A Wish Upon a Nightmare

Chapter Three

Mirror

Fear takes hold of me as I look at Red. She wants us to get her out. What if it's a trap. What if she kills us.

Anxiety is taking the grip I have on the vines. I'm going to fall, I'm going to die, I'm going-

Red grasps the bars at the window and starts chanting in exterri, language of the nightmares. The spell she's casting should be able to change the magic that enchants the bars, so she can open them

"Damn why didn't I think about that spell a long time ago." Memory ponders.

Red smirks, bet she's feeling smug.

The spell are done, Red pulls the bars off easily. Memory is free.

"Alright come in before you freeze and fall." Memory says, a hint of warmth in her voice. We climb inside and fall onto the uneven wooden floor. Warmth of the fire burning in the corner hits us. We sink onto a pile of pillows. This is quite a nice place to be imprisoned. Though, I suppose she would have blown the top off along time ago if it hadn't been so nice.

"It's magic proof, and I don't have the supplies." Says Memory, as if she'd read my mind. I raise my eyebrows, surprised. Memory laughs mechanically, her eyes shining a dazzling gold as she turns towards the roaring fire.
"So, what is it you wish for?" she says, back turned.

I look at Red, willing her to answer, yet she pushes me forward to explain.
"Um... well." I stutter, rubbing my hands together anxiously, "we want to reach the crystal and destroy this part of the realm, there must be a wormhole or something we can use to escape back to the real world!"

Memory paces around, before sitting down on an armchair, swinging her legs across the arms of the chair. She hums for a second, lost in thought, running her hands through her hair.
"But you'd either be burned or buried once you died." she points out, "and if my calculations are correct you two must've joined the realm around 10 months ago, your parents wouldn't keep their dead daughters bodies around for that long."

We gasp, having not thought about that.
"Well, what if we were reborn?" pipes up Red, "there must be a way... there has to be a way!" her voice begins to wobble dangerously, as if close to tears. I move over to her, to comfort her, when Memory throw's an invisible wall between us. I punch the wall.

Memory smirks, "Of course there's a way, just wait and see."
With that, the tower crumbles into ashes and we undertake a fast fall, screaming our heads off.
Memory cries out something in exterri, and small wings grow out of our backs allowing us to descend slowly, like parachutes.

We look over the kingdom, taking in the magnificent fake landscape. Memory scoffs, "Grace needs some better ideas"
We laugh and spread our arms out to the side.

Memory points ahead of us, to the place where the clans meet, there's a blue light emitting from it, and other colours emitting from each clans land.
We open our eyes wide and laugh.
"So" yells Red over the sound of the wind, "how far?"

Memory falls back to us to reply, "about 6km give or take, but these wings are going to deteriorate soon, we're going to have to walk."

Following her orders we swoop down into the forest, touching down onto the blanket of leaves. The wings deteriorate, feathers flying off into the night.

"Right, we have to walk thay way" Memory points and starts walking. I shiver, its colder once you get closer to the centre. Red hangs back a little and calls out to Memory, "Hey, how long will this take? We have to do it before they trap the next mortal!" We look at each other and then back at Memory.

"If you keep on about it, you might as well try get there yourself." is the reply, and she continues to tread along the muddy ground.

* * *

A few hours in, and we're beginning to get extremely cold and tired - even Memory is starting to show signs of fatigue.
"Let's take a break." I suggest, sitting down on a tree root. Red copies, and Memory sits down reluctantly a minute later.

We sit in an awkward silence, kicking our legs, yawning and generally acting bored. Until Memory stands up hurridly and whispers,
"I hear someone, hide." Before jumping into a bush. We follow, alert of a situation going on.

All of us sit frozen in place as we hear the familiar voice of our leader, Grace. Aiden must've pointed her in the right direction.  Red looks ever at me, her eyes are filled with fear.

We listen, Grace is with someone.
"Alright Treena, there are two people of my clan out to destroy the crystal. The tower where we held a prisoner is gone, and there's no traces of where they went." Grace tells the person.

A cold voice replies, "I will alert your parents and send out more messengers to the other clans. Take the dream, and from there we can finish the crystal."

"It's time" Grace murmurs.
"It's time." The other confirms.

We then hear them walking in opposite directions, one walking home, one walking the way we were supposed to go. Then theres a flap of wings, and they are gone.

We relax, sighing, thinking its over. Unknowing of the repetitive ticking noise thats right outside the bush we are hiding in.

Memory pushes our heads down to the ground, whisper shouts "don't scream" and puts her head to the ground as well, just in time to hear a bomb explode, a flash of blue light, and ourselves to be thrown backwards, into the river behind us.

Red calls out, "This river has a waterfall at the end! We're doomed!"
Memory laughs bitterly,
"This river also happens to lead right to our destination."

"But its cold" I wail quietly.
"Oh quit complaining already, you can  always be revived in the nightmare realm." Memory snaps.
However, she casts a heating spell, and we drift along the river in what feels like a warm bath.
Red swims over to me, "Hang in there." She whispers.

We continue down the river in silence.

A/N

So its been like half a year. Sorry.

I am going to push myself to finish this book even though we are on chapter 3 only. I have some ideas :)

Byee

~Pancake 🥞