The Amulet of Kryshar

Chapter 1

The dreams and headaches were acting up again. I thought that they would have faded away after all of these years, but of course not! I'm not sure if it takes skill to have a headache in a nightmare, which is then carried into real life, or if it's just bad luck. With the way things have been going so far, I believe it's the latter.

I was sitting at the dining table, listlessly chasing some soggy cornflakes with my spoon. I frowned down at my cereal; I doubted I would be eating any breakfast. It was quieter than usual at the table because my little brother was at a friend's house for a sleepover.

"Ruby, you aren't eating anything. Is something wrong?" Mom glanced at me. I felt bad for making her worry. She deserved better than that. I took a deep breath, as if preparing myself for an upcoming battle and plunged the spoon into the bowl. I scooped up some cereal and shoved it into my mouth. I tried to make a show of chewing intensely. Not a good decision.

Sudden pain flared up at the centre of my head causing me to choke on my food. I coughed and coughed. My dad repeatedly hit me on the back until I stopped. Right. Maybe I shouldn't forcefully chew any food in the future when I am having the worst migraine I ever felt. Or if I am having any type of headache.

"You okay there, Jewel?" Dad asked while peering at my face. His forehead was wrinkled with concern. I could imagine how miserable I looked at that moment: my brown hair hanging over my eyes in knotted tangles, face as read as a tomato, leaning on the table with my elbows like I've just run a marathon.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I lied with a hoarse throat. "Never felt better."

My parents looked at each other. "There's no reason to lie," Mom said gently, "and you know that you can tell us anything."

I opened my mouth to say that, I'm alright, that it's just a headache, when my phone rang.

Ring, ring.

That timing though. I quickly avoided the prying eyes of my parents and stood up from the table. "Umm, it sounds urgent... I think I will go, erm, you know, see what it is about." For a second I felt dizzy and gripped the back of my chair. I put on a small smile and walked towards the stairs. The question was just if I could make it up the stairs without tripping or falling more than necessary.

***

I collapsed on my bed. Surprisingly, the headache itself has almost disappeared; all that's left is an insistent pounding and a dizziness that makes my legs feel like jelly. My phone vibrated once again and I picked it up. It had six new messages. I opened them. They were all from Lena.

RUBY!!!!!

Pls answer your phone!

This is a huge problem!

I am literally freaking out right now!

ANSWER MEEEEEE!!!!

Pls...

This was highly unusual. It wasn't like Lena to be up and texting at this early hour. She hardly goes on her phone, so it never made any sense for her to do it first thing in the morning. Her panic attack via text didn't surprise me though; Lena always tended to worry too much about small things. However, this one does seem to be more serious.

I pressed the phone to my ear while starting to prepare myself for school. I was just throwing my shirt over my head when I heard screeching on the other end of the line. I jumped and the phone dropped to the floor. Crouching down I cautiously reached out my hand and tapped the speaker button on the call screen. Instantly, Lena's frantic voice filled my bedroom.

"Ruby? Ruby, you there? Oh gosh, did I break you? Why aren't you answering?" She continued rambling on, pouring out sentence after sentence without stopping once to take a breath. I marvelled at her lung capacity.

"I'm here, Len. What's up?" I picked up the phone and switched it back to the normal calling mode. As a safety measure, I held the phone some distance away from my ear out of fear of Lena's voice reaching high decibels and having permanent effects on my hearing. All of them negative. I should have given myself a pat on the back when Lena started yelling again. This time slightly quieter though. My instincts of self-perseverance were on point.

"What's up? Are you kidding me? The world is ending and you are asking me what's up?"

"Len—"

"Don't Len me! This is serious. I am serious! We—"

"Lena!" I interrupted her before this whole conversation could escalate any further than it already has. I sighed. My parents always called me 'hot-headed' or 'impulsive' (I still don't see their point; so what, that I stubbornly insisted on stuffing myself with chocolate on more than one occasion despite Mom warning me) even though I was normally the one calming down my friend. "Look, I'm not entirely sure what you are talking about, but either way you need to calm down. I'm certain we can work our way through this dilemma." This is crazy. The pounding in my head increased again. I held my breath, but luckily the pain didn't return with it.

I heard Lena take a deep breath and when she spoke again she seemed to have regained some sort of control over her thoughts. "Yes, of course. You're right. Yeah, we'll be fine. I'll find some time before class to go through all the formulas. There are so many though..."

I was more than thoroughly confused. "Um, formulas? Before class? The only assessments due today are the history essay and the science lab report. I worked on them with you. They are due after lunch anyway. We can quickly read over each other's work if it makes you feel any better about the assessments."

Silence on the other end of the line. This was making me nervous. What was happening? And why did I suddenly have the same feeling in the pit of my stomach like I did in my dream last night? "Lena..."

"How is this possible?" she whispered. She sounded close to tears. "How did everyone in the class get it wrong?"

Honestly, I was getting annoyed. I was in a bad enough mood as it was. I had a bad dream, a headache and now my head was still pounding and my friend was talking in riddles. I also had no qualms against conveying my annoyance. "Can you please tell me what on earth is going on? And stop rambling like a madman!"

"Alright," Lena said slowly, obviously taking time to choose the right words, "when is the math test, Ruby? The end of the semester test, you know?"

This felt like a trick question, as if any answer I give would be wrong no matter what. "I-it's exactly today next week. Thursday. During the double block, r-right?" I tried putting on a confident tone, but my voice sounded weak even to my ears. Where's my confidence when I need it?

Lena laughed harshly in my ear. "That's what I thought as well until I checked my email this morning. Ms Rose says the test is on today."