"All right everyone, take a 5 minute break."
The band set down their instruments and shuffled towards the back of the room. Chatting teens formed small circles.
"Sydney, you sounded great on your solo." The petite brunette blushed.
"Thanks, but I messed up..."
"Syd." The bronze-haired girl interrupted, "You're first chair. Nobody else in the flute section could do as well as you did, especially sight-reading."
A blond guy approached the pair.
Zap.
"Aie." The bronze-haired girl screamed, "Pat, you shocked me!"
"No I didn't, you shocked me."
The girl crossed her arms and looked hurt.
"Hey Andrea, are you gonna dye your hair again. I can see your roots."
"Eric." She screamed and raked her nails down his arm.
"Ouch. Stupid cat-woman."
Andrea bared her nails as a reply. She then scrunched up her face and clasped her hands over her ears.
"Andrea, what's wrong?"
"I don't know. It sounds like someone just turned on a TV, only it's a hundred times louder."
" I don't hear anything."
"Eric, shut up. You know my hearings better than yours."
The air became thick, and Andrea dropped to the ground. A bright light flashed through the room. She screamed. Her whole body writhed in pain. Her spine arched back and she clawed at the electrified air around her. Then it all stopped. She fell, and the world turned black.
The ambulance sirens bared, and they loaded the still unconscious Andrea onto a stretcher. They started rolling her outside; it was then that she chose to regain consciousness. She tugged on her wrists, which were strapped to the stretcher. An animalistic scream echoed from her lips. She then started shouting.
"I saw it! I saw IT!"
The EMTs looked at each other then rolled her into the ambulance.
The room fell into an eerie silence. It was then Eric voiced the question.
"Where's Pat?"
Sydney approached the nurse's station. "I need to see Andrea Ross. She's in room 101."
The nurse sitting at the desk looked up. "I'm sorry, no one is allowed to visit her besides family members."
Sydney scowled at the nurse, her normally kind features glaring. "I'm her best friend. Please."
"I'm sorry, but she probably wouldn't recognize you in the state she's."
"I need to tell her something. Please, it's urgent."
The nurse sighed. "Fine, but only a short visit."
The nurse grabbed her keys and they walked down the hall to room 101. She unlocked the door and they stepped inside. The room was padded in beige, and, in the far corner slumped a figure.
"Oh my God. Look at her!" There sat a girl, but only a shadow of her former self. Her once sleek and smooth hair was now greasy and tangled. Her red cheeks and lips were now pale and waxen. Sydney kneeled down by the figure.
"Andrea, Pat's missing, do you know where he is?" The girl snapped her head up to look into her friend's eyes.
"He's gone!" She yelled, then chanted, "Gone, gone gone." She threw her head back and laughed maniacally. Foam dripped down her chin, her eyes blazed.
"She's really lost it this time." "Andrea, what did you see? Please, tell me. I need to know."
The girl's expression shifted suddenly from one of madness to one of utter horror. She motioned for her friend to come closer.
"Evil." She whispered.
"Hmm...Nice warm sun...I could lie here all day."
Something poked at his shoulder.
He cracked one eye open, then the other. Standing over him was a redheaded girl.
"Hey, are you okay? It's pretty stupid to sleep in the middle of a path."
He sat up and looked around. Standing behind the girl was a tall, blond man with a...sword? A raven-haired girl in a tan and pink outfit with strange baubles around her wrists. A man in white with...blue skin and purple hair? He looked back at the girl who awakened him. She had long red hair, an outfit that looked like a medieval knight had visited the 80s, and...red eyes?
"Umm...Where am I?"