Hidden Mysteries: Soulforce

Chapter 31

                                                     Chapter 31:

                                                       Alexa

“We are each of us angels with only one wing, and we can only fly by embracing one another.” – Luciano De Crescenzo

I trudged upstairs to my first class, English, my bag already heavy in my arms and weighing down my shoulders. I sat in my familiar seat in the third row. Smack in the middle, not too far, not to near to the board, thanks to our assigned seats. I dropped my bag on the floor as the tardy bell rang.

“Alright class! Time to get to work!” My English teacher, Mrs. Casa, clapped her hands enthusiastically. She wore long bell pants with a soft red shirt studded with cheap, green plastic beads making out a peace sign. Her long, extremely wavy black hair was tied with a ribbon, not on the back of her head, but on top, in such a way that made her look like Medusa trying to fit in to modern day society. She was a hippie as well – and the rectangular glasses sitting on the tip of her nose didn’t really help people think otherwise. Her room was jam packed with books and aromatic candles. It was always too cold in there thanks to the constant air conditioning, so the moment she closed the door, I huddled and shrugged my jacket on me.

The teacher pulled down the blank screen, indicating that we would watch a movie from the overhead projector. I smiled and rested my head on my arms. Great, I needed a break. Last night had been hectic. Too many shadow creatures had arrived all at once and Blaise had to send reinforcements such as Chris and Ignadia to deal with them. I had let Serina out of my body as well to fight. The total amount of time all the battles – even the tiniest ones – consumed was close to two hours. Sure that doesn’t sound like much but two hours of constantly using pure energy left you – or me at least – drained. Not enough sleep didn’t help replenish my energy loss either.

I waited as she walked to her desk and flicked off the light switch. A white screen with black letters came into view.

“Essays!” Mrs. Casa whooped, shaking her fists in the air in an attempt to liven up the room. Even me, a very energetic person, would find this dull and at that moment, I felt like my energy was being sapped away from me yet again.

As Mrs. Casa started reading, I looked at the screen with a blank expression on my face, day dreaming of how it would be like to actually be in the other dimension, away from all of this. Wouldn’t it be amazing! Lush forests, medieval people and vendors calling out their products, cool rivers and elves and dragons and knights! Oh, the possibilities were –

“Alexa? What do you think when you hear the word shackles?” The English teacher shattered my dreams.

“Huh? Wha – ”

“Shackles.” She repeats, holding up her hands, bearing her wrists.

“Shackles?” I repeat the word, confused. “Uh…like the thing that binds you? Like overly large handcuffs?” I ask, looking at the screen, trying to find the word in the essay. I spot it near the middle at the end of a line. My eyes were a bit blurry, so I blinked again and tried focusing on it. Did I need glasses? I clutch my head and closed my eyes. 

Suddenly, I become very dizzy as the word kept echoing in my head. “Shackles, shackles, shackles,” getting fainter each round until a scene that looks drawn from a movie is playing in front of my now open, eyes:

A woman with long light brown hair is forced into a room, her hands in shackles. A man is roughly pushing her until she is brought down to her knees in front of a throne. A man clad all in black is lounging in it, his black hair falling into his cherry red eyes as he studies her.        His right cheek rests against his knuckles.