all under the guise of doing it for her well-being. They all loved Aspen, but she was the girl with the darkness magic and Telorum's golden locket-

Her eyes widened in her reflection.

She looked down at the locket, then back up at the mirror. Rey didn't have answers because it knew nothing about the lockets. Rey's scientists were learning about them from scratch. But Telorum had originally made the lockets and used them.

Though it had likely been a very long time since their creation, wouldn't someone there understood how they worked? It was an idea that she couldn't take lightly. She knew that Telorum was ruled by an evil king; the amount of times he had been mentioned in the past two weeks had given her plenty of evidence. But, God, she actually had an idea on how to get back home.

And when she tried to imagine what Telorum looked like, her mind immediately conjured the multiple memories of swaying magenta and violet trees. 

Telorum would give her the answers that she needed.

She was sure of it.