Kingdom Keepers: Once Upon a Dream

Chapter 20

A/N: Oh look, another chapter I cried writing. Godspeed, and I'm sorry. 

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Amanda was laying on her bed, reading before she went to sleep. Suddenly, she heard the bedroom door close, and she looked up to see Jess coming in from the bathroom. She stood almost completely still at the front of the room, her hands clasped tightly together in front of her. Amanda sat up, immediately nervous.

"What's up?" she asked.

Jess took a deep breath before answering her sister, trying to muster up the courage to say what she was going to next. It was going to be a nightmare, she was sure, but she'd been avoiding it for far too long. She had to face this head on.

"We need to talk," she said.

"Okay," Amanda replied, confused, not sure what could possibly be wrong. She closed her book and set it down next to her.

Jess, overcome with nervousness again, began to pace the room, and moments of silence passed.

"Jessie, you're starting to scare me," Amanda said.

Hearing this, Jess stopped. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and then, like ripping off a band-aid, she just let it out.

"You need to talk to Finn,"

Amanda rolled her eyes and let out a loud sigh, falling back into her old position on the bed.

"Not this again," she exclaimed angrily.

"Amanda, listen,"

"I can't believe you!" Amanda snapped.

"Mandy..."

"You're still gonna push this on me?!"

Jess tried desperately to explain herself, but Amanda cut her off with every sentence.

"It's not about..."

"Can't you just accept that I don't want to do this?"

"I've been having dreams!" Jess shouted, finally silencing Amanda and getting her attention once again. Amanda sat back up, and narrowed her eyes.

"What?" she hissed.

Jess sighed and sat down on her own bed. She put her hands down next to her to brace herself, and looked her sister straight in the eyes.

"Ever since Casey came to us, since we met all the others," she said, trying hard to keep her voice quiet and steady. "I've been having dreams again, but they're not like...my normal dreams."

Amanda crossed her arms and didn't say anything, just gave Jess a cold stare, waiting to hear the rest of what she had to say. Jess swallowed hard, and held back a cry that was trying to break through. Somehow the silence was worse than any words that could've been said. Not needing words to know what her sister was asking, Jess continued on.

"It was right after we were all at Finn's house the first time...all of us. And then...we were in the dream that night: together."

"You and me?" Amanda asked.

"No; everyone: You, me, Finn, Terry, Willa, Dell, Charlie..."

Amanda made a motion to say something else, but Jess cut her off. If she stopped talking now, she wasn't sure she'd get the courage to start up again.

"We were together Mandy, and not in the way we were now. We were friends...it looked like we had been for a long time."

Jess waited for Amanda to say something, but still silence hung in the air. She took a deep breath, and continued.