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"Magnificent work, undergraduates. Most of you received a high grade in this query. Be certain to develop your subjects and studies for the later unit." Professor Evelyn looks around the class with a mask carved beneath her smirk as she commends her pupils in the area. It would have been extraordinary and divergent if her expressions had grown inside her soul. But not all we perceive should be regarded and accounted.
As the chiming bells accompany the alarm, all of my classmates prepare to withdraw from the school grounds. But, as instantly as they settle up from their post, their eyes start to paste on my figure garbed in an obsidian colour hoodie.
Some were averse to address me, while others wanted nothing out of my presence, considering that I made substandard luck to their activities. However, it was rare for the bullies to earn an interest in my personal life.
" What are you hiding under that coat, Ms. Cigarettes?" One of the male jacks walks toward my direction, demanding to tear the stiff cloth that obscures my skin. His lackeys behind his back urge their leader to injure me and determine for themselves my body clear of scars and ashes from the blaze that devastated me.
Instantly, their faces turned pale as they looked at my terrifying marks and the redness of my muscle plainly detected in the bare view.
"You freak." Even the brain of their circle retreats towards the surface, howling for the recognition of the instructors.
"I, uh-" I peered around and caught their sour faces, intimidated and shaken after noting my frame all enclosed in other damages. I did not wish to be throttled by the lecturers, so I resolved and hastily retired and fled back to my abode.
Luckily, I managed to stumble by and arrived in my home; still solely and lonesome.
"I've made it," I announced, congratulating myself from the dart I performed, thwarting the mobile machines and residents walking from the adjacent roads.
I sprawled on my settee and seized one of the morsels left by my mom, who departed not remarkably long ago, clear from the untidy desk and rubbish on the floor.
"Why is this happening to me?" I can catch no encouragement to achieve something desirable, let alone something that I cherish. The drum that had been locked away and forgotten inside the vault is even ruined and ineffective for me to play, which was the particular piece that kept me company through these frenzied years. Even my guitar was ruthlessly shattered and wrecked during the move.
"If only I have an organ that I can perform, thus maybe I-" in the flicker of an eye, I spotted myself falling asleep on the pleasant surface of my sofa with my chip still grasping by my hand. Suddenly, my conscience escapes from my body, greeting me with a dissimilar yet familiar universe.
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"Where the hell am I right now?" I peeled my eyes wide open and discerned my surroundings enveloped with colourful designs akin to a never-ending array of a rainbow. It was a majestic sight, accompanied by the pair of clouds fluttering to its side.
My eyes followed the ray of light and found bronze, silver, and gold pots, each stationary on the ground, aligned and exhibited with the swaying grass. No animals were roaming nearby, which made me wonder about the environment that I'm standing at the centre of it all.
"What's up with that?" I asked myself while hovering my body closer to the soil. Compared from last night, I can now direct my movements to where I wanted to go; with the ability to fly and hover around.
Upon arrival, a tiny monster surprised me with its croak as it introduced itself to me.
"Greetings, young lady." It ejaculated. "Today is the day you will obtain a reward."
Confused, I tilt my head over to the right, baffled from how it talks and how it resembles an amphibian akin to a frog.
"What reward?" My eyes stare into its glowing orbs that show confidence and a bit of delight, saying that it was congenial to see me here.
"You may pick a pot to your liking." With its two limbs have a similar size as an index finger, the frog-like beast points toward the three pots while describing their characteristics.
"I do not know what is inside-and even if I knew, I would be sure not to tell you anything at all." The polliwog leaps from its spot and relocates near the bronze pot, with its hand still pointing at the exterior part of the vase.
"Be careful to choose a casserole that interests you. We can never know what lies inside…"
Its voice trails over to the air, accompanied by the whistling breeze of the summer atmosphere. I averted my gaze and curiously looked at the insides of the container, hoping that I could glimpse whatever was stored and placed inside.
"You must not cheat, young girl." The croaker wheezes me with a warning as it saw my head nearly staring at the shadowy interior of the containment.
"Geez," I retorted.
I contemplated what I should pick among the pots, wishing that the reward would be meaningful for me. After all, this environment is all but an imaginary scene generated by my brain; and nothing I see here is real.
"I will choose the bronze one, little fellow," I mutter with confidence and pride as I thoroughly observe the brownish colour surrounding the casserole.
"What an interesting choice," said the frog. "Most humans will choose something extravagant-like the golden pot! I'm intrigued, mortal."
The polliwog jumps from its place yet again, this time inside the hole of the bronze pot. The receptacle wiggles at the frog, as it inserts itself inside by the non-living thing before me.
Moments later, the froglet jolts out from the container, and with it was an ordinary flashlight carried by its moisturised tongue. I continue to watch it resting on the portable beacon on the grass, still humid with the frog's saliva covering the object.
"Splendid item! A rare one, if I must say." The polliwog remarked as it shifted its gaze to my dumbfounded face.
The item it took was entirely unexpected, which made me bathe with disappointment since I touched the portable light.
"Why would I need one of these?" I quiz the creature, but the entity that gave me the object had already disappeared.
I stepped back and feared the beast that haunted me in my dream and even provided me with a useless item that I can buy from the nearest store. However, a gift is always better than getting money out from my pocket; as my mother would always say.
"Thank you!" I yelled to no one aside from the roaring trees and the whistling grass, which made music for my ears.
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Suddenly, I found myself once again aroused and bewildered by the familiar wall and furniture around me. The hair follicles on my arm sharpened and stands as I recall the event that had happened a while ago.
"What a weird dream," I stated as I pulled myself upward and sat on the sofa. My eyes wander around and spot the chip lying on the marble floor.
"Aw, my baby," I turned my head and attempted to get the fallen piece of what it left and remained from the bag of chips on the table, but only to find out an artefact I recognised.
"The flashlight?" I could not believe my eyes that the portable flashlight, given to me by the hideous frog, was lying on the ground.
At first, I doubted the item and then inspected and identify whether my dream had been real and literal.
Once I pressed the button at the centre, the bulb immediately illuminates from the circular entrance and flashes a bright luminance in front of me. But before I turned off my flashlight, I noticed a shadowy figure steadily turning into specs of dust after being showered and shone by the light. It was as if that silhouette was of an evil entity purged by the radiance on my hands. A soft but audible squeal then followed the contour, begging me to stop pointing my light akin to a weapon. The sound was then partnered and escorted with loud thuds and thumps coming from my mother's empty room, upstairs, as if there was someone there beside me.
"I live alone, goddammit." I cursed, hoping that the individual lurking inside my house was not a burglar or a trespasser that wanted to kill and steal everything from my house.
I pick myself up and head to the flight of stairs. Scared, I climbed slowly, with my flashlight facing in front, with me as my only weapon in hand.
"Is anybody there?" I yelled as loud as I could, unsure whether I wanted to hear a reply to my question.
By the time that I went on the second storey, there was nobody there to welcome me.
"Thank goodness," I merrily spoke with ease as I returned to the steps and planned on watching something good on the television downstairs.
But then again, I was hurriedly standing corrected as I saw a shadowy figure intensely staring back at me, with a weapon far grimmer and better than the flashlight gripped in my hand.
My eyes broadened, and my body was soon consumed with fear, unable to move or run out of my post.