Book 2 of the Eternal series

Chapter 7

Ashta heard the buzzer of the front door opening, and she looked up at the woman standing in the doorway. She couldn’t believe her eyes. It was the girl from her visions. Riah stared at the girl behind the counter with wide eyes.

She, too, couldn’t believe she was looking at the girl from her visions. Suspiciously, Lashanna looked at them, and then she looked at Ashta.

“Do you two know each other?” she asked in a snobbish tone, and Ashta looked at her.

“I think so,” she said, and then she turned her head back to Riah.

Cautiously, Ashta walked out from behind the counter, and she slowly headed toward the girl.

“Do I know you?” Ashta asked, and Riah nodded as she swallowed hard.

“I think so,” she said, and she and Ashta stared at each other.

There was a memory of Riah meeting Ashta after she had come out of the Forbidden Forest, running through the castle chasing each other, and Riah battling with Ashta against mythical creatures. At that moment, Riah reached a shaky hand out to Ashta, and Ashta took her hand. Suddenly, a surge of energy rushed through their bodies, and their minds filled with memories of them together.

Riah looked at Ashta as tears rolled down her cheeks, and Ashta also had tears streaming down her face.

“I am not sure what those visions meant, but I do know that we are connected somehow,” Riah said, and Ashta nodded.

More memories invaded their minds, of their whole past together, but Roman’s and Ray’s faces were still blurred out. Images of people that had passed away in their lives and the celebration before they woke up in the hospital. Sharply, Ashta inhaled as she pulled Riah into her arms.

“I remember,” Ashta whispered, and Riah nodded.

“I do, too,” she whispered back, and Ashta’s mind went to Destiny.

Quickly, she pulled her head back and sincerely looked into Riah’s eyes.

“I’m sorry,” she said.

“Me, too,” said Riah.

“So, are you going to order something?” Lashanna asked from behind the counter, and Ashta and Riah let go of each other.

Ashta wiped the tears from her face, and then she turned to Lashanna.

“Sure.”

Ashta pulled Riah to one of the tables, and then she went behind the counter. Swiftly, she made two cups of coffee, and then she brought them out to the table.

“Hey, we still have work to do!” snapped Lashanna, and Ashta gave her a solid look.

“And it still will get done,” Ashta sneered, and Lashanna just shrugged her shoulders, and without a word, she walked back into the back.

Aggravated, Ashta shook her head, and then she sat down across from Riah.

“So, how did we end up in this strange place?” Riah asked, and Ashta shrugged her shoulders.

“I’m not sure, but ever since I have gotten here, I have felt like there was a part of me that was missing, but when we touched, part of that feeling went away,” she said, and Riah nodded.

“I had the same feeling, but it’s still there,” she said, and Ashta nodded.

“Have you been getting strange visions?”

Riah nodded, and Ashta leaned closer to her.

“The eggs have little green crystals in them, and that’s all that….”

Ashta stopped in mid-sentence, and she sighed heavily. Riah looked at her in anticipation.

“That what?” she asked, and Ashta looked down at the floor.

“That Yinlin cooks. Bacon and eggs,” she finally said, and Riah gave her a knowing look.

“That’s all that is in my house, too. Bacon and eggs, and the whole family sit around the countertops for half of a day watching nothing but static,” said Riah, and Ashta looked at her oddly.

“There is something strange going on, and we are going to figure out what it is,” Ashta stated, and Riah nodded.

“And hopefully, we can get back to reality,” Riah added, and Ashta nodded in agreement.

“Hey, the party before the festival is tonight if you are interested,” said Lashanna as she walked in from the back, and Ashta and Riah looked up at her.

Then Lashanna looked at Riah and smiled.

“Oh, hello. Ashta, my apologies. I didn’t realize that you had a visitor,” she said, and Ashta and Riah looked at each other in confusion.

Lashanna looked at Ashta with her dead eyes, and she smiled an eerie smile at her.

“Who is your friend?”

“I’m Riah.”

“My name is Lashanna, and I am sure we are going to be good friends,” said Lashanna with an eerie smile, and Riah looked away.

“Sure,” she said quickly, and Ashta quietly snickered.

“Sounds like fun,” said Ashta, and Lashanna nodded.

Her head twitched strangely, and then, without another word, Lashanna walked into the back of the shop again. Oddly, Riah looked at Ashta.

“We definitely need to find a way out of this place,” she said, and Ashta nodded in agreement.

Roman and Ray’s families left their homes and headed toward the park by the pond. Strangely, there were no cars, and they all walked together down the road. When they arrived at the park, Keshmire ran over to the playground, and Ray watched her.

They were in their late twenties. Who would still want to play on a playground? He wondered.

Both of their parents looked at him strangely, and Ray looked at them for a moment. He knew they were wondering why he hadn’t joined Keshmire, and he grimaced.

“My stomach hurts,” he lied, and his parents only nodded.

“Magnus.”

Ray’s parents turned around, and Ray looked in their direction. He noticed the muscular man with the bald head, and he was with a woman with long dark hair, but she wasn’t the woman he had seen in his visions. However, the man was.

“Rocco,” said Ray’s father, and the four parents sat down at a picnic table without another word.

Ray watched them, and he noticed that they didn’t even talk to each other. The only thing they did was sit down and stare at each other. Heavily, Ray sighed, and then he looked at the man standing by a tree. It was his cousin, Roman. They both noticed that their eyes weren’t dead like the others, and they both sighed a sigh of relief.

“Hey,” chuckled Roman as he approached Ray and stuck out his hand.

“Hey,” Ray said happily, and he took his cousin’s hand.

Suddenly, they felt a surge of energy rush through their bodies, and visions of their past life invaded their minds. However, like the girls having visions, Ashta and Riah’s faces were blurred in their images. They remembered dancing at some party and then waking up in the hospital in this strange world.

“Finally, something that makes sense,” Roman breathed, and Ray nodded, but then he looked at him in confusion.

“How is it that my parents and your father are alive right now?” asked Ray, and Roman shrugged his shoulders.

“I am not sure, but I think we need to find a way to get back home,” said Roman.

“Yeah, this place sure is strange, and I don’t like it. All they eat is bacon and eggs, and they do the same exact thing every day, and it’s a bit creepy,” said Ray, and Roman nodded.

“I couldn’t agree with you more. What’s wrong with their eyes?”

“I don’t know, but I think we should focus on the two others we need to find and then a way out of this place,” said Ray, and Roman looked at him in question as he raised an eyebrow.

“Others?” he asked, and Ray nodded.

“Yes, that was what I was told to do by the strange tiny voices that I hear in the breeze,” he said, and Roman looked at him seriously.

“You have heard them too?”

Ray nodded.

“Yeah, and I have these strange tattoos across my shoulders,” he said, and Roman sighed.

Only some of their memories were restored. The parts about being the Elemental Guardians, and bending the four elements to their will, were still a mystery. Unfortunately, until they had found the girls, Roman and Ray wouldn’t fully understand what was going on, and neither would Ashta and Riah.

At that moment, a slight breeze swirled around Roman and Ray, and they heard the tiny voices again.

“You’re halfway there. Don’t give up,” the tiny voices said, and Roman and Ray looked at each other.

“Halfway to what?” asked Roman, and the tiny voices laughed.

“You will see,” said the voices, and they faded away as the breeze died down.

Roman and Ray looked at each other strangely, and Ray swallowed hard. Before either of them could say a word, Keshmire walked up to them.

“So, are you two ready for the party tonight?” she asked, and they both looked at her.

“What party?” asked Roman, and she smiled her eerie smile at him.

“The party before the festival. No parents, just us kids,” she said, and Roman snickered.

“Do you think we are still kids?” he asked, and Ray snickered.

“Well, it’s going to be fun,” she said, and then she walked away.

“Wow!” said Roman, raising an eyebrow and looking at Ray.

Ray sighed, and he only nodded.

“Yeah, tell me about it,” he said, and then Roman looked at him thoughtfully.

“Alright, I have an idea,” he said, and Ray gave him a knowing look.

“You don’t say.”

Roman rolled his eyes at his cousin, and then he smacked him on the shoulder.

“Come on, man. Let’s go to this party tonight. Maybe we can find the others that are like us. Not stuck in this simulation,” said Roman, and Ray looked at him thoughtfully.

“Right, the other two,” mumbled Ray, and Roman nodded.

“Alright. Maybe we should try to follow along with these people the best we can. Maybe this is a test or something,” said Ray, and Roman gave him a strange look.

“Test? From who?” he asked, and Ray shrugged his shoulders.

That evening, Ashta, Riah, Roman, and Ray got ready for the party, and on their way out, they saw that no one had a vehicle in the whole town. Why would they need a gas station if they didn’t have cars? Strangely, the parents sat in front of the TV and watched the static channel.

Oddly, the kids walked down the streets silently and in single file lines along the side of the road. They seemed to be in a dead-eye-like trance until they passed through the building door where the party was, and then they ran off, chattering and laughing.

Riah and Ashta went into the building before Roman and Ray did, and they found a table by the dance floor. Lashanna had brought a friend with her, and she joined Ashta and Riah. Roman and Ray found a table on the opposite side of the dance floor, and they took a seat. Ashta, Roman, Riah, and Ray had no idea that this would be the night that everything was about to reveal itself.