I wake up in bed in the hotel room with Cade sleeping soundly and Zane sitting on the floor beside me staring at me.
'Zane, do you know what just happened?' I thought to myself hoping Zane is listening.
'Your mind seemed to be gone from your body, you were here, but your mind was elsewhere. Somewhere I couldn't reach you. What happened Chara?'
'It all felt so real. I woke up in the hotel room except you and Cade were gone. There was scratching at the door and when I stepped outside, I saw Times Square. Then this voice came to my head, at first I thought it was you, but it wasn't. It said I had to find the door and then it said it wasn't you. After that the voice was gone. So, I began walking around going into every door I come by until I look down an alleyway to see a bright yellow door with this symbol on it.'
'What symbol? Think about it, better not to draw it where someone can find it.'
'It was a circle with a crescent moon inside and a diamond inside that.'
'Huh.'
'What?'
'Nothing, continue.'
I went inside, the door closed behind me and the lights turn off. When I reach for the door I entered through it was no longer there. At the end of the hallway I open the door and one by one the candles light inside the room and there is an old lady inside a circle of candles. She begins chanting something and there is a wind that comes into the room and blows out the candles. The lady said that if I wanted to survive, I had to find the door.
Zane takes a minute to respond, 'We have to find that door now. We have to get there as fast as we can. Wake Cade up, we have to go.'
I go over to Cade's bed and shake his shoulder a bit, "Cade, wake up, we have to get back on the road."
"Wha...what time is it." Cade says with a groggy voice.
"Come on, get up, get dressed and move it."
"Chara let me sleep, it's no rush to get there, just a few hours difference."
'We have to take his car and go,' Zane says.
"No Zane, Cade get up now."
"Listen Chara," Cade yawns, "if I am going to get us to New York by midday tomorrow, I need to sleep now."
'Midday is too late Chara, we have to get there before tomorrow morning, we have 24 hours.'
'Well, how are we going to do that Zane? Even if I get Cade out of bed, there is no way he is letting me drive his car when he gets tired, he will pull into the nearest motel.'
I hear Cade snoring in the bed now.
'Fine, let's go,' I grab Cade's keys carefully off the nightstand and grab my bag. We go out to the car and Zane hops into the front seat.
'Zane, there is one problem with this plan, I have no clue how to get to New York.'
'Open the map and I will navigate.'
'Okay, here we go,' With that I start up the car and start driving.
Zane says the drive is pretty straight forward and not too hard. It got too quiet in the car and I turned on the radio. The news came on and not much was happening, but then a voice came on the radio, it was the same voice from when I was in Times Square or wherever I was.
"Chara, you must trust yourself. Trust what Zane says, he is trying his best to help."
"Who are you? How do you know who I am?"
"You will find out soon now listen carefully, don't trust..." he gets cut off.
"Zane, what just happened? Who was that?"
'Who was who? What did you just hear Chara?'
"On the radio there was the same man from last night telling me to trust myself and you. He was about to tell me who or what not to trust, but he was cut off. Zane, do you have a clue who this is?"
'I think that it might be your father, Noc. He is trying to help you get to him. I think if you listen to him, he will bring you to him. This is perfect, he was banished and you can bring him back.'
Zane leaves me with that, and I drive in silence. My father is trying to help me from wherever he is. Zane tells me to pull over into a convenience store parking lot. I go inside and get a sandwich for lunch, some water bottles, and a small bag of dog food. Back in the car I give the food to Zane and eat my sandwich. Then we are off again, making our way to New York. I can't stop thinking about Cade, I left my phone in the hotel room so I cannot call him, and Zane said it wouldn't be a good idea anyway. I can't see why I shouldn't call Cade, but it's too late to turn back now anyway. Hours pass and I can hear Zane snoring, so much for my guide. At least I am close enough to see signs directing me in the right direction. A few more hours pass, I am at Starbucks grabbing my fourth cold brew in 2 hours. Staying up driving until 1 in the morning is really difficult and not having anyone to talk to doesn't help. There are 2 more hours until we should arrive at Times Square, but I am going to take a few hours' sleep before even thinking about looking for the door. A sign tells me to pull off the highway and it takes me down a forested street. If the sun was out it would be beautiful.
Out of nowhere the car stops as if I hit a solid wall in the middle of the road. I go unconscious.
'Wake up Chara, you are in trouble. Wake up!'
With that last word I wake up, I think it was the voice I have been hearing. I am very dizzy, and I can taste blood. I lift my pounding head off the steering wheel and my vision slowly comes into focus. I am pretty sure my head is bleeding, and I don't see Zane. I try to open the door except my arms feel like there are 100-pound weights strapped to both arms. I focus my mind on door trying to open it with my powers, but I get a terrible headache. My head throbs harder, but with one burst of energy I give my all to open the door and it works. Even though I got the door open I used all of the little energy I had left and I passed out again.
I start to return to consciousness, and I realize I am no longer in the car, someone is carrying me, they are running. I try to turn my head up to look at who is carrying me, and I see a man, he has a chiseled face, dark brown hair like mine, and dark brown eyes. I start feeling dizzy again and no matter how much I resist; everything goes black again.
The room I'm in is extremely bright, it's hard to open my eyes. After a few seconds my eyes come into focus and I realize I am in a hospital bed. The man I saw carrying me, if that was even real, is not in the room. The door opens and a woman comes inside wearing a white coat.
"Hello Chara, how are you feeling?" the woman asks.
"Um, how do you know my name?" I question with a whisper.
"Here," she hands me a cup of water, "we found your wallet in your backpack that was brought in with you."
"What happened? Where am I?"
"You are at Taren's Hospital, about a half hour outside of New York. You were in a car crash alone out on Forest Road. The police will be here in a bit to ask you some questions and bring the rest of your belongings."
I take a sip of water, "okay, thanks."
She leaves the room and I am left alone. She said I was found alone in the car, if I was alone where had Zane gone. I hope he is okay and isn't out there on the side of the road alone and cold. My backpack is on the table next to me, I grab it and pull out a little notebook. I doodle the symbol I saw on the door in my dream and then I go to grab the book out of my bag to look for the symbol when the door opens, so I put the book back.
"Hello Ms. Alanis, is this a good time?" an officer asks me.
"Yes, come on in." he comes in with his partner and she is holding the map from the car.
"This is what we found in your car, here," I take the map and put it inside my bag.
"Ms. Alanis, can you tell me what happened out there on Forest Road?"
"Well I was making my way to New York and I saw a sign telling me to turn off the highway and onto the road. I was driving down the road for a few minutes when it seemed like me car hit something, except I don't remember there being anything on the road."
"Have you had anything to drink?"
"Alcohol? No, I'm not old enough to drink. It must be the accident, I hit my head really hard."
"Okay, well no one has come forward saying anything so there will be no charges."
They begin to walk out the door when I remember something, "Wait officers! I was wondering if you knew who brought me here?"
"Sorry kid, no one got his name and he was gone by the time we got here."
"Thanks anyways."
He nodded his head slightly and they both left. I go back to taking out the book from my backpack and start flipping through the pages. I see symbol on the page opposite to the one about the prophecy. The page says;
'Here is the symbol of the child, when the child is ready to accept their full power, they will bare this mark on their side. A hidden guide will reveal themselves when the child has accepted their power and future. If the child does not accept themselves, they will be doomed, and banished to Valanter.'
So, I have to accept my powers and destiny to save or fail everyone or else I will be banished to a place called Valanter. Great. The hidden guide, I wonder who that is. It can't be Cade or Zane, can it? Oh well, I have to get out of here and find that door. It is daytime outside; the only problem is that the car is smashed up and I have no clue how I am going to get there. I don't have enough money for a cab, maybe there is a bus around here that goes to Times Square. I stand up out of bed, my head starts to throb, and I get dizzy. I close my eyes to gather myself and get dressed. I throw on my backpack and go to sign myself out of the hospital, I'm so lucky I am still covered under my uncle's insurance. I pass my doctor on the way out.
"Chara, you are leaving. Are you sure that's a good idea?"
"I feel fine doctor...um."
"You can call me Sandra."
"Okay, Sandra, I am fine. Do you know if there is a bus around here that can take me close to Times Square?"
"Sure, there is a bus stop two blocks away. If you walk out the front doors, turn right and there will be a stop on the corner of Pine Street and Whipper Avenue."
"Thank you."
I walk outside of the hospital and turn right. I begin to walk, but I have this feeling someone is following me. I start walking faster and I reach the bus stop. After a minute or two the bus arrives, and I enter picking a seat at the very back by a window. I take out the book as something to do since I don't have my phone for music. I reread the section on the prophecy, nothing is making anymore sense than it did last time a read it. I give up and take out the other book Cade gave me, the one with all of the creatures. I catch up on some of the scary things I could run into at any moment. If I ran into pretty much any of these creatures, I would run for the hills.
The bus stops and the driver says it's Times Square, I put the book back into the backpack and make my way out of the bus. The bus squeals as it pulls away and I walk down an alleyway to the centre of Times Square. To my right I see the coffee shop that was where my hotel room was in my dream. That how I know I'm in the right place. It's so strange seeing Times Square for the first time other than in my sleep, it's so busy, and magical. I turn and start walking quickly towards the alleyway with the door. When I turn the corner, there was no bright yellow door. My hopes take a fall, and I don't know what to do. I go over to the coffee shop and get a small black coffee. It was so rich, probably the best coffee I have ever had. I walk around a bit, frustrated. Once I finish my coffee I return to the alley. I walk over to the solid, brown brick wall where the door should be and just stare at it. I walk closer to the wall and put my hands on it and close my eyes not sure what this is going to do, but I feel as though I should do this.
I feel the wall vibrating beneath my hands and I open my eyes. The bricks move out of the way, rearranging to make way for a bright yellow door with the symbol on it. It is the door from my dream. I go to open the door, but it is locked. Weird, it was open in my dream. I place my hand on the lock and I hear a click, I try the door again and it opens. I have so many powers I can't even begin to think about. I wonder what powers my dad has; I mean he's the god of the night, what powers could possibly come along with that? I wish I had Zane with me, but I have no clue where he is, I feel bad about not looking for him. I had a feeling that this is more important than looking for Zane. Something was pulling me here.
As I enter the building it reminds me of my dream the same long hallway and the candles. The only difference is when I close the door behind me, the candles don't flicker out and the door remains behind me. I guess my dream wanted me to expect something scarier than it really is. I walk to the end of the hallway and go through the door; the candles begin to light one by one. There is a lady sitting in the circle of candles and she gestures for me to sit down. This time, she talks to me.
"You are here alone I see. I though you would have had company."
"Yes, well I kind of lost track of who I was coming with."
"It's for the better, it means we will have more time to talk. Maybe everything will end different this way."
"What do you," I was cut off.
"Don't dwell on that now, we don't have much time. After this conversation I'm going to send you somewhere and you will have everything you need. You must understand that you have to trust your feelings, if you don't think you can trust someone, then don't trust them."
"Um, what about Cade and Zane, they are probably worried sick, I need to find them."
"No, you must worry about only yourself, it is better to not proceed with your past allies and discover new ones along the way."
I have so many questions left, but something tells me I shouldn't ask. However, there is two questions that slips by.
"Who are you? Why was I drawn here?"
"I am Realia, the Lahalo. You were drawn to me because of the prophecy."
The Lahalo's eyes widen and then I hear it, the wind blowing.
"It's time," Realia says before she begins to chant.
I just sit in the circle waiting for what I know is about to happen. All of the candles are blown out and leaves fill the room. I can no longer see the Lahalo. I hear my name like in my dream, however, this time I hear another name; Daniel. Then, just like that, everything goes dark.