1.
"Hey, Lola! We're still on for the sleepover today, right?" Mabel my best friend said to me. Her desk was diagonal to mine so she had to turn her neck backwards to speak to me.
"Of course. I'll get the chocolate." I said excitedly.
"I'll get the popcorn," Mabel replied.
"And I'll get the chips and drinks of course." Taylor, my other best friend said with a wink from her table which was next to mine.
It was our tradition to hold a sleepover on two Fridays every month. We've been besties since diapers. Since our moms were also besties, we decided to continue that legacy.
The sleepover is a natural thing we do; we've always done, but still get excited like it's the first time.
I finished stuffing my books into my backpack and got up from my desk as the girls also rose to their feet and we exited the classroom. The school was over for the day and I couldn't wait to sink into my bed.
I personally think that 8 hours of class activity is a lot. 5 should be the maximum.
Maybe I should start a petition and get people to sign it.
It had rained earlier in the day, so puddles now covered the ground. There were also hues in them, making them appear as rainbows on the ground. Fall was a truly beautiful season, my favorite season.
I jumped over a puddle to walk on a drier path. "Alright guys, I'll see you later tonight at...?" I dragged out in question.
"Taylor's," Mabel answered.
Of course, the houses in which our sleepovers were held changed, so each of us had turns in holding it at our respective houses. Today was Taylor's turn.
"Ugh. I need to take a nap." I stretched my hands behind my back as tiredness settled in. We were standing at a crossroads; my house was to the left and theirs to the right.
"I need to eat something before tonight or else I'm gonna be sick by morning," Taylor said patting her stomach that growled.
You can say we indulged a little too much in candy on days like today. Throwing up the next morning is unsurprisingly...a frequent occurrence.
"And I have to finish the essay Mr. Wallace gave us," Mabel said pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose.
You can somewhat guess what our personalities are based on our priorities.
"Mabel. You have two more days to turn it in. It's the weekend remember?" I slung an arm around my high-achiever friend.
"I have nothing to do anyways." She said folding her arms, earning an eye roll from Taylor.
"Well, you do you and we'll all meet up at 7." I wrapped my other arm around Taylor.
Big smiles formed on their faces and they nodded at the same time.
I let go of the two and waved them goodbye, skipping happily along my street. I came upon another puddle in front of me, a similar rainbow-colored one.
Humming to myself, I squatted to get a closer look but a bright light blinded my eyes causing me to look away and shield my face.
I quickly stood up and sprinted towards the direction of my house, stepping in the puddle and splashing the water on my sneakers.
I opened the door of my house and slammed it shut, my back against it and my breathing heavy from all the running. "What was that?" I wondered.
"I can't believe I'm that tired that I'm hallucinating." I rubbed my eyes and walked towards my kitchen, opening the fridge and getting a bottle of water.
I heard footsteps and saw my dad coming down the stairs. I gulped the water till the bottle was half empty and put it back into the fridge.
"Hey, Dad. Today was so tiring. I mean school's always exhausting. But anyway, I'm heading over to Taylor's for our sleepover. We're going to have a Twilight marathon." I got excited thinking about it and let out a chuckle.
He said nothing in response and instead, turned on the tv, sat on the couch, and crossed one leg over the other.
Okay...
I guess he was still upset with me. We may or may not have had a little argument concerning the car I wanted for my 16th birthday next week. Either way, he was mad at me.
"Fine." I yielded first.
"I'm sorry about this morning. I got unnecessarily angry, I admit. But you know I've always wanted that convertible, and I've really been consistent in my driving lessons. I can even almost park without hitting the car behind me now!" I ranted.
He didn't budge, didn't flinch, didn't even look at me.
I sighed and placed my hands on my hips. "You're gonna give me the silent treatment huh? Well, I'll leave you to calm down." I turned around and walked upstairs, huffing and throwing my bag on the ground once I entered my room.
I fell back on my bed and stared at the ceiling, calming my anger with a few breaths. Then I rolled onto my side to look at my bedside table.
There were two frames. The first was of me and my parents, while the second was a picture of me, Taylor, and Mabel.
I picked up the one of me and my parents and stared at it. This picture was taken on our ski trip last winter. All our noses and ears were reddened from the cold as we burst into laughter at something Dad had randomly said. That's when the photographer took the picture.
A candid but beautiful memory.
At that moment, something weird began to happen. Me with a peace sign, slightly bent over in laughter, began to dissipate like smoke from a quenched fire.
I blinked and rubbed my eyes frantically. "Just how tired am I?" I mumbled and looked back at the picture.
I started to get terrified. I was gone.
I was no longer in that picture. I grabbed the second frame from the table and the same smoke-like dissipation began to happen again. I vanished from the frame with my friends.
I scurried backward from the pictures, till I hit the wall, my breathing quickening.
"Mom! Dad!" I shouted and scrambled off my bed, rushing to meet my parents to explain the weird thing that had just occurred.
My parents were sitting on the couch together, arms around each other as they watched a show.
"Mom, Dad! Something crazy just happened and I'm getting scared." I rubbed my arms in fright as I told them. They didn't look at me.
"Now's not the time for silent treatment. This is very serious Dad."
Still no response.
I rolled my eyes and stood directly in front of them, blocking their view from the tv.
This was sure to get a reaction out of them. They hated when I stood in front of the tv like this.
But they didn't give me the reaction I expected. Instead, they laughed and ate from the popcorn bowl that sat on my dad's lap.
A sweat droplet trickled down the edge of my forehead and I became even more afraid.
"Mom...Dad..." I spoke a little quieter as I slowly approached them, reaching out my hands to touch them, to get their attention.
I let out a fake laugh. "This isn't funny. You guys are scaring me. I-" My breath hitched as my hands went right through them.
I retracted them quickly and gasped. I looked down at my hands and back at my smiling parents.
"Ah...I get it now. This must be a dream." I nodded and smiled to myself, relieved to have figured it out.
"I knew I was exhausted in school. I must've been knocked out the moment I hit my bed. Well, that's my cue to wake up. I don't like this dream at all." I glanced at my parents one last time, backing away slowly before running up the stairs.
But I saw an even weirder thing; my room door had vanished. A plain wall was left in its place like my room never existed.
This dream was getting even creepier. A nightmare at this point.
I ran back down the stairs and looked at our family portrait on the walls. Like back in my room, my images were gone. Picture after picture.
Poof.
I rushed to the photo albums and hurriedly scanned through them. All the baby pictures of me left the photographs and soon enough the album itself evaporated in my hands.
It reminded me of the scene in that one movie; the way everyone vanished when fingers snapped.
This can't be real. Can it?
I walked back to my parents who were seated on the couch and waved my hands in front of their faces. I knew it had no effect but I did that still.
I tried touching them again, but nothing. My hands went straight through them like before and tears began to well in my eyes.
"This isn't a dream is it?" I said aloud as the first teardrop fell down my cheek.
Mom stood up from her seat and stretched her frame. My lips formed a smile and I stretched out both my arms sideways wanting to feel her embrace.
That's right. Mom's hug will make everything fine.
She started moving towards me and for a split second, it seemed that she could see me. I closed my eyes, craving her contact, but she walked right through me. I felt a harsh chill as she passed and that was when I broke.
I began crying, wailing. Tears kept streaming down my face as I watched my mom prepare dinner in the kitchen and my dad say a joke to her from the living room.
"Mom! Dad! I'm right here! Your daughter's here in front of you! Please, just...look at me." I yelled amidst tears, but it was of no use.
I fell to the ground and couldn't control my sobs. I cried in that position for a couple of minutes, before wiping my cheeks and eyes and laying flat on the floor.
"It's not too late. This could just be some really scary nightmare. I just have to wake up in the real world then it will all be over." I convinced myself and closed my eyes, attempting to fall asleep to wake up.
I stayed like that for another set of minutes and sat up abruptly, realizing I wasn't dreaming and this was real.
I pinched my cheek like they do in the movies and even slapped myself, hard. It hurt.
I got up from the floor angrily, holding my throbbing cheek, and stormed outside my house in need of fresh air.
"Let's think for a sec. What could've happened? Just what in the world caused me to be like this?" I massaged my cheek as I thought aloud.
I started in the direction of Taylor's to see if they could see me. I suddenly stopped in my tracks, noticing the puddle that I had seen a bright light emit from, and crouched again to look at it.
"Could this have something to do with why I suddenly don't exist to my parents anymore?"
The puddle was pretty. It was just water but as I had seen earlier, it had the colors of the rainbow in it. I brought my hand down to the puddle and placed my index finger in it, slowly and carefully.
It tingled. I dragged my finger away and shook the excess water off it, standing to my full height and continuing the walk to my destination.
"That makes no sense. How could a stupid puddle cause my existence to somehow vanish?"
I soon arrived at Taylor's house and almost pressed the doorbell but I stopped mid-air when I realized that they might not see me and I could just walk in.
"Hold on a sec!" I yelled as a revelation dawned on me.
"Could I-could I be...dead?" I said the last part in a quieter tone.
I got home safely. I didn't have to cross any major road since we took the bus. So, there's no way I got into an accident. I shook my head to rid the thoughts and turned the knob, opening the door and walking inside.
I observed the interior of the house I was so accustomed to. Every detail inside was just like I knew it to be: the dark green paint on every wall, the white marble tops that coated certain surfaces, the overall modern finish of the house, and Taylor.
Taylor was standing in the kitchen, dumping bags of chips inside a huge glass bowl.
"Hey!" That wasn't my voice.
I turned around and saw Mabel close the door behind her, with various bags in her hands. She walked past me and straight for the kitchen. "I got the popcorn and chocolate." She said as she took out the flat pieces of corn-in-a-packet, out of one bag and dropped them on the counter.
I was supposed to get the chocolate.
She then took out various bars of chocolate and Taylor began rubbing her temples. "Lightbulb. What if we make...chocolate popcorn?!" She suggested to Mabel with sparkling eyes.
Taylor enjoyed talking about food. Her dream was to be a food connoisseur. She would make an amazing one because her palate was super discerning which was kinda scary at times.
"That's not a new invention, Tay." Mabel pushed up her glasses, dampening Taylor's excited discovery.
Mabel on the other hand was the genius of our group. Her dream was to get into MIT and ultimately work at NASA. She was a sucker for astronomy and was annoyingly clever in Physics.
Big dreams, they both had.
Looking at them together made fresh tears fall from my eyes. I drew in a shaky breath and walked closer to them. "Hey, guys. I'm here." I forced an excited voice, announcing my arrival, but they silently organized the snacks in bowls, not responding to my greeting.
My lips quivered as I realized I was nonexistent to them too. "Guys. Taylor. Mabel. Can't you see me?" More tears poured down my face and I bit my lip to stop it from shaking.
How badly I wished this was another silly prank from the girls. That they would look at me and say "Gotcha!", and we would all laugh it off.
I sniffled and moved to Mabel, stretching my hand to brush her shiny, black hair. No surprise there, my hand went right through her head. "Mabel..."
I shifted towards Taylor and tried placing my palms on her freckled cheeks which constantly reminded me of a starry night. But like every instance today, my hands went through her face.
Staring at her bright green eyes as she chatted animatedly with a smiling Mabel, I took one step backward, then two, and before I knew it, I was out of her house, running and crying my eyes out for the second time that day.
I found myself back at the same puddle and rubbed my watery eyes, sniffling and staring down at it. "It doesn't make sense that a stupid puddle made me invisible to everyone around me. But nothing makes sense today." I mumbled.
I've been doing a lot of 'talking to myself' since the occurrence and I had a feeling there would be more of that in the future.
I leaped from the ground and sank my feet in the puddle, splashing and continuously jumping in it, grunting at every interval.
It was no use. If it made me this way, it's not changing me back. What was I going to do?
How would I live my life? It doesn't even feel like I'm alive!
I took in a long breath and exhaled. I made a decision not to go back to my house, but instead to a nearby park to gather my thoughts better.
Just as I was about to cross over the puddle, determined to forget about it and never come back here, it began to glow brightly and words formed inside it.
I stooped down and tried to read what was written:
You in despair, confused and upset,
unsure of your future and surreal present.
You must face this current trial,
to live a life not in denial.
Once you have found the reason why
your fate decided to change overnight,
only then will you no longer try
to be normal and live with no fright.
Beware of the evil that dares to scare,
from glass you are to flesh you'll wear.
Two is better than one, says the times,
a raven you'll find who'll grasp your hand.
Go forth now and wait for the signs.
Farewell my glass, till we meet on land.
"Did I just get transported into an adventure-driven movie? What's with the rhymes and cryptic messages?" I stood up and laughed loudly.
"So basically, I have to find out why I became invisible to become not invisible. So that's visible. Easy right? And what's that about ravens? And 'the evil?' As if today couldn't get any more confusing."
I rubbed the sides of my arms as I felt a sudden chill and it wasn't from the autumn air. I was scared.
There were multiple reasons for me to be scared and unsure of my future like the message said, but if I do have a shot at making things go back to the way they were, I'm willing to try.
I mean, do I have a choice?
