Chapter One - Origins

It was a dark and stormy night. Gina could hear the rain crashing down on the roof above her head. A cat laid sleeping in front of the fireplace while she sat reading a book with a blanket wrapped around her. She had lost track of time. Books tended to do that to her, she would get so caught up in the narrative that she forgot where she was.

"Time for bed" Gina's father announced. Her brother Tim gave a sigh, got up and haphazardly went about getting ready for bed. Gina felt a tap on her shoulder. It startled her and she turned around to see her father staring her down.

"Time for bed" he ordered again. Gina heard him this time, marked her place in the book she was reading and got ready and went to bed.

The book she was reading was about a faraway kingdom. It had a castle and brave knights in it. It had a King and an evil wizard who practiced dark magic. There was also a beautiful princess and a rather attractive young man who admired her from afar. It was both exciting and very romantic. As she laid in bed, her own life could use a little spicing up. Why did her life have to be so boring? Why couldn't she have adventures in exotic places and be courted by handsome men? Soon her thoughts were overtaken by sleep.

In her dreams, she was the princess in her book. She dreamed that she was in a dark dungeon surrounded by dark things. She tried to move so she could escape but she was restrained by ropes. Looking around she realized that she was not alone. A man in a flowing cloak, holding a spellcasting wand was nearby. Furthermore, she was not the only one who was tied up. The young man who had admired her from afar was also tied up. He struggled in vain to break free of his restraint.

"You can try all you want" the cloaked figure said calmly, "The ropes are enchanted. You couldn't break them even if you had the strength of Hercules himself."

"You're not going to get away with this..." The girl declares in her dream. She hears her own voice, and it sounds surreal.

"Oh, but I already have!" The cloaked figure declares, "You might think this is a dream, but I assure you it is quite real!"

The cloaked figure is throwing stuff into a large cauldron. Smoke rises periodically from it and the cloaked figure laughs and evil self-righteous laugh.

"You won’t be needing your precious Kingdom where you're going, but don't worry, it's in good hands with me" The cloaked figured says as he lets out one more evil laugh. The spellcaster works feverishly for what seems like hours until he finally stops. A huge smile beams across his face.

“Do you have any last words, princess?” He says to the girl having the dream.

“Why are you doing this?” She hears herself ask in a tender voice meant to illicit sympathy.

“Someone has to save the Kingdom and it’s certainly not going to be you ….. or him” the cloaked figure adds on as an afterthought. The girl takes a good long look at the man who is also going to suffer the same fate as herself. He looks familiar but she can’t remember why.

The figure waves his spellcasting wand over the boiling mixture and utters words that sound like nonsense. The smoke expands and soon engulfs the two lovers.

Gina wakes up in a cold sweat. Wow! She thought to herself, that was intense. She has had dreams before. She has even had dreams where she exchanged herself with main characters of a book she got too caught up in, but none of the dreams seemed as real as this dream seemed. The other thing that was odd was that she wasn’t dreaming about a scene she read in the book. It’s like she made the scene up herself.

Gina got out of bed and got ready for school. When she went into the kitchen, her mother was there preparing scrambled eggs and toast. Gina had just enough time to eat before catching the bus.

“I had this super weird dream last night.” Gina started telling her mom, “I was this princess, and I was all tied up. There was this other guy there too. He was also tied up. I thought the guy looked familiar but I’m not sure. Then this other guy was throwing things into this big black pot and mumbling words I didn’t understand. After that I woke up.” Gina’s mom paused for a moment.

“That sounds like a pretty intense dream.” Gina’s mom said awkwardly.

“Yeah, I know. Why are you acting like that?” Gina asked her mom.

“Acting like what?” Gina’s mom replied.

“I don’t know, you’re acting all weird like you know something I don’t know.” Gina accused.

“It’s nothing” Gina’s mom insisted.

“Mom, you’re not a very good liar. What is it?” Gina pressed.

“We were told when we found you, that your memory might eventually come back.” Gina’s mom confessed.

“What are you talking about? I haven’t lost my memory.” Gina said, “Have I?”

“Your father and I found you wandering down the road 3 years ago. We took you in and reported you as missing. CPS didn’t have anywhere to put you so they left you with us. We went through all the training and got certified. You didn’t remember anything. When we took you to the doctor, the doctor said your memory might come back. After living with us for about a week, you acted like you had lived with us your entire life.”

“Mom, you're scaring me. Who am I and where did I come from?” Gina demanded.

“We don’t know” Gina’s mom confessed, “It’s like you appeared out of nowhere.”