Up and up; higher and higher, we climb. It seems as if we’re never going to stop. “Juniors, notice that tree over there? That’s really two trees that have grown together.” informs Mr. Bastian. He’s been telling oh so interesting facts as we troop along. He confiscated my IPod about an hour ago. He says I need to listen to what nature is ‘telling’ us. My respect for him dwindles until it’s about the size of an atom.

“’Kay Juniors, the clearing where we are to eat lunch at, is up ahead!” notifies Mr. Bastian. That gets sighs from everyone and a muttered “Finally.”

“How far ahead?” asks Julia.

“Not that far. Now, quit whining.” Replies Mr. Bastian crossly. Ooh, I think he’s pissed. Good. ‘Bout time his ‘awesome teacher’ act went down the toilet. He’s the type of teacher that’s sugar-sweet about everything. His father was the same way. Yes, sadly I knew his father as well. He was a teacher in my elementary school, a teacher in my middle school, and was a teacher in my high school. Every time I would move on to a new school, so did he. Then, his son finished college; he came and took his father’s place at my school. They both always paid special attention to us, it’s kind of creepy.

“Okay, we’re here.” Mr. Bastian says as we step to the opening of a little forest glade. It’s the shape of an almost perfect oval. There are trees everywhere I look around it; it feels like I’m caged in. The grass is as tall as my knees, where it sways in the breeze. There are patches of wild flowers everywhere, many different colors; pink, purple, blue, yellow, red, white, and so many others. There is a long (about 12ft) fallen tree not quite in the middle but a little off to the right. On the far side, there is a circle of stones with strange markings on them. Mr. Bastian calls them runes. The stones are small-ish, they look like they’d come up to my waist, and one big round stone in the middle.

It’s beautiful, magical, alluring. It’s also disturbing. I feel as if I have been here before, but I know I haven’t. I haven’t been hiking since I was six years old. And even then we’ve never come this far into the forest. My mom and I would always stay near the edge of the forest. She said it wasn’t safe yet. Whatever ‘yet’ means. I’m surprised she didn’t freak out when I told her where we were going.

“That’s the weirdest thing that’s happened to me.” Julia says after a long moment of silence.

“And what thing is that?” Derek asks nervously.

“Déjà vu.” Danielle whispers.

“Yeah, how did you know?” implores Julia.

“Because, I feel it, too.” Danielle answers. “I’ve seen this place before, in my dream.”

I remember where I’ve seen this place before. In my dreams. I’ve dreamed of this place almost every night for the past five years.


I’m running through a forest –this forest -it’s raining. My hair sticks to my face and neck, whipping me in the face, as I run. My clothes are plastered to me like a second skin. I push tree branches out of my way, and get whipped in the face and arms by branches I don’t bother with. My lungs are burning, my body wants to stop, but I know if I stop I won’t be there in time. Time is running out.

I stop when I reach the glade and slowly step through the weeds at the edge of it. I look around, I don’t see them. Am I too late? I keep looking around me as I slowly make my way to the stones. All I smell is the rain. I kneel down in front of my stone. I lean forward resting my forehead on it, as tears run down my face, mixing with the rain. I sit there in silence for a few moments, despairing that I was too slow . I get up and wipe off my face, not that it helps – the rain just replaces the tears that I wipe away. I turn around and start to head back the way I came.

I stop mid-step as the smell of lemongrass overwhelms me. I turn slowly to face the stones. And there they are, atop their own stones. They all have a hand outstretched to me. Beckoning me. I move to my stone; I lift a leg to slide my knee on top to give me leverage as I push myself up. I’m on my knees, getting ready to stand, when lightning shoots out of the sky and hits the stone in the center. A bright light illuminates the glade as all of the runes glow and lines shoot out to connect each of us together. The light gets brighter and brighter, until it’s too much and I turn my face away, close my eyes tight and throw a hand in front of my face. I peek at the light once more and see the only thing that keeps me solidly stable. Then, all I see is the light, now as colorful as a white opal. The opal we all share. I feel myself falling, then…

…Nothing.


Every night it’s the same, every night I wake up feeling as though I don’t have the most vital part of my soul. As I look at the faces of my classmates, I see in their eyes the exact emotions I feel. Confusion, fear, excitement, recognition. I look at Jacob and our eyes meet and hold. For a moment I see in him what’s in the rest of us. Then, he closes himself off and smirks at us.

“You actually believe this crap?” he asks, in his deep, smooth voice. Even though he addresses the whole group, his eyes stay on mine. Good thing I know how to control my facial expressions as much, if not better, than him.

I put a bemused expression on my face and answer, “You tell me, tough guy.” Then, tearing my eyes away from his, I stalk into the glade. I know that behind me the rest of them had followed my lead.

I see Mr. Bastian leaning against the fallen tree, eating an apple. “Thank goodness. I was beginning to think that you broke off into two’s to go make-out somewhere.” He says, while smiling amusedly. I glance over and see Danielle going as red as Mr. Bastian’s apple and staring at her feet. “Okay, kids go sit somewhere and eat.”

“’Kids’ he’s not even that older than we are.” Mumbles Adam. I roll my eyes, jocks and their egos. Everyone starts heading toward the fallen tree, to sit down and eat. I smirk (Jacob must be rubbing off on me) at their cute little single-file line, while I head towards the stones. I swear I can almost smell rain as I walk towards the stones.

I pause in front of the one from my dream. I caress the top of it before I hoist myself on top of it, sitting from here I can see the group talking and eating amongst themselves. The ones who have noticed my departure are Jacob (who, again, is staring at me as if he can see my soul) and Mr. Bastian (who, is staring at me with a look mixed of worry and excitement).

I glare at both of them in turn, before I swing my backpack off and settle it in my lap. I open my backpack with a loud (in my little space) zip. I dig through it looking for my lunch. Pocket-knife, lighter, gum, a Jim Butcher book (Fool Moon), water bottle and... Aha! My lunch –which is wadded into a ball from being smashed in my backpack. I pull out the little brown bag and set my backpack on the stone next to me.

I work to open my lunch without ripping it and dropping everything. Once I get it safely open, I take out my PB&J sandwich. I remove the zip lock bag; it looks mutilated. I give myself a mental shrug and bite into it. Bread, peanut butter, and strawberry jelly. Tastes normal to me, so I keep eating it.

I sit there eating until my sandwich is gone. After, I pack up the paper bag, squish if back in a ball and stuff it back into my backpack. I look over at the group across the glade from me. Mr. Bastian is conversing with Adam and Julia, Derek and Danielle is arguing –probably about if E really equals MC2 –as usual, and Jacob is nowhere to be seen, probably off terrorizing a squirrel.

I sigh and rub my face with my hands; I lean forward –with my hands still covering my face –and place my elbows on my knees. I breathe in deeply and smell the pine trees. I listen to the wind whistle through the trees and rustle the grass. The jay birds singing high up in the trees. For a moment I feel oddly at peace.

When I feel a presence beside me, I’m so startled, that I whirl around; my hand flies out and smacks my water bottle. It falls off the rock and… lands in Jacob’s hand. He calmly straightens back up and hands me my water bottle, (I have to hand it to him, he’s got great reflexes) with an amused expression on his face.

I stare into his bemused obsidian eyes, until I have to look away.

“You know,” he breaks the silence, “Mr. Bastian is crazy for taking us up here.”

“He’s always been crazy.” I say.

Jacob smiles (not a smirk, but a real smile), “Yeah, but I mean really bringing a whole bunch of future criminals up here, all alone.” I just stare at him, while imaginary crickets are going off in my head. “What? It’s true!” he gestures to the rest of our classmates, “The nerds could crack any security system we give them, and the athletes can do all the physical stuff.”

“And what about us?”

“Us? We’re the leaders of it. We control everything they do. We get the profit, they do the work.”

I shake my head, smiling. “That’s terrible.”

“You wish it were true.” He accuses

My expression hardens, “You don’t know what I wish.”

“I do know. You wish I’d kiss you.”

“You don’t know anything.” I’m sitting up now, rigid, with arms folded across my chest. Suddenly his arm is around my waist and his lips at my ear. His breath fans across my cheek. Lemongrass. He smells of lemongrass. I think dizzily.

He chuckles darkly, “See? I told you, you wish I would kiss you.” I pull back and look up at him, he’s smirking again.

“Ugh,” I say putting my head in my hands again, “Don’t you ever get tired of smirking?” I ask with anger very apparent in my voice.

“Sometimes,” he says with a shrug, “Is that any way to talk to your hero?”

I look over at him and raise my eyebrows, in a ‘you’ve got to be joking’ look. He just puts right hand in his pocket and pulls out my iPod. He holds it in front of me. I reach for it and he pulls it back.

“You have to give me something first.”

“I don’t have anything you would want.” I say, though I’m not sure that’s true. Especially when he glances down at my lips.

“You sure about that?” he whispers darkly, as if he was reading my mind. His arm around my waist tightens, closing they small distance between us. His head descends to mine and I am overwhelmed with the smell of lemongrass, again. His smirk is gone, for the moment.

“Come on you two, it’s time to join the group, again.” Mr. Bastian calls out to us, making us jump apart. I look over to the group and see that our classmates are gaping at us, clearly surprised. Mr. Bastian is staring at us looking very pale and frightened. I look up at Jacob. The smirk is back.

“Looks like we’ve been caught.” He says casually. That pisses me off. How can he be casual after what just happened between us? Well, two can play at that.

“What is there to catch?” I ask, sounding just as casual. His face stays emotionless (besides the dang smirk) but anger, hot and brilliant, leaps into his eyes.

I hear the others voices getting louder and I look over, grateful for the distraction. I see the group heading over to where we are.

“Since you didn’t feel inclined to join us, we decided to join you.” Mr. Bastian says, getting irritated. “Do you guys see the group of stones that Alexandria is so graciously sitting on?” he asks. They nod and murmur that they do. “It’s said to be a gateway, a portal, to the mythical land of Zederith.” Yep, there he goes again. Honestly, he should’ve been a mythology teacher. “Legend says that only the six children of the six guardians of Zederith can open the portal. The children climb up on their rock with their personal sign, and then they would say a sacred incantation and POOF! They are whisked away to Zederith!”

“Yeah, that’s interesting and all, but why do we need to know this? I thought we were supposed to learning about eco-systems and plants and stuff.” Says Julia. I didn’t even know that she knew how to say eco-system. Well, she’s smarter than she looks and she’s got a point.

“I just thought it was an interesting fact, that’s all. Hey, let’s try something fun.” We all stare at him as if he suggested we jump off a cliff. He sighs, “Come on, humor me. If you all cooperate, I’ll pass you all.” Well, that changes things. I want each of you to go stand by a rock. Whichever one it doesn’t matter, just pick which calls out to you.”

We are all silent as everybody shuffles to a rock. Since I’m already sitting on one, I just stand up. To my left is Derek and my right is Adam, right across from me is Jacob. Julia is between Adam and Jacob and Danielle is between Derek and Jacob.

Mr. Bastian walks up to the middle of the circle and stands by the middle stone. He reverently caresses the top of it before turning toward us.

“Ok, I want you to repeat this incantation after me and if I see any of you not speaking, I’ll flunk you all.” He stares at each of us in turn. He draws in a deep breath and closes his eyes. And he starts to chant:


"Eiris sazun idisi

Sazun hera duoder

Suma hapt heptidum

Suma heri lezidun

Suma clubodun

Umbi cuoniouuidi

Insprinc haptbandun

Inuar uigandun"

We are all silent after he finishes, the only sounds are the birds in the trees and the wind blowing through the leaves.

He sighs and opens his eyes, “Ok, now your turn.” He starts up the chant again, finishes and repeats. On his fifth time through, we start to pick it up. After we go through it eleven times, we finally get it perfect and in sync.

It’s beautiful, powerful and enthralling. It’s almost as if I can feel the power swirling around us. Moving faster and faster as we chant. Then we stop, and so does everything else. Everything is quiet. There’s no wind in the trees and no birds sing.

I can feel that my eyes are wide with fright and my mouth parted in awe. The others look every bit as frightened and awed as I fell.

That’s when the stones and the ground start to glow.

I know how crazy that sounds, but I’m not crazy. Well, that’s what I’m trying to tell myself. All the strange markings on the stones are glowing. A dark blue color that reminds me of the night sky. The ground is glowing in lines connecting my stone to Julia’s and Danielle’s. Derek’s stone intercepts the line between Danielle’s and my stone; Adam’s stone intercepts the line between Julia’s and my stones. Jacob’s stone sits between Danielle’s and Julia’s stones.

I was wrong. It’s not a circle, but a triangle within a triangle. Suddenly, all of the stones shoot a ray of light at the middle stone. It starts to glow with a brilliance that hurts my eyes. The light goes brighter and brighter still, until I can’t look anywhere.

As I shield my face with my hands, I start to feel a tugging. Starting with my head and ending with my feet. I feel like I’m being lifted upwards. It hurts so much, it feels like I’m being compressed and stretched at the same time.

The pain increases, so much so that I cry out in pain. It feels like I’m going to explode! I feel a great shock go through me then… darkness.

I'm not unconscious, you can’t feel this much fear in your dreams. Or, at least that’s what I’m trying to tell myself.

We are falling in a dark void. It was weird; one minute we’re all standing there chanting and what-not and the next we’re falling down a hole. I feel like Alice falling down the rabbit hole- minus all the furniture. Actually, it’s more of a tunnel and we can’t see like Alice could. I know there are walls, because I already ran into one. It hurt like a son-of-a-gun, my shoulder is still throbbing. It may have walls, but it sure is big, if all seven of us can flail around and not hit each other.

I hear a thumping sound and a scream of pain- seems like I’m not the only one who’s found the wall- and someone else starts to hyperventilate.

The air starts to get damp and cool. The tunnel is growing lighter; I can almost make out the tunnel walls. The farther we fall the brighter it gets.

The thought, that I’m going to go splat on the ground, keeps running through my head. The, without any warning, the side of my body slams into water. Oh, hell, that hurt. The momentum of my body hitting the water makes me sink deeply. I swim up to the surface of the water, and gasp for breath. I look around coughing and trying to stay afloat.

Jacob had already swam to the edge; Danielle is freaking out, I don’t think she can swim; Adam is swimming up to Danielle, he starts to help her to the edge; Derek is swimming with an unconscious Julia to the edge, she must have been the one that hit the wall earlier.

I start to swim over to the edge as well, close to where Jacob is. When I get close, Jacob reaches out and offers his hand to me. I grab it and he pulls me to the wall. I grab the wall and pull body close to it. Jacob reaches around me and grabs the wall on the other side of me. He’s bracing me against the wall, so that I won’t fall.

I look around the cave and see the others have made it to the side without drowning. Danielle is hanging on to Adam with her arms around his neck- like he’s a life line (to her I guess he is),- while he holds on to the wall with one hand and holds her around her waist with his other arm. Derek is having a rougher time. He has his arm around Julia’s middle, with her back to his chest, he head lolling on his shoulder. He struggles to hold them both above the water; he was never the strong one.

It becomes quiet, except for our labored breathing and the sound of moving water.

“What are we going to do?” Danielle whimpers, “Are we going to die?”

“Of course we aren’t,” I say gently, that’s not a normal thing for me, “You see where the light comes through?” I ask her, jerking my head in the direction where the light comes in under the water. She nods. “There must be a tunnel going to the other side and because it’s light there must be an exit. All we need is someone to swim under and check it out.”

Derek sighs, “I would, but I’m a little busy.” He shifts Julia when he says this.

“I can go.” Adam volunteers.

“No, no!” Danielle freaks out, clinging tighter to him. Adam is so surprised he almost slips off the wall.

Jacob sighs, his breath hits the side of my face, “I’ll go, since my woman isn’t unconscious and can swim.” I turn to him in astonishment; I can’t believe he just called his ‘woman’. He just flexes his arm, pushing my closer to the wall and says, “Don’t fall, okay?” He then let’s go of the wall and falls into the water. I see him, through the water, swim to the tunnel opening and disappear.

Jacob hasn’t been gone for a full minute (I know, I’ve been counting) when I hear Julia moan. I look over and see her lift a hand to her head. She blinks her eyes and looks around.

“Oh, dang it! It wasn’t a dream!” she exclaims.

“Nope, sadly we actually did tell fall down the rabbit hole and landed in a pool of water.” I tell her smartly.

She looks at me for moment then looks around. “Where’s the other dark one?” She calls us the ‘dark ones?’ Cute. Real cute.

“He went to find a way out.” Derek says.

“Oh. I can hang on to the wall myself, you know.” Derek shifts and brings her closer to the wall, which she grabs. Derek puts his arm around her, much like Jacob did to me.

I sigh and shift my grip on the wall, as I feel a pang of envy go through me. It’s strange what Jacob can make me feel, what he can make he want to feel. Like his arm around me again, holding me up.

I hear a splashing sound and I turn to look at the source of it. Jacob is floating in the water, as he wipes his face with one hand and looks around. When he spots me, clinging to the wall, he swims over to me and resumes his spot next to me, with his arm around me.

Everybody starts talking at once, “Did you find anything?”, “What’s under there?”, “Is there a way out?”

Jacob leans closer to me and whispers in my ear, “I’m glad you didn’t fall.” Then aloud, “Yes, there is a way out, but you’re not going to believe what’s out there?”

“Is it dangerous?” asks Danielle timidly.

“No, no it’s… nothing compares.” He replies, with awe in his voice. “We need to go before the sun goes down.”

I look at Jacob and he explains, “It’s pretty much a clear path all the way through, only one or two rocks get in the way. It’s not that long of a tunnel. Just keep to the top and you’ll be able to tell where it opens up. All we have to do is swim right through.”

Danielle whimpers and casts a frightened glance at the opening. Adam gives her a little shake, “Danielle, look at me.” She tears her eyes away from the opening to look in Adam’s green eyes. “I’m not going to let you drown, I’ll help you through the tunnel, ‘kay?” he implores, searching her eyes.

Danielle stares into his eyes, probably searching to see if he has any murdering tendencies. After about a minute, she nods. Adam smiles gently, he shifts her around so she faces away from him. Note to self: Adam may act like a dumb football player but really is a softy.

“We can go first.” Julia says, breaking the silence that had come while Adam was talking to Danielle.

“We?” asks Derek.

“Yes, ‘we’, you can help lil’ ol’ me through the tunnel.” She caresses his cheek with her fingers and bats her eyelashes, he goes beet red and shifts his grip on the wall, uncomfortably.

I meet Jacob’s eyes and he says quietly so only I could hear, “I don’t think our little Derek is used to so much attention from hot girls.” I look away and frown; I’m a little bothered that he thinks that Julia is hot. Jacob turns to Derek and Julia, “We might want to go right now, seeing as I have no idea if the sun was getting close to rising or setting.”

Derek and Julia let go of the wall and tread over to the opening. They pause and look uncertainly towards Jacob, he nods at them and they take a deep breath and swim through.

Adam, with Danielle hanging on to him and trying to help as much as she can, swims to the opening. They get to the opening and Adam turns to Danielle, “Okay, take a deep breath before we go under.” She nods and takes a deep breath. Adam takes them under and they disappear through the opening.

Before Jacob could speak to me (I still feel irritated about the ‘hot’ comment towards Julia), I slip under his arm and swim to the opening. I take a deep breath and I slip under the water.

If I could breathe under water I would stay under here all day long. It was amazing. It was lit up from the sun, from the other side of the tunnel. The sides were smooth, with the occasional bump. The sides looked as though they were sewn with crystals, making it sparkle as I swim by.

I reach out and touch a crystal; it wobbles as I touch it, making it sparkle even more. I grip it and pull; it falls out of the wall and lands in my hand. It’s about the size of my palm, and has sharp edges everywhere, as I just found out. I look at the cut on my palm, as a trail of blood trails out of my cut and twists in the water.

I mentally sigh as I put the crystal in my pocket. I push my self back towards the opening. Jacob has caught up to me. I know this because I kicked him. I feel oddly satisfied.

It takes only a few more seconds for me to reach the opening. I swim up and break through the surface of the water. I gasp as my lungs celebrate having air again.

I look around as I tread in the water. The walls look smooth, like the tunnel was. In front of me is the cave entrance. All I see out of it is water, water and more water. I start to swim to the entrance, as Jacob pops up from the tunnel. About half way I hit rock. I feel around and find out it’s a shelf going to the entrance, I hoist myself up and walk to the entrance.

I hear water splashing behind me as Jacob follows me. I stop when I get to the entrance and look around in awe. The water is lapping against my knees. Jacob comes and stands behind me, placing his hands on my waist. I let him, forgetting my irritation with him.

“See? I told you, nothing compares.”

I look up at him with terrified awe on my face, because nothing does compare to this. All I see is… paradise.