CHAPTER FIVE

What is that in Sara's hands? Where did she get it, I didn't see her take anything from her backpack.

Lexi looks at the object in Sara's hands curiously as she tries to figure out what the leather wrapped object was.

"Sara what is that you are holding?"

Sara looks down at her hands not realizing she was carrying the book she picked up from the bookcase in Emily's room. She hadn't meant to take it, Emily had rushed her out before she could put it back. She looks the book over, noticing there was no title on it, just a strange symbol etched into it.

"It's just an old book I used to read when I was younger."

Sara quickly pulls her backpack around and throws the book inside before Lexi could see the front.

Lexi's curiosity continues to rise as she watches Sara trying hard to hide the book from her. "What kind of book is it?"

"It's an old book of fairy tales." She zips the backpack up quickly, throwing it back over her shoulder. "So that was your dad?"

"Yes… well actually he's my stepdad. Like you I don't know who my real father is." Lexi stops and looks at the ground saddened. "He left when I was only four."

"Oh, I'm really sorry I didn't know that." Sara places a hand on her friends shoulder. "So how long has that guy been your stepfather?"

"About two years now. My mom didn't know him at all, but when she saw him she said she knew he was the one. So she married him a week later."

Lexi sighs as she keeps staring at the ground. Sara decides to drop the subject and they walk the rest of the way to school in silence.

"Hey Sara over here."

Sara looks up to see Chris standing with the rest of her friends by the main gates waving to her. Instead of joining her friends, Sara walks on up the steps and through the double doors into the building.

"What's wrong with Sara?"

Lexi stares after Sara worriedly. "I don't know, she's been acting strange since we woke up this morning."

Before anyone can say anything else, the bell for first period rings. They say their goodbyes and head inside. As Chris enters his first period he sees Sara sitting in the back with her head laid down against her desk. He sits down at the desk beside her.

"Are you alright Sara?"

Sara hears the worry in his voice and slowly raises her head. "Yeah I'm fine."

"You really haven't been acting like yourself lately."

"I haven't been getting alot of sleep lately." She tries to give him a weak smile but fails. "Where's Lexi?"

"Sara I have been your friend for a long time, long enough to know when you are lying to me." he says, looking at her sternly. "So what is really going on?"

"Nothing, I'm fine. Don't worry about it."

"I just want to try and help you Sara."

She sighs as she looks at him. "I don't think you would believe me if I told you the truth.��

She sighs again and places her head back down on the desk.

Chris gently pulls her head back up and stares into her eyes. "Oh yeah, try me."

Sara looks deeply into his brown eyes and tells him everything that has been happening to her. She tells him how she found out she is supposed to have a twin sister that is in a coma. And how her sister keeps visiting her in her dreams. She even told him about how there's this guy that's supposed to be her father, but is trying to kill them both. The only thing Sara left out was the fact that the guy trying to kill her is also Lexi's stepfather.

Oh is all Chris can think to say.

Chris stares at her, a little confused as he thinks over everything Sara had just told him. He can't help but to wonder if she was going to burst out laughing and say got you, or if she really was telling him the truth.

"See, you don't believe me." She cries out, reading the confused expression on his face. "I knew I shouldn't have told you anything. You probably think I'm going crazy or something."

"No Sara you're wrong. I believe you, it's just that it sounds like it is just a dream."

He reaches out and takes her left hand gently in his own.

She looks into his eyes with disbelief as tears begin to form in hers. "It isn't just a dream. I have to save her but I don't know how."

Sara sniffles as Chris wipes a tear from her cheek. Suddenly she feels really tired and places her head back down on the desk, falling asleep instantly. Chris keeps holding her hand as he leans forward, his eyelids suddenly becoming too heavy for him to keep open. The teacher yells at him, but he sounds far away as Chris lays his head down next to Sara's.

~

Chris opens his eyes and looks around stunned. "What's going on Sara? Where are we?"

He looks around worriedly as his eyes begin to adjust to the darkness around them. He was sure they had fallen asleep in class.

Sara turns, shocked to see Chris standing beside her. "How did you come here?"

"I don't know… the last thing I remember is the teacher yelling at me as I fell forward onto the desk." Looking down he realizes that he is still holding her hand. "How did we end up in this place? Are we dead?"

"No we aren't dead. I guess I brought you here with me somehow." she looks into his eyes and smiles. He starts to pull his hand away from here and shimmers as he begins to disappear. "Don't let go of my hand!"

Chris grips her hand tightly. "Okay I won't but what exactly is this place?"

"This is the place I was telling you about."

Chris continues to look around the strange place fearfully. Darkness was all around them, as if night had come swiftly. Since he couldn't see very far in any direction, he could only guess they were standing in a small clearing surrounded on all sides by what looked like a forest.

"How is this even possible?" Chris shakes his head as he looks around again. "Um Sara, who is that?"

Chris points towards a dark shadow walking out of the treeline. Sara follows his gaze and smiles as she sees the figure coming towards them.

"Julie!"

"Wait a minute, are you trying to tell me that is your…"

"Sister? Yes I am." Julie smiles as she walks slowly around him and Sara. "Now tell me who you are and how did you come to be here?"

"I brought him here with me this time, though I'm not sure how."

Julie looks at them and smiles. "Oh I see. So what's his name?"

"This is Chris. Now do you believe me when I told you that all of this wasn't just a dream?"

Chris shakes his head in utter disbelief. "This is impossible, this can't be real. What is this place?"

As he looks around, several large buildings are beginning to form beyond the trees as the darkness recedes.

"This is the shadow realm. It is a world that mirrors the real world almost perfectly. Everything that happens to you here can also affect you in the real world as well." Julie explains to him as she walks around them once more. "Here you can see glimpses of the past and the present."

"Can you see into the future as well?"

Julie shakes her head and looks at Sara with saddened eyes. "Sara I don't have much time. I needed to make sure you were alright."

"I'm fine Julie, why would you think I wouldn't be?"

"I saw our father after I visited you in the bathroom." Julie pauses to collect her thoughts. "I can't forget what he said to me. 'I have finally found Sara, it will all be over soon.' That is what he said to me so I had to make sure you were alright."

"I did see our father this morning. He is my best friends stepfather." Sara explains, causing Chris to squeeze her hand tightly. She turns to see him looking at her with a bewildered look on his face. "What is it?"

"Apparently you didn't tell me everything." Chris mumbles, trying to sound angrier then he was, but he looks more hurt than anything. "Is there anything else you forgot to tell me?"

"I'm sorry Chris I should have told you everything but I didn't want to freak you out by saying that my father, the man that is trying to kill me, is my best friends stepfather now."

"Now that he has found you he is going to try to complete the ritual he started three years ago."

Chris looks at Julie confused. "What ritual, what are you talking about?"

"Sara and myself were put into comas because our father didn't get the chance to complete the ritual. He never killed us so the ritual was never complete. Now he is back to try to do it again." Julie gives her sister a hug and sighs. "I'm sorry sis but it seems like our time is almost up once more."

"Wait!" Chris calls out as Julie begins to walk away. "Can't you stay for just a little while longer?"

Julie smiles as she walks over and hugs him, causing him to look a little taken back. He looks towards Sara as he wonders what to do. Sara simply smiles as she looks back at him.

"I can't, the longer you stay here the harder it will be for you to wake up." She pauses and gives him a little peck on the cheek causing him to blush. "Thank you for helping us Chris." She slowly turns and begins to walk away. "Until next time be safe Sara."

Chris looks at Sara with fearful eyes as the darkness starts closing in around them. His hands grip hers tighter as they start spinning through the darkness, their feet no longer touching the ground. He squeezes his eyes shut as they start falling through the air.

"Chris, wake up."

Chris hears a girl's voice calling his name and opens his eyes, looking around the classroom stunned. He keeps looking around confused, as if in a daze as he tries to remember exactly what happened. The last thing he remembered was talking to Sara before feeling tired. He feels Sara's hand still holding his, their fingers intertwined, and looks over at her affectionately.

"What just happened Sara?"

He expects her to be awake, but instead he sees that she is just beginning to wake up as well.

Whose voice did I hear telling me to wake up if it wasn't Sara's?

Chris shakes his head to clear away his thoughts. "What happened Sara."

Sara lets go of his hand blushing. "We just went to the shadow realm."

"So that was real and that really was your sister?" Chris asks as he stares deeply into her eyes. "You really were telling me the truth."

"Yes and everything I told you really did happen to me." She says as the late bell for the next class begins to ring. "Can you please keep what happened just between us?"

"Don't worry, no one else is going to find out."

She grabs his arm as he stands up to walk away. She turns him around to face her, pulling him against her and wrapping her arms around him.

She sighs, laying her head on his shoulder and looking up at him with sorrowful eyes. "I wish none of this was happening to me."

"Don't worry Sara I'm here for you."

"I know you are and I'm glad."

She smiles up at him, giving him a slight kiss on the cheek before heading off to her next class. Along the way she pauses, looking down the hall to find Lexi standing by her locker.

"Hey Sara what's up?"

"Just getting my things for biology." Sara tells her, closing her locker door harder then she meant to. "I'm already late."

"Oh alright then, I'll just talk to you at lunch then." Lexi says as she turns to leave. "See you later."

Why didn't she just tell me what happened in English?

"Lexi wait!" Sara cries out, running after her friend. "I had another visit from Julie, but I didn't go into the shadow realm alone. Somehow I managed to take Chris with me this time."

As she catches up to Lexi she goes on to explain everything else that happened to her, leaving out the part about Lexi's stepfather being Sara's real father.

Lexi raises an eyebrow. "Is there something you're not telling me Sara?"

Lexi couldn't help but to feel like Sara was keeping something hid from her. Sara opens her mouth only to be drowned out by the late bell.

"I'll tell you at lunch." Sara yells over the bell as she begins running down the hall towards the biology classroom.

"you're late Sara." The teacher says sternly as she enters the classroom, taking her seat in the back of the room. "Now class like I was saying today we are going to be studying the orig…"

She tries hard to pay attention but the teachers voice trails off. But instead of drifting off into the shadow realm, she fights it, reaching into her backpack and pulling her sketch pad out.

"Sara?"

Sara stops drawing and looks up to see the boy sitting beside her staring at her. "What do you want Michael?"

"Is everything okay?"

Michael looks down and watches her draw an old playground with two little girls playing on the swingset as a dark figure walks towards them.

"Yes everything is fine, why do you ask?"

"I heard about you fainting in first period."

Sara drops her pencil and looks up horrified. "Who told you that?"

Sara feels betrayed thinking Chris had told him everything that happened, breaking his promise to her.

How could he betray me?

"Over half of your first period was talking about how you and Chris fainted as soon as Mr. williams began to start class."

Michael laughs a little too loud and the teacher turns his attention to him. "Do you find what I'm teaching you to be funny Michael?"

"I...I'm sorry sir." Michael stutters out as the teacher grabs the sides of his desk. "I…"

"Well maybe you would like to spend the rest of the day in detention or…" He pauses as he looks down at Sara's drawing, glaring back up at her hatefully before going back to his desk.

"Okay what just happened, I've never seen him act that way before." Michael whispers as he leans over to get a better look at Sara's drawing.

His eyes widen as he stares at the picture open mouthed. Sara follows his gaze and looks down at the loan figure, gasping as she notices that the loan figure she drew was her biology teacher.