Welcome to the City of Lancaster

Chapter Five

Shock, the falling through the floor of my wardrobe, when I closed my eyes there was only darkness surrounding me but when I opened them once again, the sunlight shone brightly causing me to squint and then I hit the water with a splash.
The cold water brought me out of my shock as I tried to swim to the surface but I did not know how to swim and I couldn't keep my eyes opened, I didn't know where I was or which way was up or down. I now was panicking and running out of time.
I barely heard a splash and felt arms around me, I fought against it but whoever or whatever it was was strong and pulled me up. I gasped for air and coughed out water.
"Easy there," a male's voice says to me. "Don't fight against me, let me help."
Without thinking, I did as he asked and allowed him to guide me to the shore, as soon as I felt land I collapsed sucking in the air greedily.
When I eventually calmed down I looked up at my savior and said, 'thank you', my voice sounded weak and still a little breathless, the boy turned and nodded.
"You're welcome," he sits back looking up at the sky. "Where on earth did you come from?"
"Excuse me?"
The blond boy looks at me confused. "You were falling, one-second there was nothing and you just magically appeared."
How did I forget? I looked around at my surroundings, behind me was a river and before me was looked to be a forest with one a dirt path leading somewhere and began to hyperventilate. "Am I dead?"
The boy frowns. "What? No, I just saved you, remember?"
"Oh god," I got my feet looking around, the boy jumped to his feet as well unsure of what to do or even say. "Shawn killed me, didn't he? Oh god, where am I? Is this heaven?"
"Whoa, slow down," the boy raised his hands up. "No, you're not dead and I am not too sure who this Shawn guy is but no, you're not dead."

Sam gently put his hands on my shoulders. "It's okay, take deep breathes and relax. I am not going to hurt you," he begins to inhale deeply and exhale, I follow his lead and soon, my heart rate slowed down and I calmed down.
"Thank you," I tell him.
"How about we start from the beginning?" he smiles holding his hand out. "My name is Samuel but you can call me Sam."
"Nice to meet you, Sam," I took his hand and shook it. "My name is Abigail but I prefer Abby."
"Abby, that is a nice name," his grin widens as he lets go of my hand, I blushed at his compliment. "Now, tell me what you were doing before you fell."
"Well, Sam," I say looking up at the sky, "I don't think you're going to believe me."

Sam shrugs. "Try me, Abby."
So I begin my explanation, it was a little difficult in telling Sam a lot of it as it isn't something a person would normally go tell another person especially to one you're just meeting for the first time so all I said was that I went into my wardrobe and for some reason, I felt myself fall through the floor and somehow ended up falling into a river. He raised his eyebrow.
"You were in a wardrobe and fell through a hole?" he questions.
I nodded.
"Suddenly falling from the sky?"
Another nod.
"And you fell into the river?"
I nodded once more.
Sam opens his mouth to say something but quickly closes it looking a little unsure. "I honestly don't even know what to say about that," he says with a nervous laugh.
"I told you that you wouldn't believe me," I replied sheepishly.
"Hm," he purses his lips. "Well, even though I can't believe it but I will give you the benefit of the doubt since you really did appear out of nowhere," he gets to his feet. "C'mon, I'll take you back to the academy and see what can be done about this."
"Wait," I call him as I got to my feet as well. "You're still going to help me? Even though I sounded like a complete and total lunatic?"
Sam chuckles at my choice of words. "That is quite unusual but as I said, I am going to give you the benefit of the doubt plus you sounded genuine. So why not?" he starts walking. "Plus, I am curious."
For some reason, I smiled and ran to catch up to him.
"So you said something about an academy? What is it?"
"The Rangers Academy," Sam beams proudly. "We learn different things and at times, we're able to take one new mission, some are quite hard while some are quite easy but I enjoy it."
"Rangers Academy? Wait, missions?" I stopped confused. "What are you talking about?"
Sam stopped as well as raising an eyebrow. "The Rangers Academy," he repeats slowly eyeing me weirdly. "It's one of the best academies in all of Maleria."
Now it was my turn to look at him as some sort of lunatic.
"You seriously do not know about the Rangers Academy?" Sam questions, his eyes were now full of worry. "Did you hit your head or swallow too much water or something?"
"I'm starting to think you were the one who was damaged," I step back. "I live in Rosewood, this is Rosewood isn't it? It's a small shitty town."
Sam shakes his head. "Abby, I think we'll need to see Amara before seeing the headmaster."
"This isn't right," I say taking another step back. "I must either be dreaming or I've been killed."
"Okay, before you start hyperventilating again, how about we just agree to disagree and just get all of this sorted."
"Okay," I replied reluctantly and we continued walking through the forest, I took this opportunity to look around, there wasn't much to see as it was just trees and bushes, I did notice that some trees contained berries; blueberries, red berries, yellow berries, some were even mixed colors and they all looked delicious. My stomach growled a little at the thought of food, I haven't eaten anything since that slice of pizza Chris brought me. My thoughts went back to my friends, to Kaiden and what was happening right now. I remember hearing sirens when Shawn came crashing through my bedroom but that was all, I thought Shawn got to me and that I was dead but after the water incident and Sam saving me, I was starting to believe that I was still alive. Nothing was making sense, how could someone still be alive and how could someone magically fall through their floor to another world.
My head was hurting thinking about everything so as a distraction I asked Sam, 'so how far away is this academy?', he pointed upwards and replied, 'not too far away'.
I follow his hand and saw a tall building, it looked like a mansion of some sort, an old kind of mansion.
"You said something about missions, what is it that you do on these missions?"
"Some are hard, some are easy. The easy missions aren't too far away from the academy and are usually for the newer kind of teams like myself. I've been on a team for about six months now. Its stuff like escorting important people, locating missing items, searching for lost pets or kids - stuff like that.
"It's to show what we are capable of, how good our teamwork is and shows when we're ready for a more advanced mission."
"Sounds cool," I thought about how amazing that would be instead of constantly sitting in a dull classroom.
"Not really," Sam says, "I would love to go on a harder mission, my team and I have been doing this for six months, the novelty wears off after a while."
"Least it's better than being stuff indoors all day," I tell him. "Especially when a classroom's air con is broken and you are left sitting there in the heat all sweaty and it starts smelling of b.o. which is gross," I gagged.