Chapter 1

Lightning flashed and I was standing in the middle of the open field just off Rosemary St, in the middle of a storm. Rain was falling all around me and I was soaked from head to toe. I could feel my mother's necklace  around my neck, getting pushed up against my skin from my sopping wet shirt as it clung to me. Another flash of lightning and all of a sudden flames were engulfing the already-dead grass around me. The fire didn't immediately go out from the pouring rain. In fact, it continued to spread through the field. The flames inched closer and closer to me. I could feel the heat of the fire getting warmer and warmer on my face the closer the flames got. It was still raining and I was amazed that the fire hadn't gone out yet. A large gust of wind came, blowing water and fire into my face. I could feel the flames hit the side of my head as I tried to turn away and I could feel the burn. The flames were getting closer and closer to  me, and soon I was in a circle of flames. The rain seemed to come down harder, but still the fire raged on, threatening to engulf me. Spinning around frantically, I searched for a way out of this circle and away from the flames, but there was nothing but the walls of fire surrounding me. I felt the panic rising in my chest and decided to try to call for help. I cried as loud as I could, but my voice was swallowed by the storm. I tried again and again, but still no luck. The panic got worse at the realization that no one was coming to save me and that there was no way to get out of these flames alive. I felt the smoke creep into my lungs and the flames crawl up my arms. I cried out in pain and fell to the ground in a coughing fit with no way the flames to slowly engulf me. As the fire slowly slithered across my body,  the sounds of the storm seemed to stop and a noise rang through the silence, almost like a laugh. No, a cackle. A person's silhouette, almost like a shadow, appeared just in my line of sight, but it was blurry and on the other side of the flames. This was the person who was laughing, cackling. I tried to move so I could get a better look at this shadow of a person, but found myself stuck, unable to move any part of my body as pain seared through every part of me. I could feel myself fading into unconsciousness. The last thing I heard before I blacked out were the sounds of the storm. The rain defeated the flames just as I faded and everything went black.

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I sat up quickly, sweating like crazy, and felt a searing pain shoot through my body. I cried out in pain and laid back down on my bed, curling into a ball. After about ten minutes, the pain subsided and I slowly sat up. I swung my legs off my bed and sat there for a little bit, making sure the pain didn't come back. When I was sure that the pain was gone for good, I stood up and walked over to my mirror then gasped in surprise. The jeans that I'd fallen asleep in were covered in scorch marks and had a holes burned through. My 'Green Day' t-shirt had the right sleeve completely burned off and was also covered in scorch marks and holes. I wasn't looking much better than the clothes I had slept in. I had a burn down my arm and one on my leg, which is probably why it hurt for me to sit up. My hair was disheveled and basically a rat's nest. It was going to be horrible brushing through that mess, but that wasn't even the worst of it. As I looked over myself in the mirror, I noticed that something was missing, my mother's locket and I was 100% positive that I didn't take it off before I went to sleep. Quickly, I dropped to my knees, which really hurt, and started crawling across my floor looking for it. I pulled everything out from under my bed and opened all the drawers to my bedside table. By the time I was done looking and sure it wasn't in my room, it looked like a tornado had passed through. I was sitting on my bed, worried that I wouldn't find the heart locket when I noticed what time it was. 8:10. I was late for school. I jumped off my bed and started getting ready. I pulled off my burnt up t-shirt and threw it on my bed, hoping that I remember to deal with it later. I grabbed a green sweater out of my closet and threw it on, so people wouldn't see my burns, then changed from my ruined jeans into a pair of black jeans. I rapidly brushed the tangles out of my hair and put it up in a ponytail. When I finished getting ready, I ran downstairs to grab breakfast and saw my dad sitting at the kitchen table reading the newspaper, but didn't think twice about it until after I grabbed a pack of poptarts and was in the entryway by the door. I was halfway through putting on my purple hightops when I thought about it. After I tied my shoes, I walked back into the kitchen.

"Hey dad, why are you still home? Shouldn't you be at work?" I sat down at the table across from him waiting for a response, but all he did was glance up from the paper without saying a word. I didn't push the questions because I didn't want him to get mad, so instead I stood up from the table and walked back to the entry way.

"Dad I'm Leaving!" I called to him as I grabbed my bag for school and walked outside. When I got outside, I slung my bag over my shoulder and started walking in the direction of school. As I was walking, I noticed that everyone on my street was home today, which was unusual because most of them worked during the day and I never saw them in the morning before school. Instead of just ignoring it like I know I should have, I walked over to our neighbor, Mrs. Dooley's house. Mrs. Dooley was this sweet old lady who lived a few houses down from me and my dad. She was always outside watering her plants and I loved talking to her. "Good morning Mrs. Dooley. Can I ask you a question?" I asked as I picked up one of her watering cans and started watering some of the flowers for her. She always looked like she need help.

"Good morning, Cassandra. Of course you can ask me a question, and thank for the help. You're always so kind." Mrs. Dooley said smiling kindly at me the way she did every morning.

"You're welcome." I finished watering the flowers and set down the can. "I was wondering why everyone was home today. Shouldn't they be at work, or something?"

"Oh, Cassandra, didn't your daddy tell ya? There was a major field fire last night at midnight and the firefighters had shut down all roads around it so everyone just stayed home today."

"Really? No he didn't tell me that. That's weird. Wasn't there a storm last night? What field was it in?" I was being overly curious as usual and, of course, being me, I didn't think about how weird or 'coincidental' it was that there was a fire the same night I had that dream.

"Yes, there was. It was the field right off of Rosemary St. They found some things over in the field too, which is also weird because there are no signs that anyone started the fire." Mrs. Dooley went back to watering her her plants.

"What did they find? Do you know?"

"They found a gold heart locket." Mrs. Dooley put down her hose and walked over to me. "Now you should probably get home 'fore your daddy gets worried."

"No, my dad knows where I am. He saw me leaving the house." The one thing about me that really annoys my neighbors, I mean other than the fact that I'm overly curious, is that I can't take a hint. "I was going to check out the area of the fire to see how much was destroyed and ask the firefighters how long it would be until we can go to school and work."

"Oh well then…. Um they probably don't want people bothering them, but okay. I'll make sure to tell your daddy where ya gone off to." Mrs. Dooley then went back to tending to her garden and I ran off towards Rosemary Street.

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When I got to Rosemary Street, I stopped, out of breath, and stared at the burnt field. The grass was black and shriveled, and there weren't many signs of life. There were firefighters out in the field, probably looking for signs of people or how the fire was started because forest fires don't just start in the middle of a thunderstorm. I watched as one of the men stood up with something in his hand and ran over to the fire chief, who looked at it curiously.

I started walking towards them hoping to get a glance at what was found and I did. As I got closer, I noticed two things. The first was that what the man had found looked like a burnt-up mask. The second was that the Fire Chief was holding a locket, my locket. Once I saw the locket, I realized that this was the same fire from my 'dream', if you can even call it that. I walked closer to them to double check that I wasn't going crazy and that it actually was my locket. I got closer than I meant to and they noticed me.

"Hello can we help you with something?" The chief asked as he turned towards  me with the locket still in his hand. It was definitely mine.

"I was wondering where you found that locket?" I felt guilty about interrupting their conversation about the mask, but I couldn't help myself.

The chief looked at me before answering and I thought he was going to give me some lecture about interrupting. Instead he just said,  "It was in the middle of the field. Why?"

"It looks like mine. I lost it yesterday." It was a lie obviously, but he bought it, which was good. Now all I have to do is figure out how it got there...

"Well then here you go. " He handed me the locket. I was thinking about leaving when the chief asked, "Anything else I can help you with?"

"Well some of my neighbors were wondering when people will be able to leave their houses."

"Most likely by tomorrow. Now you better hurry on home. This is looking like a chemical fire and we don't want any bystanders to be affected."

"Okay thanks." I started walking back down Rosemary Street, not toward my house but in the opposite direction, toward Nicole's house. I had to tell her about my dream and the fire and my locket being found in the field the fire was in.

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I was standing in Nicole's room pacing back and forth as she tried to figure out an explanation for all of this. As usual her mouth was going all out; whatever she thought she said, no matter how dumb it sounded or was.

"Maybe it's someone else's locket or maybe someone stole yours and put in the field and then lit the field on fire or maybe--"

"Nicole, that's not what happened. This is just like that earthquake last year. I had a dream and then I woke up to find that it had actually happened." I continued to pace her room. "I just want to know who the person in my 'dream' was." Finally I sat down next to Nicole on her bed.

"Can you even call it a dream? It doesn't sound like a normal dream to me." After she thought for a little bit, Nicole gave me her troublemaker smile, and I knew she was planning something. "Well, we'll just have to figure out who that is, now won't we?"

"Oh no…. What are you planning?" I watched her as she stood up. Now it was her turn to pace, which she did every time she explained one of her 'adventures' to me.

"Can you stay overnight? It involves sneaking out." Nicole said. "We're going to go down to that field and have a look ourselves."

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It was eleven o'clock at night and I was crouching behind a bush at the end of Rosemary Street with Nicole by my side. We watched as the firefighters packed up, climbed into the truck, and left. We waited about three minutes, just to be sure they didn't come back, before pulling out our flashlights and running to the burnt field.  

"Okay you start over there, I'll start here." I said pointing to the right side of the field. Nicole nodded and started walking over on that side of the field. We searched the field for at least an hour before meeting up in the middle of the field. Nothing. "Did you find anything?" I called over to Nicole, who was on the opposite side on the field.

Nicole shook her head. "No. You?" I shook my head. "Let's keep looking. Maybe we missed something." Nicole said. I agreed and we went  back to searching the field. Another hour passed and I was getting tired. I was about to call over to tell Nicole that we should go back when I heard a scream that could only be Nicole's. I started running in the direction it came from, but didn't see her.

"Nicole! Nicole are you okay!" I yelled her name and shined my flashlight in the direction where she was, but she vanished. "Nicole! Where are you?!"

That's when I heard the deep, dark laugh, the same mysterious laugh from my dream and it seemed to be coming from everywhere.  I spun around frantically, trying to figure out where the laugh was coming from, but had no luck. Then I saw a bright flash that blinded me for about five seconds. When I got my eye sight back, there was a man standing about two feet in front of me. He was wearing an iron mask and a hooded cape; he reminded me of doctor doom, only instead of green and gray, he was wearing all black. The man was holding a knife in his hand and I could see a whip strapped to his side.

"Who are you and what do you want with me?" My voice was shaky, I could tell. I looked through the eye holes on his mask, right into the icy green eyes. They sent shivers up my spine just looking at them.

"What do I want? Revenge. Your father ruined my life!" He growled, pointing the knife at me.

"What do you mean? Who are you?" I took a step away from him.

The man took a step toward me. "You know who I am!" He cried. "Your father took everything from me, and now I'm going to take everything from him!"

I took a step back, hoping to get away from him, but he reached out and grabbed me by the arm. I struggled in his grip, but he was too strong. I felt something poke me and noticed he was injecting me with a syringe that I hadn't seen before. I tried to pull myself away from him again, but couldn't. I felt myself getting drowsy and my movements started to slow down. My eyelids got heavier and I tried my best to keep them open, only to fail in the end. I fell out of consciousness.

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