Short Story Collection

✧ Lost ✧

"Jade, hello-o? Are you listening?" Skylar poked me with her pencil, jolting me out of my haze.

"Hmm?" I whispered, gazing around the classroom.

Everyone was still doing their tests. I had finished a few moments ago, and was busy staring at the sun-soaked playground outside. How I longed to get out of this classroom.

"Jade, what's the answer for question 42? Is it B or E?" Skylar put her pencil on the page, ready to colour in the correct bubble.

"No talking during tests!" Mr. Durakk hissed from his desk. "Skylar, if I catch you talking again, I'm going to move you."

Skylar rolled her eyes, nudging me with her elbow. Skylar, my best friend, sat next to me. We were currently doing a History test, and Mr. Durakk was the worst teacher in all of Winter Lock High.

Sighing, I took one of my emergency blank pieces of paper from my bag and began drawing a horse head. I was getting better at drawing. I had learnt to make it as real as possible, that the perfect head shape was a great start to success.  I lightly sketched out the shape and drew in the triangular ears.

A few minutes later, I was interrupted by a note, which was slipped onto my desk by who else than Skylar.

Answer the question. For 42, B or E?

I scribbled the correct answer on the note and passed it back to Skylar.

I saw her scowl out of the corner of my eye and scribble something else. Then she passed it back under the table.

⇠ What the heck?

There was an arrow pointing to my recent reply: Do your own work, jackass.

The bell went. Saved...

<~TIME SKIP BROUGHT TO YOU BY YOURS SINCERELY: LUNCHTIME~>

I raced around, ignoring Skylar's attempts to catch me.

"Get back here!" She shouted.

"SKYLAR AND COL-LIN SITTIN' IN A TREE..." I yelled, trying to suppress my giggles.

"JADE, DON'T YOU DARE..."

"K-I-S -"

I didn't get to finish my sentence.

No, not because of Skylar.

Because I collided into someone.

Time slowed down.

I went falling to the ground on top of them, my hands outstretched.

You know how you have those moments were you seem caught between the seconds, with enough time to think, "is this happening? Am I dreaming? Is this real?" right before time speeds up again and suddenly, you have no clue what just happened?

Well, that DIDN'T get to happen to me.

Because I was batter-rammed by something gigantic with horns!

I flew into a crowd of people, who were all knocked back.

I gasped, looking around for help

...when my heart froze.

I wasn't looking into the faces of 12 year-olds...

I was staring at dragons.

What was going on?

Then, the dragons opened their mouths.

Uh oh.

I covered my face with both arms, preparing for the fire and flames.

But instead, I heard them all chant...

"If you are gone,

We will perish

If you are lost,

Livian will fall;

If we don't deliver you

Hearts will break

If you don't find the light

Darkness will consume us."

BAM.

I groaned as immense pain surged through me. What was happening...?

"JADE!" Skylar yelled, and my eyes flew open.

"Jade, what happened to you? You look like you challenged three gigantic fire breathing dragons and lost ten times!"

I looked down to see what on earth she was on about, and saw why my body was aching so bad.

There was no square inch of me that wasn't bruised. Blood caked scrapes and scratched on my body.

Then... a flame lit in my eye.

All I heard was screaming.

Everyone had run, except Sky. She reached out a hand hesitantly, and I saw how scared she was.

"J-jade? Please tell me I'm still talking to you."

I burst into tears, my brain overloading with unanswerable questions.

"Skylar..." I pulled back my hands to reveal my eyes alight with fire.

"What am I?"