• The sky is all purple and the grassy field runs forever with no end. I’m sitting; legs beneath me, hand clasped together, cheeks wet. Tears ran down for as long as I remembered. My eyes don’t burn from staring at the ray-less sun.
    And then a snap. I blinked and wiped the tears away with my arm. When I was done, the big grassy field shrunk into its three feet wide square. I’m sitting on a floating piece of earth now. There’s nothing else solid in this place anymore, just the dark pit of nothing.
    “Oh, damn” I said, my voice echoed. Well, it wasn’t really an echo. It was like a group of people were whispering the same thing in order. This felt really weird because whenever I dreamed this dream, I never know I’m dreaming until I wake up. But now it’s different because I actually realize I’m dreaming. This is so weird. I peered over the edge. A piece of dirt crumbled off from under my hand and fell down into the black abyss. I gulped and sat up straighter. Yup, this is definitely scary. I tried reacting what I always did in this dream. “’Oh, am I scared that I’ll fall? Am I scared because I’m alone?’” I mock myself, “’I feel like…I’m waiting for someone’” my eyes go to the horizon where the purple sky and black pit inline. And now I wake up! I thought cheerfully. This is how the dream ends all the time.
    I wait a minute. Two. Three more.
    Why am I still here? I was confused and…scared. Yea, this is getting scary now. I closed my eyes because seeing the black pit was giving me shivers. Why did I even faint in the first place? At the meeting, Mr. Smug was telling me about…about what? I don’t remember.
    Then it hit me. The purple sky here. I’m on the other side, the side I’m not suppose to be in. Lurid—that’s what the people here are called, that’s their name, their group name, their clan name. This is their side, their sky, and I’m on their territory.
    “Little girl decided to come, finally?” someone behind me says. I remembered that voice—it was the boy from my last dream. His right hand caressed my cheek and his left hand held mine. This was the same position from last time.
    The hair on the back of my neck stood. This is different—he was different. Last time, he was worried and, in a way, afraid. But kind. Right now he’s…the total opposite. He seems so provoking and—dark, evil. “Who…are you?” I managed to ask.
    He grinned. I could feel it. “Me? I’m just a person”
    I gulped and let out a stuttering breath. “What did you mean when you said that I finally decided to come?”
    He rests his chin on the right of my shoulder. I had an urge to turn and see what he looked like, see who he was, but I didn’t dare move a muscle. “You learned more about us, didn’t you?” his words were whispered to my ear.
    Surprisingly, I didn’t flinch. But I didn’t reply either because I had no idea what he was talking about.
    So he kept talking. “You learned more about our world, about the people living here. But you don’t know it all. You don’t even know who you are” he slides his left hand off mine. The mark from before was there. It was a crescent moon with a slash through its center.
    I lift my hand and stare. This was almost like the mark on Lenschi’s forehead, but his mark was a crescent sun.
    “Still don’t know?” he puts his hands over my eyes so I couldn’t see.
    “Hey—let go! What are you—” there was a strange fuzzy feeling going in my eyes. It was like soft static.
    “They’re in here” his voice was cold, evil. It was like someone who smiled and laughed at others misery.
    I pushed out of his grasp, only to see darkness. At first I thought he made me blind but then realized where I really was. I fell in the dark abyss. His menacing laughter stayed with me until I woke up.

    “…Lenschi” was the first thing that came out of my mouth.
    Lenschi sighed with relief and gave me a big hug. “Damn, kid, you gave me a heart attack!”
    I looked around the room I was in. It was Lenschi’s dorm and we were on his bed. Everything today seemed to be going by so quick now; first the whole teleporting here, then dinner. Next was the meeting with the elders—Madame, Mr. Smug, Claus, Cere, and Daishaw. I collapsed in the middle of it and went into a dream. Now I’m here. Today has been a very long day.
    I groaned and Lenschi let go. “Oh—sorry, you should rest” he lays me back in bed. “You really scared me back there though—all of us, you scared all of us”
    I gave him a tired glance then lifted the blanket to cover my whole body, including my head.
    “…is something wrong…?”
    I chewed on the bottom of my lip. “N-no, it’s nothing” that was a lie. The truth was that I was still freaked out about my dream and everything. It was so weird, that boy. He was meaner than before and wouldn’t tell me a thing. “They’re in here” “You don’t know who you are” “Still don’t know?” Of course I don’t know. I thought to myself. He was just so—ugh, what’s the word? Then it popped into my head. Lurid.
    Lenschi got off the bed. There was a click as he turned off the light. “Well, goodnight, kid” and that was it.
    I didn’t dare sleep.
    part 11