He let go of me as he closed the door behind me, and once again walked in that strange manner, out into my front yard. “I-I just want to go to my room!” I mumbled, ignoring the deep blush caressing my cheeks from the beautiful sight in front of me.
“Are you sure you want to?” He asked, a wide smile dancing off of his playful eyes as he turned towards me. “It’s a full moon tonight.” I stared at Mr. Cortell as his hair rocked in the wind, and his eyes reflected the moon glow. The way his shirt’s collar flew up so lightly and fluttered on his cheek; I suddenly felt jealous, wanting to touch his soft looking skin, too.
My legs got a mind of their own, and I started to walk towards him. I suddenly didn’t feel like myself; I felt as though something was pulling me towards him. It was a strange feeling, as though he had strings on me, and I was his puppet.
He raised his hand to me, and I only picked up the pace, closing the last of the distance between us. I raised my hand lightly, my eyes not separating from his.
“Don’t you want to escape from here?” He asked in a whisper as our hands touched.
I didn’t hear him.
When our hands had touched, a surge of…something, like a powerful feeling, flew through my body, and everything around me went blank. All that I could see, for miles, was black darkness. I turned around in confusion again and again; hadn’t I just been in my front yard?
And then, all of a sudden, multiple scenes flew around me. When I say scenes, that’s exactly what I mean. They were like flat pieces of paper, giant paper, that had little movies playing on them.
They were spinning so fast; I wasn’t sure what was what. But then they stopped, and the noises from each of them blasted into my eardrums. I quickly fell down with a yelp, my ears feeling as though they were going to burst. I looked around at the mysterious things in confusion.
In one scene, I saw a bright, clear sky with birds, but then in another scene I saw the heavens almost screaming, with a storm running through forests and buildings I couldn’t make out through the heavy rain. The one on my right had…‘kids,’ I guess you could say, though they seemed to be inhuman (literally; three of them had tails!), and they were sitting around in a large yard, their lunches in front of them as they chatted. Beside that one, another scene showed a similar scene, with the same yard, but there were adults. As they sat around, eating their lunch, there was a loud noise, and the adults flew out of their seats with screams of pain and surprise. I quickly turned to the children’s one again, but they only lifted their heads in confusion at the sound that had sent the adults flying. The children looked towards the adult scene, and their mouths dropped before they scrambled to their feet, and ran into the other scene, and out of it again.
As the noises finally began to die down, I stared at all of the scenes around me and slowly lowered my hands from my ears. “…What is all of this?” I asked in a whisper, confused.
“Your future, human!” I spun around, looking at a last scene behind me, and found my eyes widening as I saw a dark figure seemingly looming over me. He raised his arm, and it stretched the papery substance separating us. I took a step back, my voice frozen, but when his hand shot through, and he stepped forward, I screamed loudly.
“Your kind shall be the first to go in our new millennium!” He came up, and his dark green eyes widened as my screaming only provoked him more. I tried to turn and run, but he easily grabbed my flinging arm, and pulled me back to face him.
“L-let me go!” I stuttered out before he wrapped his long fingers around my scrawny neck. I tried to wrestle free as his grip tightened, but it was no use. He lifted me up as though I weighed less than a feather.
But of course, I wasn’t thinking about feathers. I was thinking about how I was going to die.
“Fatima!”
My eyes shot open as I heard a familiar voice, and I tried to turn my head as he repeatedly called my name.
“M…Mr. Cortell…?”
He seemed to gasp, glad that he had gotten through to me, and continued to talk, “Fatima! You have to wake up!”
Wake up? What was he talking about? I was already awake, though the pain seemed painful enough to be a nightmare.
“I…I can’t…”
“Yes you can! Don’t let him kill you!” My eyes squeezed out what tears were left as I mutely cried that I couldn’t do it.
“H-he’s too strong…”
“If you don’t, you’ll die!” My eyes widened as I stared at the man choking me; was I really going to die this way?
Was I going to die in this darkness?
In this man’s grip?
I didn’t want it to end this way…No…
“No!”
All of the scenes disappeared as I yelled, and he looked down at me with a startled gaze before liberating my neck. He held his hand in pain, and he let out a hiss and stared at the burning flesh. I stared as well; had I done that? All I did was scream…
“Foolish human…” He whispered, “You will soon die…as will your stupid little world.”
And then…I was back in my front yard.
That’s right; just like that, I was back. I was lying on the ground, or rather; my body was, as my head laid on Mr. Cortell’s lap.
“…What happened?” I asked in a whisper before coughing. Suddenly all of my body was aching.
Why did my throat hurt so much? And why did my voice sound so mumbled? My back, feet and hands all hurt as well, and I looked up at Mr. Cortell for answers. In response to my gaze, he acknowledged my awakened form and removed his knees from under my head, gently resting it on the cool grass, before standing up and walking a couple of steps away.
I blinked for a moment before I realized that my glasses had been thrown off, and I quickly patted the grass around me until I found them. As I sat up all the way, I felt something on my cheek. I touched it, and felt a warm liquid, and when I looked at it, I found it was blood. I followed the stream up to the source, my ear, and then discovered that my other ear also bloody. I knew the pain had been real.
“You have no mental barriers…he got to you so easily.” I stared up at him now as I saw his face deep in thought. “You have to come to the school as soon as possible.” When he said this, I continuously shook my head.
“No! I want to stay here…where it’s safe!”
Mr. Cortell rolled his eyes before bending down beside me. “It’s not safe here at all, Fatima! If you want to keep having these dreams, you can stay here. And eventually…” He paused before sighing and standing up, “you will die.”
I wondered if he was a girl; it was like he was on his period or something. He acted so goofy and nice in front of my parents, but now he was so impatient and mean. I knew that he acted distant, but I didn’t expect him to be so rude.
The last thing he said to me was this (before he walked back in the house), “Come with me to Edgar’s Unnatural Boarding School if you want answers, and if you want to live.”
He left me in the front yard, bloody and dazed. Never had I met such a cold blooded person…
And thus, my hate for Ivor Cortell began.