Eternity (Circle of Light)

ETERNITY (Circle of Light) series

Copyright © 2010 by April Margeson

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Chapter 1

My name is Bailey Sims and up until now I have been a normal seventeen year-old high school senior. My life isn’t filled with all the exciting events that most girls my age are involved in. Most of my days are filled with monotonous afternoons after the long school day is over. I read a lot to pass the time. Actually, to tell the truth, I am addicted to reading. Never in my life would I have dreamed that the creatures that I read about in books would be real. One day was all it took to make me a believer.

This is just a bad dream. I’ll wake up in a moment and everything will be back to normal. But something tells me things aren’t going to get any better from here on out. The sinking feeling that I have in my stomach tells all. My current position is nothing short of being hopeless. I don’t even know how I got here or what I’m going to do to save myself.

I’m sitting in the dark, completely alone.  I can’t see anything at all. The blackness is all around me and this place is so cold
. I can hardly stand to be here. The air is so thick. I can hardly breathe and I feel like I’m being squeezed by the weight of the surrounding darkness.

Water dripped from my hair, but I can feel it freezing
. The feeling of it sent shivers down my spine, making my body seem much colder.

I wasn’t sure how I got to this place.  The last thing I remember was walking home from school.  I remember
almost being home. The only thing I had left to do was to cross the street and then I would have been on the sidewalk leading to my front door. I was positive I had looked for cars before I had tried to cross the street, but something between my last glance around the corner and my first step on the street had brought me here. Whatever and wherever this place is. It’s beyond me.

With each thought, I became more frazzled.  My survival instincts
had begun to go into overdrive. Keeping myself calm would prove to be in my best interest at this point.  I’m alone and it was completely up to me to get out of this place.

As I searched out for something to hold on to, I could feel myself filling with panic. My breath came more rapidly as I felt the tears trickle down my face. I took a deep breath and held it for just a second, but a musty smell filled my nostrils when I did, forcing me to breathe more shallow. I have to stay calm, I repeated to myself.

I could hear grinding as I moved around.  Small pebbles and dirt were sticking to my hands.  Every one of my senses was telling me I wasn’t above ground. The musty smell was dirt, but it also had a hint of something else. I wasn’t exactly sure what else it could be.  Maybe it was a cave or something. I wasn’t sure. 

I inched forward, slowly exploring for anything that might be near me.  After crawling for a moment- which seemed like forever- I came to a ledge. As I carefully moved closer, I felt around with my hand only to find there was nothing after the end of the rock ledge. Somewhere close I could hear water. It sounded like a waterfall, but I couldn’t be sure of that. I could smell the water as I breathed in and I realized it had been the other thing I had been smelling. It smelled fresh and clean and my body started relaxing from inhaling it for only a moment. No wonder it smells the way it does. Water is life right?

In the distance, I saw a tiny flicker of light. I thought it was surely no more than a glimmer off the water, but if it was that meant there is a hole somewhere close to me.  I just have to find it and I think I’ll be able to get out of here somehow.

The light grew in size and I knew right then it was getting closer. At first, I was thinking it was a flashlight and I welcomed the light as if it was the coast guard coming to rescue me from a sinking ship. As it came closer, the larger the light grew and I could tell that it was taking shape.  It was too large to be the light of a flashlight.

An apparition formed out of the light.  I could see that it was a woman, but I wasn’t sure where she had come from.  Why in the world would someone be roaming around in such a dark place all alone?  Maybe she was my guardian angel and she was here to rescue me from this awful place.  That was a great thought, but what if she was here to hurt me?  Stranger things have happened.

Her beauty was dream like. Such to the point I thought she had to be an angel. Everything about her was white.  Her hair, body, even her dress was as white as snow. I even tried to find wings that might have been attached to her body, but there were none. Finding that would either mean I was certifiably nuts or just overly hopeful, but in either case I still didn’t find them.

I strained my eyes, looking desperately for any sign of her intentions, but it was way too dark for me to be able to make out very much of anything except her eyes.
Nevertheless, there was no mistaking them.  They burned an intense shade of blue. I had never had the opportunity to see anything quite as majestic in my life.  They reminded me of the breath taking color of the ocean. The clear blue color was so pure it almost frightened me to look at them. Her icy hair floated around her as if she was in water. Her gown glistened like icicles on a bright winter day. 

I looked at her with both fear and envy.  She was so beautiful that it hurt me to look at her.

Softly she spoke, “Your destiny awaits, my child. You are strong and very worthy of the gifts you are about to receive. Do not fear. We are with you now as we will always be.” Then she disappeared and I was left sitting there alone once again, filled with fear. Who did she mean by “we?”

I woke suddenly.  It took a minute for me to realize I wasn’t in that awful place anymore and I let out a sigh of relief.  The softness of my pillow turned into a cold wet reminder of my dream. My bedding was wrinkled from the tossing and turning I had been doing during my dream.

Slowly, I sat up in bed trying to catch my breath.  The whole time I was telling myself that it was just a silly dream, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that I had actually been there. She had been so real to me and I was certain if I had tried to I could have reached out and touched her. The thing that bothered me was I had felt such a strong urge to reach out to her. She appealed to me so strongly that I could hardly restrain myself. Gosh, my dreams are getting kind of crazy here lately, I thought as I laughed to myself. Finally, I was awake and out of the prison I had been dreaming of and I have to say I’m pretty thankful for it.  The soft flowing tone of her words was still fresh in my memory and I couldn’t help but be shaken by them. 

What destiny? I asked myself.  The only thing I am destined to do is go to school and lead a normal boring life from here on out. I’ll get a job and work, and then I may get married and have a few kids.  The end result of my life would be sitting on a front porch somewhere with silver hair and my grandchildren playing happily in the front lawn.  That was all I had planned for my life.  I’m not the kind of person that wishes for riches, power or anything.  I just want to live peacefully and happy and then grow old and die with a good book in my hand.  Nothing more, nothing less.

I laughed at myself for even questioning the idea at all.  Too much television I suppose. Dreams cannot be real. The idea of it is just absurd.  Isn’t it?

The sun was shining so bright it gave my eyes an uncomfortable burning sensation. I rushed over and quickly closed the thick black drapes.  I turned my back to the window and stood there staring at the alarm clock on my bedside table. It was exactly six in the morning. I let out a big yawn, still trying to get fully awake.  At least I wasn’t going to be late for school. I gathered my clothes and neatly made my bed. It was time for me to start getting ready.  I forced myself to the bathroom to take a shower, unwilling to get motivated and start the day.  The water worked wonders on the leftover stress my dream had left behind. The dense fog from the hot water and the banana shampoo smell made it almost impossible for me to
breathe. I glanced at the clock and noticed I was running out of time. I still wasn’t ready for school and only had a little over an hour left. So much for the idea of not being late for school, I thought to myself.  Quickly, I dressed.

I grabbed my backpack and headed downstairs. I was almost down the stairs when I began to feel dizzy. Sweat began to bead up on my forehead as the room started spinning out of control.  I called out for my mother’s help, but it was too late.  I sat down quickly on the stairs trying to catch my breath when everything went black.  It was as if I was slipping back into my dream.  Everything was black and silent. No matter how hard I tried to fight it, I kept falling deeper and deeper into the black nothingness. 

The dark seemed more empty this time. I sat there, unmoving, for what seemed like forever.  Sitting there alone and scared, waiting for something to happen. I searched the darkness for any sign of the illuminated woman, but I was clearly alone.  I’m not sure what has happened to me.  This dream has to be some result of an illness or maybe I was just exhausted.

Suddenly, I felt a light breeze blowing against my skin. It was like the air was going right through me and I was
frightened beyond anytime I can remember. I was still unsure of my surroundings and that made everything worse.  The air caused prickling sensations all over my body. The feeling wasn’t as painful as much as it was uncomfortable, but it was gone as quickly as it had begun.  I was left sitting there in fear and confusion. I wasn’t sure what exactly had just happened to me, but I felt different.  A strange feeling of power ran through my body.  I felt more alive than I have ever felt in my life.

When I woke up, my mother was beside me. She didn’t have any makeup on, and that was unusual for her.  Her hair definitely needed brushed, and the thin lines on her face were really standing out now. She looked older and worn. She wasn’t dressed as she normally would be.  She was wearing a loose pair of jeans and a t-shirt that I had seen her wearing around the house as she cleaned.

I wasn’t in my room. The room I was in was too bright and it had an uncomfortable smell to it as well. The pungent smell of bleach and disinfectant burned my nose.  The bed wasn’t my bed. It was smaller than mine and it felt like I was lying on a gigantic rock. The sheets were scratchy against my skin, unlike the soft sheets on my bed.  My hand hit a hard rail when I moved my arm. I felt a terrible stinging sensation and a constant dull pain in my arm. It was so intense for a moment that it had caused me to hold my breath to keep from yelling out.

Confusion swept over me as I looked around the room.  Medical equipment was beside the bed. An IV pole was right next to me. My arm suddenly seemed heavier than normal.  Looking down at it, I saw an IV was in the back of my hand. Whatever had happened after I passed out on the stairs had landed me straight in County General Hospital. 

It only seemed like I had been asleep for a few minutes. Obviously, I was wrong.  I swallowed hard and asked my mom what was going on. 

She said with a sigh, “I heard you call for me while I was in the kitchen making coffee. I went to the staircase, and before I could get to, you fainted. Thank goodness, there were only two steps left before you hit the floor. I was so scared when I couldn’t get you to wake up, so I called 911.  The ambulance brought you to the hospital. You’ve been asleep for a week and the doctors don’t know why. They think you might have hit your head when you fell.” 

Whether I hit my head or not wasn’t a good enough reason to me for sleeping an entire week. There must have been something else going on. I hope it wasn’t anything serious. I heard a knock at the door followed by two nurses entering the room.  They had a look of relief on their faces when they saw I was awake and talking and I think their reactions were just as comforting to me. 

A
slight whisper filled my head.  Do not fear my child, I am with you, it said barely loud enough for me to recognize the words, but the sound of it startled me to the point of jumping.  Every hair on my body stood on end and I scanned the room trying to find the woman the sweet voice belonged to.

My skin had begun to feel all itchy and I noticed my fingers were tingling as the brightest blue aura surrounded my body. The light flowed over my hands like electricity. Tingling and twisting in every direction. A bizarre calm came over me as I forced myself to take a deep breath.  As I let it out, the blue sparks disappeared.   I felt oddly better, but I was frightened at the same time.  I turned to my mother to ask her if she had seen what just happened to me, but I was interrupted by the door opening again. It was probably best
that I didn’t get to ask her.  She would more than likely have me committed to a mental hospital or swear I have some type of brain injury. 

If it hadn’t have been for my mother greeting the doctor I wouldn’t have even noticed he was there.  I was too wrapped up in my own little world to pay very much attention to anything at the moment.  

I looked over my body carefully, trying to find any signs of an injury.  Surprisingly, I didn’t find anything.  Not a single scratch.  You would think when I fell I would at least been able to manage getting a few bumps and bruises.  Guess I was lucky on that part.

The doctor was a young man with a wonderful smile. The kind that gives off a true sense of happiness just beaming from them. He was dressed exceptionally well for a doctor. Usually, the doctor’s here were dressed in those slouchy green scrubs that always looked wrinkled like they had slept in them and then just came to work without changing.

The crisp white lab coat made him look younger than he really was.  He had to be in his late thirties, but he looked about twenty eight or so, in my opinion.  He asked me several questions about how I felt and if I remembered phone numbers and birthdays.  He mostly asked random questions about school and home.  I answered them correctly and without hesitation.  He was apparently pleased with the way I had handled all his questions because he smiled at me in a very approving manner.  When he was finished talking to me he asked my mother to go out into the hallway with him for a moment.  She agreed and patted my leg before heading out the door.  I’ll be right back sweetie. I nodded back at her as she went out the door.