Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ The Final Chance ❯ Chapter Three: Visions, or Memories? ( Chapter 4 )

Disclaimer: Bah.

 

Chapter Three: Visions, or Memories?

 

At just a glance, the ceiling seemed to be made of simple white stucco, plain and uninteresting. However, upon further inspection, one would notice that the ceiling was not actually white, but off white, and that the stucco was made of thousands of little bumps, spread randomly and erratically about the surface.

 

Ryleigh noticed all of this as she lay sprawled on her bed, hands tucked under her head. In short, she was bored. Tuesday was when she had no classes, but since all of her friends did have to attend class, she had nothing to do. Ryleigh refused to let her mind focus on what had happened the day before; seeing the strange image in the shop window. She needed something to distract her, but so far, she'd yet to find anything that could do so sufficiently.

 

However, boredom led to thinking, and thinking was considered a bad thing at the moment. If she thought, her mind would wander, and if her mind wandered, it would stray from the safe subjects and she would end up trying to figure what had occurred the day before and… she just didn't want to think about that.

 

Ryleigh had never been one to believe in magic. Though she'd dabbled with tarot cards and Ouija boards when she was a teenager, she'd always been fairly realistic when it came to abnormalities and had normally been able to come up with a logical answer to anything that had happened. However, even her highly imaginative mind couldn't figure out a reason behind what had occurred the day before; she supposed that her eyes had probably just played a trick on her in the bright afternoon sunlight, and settled with that.

 

Managing to sit up, Ryleigh began tapping her newly painted electric blue nails on her bedside stand, resting her chin on her right hand. She needed something to do; if she sat here even ten minutes more, she would go insane. Ryleigh glanced at her laptop, then shook her head; there was no point to browsing the internet, she'd already caught up on all her web comics and no one would be on msn for another few hours at least. Blowing a strand of her hair from her miss-matched eyes, she glanced at the mirror across from her, scrutinizing her appearance.

 

Staring into her own eyes, Ryleigh wrinkled her nose slightly. She'd gotten so many comments over the years that she had `ripped off' Yuna's eye colours from the video game Final Fantasy Ten, that Ryleigh had at one point almost gotten a green contact to make her eyes look normal. This had been shot down by Nathaniel, her `brother' insisting that her duel eye colours simply made her unique, and that she had claimed rights to them long before the video game had been created.

 

Satisfied with her eyes, Ryleigh's gaze moved to her hair. She would never understand how she had managed to be born with platinum streaks spread evenly throughout her honey blonde mane, the two colours blending rather then clashing. She'd had to quit going to salons not long after her eleventh birthday; the hairdressers always wanted to try and dye out the streaks, insisting that she would look lovely with a solid hair colour. These were the women who had also insisted that she should leave her hair grow, and, under her mother's orders, had never trimmed it more then a centimeter per visit.

 

She'd sure shown her mother when, pissed off from another visit to the so called `hair salon', the eleven year old had grabbed the nearest pair of scissors she could find and chopped her hair back to her ears. Sure, she'd been grounded for a week (as if that did anything), but her mother had never dared take her back to a salon, and Ryleigh had happily kept her hair at shoulder length from then on.

 

Ryleigh sighed and stood, walking slowly to her bedroom door. She paused and gently bonked her head against the wooden surface twice, then let her forehead rest against it.

 

Think Ryleigh; there must be something I can do! Ryleigh paused, glancing at the clock on her night stand; 3:00 PM.

 

“Bah, Nathaniel and Kaelyn are still at water colour class…” sighing, Ryleigh suddenly stood straight, a grin spreading across her lips like wild fire, “I'll go spy on them!”

 

Happy with this thought, Ryleigh skipped out of the room and, after grabbing her ever faithful carrier and keys, locked her apartment's door and skipped down the hallway. Racing down the stairs since she didn't trust the elevator, Ryleigh headed down the street and towards the campus grounds, humming to herself the entire time. She'd just gotten within sight of the large building when her stomach growled, reminding her that she had yet to eat anything since then night beforehand.

 

Groaning, Ryleigh glanced around, eyes lighting up when she spotted the Tim Hortens. Rushing inside, she was glad to see there wasn't a line up and immediately ordered an ice cap, grabbing it and dumping the money onto the counter before heading back outside. Glancing at her watch, Ryleigh realized that there was still over an hour left to her friends' class, and decided to find a shady place to sit down and drink her ice cap.

 

Taking a swig of the cold substance, Ryleigh glanced around, duel coloured eyes locking onto a nearby tree. There were three people sat under it, but Ryleigh moved towards it anyways, figuring they wouldn't mind if she joined them. The group consisted of two girls and one guy.

 

The first girl, who was reading a book, had long brown hair tied back and magenta eyes; she wore a white dress shirt and grayish pants with high heals. The male, who was a good deal larger in build then both the girls, had striking lavender hair and violet eyes, and wore all black. The second girl had deep red hair and blue eyes, and she sat quietly, eating a donut while talking quietly with the others.

 

“Mind if I sit with you guys?” the three looked up when Ryleigh approached, nodding silently as the blonde sat down and glanced around at the three of them. Her gaze settled on the brown haired girl, and she tossed her a lop-sided grin.

 

“Thanks, it's a scorcher out here; I'm Ryleigh,” the girl cracked a small grin, nodding to her companions.

 

“This is Angelika and Jared,” the two nodded to Ryleigh, “and I'm Rica,” the girl held her hand out to shake.

 

Ryleigh reached forward, grasping her hand and gasping when her vision went suddenly black. A form with black hair and red eyes briefly replaced Rica's form before the vision cleared, leaving Ryleigh to blink stupidly at a confused Rica.

 

“You alright Ryleigh?” the blonde nodded, standing as quickly as she was able, her ice cap forgotten on the ground beside her.

 

“I-I'm fine!” she faked a laugh, flashing what she hoped was a convincing smile at the group, ignoring the three's questioning looks as she hurried off in the direction of the campus, practically running in her haste to get away.

 

What was that?! She wondered frantically, the image passing by her eyes once more, why am I suddenly seeing all these images?! Usually it's only dreams and visions when I'm painting, so what's going on?!

 

Panting once she had reached the campus, Ryleigh moved around the corner of the main building then jumped back, pressing herself against the wall. It seemed that the water colour class was being conducted in the court yard that day, and Ryleigh hoped that no one had seen her before she'd been able to jump back.

 

Quietly creeping along the wall, Ryleigh ducked and scrambled behind the nearby bushes, sneaking along behind them until she was to the rear of the group of students. Peaking out, she got down on all fours and managed to crawl stealthily under the majority of the brush, coming out in a small area just behind the two bushes planted directly behind Kaelyn and Nathaniel.

 

Perfect place to spy; wonder if Nathan's pulled anything yet- wait, is that…? Ryleigh had to clamp her hands over her mouth to keep herself from bursting out laughing when, having turned his head to glance at Kaelyn, a large red mark was revealed on Nathaniel's cheek, I knew it! Hah, you deserved it Nathaniel! Finally a girl doesn't give in to him immediately! She cheered silently, liking Kaelyn more and more. Nathaniel tended to be able to swipe girls off their feet with a single look, and before Kaelyn, only Kayley had ever been able to resist him (Ryleigh was safe because they had always been like siblings).

 

“Hey, Kaelyn…?” Ryleigh quieted herself and listened intently when Nathaniel spoke.

Kaelyn glanced at Nathaniel, just setting her brushes down, “Yah, what?”

 

Nathaniel looked at her painting first, then turned a charming smile on the blunette, “You're a very good artist.”

 

Kaelyn flushed slightly, “Thank you, you're good to.”

 

No! Don't fall for him so quickly Kaelyyyyyyyn! Ryleigh shouted mentally, biting her bottom lip. She loved Nathaniel like a brother, really, but she didn't like seeing girls fall head over heals for him in less then a month.

 

“What is this a scene of?” Ryleigh snapped out of her thoughts, listening once more.

 

Kaelyn smiled fondly at her work, running a hand over the now dry paper “It's a scene that's always been in the back of my mind, but I couldn't paint it until now…”

 

Ryleigh stared at the painting, awed by how talented Kaelyn was with water colours. While she was good with acrylic paints, Ryleigh had never been able to paint something so well with watercolors.

 

It was spring in the painting; the sky blue and filled with white, fluffy clouds. An ebony mare with golden eyes galloped through a field of grass, a ruby adorned crown gracing the horse's brow. Its rider was an ebony haired female with emerald eyes and pointed ears, fangs peaking out over her smiling lips as her hair flew out behind her. Her clothing was that of a medieval general, but she seemed as free as the wind itself.

 

Ryleigh crawled slightly forwards unknowingly, staring at the woman in the painting. She seemed eerily familiar, as though she'd seen her somewhere before…

 

“It's beautiful,” Nathaniel breathed earnestly, neither he nor Kaelyn noticing the dazed Ryleigh maybe a foot behind them, “Very life like.”

 

Kaelyn beamed, then lifted an eyebrow at him. “What about you? You've been hiding your painting all day, so come on, let me see!”

 

Nathaniel sighed dramatically, then, grinning, he turned the painting so she could see, Kaelyn gasping in surprise.

 

“Nathaniel, this… this is…” she murmured, running her hand over the picture.

 

“What you said, about the scene being in the back of your mind,” Nathaniel paused, glancing at her, “this is the scene that was lurking in mine.”

 

Nathaniel's painting was based in a lush green forest, containing the same calm atmosphere that Kaelyn's did. In his, however, a large female dragon with mixed yellow and blue scales lay on the forest floor, eyes closed in peace. Her tail was curled protectively around a male elf, his long blonde hair pulled back in a high ponytail and his closed lids obscuring the colour of his eyes from the world. Like the woman in Kaelyn's painting, the elf wore medieval looking armor, but his was in blues rather then red and gold.

 

Ryleigh crawled a bit closer; her eye's dimming by the second. The neko-jin, the elf, the horse, the dragon… they all just seemed so familiar… almost like she knew them from somewhere… sometime… someplace…

 

Ryleigh was vaguely aware of Kaelyn and Nathaniel's surprised and worried shouts as she fell onto the grass, her eyes both green and blank as she slipped into unconsciousness…

 

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`Where…where am I?' Ryleigh glanced around the green field, her hair blowing around her face in the cool wind, `Another dream? But I'm not asleep… am I?'

 

Hearing laughter nearby, Ryleigh spun, eyes locking onto the two forms sitting nearby. Her eyes widened when she saw who it was.

 

The neko-jin and elf from Kaelyn and Nathaniel's paintings sat together, enjoying a picnic lunch. The elf's arm was around the neko-jin's shoulders, holding her tightly against his chest, his head resting on top of hers. The female sighed in content, her hand resting on her swollen belly; even from where she was standing, Ryleigh could tell she was pregnant.

 

`Wait… I have seen these two before! They're the ones I saw when I was painting yesterday -!' she realized with a gasp, eyes widening, `But… how far ahead in the future am I? This couldn't possibly have happened right after-!'

 

Ryleigh froze when the two turned to her, both suddenly turning serious.

 

“Ryleigh Owen… you must remember…” the female spoke, the scene around them starting to turn to black.

 

“If you don't, your final chance will be lost…” the elf added before they faded away into the dark, leaving Ryleigh reaching out in vain.

 

“Wait! What am I supposed to remember?!” she called frantically, running forwards to try and find the two. Suddenly, the floor under her feet suddenly gave way, and Ryleigh screamed as she fell into nothingness…

 

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 

“Ryleigh! Oh thank god, Nathaniel she's awake!” Ryleigh grimaced when sunlight suddenly struck her directly in the eyes, blinking rapidly to try and regain her vision. The first thing she noticed was a worried looking Kaelyn leaning over her, soon joined by an equally anxious looking Nathaniel.

 

“What happened?” she groaned, sitting up with their help.

 

“We don't know,” Nathaniel replied, “One second we're sitting here talking, the next you've seemingly fallen out of nowhere and passed out with your eyes wide open!”

 

“My eyes… were open?” she questioned in surprise, looking down at the ground when Kaelyn continued.

 

“And… your eyes were both green Ryleigh… your left eye only turned blue again when you woke up just now…hey!” Kaelyn squeaked when Ryleigh stood suddenly, her eyes covered by her hair as she turned and staggered off a bit.

 

“Ryleigh, what do you think you're doing?!” Nathaniel shouted, standing to go after his `sister'.

 

“I'm fine!” she called back, keeping her voice steady, “I've probably just had too much sun today. I-I'll be fine, I've just gotta take a break in the shade for a while… I'll be fine!” before either could reply, Ryleigh took off at a run, turning around the corner and heading towards the campus library.

 

Reaching the white marble building, Ryleigh sighed with relief when she stepped into the shade, but froze with a gasp when a sudden electric tingle ran down her spine. She shivered, feeling her heart suddenly double its pace and her cheeks flush brilliant red, her legs shaking ever so slightly as the electric tingle continued to run up and down her spine, reaching from the tips of her fingers to the ends of her toes.

 

Heat began to pool in her belly and cover her face, and Ryleigh shuddered again, breathing hard.

 

W-what's going on?! Ryleigh panted slightly, eyes darting around for the source of the strange feelings, I can't take this… I've gotta get home… Rushing back down the steps and towards the safety of her apartment, Ryleigh never noticed the red haired male standing just around the corner of the building, breathing as heavily as she had been and shaking in exactly the same way.

 

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Woooooo long chapter! But then, a lot happens in this one, so no wonder it's so long! *sweatdrop* Anyways, the plots beginning to thicken a bit. What is it that Ryleigh's supposed to remember? Why is she suddenly beginning to get these weird visions? And who's the guy?! Keep reading to find out!

PS: Many thanks to the lovely Silver, who beta'd this for my in the place of my normal beta Snowy, who has seemingly disappeared for the time being. I owe you one Silver! *glomps*

 

Amariahellcat