The Runes Curse

Chapter 5

Quinn looked around the room. It wasn’t like anything she had seen before. Purple walls with posters of different bands were everywhere. A bunk-bed was pushed against the wall with books, books, and books everywhere. A bookshelf was pushed against the wall opposite to the bed, but it looked like it hadn’t held the books in years. A large window with a window seat had sunlight streaming through. There was a girl reading against the bed. She had strawberry blonde hair tied into a pony, but pieces of hair still managed to fall out and cast a shadow-like-veil look across her face. The girl looked up, directly at Quinn. It made Quinn flinch, scared that somehow the girl knew who and where she was. But she looked back down again at the book she was reading. Quinn took another look and saw that the girl looked exactly like her. It wasn’t some similarities, but everything. The heart-shape face, the freckles across her nose and forehead, the little mole under her eye, and the birthmark on her right wrist. The same one as Quinn’s. It wasn’t just a mark, but almost freckled and it was on top of three intersecting veins. Just like Quinn’s.

 

. . .

 

Quinn shot out of bed. Her body was drenched in sweat from head to toe. Her window was open with the morning breeze drifting through the black curtains. Quinn looked at her window and then back to her bedroom door. The girl in the dream was like her.

No, it was her.

But Quinn had never seen that room nor did she ever dream of it before. Quinn only lived at the Institute. Nowhere else, and it seemed weird that she would be dreaming of a suburban house. The whole dream was wrapped around her brain. She tried to figure it out, but decided that it was only a stupid dream or fantasy.

Quinn pulled her covers off of her; the tangle of sheets were around her leg from when she slept and tossed and turned. Quinn’s legs felt cold from the loss of her sheets, but she made do. She stood up and stretched; pulling her arms over her head and leaving them there, taking a deep breath and releasing. She never understood the bliss from stretching her arms in the morning, but didn’t question it. It was like a wonderful sensation where you could just stay there forever.

Quinn pulled her shorts down. It was middle-summer, but living in London, it was still freezing in the mornings. Barely ever was there a heat wave. It wasn’t natural.

She opened her door gently, padding out of her bedroom. Quinn itched toward her brother’s bedroom, careful not to be too loud. She wanted to surprise him, not wake the whole Institute. But everyone was most likely awake; Quinn always over-slept if someone didn’t wake her up. It was how she lived.

Quinn slowly opened the door, and then bam. But nothing. Sammy wasn’t in there. Only the newly made Star Wars covered bed. The whole room was Star Wars; Yoda posters, dark blue, painted walls, and different framed-pictures of family visits to Idris. Quinn swallowed slowly, taking note of the opened window showing a view of the London Eye, and the dark blue curtains swaying whenever the breeze picked up.

Quinn walked out of her little brother’s bedroom, the old floor creaking with each step she took.

It took a while, what with the different stairways, twists and turns, and everything else, she had made it to the first floor. That was where the dining room was held. Quinn walked through the hallway, losing herself to her thoughts. The dream, for starters, was what perplexed her. She had never had it before, and it seemed weird. It was so real for her. Like she was living in it, not just the hazy images of normal dreams. It was like she was the girl in the dream.

Quinn was so lost in thought that she hadn’t seen Cecily running toward her, dressed up in work-out clothes; a bright, pink tank top with a gray sports bra showing where sleeves would be, rainbow bike-shorts, and green tennis shoes. Her mess of curly hair was braided into a messy fishtail. Cecily might try to make it sleek and posh, but it never worked out. Pieces of hair framed her face, giving her unusually pale skin a different contrast to her dark hair.