Unknown Side
I woke to the a bright light.. At first I thought I was dead, cause you know, people see a bright light when they die. But I quickly dismissed that thought when I heard Lizzie’s voice.
“Rick, that’s what I saw! I wouldn’t lie about that sort of thing! No, I wouldn’t lie period!” She hissed, her voice not sounding like her own.
Hearing Rick sigh I could feel his weariness “Elizabeth, I know you wouldn’t lie. But you are going to have to about this. We can’t let her know-” He stopped, his voice trailing off almost.
They both fell silent.
It was then that it occurred to me that Rick was a mind reader and Lizzie could see the future. They knew I could hear them, so there was no chance in me finding out what they are hiding from me now.
My head was still spinning, but the bright light that was splashed across my vision started to disappear and was soon replaced by a familiar sight of a hospital-like room. Its white tiled ceilings freakishly white, while the rest of the room appeared to be practically nothing. Beds, patients, nurses, doctors, everything you’d expect.
And yet, I felt so out of place. Not in the right mind. I didn’t know what it was, but everything just felt as if it didn’t belong here.
“This is the schools hospital Abi,.” Rick said, his voice calm and reassuring, different to his past weariness. “That’s probably why it seems odd; everything in here is an illusion, fitted to person’s interests and to where they believe they are meant to be at this time.”
Lizzie smiled and squeezed my hand “It’s sort of like the room of requirement in Harry Potter.” She smiled more brightly, but the smile couldn’t reach her eyes.
I watched her, my eyes looking into hers. Searching for the answers in them. But all I could see was emptiness. It was as if she was disconnecting herself from me. That was when I saw the small glimmer in her eye. A small glimmer of fear, a fear of me.
Whatever she may know, I knew that how much I might want to know, that fear in my best friends eye was enough to tell me not to go looking.
Suddenly Lizzie’s grip tightened on my hand, her nails pinching at my skin.
I didn’t have enough time to ask her what the problem was until the problem walked right into the room. The dark eyed, wild haired, problematic Jasmine. But unlike her usual appearance whenever she saw me, there was no smirk on her face. Just…worry?
Lizzie’s grip loosened and the glare she usually threw to Jasmine became weaker and was filled with confusion.
“Your awake” She breathed, a deep exhale that made me wonder how long she’d been holding her breath. “I thought that you….I-I thought-” she stuttered, the usual cool composure breaking in to pieces.
She sighed softly and dropped her gaze “I’m glad your OK Abi.”
My jaw dropped.
Was Jasmine….worried about me? I turned to Lizzie, sending her a telepathic message (obviously I don’t actually have telepathy but we’ve been working on it) to see if she knew what the hell was going on.
Lizzie shrugged, clearly not knowing what was going on. But she was defiantly as confused and surprised to see Jasmine embarrassed and self-conscious.
I turned back to Jasmine to find her still staring at her shoes, her cheeks tinted red. Feeling the need to say something I went to thank her for her concern, but just as I opened my mouth to speak, she was gone.
“Well that was weird.” Lizzie said, her tone amused at what she had just witnessed.
Laughing softly I nodded “Tell me about it, was that even Jasmine right now? It could have been a shape shifter or something.”
It was Lizzie’s turn to laugh “Nope defiantly her, you can tell from the speed that she disappeared at.” Flicking my side to make me budge Lizzie hopped into the bed next to me. “She seems different, everything does, and it’s weird…”
She trailed off, her eyebrows creasing together as if she had found an equation that couldn’t be answered. And for someone of Lizzie’s intelligence, that’s not even close to a rare occurrence.
“Lizzie, you know you can tell me anything right?” I whispered, snuggling against her warm form. “You know that I heard you and Rick talking and you know I know that I can’t be told what will happen, but….can’t you just tell me what happened to me?”
I could feel her fidgeting, and Lizzie only fidgets when she doesn’t know what to say. It’s also what she does if she has to lie to someone.
“You touched my hand when we were reaching for the bread and your had a physical connection with my past. You felt like you couldn’t breathe so I’m guessing you went back to when my parents tried to suffocate me.” Lizzie shrugged sadly “I’m sorry you had to have your first vision physical connection with something like that.”
All I could do was nod slowly and snuggle tighter against Lizzie to stop myself from asking what I really needed to know.
What had I meant by save her?
Two days had passed and I had pressed the subject about what had really happened to me, and Lizzie didn’t allow the subject of my emergency come up in conversation.
I was sat in my English lesson when a student came in with a message.
“Miss Abigail Chambers” Miss Lutton said, her voice reeking with arrogance towards her wide knowledge of English. Stupid vampires. “You have been summoned to the auditorium for a meeting, go…now!”
Sighing I packed up my belongings, chucking them in my bag. Giving Lizzie’s hand a goodbye squeeze I headed in the direction of the auditorium.
Entering the room I searched for the light switch, but just as my fingers found them, a pair of hands covered my mouth and pulled me backwards by the waist.
It was a set-up. Whoever was here and had me had set this up to kill me. It was only a matter of time till the cheer freaks and dumb jocks (not Eliza, of course!) would kill me.
Attempting to fight back I was saddened to find that I wasn’t even coming close to my kidnapper. They were too good. Being sat down on a chair I found my arms being tied behind my back, so I tried fighting again.
“Stop struggling dumb ass, I’m trying to help you.” The girl hissed, her breathing heavy and out of breath. But that voice, it was far too familiar.
A light flickered on. It took me a while to adjust my eyes, but there in front of me stood a smiling Jasmine.
Waving slightly she said “Hey again, I wanted to apologise for running away earlier…” She laughed softly, rubbing the back of her neck “I kind of freaked out I guess. That doesn’t usually happen, so it was weird.”
I frowned at her “Jasmine.” I said sharply “If you wanted to apologise, you could have seen me at lunch instead of kidnapping me!”
Jasmine laughed properly, throwing her head back in laughter. “I had to do this muppet, if I didn’t you wouldn’t have listened to me.”
That’s when the atmosphere suddenly changed; her mood went from jokey to serious in an instant.
“I know you’ve been trying to figure out what happened to you and why it did, and I think I can help you with that. You see, when you were still asleep I had been bringing you flowers and stuff-”
That shocked me, so I interrupted abruptly “You had been bringing me flowers? Which ones? Was it the lilies? Because if it was that’s weird cause-”
Jasmine cut me off this time “Yes I know they were your favourites so I bought them OK? Can I continue you?” I nodded, promising not to say a word. “Well I was bringing you a new lot of lilies on the second day of your sleep – you were out for four days by the way – when I overheard a conversation between Lizzie and Rick about you. I didn’t mean to, but this is me we are talking about, so I kind of ease dropped.”
I was shell shocked. I had answers. But the source cam from someone I had never had any reason to trust before this day. Looking her dead in the eyes I asked “So what does this have to do with me being tied up?”
Pinching the bridge of her nose Jasmine continued “I know that you can look into the past of someone by having a physical connection with them. I also know that if it’s just a causal touch you see the most painful memory of that person, but with a more emotional physical connection that person can see what they want you to see.”
Shaking my head I exhaled heavily “What does that have to do with anything?”
Jasmine growled and grabbed me by the shoulders “It means if you want to know what happened to you I’m going to have to kiss you!”
We both blushed at her words. Her because she had just said them aloud and me because I couldn’t believe I’d have to kiss her to find the truth.
“There I said it,” She whispered, taking a step back from me only to walk around to untie the ropes. “I know it was a stupid idea, but I wanted to help.”
I frowned “Why in the hell would you want to help when you’ve been out to get me since I walked into you on my first day?”
Sighing softly she moved away from the untied ropes, and turned away from me. “Because you are different…I don’t know, there’s just….something that has made everything different.”
I didn’t know how to respond. But I knew for sure. Something in Jasmine had changed. I didn’t know if it would be like that until the end of school, but for now, that was enough for me to trust her.
I took her hand in mine and waited for her to turn to look at me. Those golden eyes of hers confused and watering as if she were on the brink of tears.
Closing my eyes for a long second, I opened them and smiled at her.
“I want your help.” I whispered, my voice soft but strong as to what I was to discover. “I need your help Jasmine, will you help me?”
She smiled softly and cautiously raised a hand to my cheek, gently stroking it. Her other hand still held mine but released it, only to interlock our fingers together and hold me close against her.
This was not the girl I once knew, this is someone I feel I have met before. Someone my mind couldn’t remember. Or wouldn’t.
Her fingers traced my skin as lightly as if it were porcelain. How could someone be so gentle and yet so strong all at once? I would never have believed it until this moment. Jasmine looked into my eyes, as if to ask if I was sure about this.
Giving her hand a reassuring squeeze I smiled softly at her and leaned my cheek against her gentle hand.
Jasmine smiled and slowly leant in towards my lips, stopping every now and then to make sure I was still OK with what was happening.
Just as our lips were just tracing each other she whispered “I’ll help you, Abi.” And our lips met.
It didn’t take long for me to feel myself being taken back into her memory, but what I was to find was a fear waiting to appear.