Sylvan

Chapter 11

Without Noah by my side, my mind went back to catastrophizing about yesterday. It was hard to get past the near-death experience me and my brother had. And the last night's dream only fueled my anxiety.

I was also worried for Gabriel, not knowing how he was taking in the incident. He had seen that beast from up-close, its huge form, sharp tusks and heard its loud growls. Though he seemed to be holding himself better than me, still you never knew what might churn out of it from his unconscious side. Psychological scars took time to manifest.

I would've liked to talk to my little brother but after today's morning we weren't on speaking terms. It was my doing.

During breakfast Mom had asked Gabriel where his bag was. He had left it at school to venture into the woods. Her question gave me idea to put a leash on the little rascal. I suspected he'd run out of school again to meet his 'friend' Gorrie. I had to stop him.

I snitched on him to Mom about his little adventure, minus the Realm of Magic part. She yelled at both us, at him for the obvious reason, and at me for not telling her earlier.

The look of betrayal that Gabriel gave me broke my heart, but it had to be done. Mom called his school's administration and gave them an earful for not keeping an eye on the children. She even threatened to get other parents involved from her firm. If those people got involved then the reputation of that school was going to be on the line. Seeing my mom screaming on the phone, I realized that small woman carried lot of spunk.

Long story short, Gabriel wouldn't be leaving his school premises unless with me or Mom. So I had one less thing to worry about.

Though this whole ordeal made me feel like a villain. Gab had refused to talk to me on the way to our schools. Throughout the bus ride he didn't even look at me. I felt so sorry for him when he was reprimanded by his teachers too.

But at least I had the assurance he was safe. Eventually he'd forget about that Realm and Gorrie too and make up with me.

Right now I was in History class where Mr. Rodriguez was droning about American Civil War. My head wasn't into the lecture. There were so many other things running on it. One of them was Noah.

Besides daydreaming about him, I was also mulling over his last week's ominous warnings of staying out of the forest land. What if he wanted me to stay away because he knew about the strange stuff there?... It made sense since a large part of that land was owned by his family.

But I didn't know if I had it in me to confront him about it. This whole situation was nothing short of crazy. What if Gab and I were the only one who had seen that world? Maybe Noah wanted me to stay away from woods for other totally normal reasons and not because of this dangerous Realm.

I had already carried the tag of loner, I didn't want the one of freak. Gab could easily babble about such stuff, he was seven, no one would take him seriously. But I was an eighteen-year-old adult. Unlike Gab, I wasn't going to get free pass after rambling about Magic Realm and its giant animals.

"Ms. Martin," Mr. Rodriguez called, snapping me out of my thoughts. I jerked up and found him glaring at me. It seemed my lack of attention in class was too obvious. "What was the Missouri compromise?" He asked me.

"Uhh... It was an agreement between free states and slave states that admitted Missouri as a slave state," I answered.

His gray brows knitted. "And..."

"And?"

"And it established Maine as free state," he completed. "Stop daydreaming and pay attention in class," he reprimanded me.