Her mouth dropped, hanging open as she debating with herself if this was a dream or not.
Inside the closet, it looked like a huge TV screen, and for a moment, she truly believed it was. Until Mr. Moon walked through. Jade ran to the doorway, slowly sticking her hand out.
It was not a TV screen.
It was real.
“What . . . what . . .” Jade couldn’t get any other word out.
“Come,” Mr. Moon started to walk farther down. He held out his hand for Jade to take, and led her through the doorway. As she started walking through, she looked back to see the art room still there, on the other side of the doorway.
“This isn’t possible.”
“Anything is possible dear. It’s the matter of how much you believe in it.”
“Where are we?”
“Capital of the Inbetween. This world connects to other worlds.”
“Wait, there’s more?”
“Of course. This is the largest city. 8 billion in population, it’s 30 times bigger than New York.”
Go on Jade, take it in. Take it alllll in.
Jade gasped. She took her hand away. “This . . . this isn’t real.”
Mr. Moon looked worried. “Jade? What’s wrong?”
“I can’t . . . This isn’t . . .”
“Jade,” Mr. Moon step closer to her.
Panic suddenly hit. “No! This isn’t real!” she screamed. People were looking at her as she ran back to the doorway, and out of the art room.
“Jade!” she heard behind her. But she didn’t stop. She kept going. She ran down the hall, as fast as she could. When she finally stopped, she realized how out of shape she really was. The Denver thin air was killing her.
She leaned against the lockers, not sure where to go, who to tell. Who would believe her? What would they do?
“Jade?” the sweet voice from behind said.
It was Storm. “Oh thank goodness! Storm, that weirdo, the art teacher! He’s a whack-o!”
“Whoa whoa, you okay? What happened?”
“You’ll never believe me.”
She grabbed her arm. “I’m here, you can tell me.”
His closet . . .his closet, it’s a world.”
“What?”
Jade tried to keep her breathing slow, trying to keep it at a regular pace. “Mr. Moon, has this world inside his closet. It was like a magic trick. He knocked on the closet, and there it was.”
“You showed you the Inbetween?” she asked.
“What? You know what it’s called?”
“What else did he tell you?”
“He was saying I was a Key, and-“
“Oh no . . .”
Jade shook her head. “I’m . . I’m scared Storm. I . .don’t know what I saw.”
She sank to the floor. Storm stared at her and said, “May I ask you a serious question?”
“Yeah,” Jade said, lost in thoughts.
“If there was a creature who was about to go through a lot of pain, would you spare them the pain by putting them down? Before they suffer?”
She wasn’t sure where this was coming from, or what she was talking about. “I . . . I suppose?”
“Great, so you’ll understand about me killing you.”
The words didn’t click until a dagger came flying towards her face, and stabbing the locker in front of her, barley missing her. Jade stared at the long weapon she was pretty sure was illegal to have in school.
Jade fell back, staring at the girl she thought was so sweet. Storm took the dagger out of the metal lockers with no sign of trouble.
“What . . . what. . .”
“You said you would understand. Hold still, it’ll make it easier.” Even with the threat of murder, she still had somehow sounded so innocent.
“What the hell are you doing?” Jade screamed, scrambling to her feet.
“A favor,” she said, taking another swing. Almost to her feet, Jade was knocked over again by panic and fear. When she looked up, Storm was holding the dagger over her head, ready for it to fall down on Jade.
But before Storm could do anything, another figure smashed their own body into her, slamming her hard into the locker.
“Noah?” Jade questioned.
His two hands tried wrapping around Storm’s neck. “You leave her you witch!”
“Get off!” Storm pushed back.
Jade wasn’t sure what happened, but a blast appeared, knocking Noah over. It didn’t take more than two seconds to get back on his feet, protecting Jade’s body with his.
“Step away, Mage,” Noah hissed.
“I’m doing her a favor! You’re going to do more harm to her than I ever can.”
“Not your place, not a place for someone like you.”
Storm hesitated. Quickly, she grabbed her dragger off the ground, threw it at them, both hitting the floor, barley missing the sharp edges.
Storm ran down the hall as fast as she could.
“Hurry! We have to caught her,” Noah said running after him.
Jade didn’t have a choice. She followed soon behind Noah, trying to her best to catch up. Her lungs hated her, punishing her by burning her alive.
Panic.
Fear.
But she had had to run.
Storm made it to the art classroom. Mr. Moon barely had time to react as she pulled out her wand and blasted him to the ground. She took off to the still open closet door, running into the other world. Noah and Jade ran after her.
Into the other world.
Jade didn’t think about it at first. In fact, she didn’t think about anything. The fight or flight thing kicked in in time for her, but it was fading off. She was coming down, hitting reality hard. She was lost in a sea of people. Faces all staring at her.
There was no sign of Storm.
“Mr. Moon! Noah!” she called the only names she knew that could help her. Her chest was pounding. Her vision was becoming barley as she passed out in the crowd. The last thing she saw was Mr. Moon hovering over her.
“Jade,” he said before she hit the ground.
ns 15.158.61.5da2
