Chapter 1: Part 2: The 'It' in the Glass Case

Second part....

“Excuse me, everyone!” he said through a microphone. Everyone looked up at him and almost everyone but me were looking at him and not the beautiful object in the glass case. “Merry Christmas! I’m so glad to be here with all of you and to present something special we have here this Christmas Eve…” He started talking some more and I didn’t listen to him until he said, “This was found here in California. It’s a shard of a very rare crystal that scientists haven’t yet discovered or named.” After he said those few words I was drawn to it like a magnet. My legs rushed over to it even though I tried to stop myself. My eyes looked straight forward. I wanted to stop! The force became stronger and I ran over to the crystal shard and held the case against my cheek. What is going ON? Why is this happening? My thoughts screamed. My head was spinning. My heart was pounding. I had never ever felt this way in my life before and why now?

                Once midnight struck, a blur of thoughts and flashes raced through my mind and then stopped. The force that pulled me towards the rare crystal was gone and I was relieved. I kept hoping and praying that it wouldn’t happen again, at least not right now in front of a lot of people. But it already had happened so it was too late. When the force released itself from me, I looked up and everyone, and I mean everyone, was staring at me. Anika walked over to me and pulled me into a closet.

                “Okay, seriously, Cryse, what was up with that?” she tugged on my simple red dress that touched the tip of my toes. I had on a black sweater that draped over the dress and apparently was a good target for being pulled at.

                I shook my head. “I don’t know,” I responded honestly. “It was like some force that pulled me to the crystal thing.” I looked down at my toes. My eyes kept glancing to Anika’s shoes: shiny black high heels. She may have liked darker colors and seemed mean but she really does know how to dress for parties. To match her dress she sprinkled little red confetti pieces all over her shoes.

                She kept me in there for a while and tried to squeeze answers out of me but I didn’t have any answers. It was all some big mistake and I probably had had too much soda that I got all jittery and weird. “I never even saw you drink soda once at this party!” Anika screeched. She opened the closet door and we went back out.

Everyone seemed normal again. They weren’t staring at me anymore. There was a quiet buzz of people talking until I walked past the stage and then they quieted down and looked at me. Ducking past the stage, Dad outstretched his arms at the side of the stage and then I hugged him. People began chattering again once they were sure I wasn’t going to say or do anything.

When Dad shielded me, stepping in front of me, I followed his eyes to see what he was looking at. A dark figure with a hooded cape stood behind the curtain backstage. A menacing hiss escaped the figure’s mouth and my stomach twisted in knots with fear as the hooded figure started to lunge towards us- or probably me.