Chapter 1

  She wandered the woods alone that night, like always. The sky was clear of everything, but the full moon and stars. She loved hearing the whistling of the wind and the tickle of it through her hair made her giggle. Head tops of trees swished and swayed more than often that night. Howling went off in the distance, making her stride more in that direction in wonder. Nothing ever stopped her from going out at night, other than the rain or snow.

                 Stop! Please, its is a trap!

                She jumped. Fiercely she looked around. Tree tops continued to sway. The howling got louder. The wind didn’t tickle when it went through her hair this time, but felt like shards of ice were being thrown at her.

                “Ahh!” Her voiced shrieked loudly, but it wasn’t hers. The voice sounded more evil and high pitched than hers.

                “What’s going on? Who-what? Help!” The evil spoke, but with her anxiety.

                Hurry! Come with me!

               Another gust of wind came at her, feeling like more ice was being thrown at her. Her skin burned and itched from the contact. Parts of her sweatshirt sleeves were ripped and blood trickled gently.

                She only stood still.

                You have got to get out of there!

                She started whimpering.

                Come with me! Now! Please!

                Now there was shaking. How was she supposed to respond or follow something she couldn’t even see?

                Gah!

                There was a cold chill that felt on her wrist, almost like something was grabbing her. The coldness felt tight around her wrist. She tried to pull her hand to her chest, but it didn’t move. She tried again. Nothing. Again, nothing happened.

                “Come on!” There was her voice, finally. She twitched her arm back to her chest. It worked! But it flung back all the same.

                “No,” the evil snapped. It so effortlessly took control of her vocal cords with no able fight from her. How was she supposed to fight something inside her?

                “No?” She questioned the previous word in reposition. “I didn’t say that.”

                “No,” the evil spoke amused.

                She looked down at her cold, out stretched wrist. It tugged, making her step forward twice. The wind picked up, creating another chunk of ice shards being thrown at her. Clouds formed, covering the little light the moon gave off. She squinted in an attempt to see where she was headed and where the ice shards were going to attack from next.

                She whimpered again. “Please, stop.”

                “Haha!” The evil wickedly laughed, forming a crackling sound and a nasally snort. It smirked. “No.”

                Come on! You have to come with me. Now!

                “Who are you?” She looked around as her wrist was tugged forward once more, taking two steps forward.

                “Hehehee!” The evil laughed with amusement. It continued to smirk even with the girl’s fear.

                No time!

                She had no idea what was going on, but decided to let who-whatever it was tugging on her wrist to allow them to do so.

                She walked forward as another chunk of ice shards were shot at her. She felt it cutting into her neck and face. The stinging and burning was becoming too much for her. “Ahk!” She whined in pain. The tugging became harder, turning into an almost sprint for her to prevent herself from falling face first.

                She swerved in and out of trees, through bushes and over huge rocks and broken off debris. “Slow down!” Who�"or whatever�"was pulling her obviously didn’t listen to her plea. Instead, the coldness from around her wrist was gone and she tumbled forward. The thing leading her around probably pushed her into a tree. She went through the trunk of it and ended up in an open field.

                She summersaulted once . . . twice . . . thrice before she was able to stop herself and regain control. She looked up. “Wow,” she breathed.

                The field was huge. There were all different colors of grass flowing symphonically in the light breeze. Left . . . right . . . left . . . right. Small mountains could be seen in the far distance with two flags raised high. Those were flowing back and forth symphonically too. There were some scattered trees to her left and right. The sun was just starting to set; creating a master collage of orange, yellow, red, dark blue and purple in even rose. An arch stood on one of the far mountains in between the two flags.

                She felt the wind and right away held her breath, brazing for the pain. Nothing. The breeze was welcoming and slightly chilling, unlike the one in the forest.

                A great view, is its nots?

                She jumped. She looked around trying to look for where the voice came from. It was the same voice she’s been hearing trying to get her to come with and now, nothing.

                “Who are you?” She scrunched her eyebrows together and spun around gazing in all directions.

                Huh? Pause. Oh, sorry.

                She still couldn’t see anything or one until�"“sorry about that. I forgot you could nots see me.”

                She turned around and stared wide eyed.

                In front of her was a teenage boy. His light, orange hair was incredibly short, but spiked up in the front. He was tall and lanky, standing not so tall or with much confidence. He wore too big for him old blue jeans and a green t-shirt. His white eyes with dark brown and orange specks matched his small smile he had-dull.

                “Where did you come from?” She demanded. She didn’t recognize the area they were in. And she had been exploring the forest she was in most days for the past few years. How could the sun be only setting when before it was pitch dark?

                He shifted his weight from his left foot to right. “I was the one that was pulling you here.” He looked off into the distance behind her.

                “But I didn’t see anyone.”

                “Yeah,” he shifted his weight back to his left foot. “I was invisible.”

                She snorted. “That’s impossible.”

                He looked at her and shook his head. “Its is nos impossible,” he said quietly. He looked back into the distance.

                “Well, then you’re crazy.”

                “Just because you have nots ever experienced its, does nots make its less real.”

                She snorted again and rolled her eyes. “O�"Kay,” she dragged on sarcastically, folding her arms and cocking her head. “And now you’re going to tell me that there’s a magical land with witches and fairies and evil things?” She snickered at the unbelievable statement.

                He looked at her uneasily.

                “Oh, you have got to be kidding me.” She threw her arms up in disbelief and put her hands entwined behind her head turning towards the far away mountains. 

                He shook his head, looking at the mountains.

                She whipped back around suddenly, arms down at her sides. “You’re crazy.” She repeated, “You’re crazy.”

                “Just because you have nots ever experienced its, does nots make its less real,” he repeated unfazed. “Karlme.”

                She scrunched up her eyebrows and raised them. “What?”

                “Karlme,” he repeated biting his bottom lip.

                She rolled her eyes. “I heard that. I mean what’s that got to do with anything?” Then she repeated, “What?”

                He looked at the ground and rocked back and forth on his heels. “Karlme is my name.”

                What the hell type of name is Karlme? Obviously, his parents had to be drunk when they picked it. “That’s a weird name.”

                He shook his head defensively, still looking at the ground though. “Nots where I come from. Your name would be weird in my home.”

                She unfolded her arms, cocked her hip and placed a hand on it staring at him hard. “Oh really?” She challenged.

                He stopped rocking on his heels, looked up and nodded. “Yes.” He stared at her calmly. He folded his in front of him gently.

                “My name’s Kelsy.”

                He thought for a few moments and shook his head. “Nos. I have never heard of that name in my home.”

                “Well, dido,” she scoffed and looked back at the mountains.

                The colors were starting to melt together more, mixing into a now beautiful dark blue color. Few stars were starting to appear, but the moon was not visible. The breeze became heavier and colder, forcing her to cross her arms and rub her shoulders forcefully. The flags swished and swayed in the wind.

                “Dido,” he muttered to himself. “What does dido mean?”

                She stopped rubbing her shoulders. She looked over her shoulder and raised both eyebrows. “You don’t know what dido means?”

                “Nos.” His cheeks and ears suddenly tinted red and he tilted his head down hoping she wouldn’t see.

                “Weirdo.” She inhaled deeply, closing her eyes momentarily before opening them. “It means same to you or back atcha.”

                “Oh.” His cheeks heated more. He ran a hand through his hair slowly.

                “Yeah. Oh.” She turned back towards the mountains.

                It was now starting to become dark. More than the few stars from before were out, adding to them. The moon was finally starting to show itself, but you could only see the very gibbous side of it. The rest just looked like it was part of the night sky. Another moon appeared from behind a passing cloud. It was smaller than the other one in size, but much larger in luminosity.

                He cleared his throat and asked, “Would you like to go to the mountains and see my home?”

                “I just wanna go home,” she answered softly as she continued to stare at the flags, mountains and arch. “How did I even get here?” She turned around to stare at him. “You pushed me through a tree. How did I go through a tree? It’s not possible.”

                He shifted his weight from his right foot to his left and diverted his eyes uneasily away from her. “The tree is nots really a real tree.” She folded her arms. “I mean its is a real tree�"“

                “Then how did I go through the tree and end up here?” She pushed.

                “You can only go through the tree and end up here if you are only one of us.”

                “One of who?” She glared at him.

                “One of the peoples that live over the mountains.” He pointed to the mountains they have been staring at. She looked. “But you have to go through the arch that is in between the two flags. The arch has�"“

                She put up her hand to stop him from going any further. He went quiet. “Stop. Just stop.” He pursed his lips into a straight line. “I don’t need to hear the back story of a dumb arch that I don’t remember asking you about, now did I?”

                “You asked,” he muttered to himself, not realizing it was loud enough for her to hear it.

                “I asked for ‘one of who?’ Not for the life story of a stupid arch,” she snapped.

                He went completely blank and looked like he was spacing out. She raised both eyebrows at him, but he did nothing. She walked up to him and waved her hand in front of his face a couple times. Still nothing happened. She snapped her fingers to re-alert him. It didn’t work either. He still looked spaced out.

                She took an uneasy step backwards. “Karlme, stop it.” He didn’t do anything. He wasn’t even blinking; just a human statue it seemed. “Really Karlme it’s not funny. Stop it!” A lump formed in her throat too big to swallow. “Karlme, I’m sorry, just stop it!” She bit her bottom lip hard enough for it to start bleeding. She licked her lip and spit out the blood. “Karlme, please!” She now screamed at him.

                He snapped out of it, but his face was ghostly pale. He grabbed her hand and started making a run towards the mountains with Kelsy struggling to keep up. “We have to hurry,” he rushed out.

                He gripped her hand. Usually he would feel beyond self-conscious about holding a girl’s hand, but he was only focused on getting them through the arch before she caught up with them.

               He felt his eyes change orange from their original white color. The wind speed increased and blew at them. He wasn’t focused at all on Kelsy until she let out a painful scream. He glanced down at his uncovered arms. Cuts covered his arms; some deep enough that blood was gently flowing from them. It was again throwing ice shards at them, even though they couldn’t see them.

                “Not again,” he grumbled. He pushed his aching legs faster and gripped Kelsy’s hand tighter.

                He looked back at Kelsy and she had blood dripping from her forehead, cheek and right under her left eye by what he could see. She stared at his glowing orange eyes before they turned away from her.

                He ran faster, forcing Kelsy to sprint even faster to catch up. That didn’t seem possible with her in pain and how fast Karlme was going. She started panting, feeling bile build up in her throat. It would have helped at a time like that if she actually tried running her best in gym class.

                They were going up the mountain that had the arch on top of it. Something on the arch started to twinkle. Several some things actual.

                “Stop! Karlme!” The evil screeched bitterly.

                Kelsy whimpered.

                He heard the wickedness in the high, female voice. He clenched his jaw and sped up more. He gripped Kelsy’s hand tighter as more ice shards were thrown at them. Kelsy screamed again.

                “Make it stop!” She cried to him.

                He saw the arch only meters away. He sprinted as fast as he could to get through it. It approached them quickly, but it still seemed miles away with them needing to get through urgently.

               “Hold on!” He yelled to her.

                She couldn’t process what he meant until she looked up and saw the gigantic arch with a flag on either side. Flowers sat fragile looking on the black and purple vines over lapping each other. Brown and white flowers were on the black vine and blue and white flowers were on the purple vine. The flowers glowed bright enough to blind someone. That’s what was twinkling.

                They ran through the arch and summersaulted onto the other side. There was banging and scratching from behind them. Kelsy looked behind her and saw nothing, but repulsiveness from the female creature that was apparently chasing them. She had moles, a single brow and wrinkles all over her face. Kelsy didn’t get much of a look other than that because Karlme was blocking her view.

                He took two rasp-looking berries out of his pocket and crushed them in his hand. He opened his hand flat out in front of his mouth and blew. All of the specks from the crushed juice created a hard barrier over the arch so the female creature couldn’t see through to their side or get through.

                He sighed, turning around. He walked past her and held out his hand to help her up. She took his offer and he pulled her up.

                “Come on,” he said tiredly.

                He started down the mountain towards the village. She looked back at what just happened and jogged to catch up to Karlme.

                “How did you do that?” She asked as she got to his side. She bent her knees and leaned backwards like he did so she wouldn’t tumble down the mountain.

                He shrugged his shoulders and stuffed his hands in his pockets. “I just did. Its is what I am found to do.”

                “But I thought you could turn invisible?” She looked at him then back at the ground to tell where she was stepping.

                “I can.” He looked straight ahead.

                “But you did that? How?” She quickly glanced at him through her peripheral vision confused. 

                He sighed and scratched the back of his neck uncomfortably. “I just could. Its is one of my talents.”

                She stopped and grabbed onto his over-sized sleeved. He didn’t even stumble when he stopped and turned towards her. She would have. “One of your talents? How many talents do you have?”

                He again scratched the back of his neck uncomfortably. “I would rather nots say about its.”

                He went to turn back towards the village, but she tugged on his sleeve to stop him. “You forced me here, so I think I should know. Talk,” she demanded, releasing his sleeve and folding her arms.

                Her face was dead serious. There was no getting out of that for Karlme. “I did nots force you here,” he attempted to persuade.

                “Well, I’m here. Talk,” she repeated her demand.

                He shifted his weight to his left and locked gaze with her. “I have three talents.”

                “And what are they?”

                He shifted his weight back to his right foot. “You already know two of them.”

                “The last?” She pushed forcefully.

                He looked away from her. His hands were down at his sides shaking before he hid them in his pockets. “I will not say. For your own good.”

                He turned away from her and continued down the mountain. He didn’t seem comfortable with any of her questions. He just wanted to get into village before any of the others ask what a Human was doing in their home.

                Kelsy stumbled down the mountain trying to catch up to him. She still didn’t know what he was, but she knew for sure that he definitely wasn’t Human.

                They walked down in silence. The sun was high up and the birds were chirping. How would the sun be up if they it was just setting before?

                “Karlme?”

                He glanced over to her. She was looking up at the sky as they walked. “Yes?”

              She stumbled forward, but Karlme steadied her. She blinked a few times before shaking her head. “Never mind.”  

                He continued on thinking she was behind. But when he heard no footsteps behind him, he stopped and glanced over his shoulder. “Are you nots coming too?”

                She nodded and continued walking carefully until she fell in step with him. She continuously glanced at the sky and then behind her.

             The wind blew soundlessly through her hair, tickling her neck. Sounds of gun shots went off. It sounded like it was close enough to feel. She cringed and screamed, quickly covering her mouth with her hands. “What was that?” She unclasped her hands slightly, whispering.

                “Several of the guards practicing their talents.” He didn’t look at her just ahead.

                She looked at him. “What talent?”

                “Of shooting out gun shot and small to big bombs from their hands.”

                They came to the bottom of the mountain. She tucked her hair behind her ear. “That’s a talent? Are all these peoples talents so… so strange?”

                “Only a person like you would say that.”

                “What do you mean ‘only a person like you would say that’? What type of person am I?” She asked angrily. He couldn’t give her straight forward answers to any of her questions and he has the nerve to call her out? What is wrong with him?

                “A non-believer,” he answered softly.

                She fell silent and watched him as he stopped in front of a large, steel gate. A large man fell to the ground in front of them, causing the ground to shake. He stood up tall and looked down at them.

                “How you doin’, Karlme?” The man asked. He was full of muscle and no non-sense. The man looked from Karlme to Kelsy and back to Karlme, grinning wildly. “Finally got a girl I see, Karlme.” He looked at Kelsy interested. He looked back at Karlme. “Nice little man.” He gave Karlme a man hug and ruffled his hair affectionately.

                Karlme looked at the man nervously. “I’m not his girl,” Kelsy confirmed strongly.

                “Right,” the man said sarcastically, rolling his eyes and grinning wildly at the two of them again. “And I can’t see that.”

                “Excuse me? What do you mean by ‘see that’?”

               “I can see into someone’s mind and soul and future, little lady.”

                “And you see the two of us�"“

                Karlme cleared his throat, interrupting Kelsy. She huffed and folded her arms sending daggers at him. He didn’t seem to notice over his pounding heartbeat. “Can we just go in, Sruck?”

                Sruck nodded. He banged on the steel gate twice, allowing it to open for the two of them. “There ya go kid.”

                “Thank you.” Karlme grabbed Kelsy’s hand and hurried through the gate.

                “You two get along good now,” Sruck called after them grinning like a fool.