#pmid

“You’ve got to be kidding!” Mattie laughed. “Oh, there's no ‘kidding’ here, just pure magic. Come- sit down and I shall begin to tell your futures.” the woman said in hoarse voice, as if she hadn’t used it in forever and a day. She sat us down and held out a box with 12 stones inside on it, all inscribed with a zodiac sign. “Take the one with your sign on it.” I took the Aquarius stone and Mattie grabbed the Pisces. As we lifted the stone up, however, we discovered that there were strings attached to each stone. They weren’t just stones, they were necklaces. “They are yours. Now, please, hold out your dominate hand.” We both held out our right hands. The woman took Mattie’s hand first and began to read her fortune. “I see great joy that awaits you, but there is also titanic danger. If you are not careful, you will risk your sanity and lose your head. Your lucky item is a half-full cup, because it depends on how you look at your situation…” I look over to her, thinking that she would react badly, but it looked like she was forcing herself not to laugh. “Now, you…” The woman took my hand and started looking at the lines on it, “It 'tis a shame that neither of you have long life lines… Yes, I see… the life you know will suddenly vanish and only you and a select few will know of this. You will see this world and loved ones once again, but through different eyes. Your lucky item is cotton candy, because it’s sweet flavor, like life, is short and will disappear…” Wait...disappear? Now I knew this woman was insane! Nothing can just disappear. “Now, since you two are my first customers, I will let you pick one item each from my shop with no change,” The woman opened a curtain to reveal a gift shop. That’s strange- I hadn't noticed that curtain before. The shop had hand-carved wooden statues, talismans, “potions”, and miscellanies magical items. We started to look around at the items. I found a gem like necklace, which probably wasn’t real, after searching for a while. It just stood out to me. Mattie and I eventually found each-other, thanked the woman, and left. “It was weirdly nice of her to not charge us. What did you pick?” I asked her as we walked away from the tent. “I found this little potion that said something about transformation…dare me to drink it later?” “No! Who knows what that bottle has in it?! You could die or something!”  “I was just kidding!” A group of girls walked up to us, “Where did you guys get those zodiac necklaces? They’re super cute!” “Oh, we got them at the fortune telling tent.” Mattie said for the both of us. “Where’s that? We’ve walked all over this place and there wasn’t a fortune-teller.” the girl looked at us weirdly. “It’s right ove-“Mattie stopped midsentence. I looked over my shoulder and sure enough, the tent was no longer there.

I was awoken to the sound of someone saying something along the lines of “Taylor, you got to wake up!” and the feeling of whomever it was shaking me from my slumber. When I opened my eyes, I saw that the someone was Mattie, my best friend or ‘moirail’, a name for your best, best friend which we got from a certain web comic we enjoy reading. “Huh? What time is it?” I asked as I sat up. “About time that we left, the buses will leave in about a minute! So come on already!” she dragged me out the door. The sun was as bright as our lives looked at this point of the year. The air was heavy with heat, humidity, and the smell of flowers. It was, after all, the last day of school, so most people had left by now. We got on the bus without any problems and took off towards her house, talking about plans for our sleepover that night. “Have you heard about the carnival in town? We should check it out!” she smiled. After we had gotten to her house we played a couple games on her Wii, but, after a while, switched to watching TV because of some frustration on the other father boss level of Coraline.  “If you could live in any world you wanted, where would you live?” I asked randomly during a commercial break of Teenaged Mutant Ninja turtles. “You seriously want me to choose?! I guess… maybe, Hetalia, because of all the cute boys.”  “I may have chosen Harry Potter or Homestuck or something…” “Pffft- you’d only go into the Homestuck universe because of Eridan Ampora~”  “I- it’s not like you didn’t just say that you’d go into the Hetalia for the cute boys!” After awhile Mattie’s parents got home and said that they were thinking about going to the carnival. So, here we are, standing in front of the entrance. Mattie’s parents said to meet back at the entrance at 6:30 so we could go get pizza and get back home in time to watch for them to watch The Wizard of Oz before going to bed at a reasonable time. “So, we have an hour and a half… what do you want to do?” I asked Mattie, as we walked to a spot to look at the map they gave us when we paid at the entrance. “How about the Go-karts?” she pointed at the map,” They’re always fun.” “Okay, and after that we can go and see whatever’s close by…” “Seems fine to me!” We walked to the area where the Go-karts were, but apparently some accident went on with a kid, a large soda, and some haywire kart. We walked away disappointed, but then I noticed something that we didn’t see before… a fortune- telling booth or... I guess more of a tent? “Hey, Mattie, what about that one?” I pointed towards the tent. “Sure, but quick question, Taylor, what’s up with us and magic?” “Don’t you want a little bit of magic to exist?” I asked as we neared the tent. “Well, if magic’s what you want… I can help you there…” a voice called out to us,” but, I’m sorry to tell you this, but you’re late… for this very important date…”

“Class, I know that school is almost out for summer vacation, but please quiet down!” some random lady barked the order at us. She was probably a parent volunteer for a teacher who was not present. Where were they anyway? The remaining teachers who were at school corralled us, the students (who either decided to stay for the last half-day of school to goof off with friends and to say goodbye to favorite teachers or were forced to stay because neither of their parents or guardians could get off work), all sit and watch a stupid, educational movie. On the last day of school. I got out a notebook and a pencil and started doodling a random design. I paused as everything blurred out for a second. I was ready to get back to my little drawing when my vision blurred once more, then doubled. Just close your eyes, it will over soon… I’ve had visional disturbances since 6th grade and even had to go on a migraine diet because my neurologist thought they were some type of “mini migraines”. First my vision would blur, next it would double, and lastly, it would shake. The pills I take for my constant headaches, migraines, and “mini migraines” only made me tired, which lured me to sleep. I tried opening my eyes once more and found everything to be alright, but as soon as I looked down at my paper (which was covered in scribbles, most- likely on account of me trying to draw when the disturbances were happening) everything started shaking and everything went black as I closed my eyes. No need to worry, I just need to rest… then the disturbances will fade and everything will be okay… The black slowly turned to crimson. I was walking in a crimson… a crimson… forest? Weird, but it looked that way and there was a trail of ash. Following the said trail, I arrived at a long table in the middle of a clearing. A woman sitting at the opposite end of the table looked up and smiled. Her features were disfigured and badly burned in some parts and she also appeared to wear a broken crown. “Welcome… to my wonderland…” she cackled as everything went black.