Sora

"Back in the day, lunch didn't cost five dollars." Grandma Jane scowled to her son over a plate of eggs and bacon. Adrian Edwards sighed heavily when eating the last of his eggs and listening to his mother bickering about how much things used to be. Maria Edwards smiled at her husband in pity, while she turned her gaze to her oldest and only daughter Alice Edwards who had just stared at her plate for a few minutes now without touching. Her blue eyes seemed to be in a daze but when the cling of a fork from her father she snapped back to herself and started to mess with her eggs.

"So today is the big day isn't it?" Maria commented cutting off Grandma Jane from her rant. She bit into her bacon while Alice nodded her head.

"Are you excited?"

"About?" Alice asked absent-minded.

"About graduating of course." Maria scowled.

"We're proud of you Alice. Have you thought of which college you're going to?" Adrian asked, and Alice gave him a small smile.

"Hopefully, away from Nathan." He muttered to himself quietly but it didn't go unnoticed to Alice.

"Of course, the same college you went too." She stood up and empty her plate into the garage and then place the empty plate into the sink.

"I'm off,"

She leaned down and kiss her mom cheek.

"Remember to come home around four, so you can get ready." Her mom said, and Alice nodded once more.

"We love you."

When Alice left with her backpack and her mobile phone the smile on her face disappeared into a frown. She hadn't the slightest idea on what she was going to do with her life. Her father was a small local doctor and her mother was a part-time nurse at the local hospital. Her entire family including cousins, uncles, aunts and grandparents were all in the medical field, but sadly to them not her. Alice walked away from her house and down the sidewalk toward her school which were only a few blocks away. The ideal place to anyone who goes here. She had no dream of going into the medical field. She was scared of blood and needles. While it would pleased her parents for following her their foot-steps, Alice just couldn't tell them the truth.

She had no idea where to start. She had screw up in her junior year of high-school with low GPA and basically not caring about anything till her senior year when her GPA sky rocketed to a 3.9. When she finally realized how important it was, it was already too late. Now her parents expected her to go to college following a medical career that she had no desire of being. Alice sighed; just when a bunch of children ran passed her throwing a soccer ball to each other, laughing. Alice wished she could be that freed, that happy, but now today she was going to graduate with her class and walk into her suppose to be future.

A loud screeching noise of tires could be heard. The laughter of the children stopped just when a black ford car speed up passed them swaying on the black top road. There were many horns from the nearby cars and trucks as they invade the dangerous black car. The driver lost controlled and the car jerked it's movements to the left off the road and into the side-walk. Alice froze, fear had frozen her to her spot. The car headed toward her and with a tremble she closed her eyes ready for death to take her ever so suddenly. She couldn't hope to survive this. She closed her eyes shut, waiting.

'Goodbye, mom...dad...grandma"

She felt herself holding her hand out jerking, and then the black car rammed into her. The strangest thing happened. She wasn't dead. She felt pain of course and when she opened her eyes she was faced with scene of red flames spiraling around her. Her body was rammed into the wall of the nearby house with the car. The front end of the car was bashed against her, windshield shattered and the driver bended over his driving wheel limp without an ounce of life. Alice entire body began to shake and she started to panicked. What the hell going on? Why wasn't she dead? Why wasn't she feeling any pain? Why could she still feel her own body even with this car against her like this?

Alice placed her hands onto the dented up hood of the black car and began to push. The car moved so easy with her strength that Alice almost stopped and scream at herself. There were police and ambulance sirens in a distance.

"That girl just got hit!" One person screamed to another;

"Is she alright?"

"I don't know, I cannot see her."

The car moved away from her body, as Alice fell to her knees helpless. She stared down at her hands;

What am I? Is this real?

The sirens were even closer than before waking Alice from her thoughts.

The brick wall behind her were coming down showing the living-room of the house behind her. The wall that she was smashed into...the wall that didn't hurt her...and the car that didn't kill her.

She's a monster. Alice realized with disgust.

Guardian of Strength I had found you at last.

The voice was fade and male inside her head, but Alice ignored it. It would only make her more of a freak. She ducked inside the house before the police and ambulance could arrive.

Alice arrived to school an hour late. She had managed to brush her hair by her locker and straightened out her clothes before walking toward the GYM for the Graduation Practice. Her entire body still tremble from the incident and her head beginning trying to make logical reasons on what had jus happened.

'She was never hit in the first place.'

'It was only a dream, and the children had woken her.'

'It was only her imagination'

Her shoulder bumped into a girl with dark skin and vivid chocolate eyes.

"Watch where you're going! You have no right to act the way you do just because you're graduating." Bridgett Wood snarled at Alice who just rolled her eyes at her and walked away. Bridgett was the only junior that was allowed inside the GYM to help setting the chairs up and stuff like that. She had always think that the upper classman were always out to get her in every single thing. Maybe that was the reason why she was helping them in the first place, to get them out already.

"Hey!" Bridgett called after her angry, but Alice ignored her, walking into the GYM.

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X

It was lunchtime and already Alice didn't see her best friend Nathan anywhere. He usual meet up with her every morning, then practicing his own graduation speech with her, but now she couldn't find any trace of him. The last time she saw him was last Friday, when he smiled at her with his bright blue eyes and messy blonde haired saying he would call her when he gets home. He never did, and she thought that he was busy...but now he was being strange.

It turned stranger when the principle had called her to his office that afternoon when most seniors had left to their house to prepare their cap and gown for the graduation at six P.M. When she arrived to his office, she saw both Mr. and Mrs. Stone. Nathan's parents, tearful faces. The Principal sat behind his desk giving her a sad look behind his bottle-shaped glasses.

"Thank you for joining us Ms. Edwards. Please take a seat we would like to ask you something that involves your friend." Alice hesitated but the tearful faces of Nathan's parents made her sit down willingly, and listen.

A few minutes passed by before the principal spoke.

"You were the last person who saw Mr. Nathan Stone am I correct?" Principal Spears questioned and Alice nodded her head confused.

"Yes sir, " she paused and bit her lower lip.

"Excuse me sir, is Nathan missing?"

There was a dead silence in the room.

"We believe that you know where he is."

Alice blood turned cold and then boil in rage. This person dared to honestly accused her of kidnapping or holding Nathan away from his family unwillingly. Of course the principal haven't come right out with it, but he had hinted it. Ever since her mother had blown up the bathroom toilet in her freshman year here, he always expect her to be a convict or causing some type of trouble.

"This is the first time I ever known he's missing, sir." Alice answered; holding back her anger. Her hands crunched into a pair of fist behind her chair. She casted a small betrayal look at Nathan's parents who had thought otherwise too. Had they known her since she was five when she followed Nathan home? Their parents were good friends also, but she knew that grief and worry bring out the worse of people.

Then time seemed to freeze. The principal just stared at her unblinking, and the noise dropped to a zero. There were no sobs from neither parents. Alice fell out of her seat realizing there was also no movement.

Her hand in front of her began to fade into a transparent. Her eyes grew in size in shock and disbelief once more.

I'm really am dead.

She knew she was dead. The car just had to kill her. Right now she was at the hospital pronounced dead and her parents were beside her crying, about a parent shouldn't have to bury their own child.

She let out a painful wail realizing she didn't want to be dead either. Her vision faded and within a moment reappearing slowly in a different back ground. This time she was at a Victorian looking living-room. Time had unfreeze and soon she was staring into a pair of sapphire surprised eyes.

"Wow, that was quick than I had expected." It was the same voice from earlier,

and then she began to panicked even more. She was just a normal girl for one moment and then all this strange stuff is going on along with her best friend being missing. She knocked over a lamp off the coffee table.

"C-Calm down please!" The dark-haired man tried to reassure her carefully,

"CALM DOWN? CALM DOWN? HOW THE HELL CAN I CALM DOWN WHEN I JUST SURVIVE A CAR CRASH UNSCATCHED AND THEN PUSH THE CAR WITH EASE AWAY FROM ME! HOW CAN I CALM DOWN WHEN MY BEST FRIEND IS NOW MISSING?! NOW CAN I CALM DOWN WHEN...WHEN I'M HERE AND I DON'T KNOW HOW I CAME HERE!" Alice screeched, tears falling from her eyes. The dark-haired young man just stared at her patently, realizing what was going on inside her head.

When her breathing became steady and her eyes cleared of tears. The dark-haired man sighed, and then spoke once more-"Are you quiet finished?"

Alice didn't reply automatically, she just sat there on the ground staring at him confused for the tenth time this day.

"Am I going crazy? Am I dead? Who are you?" She uttered quietly,

"I'm going to make some tea to help with your nerves, and then I explain why you're here."
Alice numbly nodded her head.