A cool October night, the hustle outside was the throngs
of dressed up children, a mix of princesses, goblins, vampires and more as
children ran up and down the street on their annual splurge of chocolate and
sweets. It was after all Halloween, tonight always had an air of magic, the one
night of the year the rules of what was normal simply didn’t apply you were
free to be whoever you wanted to be.
Stacy was tall, fair skinned, her face rounded but
innocent and sweet looking, hair came to just below her shoulders, a dark brown
at least that had been her intention during her attempt to dye it earlier that
night. Still it didn’t matter, tonight was the Halloween party she had been
looking forward to for a while. She had an amazing dress; a deep blue with
silver trims at the hem and breast, the fabric seemed to flow as if it were
alive.
The odd thing about the dress is she hadn’t paid for it,
nor had she ordered it. It arrived one morning, this had sent her step-father
into a rage about her hiding money and her mother into a curious battle of why
it looked so expensive and why it made her look so grown up. Stacy didn’t care
only that it was for her. The card simply said It’s time to find yourself
a strange choice of words she had remembered thinking as she now turned the
card over in her hand before placing it back on the dresser.
As she stood in the full length mirror adjusting it until
she found it to be just right, she pinned her hair back into a tight pony tail.
As she admired herself in the mirror for a few moments
longer she couldn’t help but smile, she looked good, really good tonight, she
took a self-pose picture and then headed out of her room, she quickly said
goodbye to her parents, who simply muttered in reply, she suspected she could
have walked past them totally naked to return the same dull response from them,
another one of those issues in a long line of issues in Stacys life, it wasn’t
that they didn’t care really more like she had become invisible to them in the
last year, Stacy sighed gently then slipped out of the front door closing it
behind her.
Thirty-five minutes and she’d be at the Marells Halloween
Party, the party of the decade so everyone had been saying. The street was
covered with pumpkins, plastic ghouls, ghosts and gravestones, strung along
fences and phone wires were along all manner of lights sent the street into a
chaotic eerie sight. This really is the best time of year she
thought to herself, as she made her way along the street, she would
occasionally smile at the children as they passed by on their own grand
adventure.
As Stacy made her way along the path she was still
turning over the fact she had been invited to the party, after all, she wasn’t
usually one to be invited to these things. She had come to both like and accept
her place as the odd kid in society it allowed her to be different the rules
didn’t apply to her. Tonight was the chance to prove that being different
wasn’t a bad thing, that she was just as deserving of attention as anyone else,
that social structure didn’t mean she didn’t have more to offer.
As she entered the party it was the usual run of pop icon
references and strange TV people look-a-like attempts, of course the
cheerleaders were some kind of bunnies, heaven forbid they should do anything
other than the standard “I’m-a-slut” make up. They watched her intently as she
passed, before huddling together in chat and a fit of childlike giggles.
She found the bar and grabbed herself an orange juice,
she wasn’t about to get all stupid with alcohol though she suspected even the
orange juice had some in it. As she looked through the patrons of the party she
felt oddly content, her dress had at least in most respects kept her as the odd
one out, and this was drawing the looks of the others around her.
The room was quite large and led to staircase that led up
to the upper floor, a group had gathered here and were mostly those who’d been
invited to make the numbers, the center of the room with the couches were
occupied now by the cheerleaders and their boyfriends. This gave them a clear
view to the front door allowing them to decide the fate of each who entered,
those who didn’t benefit their design were allowed to move off to the sides
with the rest of the invited guests, those who did were instantly dragged into
their high place in society.
The mood of the room changed as another party goer
arrived except this one caught everyone and their attention instantly, the
cheerleaders sat forward as he entered, tall, lean built, a dark coat that went
to the ground and seemed to flow in his movements, and dark hair, it was hard
to tell if he wore a costume. Perhaps he was dressed as some kind of vampire
lord she thought and sipped her orange.
His presence was very different to those already present,
as he made way through the room he simply swept walked past the cheerleaders,
throwing them a glance before moving on, that caught everybody’s attention.
“You look good” He spoke softly, she squeaked in surprise
having been caught by the fact he now sat beside her, she dropped her gaze as
she quickly realised everyone was now looking at her. Stacy drew a short breath
to steady herself before smiling and looking back to him, his eyes were an odd
shade of green, his words made her blush just a little but the looks on the
popular girls faces, those were what made her happy inside, the seriously cute
guy was paying attention to her and only her.
“M, me?!” She croaked and awkwardly took another sip of
orange mentally scolding herself for been so stupid.
“Yes, you look good,” he replied cracking open a beer
bottle with an effortless ease.
“I’m Stacy,” she said watching his reaction a moment.
“Kane,” A soft reply.
She caught herself studding him once more; his hair was
shoulder length and black as could be, though it was beginning to break with
strands of silver at least showing he was getting on in life. Stacy watched him
carefully, studying his face noting the years that seemed to hide behind his
eyes despite his outward relatively youthful appearance.
“Would you care to join me outside, I’m not really one
for all these people, and besides it’s such a nice night outdoors” His voice
still so soft it almost gave her chills.
As he stood and made his way toward the back of the house
she simply followed him, the odd thing was as they exited the house she didn’t
recognise the place they were. Instinctively Stacy knew she wasn’t where she
started, a short breath and she felt funny inside as she slid to the ground her
eyes closing the world going dark.
As she stirred she could smell the forest, the air
vibrant and so very fresh as she pushed herself to her knees, slowly Stacy
looked around the moon was oddly bright casting strands of light down through
the trees. She quickly realised this was not home, nor was it anywhere close to
home.
“You’re awake, that’s good the jump can be a little hard
on humans” Kane stated as he strode from the trees carrying a pile of wood. He
promptly threw the wood into a pile on the ground a fire flickered to life; she
hadn’t seen a match so that was odd she thought.
“Where … what … “She stopped as her mind raced “You
kidnapped me?”
“Kidnap is such a strong word” He replied softly “You can
go home if you want, just get up and walk right back into those trees, back to
that party and all this will be forgotten” his voice was oddly calming and she
could detect no danger to him he simply looked at her and waited for her answer.
“Home? As in? I’m not there now?” Her tone still oddly
confused and her mind still racing at the fact that something wasn’t adding up
here.
“No you’re not home, nor are you, on earth, well your
version of it at least,” Kane replied gently, his tone patient as she fought to
find a grip, worse still understand that last statement.
“Great, I find a cute guy and he’s an alien and abducts
me,” She shook her head now trying to wake up from what she could only consider
a dream.
“No,” Again his tone level and sincere “A dimension that
exists beside your own, that’s why I was able to use the door as a jump, for us
at least, I just thought you might like a little freedom, and some time to
think things through, your mind is so chaotic, but as I said if you want to
leave you are free to do so,”
Stacy had now backed into a fallen tree stump that
allowed her to rest against and hopefully gain some perspective on this whole
thing, she had in essence been kidnapped by some kind of inter dimensional
traveller. It was either that or she was having a very bad hallucination right
now and any second those grad kids would burst through the trees laughing and
calling her names, though the forest beyond looked almost sinister.
“So not dreaming?”
She shook her head trying to shift the odd feeling in her mind.
“That will pass, human minds tend to take a day or two to
adjust to the,” He paused as if looking for the right word “Physics, I guess,
our realms laws are a little different to those of your world,”
“What you can fly?” She retorted a little childishly now.
“Some not all, I can’t but some races can, witches
mostly, dragonkin perhaps depends on the strength of the bloodline in most
cases,” He shrugged as if this was a perfectly rational explanation, she breathed
a long slow breath before deciding to try and get answers from the top.
“Ok, ok fine, let’s try to understand this in a way my
primitive brain can handle, why me? And why now?” She asked.
“That depends on your view of things, you see this as a
kidnapping or sick joke perhaps, a dream even, I assure none of the above is
correct. I am not holding you against
your will and you can as I have said on more than one occasion leave at any
time; however you wanted to escape the life you had. You believe you are
destined for better things, I believe you may find that here, you by choice or
by design wanted to escape, I have provided that,” He replied with a soft smile
then stretched his legs forward and then back to his chest.
“Huh, so you’re here to save me from my miserable life?
Erm, you do know people are kind of going to miss me,” She sighed in frustration
at his lack of helpful answers.
“Yes well, that can be fixed, or left to other side to
determine, people disappear there all the time,” He replied almost matter of
fact and simple, as if things really worked that easily
“I have family, friends,” She replied.
It was then she caught the faint shimmer in the trees,
and beyond she saw the distorted view of the kitchen she had previously
occupied, the cheerleaders were pointing and giggling and then sneering as they
pointed in her direction, some of the boys were looking through the door as if
trying to locate her.
“Where is here?” She asked.
“This is the Everlands, think of it as a collection of
your fantasy worlds, what you believe to be fantasy has a more practical
application here, magic as you would call it is very much real magicka here in
our realm, of course staying here is not without its danger to yourself,”
“And I can go home whenever I choose?” She asked again.
“Yes,” Was his simple reply.
“Ok then, so were you planning on keeping me here in this
forest?” She asked, if nothing else knowing she could go home meant she should
at least explore this land a little, a little freedom right now was better than
the mind numbing trap that waited for her beyond that shimmering mass. It took
another second and it was once more a path into the darkness if the forest, her
way home gone for now.
“Not quite,” He replied, a second later his hand was
helping her to her feet it was an odd moment as his touch stirred something
inside her a warm fuzzy kind of feeling.
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