I wake to silence.

  Silence.

  Bump...

  Bump..

  Bump.

  My heart pounds. The last thing I remember is the gaming bar, the leaderboard countdown - then darkness. Nico’s hand. And now… this. The land is flat, full of trees, but not a sound echoed through them. The sky was vibrant and the clouds looked a little too perfect. “Where am I?” My thoughts start to travel and try to remember anything I can.

  My throat starts feeling constricted, my blood feels like it’s boiling.

  “He-help..” I squeak out. “Embrace it my child, do not fight it.” Words that sounded familiar creeped into my head. I try to gasp for air, but nothing helps the excruciating pain of my throat. I think of what Nico always says, ‘The wind may bring storms, but they always pass.’

  I take a gasp of air again and I can breathe, my throat feels raw like I just inhaled fire, my body feels hot like I was under a heat lamp for hours. Something feels different about me.

  A slow burn builds behind my eyes; I reach up to rub them, only to find tears already slipping down my cheeks. I must be crying from the pain, I got to find Nico.

  I stumble trying to gain my footing, pushing off the plush vibrant grass with one hand. I take a moment to really look where I am. The sun is shining with clouds as perfect as a painting, sky as blue and vibrant as a robin's egg, and grass and trees as vibrant as can be. Everything's just perfect.. Too perfect.

  “Nico?” My voice croaks, still feeling the burn in my throat.

  Silence.

  My body begins to grow hotter, I feel like I am burning alive. Is it the sun?

  I start to walk around, feeling as if every bone is on fire.

  “Nico?” I choke out one more time before sitting down on a rock. The rock feels electric, it makes the hair on my arms stand up straight and leaves me with goosebumps all down my body. The rock had etching in it that I could not read. It was like a different language.

  “Kae?” Nico’s voice calls out from the other side of a tree.

  “Nico!” I quickly respond and standing up, no longer feeling that electric sensation.

  Nico rounds the tree and comes and gives me a hug, petting my hair. I feel at peace now that I know Nico is safe and the pain suddenly went away.

  “Fuck!” Nico screams and pushes me away. I look at him confused, with bewilderment. “You’re burning up,” Nico places the back of his hand on my forehead before quickly removing it, “are you feeling ok?”

  I put my hand to my forehead, I didn’t feel hot to the touch. Suddenly, the pain in my body came coursing through. I fell to my knees in severe pain.

  “Kae!” Nico screams, “What wrong?” He goes to put a hand on my shoulder and stops himself.

  “Pain.. Everything.. Pain” I choke out between sobs.

  Nico just sits there staring at me with a worried look. I begin to fade out.

  The world turns to darkness.

  “Child, you are going to hurt yourself if you keep fighting this. “ A voice filled with anger came from the darkness causing me to jump with a start.

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  I look around. This place is familiar, it’s like in my dream. “Breathe child. I need you alive. The more you fight it, the more it will burn.”

  I take a deep breath and try to ground myself. I exhale feeling like my body is going to explode. I try again, over and over again. Finally the pain starts to fade away.

  “Good child.” The voice in the darkness calls out to me, you can hear the grin in his voice. “I chose well.”

  I jump, waking up from the terrible dream to see Nico with my head in his lap. His eyes were full of worry and concern. I glance at the sky, noticing it is now dark and the sun had set. The sky was beautiful, auras played in the air and stars shined brighter than any others I had ever seen.

  “Kae.. You’re awake!” Nico smiles half-heartedly. “You were burning up but now you’re not.”

  I look at Nico confused, “Where are we?”

  “I have no idea, there is no sign of anything.” He states, looking lost.

  I reach for my phone and notice that the battery is completely dead. Nico shows me his phone screen too and how it’s just a black screen.

  “It’s been like this since we got here. No signal, no nothing.” Nico says in a calm tone, most likely trying to keep me at ease. “It’ll be okay.”

  I stare up at the stars, memorized by their twinkling. I take a deep breath, preparing for the pain to come back and it never does. I sign a breath of relief, thankful that the pain finally stopped.

  I sit up, just to feel like my heads going to explode. I grip my head and look around. Past some trees is a light. Maybe people? Maybe a house?

  “Nico,” I say, pointing in the direction of the light, “Someone might be there.”

  He stands up offering me his hand, I grab it as he pulls me from my sitting position on the ground. He gives me a quick glance of worry, before taking my hand and letting out a big sigh.

  “Let’s go check it out.” He says with a hint of nervousness.

  We walk towards the light, as we get closer we realize it's a fire. A campfire.

  “Hello?” I call out nervously walking towards the fire. I was almost drawn to it, its reddish orange glow, the smell of the logs burning. It was euphoric. Nico snapped me out of my trance by squeezing my hand.

  As we got closer to the fire, no one was there. ‘Strange’ I thought as I got closer and took a seat next to the fire.

  I looked at Nico, studying him. The fire was casting a light across his face and you could see he was full of concern and worry but at the same time looked peaceful.

  I pat the spot next to me, so he would sit down. He glances at me before taking a seat and crossing his legs.

  “What happened to us?” I ask staring at the fire, fighting the urge to reach my hand out into the enticing glow.

  “I don’t know, but we need to find out. This place feels… off..” He trails off and I just nod. I am glad we felt the same way. Something about this place just seems surreal.

  Crack.

  A twig breaks in front of us, causing us both to jump and look in the direction. Two kids with blonde hair and yellow like eyes appeared from the shadows. They looked identical, except for the fact one had should length hair and the other a neatly trimmed buzz cut. They looked to be teenagers, no older than seventeen. The twins looked at us confused.

  “Who are you?” Says the boy, stepping in front of the girl, hostility full in his voice.

  “This is Kaela and I’m Nico, we just woke up here and saw the fire so we came this way.” Nico quickly answers in a calm tone, not to provoke the young boy again.

  The boy relaxed slightly, looking at us confused. “So did we.”

  The girl peeked from behind the boy and softly spoke, “I’m Veyra, and this is Veyric.”

  They walk closer to us and sit down by the fire. “We were looking for food,” The boy says, showing his hands are empty, “but no luck, not even an animal or berry.”

  My stomach growls. I haven’t eaten in hours, food sounds good right now. But where would we find any?

  My thoughts start to wander again. Why are we here? Where are we? Is there anyone else here?

  My thoughts were interrupted by Veyra. “How did you get here?”

  “I don’t know. We were at a gaming bar and then bam everything went dark and now we are here.” I replied fixated on the fire.

  “We were at home, when our lights went out and then we ended up here.” Veyric spoke harshly, his voice sounding almost irritated. “Can we just go to sleep?” He grunts before laying down and turning away from us.

  I look at Nico and he nods, studying him I see the exhaustion on his face. I must have worried him sick. Nico lays down and I lay down next to him. The grass is so soft here. I stare at the stars searching for familiarity but nothing reminds me of the stars at home. No big dipper, no northern star. Just perfectly beautiful stars.

  I study the sky watching the auras pass before I finally drift off to the sound of Nico’s snores.

  The darkness filled my dreams again.

  A sing song voice echoes in the darkness this time,

  “She bears the flame the stars once feared,

  A fury forged in sacred breath.

  Her name is carved where gods have seared,

  A wrath that walks the edge of death.”

  I waited for the man from previous dreams to come but he never did.

  I woke up to the sun just barely rising above the horizon, but the forest was still cloaked in shadow. The fire had sizzled out in the night leaving only smoldering charcoal in its wrath. Everyone was still sleeping soundly.

  I decided to take a walk around to see if I could find anything. I retraced my steps and found the rock that had a coursing electric feeling.

  The carvings were no longer indecipherable.

  They burned in my mind as clearly as spoken words:

  "She bears the flame the stars once feared..."

  The same verse from the dream.

  Without thinking, I reached out to touch the stone.

  “Hey!”

  A deep voice barked from behind me. I jumped, hand recoiling from the rock.