Iridescence

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

JENNA

I overslept. I never oversleep, but I was having a heck of a dream, or maybe I should say nightmare.

I couldn't make much sense of it, but I was in a battle, leading a team of soldiers against the opponent, a giant snake. Everything seemed to be going well until something grabbed onto me and bit me.

I recognized the creature as a dremlin. It laughed at me, and I began getting dizzy as I lost a significant amount of blood. The dremlin drank my blood like it couldn't get enough of it, refusing to release my arm.

"Vanessa!" I screamed, wondering if she could hear me. Nothing happened. I was starting to panic when I remembered that while Vanessa had to wake up eventually, Morpheus was always aware of the dream realm.

"Morpheus! Help me!" I shouted.

Seconds later, Morpheus manifested out of thin air. His eyes narrowed in anger at the sight of the dremlin. He grabbed it around the neck and flung it away from me with impressive force. It vanished into the darkness with an indignant squeak of protest.

"You are injured," Morpheus said.

"It hurts," I admitted. "I'm sure I'll be fine, though. Thanks for coming. Can I please wake up now?"

"Come with me, Jenna. Your wound needs tending."

I wanted to protest that it was only a dream and I'd be fine as soon as I woke up, but Morpheus didn't give me the chance. Instead, we were instantly transported somewhere else. He silently began treating my injury.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"The dremlin's venom is flowing through your veins. I must cleanse the wound," he replied. He was carefully applying something to my injured arm. It stung, but then the injury started feeling better. "Eat this," he said, handing me something.

"A cupcake?" I asked in confusion.

"It is a carefully crafted food meant to increase your strength, stamina, and health. It will revitalize you and finish cleansing the venom from your veins."

"I'm in training," I protested. "I can't just eat random sweets."

"It is not a cupcake!" He snapped.

"Are you sure? Because it looks like a cupcake."

"Jenna, eat this immediately or you will die. Is that clear enough?"

I stared at him. I wasn't sure how a magical cupcake was supposed to save my life, but who was I to argue with a deity? I popped the not-a-cupcake into my mouth. "It tastes like a cupcake, too," I mumbled.

Suddenly, I felt much stronger. Not only did I no longer feel like I'd been poisoned, but I felt better than I had in my entire life. "Did you just drug me?" I demanded.

"It is made of ambrosia," he replied. "It is not a drug, Jenna. It is the food of the Gods."

"I'm not a God," I protested.

"Not now, perhaps," he replied, "but your survival proves to me that you once were."

"Are you saying that cupcake could have killed me?"

"It is not a... Oh, forget it! Yes, Jenna, if you eat the food of the Gods and you have no deity energy within you, it is typically fatal. However, I knew you would survive."

"I don't understand."

"You will after training. Wake up now. You are late for school." With that, he shoved me back into my body.

I woke up with a start. "What the heck just happened?" I mumbled. I looked at my clock and realized I had about five minutes to shower, get dressed, and somehow make it to school, which was not physically possible. I hadn't even gotten to go on my morning run. With a sigh, I hurried to get myself ready for school.

"Honey, what are you still doing here? I thought you left before the rest of us got up," Ma said as she was about to leave for work. "Are you feeling alright?" She put the back of her hand to my forehead automatically.

"I'm okay, Mami," I lied.

"What happened to your arm, Mija?" Ma asked in horror. I was confused until I looked down and saw a scar from where I'd been bitten in my dream. It had healed significantly, but it was still visible.

"I... Oh, I must have cut it while I was training," I replied, because telling my mother a dremlin had tried to kill me while I slept probably wasn't an option unless I wanted to go see a therapist.

"It looks like it hurt. Are you sure you're alright?"

"I'm sure."

"Alright," she said, but I could tell she was concerned. "Let me give you a lift to school. Come on."

We hurried out the door. I was only twenty minutes late when we got there, but it bothered me anyway. I hate being late or feeling rushed. They handed me a late slip at the door. I was about to head to my first class when I heard, "Pssst... Na!"

I ducked around the corner and spotted Lucky, who had obviously also just gotten to school. "You overslept, too?" He asked me. "You never oversleep. It's, like, against your religion or something."

"I had a rough night," I replied.

"Girl, same," he told me. "I had the weirdest dream last night, and when I woke up, it didn't stop!"

"What do you mean?"

He hesitated. "Not here. Come on." He grabbed my arm, but stopped when he saw the scar. "What the hell happened to you?" He demanded.

"It's complicated," I replied.

He nodded, then led me into a stairwell. We went down to the basement, rushed through the creepy hallway, and went up a different set of stairs that led to the backstage area of the auditorium.

"Lucky, we can't just cut class," I protested.

"We're already late," he pointed out. "There's no point in going to first period." He motioned for me to sit down on one of the metal folding chairs before he sat in another.

"I guess you have a point," I admitted.

"Okay, spill. How'd you get the bite?"

"Lucky-"

"Look, Na, I had a really weird night, and I can tell you did, too. Now spill the tea so I can tell you about my drama."

If I could tell anyone, it was probably Lucky. He would never judge me, and despite being the biggest gossip in town, he could keep a secret when it counted.

"Would you believe me if I told you a dream creature attacked me and I almost died?" I asked.

"Sure," he replied without hesitation. "How'd you survive?"

"The Greek God Morpheus gave me a magical cupcake."

"You know, I could go for a cupcake..."

Suddenly, he reached into thin air and a cupcake manifested in his hands. I gasped and stared at him in confusion. "How did you do that?" I asked.

"Story time! Okay, so, I was dreaming about some of our hotter male classmates, and suddenly Leo and Kevin were front and center."

"You were having sexy dreams about my boyfriend?"

"The heart wants what it wants," he replied with a smirk, but I knew he was just kidding. "No, your man candy is off-limits, even to my subconscious. He was just hanging out with Leo and some other guys from the football team. Anyway, one second I was talking to the two of them, and the next, I was inside of this weird alternate world. I started walking through it and it was some kind of labyrinth."

"Like a maze?"

"No, Na, like a labyrinth. Mazes have many paths, but despite all its twists and turns, a labyrinth only has one path to follow. Every turn can bring new things, but in the end, you're only walking in one direction."

"You're such a nerd," I said with a laugh.

"You love me! Anyway, I walked through the labyrinth, and it was incredibly cool! Everything I could ever need to entertain myself was in there... Around every corner, there was something new. I can't explain it, but it felt like the place was just mine. I somehow knew where to go, and I found this really fancy, old metal box encased with jewels and crystals and just a lot of bling... It was sealed, but I felt like I could open it. The thing is, I knew I wasn't ready. Like, if I opened it, something would happen that would change everything. So I pulled myself out of the labyrinth."

"You had sugar before bed again, didn't you?"

"Don't I always?" He laughed. "It gets weirder, Na. When I left the labyrinth, I found myself in a dark cave, and this giant freaking snake attacked me! I ran for my life, but it caught up to me, so I put my hands up and focused and it ended up trapped inside of another labyrinth! I knew somehow that it would escape, like it wasn't the kind of thing I could contain for long, but it bought me time to get away. I ran and found a bunch of soldiers, and I knew they'd help me fight off the snake."

My heart caught in my chest at the mention of the snake and the soldiers. Was it possible Lucky was dreaming about the world I'd suddenly found myself mixed up in?

"Anyway, we were suddenly fighting off monsters, and after a few minutes, I woke up... And the monsters were in my bedroom!" He continued.

"What?" I asked in confusion. "Were you still dreaming?"

"No! I was wide awake and there was a pissed off chimera trying to set me on fire! My bed was torched seconds after I jumped off of it. That's probably gonna be tough to explain to my parents."

"Lucky, how is that possible?" I asked.

"I know it sounds nuts, but I think I manifested my dream into reality."

It would have sounded nuts, except Vanessa had power over Dreams, so why couldn't Lucky? "How did you avoid being barbecued?" I asked.

"I trapped it in a labyrinth... And I have no idea how I did it. It's like it just came out of me, as natural as breathing. And now I can manifest stuff out of thin air... Like this cupcake. Want one?"

"I think I've had enough of magical cupcakes for the day," I replied.

"Suit yourself." He ate it. "Mmmm, chocolate..."

My stomach growled. "I skipped breakfast because I overslept," I admitted with a sigh.

Lucky took a deep breath and focused. The auditorium vanished and we were suddenly in a huge ballroom with a banquet of food on the table, including all of my favorite breakfast foods.

My eyes widened in shock. "You don't do anything small, do you?" I finally managed to ask.

"Where's the fun in that?" He replied with a grin. "Only the best for my best friend! Eat up. You're in training. You can't skip meals," he teased me.

I caught the slightest flash of a distant memory. Only the best for my best friend, a different voice said, and somehow, I was certain Lucky and I had done this before.

What the heck is happening? I wondered as I started to eat. My best friend had an amazing super power and I was part of an all-girl team of teenagers who were meant to wield the Elements and stop some great evil from rising.

What is my life right now? I thought. This was all insane, but I knew it was real. The question was, how did Lucky fit into things, and how was I going to keep him safe when I didn't even fully understand how to protect myself?