REAGAN

When I got home, I go up to my room, and I lay in my bed and try to earn some sleep but instead, I get trains of thoughts.

Will I truly have to say goodbye to everyone?

Am I going to be able to come back?

Thought upon thought, question upon question all but drove me to sleep.

As I lay in my bed, an echo of the woman's words stay with me,

"You are so extraordinary that your parents couldn't risk anything."

If she told the truth, does that mean I'm adopted or something?

I lay waiting for it to make sense, but it doesn't. I also think of the place I was in Edenwoode, as she called it.

If it's not a part of my world then, does that mean I subconsciously went there?

Or was it a dream, and the world it's a part of is my dream world?

So many questions and so few answers yet nowhere to get any. And it seems the only way I can get some is between a fine line of reality and fantasy.

Let's hope I get some answers before digging into a hole I can't climb out of.

My thoughts go still, and my eyes begin to lower, and as I'm about to fall asleep, my doorbell starts to ring.

I get up from my bed and go downstairs. I hope it's not Simon or Will, and to my surprise, it isn't.

Charlotte, the foreign exchange student from Scotland, stands at my door silent. She looks at me, but her face reveals nothing. Her expression is completely blank.

"Can I help you?"

"May I come in?" I am utterly lost. I don't know what to say. I'm not one to just let a stranger into my home, but she found where I lived and came here for something, and I want to know.

I let her in any way, still having an unknown feeling about my decision.

She walks in and goes into the living room where she sits, and I sit next to her, wondering what she could want from me. "I'm sure you know who I am."

"Yea, I know who you are, Charlotte from Scotland." She smiles at me and gives a slight chuckle. I still don't know where I know her from, she sounds like someone I've met, but I don't know where or when, or whom. "I'm Reagan."

She nods her head which gives me the feeling that she already knew.

"So, what can I help you with?"

"I was hoping to ask you the same?"

Why would I need her help?

I am so confused I don't even know where to begin, first the dream and now the new girl is in my house asking me what I want.

This has to be a joke.

Maybe I'm being punked by the Dablin twins.

If I am, this is a sick joke, but then again, they don't have the brains to pull something like this off.

"I gotta ask do I know you from somewhere?"

"No, do I remind you of someone?"

"Yes, you do."

"Who?"

"I don't know."

"Does it happen to be Diane?"

Diane, how could she know that?

Who is this girl?

I feel a chill go down my spine as my thoughts go wild.

Is she the person that was sent to get me?

If she is, I no longer have time to keep asking questions, and I need answers to start turning myself in.

"Who are you?"

She smiles at me and gets up from her seat, and scouts my living room.

"Gwen, my name is Gwen, and I was sent here by my mother, Diane."

Now some of it is starting to make sense, the dream, and Charlotte or Gwen. It's all real, and this is happening. What do I do now?

For a few minutes, I sit there in awe until she decides to speak again.

"I'm sure my mother spoke to you and told you I was coming. I'm hoping she also told you why." Her accent was much different now. She sounds more like her mother.

"She told me she would send someone, but she very vaguely explained anything to me." Well, then I think I should give you this."

She reaches into her bag and hands me a small box. It's beautiful. The box glistens as the sunshine from my window hits the gold lacing that surrounds the box.

On it stands a lonely stone—a diamond to be exact and underneath my name engraved into the box.

"They had it specially made for you."

I didn't bother responding. The beauty of this box, too, absorbs me.

Why would someone go to such great lengths to give me something so beautiful?

I find myself smiling at the little drawings that surround the layering. Little girls playing and dancing along with the occasional crown that shows up along the sides.

I find some courage to open it, and throughout this, Gwen still scouts my home. I'm not sure what she's looking for, but I am too busy to bother. Inside the box lays a letter, a locket, and a ring.

This is it. This is where I get my answers but is it the answers I want.

I take the letter and begin to read it.

My ray of sunshine, my baby girl, oh how it pains me to have to write to you this. How it hurts to know that you will be taken from me any second now. But it is for the best.

And don't worry, we will see each other again. Your father and I have tried everything we could to make this our last resort, but it has come to this.

But don't fret; know that you are strong and smart, and you will be back where you belong soon, with us. It gives me some joy knowing that the girl reading this is my Reagan, all grown up and ready to take on a great adventure.

I don't have much time but let me say that your father and I love you very much.

- Your Loving Parents Queen Lilith and King D'alan of Amberfalls

I find myself tearing a little bit. I can't show Gwen that either. Those tears turned to anger shortly. Angry at all of it. Why does it have to be me?

Why do I have to leave everyone I have ever cared for to go to a world I know nothing of and likely won't survive a day?

Gwen comes to the seat next to me and tries to comfort me, but it does nothing but have me break down in front of her.

"It's going to be ok, Reagan." "No, It's not. You people want me to be someone I'm not. I'm not royalty, not in this world and not in any magical realm."

" And as for these parents of mine, they don't exist. My father is dead, and my mother is at the hospital working a double shift, not in some realm playing kingdom."

The words seem to hit her hard because she moves from me, and her face is now deeply saddened by my behavior.

"Diane isn't my real mother."

I don't know why she thought that would help, but I don't respond and give her a chance to finish her thoughts.

"She adopted my sister and me when we were very young but not young enough for us to forget it all.

My mother died when I was 3 right in front of me, and that same year some months after, my village was attacked, and my dad got injured.

He took us to the only person he could trust, Diane, and she gave us home, but with that, we had to become something out of what we were used to.

We were just farmer kids with our parents, but we had to become skilled warriors with Diane.

I know how you feel because I've been there, and as soon as you accept it to be your new life, the better your life becomes and the easier it is.

Reagan, you are the heir to the throne of Amber falls, and the warrior that will save our kingdom from the evil that tainted it"