Reality Part 1 (rewrite)

Chapter 1

My story is very long, but is one that might change the reality of your life. I too, was very confused when told this reality, but know that in the end, everything plays out. If it didn’t, it’s not the end. Heck, if I didn’t believe that, I wouldn’t be here, telling you this story in the first place. If you feel the energy of the book while reading it, or see flashbacks, or can relate to anything that happens here, then you are one of us, and we need you. Why? That’s a very long story, so here goes everything.

My name is Casandra and it all started when I turned 13. Well, weird things have been happening throughout my life but this was the weirdest yet.

I saw swirling patches of lights around me, and I was just floating in mid-air. I knew it was a dream, I had been having the same meaningless dream since before I can remember. But somehow, it felt real. As if it existed, but didn’t at the same time. I know, you think I’m crazy, I thought so, too.

And when I finally woke up to the darkness of midnight, I felt weight on my legs, and quickly kicked before I thought anything else. I saw a bluish pillow kind of thing fly and land upon the floor near my bed. Freaked as I was, my hands started searching for the light switch near my bed. While doing so, I felt my hand knock over the alarm clock, but I didn’t care, I was focused on the light switch, and upon finding it, I switched it on to have the light blind me.

After my vision adjusted, I looked at the floor to find a… I had no idea how to describe what I saw. It was a furry creature about as big as a watermelon. It’s blue fur had a weird glow to it, like it had been painted with glow-in-the-dark paint. The creature had big purple eyes, like an anime character, and it’s nose and mouth were so small, they were hardly visible, covered completely in fur. It had antennae kinda things, and they were moving like being controlled by a weird force.

It started emitting a sound that was somewhere between purring and squeaking, and this sound got clearer with every passing second. I felt my heart pounding, and I wanted to scream, but my guts told me not to. I just looked at the creature in curiosity of what it will do next. The creature’s voice was now no longer like what it had been, and I could make out it saying the same words again.

“You shall avenge them,” it was repeating again and again. It’s voice was also getting louder with every word it said, and as it did, my head started to spin to. The noise wasn’t loud, it was like it was somehow convincing me to lose consciousness. I tried my best to concentrate, but couldn’t. I tried moving my hands and legs, but to no avail. They seemed drowsy. My eyelids soon began to close, and the last thing I remember before passing out is that the noise completely stopped as the creature disappeared in a puff of smoke.

I woke up to find sweat dotting my body and thought it had all been a dream, but quickly, I realised that the light of my bedroom was still switched on and the alarm clock was on the floor. I hoped that I had somehow left it on before going to bed and knocked off the clock during my nightmare, because if not, I then my life was seriously messed up. The recurring dream about swirling colors, the memories and flashbacks of places I’d never visited, those weird objects that appeared in my room. I was pretty sure it was all somehow connected, my gut told me so.

I got up to pick up the clock and drink water. It was 1 am now, so now I was 13 years old. I unlocked my phone to see 2 texts, I couldn’t believe I was able to sleep through the buzzing. I hadn’t heard anything during the encounter with the weird creature, assuming it actually happened, it hadn’t seemed like it was unreal. How long was I out anyway?

I quickly replied both, Michael and Hannah had wished me my birthday. Michael had wished me at 12 in the night! That was huge for the girl who had liked him for almost 2 years now! After replying, I stared at the screen, re-reading his text.

I don’t remember when I fell asleep, but I woke up the next day to the sunlight pouring into my room, ready for a new day at school. After putting on my jeans and top, I went downstairs for breakfast to be wished for my birthday by my family. I sat down for my ‘birthday breakfast’. It was this sweet family tradition where my parents would together cook a breakfast that somehow fit into the moment. Last year, they had made it look like me, just by using egg, some spices and vegetables. It didn’t taste bad either.

And as I had expected, a colorful plate with many vegetables that made the number 13 was kept in front of me. This might seem very silly and cheesy, but I actually looked forward to it every year. I mean it was sweet so.

After eating it and saying goodbye, I picked up my bag and headed to school. I usually cycled, but yesterday my cycle had a flat and I still hadn’t had it replaced, so I had to walk.

After a short walk through the cold morning air, I reached my school to find Hannah already near my locker, with a small cupcake with a candle.

“Happy birthday!” she wished and hugged me, “blow the candle.”

I blew it, wishing for the guts to finally ask out Michael, and as if on que, he entered the hallway, his face lighting up when he saw me. He smiled at me and I smiled back, but before he could come to where I was, his friends ran in and said something to him. He flashed me an apologetic look before walking away with them, almost running.

Great

Hannah must have seen the miserable look on my face and nudged me, “He’ll come back,” she said, smirking.

“Who?” I said, trying to act busy with the books in my locker.

“Seriously Cass? We have been friends for ages, and it’s like crystal clear you like Michael, just admit it already,” she said with a roll of her eyes.

“What are you talking about?” I know, I should have just admitted it, but I just didn’t want to.

“Sure you don’t. At least eat your cupcake, or are you going to wait for him to come by?”

It was now my turn to roll my eyes, and she just smirked.

“Whatever, but now something serious,” and then, I filled her in with details about my very weird encounter.

“Are you sure it wasn’t a dream? I mean, really Cass, what are the chances of that happening.”

“You know all the crazy stuff that has happened in my life, you actually saw one happen.”

“Yeah, but still, I’m not exactly sure that had happened after all,” Hannah said with a shrug.

We would have continued but the bell rang and we had to go to class.

“See you in bio,” I said as I left for maths. I, as usual, sat at the back of the class, and when Maths was going on, was more concentrated on listening to music then to actually pay attention. And sitting next to the window, I had the sky to stare at.

“Cass!” Hannah’s voice jerked me awake, and I realised my bio teacher was standing in front of my table, glaring at me.

“Ms Rys, may I know what you were doing last night that you decided to rather fall asleep in my class?”

“I umm… was ummm,” I looked down as I tried to come up with an excuse as the others snickered, but my brain didn’t seem to be working properly. The last thing I remembered was maths class, then… I was in the world of swirling colors. And I somehow woke up in my bio class?

“Ms Rys, since it’s your birthday and the first time this has happened, I’ll excuse it. Don’t make a habit of it,” she said with her stern voice, and I could hear whispers of ‘special treatment’, “Now, now, let’s continue with the lesson.”

And as she started her lesson, I tried to make sense of the mess that was my life. Sure, I have had these dreams before, but this was the first time I had it in daytime, and it was definitely the first time I had memory loss for… almost the whole school day. Bio was my second last period, maths my first.

“Are you okay Cass? You look like you saw a ghost,” Hannah asked with her brow furrowed.

“Yeah,” I didn’t exactly know how to explain everything to Hannah right now, and I had a feeling she’d think I’m crazy, she already thought I was gone because of what happened last night, “Just feeling sleepy, I guess.”

I spent the rest of the period trying to remember whatever I could, and some flashbacks came back to me, but they were so vivid, I couldn’t make sense of them. After another period, I finally had the day off, and as I made my way towards my locker. When I reached there though, I found an amazing surprise.

As I opened up the locker, a piece of paper fell down and as I picked it up, my excitement level increased like crazy, it was Michael’s handwriting! I read the note and as my eyes skimmed the page, my excitement only increased.

“Hey, so I know that I have been very confusing in the past, but I wanted to finally have ‘the talk’, and if you want to, then meet me in the parking lot at 3, and I’d wish you happy birthday here but I prefer to do it in person.”

One minute left to 3! I just dumped my books in the locker, flung the door closed, and raced down the hallway as fast as I could. I reached the entrance of the parking lot, completely out of breath. I took a few seconds to even my breathing and then opened the door. There he was, waiting near his brother’s car. He seemed surprised to see me, but quickly covered the surprise with his smile.

“Hey, Cass,” he said so casually, it was almost irritating.

“Hi,” I smiled as naturally as I could.

“Listen about morning-“

“It’s okay,” I said before I could stop myself.

“Yeah, and now I wanted to tell you why my friends called me for in the first place,” he said and just casually leaned back against the car. And then, all his friends, and Hannah, jumped up from around me and screamed ‘Happy Birthday’.

“So I know that this is not the perfect place but Cass, will you be my girlfriend?”

At the last word, I literally wanted to scream ‘yes’, but somehow kept my cool. I felt my face get redder by the minute, but as I tried to balance the color of my cheeks, I found my voice, that surprisingly wasn’t a squeak.

“Yes, Michael, I’ll be your girlfriend,” I just smiled uncontrollably as I got that sentence out, it’s not like I could help it anyway, so I decided not to care.

As cheers eroded from all his friends, I noticed the cake in the car that I had somehow missed. The cake looked chocolate. Yep, Michael knew me too well. He noticed me looking at the cake and said, “Oh yes, I almost forgot, come on, cut the cake.” As he brought out the cake and handed me a knife, everyone gathered started singing the birthday song. In that moment, everything seemed perfect, and I had completely forgotten about my repeated dreams or what had happened that day. As Michael smudged some cake on my face, it felt like the most perfect moment I could hope for. The rest of the day was a whirlwind, and when I reached home, I felt giddy with excitement.

“Cass, we need to talk,” was the first thing Cleo told me when I walked into the living room, “it’s very important.” Cleo had her fingers crossed at her side, something she only did when she was nervous, and she was hardly ever nervous. She had a look of uncertainty, and so did my parents who then walked into the room, my mom’s eyes moist.

“Cassandra, we… we have something to tell you,” my dad said, “we’re just… not allowed to keep this from you anymore.”

“What is happening, are you guys trying to prank me, again?” I said with a roll of my eyes.

“No, Cass, this is serious,” Cleo said.

“But-” I was cut short by the doorbell, which made everyone else even more worried.

“I’ll answer it,” my mom said as she left the living room, and a minute later, was back with a man. He had a moustache and his skin was olive colored, he wore black robes with golden patterns and symbols that made no sense to me. He had a determined look in his eyes, and the way they sharply looked around creeped me out.

“Hello Cassandra, I’m Rayden, head of the Secret Society,” he said in a very formal voice.

“Secret what now?”

“The Secret Society, you’ll know more about it in a while, but for now, we- [i]they[/i] need to tell you something,” he said with a nod towards my parents.

“Cassandra, the truth is that, that we’re not your biological parents, I was your mom’s best friend, and there is so much more you need to know, just let us explain.” My mom said, her voice brittle. I tried to make sense of the statement I had just heard, but was not able to process it.

"Your parents died about a year after you were born. You would be in danger if anyone found out that you were not our actual daughter. So only a few very trustworthy people know it." My apparently-not-dad said without meeting my eyes.

“But-” I stopped as I tried to come up with something, what was I supposed to ask. My head seemed to be spinning because of all the questions I had.

"We didn't want to raise questions about your parents' death and also, we wanted you to have a normal life. Imagine knowing that we are not your parents but being forbidden to say anything to your best friends. We knew that we would have to tell you one day and you would have to make your choice but until then we wanted you to live a normal life."

“Why wouldn’t I be able to tell my friends? And what choice?”

“It’s a very long story, I think Rayden should tell you,” my dad said.