Crystallized Dreams: A Race Against Time

Chapter 7: Phone Call

The next morning Josh was the first to wake up, and shortly after Katie awoke as well. Michael followed and soon enough the three got dressed and headed downstairs. They saw Morgana sitting on the couch with the morning rays of sun making her hair shine. She looked so majestic that it reminded the three teens of her era of being queen of the Earth fairies.

"Good morning you three," she beamed. "Klaus is already out for work at the smoothie bar so it is just us for now."

"Alright then," Katie said as she stepped over one of the sofas. "Good morn-hey!"

She pointed out the window with a smile on her face. Morgana, Michael, and Josh whipped their heads in the direction she was pointing. They saw the man that had offered to help Michael out the day before, and he just happened to be walking right by Morgana's home.

"Oh, it's him," Michael said, remembering the events of the previous night. "He was the guy who helped me out yesterday. We should totally go thank him again."

The twins nodded in agreement before having Katie swing the front door open. With a smile on her face Morgana watched them. They really are something.

The young boys and girl sprinted across the lawn, trying to catch up with the man. Apparently the man had managed to hear their hasty footsteps and so he turned in their direction. Upon seeing the twins and Michael he stopped right in his tracks and smiled. "What a coincidence."

It was then the teens finally caught up to him.

"I know, right," Katie panted with her hands on her knees. "We saw you and. . . decided to go thank you again."

"Yeah. What you offered to do back there for me was really nice," Michael grinned. "Thanks a bunch."

"Oh, don't mention it," the man beamed at him. "It was my pleasure-even if I didn't manage to do much."

"Don't worry about it," Katie shook her head. "We're all okay and that's all that matters."

The man nodded and they all gave introductions. It turned out that the man's name was Alex.

Alex shook hands with each of them and, after saying his farewells, walked away. Once he was out of earshot and out of sight from the three kids he took a phone out of his pocket and held it up to his mouth. "Phase 1 complete."

Morgana watched as Katie, Michael, and Josh made their way back to the front door. Something about that man gave her a bad vibe, and she thought he may have something to do with whoever was eavesdropping on her conversation the previous night. But she pushed the idea off as "too far-fetched" and decided that the man probably came by coincidence.

"See, there is some good still left in the world," Katie said as she stepped back inside the house. Josh and Michael followed close behind her.

Then Morgana had them take a seat and continue their discussion from last night. Afterwards they went on with their day as normal people would have. They ate breakfast, lunch, and Morgana even took them out to the Frutti Music Bar. Of course Klaus was there and he offered them all smoothies on the house. Katie, Michael, and Josh finally got to have a taste of everyday human life for the first time in five years.

But that changed while the four were lazing about back in Morgana's house. Morgana was upstairs and the other three were sitting about downstairs doing. . . well. . . nothing. But suddenly Katie's cell phone began to ring and, to her surprise and delight, it was Jemica.

"Guys, get over here!" Katie said excitedly to Josh and Michael. "Jemica is calling!"

"She's okay?" Josh asked.

"Answer it, answer it!" Michael scrambled to his feet and plopped himself down on the sofa, sitting to Katie's right.

Once Josh was seated on her left Katie answered the call and an image of Jemica popped up.

"You're okay!" The three exclaimed in relief.

"Yes, barely," Jemica said with a smile. "Guess who else is okay?"

The image on the screen shifted to show Katie's roommates, all of them in their fairy forms and waving.

"Hi everyone," Katie waved back, grinning from ear to ear. "You have no idea how relieved I am that you're all alright."

"Right back at you," Nicole replied with a half-smile.

Then the image shifted once more to show the Winx, who were in their Bloomix forms. Something in the background caught Katie off guard, though. Why are there so many people. . . ?

"Where are you anyway?" she asked out of her curiosity as the image turned back to her aunt. "I thought everyone was under attack a while ago."

"We're right on the edge of the Magic Dimension," Jemica stated. "This planet doesn't even have an actual name. We just call it 'The Edge.' It's completely uninhabited and has lots of greenery-none of which produces any food, sadly. So we are living off of magically-conjured food. There are a couple of springs nearby and someone found a river far off as well, so water isn't a problem. We were lucky that this planet was large enough to relocate everyone on Magix to."

"The Edge, huh," Michael tapped his chin in thought. "What was happening back on Magix, anyway?"

"We were being attacked by seemingly endless amounts of crystal monsters. The whole planet is covered with them and it won't be long until other planets get attacked as well."

"You can thank Elvira for that," Josh looked down and sighed. "By destroying the gate to Crystallia I bet she ended up freeing all the monsters that roamed it. And now. . . she's gone."

"Define 'gone,'" Jemica said slowly, sensing that something was wrong.

"She died," Katie stated uneasily. "Her stupid mistake actually killed her."

Jemica didn't know whether to be glad or grief-stricken. All this time she had hoped that her sister could go back to being at least somewhat good, but now that chance was gone forever.

Katie decided to bring up something she'd been wanting to ask for a while. She took a deep breath before speaking. "And about our parents. . . why would you tell us that we could save them if there actually was no way to do so?"

Their aunt hesitated.

The call suddenly cut off.

"Bad reception?" Michael asked, shrugging.

"No," Josh said firmly. "She hung up."

"There's something Jemica's not telling us," Katie said slowly as she glared at her phone's screen, which read 'Call Ended.'