Heading into the local convenience store I smiled and nodded at Andy, the cashier, before heading over to the fridges. Swinging one door open, I hesitated as I tried to choose the drink I wanted on this hot day.
The lights flickered on and off suddenly and relentlessly, the fridges seeming to whir and stop as the shop plunged into darkness before becoming blindingly bright as if a kid had found the main light switch.
"Andy, you had trouble paying the bills?" I laughed, but he didn't seem to hear me. "Andy?" I quizzed, my brows furrowing as I shut the fridge door hesitantly and made my way over to him. Sure enough, as I stood in front of him he was definitely frozen. I waved my hand in front of his face, nothing. Not a twitch, a blink or a breath.
The lights continued to flicker for another moment before the place was plunged into darkness. Beside me, a portal opened and a strong arm reached out, grabbing a hold of my shirt and yanking me through the black hole.
My mind and body seemed to go limp, shell shocked as I was dragged through this tunnel of teleportation and ended up in a room full of students - or so I thought.
"Excellent work, Diego! Well done!" The teacher clapped excitedly from behind me as I landed carefully on a chair on a stage in front of a class of about thirty. I stared blankly at the large number of people, my eyes not even blinking as I looked at each student one by one. That one had pointed ears, like an elf, I thought. That one had long blonde hair like Rapunzel. That one was holding a wand, like a wizard. It suddenly dawned on me, two rows in, that these were no ordinary students... these students had powers. Some seemed to be witches, wizards, elves and orcs, creatures I had only read about in fairytales. Where the hell was I? I only popped into Andy's for a drink. I was probably going to get water.
"You're in Arland University." One girl in the middle of the front row said as she looked straight at me. She had black hair that was pulled into a bun and wore glasses. Her eyes moved to her feet as she put her hands between her thighs nervously. My jaw dropped as she answered the question I voiced in my head. How did she know what I was thinking? Was she a mind reader? My eyes stayed on her as I thought this and, very soon after I'd asked myself that question, she looked back up at me and nodded. Despite the noise of the room, in that moment it felt like it was only us. Holy hell. She can read minds. Now I need to be careful of what I think about. What if I suddenly started thinking about my bank details or my passwords and she-
I cut myself off, I could see her laughing to herself. Nice one Trish.
"Miss, Trish is one of us." A boy nearing the back of the class raised his hand and the room fell silent in an instant. I looked behind me at the teacher and let out a yelp as I noticed the teacher was a glasses wearing dragon, her clawed hand holding a pointer stick towards me. This must be a nightmare. A dream. Something. This surely wasn't real.
CRASH!
One of the windows at the side of the classroom shattered. The back rows shot to their feet and rushed forwards, closer to me and the teacher. Mind-reader girl looked over at me.
What power do you have? She asked me through my mind. My eyes widened in terror as I realised she could talk to me in my head.
I have no idea what you're talking about! What is going on? I began to panic as the students rushed onto the stage beside me to keep away from the windows, which one by one broke in quick succession.
"Right kids, it appears someone wants to ruin our time of learning. Let's teach them a lesson!" The dragon teacher roared out as she took a step in front of the students and readied herself in a fighting stance. The double doors at the back of the room buckled under immense stress from something very heavy and no sooner than we'd heard a loud bang, the doors shattered into pieces and fell to the floor, a barrage of knights on horses and humans with torches and pitchforks ran into the room.
"Kill the magical people!" The head knight on horseback ordered, pointing his armoured finger towards us all. Dragon teacher let out another roar before she spat flames at the nearest humans, making them shriek in either pain or terror. I could barely breathe as I watched the war unfold in front of my eyes.
The fight began, magic was thrown at the humans and they fought back with force and weapons. Gunshots were heard, screams from people, it was like I was in some horrific movie as I watched blood splatter, bodies collapse, people cry out.
I was yanked away from the war by mind reading girl and the guy that dragged me through the portal. Great. I don't even know anyone's name.
"I'm Eloise, he's Diego." She said as we ran to the back of the class, hiding behind some large bookshelves.
"So, what's your power?" Diego asked quickly, "We might need to use it in a moment." I let out a flat laugh.
"I can eat a whole pack of biscuits in one sitting." I tried to be humorous but it fell flat. They both stared expectantly at me. "I have no super powers to drag people through portals or mind-read if that's what you're asking."
"You do. Jackson said so." Diego answered. I shook my head with a smile on my face.
"Then his power needs a tune up. I'm nothing of the sort." In our moment of conversation, we hadn't realised a few humans sneaking up on us. We were yanked by our arms, stepping over various bodies, into the centre of the room.
"Annihilate them!" The head knight ordered.
Prepare for a tough landing! Eloise said in my mind as Diego stomped on the floor and created a portal that the three of us fell through. We landed with a crash on the grass outside the university and ran for our lives. We heard the shouts, the anger of the humans as they chased us. The knight caught up to us on his horse and swung his sword down towards Eloise. It was like I was watching in slow motion as the heavy sword moved closer to Eloise. I screamed out and threw my hands out as if I was going to stop the sword. Power built from within me and before my very eyes I watched this power fly out of my hands and towards the knight and his sword which caused him to fly six feet away from us. The three of us exchanged shocked glances.
Well then, maybe Jackson was right!
