Pearl Academy I The Emergence

Chapter 13

A girl sat on her desk, quiet and contemplative. Her eyes are fixed on a point that I cannot see. She is angry. No, frustrated. Her thoughts have taken her far from the pages of the book that she has open on her desk. The girl is young with the most beautiful hair. She taps her pencil against the wooden desk in thought. She thinks about the words that she wants to say to him. Something that would make him stop and make him realize what's at stake.

Another walks up from behind her. This person leaves the shadow behind and looks over the girl's shoulder. "I can't do it," says the girl. "We both know there aren't enough words to keep him away." The shadow figure stays silence for just a moment. Darkness engulfs the whole room. It veils the details except for the two people. And even then, their features are hidden. But their emotions weigh heavy in the silence. "I cannot tell you what to write. I can only tell you to write what you know will keep him away." The shadow figure goes and reassuringly touches her shoulder. "We all went through this. We all survived this."

*****

I wake up with a jolt. The book drops from my lap and slides away from me. The red drapes cover me like a blanket. I don't remember falling sleep but I do remember clearly reading someone else's private journal. I leave the book behind and scramble away from the Undercroft window. I almost slam my face into the thick wooden doors by how fast I was running up the stairs.

I take a deep breath but I freeze when I open my eyes. The hallway is entirely dark and solitary. There wasn't a soul around that I see or hear. My eyes narrow with suspicion. I tap my thumb against all my forefingers; counting in my head as I go on. I take a cautious step forward. "Hello?" I call out into the empty hallway. No answer. My voice echoes from one end of the corridor to the other. This is weird. How long was I asleep?

The hours couldn't have gone that fast. Did the faculty call lights out early? The closer I got to the cafeteria, the colder I got. The air was stale. The silence was dead. I don't understand it. This doesn't feel like a dream at all. I am sure that I'm awake. "Hello!" I walk into the cafeteria and stop. The cafeteria ceiling has been haphazardly ripped off. Chunks of concrete and plasters litter the floor. What the hell happened here? The sky isn't even visible. It is covered in a weird shimmering film.

"Get ready."

A voice behind me startles me, making me jump. A girl around my age and in the same uniform as me stands at the opposite side of the cafe. "What?" A dark cloud passes casting an overcast over the ragged hole in the ceiling. I cautiously take a step forward. "Get ready," she repeats. A jolt of energy flashes across the sky. What the hell? I wouldn't identify it as lightning. This was something else. There was a moment of earth-stilling silence. Even the air became stale. "Do you know what happened to the school?"

"It was destroyed."

Very slowly, I walk deeper into the crumbling room. The tables have been left alone with a thick layer of dust over them. She stays rooted on her spot. She doesn't move an inch other than to follow me with her gaze across the room. "What happened to everyone else? Where's my friend?" There's a distance rumbling. It sounds like a smashing of rock against rock. I feel a soft vibration make its way up my legs.

"It is irrelevant," she answers me. "You need to get ready for what's coming."

"I don't know what that means!" I scream in frustration. "I keep trying to stay sane through this insane dream but this is pushing my limits! Am I going insane? Is that what I need to get ready for? I'm losing my mind and I have to begin thinking of what to save?"

The ground quakes violently causing the wall behind her to splinter from one side to the other. My eyes widen at the sight and in a blink, the other girl appears in front of me. Her face is obscured by a gray wrap-around scarf. All I am able to see are her eyes. Reddened and black. I take a step back but she grabs me tightly, refusing to let me go.

"You want answers, huh? Are you so desperate to search for the truth?" her voice is raspy yet soft. "Then search for it! I won't tell you what to do but I will give you some advice." She drags me closer, only a sliver of space between us exists. There's an odd scent that permeates from her, but for some reason I know what it is. No matter how hard I try to think of where I've come into contact with it before. "Enjoy your time here. Learn. Take your experiences and write them down. Any thing can change in a single fraction of a second. One choice can change everything."

"I-"

"You'll be seeing soon."

Before I could say anything in response, she throws me down to the ground. She watches me fall as I collide with something cold and it shatters. I free fall into a dark void. A single white rectangle hovers ahead of me. That single light source is the only thing that I see as I dissolve into nothingness.

*****

I wake up with the scream stuck in my throat. I choke on the fear and the desperation. The feeling of an incoming panic attack has me quickly moving out of my bed. The book drops from my lap and slides across the floor. The action sends a mixture of deja vu and nausea.

It fell exactly the same way that it did in my dream.

The events of the dream came back to me in flash and I couldn't hold it anymore. I threw up on the floor. My panic attack crashed into me. And I could no longer hold in the hysteria.