The Forsaken Key

Chapter 1

Running in the area of a blurry, dark forest, two figures walking off into the darkness, a blood-curdling scream, a flash of light- I bolted up from my bed, breathing heavily, feeling cold sweat over my body. Then I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I’d been having the same nightmare for as long as I could remember, but I’d never given it much thought until I was 9 years old.
“It’s just a dream, it was only a dream.” I told myself reassuringly, opening my eyes.
Warily, I scanned my bedroom for any unusual factors. On the west side of the room was my bed; The east side had my bureau of clothing and a mirror above it, the bureau’s surface covered with little boxes with jewelry and hair ties that I had used numerous times; The south wall bare except for two joined windows with soft, cotton curtains. There on the north wall was my chest where I kept all of my special items: a stunning silk dress that my grandfather had brought me back from one of his travels, my ivory brush, a simple blue box with my valuable jewelry, and an old teddy bear I’d long since used but still kept safe from harm. Underneath the neatly organized piles of valuables in my chest sat a beautiful heart-shaped box. Marked with intricate designs only a skilled craftsman could have done, I had discovered the box when I was a little girl, maybe 5, 6 years old. I knew everything about the container, except for its contents. I’d never been able to open the box; Unfortunately, I didn’t have the key, for on one side of the box was the indentation of a heart shape. Being the intelligent girl I was, I knew that in order to open it, I’d have to press a heart shaped something into the heart indentation. For years I had tried to find a key to the box, but without success. I even tried to imitate the heart shape and had pressed it into the mark. Unfortunately, my plan had not worked. So, I had placed the box on the floor of my chest, frustrated that the box would not open, but sure that the box and whatever was inside of it was very important.
Seeing that everything in the room was in order, I calmed down a bit more. Then, I collapsed back into the warmth of my bed and sighed. Why do I have these dreams? I thought to myself. I pondered this question over and over in my head, and nodding off once more, I closed my eyes and fell back into a deep, deep sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~ * ~~~~~~~~~~ * ~~~~~~~~~~ * ~~~~~~~~~~

“Amber! Amber, wake up!” My eyes snapped open and tried to refocus on one of my best friends, Jaymee, who happened to be sitting on my knees and shaking me vigorously.
Jaymee’s parents were all about being all-out different and original. Unfortunately, that meant their first and only daughter would get the original treatment, including her name. On the bright side, Jaymee had an enormous house, the latest technology, wasn’t made fun of in school, and a pet dog! On the dark side, she had the craziest cousins, she was instructed to do everything original, and the dog, well, it was named… Evjan. I’m not even sure if that’s a boy or a girl name!
The only relieving thing about Jaymee being original was that she liked creating her own clothing. Today, Jaymee was wearing multi-colored paint-splattered jeans, (and she had actually did the splattering herself), neon blue converse, a navy blue streak in her raven black hair, (which had been tied into a pretty knot near the top of her head), bangles on one wrist, rubber bracelets on the other, and a white T-shirt that was made of 100% recycled paper and actually had a peace sign in the middle. Additionally, she had a Ticonderoga pencil sticking right through her hair, which she did frequently. Did I mention that Jaymee wore tons of extra clothing and trinkets?
Groggily, I rubbed my eyes and blinked hard.
“Okay, okay, I’m up!” I groaned.
“You better be,” she chided, “because we’ve gotta get to Makayla’s house! You know her. She’ll be in bed all day if we don’t get her up for school!”
“Yeah, okay, I’ll be up in a sec,” I told her. Then, I had an idea. Grinning, I kicked up my legs, sending Jaymee rolling off the bed.
“Hey!” she giggled as she resurfaced from her collision with the floor.
“That’s what you get,” I reasoned, slipping out of the bed and helping her up. In that one second, Jaymee regained her ecstatic and explosive nature.
“Go, go, go!” she told me energetically.
Running over to my dresser, she flapped around the clothes and threw two shirts at me.
“Hey, how about some pan-” I started, but before I could finish, Jaymee tossed my blue jeans at my face. “Thanks,” I told her, my voice muffled from the jeans.
I changed into the pants, and then chose one of the two shirts, which was light green and had purple flowers on a vine decorating the side of the shirt. Tying my hair into a ponytail, I turned to Jaymee.
“Let’s go,” I told her, placing a green bracelet on my wrist and picking up my backpack, but Jaymee was already out the door of my bedroom.
“Right, so we have to drive at lightning speed to Kayla’s, so-” Jaymee stopped mid-sentence, screeching to a halt as we reached the kitchen.
My grandmother, Teresa, was just pulling out an enormous batch of muffins out of the oven. The aroma of the muffins reached us, and I breathed in deeply.
Teresa looked up. “Oh, there you girls are. Good morning Amber. How are you, Jaymee darling?” Basically, Teresa was practically Jaymee’s second mother.
“I’m good, thanks!” Jaymee replied.
“Listen, I know you’re in a hurry,” she informed us, “but I made-“
“Banana-chocolate chip muffins!” Jaymee and I relished, coming over and each taking two of the muffins.
“Thanks, grandma!” I told her gratefully, my mouth pleasantly warm from the fresh-baked breakfast.
“Yaaahhh, fanks!” Jaymee added, one of the muffins already stuffed into her mouth. She swallowed. “But c’mon Amber, we really have to go! Sorry Teresa,” she apologized, grabbing my arm and pulling me towards the door. “But we have to pick up Kayla, and then we have to make it lightning speed to Kenny’s, ‘cause his car broke down!”
“All right, bye girls,” my grandma smiled and waved at us.
“Bye!” Jaymee and I chorused.
Jogging, Jaymee and I quickly sat in Jaymee’s car. She started up the engine in her silver Volkswagen and stepped on the pedal.
“Silver one!” I cried, punching Jaymee lightly on the arm playfully.
“Very funny,” she replied, “but don’t you know it’s not a good idea to distract the driver while she’s concentrating on the road?”
“There’s no one on the road,” I reasoned. Sure enough, the long, black road that lead to my house was completely deserted.
“Well, what about pedestrians?” Jaymee retorted.
“Touché,” I giggled, then gasped as Jaymee hit the gas, flooring the accelerator.
“Jaymee, slow down!” I ordered, and then sighed as she slowed down to the max speed limit.
“We are on a tight schedule!” she defended. “Thank goodness Makayla lives only a few roads down.”
“Well, we can’t kill ourselves before we get to her though,” I told her.
“We’re not going to kill ourselves!!!”
“Fine,” I grinned, and turned up the radio.
“And I’m halfway gone,
Yeah I’m on my way,
And I’m feelin’, feelin’, feelin’ this way-”
“Lifehouse!” Ally and I cried together, and then laughed.
“And I’m halfway go-oo-one…” The song was over.
“Turn, turn, turn!” I warned as Makayla’s street, Waybrook Avenue, came closer.
Jaymee turned right, and then drove on at a quicker speed until we pulled into the driveway of a gray house. After locking the doors to the car, Jaymee and I raced to the door and greeted Makayla’s mom.
“Morning girls,” she told us. A soft-spoken woman, Mrs. Walldoff was a kind and gentle mother who we all loved.
“Morning!” I replied, and then bolted up the stairs to the second floor.
When I opened the bedroom door, all was dark. The shades were closed, there were no night-lights, and all Jaymee and I could see was the giant lump on the bed on the far side of the room. Creeping up next to each side of the bed, we waited three seconds for a countdown, and then pounced on top of the life-less form.
“Aaahghhhg!” A voice shrieked. Then, the covers opened up to reveal my other best friend, Makayla Walldoff.
Makayla was a brunette with tanned skin from going to the beach. Freckles dotted her cheeks. You could say she was the athletic type, with her thing but strong body and her never-ending stamina. Makayla played basketball, football, soccer… Basically every sport that existed, Makayla could excel in. As for me, I only excelled in volleyball.
Makayla huffed and threw off the covers from her bed. She grumbled while Jaymee threw a bunch of clothes at her like she had done to me: shorts and an Aeropostale green shirt with green star earrings to match. In five minutes though, we’d managed to make it to Makayla’s kitchen. Kayla’s younger and three-year-old brother, George, was already sitting at the table, still holding his fork like a shovel. Ironically, he was also shoveling pancakes into his mouth as if it were his last meal.
“Hey George,” I greeted, walking over and ruffling his brown hair.
“Hewo Amba,” he replied, using his free hand to wave at me.
“Good morning, little George!” Jaymee cooed. She absolutely adored children. “How are you this morning?” She smiled at George and laughed as he gave her a thumbs-up.
“Morning kid,” Kayla yawned over to him. George giggled.
“Makayla Walldoff,” Mrs. Walldoff scolded. “How many times do I have to tell you not to call your brother ‘kid’? It’s not polite.”
“Sorry mom,” Makayla apologized, stifling another yawn and sliding out a chair to sit down.
“Yeah, about breakfast…” Jaymee interrupted. “We gotta go or we’ll be late! You know, Kenny.”
“I brought you a muffin in the car,” I bribed her. “It’s banana chocolate chip!”
“Oh all right,” Kayla smiled underneath her pouting face. “Bye George, bye mom,” she told her family, kissing them on their cheek. “Bye dad!” she added as we spotted her father, Connor Walldoff, appear from outside a room with a newspaper.
“Bye Makaywa!” George called happily from the kitchen as we bolted out the door and into Jaymee’s car once more.
“Come on, Jaymee!” Makayla complained as I handed her a muffin. “We’ve got fifteen minutes, why do we always have to rush?”
“It’s not my fault you’re a sleepy head and I’m an early bird!” Jaymee sang. “ I’m sorry Kayla, but you’re lucky we have me here to drive you girls to school, so eat you muffin and wake up while we pick up Kenny.”
I cracked up at this, but then stopped as Kayla elbowed me in the side. We all grinned at each other. Life was sweet.