5Sam has never been one to be bothered by a bit of cold.
The sun was barely up yet, the sky was a silvery blue which in her opinion was when the sky was at it's prettiest. The grass and flowers were painted with frost and the street lights that decorated the sides of the streets were already off. The emptiness of the streets made the already small girl seem even smaller and somehow frail like if you touched her she'd break into pieces.
The emptiness was her favorite part, she could stroll freely along the sidewalk with her only companion being her dog, Captain. Everyone was most likely sleeping as they most likely didn't need to wake up for another hour. A breeze ran through the town seemingly out of nowhere causing her to shiver and pull her oversized hoodie tighter.
"We should probably start heading home soon, we'll probably just stay at the park for only a few minutes," Sam murmured looking down at her dog who at least looked like he understood what she was saying.
She sometimes wished that talking to people was as easy as talking to her dog. She never had to worry about saying the wrong thing and causing Captain to leave. Even if he can't understand a word of what Sam says he just wags his tail and looks happy just to be around her.
She wasn't bad at talking to people, and most people would call her nice. She tried her best to understand any social cues but it seemed like that after she finishes a conversation she ends up feeling like she just screwed everything up and that they're probably telling their friends how much of a loser she is.
Her thoughts wrapped her up so much that she didn't even notice that she already gotten to the park and that her pet pulled himself away from her leash so that he could chase squirrels.
Sam blinked twice running a hand through her dark hair breathing through her nose. She should definitely to get a good sleep tonight, it's not healthy to be this out of it. She eventually contented herself with sitting on the bench to watch her dog. Captain has a habit of chasing things into the street.
Captain suddenly chased the squirrel into the thicker group of trees and into the woods that surrounded the playground getting out of Sam's sight.
"Captain! Here!" Sam called out from her bench using her hands as a megaphone before sighing, her dog isn't usually like this. She quickly got up from her bench and broke into a runs getting into the woods. How could her dog be so fast that Sam loses him after a few minutes of running? The idea of her dog being lost in the woods frightened her to the point that she didn't notice that she was getting deeper into the forest than she probably should.
"CAPTAIN!" Sam yelled out again before she heard her dog's bark, this time to her right. Sam quickly went into that direction and she stopped in her tracks.
A fog floated in front of her obscuring her view of everything more than a couple of feet in away from her, but it didn't seem to go past her. She heard her dog bark again before she went into the mist looking around for her pet.
"CAPTAIN!" She called out her throat feeling sore from yelling. She couldn't see a thing past her hand, but she still went deeper into the grey following the sound.
Suddenly saw a figure in a black cloak obscuring their face almost impossibly still like a statue if it wasn't for the fact that the velvet was waving in the breeze.
Sam jumped back a bit, this was a pretty small town so she knew everyone and she was pretty sure she'd remember someone dressed like that. The dog barking that was originally her way of figuring out where to go suddenly stopped. She closed her eyes and gulped she should talk to the mystery person they might've seen her dog, "H-hello?" She called out her voice breaking a bit due to fear.
"Soon." A raspy voice says it was impossible for to tell the gender of the speaker. The voice seemed to be coming from behind her instead of coming from the figure.
A chill ran it way up her spine and it felt like her blood was replaced with frozen poison. The rational thing for her to do would obviously be to run. Captain had a collar and people in the town knew he was her dog so they'd bring him back to her.
She slowly turned around urging her to muscles to move so she could find her way out before she was face to face with the cloaked figure. No matter how closely she tried to look, it seemed that she couldn't see his face.
"I've been waiting for your arrival Diamond Wielder," The sickly voice continued gliding closer to her as if it was floating it reached out to touch her.
Suddenly the breeze from before became a tornado spinning around them tearing trees from their roots animals from their home. It looked like it was made from snow creating a blizzard. For some reason it was perfectly easy for Sam to keep her feet on the ground, though it seemed like everything else around her was being consumed by the wind.
"No! NO!" The cloaked figure screamed hands this time trying to go for her neck before it was also taken up.
"Sami, now's not the time to take a nap baby," A soft but firm voice said before shaking her shoulders."
Sam's eyes slowly opened up wide before her eyes were met with a bright red leather booth in front of her. She looked down and she saw a half eaten burger and shake in front of her. The sound of old rock music was blaring through the restaurant giving her a mild headache.
Lucy, though she insisted Sam call her Auntie, was the owner of the most popular diner in their town. She was also beloved town figure with her bright red lips usually pulled into a happy grin and could usually be found behind the stools giving various advice to the teenagers who liked to come here. That also gave Lucy the ability to know everybody's business.
"I'm uh sorry A-Auntie," Sam stammered recovering from the dream it was so vivid, so real that like most of her dreams was stuck in her mind. She was one of the three people still in this diner in the left corner next to the window her spot.
The woman waved her hand dismissively, throwing her head back causing her curly bright red hair to fall to her back, letting out a loud laugh that caused the teenager to jump. "It's okay, honestly don't worry about it. You wouldn't believe how many students have drifted off here. Apparently your History teacher has some monster project that's worth forty percent of your grade?"
Project? Oh yeah note to self; call Reese and work on the project with him tomorrow. Sam reminded herself before mentally hit herself in the face. She had real things in the real world to worry about not bad dreams.
"Yeah he did..." She trailed off putting on what she hoped looked like a calm smile but it hurt her cheeks.
"You know what Sami?" Lucy asked her heavily made up eyes sparkling in happiness. She used to be a beauty queen and she could talk about it for hours if you let her. Even now, Sam could see it.
Sam pursed her lower lips tilting her head to the side she looked out the window for clue before realizing that it was night time. She was too tired to think what her older friend was think of, "What?" She asked a bit confused as she took a crumpled twenty dollar bill from her jacket and put it on the table
Lucy turned on her heels and walked away going behind the bar. She cuthalf of a red-velvet cake, Sam's favorite dessert, and put it in a take-out box, keeping the lid off so she could show it to the dark haired teen, "Because we know my favorite expression is-"
"Stressed spelled backwards is desserts." Sam finished off before bursting into laughter, her fake smile melted into a real grin, "You're the best," She says sincerely reaching into her pocket for more money, but the fiery-headed woman lightly slapped her hand.
"Free of charge for my best customer."
Best customer was right, ever since she was ten this has been her number one place to go. She goes here when she's happy, sad, angry, stressed, pretty much if she has any emotions, she knows that the best thing to do would be go here and eat waffles drowned in syrup. She even comes here at night sometimes so she could watch through the window and sometimes finish her drawings here.
Sam pulled the owner in a one armed hug smiling happily. Taking her dessert, she got up from the booth, "Bye have a nice night!." She waved at the red head before yawning despite her trying to suppress it. She opened the door, the night breeze instantly hitting her face causing her to zip up her hoodie up to her chin before making her way to her home.
She was getting worse, she pretty much went through life half asleep. Since she could remember she has never went to sleep without dreaming and she could remember every single of one of them as if they were real and it would get freakier at times. She would have a dream where she could be swimming before being surrounded by numbers, and when she wakes up, she'll learn that someone drowned to death and their birthday was those very same numbers.
After walking for about thirty minutes, she saw the light blue place she called home. She quietly walked up the wood steps hoping they wouldn't creak as loud. She didn't want to wake up her mom.
When Sam got in, she saw Captain was sleeping on the couch. Sam breathed a sigh of relief before rolling her eyes at herself, why wouldn't her dog be here? She tip toed up the stairs to her bedroom, not even bothering to brush her teeth, before she threw herself on the bed everything quickly becoming black.
She was suddenly in nothing but darkness, everywhere she looked she could only see black. If she looked down at her own hands or shoes she wouldn't see them, "Hello anyone here?" Sam called out before suddenly it was as if the world was instead drowned in light. Sam closed her eyes tightly before she felt the light disappear. When she opened her eyes, she was in a strange room.
The room was lavishly decorate with stone pillars and marble tiles, jewel toned curtains pulled back to reveal an ornate garden landscape. The room probably wasn't even at it's full majesty due to the dark cover of night. In the middle of the room was a table surrounded by four people holding hands in various colored robes
Sam was taken aback she's never seen this place before was this a museum or castle? She reached out her hand just to feel the pillars before her hand went through it. Why couldn't she touch anything? She looked down and screamed.
Her feet were off the ground as if she was levitating in that one spot when she tried to move, it was like there was a disconnect between her brain and her body.
The four people didn't seem to hear her scream, and if they did, they just didn't care.
"We need to do this right, remember the protection of our home is dependent on it," A towering woman said in a deep voice. When she spoke the whole table hung onto every word.
"Why do we have to put our faith in beginners? We've been doing this for decades Isabella we can handle him." A wiry man argued, the other two members voiced their agreement, though they were silenced by a steely glare.
"We all tried to defeat him using our combined skill and do we all remember how that went?" Isabella asked them staring at each of the other three members, "If I thought we didn't need to disturb the life of four teenage girls do you think I would've gone with this?" Isabella scolded them sharply, "We're not just giving them powers we're bringing out any more special gifts they already have, but due to certain circumstances, were never fully developed. Now if any of you have any more arguments, I assure you, keep it to yourself."
The table was decorated with items on each corner in the first there was a sapphire on top of a book, the second one had a ruby nestled on what seemed to be electricity, the third one was an emerald in the center of a pink flower, and the fourth was a diamond resting on what seemed to be a shimmering silver powder. Almost as if it came from the stars, the wiry man was staring at the diamond, almost jealously.
After checking them closely in case there were fakes, Isabella started to chant in a language Sam didn't know before the rest joined in.
A bright glow came from table as the jewels started to rise and rotate from each other.
Suddenly Sam felt a burning pain everywhere, causing her to grip onto her midsection and scream loudly. Hot tears fell down her burning cheeks before suddenly she dropped to the ground still in pain.
"SAM WAKE UP!"
Sam's eyes jolted awake before seeing her mother in front of her face obviously worried. The pain was still coursing through her body but this time much milder, "M-m-morning," Sam mumbled feeling her face grow hot, but this time due to embarrassment. She pulled the covers over her.
Her mother pulled her into a hug kissing her cheek, "I heard you cry out stop, I thought someone broke in, what happened?" Genuine concern dripping from her words, sitting on the edge of her bed.
Sam blinked she was really that loud? "Um I just had a really bad dream, sorry to worry you like that." She said from under her blanket.
Her mind going at a million miles per hour trying to sort the dream out, if this was one of those dreams that had meanings in real life, what was it? When she was asleep in the diner she was called the diamond wielder, and now she had a dream involving a diamond.
"All I care about is that you're okay," Her mom says warmly, gently pulling the covers off of Sam, "Try not to have sugar before bed," Her mom advised gesturing to the cake from last night that Sam set on her night stand.
Sam shook her head, "You really don't need to worry about me mom," Sam says looking up at her.
"I'm a mom, it's in the job description to worry, but I should probably let you get ready in peace." Her mom reminded her playfully before getting up and leaving her room.
"I love you mom," Sam managed to call out right before her mom mom went down stars, It just felt right for her to say. Sam managed to get herself out of bed about to pick up her clothes before she saw her hands.
They were covered in a silvery dust all over her palms, it took Sam biting on her lip to the point where she was worried about bleeding to keep herself from having another episode. She must be seeing things, people who don't get a lot of sleep have illusions.
She ambled over to the bathroom, carefully trying to get there without making a mess before washing it off her hands looking into the mirror.
The tall woman from last night, Isabella she was pretty sure, stared back at her, slate grey eyes meeting Sam's green ones. She stood still for a few moments before her lips curled into a smirk and suddenly jumped at her.
Sam closed her eyes shut placing her forehead against the mirror, "What's happening to me?" She asked herself, was she losing her mind? She opened her eyes up again. this time seeing her brown. She sighed in relief before splashing some cold water on herself to wake her up.
She slipped out her clothes before making the shower as hot as she could bear. She was getting herself stressed out by stardust and fog, that didn't seem like something the average teenager was worried about. The hot water soothed the aches in her muscles.
Due to her always having such vivid dreams that seemed take their toll on her, her parents recommended that she keep a dream journal so she could write them down. Sam straight up refused, writing them down would make the dreams feel real, and she'd rather keep them in her head.
After taking a shower that was twenty percent cleaning and eighty percent her thinking under hot water, she turned off the and got dressed. She slipped on dark jeans and loose t-shirt and of course, her favorite grey hoodie.
She desperately wanted to go to bed again and not go to school. She wasn't sure how she was going to function, just the thought of having to sit through seven hours of classes made her heart beat faster, her palms grow a layer of sweat and make her feel like she just got off a rollercoaster.
"You can do this Sam, just eat, breathe, and work. Everyone else gets through it just fine, so you can too. Nobody likes a freak." Sam muttered to herself, making her way down the stair. She slipped her hands in her pocket before she felt something hard and sharp in her hand. She pulled it out and almost passed out down the stairs
Laying on her palm, was the clearest, most beautiful diamond Sam has ever seen in her life.