The Never Ending

Chapter 1 - The Past

"To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all." -- Oscar Wilde.

It all started exactly 1 year, 11 months and 30 days ago, the day I found my real identity, the day that my world turned upside down, the day that every girl dreams about, the day of my 16th birthday. Turning sixteen was a dream of mine, I thought I could finally open up and start talking to people freely. Tell people what was really going on with me and just forget about all the dreams that I had been having. But yet again that itself was merely a dream. I couldn't tell anyone, not because I was forced into secrecy, but because they wouldn't have believed me anyway. 

They would have judged me and called me a little naiive girl. I have learned to live with the secrets and in fact, I feel like my existence itself, has become nothing but a secret. Nobody knows what happened to that little girl almost two years ago, and truth be told, no one actually cares enough to find out. But, I remember every single detail as if it was only yesterday. That day...

That day was my sixteenth birthday and to celebrate, my older sister, Krissy, had thrown me a surprise party. This surprise party consisted of her, my mom and my dad. She decked me up like a princess and told me all what we were doing today was having a normal family dinner and a home-made, Krissy style cake. 

"Yea right. I will believe you when mom lets us buy a puppy." Was my response to her cheery, happy face which was giving away all the surprise. She just rolled her eyes at me and pushed me all the way downstairs to our basement.

"My baby sissy, I got you a new pair of flats but I kept them downstairs for you."

"And why exactly would you do that? I never keep any of my new shoes down in the basement. And, matter of fact, you don't either."

My sister has a bit of a temper issue and I could tell I was riling her up. She blew an exasperated sigh, "Okay, you know what-" she pushed me threw the door and "Suprise!" my mom, dad and sister yelled. I was frozen in spot just gawking at all the decorations in the small-ceiling rectangle-ish room. There were balloons, streamers and sparkly banners everywhere reading, "Happy Birthday, Zoey!" That night we danced and partied and just had fun with just the four of us.

Around one in the morning, my parents decided to retire and head upstairs to catch some sleep. My sister, who happens to be a clean-freak, started cleaning up. I stuck around and helped her out as I wanted to thank her for such a wonderful night. While we were cleaning, we heard some noise which we couldn't make out. I tried to listen closer, but my sister locked me in the little lounge room of our basement and ran upstairs. I heard so much noise and I tried to break the lock but I just couldn't. Then, after a few more minutes, the house went quiet and the lock, unlocked itself. I didn't have much time to think about it then, but if I would have been in my right mind, I probably would have found it weird.

I ran upstairs and our entire house was a mess, and there was nobody in site. My living room, kitchen, dining room were all in shreds. I ran upstairs and checked every room yet, I couldn't find anything or anyone. That's when I knew my dreams-more like nightmares, were all true. I had seen this dream over and over for nights before it happened yet I didn't do anything or tell anyone. I could've warned them, I should've told them. I should've told my parents everything, but I didn't...

There is no point reminscing over the past anymore, I have to keep moving on and heading forward. That day gave me a mission and that was to find out what had happened to my family and how I could get them back. 

Right now, I am sitting by my dorm room window staring directly at the clock which will strike twelve any minute now. After the horrible incident almost two years ago, I ran away from our--that house. I decided to "follow my dreams" as people say. Except, in my case, a little more literal. My dreams had shown me the events of that night but, on other days I had seen myself walk through a mirror into this world. And, that's what I did; I walked right through the long rectangle mirror in my bedroom and ended up in the middle of a rocky clearing. There, surronding the path were trees and weird plants which moved and squiggled. But, somehow I didn't find that weird at all. It all felt right.