Dragons of the Unknown

Chapter 2

Startled awake my body is acutely aware of my surroundings, turning off my loud alarm I sit up dangling my feet off the bed. The soft breeze of the summer morning drifts on by alerting my senses. Quickly taking off my shirt and shorts I instantly replace them with my uniform. Buttoning up my black and grey skirt I suddenly remember my English Essay is today. Following my daily routine I eat breakfast, and do my teeth. As I'm packing my dark grey school bag I hear my phone ringing from down stairs. As I get to it I see no caller ID.

"Hello who is this?" I ask, for the first few seconds all I hear is breathing.

"Is this miss Skarlet?" Replies a deep male voice.

"Ahhh... Yes and who am I talking too?" My voice wavers in fear and confusion, no one ever calls except my dad.

"I am..." He hesitates for a second before he continues, "Lachlan form NRMA Insurance. Are you or anyone you know in need for a complementary policy quote?"

"Um, No thank you, how did you get this number?" After a few more seconds the wired NRMA guy hangs up. Well that was weird. Finally ready for school I grab my bag and start shouting for dad to take me to school. After for what seems to be forever my dad appears at the top of the stairs throwing on his grey shirt with red pineapples. Walking towards the car dad unlocks it and we drive off to school.

...

Kissing my dad goodbye I hop out of his white Range Rover and walk over to the path. My dad always drops me off in the mornings, always just a bit down the road form the actual school. Most days we leave home at 7:30, to get here at 7:45 for then I meet up with Tina and Sarah. Walking down the gravely path I near the front gate. Catching sight of Sarah I jog to meet her and some others.

"Hey, Serena. Long time no see." She says.

"Yeah, where were you yesterday? I tried to text and call but you didn't get back to me." I reply.

"Well, for starters two nights ago, my mum took my phone of me for being to 'anti-social'" she says with an air quote. Then yesterday in the morning my dad informed me we were going to Brisbane for my Aunts birthday. So yeah and I only got my phone back this morning."

"Okay sounds like you had a great day yesterday," I say while chuckling under my breath. Our small little group walks slowly towards the library on our left. Suddenly interested in what the others were saying Sarah turns around to chat with the rest of the group.

"Hey Serena, the sketch of the fruit bowl for Visual Arts. Is it due today?" I hear somebody ask form behind me.

"Ah.. No it's due tomorrow, don't worry Tristan," I reply back as I turn to face him front on. "Do you know if Tina's at school yet?"

"Last I heard she was at the office."

"Thank you Tristan, see you later," I say turning to the front of the school. Behind me I hear a mumbled 'cya later,' and with that I'm walking to the office. Opening the door I spot my prize.

"Hey you," I say.

"Hey Serena. Just give me a sec I'm handing in an exertion note." Tina hands in her note and we walk out of the office in quiet chatter. A few minutes later the bell for home group rings and we go our separate ways. Once I get to science room four I sit down and study for my English Essay. After home group I go to my first class which is Visual Arts, then period two comes along painfully fast and it's time for English. As I do last minute studying a cold sweat spreads across my back, and the heat of a thousand fires thunders in my head. Miss Megomery opens the door to our room and we file in two at a time as her sharp eyes watch over us. Sitting down I find myself next to Sarah. Slowly but surely the words come to my head and onto the paper. A few minutes later and my headache has only increased. A sudden unbearable pain fills my skull and the only thing I can hear is my pounding heart. Then black spots my vision and I am hyperventilating. There are a few minutes of agonising pain and no awareness of my surroundings, but then my eyes clear and my awareness is back. Looking around I notice that everyone is staring at me, my eyes skip to the desk and the contents of my pencil case are all over it. The teacher speaks to me but I can't hear her, she turns to Sarah then the next thing I know she is taking me to sick bay. Sitting in front of the school nurse he takes my temperature and shines a bright light in my eyes. After a few moments I hear his voice...

"Serena Scarlet? Can you hear me?" His concerned eyes stare into mine, he must see a twitch because his face transforms from worry into relief. He turns to the woman behind him and tells her I am responsive. He turns back to me.

"Serena can you please say something?" He asks.

"Yeah" I manage to mumble. "What happened?"

He looks at me then at door and I notice Sarah is standing there. She moves and sits next to me, her face giving of a slightly sad twinge.

“You okay?” I ask her. Hearing how worried I am her face changes into a neutral and calm expression. 

“Yeah, I’m fine. It’s you we should be worrying about,” She says and I decide to change the subject.

“Okay… Do you reckon we get to re-do our English essay?” She chuckles slightly.

“Who knows, but honestly I hope not.”

“Yeah…” I think for a second, but then I’m confused. “What happened in the classroom,” I ask in a whisper. 

She takes a moment to answer but when she does, it shocks me. “We had all started the test and then it’s like a slight wind had picked up, as the papers on everyone's desks started to flap around. This is weird though as no fans were on, the door was closed and so were all the windows. I was confused and looked to you to see if you were too. Then I noticed that you were deathly pale, and getting worse as the papers started to move more. I don’t think anyone else saw it when it happened but your pencil case kind of… exploded open and the contents scattered all over your desk, I think everyone else just thought you were trying to open it, even though it was well out of your reach on the other side of the desk. Anyway at the exact same time as that, you went whiter than a ghost and collapsed in your seat, your eyes went glassy and you were unresponsive to everything and everyone around you. Miss told me to bring you here, and now here we are.”

“Okay, so I fainted?” I ask confused as it has never happened to me before.

“Yeah you fainted, after a whole load of that s**t happened. Do you know why it happened? Has it happened before? Is there anything I should know about Serena?” She rapidly fires the questions at me and my skin starts to tingle.

“Woah, woah, woah. One thing at a time, no I don’t know what happened, honestly what are you going on about?”

“Nothing I’m just curious,” she says but her face goes hard.

I roll my eyes and turn to see the school nurse has moved behind one of the fancy teacher like desks and is typing on a computer. After a few minutes of silence he seems to realise, that no one has spoken in a while and looks up. Then he blinks at  me.

“Is everything okay Serena?” He asks looking a little worried.

“Yes I feel really good, can I go to recess when period 2 ends please?” I beg him. His eyes narrow slightly and he watches me for a moment but then a second later he is back to normal.

“Yes, you may attend recess and the following classes after that.” He looks at me expectantly and I nod to him in understanding. He swivels his head and his brown eyes focus on Sarah, just like me she nods her head. Then he is on his way, doing all the stuff teachers and staff alike do. Sooner than I thought possible period 2 ends, and recess begins. From then on the next few hours carried on smoothly. I sat with Tina, Sarah, Tristan and Ashlee for recess talking about random stuff. Then I was relieved that in math our usual teacher Mr Grey was sick, and we got an awesome substitute instead. In 4th period science Ms Larbinee let us play one of those cool online science quizzes. Then it was time for electives and I breezed through the bars of music on the guitar. All in all the day has been great until now. Everything has started going down hill. Sitting at the cafeteria table all my main friends are here except for Tina. After a few minutes I start to worry and look around, because she always comes to sit with us at lunch. Ashlee who is sitting next to me seems to notice my restlessness and turns form the main discussion on the table. Her amber eyes turn to meet my ever changing green and blue ones.

“Hey, what’s going on? You seem a little on edge.”

“Nothing, nothings going on. I’m just a little worried because of how late Tina is-”

At that exact moment the doors to the cafeteria burst open, and her emailed eyes meet mine. The room goes silent and I look at her and notice that her hands are shaking and she looks a little white. 

“Se-Se-Serena, can we please talk?” Tina asks from the cafeteria doors.

Silently nodding I get up and leave my food behind me. She turns around and starts walking towards an isolated hallway. As the doors to the cafeteria swing shut behind me I strangely notice the sudden absence of the greasy food. What the f**k!? Why is my nose so sensitive today? Tina finally stops and turns to me. She lets out a quick breath.

‘’Serena… There was a man… He was asking about you.” 

“Okay that’s a little weird but what’s wrong with a guy wondering a bit around me? Seriously Tina-“

“No that’s not what I mean” she says quickly interrupting me. “The guy wasn’t from here. He also wasn’t our age. H-he was about 30 Serena and it wasn’t just some random questions like ‘did you have a boyfriend?’ or ‘what’s her favourite color?’ There were more on the lines of who are your parents, where do you live, what race you are, how old you are, how old are your parents and stuff like that. He freaked me out so I didn’t answer his questions and he started to get very angry and scary…” Tina seems to get lost in her own mind as her eyes go wide and gaze just beyond me for a second, then she comes back to reality. “Anyway that guy was just bad news and well… I’m worried about you.”

I look at her- hands starting to finally still, the rose in her cheeks starting to come back  and decide I should tell her. “Honestly I’m a little worried too. This morning I got a weird phone call and then there’s last night…” I fade off not really wanting to tell her. She seems to get the idea and avoids the subject.

“So the bells going to go soon. Wanna go finish your food?” Tina asks as we start walking from our hide hole. I nod and and in a comfortable silence we walk back toward the cafeteria. As I get close to the cafeteria the smell starts to get stronger and stronger.

“Hey, Tina can you smell that?”

She gives me a weird expression, “smell what?”

“The spices that they put into the spaghetti sauce, the fat and grease from the chicken. Basically all the foods?”

She gives me a confused look, obviously she thought I was crazy. “Hell no woman. To smell that I would have to be at least 2m close and I’d still really struggle with distinguishing the difference between everything.”

I laugh it off but as I take a deep breath sure enough I can smell it and everything around me. From there on lunch goes quickly. We return back to the cafeteria everything back to normal between us. We eat and she talks to our other friends but I stay quiet. Through the rest of lunch I notice the weirdest things: a individual spec of dirt on the gray floor a good 20m away, the distinct smell of all the different foods no matter where they are in the cafeteria, and the literal sound of a pin drop over all the noise of at least 600 kids pretty much yelling to be heard and even weirder I knew it was dropped in the hallway outside the cafeteria. Then the bell rings and I’m brought out of my concentration. Without saying goodbye to any of my friends I exit the room and head to end of day home group. I sit and spend the time in absolute silence as everything goes on around me as usual. As the day of school starts to come to an end I start to feel a slight pain in my stomach almost like a cramp. As home time gets closer the pain slowly starts to spread from a small section in my abdomen to my entire stomach. My hand flies up and after what feels like forever, Mr Sullivan addresses me, “yes, Serena?”

“May I please go to the bathroom?”

He looks at me suspiciously for a moment than answers, “yes you can. Take your bag with you, school will be over in a few minutes.”

“Thanks,” I reply picking up my bag and exiting the room. As I enter the bathroom I look in the mirror and wash my sweaty face. The bell goes and I go to the front of the school stumbling with the now agonising pain in my stomach and I’m almost out of the parking lot when I’m suddenly frozen and my mind is transported to another place.

…

Everything is peaceful. Wind whispering in my ears. My feet graze the grass as I rise and fall, rise and fall. The only real sound is of the occasional squeak of the swings. Swinging backwards I feel my mothers soft hands push me forward. A delighted giggle escapes from me. My lips move and a high pitched, masculine voice erupts from my chest. “Wee! Mummy, higher, higher mummy!” “Alright sweetheart one more push and then we’re done for the day, okay?” Replies my mum. I nod my head disappointed, but enjoy the swinging until it stops. Sighing I stand on the spongy grass with my bare feet. I look up to the older woman standing behind me, “ I love you mum-”

Before I know whats happening I am torn back into reality. Taking a deep breath I realise, the building pain in my stomach and chest are no longer there. What's happening to me?! Am I going insane? Questions flood my mind, but there are no answers. Beep! A car horn blares at me. Looking around I notice that I’m situated in the middle of the exit of the car park. I walk quickly onto the path saying goodbye to the school for the day. I reach the bus stop, and on time it picks me up. I sit down stare out the window and think. Strange things have been happening to me recently and I’m at the age where certain bodily things should be happening to me. So maybe… I mean I’ve had no mum to explain all this to me, and our school hasn’t yet explained the details of it. While thinking over my last week I sum up all the weird stuff as puberty. It’s weird to acknowledge it so instead I plug earphones into my phone and listen to my pop playlist.

Once arriving home I go through my normal evening activities, then head to bed for an early night. My eyes close and I immediately fall into a deep sleep.