Chapter 1

Seven years later...

I look up at the dark somber sky, its two moons illuminate the realm. It's a vast, starless void and I believe the sky alone holds many secrets.

For one, the reason why the realm of the night has two moons instead of one. Klara told me it's because each moon represents a celestial being's presence in the realm.

The red moon represents the ruler of the afterlife who is said to be trapped somewhere in this realm due to injuries he sustained eons ago, but how true can the tale of the red moon be when it was practically passed through a grapevine.

The silver moon represents the moon goddess, the goddess of the night. Her moon is the brightest and is the only provider of light in this realm.

I look at my partner Orion who is watching the dream sea for a chance of any activity. I wish I could say that we have been waiting here all night, but this is the third jump we are about to make.

Orion has been my partner for seven years. We have never met in the realm of light nor do we have any idea what each other look like. That's because there is an enchantment in place so that whenever we appear in the realm of dreams we appear cloaked. I always appear in a red cloak and Ri appears in a green cloak. Half our faces are covered only our mouths are showing, but thanks to magic we can see through the top half of our cloaks.

The bridge beneath me is transparent and has vibrant colors flowing throughout it. The realm of the night has its demons but when you look past the bad you get to see how beautiful the place is.

Jumpers are more powerful here than they are in the light, that's because we were only given powers for the sole purpose of fighting off the night terrors.We can do magic in the realm of light but it won't be as strong as the magic we do here.

There is more to the dream realm than just the dream sea and the bridge, but we were advised not to explore because it's technically stepping into a den of lions when you leave the protection of the magical barrier that's keeping the night terrors out, and if the magical barrier wasn't enough there are also sentry's on each end of the bridge.

A loud explosion that resembles the sound of fireworks on the fourth of July gets my head to snap up. In the far distance, the dream sea is lighting up in bright orange sparks in one part indicating that a night terror is terrorizing some poor souls sleep. I watch as other jumpers prepare to jump off the bridge effortlessly as more parts of the sea begin to light up.

The dream sea is a portal to mortal dreams. It will always light up when there is a night terror invading dreams.

When night terrors attack they all attack at once. With this cunning tactic of theirs, they are bound to get at least one soul by bamboozling us.

Each encounter with a night terror increases my knowledge about them. The way they think and the way they hunt.

The elders still don't know how the night terrors keep getting into people's dreams and the night terrors are getting stronger each passing night. Before it could take only one jumper to kill a night terror. Now it takes two or sometimes a group depending on how strong the creature is.

"Are you ready Zel?" Ri asks and I look into the sea of dreams we're about to jump into.

"Yeah, this never gets less intimidating no matter how many times we do it." I couldn't begin to imagine the chaos that was down there. Every night there was something new in-store. 

We have to consider each jump we make because there is a human soul involved that needs saving. It will always be an intimidating job because we are responsible for the destiny of someone else's soul. One wrong move and an innocent soul taken.

"Well let's go." I watch as Orion jumps off the bridge, doing a backflip in the air as he went down and disappeared through the orange smoke.

I close my eyes and I jump off the bridge allowing myself to fall. The fall doesn't last long and always leaves that tingling sensation under my feet. When I open my eyes I'm surrounded by forestry. When I look further into the area I notice we standing in a bed of water. Dreams are not always logical. Some things in a dream don't make sense. It looks like reality but warped and unpredictable. Dreamers have no control over their subconscious, but that's not important. Our only focus is to find the night terror and kill it. 

"What in the realm." Ri looks around in awe. 

Suddenly we hear panting, and the sound footsteps hitting the puddles of water on the ground hard. A boy shoves past me as he runs looking over his shoulder.

"Hey wait!" I yell after him, but he ignores me and continues running. His feet hitting the water puddles on the ground loudly and causing the sound to echo throughout the forest. 

When I turn in the direction he came from my eyes widen when I see the creature he is running away from. Red hair, red nose, a colorful onesie, and big teeth that I can see clearly as he smiles menacingly. 

It's a clown.

"It's a demon clown!" Orion states and I can picture a look of probable terror on his face. "I don't like clowns."

I shake my head in disbelief. "After everything that we've seen. You afraid of clowns?"

"They creepy okay anyway let's just kill it and be done with." When we kill a night terror it turns back into its true form as it burns. Though they turn into some terrifying things, their true forms are nothing compared. Their bodies are like that of red flesh. It's as if they have no skin. Their eyes are black orbs of nothingness. That if you stare into them for too long they are bound to turn into a reflection of your worst fears, and to top of their gruesome look, they have two horns that curl outwards.

There are three rules in this realm. 

First rule: Always kill the night terror or else they will come back until they get the soul of their victim.

Second rule: Do not show other jumpers your true form. (Hence the enchantment of cloaks)

Third rule: Try not to die because if a night terror consumes a Jumper's soul it becomes an even bigger problem than it already is because night terrors absorb souls, so they will absorb a jumpers magic as well.

I watch as the boy continues running but the clown appears in front of him cutting him off." Get, get away from me," the boy shrieks. The fear is evident in his voice and he runs back towards Orion and me. He hides behind us as he cowers in fear.

"Leave him alone," I call in a tone of authority after the demon and its head snaps in my direction so fast that I hear the bones in its neck sickeningly crack.

Orion blocks out the teenage boy's mind for a moment so he won't remember seeing us in his dream when he wakes up. The clown rushes towards me, showing me it's not so pearly white teeth in the process. I move my hands up and down and the imprint of the moon on my palm begins to glow. I push my palm out toward the creature saying the incantation to kill it.

"Ayrel lè cremar," I mercilessly scream at it and it lets out an ear-splitting shriek as my magic impacts it.

The creature lights up in front of me in a blue flame. I have to destroy it so it doesn't come back for the boy tomorrow night, but the fear the boy has for this creature is what's making the demon stronger.

"Orion," I call out and he raises his hands in front of the thing "Cremar," he yells and the flame is now turning purple that he is adding his magic. The monster is now on its knees. I stand firmly on my feet and summon all the power I can.

"Go to hell," I yell. The creature lets out one more blood-curdling shriek before it can explode into ashes.

I turn to the cowering boy behind me and crouch beside him. "Repeat after me," I say and the boy looks up at me and nods. "This is all a dream."

"This is all a dream?" The boy repeats hesitantly as a look of realization washes over his facial features and he disappears.

He has probably woken up by now promising himself never to go near a clown again. The surroundings of the boy's dream start to fade and Ri and I are immediately transported back to the realm bridge.

"That was disturbing," I say and Ri nods.

"Good timing too because it's time we return to the light." Ri's form begins to emit light and I feel it too.

We return to the light whenever the sun rises in the place our body is kept. How we know when to return is on instinct. We can sense our bodies pulling us back. It's like some kind of internal clock.

I let my consciousness fade out of this reality and back to the realm of light. The realm of obvious reality.

    .............in Between Realms...............

I jerk up out of my bed clutching my head as I stand to my feet stretching my hands and legs before I walk into the bathroom to take a shower. The shower soothes the war of thoughts causing my head to throb. My bones feel stiff and the hot water helps with loosening them as well.

After the shower, I throw on a grey hoody and track pants followed by a pair of black gloves to hide the imprints on my palm. I have tried enchantments to hide the imprints but none work on it so I use the gloves and tell people I'm a 'germaphobe'. Of course, I get weird stares for it, but I also think I get the weird stares for my silver hair and greyish-blue eyes.

I look around my room for my school bag and I realize that I left it in the kitchen again and dash down the stairs maybe my aunt hasn't seen it yet. If she sees it she will know I didn't do my homework again.

"Zelenia," my aunt says my name sternly. I turn around reluctantly to face her and I see that she is standing at the threshold of the kitchen. 

"Good morning Klara," I greet sweetly with a smile on my face as I swing the bag over my shoulder. She keeps her gaze fixed on me ignoring her blonde hair that's falling on her face.

My mother left ten years ago and no one knows where she is. Well if you listen to some people's theories in this sick town some say she ran away and some say worse. My father soon remarried after her disappearance and dumped me off on Klara's doorstep when I and his darling wife in his words kept 'locking horns'.

"You entered the dream realm at six pm is your homework for school complete?" she questions.

"Yes, yes it's done." I lie and she narrows her eyes in on me.

"Well if I get another call from Principal Burke saying you behind on homework. Then that's it no more jumping. You will wear the emerald moonstone."

"Great another stone around my neck I already wear the yellow one which limits my powers during the day and the red one which weakens my powers in the dream realm so Skeletor can't find me," I huff.

The necklace around my neck is made of silver. It's a design of the sun in the middle of two moons. The pendants have circular indents in them to hold the stones. My aunt told me a terrifying story, when I was eleven years old I got my powers. That was the first night I thought I experienced a dream. I've never had a dream before. Jumpers don't dream. But that night Klara told me I saw Rizor and that he was going to come after me because I was powerful. I couldn't remove the necklace even if I wanted to. There is an enchantment around it.

"Zel, I know you feel like you're fighting with one hand behind your back by wearing these stones, but this is what's best until Rizor is found," she says and I cover my ears mockingly.

"Don't speak his name."

"Zel, he is not Voldemort", she laughs and I still keep my hands on my ears even though I can hear her. Everyone has their fears. Even Jumpers. Mine happens to be the tormentor of souls. The God of death. I felt like I had a very big target on my back at times, but it's been seven years and as long as the necklace remains around my neck. He can't find me.

Klara gives me one last smile before she walks out of the kitchen. I put my lunch in my bag and decide to leave for school. 

"Zelenia," I hear a voice call.

"Klara," I call and she doesn't respond.

I walk around the house and stop by the stairs to the basement door. It's as if by instinct I take a step forward. The voice was barely a whisper but I heard it clearly as if someone screamed my name from the top of a mountain.

"Zel you going to be late for school." Before I can take a step down the first stair Klara calls.

For as long as I've lived with Klara, I have never been down into the basement. I can't help but wonder what's down there. She got like twelve locks on the door. I couldn't help the ridiculous theories of what she could possibly be hiding. A dead body, a secret organization, or maybe I was just crazy for obsessing over a closed door.

"Be home early. No shenanigans," Klara warns, walking back down the stairs.

"Define shenanigans," I smile and make my way to the front door. 

"Zel," she warns.

I place my bag on my shoulders and head out the front door. Where we live is convenient for me to get to and from school. The cold air is brisk against my face and I put in one earplug to listen to some music as I walk to school. "Hey, hey get off my lawn," Mr. Jagger screams at me from his porch as I walk by.

"How you doing Mr. Jagger," I yell back and the elderly man barely hears me.

"I'm reading the paper," he yells.

"No that's not what I asked." I shake my head and he looks confused. "Okay nevermind," I say and shake the smile off my face, and continue my walk to school.

The sign 'Welcome to North Haven High' sits atop the school building and if you squint and close one eye I swear it reads 'welcome to hell' instead. I walk into school and everybody is in their own social bubble, the sound of teenagers laughing and talking fills the hallways.

I see my best friend Morgan grabbing books from her locker and walk towards her. Morgan has light brown hair and dark brown eyes. She is wearing a plaid brown skirt with white leggings, she has a white long sleeve shirt inside her brown sweater vest.

"Well don't you look lively." Morgan smiles while taking in my grey mood that matches my apparel.

"Sarcasm noted Morg," I smirk as she continues to rummage through her locker. She is always trying to get me to put effort into my dressing but I just won't give in. I'm not going to spend hours in front of a mirror every morning to look good for a place that I don't even want to be in. 

"So you canceled on me to hang out and work on the biology paper together," she mentions before grabbing a textbook from her locker.

"Um, well..." I say rubbing the back of my neck. Trying to search my brain for an appropriate reason. "I didn't even complete that paper."

"Zel," she sighs in exhaustion.

Morgan is miss goody two shoes. We met in sixth grade and have been inseparable since then. You would think that her goodness would rub off on me and vice versa but no we influence each other in no such way. Morgan doesn't know about what I am, and I don't intend on telling her for various reasons.

"Get out of my way," I hear the beast of North Haven High, aka Madison Lemming's demand from down the hall. She pushes a kid into an open locker and I clench my fists.

Madison and the two jesters that follow closely behind her as they rampage through the school halls doing their rounds of making everybody's morning miserable is a daily thing. They were really the 'mean girls' of this school with their miniskirts and tight clothing that fit them like a second skin.

If I remember correctly a bus hit one of the mean girls...

"Watch where you going dork," she says shoulder checking me as she walks past. She flips her blonde hair in my face and I resist the urge to rip the hair off her scalp.

Madison is a bully to put it in laments terms but I am not afraid of her and I didn't even pretend to be. I'm not Peter Parker or Clark Kent to back out of a fight just because I have abilities.

"Hey, Madison maybe if you pulled your head up out of your....

"Miss. Erickson," I hear Mrs. Park scold which prevents me from completing my sentence. I turn around to come face to face with a teacher. 

"What, I was going to say hat, Mrs. Park," I try to cover up, but by that look on her face I know she doesn't believe a word I'm saying.

"Besides don't 'Miss. Erickson' me Mr's Park. This she-beast started it," I say adjusting my bag back onto my shoulder.

"She beast," she scoffs. "You the freak that comes to school with gloves on," Madison insults but fails dismally.

"Oh, sick burn I'm a freak because I wear gloves," I laugh dryly.

If I had to choose between the company of Madison and a night terror I would choose the night terror, it's not as annoying as Madison and eventually, I would just burn the night terror. I have this urge to punch her in her made-up face but if I do I will be in a world of trouble plus I'm afraid my glove will get dirty because of all that makeup she is wearing so I refrain myself.

"That's it both of you detention after school," Park says and walks off. By now a crowd of students has gathered to watch the Zel and Madison show.

"Mrs. Park but I did nothing wrong," I whine but it falls on deaf ears because she has already started to turn and walk away.

Just great.

"Nice going freak," Madison growls before walking off. Like it's my fault. "Don't you losers have anything better to do", she barks at the curious onlookers.

Great, Klara is going to kill me when she finds out I was in detention again thanks to Malibu Barbie.

Morgan and I walk into Miss Delores's biology class and put my head down. I owe her a paper on the brain and its functions. I silently pray to the goddess that Delores doesn't look up from her desk and notice me as I try to sneak to the back of the classroom.

"Miss. Erickson," she says in that high squealing, eardrum-busting voice stopping me in my tracks. Morgan sighs and gives me that why do you do this kind of look and I shrug. 

Just freaking great!

"Um, yes Miss." I smile innocently and she raises a suspecting eyebrow at me.

"My paper," she demands and her voice gets all high and screechy again. I smile sheepishly at her." Well you know what that means then", she says pointing to the classroom door.

"Alright I'm going," I groan walking out the classroom door and to the principal's office. I have managed to stay out of the principal's office for the entire week I knew that my good streak was going to end soon.

I walk up to the principal's office and pop my head into the door to see the receptionist sitting at her desk. She glances my way and smiles immediately when she sees me. I let out a breath of exhaustion and just decide to walk into the cold office.

"How are you, Shelly?" I ask, making small talk as I walk up to her desk and she smiles warmly at me. The receptionist is in her late fifties. She is friendly compared to most of the staff here.

"Oh, I'm making it one day at a time," she says looking up at me and she always has that sparkle in her eye. "The thought of retirement and a hammock by the beach is what's keeping me going," she smiles letting out a bit of hysterical laughter and I can't help but smile along with her.

Just then the office door bursts open and in comes my other best friend with the principal hot on his trail. "Defacing school property is a serious offense," Principal Burke says to him.

"I was expressing myself," Jason tries to defend himself but that smirk on his face is not helping his situation.

Principal Burke sees me standing at the reception desk and he runs a hand over his face. If I had to describe Mr. Burke's I would say he looks like a penguin. He is round and short, he has a long pointy nose and he is wearing a black suit.

"Great two of the school's best students in my office again," Burke sarcastically remarks and walks into his main office. Jason eyes me and when Principal Burke is out of sight and we both burst out into laughter.

"Hey trouble maker," Jason smiles down at me.

"What did you do now Jace?" I ask.

"Absolutely nothing," he says with an innocent smile and I raise my eyebrow at him. "Okay I didn't even get a chance to do anything he caught me as soon as the spray paint touched the wall," he whispers.

"Right let's deal with you first Erickson," Burke says from behind me.

Jace lets out a low whistle. "Good luck," he mouths, and I turn to walk into Burke's office.

I walk in to see Burke already sitting at his desk. I sit down on the comfortable armchair in front of him and he strokes his chin thoughtfully as he stares at me. He is probably deciding on what kind of punishment to inflict on me.

"You know, you could be so much more Zelenia," he starts and I sink into my chair for I have heard this speech over a million times by now 'that you could be president if you put your mind to it' speech.

"You not a bad student you a C average student and you don't even try so imagine if you did try."

"Sir I will get the paper to Miss Delores on Monday morning."

"It's not just about the paper it's your entire attitude," he goes further and lets out a frustrated breath. "I see the way you walk around these halls and it's clear you don't want to be here."

"You know what sir with all due respect you don't know a thing about me and if we are done here I have another class to get to," I say waking up from my seat. I didn't want to have a discussion with the principal on just how much I didn't want to be here and if it wasn't required by law I wouldn't. 

"I know a lot more than you think I know Miss Erickson. I know that you need help, therapy even. I know that when your mother left..." he says and he did it. He managed to strike that one nerve. At the mention of my mother, my fist hits the table and I feel the imprint of the moon on my palm glow beneath my glove. It burns and if I don't control my temper my glove will disintegrate.

"Please don't say another word," I couldn't help but warn him, and then when I see the shocked expression on his face I back down reminding myself that I couldn't lose control and set an entire room on fire. 

"I'm sorry if I struck a nerve Zelenia but at least consider the therapy," he suggests and I nod my head as I stand up to walk out the door. 

Stupid penguin man, he doesn't know me or understand me, none of them do or ever will.

At the end of the day, I walk into detention and Malibu Barbie is already sitting at the desk in the front filing her nails. When she sees me she sticks her foot out in an attempt to trip me. I stop in front of her with a smirk on my face.

"You going to have to try harder than that Barbie," I say stepping over her outstretched leg and she scoffs at me and goes back to filing her claws.

"Freak," she calls.

"Dementor," I spit back and there is truth in my insult because encountering her is like having your soul sucked out of your body.

I sit in the back next to Jason who has his sneakers up on the desk with a book in his hand.

"Sup," he looks up at me.

"Hey," I say taking the seat next to him and Mr's. Park walks into the class.

"No talking." Her voice is stern and I roll my eyes. There is always that one teacher that's as grumpy as a bag of hungry gremlins and no one will ever know why they are so grumpy.

I pull out a book from my bag and decide that I rather start that biology paper if I'm going to be stuck here for an hour. Time goes by faster than expected and before I know it Jason and I are walking out of the school side by side.

"You want a ride home?" Jace asks and I glance at his motorcycle.

"No thanks, I'm good."

"See you Monday then," he shouts back as he walks to his motorcycle.

"Like I have a choice," I yell and he turns back and smiles.

I prefer the walk it helps me think. When I arrive home I walk into the front door to see my aunt is waiting in the lounge with her arms crossed and a disappointed look on her face. I pull my hoody over my head and I walk towards her ready to face her wrath.

"I take it you already got a call from Principal Burke," I note and she takes a step forward in the process stretching out her hand and opening her fist revealing the emerald moonstone. The stone starts to levitate hovering just above her palm. It floats towards me and attaches itself to my necklace.

"I'm sorry Zel but maybe not entering the realm for a few days will be good for you." My aunt never liked to inflict any sort of punishment on me. She is more my best friend than aunt at times but she takes it seriously when I disobey her or lack in school. 

I don't say anything because it's my fault. I should have completed that essay, but I forgot. Schoolwork always came last because I was more interested in the realm of dreams. I turn to walk out of the room but she calls after me. "Zel, there is so much for you to see and experience in this reality. Don't give it up for the realm of the night." I nod I can't say that I'm not the tiniest bit frustrated that I won't be entering the realm tonight.