Endless, p.2
Endless, page 2
part #3 of Lost in a Fairy Tale Series
That night, the dream changed. The stairs were there, as always, but this time, instead of the evil feeling of being watched, I could see something above me that filled me with warmth. I picked up my skirts and started climbing as fast as I could.
I awoke with a jolt. My skirts? I’d been wearing a blue ball gown. Normally I wore my long white vintage-style nightgown. A glance at the clock told me that only a couple of hours had passed. I switched on my lamp, pulled my notebook out of my drawer, and wrote out the changes in the dream. I needed to find any kind of pattern so I could try to break it.
Once the notebook was put away, I flopped back on my pillow. I didn’t want to dream again, but my exhaustion was overpowering. Maybe Dad should have bought me that charm. The side effects were worth it if it meant I could sleep.
I was back in the dream, but this time, the setting was a Renaissance fair—or at least, it looked like it. The gown was the same as I’d been wearing in the last dream. I sighed in relief. I could do this, right? There was nothing scary here.
Wandering through the fair, I watched in delight as jugglers went past on stilts and knights jousted on horses. I could stay here. I came to a tent and meant to keep walking, but the need to stop was overwhelming. I tried to shake it, but I found myself lifting the flap to see who was inside.
“Welcome, Sydney.” A wrinkled old woman sat a table with a crystal ball in front of her. The tent smelled of incense, making me sneeze.
My stomach dropped in fear. “How do you know me?”
She laughed. “This is your dream. Come, sit. Let me tell your fortune.”
I shook my head. “I have no fortune. Julie will make sure of that.”
“Sit, sit, sit. We all have a fortune.” She moved her hand over her crystal ball and peered into it, then gasped and looked up at me with wide eyes. “Someone watches you. Someone dark. You must rid yourself of him. Avoid the stairs at all costs, or the one you love the most will be lost.”
I jerked awake and lay there, trying to slow my breathing. My heart beat rapidly and sweat poured down my face, mingled with tears. What did she mean? I’d already lost my mom. The only other person I cared for that much was my dad. And if anything happened to him . . . I let out a sob. Why couldn’t I just dream of butterflies and rainbows like everyone else?
Deciding that four hours of sleep was plenty for a growing sixteen-year-old, I yawned and pulled out my beat-up duffel bag. Packing for camp wasn’t hard when I only had a few pairs of pants and a couple of shirts. Raiding Kaylee and Sarah’s closets was not an option, or they’d make my life even more miserable. Besides, I wouldn’t be caught dead in the frilly pink clothes they insisted on wearing. I would just have to hope that the camp had some kind of laundry place so I’d have something to wear.
Packing only took a few minutes, so I decided to read a book. I kept drifting to sleep, but I would immediately wake up every time the scene of the fair popped into my dreams. When the sky had just started lightening, I changed out of my pajamas and grabbed my baseball cap before heading toward the door. Dad always liked to be the first one to the batting cages.
The knob wouldn’t budge—it was locked. I tried again, just to be sure, and then pounded on the door. “Hey! Let me out of here. Dad? Julie? I can’t get out.” I peeked through the old-fashioned keyhole and could see Sarah asleep on the floor in the hallway, snoring. Of course. Julie wouldn't want me going with Dad, and she apparently wasn’t taking any chances. I’d escaped too many times before. “Sarah. Hey, Sarah.”
Sarah snorted and looked around before going back to sleep. I wondered if Julie realized she’d put the heaviest sleeper in charge of keeping me prisoner. And what was the point? I could just go out the window.
I pulled the window open slowly, making sure there would be no creaking sounds. I dropped my mitt onto the ground and climbed out, then dropped into the bushes. I made sure Julie wasn’t around before running toward my dad’s car, praying it wasn’t locked. There was another way to get in if it was, but I didn’t want to use that trick.
This wasn’t the first time I’d had to escape my room. Whenever Julie thought Dad was going to spend more time with me than with her, she’d find ways to keep me from going. Telling him I was sick, breaking something I’d need to clean up, and the list went on. Somehow Dad never caught on. She must have some power over him, but I could never prove it. Thankfully, I had one thing she didn’t know about.
I glanced into the car and cringed when I saw that the lock was down. I braced myself and twitched my hand to the right, watching the lock pop up just before dropping to the ground in agony.
Using magic was not the fun, exciting thing the fairy tales said it was. It hurt. It made me feel like every bone in my body was ready to break. Dad promised it would get better. You could barely tell he felt pain when he used magic now.
Once I could stand, I opened the door and slid into the backseat to curl up in a ball and try to sleep so I could regain my strength before Dad came outside.
“What are you doing here?” Julie shrieked from outside the car.
I jumped and wiped the drool off my face. Way to be smooth. “I’m waiting for Dad to take me to the batting cages.”
“How did you—” She stopped and smiled at Dad, who had just come out of the house. “Hello, sweetie. I thought we were going shopping.” She kissed him soundly, and I tried not to gag.
“You know I planned to go with Sydney. Why don’t you go buy something to wear for tonight? I’ll take you girls out to dinner.” He put his arms around Julie, and I looked away.
“Okay, dear. But it better be nice.” The look she gave me could have frozen hot lava. She sauntered back in the house.
I sighed. What kind of spell did that woman have on my dad? I hopped up into the front and buckled my seatbelt.
Dad climbed in. “Ready to go?”
“Yep.” I felt lighter than I had in weeks.
Dad started the car and headed toward the batting cages. “So, did you sleep in the car all night?”
I shook my head and looked out the window. “I had to escape my room.”
“What do you mean?” He stopped at a red light and looked over, brows furrowed.
“They locked me in. Again. Dad, they hate me.” I could feel the ball of frustration growing in my stomach. I’d tried to convince him of this several times.
“They don’t hate you, although I am going to talk to her about locking the doors. You’re sure it wasn’t just stuck?”
I raised an eyebrow. “She had Sarah on guard duty.”
“Probably not the best choice for a lookout.” He smiled and turned into the parking lot.
“Dad. Focus. They’re trying to keep me prisoner. Can’t . . . can’t you just take me with you?”
“I would love to, sweetie. But the places I go just aren’t safe for you.”
“Dude, you’re a banker. How dangerous can they be?” I climbed out of the car and grabbed my bat from the backseat. “It’s summer vacation. I don’t even have school to worry about.”
He put his arm around me. “You know I don’t travel just for banking. I have to catch those mercenaries. Besides, you’re not trained yet.”
I stopped walking and looked at him. “Yes, but when am I going to train? I can’t do it at home.”
Dad grinned. “I might have had a little influence on where you’re going for camp.”
“You mean . . .?” My heart rose in my throat.
“Yep. You’re going to a magic camp.”
I jumped up and down and squealed. “Thank you, Daddy!”
“You’ll have to work hard to catch up. Some of these kids have gone a few times already.”
“I will.”
We went inside, and Dad paid for us before we went to the cages. We set the machine up for me and Dad stood outside, watching. The balls began to come at me and I got lost in the movement. I had been cut from the baseball team when my grades slipped. Getting back into the groove of smacking the ball as hard as I could helped wash away my stress. Pretending the ball was my stepmother’s face helped even more.
My turn ended and I left the cage, breathing hard. I knew I’d be feeling it the next day, but I didn’t care. “Your turn, Dad.”
“You did really well, sweetie. You’re a shoo-in for the team next year.” He ruffled my hair and walked past, handing me his jacket.
“I have to keep my grades up. I don’t see that happening any time soon.” I sighed and leaned against the net.
Dad’s phone rang in his jacket pocket. I pulled it out, but didn’t recognize the number. I glanced down to see a text message.
Got it. Meet me in the usual place next week.
It was so vague, it could mean anything, but in Dad’s undercover wizard job, they were usually pretty careful with what information they passed on. “Dad? You have a text.”
“I’ll get it in a minute. I’m almost done.” He hit the last two balls and stretched his arms as he left the batting cage. “I didn’t hit as many as you did, but I think I scored pretty well.”
I handed him his phone. “How does it feel to get beaten by your daughter?” I grinned. Sweat dripped down Dad’s face in the hot morning sun. It was definitely time to be done for the day.
“That just means I taught you well.” He winked and checked the message, and his face lit up. “They have it. They found your cure.”
I thought my heart would beat out of my chest. I could be free of these awful dreams! “They did? Are they sure? Because I don’t want to end up glowing in the dark or something.” But a cure! I could sleep again.
“I’ll have to check it out when I get there. I won’t buy it if the side effects are outrageous. Ready to go home? I need to call him back and work out the details.”
“Only if we can get a milkshake on the way.” I fluttered my eyelashes and laughed.
“It wouldn’t be a trip to the cages without one.” He put his arm around me, and we walked out to the car. “The big question is, what flavor do you want?”
“Rocky road. Is there any other kind?” I threw the bats in the backseat, climbed in the front, and waited for Dad to get in.
“Not that I know of.” Dad started the car and drove us to our favorite shake place.
“So how long will you be gone this time?” I asked.
“I’m hoping for just a week or two. I should be home when you get back from camp.”
Dad handed me my shake and we pulled out of the drive-through. The chocolaty goodness capped off our perfect day. “I hope so. Maybe then someone will actually celebrate my birthday with me.”
“Ah, your seventeenth birthday. The most magical year of your life.” He winked at me.
“I thought that was a sixteenth birthday.”
“Yes, well, I was a prisoner in India for your sixteenth birthday. So this year will make up for it.”
I looked at him in surprise. “You didn’t tell me that.”
“I didn’t want to ruin your birthday. Besides, I was on a top-secret mission. I couldn’t tell anyone.”
“So you let me think you’d just forgotten instead? Not sure that was the wisest thing to do. I was stuck with the three people who despise me the most. I had to clean our house from top to bottom so they could go to a party without me. The one good thing was that I got to sneak to the store and get my own ice cream while they were gone.”
Dad’s face fell. “I’m sorry about that. I’ll talk to Julie for you, princess.”
“Don’t worry about it, Dad. It’ll just make things worse. Besides, I only have one year left and I can escape.” One year of abuse. My favorite. But I’d survived this long, right? “Do I get to be part of your missions after I graduate, at least?”
He glanced over at me as he pulled to a stop. “We’ll see what the Order has planned. Until we know what those dreams mean, I’m not sure there’s much they’ll let you do.”
“Stupid dreams.” I took the last bite of my shake, savoring the sweetness. Who knew when I’d go out for ice cream with him again?
“I know. And it shouldn’t matter. After all, no one cares about my dreams of eating pepperoni or flying.”
“They might if you were eating pepperoni while you were flying.” I climbed out of the car. “I just wish my dreams weren’t so darn realistic. I wake up feeling like I’ve been running those stairs in real life.”
Dad shook his head. “It’s so bizarre. I wish I knew what we could do to stop them. No one has ever heard of this before.”
“Yeah, I know. I’m just strange that way. At least my last dream was about a fair instead.” I shut the door and walked to the house. The smell of lilacs filled the air. No matter how often Julie ordered me to rip the bushes out, they always seemed to grow back. They were Mom’s favorite, and I had a feeling Dad had something to do with it.
“A fair? What do you mean?” Dad held on to my arm. We stood on the porch and he spoke softly so Julie wouldn’t hear.
“It was one of those Renaissance fairs. I was wearing a ball dress instead of my nightgown, which was strange. Oh, and there was a fortune-teller.”
He frowned. “You didn’t talk to her, did you?”
My stomach clenched with fear. “Yeah. Why?”
“Could be nothing. How real was this dream?” He let go of my arm and shoved his hands in his pockets.
“Same as the stairs. The lady was creepy. I just have to stay away from fairs and ball gowns and I’ll be okay, right?” I shivered, thinking of the way she had looked at me.
“I hope—” Dad cut off when the door flew open.
“Oh, sweetie pie, you’re home.” Julie threw her arms around him and glared at me over his shoulder. “We were getting worried about you.”
Dad laughed. “It’s only noon. We got home the same time we always do.”
“Yes, well, I thought it might be nice for us to go boating today. At the country club. Alone.” She threw another poisonous look at me before pulling back and kissing Dad soundly.
Oh, brother. That was her way of telling me to get lost. I brushed past them and went to grab some clothes so I could hop in the shower. It was quick because I knew that the shrieking and complaining would start soon—they didn’t like me taking my time in the bathroom.
I got out and toweled off before noticing a note lying on the floor. Someone must have slid it under the door while I was in the shower. I picked it up and sighed at the list of chores to be done before we could leave for dinner that night. No wonder Julie had wanted to get out of the house. She needed Dad out of the way so she could force me to clean.
I dressed and opened the door, smiling brightly at Kaylee and Sarah, who were standing in front of me, hands on their hips.
“It took you long enough. We need you to get to work right now. Mom wants all this done before you leave for camp.”
“I might clean the kitchen and living room, but I refuse to touch your rooms. Better hurry. Dad’s taking us to dinner.” I went into my room to gather my laundry so I could get started on the other chores. I kept telling myself I was doing this for my dad.
“Princess, are you ready to go?” Dad called into my room.
“Uh, not really.” I opened the door, yawning. The to-do list had taken forever. Kaylee and Sarah had made good and sure I was busy until the last minute.
“What happened to you?” He raised an eyebrow and pointed at my hair.
“Cleaning the oven. My ponytail got stuck on the heating element.” I pulled the ponytail holder out and ran my fingers through my dark brown curls.
“Ouch. We’ll wait for you. Grab a dress . . . and a brush. I’ll try to keep them calm.”
“Thanks, Dad.” I shut the door and went back to my closet, grimacing at the clothes inside. Nothing was fit for wearing to a nice dinner. I could hear yelling out in the hallway and knew I’d better choose something quick. I took the nicest dress I had and studied it for a moment. I held my breath, focused on what I wanted, and shoved those thoughts toward the dress. I smiled at my work just as I collapsed to the floor.
The pounding on the door matched the pounding in my head. I groaned and rolled over to push myself up. Unlocking doors was one thing. Trying to make a dress look fabulous was a whole new level of magic I hadn’t attempted before. I would definitely not be doing this to the rest of my wardrobe.
“Sydney? Is everything okay, princess?” Dad’s frantic call pulled me out of my daze.
“Fine, Dad. I’ll be right out.” I quickly put on my new dark blue sequined dress and threw my hair up in a bun. The rings under my eyes looked terrible, but there wasn’t much I could do about them. I put on some dark red lipstick and mascara before I threw open the door.
Dad stared at me in shock. “You look just like . . .” He glanced over at Julie and swallowed. “You look beautiful. Where did you get that dress?”
I smiled. “It’s just something I threw together. Let’s go.” I walked toward the garage, smiling at the reaction from Julie and her daughters. Kaylee’s mouth was wide open, and Sarah glared. Their matching form-fitting red dresses were gorgeous and would probably catch the eye of every boy there, but I had a feeling they would be demanding my dress when we got home. I wasn’t allowed to look better than they did.
We piled into Dad’s BMW, and I was forced to squish myself into a tiny corner so the girls wouldn’t be crowded. I didn’t mind. It gave me the chance to look out the window and pretend they didn’t exist. The sun was beginning to set when we pulled into the parking lot of the most expensive restaurant in town.
I trailed behind the family and smiled at the glares my stepsisters kept throwing at me. I guess I’d done a better job with the dress than I’d planned. My head still throbbed from the magic I’d used. It wouldn’t happen again anytime soon.
