The Crystal by Jones M (ready to read books .TXT) 📖

that once he was attacked, he would not feel any pain.

He was wrong.

The erboon's claws pierced through his chest as it screeched. In reaction, Erick screamed. The pain was too much, it felt so real. He tried to push off the erboon but realized that he could feel it.

His eyes widened in horror. He couldn't believe he could feel the erboon. It was as if it was really there, trying to kill him. 

What was going on? What kind of a dream was he having? Was he experiencing a vision of the future?

He hoped it truly wasn't and that he would wake up soon. Nothing seemed to happen. He was still in apocalyptic Crystalia. The creature stared at him with its red eyes. He still felt the agony, and he needed to do something.

He felt around his jeans, hoping he had a dagger in there. He sighed in relief as he felt its outline in one of his pockets. With a swift movement, Erick took it out and dug the weapon into the erboon's torso. The animal screeched, retracting its claws from his chest.

Erick stabbed into it repeatedly to make sure it was truly dead. The animal lay still, not showing any movement at all. He pushed it off his form as he stood up. Then Erick resumed his journey to the castle's main study room. He did not find his mother there, which seemed odd.

He decided to move to the conference hall. People were busy trying to flee for their lives. Erick watched in horror as erboons flew into the castle. They had grabbed a couple of witches and flew high in the air before dropping them to their deaths. In the other dreams, he was attacked by those before he woke up. At the time, he was not going to let that happen.

Ducking to the floor, Erick tried to swiftly run towards the exit of the castle. Once he was outside, the environment changed. It was night with no stars. Instead of bustling movement, he saw dead bodies. 

That was not like in the other dreams.

Bodies of fellow witches lay across the castle surroundings. They had been piled carelessly like sacks of flour. Flies buzzed around the corpses, and Erick felt like puking at the scene. 

Erick looked around, realizing that the bodies had been piled around his surroundings. Some eyes were open as they stared into nothing, frightening Erick as he thought that was how the witches died.

The pungent smell of rotting corpse hit him unexpectedly. The dream was beginning to feel more and more vivid, and he was starting to lose focus on what was real. He moved through the field of corpses, not knowing what to do next. Then he tripped on something and fell onto something cold.

He came eye to eye with his brother's dead body. He was frozen for a moment, eyes widened, not believing what was beneath him.

"JUSTIN!" Erick screamed as he stared into the boys' eyes. Erick looked at his brother as he began to cry, spotting a stab wound on his torso. He called out again, but Justin gave him no reply. His eyes moved across the field, and he noticed his mother's body laid on the grass. Just like others, her eyes stared into nothing.

"Mom!" he screamed, rushing towards the Queen's form. On his way, he noticed other bodies. Like those of the Ordinary Brothers and Selena. They had patches of dried blood on their clothes. Their eyes were also open as they stared into nothing. Then he noticed something he had grown accustomed to during the past week: Emery'was not around.

In the previous dreams, Erick had been fighting with Selena, Justin, his mother and the boys who had bullied Emery. Emery was not there, which led him to start thinking that she betrayed them. He didn't want to be sure. 

No, he feared that he might have been right.

Erick collapsed on his knees as he gathered his mother's body. In the middle of his crying, he noticed a figure in a distance fly towards him. Erick squinted his eyebrows as he tried to focus on it. Then he stopped breathing altogether.

It was Emery. However, it was not the Emery he knew. The one who faced him was completely black. She had worn a black dress that flowed in the cold wind that he could hardly feel since he was occupied with his sadness. Her usual brown eyes were replaced with pure black ones. Erick gasped at the other thing he spotted. Because Emery was close to him, he noted that some parts of her skin had blackened while others had small green patches. He was certain it was her.

Emery was an erwich. But how did it happen? What led her to be the person she currently was?

"Why?" the Prince asked. "Why did you do all this? What do you even have to gain from all of this?"

Emery smirked as her unusual skin turned to reveal her human one. Her red hair was turned an unnatural black. Apart from that, she appeared unusually pale.

In the distance, Erick could hear erboons approaching. They were coming from the mountains at a fast pace.

"EIA!" Emery screamed with a voice that did not belong to her. In fact, it sounded like an echo. Erick flinched as a look of confusion took over his expression. "EIA! SIPTAC! EIA! SIPTAC! EIA! SIPTAC!" Emery repeated those weird words. It seemed like she was saying something else, but he couldn't hear it. 

Weirdly, Emery's black hair was slowly turning blonde as her eyes slowly turned a weird shade of... Erick wasn't certain, but it was as if they were turning blue. 

Just then, his view of Emery was blinded by a flock of attacking erboons.

Erick shot up in bed, his heart beating fast with sweat on his head. He scratched his head as he took the journal beside his bed. He had been using it to record the dreams he had been having during the past week. With his mind still fresh with the memory of the nightmare, the Prince could not afford to have it forgotten. He recorded every single thing he had dreamt, and he also wrote the weird words Emery said with another person's voice.

When he was done, he began pacing around his room. He needed to tell someone about the dreams he had been having. He even avoided going back to sleep in fear of the dream becoming a reality within seconds.

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"Wait, wait, wait. So what you are trying to tell me is that Emery, my cousin, a person who let people bully her for two years, could kill every witch and us in Crystalia?" Selena asked with a look of disbelief.

Prince Erick decided to call Selena about two hours after the nightmare. The girl grumbled why he was calling her very early in the morning until Erick told her it was private and important. Minutes later, she found herself with the Prince in the main study room in Crystalia's castle. She had not even bothered to change her pajamas. Erick had closed the doors and windows for privacy. He had situated themselves in a secluded corner because he wanted to leave no chances of the words he would talk with her to reach wandering ears.

"Listen to me," Erick said. "I have been having these dreams for the past week! They were all the same, except for the last one. It all felt real! I think someone is trying to warn us about the future."

Selena snorted at the words the Prince spewed out of his mouth.

"Okay. So far you have told me up to the point where you see us all dead. Surprisingly, you have even mentioned seeing the bodies of my favorite boyband. That doesn't seem weird to you?"

"It was her! She was completely black all over. She had black eyes and black skin. She even had the erboons beside her!"

Selena remained uncomfortably silent after Erick spoke. The Prince noticed, and he gave her a look of worry. He had been hoping that it was nothing but a weird dream.

"Her skin and eyes were black?"

"Yes, but not completely."

"Are you sure the dream isn't showing your racism?" she asked with a disappointed frown on her face. Erick gave her a look that said 'Are you kidding me?'

"I am not a racist, Selena. She was unusually black, and there were patches of green on her form."

Selena's eyes danced around the room. She remained quiet for a few seconds, but that freaked out Erick.

"Do you remember Eva's story on how she turned evil?" she asked.

"Yes. Someone slipped a potion..." I trailed off as I stared into Selena's eyes.

"Maybe Emery was evil for no reason. Maybe in the dream, it was because she was turned by someone."

Erick suddenly began to have hope. Maybe Emery would still be good.

"But then, she said something before the dream ended," continued Erick. "She said something along the lines 'Eia! Siptac!'"

Erick suddenly felt the mood in the room shift.

"NO!" Selena boomed in horror. Erick shot up at the loudness of her voice before a look of confusion settled in. "She couldn't!"

"But she did!" Erick spoke in confirmation. He waited a moment before asking "What does it mean?"

"It's ancient Crystalix for 'I chose'."

Fear gripped his heart once Selena told him those words.

"So, Emery could be truly evil?" Erick asked her. She nodded in reply as she grasped his hands in hers.

"We have to keep this to ourselves," Selena told him, and he nodded in agreement. "No one is to know about this until we have proof. I just hope we are wrong about this."

Erick hoped so too. He would hate to take drastic measures to avoid his nightmares from becoming a reality.

CHAPTER 30

Emery’s P.O.V

“Hey, Rachel!” I greeted her on the phone. My heart clenched as I felt a tad bit guilty for ignoring her for the past three months.

“Hi, Emery! How are you doing?” she asked with a tone that asked ‘Should I be careful with what I say?’ I wanted to laugh at the way she was talking to me.

The boys and I were back in London. They were given a three-day break before they were to resume their tour. In the early hours of the morning, Selena, the Ordinary Brothers and I were all back in the first hotel I had ever been to in the UK. They decided to use the free time they had to catch up on some sleep. 

That was about four hours ago. It was still morning, and I was on the phone catching up with Rachel.

It had been a long time since I talked to her. Rachel had known about my mother’s passing, and she offered to be there for me whenever I needed someone to talk to. Okay, she was there for one week, trying to lighten up my mood. Seeing that I was unresponsive and still in my state of sadness, she decided to leave me alone. Now that she got word of me being okay, she decided to call me.

“…Is Selena there? Tell that crazy girl to come to the phone!” Rachel spoke with a laugh. I gave out one of my own, and I had no idea what to tell her. Selena was not around. About an hour ago, she had gone out with Harry and Liam. I had a feeling they were taking her to their boss to talk about her having a music career.

The problem was, how could I tell Rachel that? The girl could flip out and demand to see us. Don’t even get me started on what might happen if I told her we were with the Ordinary Brothers.

“She’s not around,” I replied. “She’s gone out to do some grocery shopping.”

“Oh,” Rachel spoke with disappointment.

“I’ll tell her you called.”

“Okay. We’ll catch up later.”

“Sure. Bye!”

I hanged up the call and sighed while staring at the phone. Rachel did not know of my whereabouts. I was surprised she had not gotten wind of what had happened in the past three weeks.

Selena had been on celebrity gossip magazines. Rachel knew I was with my cousin. The thing was, how would she react if she found out? Or maybe she did, and she was waiting for us to tell her. She might have been testing us to see if we would tell her the truth.

Oh crap.

“Emery,” Zane called out to me as he entered my room. His voice quickly diminished my thoughts of Rachel as I turned to face him with a look of surprise.

“Zane! Um, shouldn’t you be