Guardian: Protectors of Light by Melanie Houtman
*
Night had fallen, and the entire family had gone to bed. Yet, still, James didn’t seem to be able to sleep. There was just something about that book that was so intriguing, so interesting... He just couldn’t figure out what.
“Come on,” he whispered to the book, as he, hidden underneath a blanket fort with a torchlight in his hand, scanned each and every page carefully. “I know you’re hiding something. Tell me your secrets.”
He closed the book and opened it on the back page, the page with nothing but ‘Believe’ on it.
The author of the book had put it there as if it was a secret message. But to who? Their readers? Someone more specific?
James kept thinking about it all night, until his mind finally doze off to sleep.
What he didn’t notice, was that as he fell asleep, the people on the pictures in the book slowly started to change.
It seemed almost as if the pictures could magically change into the Next Generation as soon as the book had selected one.
Sweet Dreams
James sat up. He found himself sitting in the middle of a dark, unfamiliar room. Where was he?
He got up and started to walk around, searching for his friends.
“Samira?” James called out. “Guys? Anyone?”
No one answered. He was all by himself, alone in a dark room without knowing where he was.
“Oh, come on guys! I know you’re there; this isn’t funny!” James cried, yet still no one answered his calls.
James was on the verge of admitting that he’d been deserted, when he suddenly noticed something shiny, not too far away from him.
He walked closer, and found himself in the only area of the room that was lit by three, small candles, standing around a mirror.
James slowly walked toward the mirror, wanting to catch a glimpse of his own reflection.
But what he saw in the mirror as soon as he stood in front of it was not what he’d expected to see at all.
The face glancing back at him was his own; two bright blue eyes stared back at him in a confused manner, with messy and un-brushed red hair hanging in front of them in messy tangles. The clothes the reflection was wearing, however, were completely different from James’s pyjamas.
James’s reflection was dressed in an all-blue attire, with shades varying from marine to cobalt. A red cape was draped around his shoulders which reached to about his ankles; the cape, unlike the rest of his clothing, was a royal red colour. The cape was held together by a brooch with three oval gemstones on it; topazes. They glowed in the soft, blue colour the gem would usually have if it didn’t glow (because of course, gemstones aren’t known to glow on Earth).
The reflection also wore long, blue leather gloves, which matched the leather tunic he wore; a bright blue, swirly pattern which glowed in the same colour as the topazes did, running all the way from the middle of the hand to the elbow. The same pattern appeared on the tunic.
Most of his blue trousers were covered by long, white leather boots.
It took James a moment to realize what his reflection represented; he looked like the Guardian of Innocence, one of the five Guardians from the book.
Completely baffled, James stood as stunned in front of the mirror, with his reflection standing just as still as he was.
But that came to an end.
James stumbled backward as his reflection came to life; the blue glow on his clothes and the three topazes on the broche made way for a bright, threatening shade of red, catching James’s attention.
When he looked back up and glanced at his eyes in the mirror, James was startled by what he saw. His eyes – or at least the reflection’s eyes - had changed; the white in his eyes had turned black, and the iris had gained a bright, blood orange colour, making it seem as if they were glowing in their dark surroundings. The pupils had been stretched and become sharp at the edges; like a cat’s pupil looking into the sun.
The expression on the reflection’s face had changed as well, no longer resembling James’s expression, which had shifted into rather fear than confusion; the reflection was grinning back at James in a devilish and sinister way.
James slowly started to walk backward as the reflection started to move; instead of going backward, like James did, the reflection walked forward, setting a foot outside the mirror, as if it was merely a wooden frame he’d been standing behind.
James tripped in his hurry to get away as he watched the scene unfold, and started to crab-walk backward as fast as he could, without ever taking his eyes off his reflection, who had now come out of the mirror completely and was walking toward James.
James crawled backward as fast as he could, but the reflection got the best of him; he bent over, baring his teeth in a sinister grin, before lunging out at James, who let out a yell as he braced for impact.
James shot upright, finding himself back in the safe darkness of his own bedroom. He could feel drops of sweat roll down his face; his heart was pounding loudly in his chest.
Letting out a loud sigh, James allowed himself to fall back on his pillow. What had that been all about?
He couldn’t remember what had exactly happened, but he could remember being attacked by himself... looking vaguely similar to one of the characters inside the book.
As he felt that his heartbeat started to slow down, James looked aside, at the led-screen of his alarm clock. It was close to six o’ clock; there was no use in going back to sleep now. Despite of the autumn break, James still always got up early.
He silently slipped out of bed, flipping on the light of the lamp on his nightstand. He searched for the book he’d been reading earlier that night and pretty much all afternoon; he was convinced that his dream had something to do with that book.
With the book, James climbed back into bed, with his back resting against his pillow and the book resting on his knees. As he got comfortable, he opened the book somewhat halfway, right on two picture pages; just the right pages to come to a surprising discovery.
“The people in these two pictures...” James gasped. “They look different than yesterday – they look an awful lot like us.”
After making this discovery, James proceeded to flip through the book, searching for other pictures, hoping it’d been just a simple coincidence, or maybe the sleep still being in control over his eyes.
But it wasn’t. Every single picture looked exactly like James and his friends; and he was certain that those drawings hadn’t looked like them ever before.
It mildly worried him; yet, he put down the book, turned off the light and rolled over to his left, trying to get some more sleep and put everything off his mind for a bit.
Luckily for James, he was able to sleep for a few more hours, without having any more strange dreams.
When he woke up about two hours later, he got dressed and quickly headed downstairs, where he found his sister eating breakfast.
“Where’s Mum?” James asked his sister, slightly confused, as he wasn’t able to find his mother anywhere.
“Good morning, James, yes I slept well, James, how kind of you to ask,” Samira said sarcastically, while poking in a fried egg with a fork, putting it on a sandwich. “Mum had to go to work; her flight left earlier. She’ll be home by three.” She then proceeded to turn around to look at her brother, holding her sandwich. “Why?”
James shrugged. “I was just wondering.” He sat down beside his sister and tried to steal a piece of the egg, but his sister slapped his hand away. “Don’t touch that. Bake your own egg.”
James snorted. “Fine,” he said. “Maybe later. I’m not hungry now.”
They sat there for a while, James watching Samira finish her sandwich, before deciding to talk to her about his strange dream. But... in a kind of different way.
“So...” James started out, slightly nervous. “Have had any weird dreams lately?”
Samira ran her fingers through her hair, as if James’s question had made her feel slightly uncomfortable. “Now that yo
James raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Really?” he said, eager to know more. Perhaps Samira could help him find the meaning of the bizarre dream he’d had, if he could do the same for Samira. “Tell me about it,” he said. “What did you dream?”
Samira looked at him. “Please don’t think I’ve gone mad when I tell you,” she said. “There was a dark room. And-”
“And a mirror?” James finished her sentence, as Samira had to take some time to think.
Samira nodded. “Go on...” she said.
“Oh,” James stammered, slightly surprised. “Oh- well... let me guess: you saw yourself in the mirror, looking like one of those Guardian characters from the book?”
“Yes, exactly,” Samira said in utter surprise. “How’d you know?” It took her a few seconds, but eventually, she came to the most “logical” conclusion.
“You didn’t have the same dream as I did, now did you?”
James laughed nervously. “Well, now you’re saying it that way, it sounds a bit strange,” he said, “but yes. I had the same mirror dream. I can’t put it any other way.”
Samira stood up, and brought her now empty plate to the kitchen. “I really think you should eat something,” she shouted at her brother, who was still sitting at the table.
“No thank you once again,” he replied. “I’m still not hungry.”
“All right, your choice,” Samira said as she walked back to the table. “So, is there anything else bothering you, something you might want to talk about?”
James chewed his nails, with both his elbows resting on the table. “Well... yes,” he said, as he stood up from his chair, shoving it back underneath the table. “One moment, I’ll be right back.”
He rushed upstairs, fetched the book and returned downstairs.
“The book?” Samira asked, as James handed her the book. James didn’t reply, but just opened the book on the same page as he’d done last night. Samira threw one look at the drawings, resulting into her eyes widening in surprise as she gasped and clasped a hand in front of her mouth.
“Bu-bu-but-” she stammered. “These people- look like- us?”
Her eyes shifted back up to meet James’s, who couldn’t do anything but nod. “I’m glad I’m not the only one who sees them,” he said, with a nervous chuckle at the end. “I thought I was perhaps still dreaming or my mind was still fuzzy from sleep when I saw it last night, but when I looked again before taking the book to you, they were still the same.”
Samira flipped through the book. “But- how?” she said. “Yesterday, these drawings were still more or less random people. And now it’s us?”
James shrugged, scratching the back of his head. “Trust me sis, if I knew the answer, I would’ve given it to you already,” he said. “We should ask the others for help on this one.”
Samira smiled at her younger brother; she had the exact same idea. After all, the others were appearing on the drawings as well; something weird had happened, and they were all in this together.
And that meant that they also were going to have to fix this issue – or whatever it’d turn out to be – together.
“Come on, we should go right now!” James said and rushed for the hallway.
“One thing,” Samira said, as she saw her brother rush toward the hallway, pulling his coat off the coat rack. “It’s eight o’clock in the morning, James.”
James looked at her; he’d completely forgot how early it actually was. His family consisted almost entirely of morning people, but that certainly didn’t apply to his friends.
“Oh, yeah,” James chuckled. “Forgot about that.”
“Yeah, you sure did,” Samira chuckled. “Also, don’t forget that Bella said she’d be training with Daniel from eight to twelve.”
James snapped his fingers. “Right,” he said. “We can always call and ask if they want to meet up at one o’clock?”
Samira nodded. “All right, let’s do that,” she said. “Until then, try to put your mind off it, okay?”
James watched her leave the hallway as he hung his coat back up on the coat rack. He smiled at her, but as soon as she was out of sight, his smile dropped into a concerned frown, as he took his coat back off the coat rack. “I’m sorry,” he whispered, “but you and I both know that I can’t.”