The Great White Mage

Dreams of Fire…Again The flames devoured my body as a scream was ripped from my throat in pure agony. I dredged up every last iota of my depleting power to keep my friends away; I didn’t want them to burn, too. As the night sky was filled with the sounds of my anguished cries and the large clouds of smoke billowing from the fire that engulfed my body, his beautiful face that was so clear to me filled with utter crippling horror… I awoke and jerked upright, sending my covers flying to the other end of the bed. I was utterly drenched in sweat. I slowly knuckled the sleep from my eyes too hard and saw stars. What a stupid dream. I stretched. You’d think that after years of having the same dream every damn night I’d be used to it. But apparently that wasn’t so, seeing as I still reacted the same way as I did the first time since I hit puberty when I was twelve. I had a quick shower to clear all traces of sweat from my body and then went downstairs to the welcoming smell of fresh toast coming from the kitchen. “Morning, dear.” said my mom, Adrienne Peterson, cheerily. I smiled at her beautiful young face and sat down at the kitchen table. “Good morning, mom.” I said. I reached across and grabbed a piece of toast and scarfed it down my throat. Then I washed that down with a glass of milk. “That stupid dream won’t go away.” was my way of starting morning conversation. She gave me her famous disapproving expression. I just grinned back and scarfed down two more slices of toast. “That’s good.” I complimented as a peace offering. She just went ‘uh huh’ and smiled at me patronisingly. After all, toast was good as long as it wasn’t burnt. I went upstairs to grab my backpack then I flew down and waved goodbye before dashing out the door. I dumped my bag into the basket of the bike and got on, revving the engine. I put it in gear and slowly edged out of the driveway, pressing the automatic button on my small remote control for the gates to open and sped in the direction of the school. When I entered the school gates, I saw the usual crowd that waited for me every day without fail. I bit back a mischievous grin and revved the engine, purposely riding into them, making them scatter in panic like ants. I took the helmet off my head, shaking my hair out. My friends came over to meet me, wary looks on their faces. “What?” I asked, feigning ignorance. They mock glared. “Are you trying to kill us?” my best friend, Remora scowled at me. I lifted an eyebrow. “What?” I repeated in fake shock. I kept my face straight and they bought it, much to my amusement. “Geez, you need to chill a bit.” Remora rolled her eyes at me. “You almost rode into all of us just now.” I decided to tease her. “How do you know I didn’t do it on purpose?” “Yeah, right.” Mark Henderson waved my attempt away with a scoff. I grinned. Mark was my kind of, sort of boyfriend. We never really got around to telling each other how we felt yet, but we were very close to each other. Everyone said it was pretty obvious what we were to each other. Mark slung his arm around my shoulder, taking my bag for me. “You guys go ahead; I’ll walk her to class.” I felt a faint blush crawl up my cheeks and looked down, letting my heavy curtain of thick, long black hair hide my face. Someone whistled and they laughed, moving off. Remora shot me a ‘this is it’ look and bounced off to join the others, her strawberry blond curls bouncing together. She laughed loudly. I tried not to scowl at her retreating back. What a devious creature. She must have said something to him while they were waiting for me. “So,” he started all too casually. “How are you today? No weird dreams to wake you up in time for school?” His words immediately and effectively ruined my mood. “Painful dreams,” I corrected. “That’ll be the day.” I mumbled in aside. He laughed, seeming to find my sentence funny in a way I did not see. “Actually…” he said, drawing it out. My breath caught, and I felt so nervous I had to pee. Erk, I was becoming crude. He turned to me. I realised that we had walked into our favourite hideout in school. It was an old janitor’s room that wasn’t used anymore and the school didn’t know what to do with it. My friends and I cleaned it up nicely and used it for whatever we wanted (relax, we study and chat and stuff only) so the school turned a blind eye. Plus, my dad was the principal. That helped. Mark looked me in the eye seriously. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a box. My breath caught again and my heartbeat sped up. “Wendy,” he looked at me seriously. “Wendy, let me be your Peter Pan.” There was a beat. I laughed hysterically till tears ran down my face. “Oh, my, God.” I choked out. “That—was the—stupidest line—I ever heard!!” I burst into a new round of laughter. He was laughing, too. “Yes.” I managed. He smiled at me in relief. He wiped the tears that were still on my face with his thumb gently. Then he opened his small box and I saw the most beautiful intricate necklace in the world. It was small and there was a tiny crystal in the middle with swirls of silver metal twisting and curling around it. For a moment, the silver reminded me of the flashing eyes of the beautiful boy from my dream.