Forgotten Dreams

Chapter Three: My Familiar

    I blinked sleepily as I awoke, the lights stinging my eyes. My mom was sitting next to my bed. I sat up and looked at her. She was crying. I looked around the room. It was the same metal room as before except for one barely noticeable thing. There was a calendar hanging in the corner of the room that said that it was March 18th. That can't be right. It was only February 23 when I had been ordered to be executed. Had it already been three whole weeks?

    “Mom” I tried to say but it came out as a squeak. My mother looked up at me, fresh tears flowing from her eyes. Happy tears.

    “I was so worried” she cried. I smiled

    “Is that calendar right?” My mom looked at me. I could see the anger burning in her eyes.

    “You almost died and all you're worried about is what day it is?” she said, obviously annoyed.

    “Wouldn't be the first time I almost died” I spat back. “And if I remember correctly, the last time was your doing mom” She sighed in frustration and stood, walking out of the room. I sat up and swung my feet around to the edge of the bed. Today was the day that I would escape. No matter what. I slowly stood, my legs unsteady, and walked around the room a few times. I spied the pair of scissors out of the corner of my eye and grabbed them, hiding them beneath my hospital gown. I walked toward the door and tried the handle. It was unlocked. I opened the door and took a few steps out into the hallway. I looked down the hallways. There was no one there. Now was my chance to escape. I ran as fast as I could. No alarms went off, no doctors came rushing forth to stop me, nothing happened at all. I pushed open the door and ran out into the cool night air. I paused, catching my breath, and looked around. There was no one in sight.

    “What's going on here?” I wondered out loud. I walked down the sidewalk to the road and looked around. No cars, no people, no anything. There were no signs of life anywhere. After looking around for a bit, I realized that I knew exactly where I was. I was only a few blocks from home. I walked the path back to my house and turned the doorknob. It opened.

    “Mom, I'm home” I yelled down the poorly lit hallway. There was no reply. The light bulb flickered and my footsteps echoed down the long hall. “Where is everyone?” I asked myself. I heard a low growl come from behind me and turned to see two glowing yellow eyes staring at me. I gasped and stumbled backward. The eyes moved closer to me. I could hear the things footsteps and feel it's hot breath on my face. I screamed. The thing hesitated for a moment and I turned and ran, knowing that it would eventually catch me.

    I heard it's feet thundering against the cool concrete close behind me and glanced back. It was a huge green penguin. I stumbled and fell. The penguin was closing in on me. I closed my eyes and waited for death. After a few moments, I opened my eyes and saw a rather small green penguin standing next to me, a silverish glow surrounding it. It looked at me obvious concern for me. I looked into its eyes and it looked into mine. After a moment, I realized that this penguin wasn't here to hurt me. It was my familiar. We learned about familiars at school, but we were told that they are very rare and only serve those who have great power. I slowly stood up and reached out to touch my new familiar, but pulled my hand away quickly as it passed right through it. I looked around and started to notice errors in my surroundings. It was then that I realized that I was on the spiritual plane. I knew that as soon as my soul returned to my body on earth, my familiar would be there too. Our souls were eternally bonded and we could talk to each other using a telepathic connection and no one else could hear our conversations.

    My surrounding started to crumble and fall apart around me and I knew that I was returning to my body on earth and that I was still in the mental hospital. I had to escape and I knew that my new familiar would help me. I closed my eyes as I felt my soul return to my body and when I opened them, I was in the metal room, but this time there was a tiny green penguin, about the size of my hand, standing next to my head. I turned to look at it and smiled.

    “My familiar,” I mumbled and the penguin chirped happily. I slowly got out of the bed and held out my hand. I tried to mentally tell it to jump on my hand, but it looked at me, confused. I then remembered that it only officially becomes your familiar if you correctly guess its name in three tries.

    “Is your name Stanley?” The penguin chirped angrily and tried to bite me. “Okay, not Stanley. Is it Mr. Flippers?” The penguin growled and turned it's back on me. “Didn't know penguins could growl” I mumbled. The penguin turned and glared at me. I had only one guess left and if I guessed wrong, the penguin would leave me and find someone else to serve. “Is it Deigh?” I said, afraid that I would guess wrong. Suddenly, I heard a voice in my head.

    “Mr. Flippers?” it said sarcastically “That was the best you could do?” I realized that I had guessed right.

    “Deigh” I whispered, the name rolling smoothly off my tongue. “The penguin smiled.

    “Yep. That's my name.” I heard in my head. I smiled and the penguin jumped into my hand. “Let’s go,” it said. I started walking to the door.

    “Oh, I forgot to ask, are you a boy or a girl?” I asked Deigh “That would have been helpful to know before you called me Mr. Flippers and Stanley.” the penguin said with a laugh.

    “So, you're a girl?” I said, laughing slightly. Deigh scoffed at me

    “As if it wasn't obvious.” I walked to the door and pulled on it. Of course, it was locked. “Watch this” Deigh said and clapped her flippers together, blowing the door off its hinges. I looked at her, stunned. “Wow” was all I could say. Deigh laughed.

    “Come on,” she said and I walked out the door. I crept down the long hallway, inching slowly toward my freedom. Cautiously I peered around a corner. I saw a crowd of doctors standing in a circle.

    “Deigh” I whispered, “Is there anything you can do?” Deigh grinned at me and clapped her flippers together. The doctors were instantly frozen in place. Deigh smiled at me.

    “A better question would be, ‘Is there anything you can't do?’.” I laughed. “Let's go before someone else finds us,” I said and began creeping slowly to the door. The door was maybe twenty feet away when the alarms went off. It was deafening.

    “Run” shouted Deigh and I sprinted toward the door. I grabbed the handle and pulled hard but the door wouldn't budge. I pulled again. “It's a push door, you i***t!” Deigh screamed at me. “Oh,” I whispered and pushed the door open, the cool night air surrounding me, and I took off into the darkness.

    “Where should we go?” I asked my familiar. She jumped off my hand and grew to the size of a normal penguin. She took my hand and lead me toward the school. “Where are we going?” I asked and she grinned an evil grin.

    “To get revenge on those jerks that did this to you.” I looked at her, shocked.

    “Revenge” I half-whispered, the word tasting sweet on my tongue. I shook my head, clearing my mind from the foul thoughts. “Deigh, that's illegal.” I scolded. She giggled and rolled her eyes.

    “Only if we get caught,” she said with a grin. I laughed.

    “Okay, let's go,” I said and Deigh led me to the school. Deigh cast a spell to make us invisible and carefully picked the lock to the gymnasium. We tiptoed in, careful not to make any noise, and slowly crept across the gym and down the hallway to the headmaster’s office. I gently pushed the door to his office and it slowly creaked open. His massive desk stood against the back wall, like a shadow reaching out to grab me. His nameplate, barely readable in the darkness, read Mr. Weich, and the papers on his desk were stacked meticulously.

    “This will be fun,” I said with a smile as I waltzed into his room. I walked over to his desk and struck out at the pile of papers, sending them scattering to the floor. Deigh watched me from the doorway, an evil grin plastered on her face.

    “Use your magic” she mouthed silently to me. I smiled and shot a jolt of blue magic from the palm of my hand and hit the metal filing cabinet in the corner. All the files flew from the cabinet and fluttered to the ground, like leaves from a tree. I turned to his desk and a blue streak of lightning shot out and split the desk in half, causing splinters of wood to fly through the air. I picked up the nameplate and threw it at the window, shattering the fragile glass. Sirens went off and Mr. Weich stepped out from the closet in his room.

    “I knew you would be here Paige.” he sneered. I felt rage boil up inside me. “I thought you were still in the hospital” he spat and stepped closer to me. I stood my ground, staring up at him defiantly. Deigh started to walk toward me but I held up my hand, signaling for her to stop. 

    “I can handle him Deigh,” I said. Deigh stepped back into the doorway, watching as the scene unfolded before her. I shot a ball of blue energy at him, but he swatted it away as if it were nothing more than an annoying fly.

    “Give up Paige, we all know that I’m going to win this. My magic is stronger than yours will ever be, and besides, I know how to control it.” his face twisted into a hideous snarl and a burst of blood-red energy shot from the palm of my hand, I rolled out of the way, but barely. The energy grazed against my arm, melting my skin where it touched. I howled in pain and sent a lightning bolt to him, hitting him in the calf. He grunted and stumbled backward, catching himself against the wall. He grabbed a piece of his desk and lit it on fire, hurling it at me with all his might. I dodged it and it fell to the ground, lighting the papers that were scattered on the floor. The flames grew and I knew that the school had caught fire. The fire alarms went off and the sprinklers rained down on us, doing nothing to hinder the growing flames. These flames were created by magic, water would not put them out. The only thing that can do that is the caster, and, by the looks of it, Mr. Weich wasn't going to let up anytime soon.

    The fire licked at my skin, burning me, but barely. I concentrated my energy on the floor, making large metal spikes shoot up from the floor, only inches away from Mr. Weich. He cackled maniacally and sent my spell back to me. A spear pierced through my foot. I cried out and aimed my palm directly at him. I focused on my magic and shot out multiple small glowing orbs toward him. Most missed, but the few that did hit him bounced off harmlessly. The flames grew hotter and my skin began to blister. I screamed in pain and sank to the ground as blood began to ooze from my blistered skin.

    “Deigh” I mumbled weakly, darkness closing in around me. Suddenly, a bright purple light surrounded me and cooled my burning skin. I was enveloped by the scent of freshly cut grass. Then everything was black.