Mirrored

Chapter One -- Nico

              "Okay. You have your lunch? And your medicine? What about that new math textbook? And what about-"

     "Mom, it's fine. I have everything." I lean my forehead against the car window, staring at the looming stone building in front of us. School. I can't believe I'm going back, not after being in a coma for four months. It makes everything feel so normal, like nothing ever happened. 

       But of course it did happen. It's terrifying to think that I might have just passed out and never woken up. What makes it even worse is the fact that I don't actually remember falling into the coma. I just remember waking up, surrounded by friends and family.

      My best friend, Spencer, says I was most likely possessed, but that's just Spencer. In my opinion, she's re-watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer too many times. But her explanation might as well be correct, because the doctors can't figure it out. When I woke up, they ran about five thousand tests, but came up with nothing. Once they finally let me out of the hospital, Mom kept me at home for another three months to make sure I was all right. She's still very protective of me, and is currently rattling off a list of rules for me.

"Don't stress yourself too much, tell your teachers that they need to go easy on you, and....Oh! Don't stay too long at the library after school, okay?"

     " I won't, I will, and I won't. Promise," I say with a sigh. "Honestly, Mom, it's fine. I'm fine."

She studies me with concerned eyes. They're pale gray, just like mine. We also share olive skin and thick black hair. "I'm sorry, honey," Mom sounds like she's having a hard time letting me go. "It's just- I worry about you, Nico. Especially after.......Well, you know."

       "I know." I attempt a smile. " I love you, Mom." 

"Love you too," Mom responds, kissing my forehead.

        I grab my backpack and and slide out of the car. Alpha Heights High School is the biggest high school in Echo Hill, Michigan, which isn't saying much, considering there are only two of them. Alpha Heights is the one pretty much everyone goes to, though. The other school, Wintergreen Academy, is a very old and mysterious place. They only let in 'gifted persons,' which in my opinion means rich kids.

     But I've never been to Wintergreen, so how would I know? I've seen it, of course. Everyone has. It sits on the top of Echo Hill, dark and foreboding like a haunted mansion from a cheesy horror movie. I've always thought it would be fun to go in there and explore, though. All the winding corridors and secret passageways, a whole world that's entirely different from the one I know.....

      I close my eyes and take a deep breath. There goes my imagination, running all over the place. I'm used to it. Sometimes I think I see things, like.......

       Standing by the steps leading to the entryway is is a boy I've never seen before. His skin is so pale it almost seems transparent, crisscrossed by twisting blue veins. Feather-soft white-blond hair spikes wildly across his delicately shaped head, looking almost like shards of crystal. But it's his eyes that really get me. They seem fractured, splintered like broken glass, each piece colored a different shade of blue or green. These eyes are latched on to mine, and I feel frozen in place. The boy tilts his head, seeming eerily like a doll made of porcelain. "I see you," he whispers, and I hear it as loudly and clearly as I would if he had spoken in my ear. 

       A chill creeps up my spine, triggered by just three little words. I shudder, somewhat against my will, and suddenly the sensation fades. The boy is gone. I spin around, searching the campus in case he's somewhere else, but it's no use. Stop it, I tell myself. It wasn't real. Aftereffects from the coma, maybe?