Amoretta

Chapter 1 - Dreams

"Amy! Amy! We've been waiting for you to come back!" The little boy wrapped his arms around her waist as he hugged her tight. "We've missed you so much!"

She smiled and ruffled the boys soft, snow white hair. "I missed you too," she whispered happily. She picked the boy up in her arms and tossed him lightly in the air, a giggle escaping his lips as she caught and held him tight.

He pulled back to see her face and grinned. He opened his mouth to say something but his voice became muffled and sounded far away. She looked at him in confusion.

"Am!" another voice called from somewhere else. "Amoretta!" She turned around to see her friend leaning over her.

"What?" she asked sleepily.

"Wake up! We're here!"

She sat up and stretched. Her back was sore from sleeping on the uncomfortable car seat. "Where are we?" Amoretta asked, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

"We're at Dolan's house," her friend Adrienne answered.

"Can I just stay here and sleep?" Amoretta complained, laying back down.

"You go back to sleep, we're dragging you in," Rein, Amoretta's other friend playfully threatened. "We stayed up the whole drive here, you're gonna get up and go in."

Amoretta groaned and slowly got out of the car. They grabbed their bags, each filled with a weeks full of clothes and headed to the door. Adrienne knocked and they waited for the door to open.

It was Christmas break for all of them and they were invited to stay the week with Dolan. The three hadn't seen him since he moved a little while ago and, since his parents were off on business until Christmas and he still felt a little odd alone in the new house, he invited the three to stay the week until his parents got back.

It was a little, white house with a small garden out in the front. Colourful Christmas lights lit up the front porch and glistened off the white snow on the ground. The darkness of the night made the lights seem brighter and prettier. The chill in the air made everything perfect and the three felt the excitement of the holidays.

The door swung open to reveal the small, warm home. A brunet stood smiling at them all. "Hey guys!" Dolan beamed. "I was starting to think you weren't gonna come!"

"We got lost on the way," Adrienne said sheepishly as they all entered the house.

"Yeah, because you're stupid GPS broke and brought us all the way to freaking Pennsylvania!" Rein accused.

"Lucky mine worked on my phone," Amoretta bragged then laughed.

Dolan changed the subject quickly to keep Rein and Adrienne from bickering with each other over the broken GPS and showed them around the house.

"Rein and Amoretta, sorry but you have to share a room. There's not enough guest rooms for you all to have your own room. Adrienne you're there across the hall." Dolan pointed out their rooms for them.

"Beds! Oh my gosh, yes!" Amoretta ran into the room and plopped down on the bed. "I'm so tired!" Hugging the pillow tightly and laying in the most comfortable position as she could, she waved a sleepy hand at the others. "You guys go ahead and do whatever. I'll catch up with you in the morning."

"You lazy bum," Rein teased.

"Yea well I'm tired. Go away," Amoretta sighed and closed her heavy eyes. There were a few mumbled complaints about how lazy she was then the door closed and there was silence. With another long sigh, Amoretta fell into a deep sleep almost instantly. It was much much more comfortable than the car seat.

Before her is a scene from a city but not an ordinary one. It seemed almost like it was medieval times. People rush around in cloaks, speaking different languages, buying food from stands on the sides of the cobble road. She sees a white flash and catches a glimpse of a ring.

People block her way but she sees a boy smile with the ring in his hands. More people get in her way and she doesn't see what happens next.

She can hear it, the ring. It whispers in her head unknowingly. It whispers horrible things to her in many voices and plants evil thoughts in her mind. She listens but doesn't obey. Sadly, she can't say the same for the boy.

Some of the crowd breaks away and she sees the old man walk away from the boy, new shining coins being slipped in his pocket. A chill travels up her spine to the base of her neck. It spreads through her body, down her arms and legs, to the tips of her fingers and toes. She shivers uncontrollably as a feeling of dread and sorrow crawls across her skin.

Amoretta jolted awake just as she heard a little boy's voice whisper - almost plead - "Where's Amy? We need her." It was the boy she dreamt about before, on her way to Dolan's. The boy with the snow-white hair.

She sat up and looked around. She felt cold and couldn't stop shivering. She knew something bad had happened. But what? She thought of the boy and the ring. But, that was just a dream. . . she thought.

She looked around the dark room uncomfortably. She couldn't shake the bad feeling she had and couldn't stop thinking of the ring and how it whispered to her. The little boy's voice echoed through her head ". . . We need her."

She inhaled deeply and let it all out in a shaky breath. She decided to get out of the room and spend some time with her friends. Hopefully she could shake the horrible feeling and forget about the dream.

>Pronounciation guide ('cause I like weird names): Amy (Amoretta's nickname): Ah-me. Amoretta: Aim-more-eh-ta. Dolan: Doe-lain. Rein: Rain. Adrienne: Adrian.

Well, what do you think? Sorry it was a long wait for it, something happened to my computer and it wouldn't let me on here for some reason...<