Becky's heart raced as she bolted through the dense misty forest, overgrown with vegetation creeping out. She pushed past the trees and foliage that brushed against her. Branch after branch, Becky had no time to avoid the tree branches, all she could do was run through not worrying about getting hurt. She almost stumbled before catching herself while looking back, massive dark hooded creatures effortlessly chased behind her. Her legs ached, she could feel the stinging of the cold air.
Becky ran for her life, the massive hooded figures looming behind her, silent and relentless. Their white, glowing eyes cut through the shadows.
"Why are they chasing me? I was alone—There's never any one here! What are those things?!" Becky's mind screamed, barely keeping pace with her feet.
The forest twisted and weaved in front of her eyes, her legs barely kept the distance as she stumbled over the uneven path. Becky feared if they caught her, something terrible would happen to her.
Becky made it to a small river with a single old stone bridge that looked like it had been there since the beginning of time. The ancient, cracked bridge ahead glowed faintly, beckoning her forward like a beacon in the darkness
Becky sprinted onto the stone bridge, each step her footsteps echoing off the ancient structure. As she crossed, the stones beneath her pulsed with light. With each step the sounds of the creatures got further. The moment she reached the other side, everything shifted. The ground vanished.
A void swallowed her whole.
Becky sat up in bed, gasping. Her skin was cold with sweat, her shirt clinging to her. Her hair was a mess with leaves sticking out and scratches on her shirt sleeves. The morning light crept through the window. "Oh, it was all just a dream—again," she murmured, but no matter how many times she told herself that, the fear always lingered. The sensations lingered, vivid and tangible.
Becky stood in the bathroom, Her hands felt numb when dragging her fingers through her knotted hair, leaves falling to the floor. Leaving a tingling feeling in her hands.
"This can't be normal," she said with an exhausted sigh
The misty forest. The bridge. The glowing eyes. It all felt so real.
I've never seen anything like those things… and why am I still so tired? Becky's thoughts tumbled. It feels like I actually have been running. None of this makes sense. Why do I keep waking up as if I've been there? That scares me more, But… those creatures—they can't be real.
The feeling lingered all the way to school, she couldn't shake the feeling.
At breakfast, Becky sat with her head in her hands, trying to block out the chatter of her friends laughing over cereal. Emily, her tall, sharp-tongued best friend, leaned over the table, clutching a fantasy book.
"It's about a princess with forbidden magic," Emily said. "She gets chased by shadow creatures after her forbidden magic power."
Becky looked up. "Shadow creatures and magic?"
"Yeah, why?"
"No reason... just sounds familiar."
Ella raised an eyebrow. "Becky, are you okay? You look pale"
"I just didn't sleep much," Becky muttered.
"Becky you never like anything with magic in it" Emily said trying to shift conversion.
You seem unusually excited about a book. Especially a book about a girl that learns she has magic and goes on an adventure in a magical world." Becky replied.
You never know what's possible. It could happen to you." Emily playfully teased.
They moved on to arguing about the love side of the story—forbidden love or arranged—but Becky's mind stayed in the woods.
Becky sat in math class, her mind adrift. A sharp static feeling buzzed in her fingertips, just like it had in the forest. She clenched her hands in her lap, trying to shake off the sensation .
"Earth to Becky," Emily whispered, tapping her pencil on Becky's desk. "You've been doing that all week. Did you even hear what the teacher just said?"
"Sorry, I just got lost in thought", Becky said with a monotone voice.
The numbers started to blur on the page. The teacher's voice warped into background noise. Becky's hand stopped mid-equation, the numbers swirled, dissolving into mist on the page, her thoughts drifting away. Her pencil hovered mid-air as her vision swam—
The forest returned.
She stood on the bridge again—but it wasn't quite the same. The mist pulsed like a living thing, thicker, colder, swirling with a strange pressure that made her ears ring.
The familiar feeling of the dream world enveloped her senses. Every rustle of leaves and every gentle whisper of the wind seemed to echo the events of her dream. Her heart raced with anticipation, unsure of what she would find.
A figure emerged, not from the far side this time, but from the center of the bridge itself, as if stepping through a curtain of air. Clothed in old leathers and a cloak that shimmered like smoke, he raised a hand—not in welcome, but warning.
"It's time," he said, voice distant and echoing.
"Who are you?", Beckys yelled out to no avail, her words lost in the thick fog.
Then Becky blinked—and snapped back into the classroom. Her classmates stared. Her teacher called her name.
"Becky are you okay," the teacher asked, noticing her pale face.
Becky's hands trembled against her desk. Her breath came in short, uneven sighs as the remnants of the mist clung to her memory.
What's happening? What does he mean 'its time'? Why me! Becky's thoughts cried
That night, sleep pulled her deeper.
Becky awoke in the forest, not in her bed. The dream was real, the forest greeted her with its dense foliage and the subtle scent of earth. The light filtered through the leaves, casting dappled shadows on the ground.
The mist clung to her skin. Becky stood in front of the bridge, she stepped cautiously across the bridge again, feeling its hum beneath her feet.The whole forest went silent. The bridge seemed to pulse with an otherworldly energy. When she crossed, the world rippled. The air crackled with an enchanting energy that sent shivers down Becky's spine. The familiar woods dissolved, the mist peeling away to reveal a vast, endless space filled with floating lights and shimmering ruins. An older man—Alaric—stood at the edge, waiting for her as if he'd always known she would arrive.
"You are not here by accident, Becky," he said gently. His voice was rich, ancient. "This world calls to you because you are part of it."
He told her stories—of the Purified Realm, of how corrupted rulers twisted the image of The Founders of Magic, those revered figures who laid the foundation for everything we knew, of magic fading,becoming seen as threats to the new order.
"Why are you telling me this?" Becky finally asked, her voice trembling with uncertainty. "What does this have to do with me?"
Alaric's eyes softened as he regarded her.
"Because, Becky, you are not just an outsider who stumbled upon our world by accident. The world doesn't call out to just anyone, Becky. It remembers its own, a reason the magic of this realm called out to you."
He handed her a strange small, glowing stone. It shimmered with a soft blue light, like light reflecting off water, rippling with a pulse just out of sync with her own.
"This is an eclipsing Stone," Alaric explained, holding it out to her
It pulsed faintly in her palm.
"This will guide you," he said. "But it is fragile. So are you."
Becky hesitated for a moment before taking the stone. The moment her fingers touched its smooth surface, she felt a strange warmth radiate through her, a feeling both comforting and unnerving. The stone seemed to hum with energy, resonating with something deep inside her that she couldn't quite understand.
"But… what am I supposed to do with this?" Becky asked, clutching the stone tightly.
Before Becky could ask anything else, the room around her began to fade. The flickering light dissolved into a swirl of colors, and she felt herself being pulled away.
The world unraveled around her, and Becky was no longer sure which side of the bridge she belonged on.