Chapter 3
We all walked around the new house together. In the dark hallway by the television there were four bedrooms and one bathroom. The bedrooms looked very unused. The beds had their blankets tucked firmly under the matress like they haven't been touched in years. At one point, I took my finger and dragged it across the top of a desk in one of the rooms and the tip of my finger turned grey because of the layer of dust that seems to cover the inside of the cabin.
We all decided as a group that the best thing for us to do is to stay here. We don't know any other good places to go, and we could make it nice here. If anything, the cabin actually looked kind of cozy (once you get past the dirt). It just needed a little assistance.
We cleaned until the sky began to darken, and according to Dylan's watch it was around dinner time. We sat down in the living room area and started to discuss what we could do for dinner. We all were unsure so I checked the pantry.
"Would sandwiches work?" I yelled out towards the living room.
They all replied back with an assortment of agreements and then told me what they would want on theirs.
I personally don't really like sandwiches, but it's fine for tonight. There's no electric so no stove, microwave, or oven. I notice that there was boxes of pasta in the pantry and made a mental note to make some of that once the power returns.
A while after dinner, Kyleigh brought up the fact that this food wouldn't last forever. We needed to go to a grocery store.
I don't know how we'd find one. We're literally in the middle of the woods.
They decide to brainstorm. The ideas of compasses, GPS, phones, and maps were all thrown around but were ended up discarded because none of them would work.
"Where would we even get a compass or map? Emma sighed.
"We're not in the 1800s." Tonie complained.
"Maybe there's one in this cabin it looks old." I added.
"It's not that old." Emma said.
"Maybe there's a different way to find directions." I suggested.
"Wait - remember that quote from Stranger Things?" Katie questioned.
"Which one?" Tonie asked.
"The one about the sun and directions." She clarified.
"Oh! The sun rises in the East and sets in the West!" I exclaim.
"Yes!!" She says excitedly.
"Oh yeah, that's the part where Dustin's explaining how compasses work in the first season." Tonie shared.
I stand up and go get blankets out of a drawer that I discovered earlier.
"Okay, so we could just follow one direction and walk until we find a store." Rynn said. "If we get lost we'll just follow the other direction."
"Sounds good to me." I say while throwing a blanket at them. "We should get some sleep now, and make the journey tomorrow."
"Journey." Bri snorted.
"What??"
"Nothing."
I threw the next blanket at her.
"Hey!!"
I smiled and handed the rest of them to everyone else.
"What are these for?" Emma asked.
There was an uncomfortable silence that I felt I needed to fill.
"Oh uh I didn't exactly want to sleep alone, you know, after the day we've had and I just assumed.. I'm sorry we don't have to sleep out here I was just-"
"It's okay." Katie reassured me. "I don't want to sleep alone either."
"Me either." Tonie said.
"Same." Kyleigh agreed.
"Oh." I sighed in relief.
I took my own blanket and placed it in between Kyleigh and Tonie. Everyone else started trying to get situated in our new sleeping arrangements. I laid down, the hard wooden flooring painfully hitting my back even through the blankets and rug. It will have to do. Besides, in a situation like this there's no one else I'd rather be with.
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I fell asleep rather quickly, but was woken up still during the night by an extremely loud
CRASH
I shot up off of the floor.
"What was that?!?" I yelled.
If everyone wasn't woken up by that loud crash they definitely were now.
As soon as my vision focused I saw Bri laying on the floor across the room with Tonie standing right in front of her.
Tonie turned around and said,
"I think I killed Bri."
"WHAT??" I shouted and ran over to them, ignoring how clumsy I felt from just waking up.
All of my friends rushed over as well asking questions all at once. Tonie had tears in the corner of his eyes, which was a rare sight. I noticed but didn't want to say anything about it.
"What happened???" I said loudly over the commotion.
Everyone quieted down, wanting to hear the explaination.
"I was trying to sleep and Bri kept trying to show me this Pepsi can she found in the house." She pointed at the Pepsi can that was a few feet across the floor. "I got mad and she wouldn't listen to me when I told her to stop. So I got up and grabbed her shoulders and told her to go to sleep. Then some.. weird green glowing stuff came out of my hands and onto her. She just fell over." He shrugged helplessly.
"Well, somebody check if she's okay!!" Rynn said.
We all just looked at them.
"Was I seriously the only one who payed attention in health class?" They sighed. They kneeled down on the floor next to Bri and put two fingers on Bri's wrist checking for a pulse. We waited for a moment and then..
"She's alive."
We all were very relieved.
"It's weird though, her pulse is slow, almost like she's.."
"She's what?" Tonie asked.
"Sleeping." Rynn finished.
"But that's impossible, Tonie said she was just talking and moving around. How could she have fallen asleep that fast?" Emma questioned.
"Well she is Bri." Kyleigh said.
"Even though it's Bri, it's still odd. And what Tonie was saying about the 'green glowing stuff.' I mean, they were telling Bri to go to sleep and she just magically does?" Katie asked.
"With that whole solar flare thing, do you think it's crazy to think magic could possibly exist too?" I said hopefully. I've always enjoyed the idea of magic existing. If it actually does that's like a dream come true.
"Anything is possible." Dylan stated.
"What if you tried it again?" Rynn asked Tonie. "On someone else. If it happens again then I guess you have super powers."
They both glanced around the room at everyone expectantly.
"I suppose you can try it on me." I volunteered. No one else seemed eager to do it, so why not.
Tonie nodded and walked over to me.
"Last time I had to touch Bri for it to work, do you think I'd have to do the same for someone else?" Tonie questioned.
"I'd do it however you did it last time." Emma added.
"Okay.." Tonie said under her breath.
She placed her hands out as an offer for me to hold them. I gently put my hands in theirs and gave him a tiny reassuring smile.
"Go to sleep."
Emerald green magic wrapped around their arms travelling along mine. It was glowing and almost sparkly. It was beautiful. My eyes widened in surprise. The glow was bright enough the fill the cabin with eerie green light. Behind me I heard small gasps and whispers of disbelief from the group. The magic was still entwining around my arms, quickly reaching my chest. As soon as it did, I felt very relaxed. My heart slowed causing me to become drowsy. It still climbed until it reached my face. The last thing I saw before darkness was my friends concerned faces.
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I opened my eyes, blinking slowly. Oh it was morning now. I sat up allowing myself to stretch. The sun shined through the windows in the cabin. The cabin? Right. I groaned thinking of what happened in the school yesterday.
"Hey, Lynee's awake." I heard from somewhere in the distance.
Memories of last night flashed through my mind.
Bri, the Pepsi can, Tonie, magic..
Oh my gosh magic is real. I threw off the blanket that must have been placed on me by someone and stood up.
I looked around and saw that the living room was empty but everyone was in the kitchen.
I wandered over and noticed they were all standing around the kitchen table watching me cautiously.
"How are you doing?" Katie asked.
"I'm okay, what happened last night?"
"You can't remember??" Kyleigh questioned.
"No no I can remember." I said sparing a glance towards Tonie. "What happened after I.."
I let my words trail off knowing they would understand what I meant.
"Well.. Tonie's weird magic went across your face and your eyes glowed green for a second and then you.. passed out. Don't worry, we were behind you so we caught you. We decided to let you sleep after we checked your heart rate." Emma explained.
I hummed in response.
"So, it's true. Magic is real." I waited for confirmation.
They slowly nodded with slight smiles on their faces.
This is going to be interesting.
