New Year Eve - The Strange Flashes

She smiled thinking her brother had grown up and this was the reason he had got out.

The choreographer continued to announce on the stage while Rachael was still lost in her own thoughts. She came back to this world when someone pushed her from behind.

"After the warm up we will begin with

Argentine Tango followed by

Foxtrot,

Bolero,

Rumba,

Waltz

and we will end with a simple couple dance"

With this everyone looked towards the stage for the warm up exercise.

The four choreographers took their position on the stage keeping sufficient distance between them for the warm up, this was to ensure everyone on the dance floor could get a good look to follow them.

"Okay, everyone let's begin the warmup now. Is everyone ready?" spoke the lady on stage to the crowd

"Yes" came the answer from crowd.

The crowd began the warm up exercise by following the four choreographers on stage. The entire warm up exercise took close to 15 minutes and was not boring. It was more like dance steps to get the crowd into the mood.

At the end of the warm up everyone were laughing.

It was now time for Argentine Tango. As, all the dance forms organised today was targeted towards couple, Rachael couldn't escape all of it. But Ethan felt very happy today.

The noise had reduced and the crowd was now keenly following the dance steps.

This was a fast dance form with pretty quick moves. Although they had to dance together, Rachael let out a sigh thinking she did not have to keep too much of an eye contact.

Everyone on the dance floor now took their position. To begin with they had to follow the four people on stage while counting the numbers and once after all the steps were rehearsed, the music would begin.

Keeping the time in mind and to make sure all the dance forms were covered each one of them had a maximum of 5 steps which would repeat throughout the music. Each step was numbered and while the couples danced to the music, specific step numbers would be called out to match the beat.

So it was necessary to remember the steps along with its number.

Everyone felt a little difficult in the beginning but eventually they got a hang of it. And when they felt the couples on the dance floor had practised enough they turned on the music the beats of which exactly matched the dance steps. The crowd began to enjoy the dance and everyone seemed pretty excited to dance with the music.

In a similar fashion rest of the dance forms followed. The choreographers made the steps looks so simple, it looked like everyone on the dance floor were professional dancers.

Rachael wanted to skip Rumba as that dance form required too much of proximity. She indicated Ethan to move towards the corner and Ethan obliged. She planned to join back for Waltz.

Ray saw his sister and Ethan moving to the corner of the dance floor and he knew it was the right time to introduce his girlfriend to them.

He whispered something to his girlfriend and then they started moving to the corner with the dance steps to get off the dance floor.

Ray with his girlfriend finally caught up with Ethan and Rachael who had gone back to the corner couch. They both sat on the couch next to them and Ray started the conversation

"Sis, Ethan, meet my girl Sophia. I had planned to introduce her to you today. She is from Zeus just like both of us and they are also migrants just like us."

"Oh you dark horse! " said Rachael while pulling her brother's nose.

"Hi Sophia, nice to meet you. You're lucky to get the best dude in this world" said Rachael as she warmly smiled at her and Sophia acknowledged her compliment.

"Where and how did you meet?" asked Ethan to Ray who was surprised too. Not even once in the last few days did Ray mention about Sophia. He seemed to be real good at surprises.

"We met a year ago in NY in a party of a common friend and been together since then" said Ray

"Hmmm" said Rachael as she winked at at baby brother who was all grown up today.

After few more minutes of chit chat both the couples now headed back to the dance floor. The dance form Rumba was over and the choreographers were now getting ready for the next dance form - "Waltz"

After the Waltz, it was time finally time slow and simple couple dance. There was twenty minutes left for the dance floor to open for the DJ to take music requests.

The slow couple dance was another dance, which Rachael wanted to avoid, but as both Ray with his girl and Jason with Janet had moved closer to where Ethan and Rachael were dancing, she couldn't think of a way to escape.

Ray had taught few of the dance moves to Ethan and suggested him to go through various YouTube videos to learn the steps in preparation for this day. Ray did not want his buddy to look stupid after all. And Ethan had made a genuine effort hoping to impress his wife.

As Ethan wrapped his hands around Rachael's waste and pulled her closer as required by the dance, there was no way Rachael could escape. She could feel the warmth radiating from his chest and she just badly wanted to run away. She sighed silently to herself.

In between all these she had completely forgotten about the intuition she had. Her mind now was only thinking on how to escape from Ethan.

After thinking of various possibilities she realised she could not skip this dance. She gave up trying to escape and decided this would be her last dance with Ethan. She placed her left hand on his shoulder while giving her right hand for him to hold.

The dance was slow and as they moved and twirled around Rachael avoided direct eye contact with Ethan. But Ethan seemed happy as he was able to hold his wife after a long time.

As they twirled around in circular motion Rachael happened to see a girl lying on the couch in the corner where they were seated earlier. She realised that it was the same girl with the red and black gown who had captivated her while back when they were entering the venue.

The girl seemed to have passed out and unaware of the happenings around her.

When she moved her vision from the girl, she just happened to look at Ethan for just a second and she felt enchanted. It looked like she was hypnotised.

Her beautiful hazel coloured eyes, turned yellow within a fraction of a second and Ethan saw the image of the red fire dragon with a yellow background of her eyes. It was the same supreme fire dragon the power of which both of them had inherited after their soul union.

Jason was keeping a close watch on Rachael but was unaware of what had happened to Rachael. He only could see Rachael looking at Ethan.

But Ray had noticed something. He saw the ring which Ethan was wearing was glowing faintly and he knew something was occurring. No normal crowd had noticed it.

Ray got closer to where Rachael was. He knew something was not ok.

Rachael had lost conscious of the outer world but her eyes were still open. Ethan knew that she was no longer aware of what was happening around her, as he could feel her hand which was placed on his shoulder slowly slipping down.

He held her tight as he slowly moved her to the corner of the dance floor. He did not want people around to notice them. Ethan got her to near the adjacent couch where the other girl had passed out, was sleeping . He carefully lowered his wife down made her lie down.

Ethan closed Rachael's eyes which were still open. Ray and Jason were worried seeing Ethan slowly moving out of the dance floor and they had followed Ethan.

Rachael on the other hand, had strange flashes of scenes which were not complete.

She could see the mysterious shop from the mall, the hallow, the girl who she had seen today running breathlessly in a forest, the ring on Ethan's finger, her past where she fought the dark forces with Ethan's support, Ethan's mom, a never seen before child, prison, an ancient time in Greece, she being coronated as queen with Ethan by her side, a dead child, Ethan being helpless, purple potion, Ethan's life in danger, she and Ethan behind the prison, the leader of the dark forces, Ethan's brother, evil laughter.

The flashes wouldn't stop and tears begin rolling down her eyes. Her brain could no longer hold it and she started having convulsions.

Jason immediately pulled Ray and whispered in his ears to quickly preserve her memory on whatever she may be seeing right now and Ray just followed his instructions. He knew Jason would never do anything to harm his sister.

Ethan on the other hand, seeing his wife having convulsions, pulled her and hugged her tight to provide her comfort as her convulsions continued. Ethan was tearing up. He loved his wife and was not sure why had the fire dragon shown up.

Everything was happening so quickly and Ray's mind was muddled by emotions too. He just couldn't think sense, seeing his sister like this.

Jason had taken control of the situation as Rachael had told her about her intuition and she was right again this time.

Both Janet and Sophia had freaked seeing Rachael like this.

Jason couldn't tell anything to anyone as he had promised Rachael. He had to wait until Rachael gained conscious again.

Authors PoV: The lighting which had struck Rachael along with Ethan's ring had created a mysterious magic unknown to anyone.