The sun shone bright. I stood in an exquisite forest. A towering castle loomed above the silvery trees with glittering fruit. The grass was just about the greenest thing to exist, yet somehow reflecting bits of gold. Wildflowers blossomed everywhere in sight, most in vibrant violet hues. The ground I stood on was plush and comfortable, as if it were a world made purely of children daydreams. I felt like I could smell the beauty radiating off the scenery; sweet but earthy. And cake. Wait, cake? That didn't seem right.

I bolted upright from my lying position. I was still on the floor of the cafeteria, in between two tables. But the floor was... dry. Derek sat above me at the table to my left.

"Good, you're awake!" He said, putting out his hand out to me. I took it, and he pulled me up. I looked around me, and everything seemed to be in place. There wasn't any sign as to me flooding the cafeteria, but it couldn't have been more than a few hours since the incident.

"What- why- how-" For some reason, I began to panic. I had just realized all the things that were probably going to happen: police, handcuffs, court, questions I couldn't answer, and years of being locked away in a steel room. All for something I didn't mean to do. There's no way to escape fate. No way to escape...

The world around me was ending, and I couldn't even express my worry. I ducked my face into my palms, trying to hold back the stressed tears. But they came. And wouldn't stop.

My hands shook uncontrollably. I shook uncontrollably, and I was sweating profusely. My breathing intensified, but wasn't any easier. In fact, I felt like every breath I took became harder. My mouth tasted sour and metallic, as if I was about to regurgitate my PB&J sandwich. I already saw the cafeteria as my cell. I fell to the floor. The walls were closing in, cold, metal walls that caged me like an animal. Bars. So many steel pillars preventing my escape. No bed, no home, no friends, no family. I darted my eyes around, but I couldn't see. I reached for something, anything to grasp, but stayed empty handed. I might as well kiss hope good-bye in this dark, dreary world.

As I attempted to reach my hands out again, I felt steady arms wrap me in a tight embrace from behind. I held on to that bit of comfort, and for a moment I felt that everything

would be alright. I hadn't yet calmed down, but I knew it was possible.

"Shh, shh. It's okay. You're going to be fine. Everything will be fine," Derek whispered in my ear, pulling me a bit closer. "Everything will be fine," He repeated, and I knew it was true.

I blinked, clearing my eyes of any remaining tears I didn't anticipate. I was quite relieved to see that it was possible to see, even if my vision was blurred. I looked behind me at Derek, and I didn't feel so lonely after seeing his tear-stained face, tears I didn't notice were falling. I immediately felt guilty. Why hadn't I thought about how this situation would affect him?

I already forgot what woke me up in the first place. My mind took a sharp turn, reeling away from the dreadful thoughts I was originally thinking. I had a dream... something to do with silver... gold... flowers... a palace... forest... smell? Right!

"Derek," I began, looking around for any sign of desserts. "Why do I smell cake?" I looked back to him, and his eyes lit up.

"Follow me." I stood up again, and he began to walk briskly. We marched across the lunchroom to a door leading into the kitchen. Derek flung the door open, and I needed to blink a few times to make sure I wasn't hallucinating.

I thought for sure I had entered some fantasy re-enactment. There were brooms sweeping up the floor themselves, whisks that mixed the ingredients pouring themselves, and once the oven let out a ding, it opened itself with no trouble. A deep pan trailed out with the alluring aroma of chocolate. I glided over, amazed at what I was witnessing.

"What are you doing?" I questioned.

"Um.. Cooking?"Derek responded.

"This isn't cooking." I turned to face him. "This is sorcery."

He shrugged. "It's more of something I do when I'm nervous. Cooking is a good way for me to detox." Derek strolled to the other side of the kitchen to three already finished cakes and one in the process of frosting.

Picking up a knife, he sliced down one with pink frosting and little roses, and once he

picked it up to put on a plate I saw the vanilla delicacy inside with several small holes filled to the rim with warm chocolate and caramel sauce.

"Woah." I breathed. A heavenly scent enveloped the room. Derek smiled to himself, seemingly pleased with my reaction.

"Would you like a piece?" He asked, looking my way and holding out the plate and a fork. I vigorously nodded my head.

"Please." I took the plate gladly and headed out towards the main cafeteria. After sitting down, I dug my fork into the cake and syrups seeped out. I brought the fork up to my mouth and bit down on the fork. The cake was incredible. It was extremely moist, but not underbaked. The chocolate and caramel sauces were sweet with a pinch of salt, and flavor exploded in my mouth as I sent my taste buds to paradise. All the tastes combined, yet I could still pick out each one. I let out a delighted moan.

"Is it really that good?" Derek looked over to me, and I blushed from the goofy expression he tossed me.

"Sorry. It's been a while since I've had sweets." I blushed even more.

"No reason to apologise. I'm happy you like it." He gazed my way and grinned. Then dug in to his own cake.

I looked away and continued to feast. I finished and walked in the direction of the kitchen to drop off my dishes at The Magical Cleaning Service copyright Derek Kenneker. On my way back, I noticed Derek's backpack on the table. Funny, that wasn't there before. I glanced at it, wondering when he brought it over, but as I began to sit down in front of it, the backpack shifted. I took a step back, then leaned in. I heard a faint scratching noise, and the backpack moved in ripples, as if it was being messed with from the inside.

I searched around for Derek, not exactly sure what to do with a demon sack. I bit my lip and began to worry about what may have happened, when I settled my sight back on the

backpack, Derek stood behind it.

"What on Earth are you doing?" I asked him, I saw no reason for him to continuously make objects appear and disappear. "How do you keep doing these things? What's going on? Also, why do you have a living backpack?" I pelted Derek with questions. He was starting to scare me with everything he was doing. I had to pause and take deep breaths while closing my eyes. Sometimes the best way to cope with your problems is to make it so you can't see them anymore. To block everything out, to live in your own little silent world. But I despised how easily I could creep into the terrors that await me every single day. The tiniest things could trigger it, it took almost nothing for me to become terrified. Everything can be so much worse with an overactive imagination. Then I felt his hand upon my back, and I lashed out.

I threw my arms back and ran away from him, to the other side of the cafeteria. I couldn't open my eyes, I couldn't go back to the horrors. I just sat, shaking, and praying that I would be safe from the horrors that haunted me. My heart was beating extremely fast, the kind of pounding that makes you know that your heart is trying to keep you alive for longer. The worst part was that I felt like my life was in danger, even though all the threats were just illusional terrors my mind created.

"Rest. It's okay, you're alright. You're safe. Just rest," I heard Derek say, and that invitation was immensely inviting. But just hearing a voice spooked me. I longed to sink away, but I couldn't. I needed to stay strong, needed to stay aware. I was fighting monsters, monsters of shadows. I shivered, shivered for several minutes. I just sat, scrunching into a ball as if it would keep me safe. After I slowed my breathing and calmed down a bit, I felt like I was beginning to doze off. But then my mind subconsciously swam back to the horrors that remained in my world. It swam back to the threatening reality that could capture me in an instant if I showed vulnerability for even a moment.

I couldn't do anything but cry. I felt cold, as if my chest was freezing over. I shivered, panted, and sweat. I cried and tasted the salty tears that dripped onto my lips. I wasn't only scared, but confused. Not about where I was, who I was, or why I felt this way, but just confused. Things made sense, but didn't. The pit of despair I had sunk into felt reassuring yet unprotected. I was in a state where nothing fit together correctly, but everything just felt so right. I was lost.

I gave a chance at peeking, taking a glance at where I was. Nothing changed, but nothing felt real. Everything I once thought I knew for sure, I doubted for a moment. Everything I glanced at seemed so normal that it was out of place.

Derek sat across from me on a table, leaning forward. It was sweet to me that his face was twisted in concern, like he cared about what I was going through.

"Did you know that your eyes change color?" He asked, and that surprised me. I was expecting a different remark. I shook my head no. "Well they do. Not a ton, but they vary in shades with how you feel. When I look at you when you're happy, your eyes are greenish- grey. When you're sad, they're more of a cold blue-grey. Exited is a blue that's a tad silver. When you tell me about one of your ideas, they're a dim teal. Anger makes them a deep blue-grey, but in an untamed, wild sort of way. And now, when you're scared, they're just grey. As if everything is plain and insecure." His words flew straight into my heart. It felt so good to know that somebody could read how I felt. Derek actually understood who I was, and how I acted when I felt. But how would he notice something so small as the color of my eyes?

"Are you doing okay?" he questioned. Derek's expression of sincere concern helped quite a bit. It healed any of the remaining broken parts.

"Yeah. I am, thank you," I replied. I set my hands on the floor behind me and hoisted myself up. I nearly fell back down from a head rush, but managed to steady myself. "How long was that?" I asked Derek, a little embarrassed by the break-out.

He checked his watch on his wrist, which I swear wasn't there a second before. "About fourteen minutes," He responded. I ducked my head, a bit ashamed of making him wait that long for me to calm down. I shouldn't have felt that way, because mental attacks like that can't be controlled very easily. But that didn't change how I viewed my situation.

Derek guided me back to the table with the demon sack. "I promise," he began,"This is of no danger towards you." I nodded, but didn't quite believe it. "Ivy, this is safe. I'm going to open my backpack, and you will be safe. I would never lie to you." I took a deep breath and nodded again, but still took a step back as he began unzipping the bag.

The foot-long creature that flew out was nothing that I had imagined it would be. It had vibrant red scales that changed colors as it reflected in the light, so it seemed kind of like the body was made of fire. It also had large and delicate bat-like wings connecting to its back. The little guy had beady yet soft eyes with a ring of amber-like yellow in the middle. Their head was diamond-shaped and had a crown of pointier scales in the back that reflected like the body scales. In the crown, there were two horns that protruded out backwards and were

slightly curved. The whole thing was elegant, especially with the spear-shaped spade at the end of the tail.

"What? What on Earth is that?" I asked, hopelessly confused.

"A dragon." The casual way Derek said it made it seem a lot more obvious than I thought it was. Still, that wasn't possible! Dragons are from mythology.

"But dragons don't exist."

"Then what is it?"

"I don't know! Ask that to yourself!"

"Ivene, this is a dragon." I sighed. I supposed there was no point in arguing with him, it was pretty clearly a dragon.

"Fine. You win this one. But still, why do you have a dragon? They aren't supposed to exist," I reminded him.

"Oh, but they do," Derek told me. "And very soon you're going to find yourself meeting all kinds of things like this dragon here." he nudged the dragon in my way. "You wanna pet him?" He offered, with a glimmer of hope in his eyes.

Slowly, carefully, I extended my hand out to pet the dragon. Its scales were surprisingly soft and velvety. As I pet it, the dragon slowly lowered its head as if I were laying him to sleep. He began to make a purring noise, except it was sharper.

"Does the dragon have a name?" I asked Derek, but I kept my eyes low, studying the small creature.

"Abistra." I peered up at him.

"That's beautiful. How'd you come up with it?"

"Every living thing-weather it be a plant, animal, or person, always has a name given to

them when they're born. We just have to figure out what that might be."

"And how did you find out Abrista's?" I asked. The thoughts intrigued me.

"That's a long story meant for later. For now, we need to leave." Derek set Abrista back in his bag, which i noticed had a nearly endless space now that i looked into it.

But I began to wonder: How come all of this was so easy for me to just accept? Why wasn't this all a strange phenomenon that I couldn't understand? It was all so reassuring and normal for me in such an ab-normal way. Almost as if I've always known these things to be real and the world is showing me that I'm right.

The pat-pat of footsteps knocked me out of my trance. I felt a hand grab on to my arm. As I blinked, I came back to my senses but I was confused momentarily. So, it didn't quite comprehend when Derek spat: "Hide!"

A police officer's voice filled my thoughts. "We've secured the area, no suspicious acts have been spotted. One more round of the men are coming. Afterwards, I'm afraid that there's not much else we can do, besides possibly hanging up missing persons posters. My apologies." Static came from the other end of whatever he spoke on, and it didn't sound happy.

I was standing in plain sight as the officer entered the cafeteria. In one hand he held a walkie-talkie and in the other a paper, most likely with Derek's and my pictures. He raised his walkie-talkie up to his mouth. A single finger twitched, like he had just pressed a button. A beep sounded and he began to speak.

"Actually, scratch that."