Glass Reality | Book One

Chapter X

"Cassie! Come on! Let's go!" Ruby yelled at me as she appeared by my side. Her hair had hay in it, her eyes wide in panic. "What the hell? You just run into the maze screaming!" She grabbed my shoulders and shook me. I stared at her, dazed.

"What?"

"Look! You dropped an apple!" She scolded before bending down and grabbing the same rotten apple. I grabbed her shoulder, mumbling the word "no" over and over again, but when she stood up to her normal height with the apple in hand, she just glared at me. "What the hell? Cassie?"

"There are maggots!" I screamed, grabbing the apple and turning it over. I saw nothing but a spotless apple, red with protein. Ruby just stared at me for a moment before nodding over her shoulder.

"Let's get out of here, it's creeping me out."

I snap out of my memories when the door to Ravennas room slams shut. "Fine! I'll just miss the best party ever!" She yells. Aunt Janice's strict voice comes seconds later.

"As a matter of fact, you will."

I roll my eyes before rolling over in my bed. Soft music plays off of my phone beside me, and I just lazily look up at my ceiling. The north circumpolar constellations are sat on my ceiling, the Cassiopeia constellation made of big stars.

I don't realize just how much time I spend staring at my ceiling, but when the sun shifts over the mountain, I know it's late. I had been caught in my thoughts, thinking about anything and everything. I thought about that monsters cruel and yet, wise words from back in the hay maze.

No doubt, the apples were us, humans. The seeds were children and the branches were our lifestyles. A rotten apple is bound to fall off a tree at some point, which is a cold death. If an apple doesn't fall off the tree itself, it's picked, which is dying of old age. Natural causing death. The monster was correct about that, our human lives are almost like apples.

It surprised me. I didn't expect the monster to view our human lives like that. I expected it to think of us like an ant he could crush under his shoe--if he has any. His power is definitely more powerful than our greatest weapons. Hell, he made a scarecrow and a pumpkin come to live, and both try to kill me for god's sake.

I'm stuck in a spider's web with no way of getting out. There are times when I feel like I've made progress, but I'm ripped back into the web and paralyzed by the spider's venom. Venom...that's what this thing is. It's poisonous and kills and is satisfied by it.

"Cocky, rotten, poisonous...all sounds like venom to me," I mumble into the open air. Outside my window, the night sky is dark with clouds, rain incessantly slapping against my window.

I jump when thunder strikes somewhere.

I've always hated thunderstorms. Astrapophobia is the fear of storms, and it is very present in my bones. My insides howl in fear as I scramble to get underneath my covers.

More thunder strikes, countless times. It's all powerful and mighty, the echo of zapping lightning falling into my ears. Suddenly, I hear a soft clash of thunder. It's so soft my ears turn toward the window instead of away.

Curiosity has me peeking out of my bed, moving over to my window. What I see makes my breath catch. A beautiful raven sits perched on my windowsill, making deja vu rise its ugly head in my chest. It caws before turning it's beady black eyes to me. It stares at me, rain pouring off of its heavy feathers as if trying to convey a message. When it crows again, the thing turns and takes off into the wild storm.

I stare out of my window for a moment, before a rather loud crash of thunder makes me jump backward and slam my curtains shut. I fall backward onto my bed, the inside of it squealing in anger.