Flames danced behind her eyes. Screams rang through her ears, getting louder by the second. Blood soaked the dirt; Smoke choked the sky. It would never end. She was trapped. Forever…

“Kate!”

A sharp voice cut through her thoughts. Kate jerked upright in her chair, her heart pounding in her chest. Where was she? What was happening? Her heart started to settle as she realized she was in the kitchen. There was no battle. No monsters. Just an angry mother who looked just as dangerous as the sharp blades in the dream.

“I’ve been talking to you for over a minute, and you’re just sitting there, staring off into space. Are you even listening?”

Kate blinked. “I... sorry. I just—”

“You’re daydreaming again. About what? Unicorns and fairies? You’ve got breakfast in front of you and chores to do, but you’d rather float off to Dreamland?”

Kate looked down at her bowl. Cold. Untouched. Just like yesterday. And the day before that.

“I keep having this dream,” she muttered. “It won’t go away. Every time I close my eyes, I’m somewhere else. It’s like someone’s calling me. Like it’s all real.”

Her mother stared at her like she’d grown a second head. “Kate. It’s. A. Dream. People don’t call you from dreams. Dragons and monsters and... whatever that nonsense is? It’s fantasy. You’re too old for that.”

“I’m not pretending,” Kate said quietly.

“You think life’s hard now? Try living in the real world instead of your imaginary one. That’s hard,” her mother snapped, turning her back on Kate. “Your father is out working as hard as he can to support this family, and I have you five kids to take care of. The least you could do is help out, being the oldest.”

Kate didn’t answer. What was the point if she wasn’t going to be heard anyway?

The silence stretched. Her mom’s back stayed turned for what seemed an eternity before she finally said, “It’s time for school. I can’t drive you today. Too busy.”

Sighing, Kate grabbed her bag, slung it over her shoulder, and walked out the door without another word. But even as she stepped into the cold morning air, the smell of smoke still lingered in her nose.

***

“Good morning, students,” the teacher said, coming into the cold classroom with a start. “I am your teacher, Mr. Hauswald. That is H-a-u-s-w-a-l-d. Hauswald. If you say it wrong, you get a week of detention. No exceptions. This is an English class, and you will learn the language.”

Kate sat in the corner of the classroom, staring blankly at the teacher. Nothing seemed to even register since she met the strange boy on the bus. Evan, wasn’t it? Something was definitely up with that, but, unfortunately, school had taken all her investigative time out. Still, Evan was just sitting in front of her, if she could just pass him a note or—

“Miss Darnell,” Mr. Hauswald barked suddenly, snapping her out of her haze. “Would you care to join us in this plane of existence?”

A few students giggled.

Kate straightened in her seat. “Sorry,” she mumbled.

He narrowed his eyes. “Then perhaps you’d like to read for us. Page forty-three. The second paragraph.”

Kate slowly opened the book, her fingers cold against the paper. Her eyes found the paragraph, something about old poetry, and she began to read aloud. But the words on the page twisted as her eyes passed over them. The letters shimmered, curled in on themselves, and rearranged.

“…the keys that remember, the gate that binds the realms, and the daughter who bears the mark…”

She stopped. That wasn’t in the book.

“Miss Darnell?”

Kate blinked, and the words were back to normal.

“…uh… ‘The knight’s tale was one of irony and—’” she fumbled, rushing to catch up.

Mr. Hauswald squinted at her like he was trying to decide whether she was being clever or insane. “Read it again. Properly this time.”

She did as told. The shimmer was gone. The fire behind her eyes, however, was not.

By the time the bell rang, her hands were still shaking.

***

Kate stood by her locker, slowly pulling out her textbooks for the next class. She had spent at least fifteen minutes trying to find other clues in other books but, just like she thought, there was nothing. Why was this happening? If someone was to get mysterious dreams and clues, it only made sense for something catastrophic to happen

…Didn’t it?”

“Kate!”A voice suddenly exclaimed, causing her to practically jump out of her skin and drop all her textbooks on the floor. She whipped around, coming nose to nose to a familiar face.

She glared at the boy beside her, “What in the world was that?!”

Evan shuffled his feet nervously, “Oh, uh, sorry. I just really need to talk to you.”

“Well, you didn’t have to make such a big start out of it,” Kate sighed, “Though, I need to talk to you too.”

“What was that you read today? About the…” He paused, trying to remember. “...keys and, uhm, mark?”

“I read what was on the page,” Kate leaned in and whispered, “But what was on the page wasn’t supposed to be on the page, if you know what I mean.”

Evan stared up at her blankly. He had no clue.

She groaned, exasperated. “I mean that the words on my page changed to this weird, prophecy thing. Someone was sending me a message!”

Evan gave her an interesting look. “Someone gave you a message…via textbook?”

Wrinkling her nose, she said indignantly, “If you don’t want to hear what I have to say, you better just leave. But you won’t. Because deep down, you know that something big is happening.”

A moment of silence, then…

“Well, maybe,” He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a crumpled piece of paper. It was black, with curly red handwriting written on it. It screamed bad news, but Kate snatched it from his hand anyway. Doing her best to smooth it out, she read, “If you don’t leave, doom awaits. You’re not safe here.”

The whole room seemed to go still as she read it again. Suddenly this whole mystery thing wasn’t as fun as when it was just some sort of prophecy on a paper. But now what? Threats?

“I know,” He was shaking slightly, staring at anything but the note. “That’s not good, is it?”

“Since when were threats good?” Kate snapped, immediately regretting it afterwards. “Sorry.”

“On the way into the school, I saw something. It almost looked like a…” his next word was a whisper, “...d-dragon.”

“Prophecy. Dreams. Dragons. Mysterious threatening notes… and none of those things told us what to do now!” Kate grumbled.

“Well, we’re supposed to leave, aren’t we?” Evan thought he was cracking a joke. Kate was not amused.

Suddenly, her eyes brightened and she grabbed Evan’s arm. In one quick motion, she yanked him into the nearest empty classroom, art, and shut the door. The room was small, with only a couple of desks and canvases spread all around. Some of the paintings were actually pretty impressive. There was one of a beautifully detailed doorway, and another of a rainforest, sun shimmering off the leaves.

Focusing her attention on a startled Evan, Kate whispered, “Something big just happened.”

“I’m…I’m sorry?” His eyebrows scrunched together, trying to figure out what just happened.

Not letting her eyes off of Evan, she slowly reached into the bag slung around her shoulder and pulled out her sketchbook. Faded brown cover, name hastily scribbled on the front, it seemed normal. Normal, except for the bright white glow that was shining through its closed pages.

“Well?” Kate said after a long stretch of silence. Evan was staring at the book, eyes wide, mouth gaping open, “This is it, isn’t it?”

“This is…what?” He finally stammered out, backing away from the cursed book.

“Well it-,” She suddenly froze. “It’s a sign,”

“But, uh…Kate?” Evan cried.

“It’s time. This is what it should be,” Her voice changed, less human, more robotic. As she stared at the book, her eyes hazed over.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea,” Evan warned.

She laughed. Evily. “Of course it’s a good idea. Why wouldn’t it be?”

Suddenly she became so rigid Evan could barely tell she was breathing. She put her other hand on the book, starting to open it…

“No!” Evan yelled, barreling over Kate by instinct. Both the girl and the book went crashing to the floor. There was a moment of scary silence, then Kate blinked, the darkness over her eyes lifting. He breathed a sigh of relief as she shakily got to her feet, dusting off her jeans. As she looked back at Evan, she shook her head sadly, tears filling her eyes.

“I’m so sorry,” She sobbed, a tear slipping down her cheek. “I don’t know what got into me.”

“That book!” He whispered, horror still written all over his face. “Let’s go, leave it here.”

“Too late,” Kate’s whole body trembled, her mind screaming at her to run. The sketchbook lay open on the floor from when it fell, pages glowing brighter than the lights in the room. As she watched, words started appearing on the page, as if an invisible hand was writing them.

Rise heroes, save the realm bounded by the dark. Defeat the evil one, take your place. But be wary, for we give you this warning. Guard your friendships and never assume the worst, for the worst may happen if you do. Fail to guard this, and you not only ruin one life, but them all.

Just as she finished reading the last word, the room started to shake, getting brighter by the second. Evan hugged the wall, squeezing his eyes shut.

“Hel—” Kate cried, but no one would ever hear, because before she finished the word, they disappeared.