Okay. So, I've had this story idea for a while, and I think it could go somewhere. Buuuuut, I've gone through at least three different versions of this, and I think this is the one I like best. And I was just wondering if anyone else thought this was a good idea? I kinda came up with the first chapter (obviously i needs some serious editing, and my style's kinda off) and this is way too long so yeah, please read and tell me what you think.

I opened my eyes and immediately squeezed them shut again with a groan. The light was blinding, and only made the pounding in my head worse.

I forced myself to sit up, blinking around at my surroundings. I was lying on a small bed in the middle of a white room. It looked a bit like those insane asylums, with the blindingly tiled walls and smooth floor. White curtains covered a window by my nightstand, focusing the beams of sunlight streaming through.

Where was I?

I swung my legs over the side of the bed and ran my hands through my hair, taking a deep breath as the pounding behind my eyes worsened. Hala. I had to find Hala.

"You're awake!"

I jumped with a yelp and turned to see a teenage girl standing in the doorway. Her emerald green eyes were wide and startled, the color matching the dyed ends of her wavy chocolate hair. Her face was angled, and she was wearing a white sleeveless uniform. Wide straps covered her from her neck to her shoulders, and the tight shirt was belted at the waist, giving way to a pair of white and blue leggings. She was clutching a thick book to her chest with both arms and staring at me as if I'd grown a tail right before her eyes.

"Who are you?" I asked, forcing my breathing to slow. "Where am I, and where's my sister?"

The girl got over her surprise and tilted her head, regarding me with a curious expression. "You're at the academy."

The words took a second to process. "The what?"

"The academy," the girl repeated. "And as for your sister...is she the girl you came in with?"

I nodded. "Hala. Where is she?"

She shook her head. "I don't know. They told me come and make sure you were alright. Someone else is probably taking care of her."

For the first time, I realized I wasn't wearing the clothes from before. Instead, I was covered in a loose button-down and soft pants, like the kind my mom used to wear around the house on weekends.

Oh no. Mom.

"Where are we," I asked again. "What country, or state or whatever?"

The girl's expression changed then--part amazement, part fear. "State? Country? You're not from here, are you?"

"Where--is--here?" I asked forcefully.

"The Hidden World," she said, and her voice turned sympathetic. "You're from Earth, I'm guessing?"

"Why are you saying that like you're not?" I could hear the rising panic in my voice, and I tried to calm down, but it was no use. My thoughts were whirring and I couldn't focus. I couldn't think.

"Oh my God," I breathed, flopping back onto the bed and putting my face in my hands. "Oh my God. I'm on some alien planet, I don't know where Hala is, I don't know how to get home...How did I even get here? What is happening?"

"Whoa, hold up," the girl said, putting her book down by her side and putting her hand out, palm towards me. "We're not aliens. We're on Earth...but then we're not."

"Right," I said, still talking into my hands. "Yeah, that makes perfect sense. Totally. I mean, it's not like that's impossible. And who wants to go home anyway? All that's waiting for me there is school work and anxiety, so I mean, what the heck, right?"

I realized I sounded a little hysterical, but I honestly couldn't help it. I was freaking out.

Great, I thought, moving my hands upwards from my face and tangling my fingers into my hair. She probably thinks I'm crazy. That's perfect.

The girl hesitated, but slowly walked over and set her book on the bedside table, running her fingers across the cover for a second. Her skin was a light brown, like the hot chocolate Dad used to make me and Hala on snow days, emphasized by the pale uniform.

"Listen," she said quietly. "I know this is a lot, but you have to understand--we're not here to hurt you." She met my eyes, and I found myself wondering how they could possibly be such a color. "We're here to help you. You belong here. So does your sister."

"I don't know what you're talking about," I told her, sitting back up and making an effort to look right at her, "but you've made some kind of mistake. Where we belong is back home. Not here."

The girl nodded, once and slowly. "It's gonna take some time, but you'll understand eventually. You're not like other people. You're different." She gave me a small smile. "We both are. Everyone here is. That's why we need each other."

I put my head in my hands again, elbows propped up on my knees. This was way too much for me to handle. I could feel my hold slipping, and knew that if things kept going on like they were, I'd have an attack in no time.

"Look," I said, talking to the floor. "I just need some time alone, right now."

The girl nodded, and picked up her book again, giving me a reassuring smile. "I know how it feels. It's a lot to take in. But you'll get used to it."

Get used to it?

She walked towards the door, and glanced back. "I'm Lana, by the way."

I nodded, and she left, the door sliding shut behind her.

And it all came crashing down.

Pain spiked through my chest, and it became hard to breath. Everything Lana had told me was swirling through my head, but I couldn't make sense of it. I felt like I was thrown in the trunk of a car I was supposed to be driving, with no idea where I was going.

I was trapped but I didn't know where, I'd lost Hala, I'd let her down, I'd let my parents down and I wasn't allowed to go home. They expected me to get used to this? What about Mom and Dad, what about school, what about everything I had left behind? How could I find my sister and get out of wherever I was if no one would answer any of my questions? How could I let this happen?

What if none of this was even real? Was I going crazy? What if this was all some insane hallucination?

Oh God. If this wasn't real, then where was I? Was Hala there? Was I in public? Please let me be in my room. If other people were seeing me like this....

I started to get light-headed, and some dim part of my panicked brain recognized what was happening. My chest felt like it was trapped under weights, and I was shaking.

I just wanted it to stop.

As suddenly as it had risen, my breathing slowed. I uncurled my fists, releasing the hair I had been gripping. I opened my eyes and stared at the tiled floor, noticing for the first time that I was barefoot. My chest ached, and my light-headedness was slowly fading.

I took a deep, careful breath, and let it out. My anxiety was ebbing away, and slowly but surely, I started to regain control.

"Okay," I breathed. "Okay Dinari, pull yourself together."

I looked up and scanned my surroundings again. I noticed the window and got carefully to my feet, taking slow steps around the nightstand. It was a floor-to-ceiling pane of glass, with a small handle partially hidden by the thick curtains. I tugged on the metal and watched as the window slid sideways and disappeared into the wall. Outside was a balcony, overlooking the academy grounds, a maze of concrete paths and grass. A giant gate sat at the edge, the words formed by the twisting metal too small for me to read.

I stepped out into the open and my eyes widened. A massive city sprawled below me, spreading as far as I could see. White skyscrapers reached towards the sky, reflecting the sunlight in blinding beads on the artistic structures. Geometric lines of blue and silver glinted at me from the sides of the tallest buildings, like a giant circuit board. A hundred foot drop spread out before me, and I could hear the whir of machinery and city life. It both scared me and thrilled me.

Hala, I thought, tearing my gaze away and turning back to the room. I have to find Hala.

But how?

I gave a quick look around the room again, searching in vain for some clue I might have missed. This time I spotted a bundle of fabric stuffed into a chair by the door, and the familiar logo of my sweatshirt.

Well, my clothes would be a start.

I changed as fast as I could, making sure to close the curtains first. I was reaching for my sweatshirt what I saw it.

My birthmark.

I froze with my arm outstretched, staring at the shimmering marks on the inside of my forearm. I let out a breath and slowly withdrew my arm, staring at what had once been nothing but a weird patch of freckles.

So what had happened?

I held my breath and lightly ran my fingers over the silvery pattern. It felt normal, almost like it wasn't there at all. But something felt....familiar about it. Like it had been there the whole time.

I squinted at it, and after a second, it hit me--it was a constellation. A constellation of stars, like a jagged "h". But how was that even possible?

I sighed in frustration. Too many questions and no answers at all. Just the way I liked it.

I glanced back into the mirror and did a double take. Something else was off about my appearance, but it was more subtle than a glittering tattoo, and it was driving me crazy.

It took a while, but I finally figured it out.

My eyes were flecked with silver.

I squeezed my eyes shut and opened them again, just in case I really was hallucinating. But they stayed exactly the same, the black color broken up by little spots of light.

Silver?

I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Okay. This was a bit over-the-top.

Hala. Stay focused on Hala.

I tugged on my hoodie, opened the door and slipped quietly into the hallway.

It seemed to be the same white material as the buildings outside, with the blue and silver zigzagging along, the ceiling low. To the left, the hall continued a few feet before curving to the right, while the opposite direction continued straight.

Seeing that was like having reality smashed over my head. I had no idea where I was, or how to navigate this place. It's not like I could stop and ask for directions, anxiety or no. I probably wasn't supposed to leave the room.

I leaned back and rested my head on my closed door, tilting it up towards the ceiling. This was great. Really great. What kind of a brother was I?

"Hey."

I leapt forward, whirling around to find Lana standing to my left, giving me a small smile. She was twisting a small slip of paper in between her fingers, wrapping it and unwrapping it around them.

"You have to stop doing that," I breathed, staring just above her. "You're going to kill me some--"

Someday. I'd been about to say someday. I hadn't even been here an hour and I was already acting like I was staying.

"Yeah," she said, sounding distracted, pushing a strand of hair behind her ear. "Listen, I managed to get the room number that you're sister's in. Levant has a way of getting information out of people, especially adults."

"Levant?"

"One of the kids here," Lana told me. "He's a really great guy. I think you're going to like him."

There it was again.

"Look, Lana--" I winced. Saying her name made me feel as if I knew her. I didn't, really. "Thank you for telling me where my sister is, but we're not staying. We can't stay. We have a life, a family, friends....I don't know what you and whoever brought us here think we are, but you're going to be disappointed, okay? Because whatever you think we are, however special you tell us we are, you're wrong. Hala and I, we're just two kids from Pennsylvania, and as soon as I go get her we're getting out of here--"

And Lana pulled back her hair, revealing a shimmering tattoo on the side of her neck.

"I have one too," she said quietly as my words dissolved. "We all do. That's why we're here. The world outside, the city....they don't like us. They think we're criminals, that we're dangerous, and without proper training, we are. You can't leave, okay? Who knows what will happen when they find out what you are."

"And what exactly are we?" I asked as Lana released her hair, covering the forest green mark. "What exactly makes us so dangerous that I can't even go home to my own parents?"

She studied me with her emerald eyes, and I could see her sympathy, her temptation. She wanted to tell me.

"I shouldn't be the one to explain," she said, looking away. "Come on. I'll take you to your sister. Then you guys can meet the headmistress. She'll explain everything."

She turned back the way she had come, and I followed after a second's hesitation. I stayed behind her and she didn't try to make conversation. I wasn't sure if that made me feel better or worse.

The hallway kept curving for a while before breaking into a fork. Instead of keeping straight, Lana turned left, heading up a flight of stairs and making a right a few feet down the hall. A series of identical doors greeted us, and Lana led me under the electric lights, glancing between her paper and the door numbers, muttering under her breath. Finally she stopped and gestured to the door beside her, turning to me with a smile. "This should be it."

"Thanks," I said, glancing at the black room number. Room 305.

Lana nodded. "I hope you decide to stay. But let me warn you--this place is like a fortress. It's designed to keep other people out, and keep us in. You'll never make it past the front gate."

I hesitated. "And exactly how long have you been here?"

Lana tilted her head. "Since I was six."

I blinked in surprise. "Oh."

"Yeah." Lana tucked another stray piece of hair behind her ear. "Well, I'd better get back to training."

She hurried past me.

I took a deep breath, and placed my knuckles lightly on the door, before rapping three quick times and two slow. Our secret knock from when we were kids.

There was a short pause, and the knock was repeated from the inside. I smiled and reversed it, two quick and three slow.

The door hissed open and someone grabbed my wrist, tugging me inside.

"Hala!" I protested, regaining my footing as my sister let go of my hand and the door slid shut behind me. She turned to face me and I took a step back in surprise. "Whoa. Your eyes are--"

"Silver, I know!" She started pacing, her hands pressed together and the tips touching her mouth. "This is crazy, Dinari, absolutely insane. How did we even get here?"

"I don't know, but you're stressing me out," I said, and she stopped pacing with a sigh.

"Sorry. I just don't know what to do. I have to think."

"Hey, Hal," I edged as she started walking around again. "Did you by chance notice anything different...you know, with our marks?"

"Oh, you mean this?" My sister stopped and pulled the short sleeve of her shirt up to her shoulder, revealing the shining tattoo shaped like the moon sitting there. "Yeah, I noticed."

She started moving again, and I just watched her, waiting for her to get her thoughts together. Her silver eyes lit up with a gasp and she whirled around, clapping her hands together. "We're going to escape."

I nodded slowly. "Okay, but how?"

Hala opened her mouth, and closed it again with a grunt of frustration. "I don't know!"

"Also, has anyone come to check on you?" I asked. "Cause, uh...."

My sister huffed. "Yeah, some blonde guy."

"Did he say anything to you?"

"He talked about us being special or something. I don't know, I wasn't really paying attention." My sister stopped and narrowed her silver eyes at me. "Why?"

"Uh," I said. "No reason. Just....some girl said the same thing to me. But she kept saying that we couldn't leave, and she asked if I was from Earth like she wasn't or something. Did he say anything like that?"

Hala nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, he did. But we can't listen to them. We have to still be on Earth. All we have to do is figure out where we are and how to escape."

"Lana said we wouldn't get past the front gate."

"And Levant said the same thing. Doesn't mean it's impossible. Just means no one's done it before."

"Sounds pretty impossible. Some of these kids have been here since they were little. If they couldn't do it, what chance do we have?"

"A good one. They were alone. We have each other."

"Having each other doesn't help unless we have some way to defend ourselves."

"Well do you know of a weapons room anywhere?"

"Yeah, let me just pull out the map I was conveniently given. Oh look, they even marked the exits!"

My sister huffed. "Fine. Do you know how to get in touch with Lana?"

"Hala, what makes you think I know how to do that?"

She held up a piece of paper. "He gave me his room number in case I needed anything."

I narrowed my eyes at her. "He gave you his room number?"

"Oh don't say it like that--" But she was interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Hala?" a voice called. "Hey, you ready?"

I shot my sister a look. Who is that?

She met eyes and mouthed, "Levant."

"Why does he know your name?" I whispered.

"Oh would you quit with the 'protective older brother' stuff?" she hissed.

"Hala?" Levant called again.

My sister shot me another look and yelled, "Yeah, come in!"

The door slid open and a teenage boy stepped through. He was tan and tall, like the surfer boy in all those commercials, but younger and less muscular. His golden blonde hair was messy and hung in his amber eyes, and he was wearing the same uniform Lana had been, but with a t-shirt and pants instead of leggings.

"Hey," he said, nodding at Hala. "The headmistress wants to see you." He turned to me, and offered a small smile. "And you're the other kid, right?"

I glanced at Hala, who hesitated, but nodded.

"Dinari," I told the boy. "Her brother."

He offered a hand, which I took. "Levant."

"I know."

Levant let go and gestured for us to follow him through the still-open door. "Come on. Let's go see the headmistress."

He led us back through the hall and down the set of stairs, this time turning left down the straight path. As we walked, I studied the architecture, wondering what the walls were made of. It didn't look like the silver and blue lines were painted on, and the white had a sort of shimmering quality to it. The floor had two rows of lights on either side--or at least, plastic that looked like they could be lights.

An idea struck me and I turned to Hala. "This looks like that place in Ender's Game. The spaceship."

She looked at me with wide eyes. "It does!"

Levant glanced back at us. "Ender's Game?"

"You've never heard of it?" Hala asked.

He gave another small smile. "I told you, we're not on Earth, exactly."

"Then where are we?" she demanded. "You can't just leave Earth!"

"Well, we made a way." Levant sighed. "It's probably better if the headmistress explains. She'll do a better job than I will."

He turned back to the front, and Hala and I exchanged a glance. Either everyone here was absolutely insane, or there was something going on we didn't know about.

Levant paused at another door, identical to the previous ones we'd seen, save for the words "Headmistress Rona" written across the front in big black letters. Levant knocked a couple times before pressing his hand to a panel on the left. The door slid open, revealing an office. A surprisingly young woman was sitting behind the wooden desk, her hands folded and strawberry-blonde hair pulled back in a bun. Pictures covered the wall at her back, and there was a window on the left, letting in shafts of sunlight. A boy sat in the chair in front of the desk. He turned as we came in, his olive face splitting into a grin as he laid eyes on Levant.

"Goldie!" he said cheerfully. "Dropping in to say hi?"

Levant groaned. "Again?"

"Again," Headmistress Rona said, the corner of her mouth twitching. "It's really quite amazing how much trouble your friend is able to get up to."

She turned back to the teen in the chair. "You are dismissed, Rai. You got lucky this time. Do it again, and it'll be the dummy room."

Rai practically bounced to his feet. "You won't regret it, Miss. I'll be an angel."

"That's what you promise every time," Rona muttered. Rai slipped past us, shooting Levant a sly smile before disappearing down the hall.

"Who was that?" Hala asked.

"Rai Abrecan," Headmistress Rona answered, unfolding her hands and running them down her face. Her blue eyes refocused on us, and she gave a tired smile. "You must be our new students."

The words bounced around my head for a second. Students?

"Wait," Hala said, holding her hands in front of her. "Wait. Nobody said anything about being students. Ever."

Rona raised her eyebrows at Levant, who rubbed the back of his neck. "I figured it would be better for you to explain."

The headmistress sighed. "Yes, I suppose so. Levant, you are dismissed. Thank you." She steepled her fingers as the door slid shut and regarded us with a curious expression, her blue eyes stormy. "Do you know why you're here?"

"Ask us that again when we actually know where we are," Hala said.

"Fair enough." Rona sat back. "You're in a place we call the Hidden World. Think of it like a mirage, or a mirror image of your Earth. We have created a way to access things called pocket dimensions--a layer of reality on top of another. We occupy the same space, the same time, but we can't see them and they can't see us."

"Which is why we've never heard of this place," Hala clarified. The headmistress nodded. "But that makes no sense." She looked to me for backup, and I tried, but my voice wouldn't work. Her expression softened and she turned back to Rona. "Please, just let us go home."

Headmistress Rona's face was covered in sympathy, her blue eyes sad. "I'm afraid I can't let you do that."

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So again, it obviously needs some serious editing. The basic idea is kids with marks on them (called Brands) can control some aspect of nature, or have powers that reflect that aspect. I have a plot from one of my earlier versions, and I'm trying to figure out how to incorporate it. Again, please tell me if you think this is a good idea, and any constructive criticism is welcome. Message me if you have any ideas. Thanks!