Missing Pages

Chapter 26: Danger Ahead!

I peered down at the flashing lights below me. I was a criminal with my profile plastered on every wall. I didn't know what I had done to earn such a high profile, or how I escaped to this construction beam.

Besides the artificial light below, not a celestial body occupied the sky. A helicopter doing rounds above the city still hadn't noticed me.

I thought that I had discouraged the search party, but alas, a bright white strobe light revealed my presence.

"Stand down or we'll be obliged to shoot!" commanded a voice on an intercom.

I shook my head as I rocked myself back and forth on the cold iron. I started to hear thousands and thousands of voices, millions of octaves louder than my cafeteria, and shadow creatures roamed the darkness beside me. I was going crazy. I was going insane!

I screeched as a migraine gripped onto the contours of my brain, taking what little sanity remained.

"You see, that's what true magic can do to you," purred one of the shadow creatures, "you have no match for me with your little fairy dust abilities."

I tried to focus on the thought of my grandmother, as I tried to conjure up a protection spell I had memorized from her journal.

A girl stepped into the light with a flowing black gown, revealing the owner of the voice. She made the wind spin faster and faster with a flick of her wrist, and pointed it at me. A wave of nausea took over as I cried for mercy.

"Now you'll be exposed for all your wrongdoing, and the whole world gets to see who Jasmine Stone really is!"

She walked closer and closer, with her face being shielded by her dark brown hair. I couldn't do anything to save myself... I was absolutely useless.

All it took was one quick push to send me spiraling down, down, down. my heart skipped a beat as I neared the asphalt. I landed with a splat as my guts poured out of my bruised skin, and my body began to numb from the immense amount of pain being emoted from the cracked joints.

I was good as dead.

"I died last night in my dreams..."

I struggled to gasp for air as the beginning of Adam Lambert's Ghost Town blared through my wireless speakers in my room. The door rattled and shook as my mom screamed at me to turn the music off. I couldn't recall ever buying that song as a ringtone, so I assumed it was my brother's doing.

I scrambled to unlock my door, and hugged a very surprised mother.

"Oh, how I've missed you, I thought I had left the face of this Earth!"

"The only thing you missed was dinner. I made your favorite; lasagna with green pepper. Why was your door locked?"

"That's the thing, I can't remember what happened after Kyle came over. It's like I blacked out. And I think David might've tinkered with my alarm."

"You invited a boy over?! Is that why you look so disheveled?" she asked.

"Nooo mom! Nothing happened, he just gave me my homework," I assured her.

"Well, you better not be trying to skip school young lady, I got a call from the school yesterday because you were absent from 3 classes." My mom dived into a whole lecture on responsibility, when I stopped her before she could get too into it.

"Look, I'll only be like 45 minutes tardy if you let me get ready. This is the first time I've overslept for school."

"And it better be the last. Go and fix up your face or something. You're sweating like you've caught Yellow Fever!"

I rolled my eyes. "Whatever."

When I stepped in front of the mirror, I noticed what my mom was talking about. Bags sagged under my eyes and deep scratches framed my carefully chiseled face. I washed them out with alcohol before covering up with some make up.

I threw on a random superhero sweatshirt with some beige joggers before running all the way to school, books in hand.

I checked in the office and they believed my sick story mostly due to the fact of my good reputation.

I sat in class as our professor explained the importance of responsibility.  It looked like I got to hear mom's lecture anyways.

At lunch, everyone gave me confused glances, or in Carmen's case, snickered behind my back. Even my "friends" at the geek table acted strange, not speaking a word to one another.

I ended lunch early as soon as a sick feeling engulfed my stomach. The nurse waved it off as a stomach bug, prescribing me a warm bowl of soup and the rest of the day off.

When I entered the living room, my brother smirked at me as his buddies shined me a mischievous smile.

"What loony train did you guys hop off of?" I muttered.

"Oh you'll find out soon enough," smirked the skinny one.

"Yeah! Oh, mom and dad wanted to discuss something important with you. They just left an important meeting with the guidance counselor and our principle," my brother spoke.

"What happened?" I panicked. Did they find out about my latest thieving tendencies?

"We don't know, but from the looks of it, this is worse than anything I've ever done," he laughed.

I gulped. This was gonna be bad all around.