Enchanted [ON HOLD]

Chapter 1

     In my dream, I was walking, just placing one foot after the other in no particular direction. Walking backwards felt the same as going forward.

     Right foot. Left foot. Right foot. Left foot. Right foot.

     I was barefooted, and the ground I treaded upon felt alive, like small tentacles belonging to serpents. They thrashed and curled between toes, but I didn't feel fearful. The air seemed to pulsate as I walked through the forest, somewhere I never recognized. Leaves crackled and twigs snapped noisily but I ignored them.

     It was starting to get boring, when all too suddenly, my left foot missed a step, and I was falling.

     Falling down, down,

                                                and down.

     But as expected, I didn't hit the ground when I fell over. My stomach seemed to lift up, the kind of feeling when a roller coaster did a sudden drop.

     Pieces of my vision started to tear apart and I was tossed and turned along with all the jagged pieces of what used to look like the forest. It was as if a child was spinning a kaleidoscope I was trapped in.

    I was flailing vigorously, I'd wanted to say, Help! This place is breaking into pieces! I tried to open my mouth but I couldn't speak.

     This was the moment the voice would speak. Any time now.

     "The word is 'asunder'," the voice breathed into my mind, "it means 'torn into separate pieces'."

     Always the same voice, always the same words. It was impossible to discern the accent that voice had, but rather like a mix of all of the languages in the world. Greek, Latin, Hebrew, French, German and English.

     Ancient.

     A few more seconds of struggling, and then I would wake up. Wait for the warmth.

     There. The slightest sensation of warmth was beginning to spread through my body. First from my icy cold fingertips to my fingers, my body, and finally to my legs.

     "Charlie get your butt here! We're going to be late!"

     Laetitia.

     In an instant, my eyelids flew open, and immediately I squinted. The sunlight poured through my bedroom, and I knew it was past seven am already.

     I grunted. I had the same recurrent dream for the third day in a row now, and it was starting to freak me out. Not that I could share with my best friend about my dream. We never talked about things like that.

     I was half unsurprised when I found myself diagonally across the bed and my comforter kicked to the floor. The darned heat.

     "Honk honk!" Ever since my neighbours had complained about a certain red Rolls Royce honking every day at precisely six-fifty in the morning and waking up the entire street, Laetitia had resorted to relying on her vocals. But if any, it was worse. "I swear we'll get suspended, the last time we could be late was yesterday! Mr Griffin's words!"

     "And since when did you care what our headmaster says?!" I replied, hoping my words could be carried to the front porch.

     Grabbing a pair of denim shorts and and a tank top from my wardrobe, I tried to put them on while stuffing my book binder into my bag with much effort. Glancing at myself in the full-length mirror in the wardrobe, I noticed dark shadows and baggage under my eyes.

     "That dream is killing me," I muttered.

     Hurriedly, I searched for my sunglasses, the kind that was more of a fashion statement than for sun protection. The wide lenses would cover up my eye bags.