Star Beings

Welcome to Paradise

For a moment, everything is white.
Then I look around only to see I'm back in my bedroom.
My old bedroom.
"What... was that just one hell of a dream?" I whisper to myself. I look at my hands, then jump out of bed and stare at myself in the mirror.
My eyes are both brown.
The green streak is gone.
"Was it just a dream?" I ask myself quietly. "Delilah! Hurry up!" I hear someone yell from downstairs.
"Uh... yeah! I will!" I yell back, dressing quickly. A green tee shirt and black jeans are school appropriate, right?
It feels like it's been awhile since I've actually gone.
I pull on some shoes and rush downstairs, grabbing my backpack.
My mom and dad stand in the kitchen, laughing.
Aren't they divorced?
Or was that just another part of that crazy dream?
"Hurry! You'll miss the bus!"
I hate riding the bus... don't I?

I walk to the bus stop, getting there just in time. "Hey DJ!" A familiar face calls to me.
Lanette Parker.
Lane.
My...
The realization comes crashing down so hard I nearly double over.
Not a dream.
And I'm in another "perfect" world.
"Lane is it just me or is something wrong?" "Huh? What do you mean?" She asks.
Right.
Illusions.
I hear the familiar sound of platform boots stomping my way.
"DJ!" Hade hisses at me. I turn. "Yeah?" "Are you..." they do a strange motion with their hands.
Oh.
If Hade is aware that something isn't right....
Lane isn't an illusion.
She's just... trapped... somehow.
"Something ain't right here." I mumble. Hade nods in agreement.
"What are y'all talking about?" Lane asks.
"Don't you remember Darlin?" I ask. Lane shakes her head.
The bus moves.
Guess this'll have to wait.

About an hour after we arrive at school, which looks strangely like the hell on earth I went to for a few months before getting snatched, Lane sends me a text that says "meet me in the bathroom" with a winking emoji.
Is this a fucking sitcom.
I step into the girl's bathroom. Lane is waiting. "Hey darlin-" she kisses me. Hard.
I grab onto her to steady myself. My hand rests on her mid back.
She stops suddenly, realization sparking across her eyes.
"DJ? What... where..."
With a start, I realize I grabbed onto the spot where Lane... yeah...
It must've made her snap out of it. "We're in some sort of... illusion? Maybe a dream? I don't know. But as far as I know, only you Hade and I are aware of it. I hear my phone ding.
Two texts from Caleb and Damien respectively.
They say around the same thing; WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON???
"Nevermind, Caleb and Damien are aware too." Another text, this time from Hade.
"Karson too." I say. Lane nods.
"Let's find Nat."

We do.
And it ain't good.
She's completely oblivious about the last four or so years.
"Ok seriously, what are you talking about?" She asks for the third time. I sigh.
I'm about to say some stuff that may make her want to kill me.
Again.
"I was a fighter in an arena. I also worked as an assassin. Ok, I did a lot of stupid shit. I nearly got killed after being imprisoned for a month, remember?!"
Yeah that does it.
"Yeah. I do. Idiot." I grin, too happy that our Nat is back to care. She looks around. "Where are we?" "Hell on earth." Nat nods. "So highschool?" "Highschool." I agree. "Wonderful. Well... we better find everyone else. Who's left?" "Gabriel, Maxine, and Mateo." "Gabriel is over there!" Hade shouts, pointing to the blonde man. He waves at us.
"How do we get him to remember?" Nat asks. "Earlier I touched the spot Lane got... attacked... and she snapped back. Maybe we need to do something like that?" Hade snaps.
Huh.
They have both arms again.
OH WAIT.
"HEY GABE!" Gabriel cocks his head. Hade points at their forearm.
He blinks in confusion and then quickly walks over to our group.
"Where are we?"
"YES IT WORKED!" Caleb cheers. "We don't know. Do you know where Mateo is?" Karson asks. Gabriel shrugs. "Nope." "Wonderful." The ginger groans.
A teacher approaches us.
"Now what are you wondrous kids doing out of class? You should all really get going." She says in a nasally voice that makes me want to bang my head against a wall. "We're going."
Going where????
We all walk off. "Just go wherever. Hopefully, one of us finds the other two." Natalie whispers. We all nod and then head our separate ways.