Checkmate

I heard the door close behind me but Aaron still did not take the blindfold off my face.

"Where am I?" I asked.

"Hang on," was all he said. I heard him open some curtains. Then I noticed how the room got much brighter.

His voice was suddenly right next to my ear. "Are you ready then?" He whispered.

"Yes," I whispered back and the blindfold fell down. I blinked several times, waiting for my eyes to adjust to the light. Then I studied the room I was in. My jaw dropped.

This room was unexpected. One, because I didn't create it. It was almost like a secret room. And two, because a bunch of my things were in this room.

The room had a bookshelf on all sides and went up to the ceiling. There were books everywhere. Not mine though. My books were stacked in piles all over the floor. I ran over to one of the piles and picked up the first book. Rose Red by Stephen King. This was my first horror book I've ever read. I tucked it under my arm and picked up the next in the stack. Acheron by Sherrilyn Kenyon. My favorite romance novel. I picked up the next book. Hawksong by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes. All my favorite books were here.

I looked across the room to a table in the corner. I walked over to it and noticed my glass chess set I got as a birthday gift was there. I never had the chance to play it. And next to the chess set was all my colored pencils, markers, and crayons. Next to that was my sketch book and notebook. Moisture filled my eyes.

"Thank you, Aaron!" I set down my books and ran toward him, throwing my arms around his waist. "Thank you so, so, so much!"

He patted my back and chuckled. "Of course. I knew you'd start to feel homesick sooner or later. So as soon as possible, I set Elliot back to grab a few of your belongings. You could call it, your piece of home. Right here in this very room. We had some workers build it for you special." He grinned.

The door opened and Elliot walked in.

"Whoa. Hey you two love birds, I'm not interrupting anything am I?" He laughed.

I smiled and let go of Aaron. "Thank you, Elliot," I said and walked towards him with my arms open.

"Wait, what are you doing?" He put his hands up in front of himself. I wrapped my arms around him.

"Come here Aaron," I called. "There's always room for one more!"

Aaron came over and put one arm over me and one over Elliot. We were all trapped in a group hug.

"No! Stop! I can't stand the love!" Elliot complained.

Aaron and I both laughed.

After a minute I let go of Elliot and just smiled.

He put his hands on my shoulders. "Well, I'm glad to see that you're in a good mood seeing how we kidnapped you against your will and everything." He chuckled. "Let's hope you stay that way now." He dropped his arms to his side.

"Oh, and the reason why I'm here," Elliot turned to Aaron and his face was abruptly serious, "is because we have a bit of a problem in the Master Hall." His face was serious. I wondered what the problem was.

"Alright," Aaron said. "Let’s go." They both headed for the door.

"Wait!" I stopped them. "What's the problem? Can I come too?"

"Er, no, it's best if you stayed here." And then they both turned and left, closing the door behind them.

Oh great, I thought to myself. Now what am I suppose to do while there gone? But then I looked at the towered shelves of books and smiled.

I climbed up the ladder searching for a book to read.

I spotted a thick book on one of the top shelves. It had a dark brown leather cover and was very tattered looking. I grabbed it and carefully climbed down the ladder with one hand while the other gripped the book tightly which was a little hard because it was very thick and heavy.

On the front of the book were the words Kew Nemto, Sompt Nemto. I had no idea what it meant. Luckily below the words there was a translation in smaller print that said Your World, Our World. The book looked promising. I sat down in a soft reddish orange chair and opened the book up.

I ignored the strange language and just continued to read the translation.
There was a small poem on the first page. It said:

A baby breathes.
A child laughs.
A kid learns.
But everyone creates.
When needed to get away,
most just stay.
Stay and draw.
Let their emotions out on paper.
Him or her.
The drawers.
The imaginers.
The creators.

I flipped the page and it looked like a table of context. Pages one to forty-nine, Flutura. Pages forty-nine to fifty-two, Ronherm. Oh, I've heard of that before. Aaron or Elliot mentioned it on our way here. I continued down the table of context looking for any other place I recognized. I found Pentaily. And then Corxel. I understood now. This whole book was about different worlds or places. I thought about the poem. Did other kids create these worlds? Say a sixty-year-old man made Ronherm, while a eleven-year-old girl made Pentaily. This was amazing! So many places out there...all created by someone. The list of worlds went on for two pages and a half! No wonder the book was so huge!

I decided to go straight to the section of Flutura. Maybe this could be more of help than my messy notebook. I flipped to page one and at the top it said Creatures and Their Symbols. Strange. I never thought of Fluturians as creatures.

The first one it listed was Shifter:

The Shifters: Known for lying and steeling. At first they were able to get away with; not be noticed because of how they took different forms of people. Until just recently it was found out that all Shifters have completely gray eyes. Now that they are easily spotted the Hunters (see below) were able to get all of them out of the city. They have no symbol. Though some say that their symbol is their gray eyes. When born, the Shifter doesn't have gray eyes and is usually a different creature. Later on, as they get older and older their eyes start getting more and more dull until they turn completely gray. And then, they are a Shifter.

That last bit of information surprised me. So, if you had a child, it could be a Water Phoenix at birth, but later in life turn into a Shifter? I wondered about Elliot. His sister is a Shifter. Though I doubt that he would become one; his eyes were so blue, the bluest I've ever seen. No hint of gray in them at all.

Under the Shifter it listed the War Vamps:

The War Vamps: Name is short for Warrior Vampires. Sometimes used as guards along with the Key Keepers and Hunters (see below). Used in wars because of their fighting skills and because of how many there are of them around Flutura. The symbol of the War Vamps is the garnet rune ring (like all vampires in Flutura).

The Key Keepers: Keeper of all the keys to Flutura. Only one still remains alive whom is over 13,000 years old and is currently guarding the gates to Flutura. The ruby rune ring is their symbol.

I laughed a little because I thought of why Leo must have always been so tired all the time. He was over a thousand years old!

The Hunters: Sometimes known as Finders or Trackers because of their ability to hunt down thieves, people lost in the castle or woods, Shifters (see above), anyone who escapes from jail, etc. just by using their sense of smell. Their symbol is the scarlet rune ring.

Wow, now that I thought of it, there are way more vampires in Flutura then I remember creating. That worried me a little. It didn't say if they sucked blood of Fluturians or not. I guess I would find out once the population number started dropping. I shuddered at the thought and looked at the next creature listed. It was the Dragon Knights. I knew a lot about them so I'm sure that nothing it said would surprise me but I was shocked when I was wrong.

The Dragon Knights: Protectors of the ruler of Flutura (King, Queen, etc.) and Fluturians. Not born, but formed when lightning hits one of the Nordoxie rocks. The Dragon Knight holds one of the four elements; depending on which Nordoxie rock the lightning hit. Their symbol also depends on which element they hold. The ones who hold the element of fire, their symbol is a gold dragon necklace. The ones with water as their element have the silver dragon necklace. The metal dragon necklaces are for the dragons with the element of wind and last but not least, the bronze dragon for the element of earth. As long as the ruler still lives, the Dragon Knight will too.

So when I died, so would Aaron and Elliot? But why? Would my death be considered their fault? Well, let’s hope I don't die then.

For some reason, the next page was missing. It was torn out. It didn't look like an accident. The tear was too straight. Someone needed to remember something. What information was on that page? Or was it the opposite? Maybe someone didn't want someone else to read something on that page. Possible.

While thinking I was just aimlessly flipping back and forth through the book pages. I noticed and stopped right in the middle of the book. Across the top it said: Chapter Five: Blurnic. Another world I didn't know about.

I was about to begin reading about Blurnic's creatures when something out of the corner of my eye caught my attention. I looked up and saw that it was some kind of clear liquid bottle on the small round table next to the chair I sat in.

I folded the page over in the book so I didn't loose my spot. I closed it and set it on the floor.

"Hello, what's this?" I picked up the clear bottle and examined it. There was no liquid in the bottle, it was silver powder instead. Just out of curiosity, I popped the lid open and took a sniff. Right away I felt tired. The bottle slipped out of my hand but it didn't sound like it broke. My eyes closed and I fell out of the chair onto the floor.