Chapter 5

It took them ten minutes to reach the bottom, which then opened up to an underground tunnel with dirt walls. Adara pointed over to the side where four other staircases also ended.
“Those are the other entrances. One leads to father’s room, one to Oliver’s and the other two rooms are occupied by General Sald and the Chief advisor Cole Flick.”
Liona nodded. “One of them could have still made it.”
Adara nodded solemnly. “No one is here.”
“Maybe they got a head start.” Liona shrugged.
Adara shook her head. “Well, let’s get started.”
The two walked in silence for awhile, but soon Liona asked. “Are you okay, Adara?”
“We’re taught this could happen.” Adara sighed. “In our studies we’re taught that this has happened before and that we should be prepared. That’s why I had the candles ready, and the matches. We’re told not to look back or to act rashly, only carry forward no matter what happens.”
Liona frowned. “We don’t know for sure what’s happening. Let’s just get out of here and then we can figure it out, okay?”
“How did you know, though?” Adara asked again, looking over at her. “How did you know Darius wasn’t good?”
Liona shrugged. “I’ve read about a lot of guys like him. It’s how the story always goes, I knew he couldn’t be up to any good. That story he told about the Gypsies was totally bogus.”
Adara shook her head. “I don’t understand.”
Liona took a deep breath. “Addie…I sort of lied to you about being from Karel.”
“You’re not?” Adara asked, frowning.
“I think I’m from some sort of different world.” Liona said, looking over at her as they walked. “All I know is my world is a lot different than yours. We have cars, tvs, electronics, a different geography…all stuff that doesn’t exist here. I think I accidentally preformed some sort of magic that opened up a portal in my mirror that led me here. I have no idea how to get back.”
“Magic?” Adara said, her eyes lighting up a little. “Lilly, that’s what Darius was looking for.”
It was Liona’s turn to frown. “What?”
“In our most ancient histories there are records of magical creatures and sorcerers that lived in co-existence with humans.” She said, shaking her head. “Most of these histories were destroyed to attempt to erase the memory, but the rumor is that a King named James the Bold decided to wage war against the magical world and won. Some say that the magic never left, that they’ve simply gone into hiding. Most scholars don’t like to talk about it because they’re afraid that someone will try to bring back the magic. When Darius left, he thought that he knew where to find it.”
Liona only shook her head. “Adara, I don’t have magic in my world. Magic doesn’t exist at all.”
“And yet here you are.” She said, giving Liona a mysterious look. “Maybe you were meant to come, Lilly. Maybe we needed someone like you to help us defeat Darius. I don’t know what happened, but whatever Darius found was something evil. The only reason that I believed you when you came to tell me was because Darius is much different now than he was. He used to be a clumsy yet charming man with big ambitions, but now he seems so…cold.”
Liona nodded. “He did seem kind of strange.”
“Still, it’s incredible-”
But Adara didn’t have time to finish. Suddenly there was a loud rumbling and the girls stumbled as the ground shifted. An avalanche of dirt began to pour down and they scrambled to get out of the way. To Liona’s horror, through the cloud of dirt she could see Adara was in the way of a large boulder that was about to be let loose from the dirt above them. As quickly as she could, she lunged to shove Adara out of the way, holding up her arm as if to shield herself from the monstrous boulder. She knew she would not be able to survive the blow.

* * * * *

She felt cold, saw only blackness, and felt as if she were falling. Soon, her body felt like it was being torn into a million pieces, and just as soon as she could feel the pain, it was gone. She felt a carpeted floor beneath her, and she quickly opened her eyes.
“No!” She whispered fiercely. “No!”
Her door opened and Foster poked his head in. “Hey Lilly, I forgot—what are you wearing?”
Her frantic green eyes looked over at him, and before she could stop she flung herself into his arms, quietly crying into his shoulder.
“Are you okay?” He asked, clearly confused, but hugged her back.
“She could have died!” Liona sobbed. “She’s in there all alone now!”
She could feel Foster tense up a little. “You didn’t smoke that stuff the lady gave you, did you? And where did you get those pajamas? I don’t remember them.”
“I did it, Tweak.” She said, pulling away. “I followed the instructions and it sent me to some sort of…parallel universe or something. They were all medieval and I became a maid for the princess there. But then this guy came, and he was really evil, and he killed everyone but Adara and I escaped into this tunnel thing. But then there was an earthquake or something, and the tunnel started to collapse, and she’s still down there!”
Foster’s eyes widened. “Did you fall asleep?”
“Oh my God I sound like a crazy person!” She said, grabbing her head and collapsing on her bed. “I swear, Foster, I’ll swear on anything that you want me to. I’m telling the truth.”
Foster sat down next to her, sympathetically putting his arm on her shoulders. “You know, dreams can be really realistic.”
“Foster!” She snapped. “How long have you been gone?”
He shrugged. “Like, twenty minutes.”
“And do you think I could have put on these ridiculous pjs that I don’t even own, fall asleep and have a nightmare in twenty minutes?”
He shook his head, about to respond when he noticed some pieces of dirt in her hair. His face suddenly turned sour.
“Are you and Kali trying to play a prank on me? Really funny, guys, I know I’m superstitious but come on!”
“Urgh!” Liona said, exasperated. “This is not a prank!”
“Sweet nightgown, where’d you get it?” Kali said, walking in her room.
Foster frowned. “Lilly’s trying to convince me that stupid magic kit threw her into another universe.”
“Awesome.” Kali said. “Next time bring me.”
“Seriously!” Liona exclaimed, her voice jumping an octave. “Look, just forget it, okay? Clearly I’m a psychopath.”
Foster shook his head. “Don’t be like that, Lilly.”
“Whatever.” She snapped, her blood boiling. All she could think about was Adara still trapped in the tunnels, and her heart lurched.
Kali frowned, but soon shrugged it off. “Are you still going to the school barbeque tomorrow? We get our schedules, you’re excited about that, right?”
Liona only shrugged, trying to calm herself down. “I guess so. When is it, two?”
“Yeah.” Kali said, still looking at her a little strangely. “Come on, Tweak, let’s give her some time alone.”
Kali left, but Foster lingered for a moment, looking concerned.
“Are you sure you’re okay, Lilly? I hate it when you’re mad at me.”
Liona sighed. “I’m not mad at you, Tweak, I’m mad at the universe. I can’t expect you to believe me, I can’t expect Kali to believe me either.”
“Call me tonight, okay?” He said by her doorway. “I’m sorry, Lilly.”


* * * * *

The next day Liona sat on a park bench, waiting for Foster and Kali. She had not forgotten about Adara, but she had also been unable to reconstruct her prior situation. Not for a lack of trying, of course, she had followed the instructions a full six more times before giving up and falling into a very restless sleep. She dreamt of the dark Master Darius and his evil plans, seeing him murder the King and Oliver and relentlessly burning down the castle so no one could escape. She had woken up crying, and tried to distract her mind by reading, but it only reminded her of the fairytale-like land she had been to only the day before.
“Hey Lilly.” Foster said, approaching her with Kali by his side. “Feel better?”
Liona shook her head. “If you mean have I given up my story, then no.”
Foster sighed. “Well anyway, we can start heading over now. I think they have some of the food set up.”
The three walked in an awkward silence to their high school, oddly filled with people in the month of July. There were tables of snack food set up, and a sign leading into the gym building for schedules.
“Want to get schedules?” Kali asked, eager for the two to agree.
Liona couldn’t help but smile at her enthusiasm for school. “Let’s go.”
They were early, and so there weren’t many people in the building. They walked over to the table set up for juniors and announced their last names to the assistant so she could shuffle through the papers and find the right schedule.
“What classes do you have?” Kali asked impatiently.
Liona glanced at her schedule and then leaned over to look at Kali’s. “We have Physics and English together.”
“Yes!” Kali exclaimed. “What about you, Tweak?”
He looked over at Liona’s schedule. “Well, looks like we all have English together. I also have Gym and American History with Lilly and…Algebra two with you.”
“Score! What a great year!” Kali said, smiling broadly. “I told you two being juniors is awesome, the three of us have never all had a class together.”
Liona smiled also, holding her schedule up so that Kali could inspect it more. Looking casually into the crowd, Liona’s heart suddenly stopped. She saw a girl who looked almost exactly like Adara wandering over to the freshman table to retrieve her schedule. She felt a wave of despair run through her body, and she quickly shoved her schedule at Kali.
“I’ll be right back.” She said. She began running, but didn’t really know where she would go. She only knew she had to get out of the gym, out of the place that reminded her of Mondel. Her eye caught the bathroom sign, and quickly turned towards her left to dodge into the nearest girls bathroom.
When she burst through the door, she nearly slipped as she ran in. Catching herself on the wall beside her, she looked up and realized that all the sinks had been plugged somehow and were overflowing onto the bathroom floor.
“Gross!” She exclaimed. “Who did this?”
Walking over the puddles of water she turned off the three faucets and shook her head as she saw that tops of cans had been put over the drains.
“Ugh, the poor janitor.” She said, looking around to see if she could find anything to help clean the mess up. She decided that it would first be best to unplug all of the drains, and as she started to do so, she heard a knock on the door.
“Lilly? Are you in there?” Foster yelled.
“Yeah.” She said, unplugging the first drain. “You can come in, you know, it’s empty.”
“No I can’t!” He exclaimed. “It’s the girls room.”
Liona shrugged to herself, moving to the second drain. “So?”
“So? What’s wrong with you, Lilly.”
“There’s no one in here, Tweak, what does it matter?” She yelled back. “And someone played a prank.”
“A prank?” He asked.
She moved to the third sink and stopped in her tracks as she did. What had once been a sink full of water was now glowing, and she could see a picture. It was blurry at first, but then it came into focus. It showed a forest, and a town.
“Mondel.” She whispered.
“Lilly?” Foster asked from the other side of the door. “Lilly, are you there?”
Ignoring him, she slowly began reaching towards the glowing water in front of her. Suddenly, Foster burst through the door.
“Lilly, I can’t believe you’re making me do this. What are you doing?”
But before she realized that Foster had come into the bathroom, Lilly’s hand touched the water. She felt very cold, and everything went black. Her body felt as if it were falling, and being ripped into a million pieces. But just as she began to feel pain, there was no pain. She felt something hard beneath her, and she could smell dirt under her nose.