Before the Dawn (9 page)

While Aline was talking to her friends,
Trevor had been listening in though he never said a word. He kept
shooting meaningful glances at her, however, and she knew he was
trying to tell her that she should let the other girls know what
was going on. And she really wanted to, she did, but something made
her bite her tongue. Trevor remembered some of the stuff that had
happened to them for some reason, as she did (and Aline was betting
it had something to do with that silver leaf that had cut them
both), but her friends didn't seem to be aware that there was
anything strange about their tiredness and memory gaps. So she
didn't want to freak them out by telling them an insane fairy tale
about going to a weird ball in their dreams and dancing the whole
night away until their feet were sore or, in her case, bleeding.
So, flashing Trevor an apologetic glance, she didn't say anything
to her friends about her suspicions and wild theories. But when
homeroom was over and they split up to head for their different
classes, she grabbed Trevor by the hand and led him out of the
school grounds as quickly as she could.

"Wait. Hey." He tried to get her to stop for
a minute. "We're skipping class?"

"Absolutely," she replied. "I can't sit
around all day when I could be doing something to understand this
crazy whatever it is going on. If we stay in school today, we'll
lose all these hours we could be using to check stuff out. And by
the time classes are over, we wouldn't have enough time to do
anything before night comes and the whole thing starts again."

"Okay," he nodded, seeing her point. "So,
where are we going? And you better explain to me, too, why you
didn't clue your friends in on what's happening."

"They don't seem to remember any of it," she
said. "And I don't exactly have the means to convince them that I'm
telling the truth."

"We have the silver leaf," he reminded
her.

She shook her head. "Not conclusive enough.
The only way they'd believe that there's something special about it
is if they get to use it at night in that ballroom. And that's
something we shouldn't let happen. Every night we spend there seems
to hurt us in some way when we wake up the next morning. I mean,
didn't you notice how exhausted everyone looked in class? Like they
were walking dead, or sleepwalking."

"Yeah," he agreed with a frown. "That’s true.
So where are we going right now?"

"This whole weirdness started during that
party we had in the Ballroom, so we're going to check out the place
and the woods near it where you said you found yourself in after
that first night. And, while we make our way there, tell me exactly
what happened to you last night after you left my house," she
said.

Since they didn't have their own ride, and
since Aline couldn't really walk for long distances due to the
condition of her feet, they had to take a circuitous bus route to
get to the Ballroom. So while they traveled, Trevor started telling
her about his own strange experiences.

"I woke up in the woods after that first
night the weird stuff started happening," he began. "Like I told
you before, I couldn't really remember complete details of how I
got there, but I thought I was chasing you. Then I went to see you
at your house last night, we had that talk about stuff that
happened to you, and you gave me the silver leaf. I went back to
the woods after that, stumbling around in the dark with a
flashlight like a crazy person, and I must have wandered around for
hours, hoping I'd find some kind of helpful clue." Then his story
became stranger.

He thought he had somehow fallen asleep and
he was dreaming when he first noticed the air begin to sparkle with
tiny lights. What looked like dust motes became clearly visible,
except that they glinted and twinkled in the moonlight. He watched
them dance around in the air for a while before he realized that
more and more of them had gathered together and were slowly joining
and forming themselves into shapes. Soon, what appeared to be a
grove of silver trees had come to exist in the middle of the woods.
Then, sweet music started playing and the woods rustled with the
sounds of footsteps. To his astonishment, kids they knew in school
along with several other townspeople began showing up with dreamy
expressions on their faces. They were dancing, and they all slipped
into the silver grove where they seemed to disappear between one
step and the next.

"It took me a while before I decided to
follow them," he said. "I had no idea what could have been waiting
for me in that place so I really didn't wanna go after anyone. But
then I saw your friend, Cassie. She was dancing, too, and she
disappeared into the grove, so I thought that maybe you'd be there
on the other side as well. I went in and, God, you wouldn't believe
how amazing and unbelievable everything looked. Everything was
silver and shiny and I just wanted to lie down and look at all of
it for hours. Then I remembered the leaf you gave me and I wanted
to check if it matched the ones I saw on the trees. I took it out
of my pocket, and that's when I cut myself on it. And it was like
waking up, though I'm sure I never fell asleep. Suddenly,
everything became kind of creepy, and I saw that everyone was
moving like they were being pulled by the music and not because
they wanted to be there, you know."

Aline nodded in understanding. Yes, that was
exactly what it felt like to hear that music, like you couldn't
help but obey it and dance. She took Trevor's hand and squeezed it
to encourage him to go on.

"The next place we passed through had trees
made of gold," he continued. "And that was when I noticed that
people's clothes were changing. Suddenly, everyone was wearing
these fancy clothes, except for me. I also noticed that they seemed
to be ignoring me, though I kept trying to get people's attention
and ask them what was going on. Then, we came to this place with
trees made of crystal or something."

"Diamonds," she corrected softly, remembering
one of her dreams. "They were made of diamonds."

"No. Really?" He looked astounded. "Shit. I
could have broken off some of the leaves and be set for life." He
chuckled and, for a moment, they were just two kids sharing a laugh
about fantastic things that couldn't really exist in the real
world. But, with everything going on, were they even still fully in
touch with reality? Aline wasn’t so sure of that anymore. "Anyway,"
Trevor shrugged after a minute and went on with his story, "there
was a lake next, and there were small boats with lights that were
waiting to take everyone to this castle. I joined a couple on their
boat and it just started moving on the water without anyone I could
see guiding it or pulling it. Then we were all in the castle, and I
kept following everyone until we came to that ballroom. And that’s
where I saw you. And you know the rest."

She smiled at him. "You helped me escape."
Briefly, she told him what had happened to her before he found her
running in the corridor. His face took on a grim, angry look when
he heard about the Prince's attempt to seduce Aline, but he said
nothing. Finally, she finished up with that scene in the ballroom.
"How did you know cutting me with the silver leaf would wake me
up?" she wondered.

"Actually," he confessed with a sheepish
look, "I didn't realize you were dreaming and that it would wake
you up and make you disappear. I just thought it would make
everyone like ignore you or something, the way they ignored
me."

"So you took a big fat chance?" she was
incredulous. "But the Prince and Raven didn't ignore you, or didn't
you notice that?"

"Yeah." He was almost on the verge of
blushing with embarrassment. "Everyone else pretty much just looked
through me, but those two saw me clearly. And, I don't know. I'm
sorry for taking a risk like that without even knowing if it would
pay off, but it was like I just knew that I should do it, you know.
Like it all felt—familiar."

She kissed him to let him know she wasn't
actually angry or anything that he had taken such a gamble with
their lives that way. She knew better than anyone how desperate
they both felt at that moment when it looked like they could never
escape the Prince's Court. "Thank you for being there, and for what
you did," she said. "And I understand what you mean about just
knowing certain things when it comes to whatever's happening to us.
It all feels familiar to me, too."

"Yeah, it's familiar," he agreed. "But what
exactly is happening?"

"You wanna hear an insane theory?" she
asked.

"Go on."

She smiled crookedly before speaking. "The
Twelve Dancing Princesses," she said.

He frowned. "Excuse me?"

"The Twelve Dancing Princesses," Aline
repeated. "Except for some differences of the creepy, crazy
variety, we could be in that fairy tale. Or that fairy tale is
happening to us."

"Okay," he said slowly. "You need to explain
what you're talking about."

She gave him the gist of the fairy tale she
remembered reading when she was younger. She also told him about
the strange dreams she had been having about drowning and that
first time she had dreamed about walking through the groves of
silver, gold, and diamond trees. "But, of course, this version
we're living through doesn't seem to be as child-friendly," she
concluded. "The fairy tale I remember said the Princesses danced
all night till there were holes in their shoes. I have
bleeding
feet. And I certainly don't have twelve sisters,
and you're not a veteran soldier with an invisibility cloak, and
there is always the very real possibility I've gone mad and this is
all in my head."

Despite the seriousness of her tone, Trevor
was smiling. "So the Princess married the soldier, huh?" he
asked.

She rolled her eyes at him. "Please. It's
just a fairy tale."

He laughed. "Well, I'm glad that at least in
fairy tales, the poor guy ends up with the Princess. That certainly
doesn't happen a lot in real life, especially in high school. The
popular girl would never go out with a poor transferee who worked
as a waiter during her birthday party." His tone was light and
joking, but his eyes betrayed what he was really feeling.

And that made her understand a few things
about Trevor. "The popular girl, because she is popular, can date
whoever she wants," she told him firmly. "And if she wants to date
a transferee who works part-time as a waiter, she can do that
because she doesn't care what anyone else thinks. And our high
school isn't so cliquey that we'll get stoned to death if we date
outside our social circles. You've seen too many teen movies." She
smiled to take off any sting in her words and, just to be sure he
got her meaning clearly, she kissed him again.

The sound of a throat being cleared made them
pull apart from each other with guilty looks. An elderly woman
seated in front of them was giving them her most disapproving
glare. "You kids should be in school!" she scolded and then went
back to sitting as stiffly and primly as possible on her seat.

They both smothered their laughter and
behaved properly for the rest of the ride. They then got off the
bus near the Ballroom, and Aline thought the place just looked sad
in daylight without any of its night-time glamor when they walked
up to it. Trevor confirmed that the Ballroom was closed up and only
the employee whose job it was to look after the club during the day
was inside. "He was the one who found me wandering around the
basement earlier. I told him I must have fallen asleep and no one
had noticed that I was still inside when they locked down for the
night. He looked at me like he thought I must have been doing drugs
down there."

Aline frowned thoughtfully at the building.
"He'll probably be even more suspicious when you show up again and
ask him to let us poke around the place," she said. "And, besides,
I think the woods would be a better spot to search for any clues
since that's where you saw the silver trees. Help me walk around,
will you?"

"Of course." He came instantly to her side.
"Do your feet still hurt bad?"

"Right now, they're just kind of throbbing in
this dull, painful way. I'll manage, though. But I don't understand
why they're bleeding when the others' feet are just really sore,"
she complained.

"Maybe it's got to do with that leaf," he
suggested. "You said you got cut by it before you danced at the
Prince's ball the first time."

"But my palm is okay after I got cut by it
last night," she pointed out. "And your hand seems okay, too."

"Well, we're not dancing around on our hands
all night now, are we?" he said, which was a good point.

She let out an exasperated sigh and scowled.
"So that stupid Prince and his creepy pal Raven enchant the people
I know and hurt Gracelyn, plus they have probably ruined my feet
forever so I can never wear sandals again, and they’re gonna try
doing it all again tonight, and I have no idea how to stop them.
Oh, we have to find a way to stop them!"

"We will," Trevor promised. "Somehow."

With a desperate hope, they went into the
woods in search of some answers.

***

Chapter 10

"This was where I saw the silver trees,"
Trevor pointed to the spot. "And now that I look at it, I think
it's also the same place where I woke up after I chased who I
thought was you."

Aline stared down at the totally
unspectacular-looking patch of earth and grass. "You know, I was
kinda hoping there'd be more to see," she said honestly. "Maybe
some kind of sign that would lead to a clue that would take us
someplace where all answers are helpfully written down on a piece
of paper in Arial number 12 font. Something."

Trevor grinned at her weak joke. "Yeah, well,
life never is that easy," he commented. "Or maybe it's just because
we're here during the day. Maybe the whole magic thing just works
at night."