I will protect you

Azaliah Krimson

After taking Jade’s hand, I closed my eyes only to be transported to another dimension. At first, that was what I thought until I saw different worlds floating in bubbles around me.

Jade turned to me, “Right now we’re transparent but in my dream world.” She said as she pulled my hand and floated to the first bubble. She reached for it and then it popped pulling us inside it.

We arrived at a luscious land filled with many forests and greenery. I noticed animals everywhere I looked and the sun was shining. Ahead of us was a giant castle and in front of the castle, I noticed children were playing, a red-haired little girl along with a boy with flaming orange hair.

Jade became cautious, “This isn’t right... we should have been in my dream world unless…”

She turned to me, “This is your dream world,” she whispered.

Immediately the dream shattered and I was awoken in the real world. The heavy rain hit the window pane as Jade looked at me in astonishment.

“So you are a caelestian,” She whispered again.

“Show it to me again!” I demanded and grabbed her hand.

“I saw him… I saw Felix! And I know you saw him too, he was little there… It was him!” I told her as I clutched the flame crystal.

“Azi calm down, I know I saw it too. But for now, you need to get some rest,” She said pushing me to lie down on the bed.

I shook my head, and pushed her away, "I need to know what happened to them, I need to save Felix and bring him back!”

Jade’s hand glowed again as she used her power to calm me down. But how could I calm down when mythical creatures that I thought existed only in fairytales are now real and are haunting me.

My forehead ached and began to burn. I held my head in pain as I felt it splitting. I screamed as it became unbearable. I moved off the bed and began rolling on the ground screaming for this pain to stop.

“Make it stop!” I yelled and then there was darkness.

*~*~*~*~*

It had been three days since Felix left me. When I woke up again yesterday, I found Jade, Isaac, and Daniel in my room. They explained everything to me and I'm still trying to process everything.

There were other realms, unlike earth. But for the earth, they called it Terrae. There are nine realms. And every supernatural creature... mythical creatures... they all exist in different realms. On earth, we call humans a person or people but for them, they are known as Caelestians. I'm now surrounded by otherworldly beings.

Isaac was a wolf shifter. He was the one that saved me from the wolf that slashed my leg. Daniel was a dream walker and a seer that could see glimpses of the future. As for stone face... he was nowhere to be seen.

And as for my best friend, the person that I'd trusted for five years is a seer... a caelestian... On the last day, we had the concert, there was something that she wasn't telling me and it turned out that she was hiding the fact that I was going to get hurt. She tried to save me from going home, that's why she wanted me to go to the carnival.

But by doing so... it cost me my parents and now I lost my brother. My body still hurts when I try to move it too much. The wounds were healing slowly but not the mark on my forehead. It will try to heal but last night… every night… the wound opened up and I was engulfed with pain that hit me throughout my body. I had to stop myself from screaming and waking everyone else up.

The pain had stopped just after midnight. I haven't been sleeping because of the nightmares that plagued me. Whenever I tried to sleep, I would always see that demon's face cursing me over and over again.

The one thing that hurts me the most is remembering that I would never get to see my parents again. I had made it to my home. It was now a broken and empty house, a home that doesn't feel like home.

I hadn't told anyone about what happened to me that night. I couldn't bring myself to tell them what this curse on my forehead is. That demon is going to pay for hurting my family. I pushed away from the fallen rocks and made my way up the stairs of my house. I have lived here for ten years. There were so many memories and now I don't get to make new ones here.

"Maybe one day you can find me. Do you remember the dream that we had for the future? One day I hope you can make it happen."

And I will make it come true. I will save Felix. Walking into his room, I opened his closet and took out the box that was hidden among the clothes. Inside was a red knife engraved with ancient symbols. It was Felix's most prized possession. He never parted with it. He never would have left this behind and when I find him, I will give this back to him.

I went to my room and took out some clothes from my closet. I picked the clothes necessary for traveling and I took all the first aid stuff I could find. I found an old school bag and shoved everything inside. I swung the bag over my shoulder. My back stung a bit from the pain but it was manageable. Carefully making my way down the stairs, I made sure not to step on the broken parts of the stairs.

"Where do you think you're going?" I searched around the broken house for the voice.

"Obviously down the stairs," After landing on the last step, I noticed him standing by the shadows of the broken parts of the house. This time I got a better look at him. He looked human to me but he was a caelestian.

I looked away to the place where the bodies of my parents once laid, "Where are their bodies..."

I made my way to the scarred ashes that were left behind.

"We took them away for examining. They are caelestians after all. Their essence was leaking out of them," I nodded twice and made my way to the backyard as I noticed the blood. I shut my eyes and inhaled sharply as I felt the memories sting me.

"It's okay to cry, you don't have to hide how you feel." Stoneface came up to my side.

"It's okay... I'll be fine..." That was a lie. I wasn't fine but I had to accept it. I loved them so much. But Felix is still alive and somewhere in the other realms, which I'm still trying to process that there are other beings.

A world of mythical creatures, that was something I could only dream of but now I'm faced with the reality of them being real. And one of them stood in front of me.

"Stoneface... what are you?"

We walked through the forest together. The sun had just begun to set. After a while, he stopped walking. I halted in my footsteps and turned to look at him.

"I can't say... but whatever power that I have... I will protect you, that I can promise you." His blue eyes seemed to glow in the evening sunlight.

"I will take your word for it." If he didn't want to say anything then it's fine. I won't pry any longer because it's his secret to keep.

"By the way... what's a Lilium?"

"Where did you hear that?"