Flashes
Quinn had been having a normal day at the start. She was in school doodling in her notebook not paying any mind to the teacher. She had begun to doze off when something outside of the window caught her eye. It had only been there for a second and she wasn’t completely sure that it was real and her mind hadn’t been playing tricks on her but she was almost certain that she saw a brief flash of light come from the window and land right in front of the school. She looked out of the window to see if there was anything that had fallen into the schoolyard. To her disappointment however, It seemed like nothing had happened. Her teacher seemed to catch her standing in her seat not paying attention because she heard the sound of her clearing her throat. “Well Ms. Nell since you have enough knowledge in your brain already to doze off in my class you must know the answer to my problem.” She looked forward to stare at the long math question on the board. She had no idea where she was supposed to begin. She looked down at the floor in both shame and embarrassment. “No ma’am.” She stated as she could feel her cheeks beginning to grow pink in humiliation. “Humph. Well if that is the case then sit down and pay attention.” She could hear the class laughing at her as she sat. “Wow.” She heard one of her classmates say. “Maybe it's brunettes that are dumb!” She heard him say. She turned around and glared at the boy who had made the comment, Dillan. He had been her main tormentor for as long as she could remember. He simply smirked at the glare and she turned back around to pay attention to the lesson that the teacher had been teaching. As much as she tried though her mind was continually wandering. She found herself looking out of the window again and dozing off to a reality that she had shaped to love in her mind.
She had always wanted to be a hero in a story. She frequently daydreamed about being brought to an unknown world and she would go on a long journey to get back home. She had read lots of books about it too so she knew better than to make stupid mistakes that she could see fast. She was about to close her eyes to fall asleep when it happened again. A flash of light seemed to land in the schoolyard. She checked yet again to see if there was anything out of the ordinary. Again though, there was nothing. She simply assumed that she was just tired and she needed to go to sleep so she put her head down to rest listening to the sound of her teacher’s voice going on about shapes as she slipped into the warmth of sleep.
When she awoke it was silent. Her head whipped up to see the clock but sure enough, it was way past school hours and she was supposed to have returned home hours ago. She jumped up from her desk and gathered her things, silently cursing at her class for not waking her up. She bound down the stairs of her school and burst through the doors, eyeing the empty parking lot looking for her car, she spotted her red car at the edge of the lot and sped towards it. The sun was already beginning to set so she had to assume that she would arrive at home after dark, causing her to get into even more trouble. She arrived at her car and reached into her pocket for her key to enter on but to her dismay, She felt that there was nothing in her pocket. She began to think back hoping to remember where she might have put the keys while checking her other pockets. She turned back to her school and began to walk towards it. She had fallen asleep so the key might have slipped out of her pocket and she had simply missed it while she grabbed her backpack. She entered back into the school doors and walked back up to her last period classroom to see if she could find her key. She entered the classroom and walked over to her desk, looking under and round her desk to hope to see her key. Fortunately, she spotted a shine come from somewhere underneath the heater of the classroom so she reached underneath to grab it. She pulled out the object in a balled up fist and opened her hand to see what she had grabbed. She looked in her hand and saw a key. It wasn’t her key though. It looked rather odd made of wood with tiny vines and flowers attached to it. At the end of the key there was the tiny design of a heart. She assumed that what she had found was just some kid’s random art project and stood up, about to walk over to the teachers desk to set the strange key on. Just as she got up it happened again. A quick flash coming from the sky to the yard of the school. This time however, she did not bother to look out the window and continued to walk. She was about to put the key on the teachers desk when she heard footsteps come from the hall. She wasn’t really sure that she was allowed to be there so Quinn began to panic. She quickly ducked under the teachers desk right when the door to the classroom opened, key clutched in her hand. She heard footsteps walk around the room and she slowly stuck her head out to see who was in there with her. When she turned her head towards the figure she couldn’t help but gasp. Standing in the middle of the classroom was a tall man in a large suit of armor. The man quickly turned around at the noise and stared directly at Quinn. She tried to duck her head back under the desk but it was too late. The man walked over to the desk and pulled Quinn from under it. She squirmed in the large man’s grasp desperately trying to get free. She had no idea who he was or why he was there but she had a feeling that she didn’t want to find out. As he lifted her farther off the ground she noticed a deer head engraved in his breastplate. He had lifted her up to the point that they were face to face and he studied her closely. His eyes drifted downwards to her hands. In her hands she continued to grip the key that she had found. His free hand grabbed her wrists tightly causing her to yelp and drop the key. He quickly dropped Quinn and she fell with a loud umph. He reached down and picked up the key. He grabbed it off of the floor and began to walk towards the doorway. Quinn didn’t quite know what was going on and who that man was but she had a feeling that if she let the man go there would be dire consequences. She barely had time to think about what she was going to do before she lunged forward and grasped the man’s waist. She didn’t know if he didn’t notice or he just didn’t care because he just continued to walk down the hallways of the school. She let go of the man knowing that it would do nothing and began to try to talk to him. “Who are you?!” she yelled. He continued to ignore her. “What are you doing here?!” she asked again. No answer yet again. She was beginning to grow angry. She spotted up ahead the janitor’s closet and an idea popped into her head. She looked at the man’s waist to check to see if he had a weapon on him. She smiled as she saw that there was nothing there. She dashed up ahead and entered the closet. She saw what she was looking for and quickly grabbed it. She dashed back out of the closet just in time for him to pass it. Quinn held up the mop that she had grabbed from the closet and shoved it into his face. He stopped momentarily and stared at the mop in disbelief. He was about to continue to walk after glazing in the direction of Quinn. This only made her anger grow however, she pulled the mop over and behind her head and began to run towards the man. He turned his head slightly to glance back at the girl and sighed in what seemed to be annoyance. Quinn swung as hard as she could at the man, hoping it would delay him so she could get the key back. Unfortunately though the man simply sighed and grabbed the mop with one hand, pulling it out of her hands with ease. She had expected this however, and when he yanked at the mop she refused to let go, getting pulled into the air. She let go when he reached out to grab her and ducked under his arm, running full force towards the man. She pulled her fist back and punched the man square in the nose. He stumbled back in surprise and she could see tears beginning to form in his eyes. She didn’t take any time to waste and slammed in the stumbling man with all her might causing them both to tumble to the floor. The man seemed to gain his senses after hitting the ground and pushed her off with inhuman force. She flew off the man and hit her head on the wall hard, a ringing in her ears. She tried to get back up but felt a wave of nausea come over her. The man got off the ground and walked over to Quinn. When he reached her he lifted his foot. She squeezed her eyes shut and braced for the impact. Then everything went black.
