Rising Shards

Everything felt a bit fuzzy, almost dreamlike, cast in strangely muted hues of brown and pale blue. But my gut told me I wasn’t dreaming. Which was strange, because I sat in a dusty classroom. The late afternoon sun was bright enough that it lit up all the little bits of dust in the air. A faint thought in the back of my head told me that the chair I sat in was more like one from my elementary school than one at Rising Shards.

Wait...where am I again?

Looking around, I could see I wasn’t alone. Anastasia sat beside me, grumbling to herself, tapping her toe against the ground. There was a teacher in front of us. He was familiar...wasn’t he? I couldn’t remember his name.

”You two shouldn’t be fighting,” The teacher said, his voice slightly muffled in a curious way that I couldn’t quite place but sounded so familiar. ”This is the fourth time I’ve caught you brawling through the school halls. Now what the heck do you have to say for yourselves?”

”Brawling? That’s...” My voice had that fuzzy tone to it too.

No, seriously...how’d I get here? What’s going on?

”I’d say it was quite the brawl, you two were so focused on punching each other that you knocked Mrs. Morning’s flower pot down!” The teacher put his hands on his hips. ”Well? Not a single thing to say about it? Ana, how about you?”

”But she started it,” Anastasia said. She scowled, crossing her arms. I couldn’t get over how weird and muffled her voice was. How she didn’t quite sound like herself either, in the brief time I’d known my sister, I hadn’t heard her talk in such a pouty way. She sounded more like a whiny brat being told to not act up in class versus her regular brash aggressiveness.

”Yeah, well that doesn’t mean you have to continue it,” the teacher said. ”You two are sisters, you should act like it!”

”Er...Mr...what’s your name again?” I said. ”I just have a question.”

I wanted to ask what was going on, but he just scoffed. ”If you can’t even apologize, why, I’m gonna have to call your parents in...”

Ana and I both gasped. I thought I heard music coming from outside in the hallways, a suddenly mournful song.

”Our dad...he...he got in a bad way with the stock market, left us behind...” Anastasia said. ”Said he was going out for smokes, then...”

The teacher rubbed his mustache, then sighed. ”Aw heck, aw gosh, I’m sorry girls.”

”Well, you could still call Mom,” Anastasia said. ”Can’t guarantee she’d pick up, but you could call her.”

”Or Stella,” I said.

”Don’t call Stella,” Anastasia said.

”Why shouldn’t I call Stella?” The teacher asked.

”She’s...away at military school,” Ana said.

”No, she works in the library,” I said. ”Wait...”

Stella works in the library. Why did that make me feel strange? Like a wave washed through me. Stella absolutely works in the library. And our dad didn’t run away after some stock market thing, he...well, whatever he did, it probably wasn’t that.

”Where...are we?” My vision got warbly and I got all dizzy, I thought I was gonna throw up but I somehow didn’t. Everything looked clearer after the dizziness passed, like I could see more than I could just moments earlier.

”Oh, one of your silly pranks again, huh Zeta Kathron?” The teacher said.

I ignored him, rising to my feet and leaving the room. I debated for a second if I should bring Ana with, deciding to grab her wrist and make her follow me.

”Hey! Don’t walk away from me!” The teacher said.

I kept walking until we were out in the hallways away from that guy. My mind was getting clearer.

”He’s gonna be so pissed we walked away...” Anastasia said.

I didn’t care about that. I needed to figure out what was going on. ”Last thing I remember...I was on the bus...to the prom dress thing.” I gasped. ”The prom dress thing! That’s where we’re supposed to be...is this another stupid void imp deal?”

My voice seemed to get less muffled, but Ana was going on and on about this teacher getting us in trouble once he caught up to us.

”Hey, Anastasia. Snap out of it!” I said. I clapped in front of her face, but all that did was make her try to catch me, hoisting her hand high in the air and swinging it down. I barely dodged her attempt to club me in time.

”Anastasia,” I said. ”Hey!”

One more big clap seemed to shake her. She blinked, looking around.

”The hell...?” Anastasia said.

”We’re in some weird void thing. Again.” I said.

Anastasia rolled her eyes. ”What now...?”

”I didn’t do this!” I said.

”I’m not saying you did, idiot,” Anastasia said. ”The hell are you wearing?”

I looked down, my bright neon t-shirt along with suspenders with a crazy pattern on them looked like something I saw Stella wear in a photo album from ages ago.

”I could ask you the same thing...” I said when I noticed Anastasia’s outfit. She had an after school special’s idea of what goth clothes would look like, all black, lots of spikes and belts and such, heavy makeup, the works. I gasped again. ”Oh my god, that’s what this is like!”

”What?” Anastasia asked.

”Like an after school special from twenty years ago!” I said. ”Some crap they’d make us watch at school, kinda over the top, kinda low budget, stupid and...” I realized my teeth felt strange. ”Ack! Not braces again!”

”Calm down.” Anastasia said.

”If I have to see an orthodontist again to get these off...” A troubling series of flashbacks from the last time I had braces rushed through my mind.

”Take better care of your teeth then, dumbass,” Ana said. ”So it’s probably an imp again, huh? Last time it was a dating show from forever ago, so I guess after school special makes sense.”

This was maybe the longest Anastasia had talked to me even in a semi-cordial way. I didn’t like being in another imp situation, but I did feel a strange glimmer of hope for my estranged sister tolerating me even a little bit.

”Think it’s just us in here?” I asked.

”I hope not,” Anastasia said. ”It’s probably everyone who walked in to the building for the game who got zapped here, some dumb crap like that.”

”This is my...second one of these, I think,” I said.

”Third for me,” Anastasia said.

”Well, third too if a Kris Krag counts,” I said.

”I don’t think they do, they’re in their own category,” Ana said.

”Wait, hey, Chickadee sent that one, did you have anything to do with it?” I asked.

”Do you ever stop talking?” Anastasia said. ”Shut up so I can think for a second.”

”I guess we could go look for anyone else, that might be a good next step,” I said.

”I just said to stop talking,” Ana growled. ”But fine. Whatever. Let’s split up. I’ll go down this hallway, you go find a room preferably filled with spikes.”

”And what, just stand there by a bunch of spikes?” I said.

”No, jump on them,” Anastasia gave a wolfish grin like she thought that was a cool line.

”You really think I’d jump on a bunch of spikes?” I said.

”Unless you’re even dumber than I think you are, obviously not,” Anastasia said.

”So you don’t really want me to jump on spikes then, you do care!” I said.

”What the hell are you talking about?”

”It’s airtight logic, Anastasia,” I said.

Another growl from Anastasia as she started walking again. I followed beside her, ignoring her splitting up idea. We may have been in somewhat uncharted territory, but at least it was fun teasing Ana a bit while we began our search.