Chapter 2. The Dream

Allison hated Jason.

The fool, completely oblivious, sat across the room from her. He had his head down on his hands, yet Allison knew that his face was fiery red. She wasn't sure whose face was redder: her or Jason's.

The pool party, originally a 'School Reunion' for the three major boarding schools of the district, had dragged on thirty minutes longer than intended. Some kid had shoved one of the chaperones, Miss Vaneko, into the water. Then there was Jason's problem with his boxers. Then some other kid tried to pantomime Jason getting stuck onto the board and managed to hit his head on the bottom of the high dive.

In other words, it was the most messed-up day in Allison's life.

Allison was not like the other girls at the International Boarding School. She was like a rose, beautiful, yet not trying to be beautiful, and not displaying any thorns until you tried to pick her. Then she would send you home with a palm full of spines.

Allison didn't know much about her past, except that she was some kind of girl from some kind of orphanage, who had moved from some kinds of schools to this school. She could barely remember her life at the orphanage, or at the other schools. Heck, she couldn't remember anything past the orphanage.

In a way, Allison envied the other girls at the IBS. While they got straight F's and detentions, they actually had parents or family they could go to. Her? She got straight A's and was the star pupil in all her classes. What family did she have? Nobody. Oh, sure, maybe she could run to Jason if she broke down.

Speaking of Jason...

Some kid named Jack was laughing, while all the other boys pointed at Jason and Allison. The teacher, Miss Vaneko, was not in the classroom yet, due to her dive in the pool. As Allison watched, a paper airplane came whistling her way. She caught in her right hand and unfolded it.

There was a drawing of her and Jason kissing inside.

Furious, Allison ripped up the paper, crumpled it into a ball, and chucked it into the garbage can. She missed.

"Great aim, lovebird!" A kid hooted. The others laughed.

Allison ground her teeth together and glared at the whiteboard. She knew better than to tangle with the other kids of the IBS. They could get nasty, at least until you whimpered and begged for them to stop. Then they would tease you all they wanted until you begged and whimpered some more.

The door banged open, and all of a sudden the paper throwing and laughing stopped. Miss Vaneko stood in the doorway, wrapped in towels, her teeth chattering. For some reason, the teacher could still glare while shivering. It looked like she was being overcooked in an oven and being taunted at the same time.

"Class!" She barked, sneezing. "Get your textbooks out and flip to page two-hundred-fifty-three!"

"Miss Vaneko?" Jason asked timidly.

"What, Mr. Yang?"

"There are only one hundred pages in the textbook."

Miss Vaneko stood up so suddenly she knocked over her mug of coffee, spilling the brown liquid all over herself. "Oh dang, you stupid coffee--"

"Miss Vaneko?"

"What?"

"I'm not coffee."

"I know that! Now flip to page two-hundred-fifty-three!"

"Miss Vaneko?"

"Mr. Yang, stop talking!"

"There is no page two-hundred-fifty-three."

Miss Vaneko turned on Jason. "Then whatever! Turn to page fifty-three!"

"Miss Vaneko?"

"What?!"

"Page fifty-three is missing. There is page fifty-two and page fifty-four, but not page fifty-three."

Miss Vaneko glared at him and seized Jason's notebook. "Young man, there are three-hundred pages in the book. So there is page two-hundred-fifty-three."

"Busted!" Jason shouted.

Miss Vaneko bared her teeth at him. She walked to the front of the room, fetched her meterstick, and slammed it on the ground. "Mr. Yang, square root of nine!"

"What?"

"Square root," Miss Vaneko hissed, "of nine."

"Uh..."

Allison watched in exasperation as Jason stared stupidly at the meterstick in the teacher's hand. She knew what Jason would do; count three Mississippi's and then blurt out a random answer.

Miss Vaneko strolled down the aisle of desk, sweeping past Allison.

One Mississippi.

The teacher narrowed her eyes upon Jason, who grinned and gave the thumps up at her.

Two Mississippi.

"Mr. Yang!"

Three Mississippi.

"Forty-five thousand!"

The class burst into laughter. Miss Vaneko slammed the meterstick down onto Jason's desk. "Funny, eh, Mr. Yang?"

"Uh...yeah."

"Principal's office, young man!" Miss Vaneko snarled. "And don't put confetti into Mr. Hamilton's coffee this time!"

The bell rang for dinner after what seemed like an eternity.

Allison was the first one out of the classroom, breathing in the fresh air of freedom. The hallways swept past her as her footsteps thumped in her ears, carrying her towards the stairs.

Allison made her way around the narrow curve near the stairs, then started down the rubber stairwell. She wound around the large metal pole in the middle, her fingers running along the greasy black. The pole was there for no apparent reason, other than to be the center of the stairwell. The janitor refused to clean it, and it was stained with the grease and oil of a hundred-fifty kids running around it and drawing their hands along the paint for seven days of the week.

The hallways were not cramped yet, a fortunate fact. Allison hated squeezing past the snotty seventh and eighth graders. Though she was only slightly taller than your average sixth grader, she still stood out, and she, especially now, would be a great target for bullies and whatnot.

Allison nearly collided with Jason at the bottom.

"Wha-"

Jason grinned at her sheepishly, his cheeks flaming up. Apparently he had been trying to get his backpack, which was still in the classroom. Allison backed up a step, putting on her guarded face. She glared at Jason, signaling silently for him to move.

Jason's dark brown eyes met hers, and Allison could swear that all the blood in her body was zooming towards her head. She cursed the person who had designed the stairwell. He or she had made it so that two people could not fit shoulder-to-shoulder without touching.

Above, the sounds of the other kids were approaching. Oh, god, Allison thought. Move, Jason!

Jason apparently did not have the ability of mental communication. He grinned again, and Allison wondered what was wrong with him. Everything, she realized grimly. Everything's wrong with him. She remembered Jason dangling from the high dive and winced.

The footsteps of the kids were coming closer. A few more seconds, and they would see Allison and Jason, staring at each other.

Allison shouldered her way past Jason, flipping her hair at him defiantly. She may have touched him, if he had wanted that, but she was taking any chance to avoid further embarrassment.

Allison felt a sharp pain in her scalp, and she saw Jason, smiling in triumph, holding one of her hairs in his palm.

"Oh, god, Jason-"

The boy dashed upstairs and vanished.

Allison felt herself heat up. She considered running after the jerk and beating him up, but shook the idea. Perhaps Jason wanted her to run after him. Perhaps he wanted to lure her. Either way, Allison was going to avoid any humiliation by yelling his name.

Allison glared at the ground, grinding her teeth. Of all the boys in IBS who had to like her, that one had to. Jason Yin. He was pure annoying.

The cafeteria was one of the most beautiful rooms in the whole school. As Allison entered the doorway, her heart relaxed and she let out a breath, letting the view take her away.

The ceiling was a glazed indigo, golden stars strewn across an imaginary sky. Tables, crafted out of plastic and painted with the silver, gold, blue, and green, resembled planets, suns, and asteroids. It was beautiful. Allison didn't know if the creators had in mind a solar system theme when they made the room, but Allison saw it.

Allison's table was the one closest to the door. She called it an Asteroid.

The one con of the cafeteria was the design of the table placement. The big, round, golden table, which seemed to radiate brightness, stood in the middle, representing a sun. Around those clustered Planets of various colors, then Asteroids, kidney shaped tables circulating out in nothingness.

It was the goal of every IBS kid except Allison to move to the Sun. The most popular sat there. And the Asteroids were for Nobodies like her.

Allison dumped her stuff onto the bench, stood up, and entered the lunch line. Most of the food in the school was not exactly the freshest thing ever--bananas that were turning black, tomato soup that was solidifying. It was hard picking out edible food, but Allison ended up with a tray of celery, which she nibbled around the places that had already been nibbled by something she did not want to know, a piece of bread molding on the bottom, and some kind of soup that smelled like rotting banana peels.

Allison retreated to her room early. The showers were not extremely cold yet, but they were cold. She was always the first one in the showers. 

Allison pulled her sheets up to her neck, her eyes half-closed. She pressed her lips together, hoping that her teeth would stop chattering. One by one, the other girls started filing in, and, slowly, the water trickled from cold to extremely cold.

The night air pressed against Allison, shaking her body.

The trees obscures any light from the moon...the wind whispers past her as she passes by. The trees warns of danger, how she must get back to the hospital. How she must stop the Wolf.

And then seeing the flaming ruins.

Spires of orange, red, and gold illuminates the dark night sky, puffs of smoke stinking the air. 

I'm too late.

"Snow!"

A girl, about her age, grabs her hand, her fingers cold, on her back a quiver of arrows, a bow in her left hand. Her face is strewn with ashes and tears, her hair hanging loose around her shoulders. She wears nothing but a white tunic and a cloak.

"Snow! The Wolf is here!"

Then the two sprinting, far from the ruins, coming to a rest on the banks of a river.

"Snow," the girl sobs. "Snow, my father, he has the dagger-"

She convulses, and then collapses to the ground, dead.

"M-"

The girl's name barely passes through her mouth as a blow takes her in the stomach.

The Wolf is here.

He has brought his brethren, and blood shall spill. His claws rake through the night.

"Snow!"

Allison gasped as she awakened, nearly hitting her head on the low ceiling. She pulled the blankets around her, shivering, feeling like she was drenched in cold water.

She put the blankets to her mouth and stifled a scream.

The feeling of terror, of guilt, and of desperation, was too much for her. What--when...

Tears were falling from Allison's eyes before she knew it. She didn't know what she was crying about, why she should be crying, she was sobbing, and soon her sheets were drenched.

Allison wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, and collapsed into her bed again. It was a long time before she slept.

Jason, on the high dive, strung to the board by his shorts.

I'm laughing. Cruelly.

Too cruelly, I realize. So I stop. Should I say sorry? Would he notice me?

The pool is empty, the water is still. Jason has stopped struggling. I sit without moving. He dangles there.

There is tension between us. Danger. Jason lifts his head.

It's not his head.

It's the Wolf's.

I scream. Silver mandibles protrude from the corners of a salivating mouth. Red eyes glow from the cover of dark black fur. Fingernails lengthen into claws, skin stretches and morphs into more fur.

I do not know what to do. Jason is up there, I am down here. In a sense, I am safe.

"Daughter of the sky," Jason hisses. No, that is not Jason. That is something else. It's the Wolf.

"I have been waiting for you," the Wolf snarls. "Waiting for too long. I am thirsty, Allison Yang, and my thirst must be satisfied by blood." His claws scratch against his throat, drawing blood. The board shakes, and the blood drops into the water.

Something terrible shall happen.

"Your blood shall be my drink," the Wolf whispers. "Sooner or later."

"Later," I say. "Later."

"Don't stall..."

The drop of blood in the pool is spreading. The water hisses, and the Wolf grins. "Dying in a dream. This can happen, if magic is involved. I would kill you right now and here...if I do not need you for anything else. Beware, daughter of heaven. Your life lies in my claws...and I can crush you at any moment."

The Wolf laughs and dissolves into nothingness.

The water thickens and covers my legs. It is like quicksand, hissing, bringing me down. It swirls around my waist, then my neck. I gasp for air, but the water does not allow me to breath, even above the surface.

I go under.

Allison's eyes widened as she awoke to the bright, golden sunlight streaming through the window. She winced at the light, startled by the sudden brightness.

What was that about?

Allison pushed her sheets off and dressed quickly. She couldn't help but feel slightly rattled. There was a cold feeling on the back of her neck, as if a psychotic snowman was breathing down her shirt. Even though nobody was up so far, Allison couldn't help but look around furtively. 

The toast in the cafeteria was better than average, which slightly anchored down her trembling stomach. Slowly, the other kids startled filing in in twos and threes. 

Your blood shall be my drink. Sooner or later...

Dying in a dream. This can happen, if magic is involved. I would kill you right now and here...if I do not need you for anything else. Beware, daughter of heaven. Your life lies in my claws...and I can crush you at any moment.

Allison's tomato soup suddenly tasted like sawdust, which it basically was. She remembered Jason turning into...the thing. She wasn't sure what it was. And the dream before, a girl had called her...Snow? Who in the world was Snow?

"My father, he has the dagger-"

Somehow, that seemed important. But why would Allison want a dagger? She kept a Swiss-Army knife in her backpack for emergencies, but why would a dagger come in handy?

I'm too late.

Okay, that was it. Allison pushed her tray away from her, ignored the lunch lady's orders to dump it in the trash, and made her way back to her bed.

"So this girl called me Snow," she said aloud. There was no need to be quiet. Everyone was downstairs. "This thing for some reason, thinks he can kill me with his claws. I was too late for something."

Allison collapsed onto her bed, staring at the scene outside. Birds twittered to each other and hopped about, the azure sky their vast background, the emerald trees as their homes. The sunlight streamed down, embracing the life outside.

Allison recalled her first dream--the one in which the girl grabbed her. Seeing the fire. The fire. It was important, in a way. Then the smoke, the strong, pungent scent of smoke. She wrinkled her nose.

The heat had been extremely strong, meaning that the fire had been burning for some time. If she had gotten any nearer to the smoke, she might have passed out. Allison didn't know how she knew those facts, but they just popped into her mind.

Allison stood up on shaky legs, grappling around for her backpack.

Then an explosion rocked the building.