"A dream, is only a dream, until you wake up."
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Okay, quick reality check.
Today was the last day of school. My best friend's birthday was in a few days. I was currently being chased by a giant multi headed lizard.
Seems about right.
Haley's hand was tight around mine, and I wasn't planing on letting go. Right now, she was the only thing I knew was real at the moment. I could hear her panting beside me as we ran across the field, me slightly ahead of her.
We need help, I thought. But who? It's not like we could run up to a random person and say, "there's a giant lizard thing that's trying to eat us!" Yeah, that's a one way ticket straight into the loony bin.
I looked over at the teacher that had been standing by the school gates only a few minutes ago, to find him in the exact same place. And he was sill playing with his fingers. Why didn't he take action? Did he not see the huge green monster practically drooling on his shoulder? My head swam with questions that never received answers, and all I wanted was to go home to be with my dad —oh my dad. What would they tell him after I died? I'd be monster mush.
Stay focused, Arianna.
The voice vibrated through my bones and rattled my brain. I wasn't sure if that was my self conscious, or something else entirely, but I did what it said. My eyes stayed trained on the back doors of the school that lead into the field-house; if it was unlocked, that would be a straight shot to the heart of the building, and hopefully, someone who could help.
Haley was the first to the door, her whole body slammed against it in desperation, her breathing heavy and labored. I held my breath as Haley pulled the door.
Clack. The door was locked. Haley turned to me, tears streaming down her face, she didn't have to say anything for me to know what she was thinking. But I didn't accept that, I couldn't accept that. My eyes looked around frantically, searching for another way out. I heard a loud roar from behind us and I knew our time was running out.
Come on Ari, think, my brain drew out yet another blank. My head turned from left to right frantically searching for something, anything that could help. Then I had a thought; a stupid, dumb, ridiculous thought, that probably would end up getting us killed. But it was all I had. I turned around and faced the monster.
"Hey four face!" I yelled, and winced at my own terrible insult, "Down here!" That seemed to catch it's attention, and all four heads turned their glaring yellow eyes at me. I gulped down the scream the threatened to crawl out of my throat and glared back. This could go one of two ways: Haley and I dead, inside of the oversized mutated crocodile, or us mostly alive, but most likely running for our lives —again. Honestly, I was shooting for the latter, but in reality, the former did not seem too far fetched at the moment.
"Ari, what are you doing?!" Haley practically screamed, her voice shrill and frantic. This worried me because some of my plan, (if you can even call it that) involved a bit — scratch that, a lot — of her help, and if she was already off the bender, I was —for lack of a better word— screwed.
"Creating a distraction," I hissed, not turning around to look at her, "look for another way into the school."
"What about you? I can't just leave you here," she paused, and I knew exactly what she was thinking. You'll die.
"I'll be fine," I lied, "just go." Haley looked at me hesitantly and I risked a glance her way, Haley's eyes were watering and were full of fear, but not fear for herself or even fear of the monster, but fear for me. I gulped and turned back to face the four headed demon. It was then that I heard Haley's footsteps quietly retreating away in the direction of the school building. Sweat dribbled down my shoulder blades, my hands would not stop shaking, and my heart felt like it was running a 5k at one hundred miles an hour.
"Hey...er...you!" I have never been good with words, that's more Haley's thing, I always end up tripping over my tongue, pausing and stuttering. That little outburst with Monique was a small flicker of confidence that immediately died after she and her BFF's turned into man-eating monsters; normally, I rely more on physical ways to convey my emotions. (i.e Glaring, tripping, tackling, and the occasional kick to the groin) Needless to say, I was not the best person for this job, but what else could I do?
My mind tried to grasp tiny threads of hope, but it was like I had fell into a hopeless pit of despair and death, yellow eyes gluing me down with hatred and a tinge of disgust. It's tail waving back and forth. An idea ran into me like a bus, because I had seen that same stare billions of times, albeit way less frightening, but a similar stare all the same. Winnie, who knew that stupid old gray Tabby would end up saving my life now. Winnie was eight year old bundle of pure evil, hated my guts, and probably wouldn't hesitate to rip them out if her claws were long enough, but she had one fatal weakness: a laser pointer. I would watch and laugh as the cat would try to catch the tiny red dot.
I smiled as my mind started to formulate a plan, then I frowned again realizing that the chances of me getting out of this alive were slim to none. Thinking quickly, I reached in my pocket and began to rummage around for what I was looking for. Briskly, I spared a glance at the screwed up version of Monique and shuddered slightly, only this morning she had tripped me in the hall as I was walking down to World Language; what can I say, people change.
I almost shouted in victory as my fingers closed around the cool round object I was looking for. Flipping the coin in my hand, I felt the cold fingers of doubt start to wrap themselves around my courage and squeeze the certainty right out of it. I swallowed hard. Okay so maybe this wasn't the most well thought out plan in the world, but I was trying, and that had to count for something.
Taking the coin between my index finger and my thumb, I angled the face of the coin downward toward my feet, and just as I expected, a circle of warm sunlight reflected off the face of the coin and onto the concrete under my shoes. A whisper of a smile touched my lips; so maybe this would work.
Looking up I saw the beast, not looking at me, but at something behind me. My blood chilled as I turned around and saw Haley, she had abandoned the door and was now trying to open a window. I couldn't see her face, but I could tell she was getting desperate by the way her hands moved frantically. I needed to do something, and I needed to do it now.
Pointing the face of the coin towards the beast, I saw the reflection of sunlight on its nasty green scales. I guided the light up the neck of one of the monster's four necks, and finally reached my target: it's eye.
Good news: my plan worked.
Bad news: my plan worked, and now I had seven angry yellow lizard eyes glaring down at me, ready to kill. One of the lizard heads opened it's mouth, and I was expecting for it to lunge at me, but instead, it spat. A large wad of green tinged mucus landed a foot away. My face scrunched up in disgust.
"You might want to work on your..." My eyes widened as the glob of spit started smoking and sinking into the concrete, leaving a hole that was about the size of my face. I gulped. "...Aim."
I turned around just in time to see Haley finally get the window open and start to climb inside, my feet started running before I could even process anything. There was an angry roar from behind me, I shivered slightly. Hearing the loud splats of acid mucus at the heels of my feet, I ran faster. I was almost there, twenty feet, ten feet, five...
Then, ladies and gentlemen, less than five feet from the window, I did the stupidest thing a person could have done in that very moment: I looked behind me. If I had kept on looking forward like a normal person, I would have seen the crack in the concrete; but since I'm not normal and I didn't see it, I tripped, and down I went.
To my credit, I wasn't on the ground for long, but I was down long enough for one of the lizard heads to get a good aim. Pain erupted on my shoulder, and a ragged guttural scream escaped my mouth. The pain was the worst I had ever experienced, it didn't burn or sting, the only word that can describe it is eating. It felt like the mucus was eating my flesh. I fell onto the window in a daze, black spots invading my vision once again. A pair of hands griped my arms and pulled me forward into the window and I went tumbling down to the floor — again.
I think I must have blacked out for a minute or two, because the next thing I knew, I was being half walked, half carried down the main corridor of the school. Students were running around every which way, some were screaming, some looked shocked, and others just looked confused. I could relate.
Looking to my right, I was surprised to see Hedge, as in weird-English-teacher-that's-kinda-crazy, Hedge. But my mind could only really process the immense amount of pain that was emanating from my shoulder. The next thing I know we're practically running across the school parking lot toward an old beat up looking Volkswagen. As soon as we got inside the car, the first thing I noticed was the smell: wet animal fur. And it didn't smell like a cat or a dog, this smelled like a barnyard animal.
"Are you two okay?" The sound of Hedge's voice shook me out of my thoughts, and I realized that the car was now speeding away from Eric's School for 'gifted' children, and I watched as the building became smaller and smaller.
"I'm fine," a familiar voice beside me replied, "but I-I think we might need to take Ari to a... hospital." I turned to see Haley, her eyes puffy and her face a shade of green as she stared at something on me, and when I realized that something was my shoulder, I swallowed. Hedge bit out a few curses in a language I didn't know, then fumbled around with the glove compartment in the front seat. A few seconds later he tossed a clear plastic baggy into the backseat. It took me a second to figure out what was inside the bag.
"A brownie?" Haley sounded outraged, "Couldn't you at least give her some pain killers, or something?"
"Trust me, Cupcake, that's the best pain killer you're ever gonna get." I couldn't see Hedge's face, but he sounded amused.
"What's that supposed to mean? It's a brownie," Haley asked, obviously frustrated and confused. A part of me felt the same way, but a larger part, the part that was in survival mode, wanted to just shove the brownie in my face.
"Listen, Sweetheart, your friend is dying, if you don't give her the stuff in that bag, she will die." Hedge's voice was serious and urgent, like he thought the brownie could actually save my life. I didn't give him enough credit before, he wasn't just crazy, he was a certified nut case.
Haley must have heard something in his voice that I didn't, because all of a sudden, a brown square was being shoved into my mouth. I was expecting the chocolate taste of a regular brownie, but that was not what I got. I tasted grilled cheese sandwiches, tomato soup and almost instantly the pain in my shoulder started to ebb away. My eyes widened and I turned to Haley, only to see her gaping at my shoulder. I looked down to see my skin repairing itself, reversing all the damage done to it by the acid at an incredible speed, each passing second the skin looked healthier and healthier, until you couldn't even tell what had happened.
Curious, I bent over and rolled the right leg of my jeans up to my knee, where a large scratch had been just the day before, had completely disappeared, replaced by new healthy skin. I showed Haley, and she shook her head in disbelief.
"This is impossible," she breathed. Hedge chuckled and kept his eyes focused on the road ahead of him.
"Welcome to my world, Cupcake."