"Raven Sanders's fifteenth birthday is coming up; we should all get her presents, even the new kids."
The sound rang out at Raven's school every time two people could get together to talk privately. It was true; Raven, the strait A (but not a nerd) student, who was everyone's role model, was having a birthday later that September.
Of course, no one had to be reminded. The date was marked on all the school calenders: September 25th, 2013.
Two weeks later, the day before Raven turned fifteen, something really strange happened.
Wait, back up (Backin' up, backin' up). Who is this birthday girl, you're asking?
Well, Raven isn't one of the richest people on Earth, but she doesn't care about all that. She is an anti-bully, she hated the week of history class in which they learned about slavery, and... well, she believes everyone is created equal.
What? It's in the Declaration of Independance.
So, as I was saying, something weird happened on her fifteenth birthday.
She had a celeberation with her family, had cake and ice cream, and went to the movies with her two best friends, Aubrey and Diana.
But when she went to sleep that night... everything changed.
As soon as her head hit the pillow, she fell into a deep sleep. And all at once, she saw a milion pictures in her mind... and she managed to look at all of them.
There was a hand, but instead of fingernails, it had claws. Claws that were growing by the minute, becoming sharper and longer.
She saw a cackling old woman, wearing a long, pure black dress, with long sleeves that seemed to be hiding something.
And then her she spoted something, bigger and brighter than the rest. It was an eye, pure, crystal blue. It seemed to be staring right at her, with a focused determination unlike anything she had ever seen.
And that picture brought her more terror than the old lady and the hand combined.
The whole dream melted into darkness, and she heard a muffled voice call to her.
"Raven."
The voice was strange, like the sound waves were trying to move through water.
It called her again, but she still couldn't see anything. "Raven... Open your eyes..."
She thought that idea was sort of stupid, because, somehow, she knew she was still dreaming. That voice wasn't familiar, much less someone that would be waking her up. But she opened her eyes, expecting to see her bedroom, her glorious bedroom, and for the nightmare to be over.
What she saw instead almost made her scream.
She was surrounded by white. She couldn't feel ground beneath her, just the soft cushion of air flowing through the cracks between her fingers.
But that's not what she was concentrating on.
It was him that she was shocked at the sight of.
He was stark white, even paler than Edward in Twilight.
His shirt and pants were unstained white. The pants were made of some sort of silky cloth, and the pant legs flowed out at the tips like ghost women's dresses did in pictures.
His hair was pure jet black. And his eyes... his eyes were glowing crystal blue. And by glowing, she meant glowing.
They were radiating a faint blue light, almost invisible.
Speaking of invisible... he was almost transparent. She could see the endless white behind him without looking around him.
"Raven..." His voice vibrated, like they were in a big chaple-like room. "Can you hear me?"
"Yes." She heard the same watery, echoing tone in her own voice. "Yes, I can hear you. Where am I? Who are you?"
"I know you have questions. Everyone does. But please, don't ask them yet. The connection is already failing. I'll have to shut it down soon."
As if on cue, static lines ran across Raven's vision.
The boy pressed his left hand to his temple. "Already?" ~sigh~ "I can't concentrate on keeping the connection up and tell you everything today, Raven. But remember this:-"
He pressed his head again, and his voice started fading.
"Remember this: you aren't who you think you are, Raven."
She could barely speak, which was a new feeling to her. All she could say was:
"How do you know my name?"
The whole white world went black, and she woke up in her room, sweating.
