Kara was in her early 20’s with light brown hair that went just past her shoulders. She had light brown eyes that matched her hair. Her dark blue dress, with white lace on the ends of the sleeves and on the bottom of the dress, fluttered in the breeze.
She heard someone coming.
"I hope it is Sebastian," she thought with longing.
A man walked through the trees.
"It is him!"
Sebastian was tall with blond hair and red highlights, which went down to his jaw. He had light blue eyes. He wore a dark red shirt tucked into dark brown, knee-length trousers, with his sword by his side. Kara ran up to him.
The stranger, still behind trees, watched the two of them, disgusted.
"So, what is the big surprise?"
"Just wait a minute. Come over here." He led her over to a tree stump. "Sit here."
She sat down and patiently waited for him to speak, pondering what it was that he was about to tell her.
"Now, you know that I have loved you for the longest time, and…and I want to make our love complete." He got down onto one knee. "Will you marry me?"
Kara was speechless. Thoughts were spinning through her head.
" Of course I will!" She jumped up and hugged him. She loosened her hug. "But what about my father?"
"I’ve already asked him, and he said yes!"
Kara hugged Sebastian even harder and he spun her around, the two of them laughing. The stranger was getting angrier by the minute.
All of the sudden Sebastian loosened his grasp on Kara.
"Oh no."
"What is it, Sebastian?"
"I forgot to do something for my father. Will you be alright walking home by yourself?"
She smiled at him. "With the thought of us getting married I will."
"All right. Goodbye, my love."
"Goodbye."
Kara waved to him as he left. She smiled and started to walk home. She was happy about her recent engagement. The stranger walked out of the trees, surprising her.
"Oh, Brenna. You scared me."
Brenna was a mystery. She had waist length blond hair and had wild green eyes. She wore a dress much like Kara’s, except that it was blood red. Not many people liked Brenna, but Kara considered her to be a friend.
"I heard you’re getting married to Sebastian."
Kara was caught off guard. "You did? Isn’t it great?"
"No," Brenna said with such disgust and anger.
"W…what do you mean?" Kara was surprised. Why was her friend saying these things?
Brenna started to get really angry. "Sebastian is supposed to be with me. We are perfect for each other. You are just in the way."
"What are you talking about?"
"You think you’re so innocent," she looked at Kara slyly. "Well, not anymore."
Kara saw Brenna differently. She couldn’t understand way her friend was acting this way, so crazy.
Brenna was smiling. "You are out of the picture." She started to chant. "Donovan, Master Donovan, grant me this wish. Make this being hate the one she loves, so that in the sunlight she will want to hurt him. Grant this now through me!"
Brenna thrust her hands forward and a beam of light shot through her hands and hit Kara, making her fall backwards.
"It worked," Brenna whispered with both happiness and surprise.
"What did you do to me!" Kara screamed as she started to get up.
Brenna smiled. Kara didn’t understand what had just happened. Brenna ran out of the clearing, leaving Kara to lie on the ground.
Kara stood up. The sun shown in her face, and she had to look away. And then she felt different, and her appearance changed ever so slightly. Her normally light brown hair turned a dark blond, she got muscular, and her eyes burned with a blazing fire. And she felt hatred. Hatred for Sebastian.
Kara started to walk home, with dread and hatred in her heart, the sun at her back. She didn’t like the thoughts that were swirling through her head, but she couldn’t control them. She didn’t like feeling this way.
She walked into town. She looked around, not really sure what she was looking for.
Then she saw him. Sebastian saw her and smiled. But then his smile faded when he saw that she looked different. All of the sudden she wanted to kill him. She ran to him and started to choke him. He looked at her like she was crazy. She wanted to stop, but couldn’t. Townspeople saw her choking Sebastian, and pulled her away from him, into the shade.
"What is the matter with you!" someone shouted.
"I…I…I don’t know." And she didn’t.
Kara ran off, running to the clearing in the woods. The same clearing where Sebastian and she had talked earlier. When she got there she sat on a tree stump and cried. The day was turning to night. She heard someone coming and looked up. It was Sebastian.
"I’m sorry," she said with tears pouring down her face. "I don’t know what happened to me."
"It’s alright. I…"
"No, it’s not alright!" she cried out. "Something happened to me and I don’t know what it was! I didn’t like it!" she got quiet. "It scared me."
"But we can still be together." He walked a few steps closer to her.
"No we can’t! Whatever happened to me could happen again! And if it does, I won’t be able to live with myself."
"What are you saying," he asked with concern as he stepped forward a little more, about a foot from her.
Without hesitation Kara grabbed Sebastian’s sword from his belt and took it into both hands, pointing it at herself.
"What are you doing!?"
"I can’t live like this," she said, crying.
She plunged the sword into her chest, straight through her heart, gasping as she did so. She fell backwards, Sebastian catching her before she hit the ground.
"Why," Sebastian asked, confused.
"I…I love you." She collapsed in his arms, but she was not dead yet.
Brenna came running into the clearing. Seeing Kara in Sebastian’s arms, the sword in her chest, Brenna smiled. "You did this, Sebastian, my love?"
"No, and Your love? How could I be your love when I hardly know you." He paused. "You did something to her didn’t you."
"Maybe, She replied with glee in her voice.
Sebastian set Kara on the ground and stood up. "You are despicable," he said with hatred.
"But…"
Sebastian took the sword out of Kara’s chest. Still being conscious, she gasped at the pain. Sebastian held the sword in two hands as Kara had before.
"I shall join my love." He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, plunged the sword deep into his chest, and fell to the ground with a thud.
"Noooooo!" Brenna screamed. She kneeled down next to him, and held him, crying. She pulled herself together. "We will be together again, all of us, and things will work out in my favor then."
She stood up, took the sword out of Sebastian’s chest, threw it into her own, and collapsed on the ground.
Kara started to grow weaker and weaker. Everything was going black. She started to choke. She gasped for air…
___________
Kate woke up gasping.
She looked at her surroundings. She was in her bedroom. She calmed down and sighed.
"The same dream." She had had the dream continuously for the past month. Yet this time it felt different, as if it were more than a dream.
Kate was almost exactly Kara, the girl from her dream. Kate also had light brown hair, down to her shoulders, with light brown eyes to match. But unlike Kara, who was in her 20’s and had a fiancé, Kate is 17, and doesn’t have a boyfriend.
Her room was still dark. She got out of bed, put on a blue shirt and jeans, and ran downstairs. She looked at her watch. She still had an hour before she had to go to school.
Kate went into the study and turned on the computer. She looked at the date on the computer. October 15, 1994. Her dream had taken place 300 years ago. She logged onto the Internet and began a search. She looked up 1694 and deaths in Salem, and was shocked at what she found…
1694, three deaths in a local clearing, one male and two females, all in their early 20’s. Not much is know except that the male and one of the females were engaged, and that it was most likely a suicide…
Kate couldn’t believe it. It was describing her dream almost exactly. She had to tell her friends before school started. She looked at the clock. The bus would arrive any minute. She grabbed her purse, put on her spring jacket, and ran out the door.
As Kate walked up to the bus stop the bus pulled up. She went to her usual seat near the back, without noticing anything. Everything felt normal. People were talking and laughing.
Then the sun shined through the window and hit her back, and she felt strange, kind of like how she had felt in her dream, when she had hated Sebastian. The bus turned and the sun glided of her. Kate looked around the bus, not knowing exactly why, and as she looked behind her she gasped. A boy with short blond hair with red highlights, and light blue eyes. She knew his name was Alexander, but he looked almost exactly like Sebastian.
Kate quickly turned forward in her seat. She didn’t know what to do. She knew if the sun hit her again that what happened in her dream might happen again. She knew it was a silly thought, but she didn’t know of anything else to explain it.
The bus turned, and the sun inched toward her. She got nervous. The sun touched her and her hair turned a dark blond, she got muscular, and her eyes once again burned with fire.
She stood up. She felt the anger flow through her body. She walked to were Alexander sat, all the while staying in the sun.
"What do you want," he asked.
She attacked. She started to choke him. The look on his face was of surprise and helplessness. She wanted to stop, but could not.
The bus driver stopped the bus. Alexander’s friends pulled Kara away from him, and pushed her to the ground, out of the sunlight.
She stood up. People were starring at her with shock and disbelief. Alexander, rubbing his neck, and his friends looked at her with anger. She was as shocked as the rest of them.
She ran off the bus and ran until she could run no more. She sat down on a tree stump and started to cry.
___________
"Man, that girl is crazy," Alexander said as he walked through the doorway of Anderson High School, while rubbing his neck. It still hurt from Kate choking him.
"What I don’t understand is, why you?" Danny chimed in. Danny was Alexander’s best friend, and he didn’t like Kate much. "I mean, you hardly know the girl. What would she have against you? That girl has to be nuts."
"I still can’t believe it happened." Alexander said wearily.
"You can’t believe what happened?" Leslie asked as she walked up to Alexander and his friends. She had shoulder length blond hair with green eyes. Leslie was Alexander’s girlfriend.
"Some freak choked him on the bus this morning," Riley answered.
"What! Are you ok? Who did it?"
"Yes, I’m fine." He hugged her. "It was Kate."
"Kate?" She looked confused. Then her eyes opened wide. "Could it be?" She whispered to herself. She shook her head and looked at Alexander. "I have to get to class, I’ll see you later, ok?"
"Alright." They hugged each other, and she went in the direction she came from.
"Your girlfriend’s acting kind of strangely," Danny noted.
"Nah, she just has a lot on her mind, I guess." Alexander replied. "Let’s get to class."
"Ok." They walked to their classes, Alexander rubbing his neck, still wondering why Kate had choked him.
___________
When she stopped crying, Kate looked at her surroundings, and gasped in shock. She was in a large clearing in the woods. She could hear the splashing of the river nearby. It was the same clearing from her dream!
She looked at her watch. It was 2:30! She had been there for six hours!
Kate heard someone walking through the trees, near the river. She walked closer to the river and hid behind a tree.
A man was sitting by the river. He looked up at the sky. It was Alexander.
Kate wanted to apologize for what happened on the bus, but she didn’t know how to explain why she did it, because she didn’t even know why she did it.
The sun shone through the trees, shining on Kate. She once again felt anger for Alexander. She ran through the trees up to Alexander and shoved him to the ground.
"What the…" he shouted with surprise.
Kate started to choke him again. She felt so much hatred for him, yet she did not know why.
The sun hid behind the clouds. Kate let go of him and stood up. She collapsed to her knees. Alexander got up and started to run away.
"Oh, Sebastian," she sighed with grief.
Alexander stopped in his tracks. He turned and looked at her. "What did you say?"
"What?" She looked at him, surprised.
"Did you just call me Sebastian?" He shook his head. "Man, that name sounds familiar."
"Yes, but…" Kate didn’t know why she had said that name. She suddenly remembered everything. "Do you remember!?"
"Remember what?" He looked at her, confused.
The sun was starting to come back out, but she needed to talk to him some more.
"Meet me behind the theater after 7 p.m. Leave. Now." He continued to look at her strangely. "GO!" she screamed at him.
Alexander didn’t think twice. He ran out of the woods. She now understood what was happening. Kate ran the opposite way. She had to see someone.
___________
Kate walked up to a big house. She rang the doorbell. Danny, Alexander’s friend, answered the door. He was tall, had thick black hair with black eyes to match. He looked at her with anger in his eyes.
"What do you want," he said with annoyance.
"I want to apologize."
"Wrong person," irritation in his voice.
"I know. It’s just I wanted to tell you why I did it." She paused. "You see, I had no control over myself.
"Yeah right."
"No. It’s true." She thought for a moment. "Let me tell you something." She took a deep breath. "300 years ago a man and a woman were in love. But this other women loved the man too. So she put a curse on the first woman so that she would hate the man she loved in the sunlight. And things ended in a tragedy. All three committed suicide, but not before the second woman cursed them all so they would relive this once again so things would end up her way."
"So, what is your point."
"My point is that it really happened. The first girl is me and the boy is Alexander."
"Yeah, and who is the other girl?"
"I don’t know." She hadn’t thought of that.
Danny shook his head "And why should I believe you?"
"But you have to! It is as real as life it self."
Danny looked at her with a slight fear in his eyes. "Sure, and what do you want me to do?"
"Tell Alexander what I said."
Kate ran from Danny’s house. It was 3 o’clock. She had four hours left before she could see Alexander again.
___________
6:58 p.m. It was dark outside, except for the few streetlights in the distance. The sun was no longer out. Kate had wanted it that way. Now she could talk to Alexander without having to worry about the curse. She walked up to the movie theater. She hoped he would be there. She could not stand to wait another minute.
She walked behind the theater, and stopped in her tracks. Alexander was there, but so were his four friends. And they looked angry.
"What’s going on here," Kate asked.
"Why don’t you tell us," Danny replied.
"What?" She was shocked.
"Why don’t you tell us why you asked our friend to come here, after what you did to him on the bus," another one of his friends said.
"I told Danny why, " she stumbled out.
"You mean that story? Please that is a bunch of crap."
"It is not!" She couldn’t believe that they would not believe her.
They heard someone coming. Leslie appeared from around the corner. "Leslie, what are you doing here?" asked Alexander
"Brenna!" Kate shouted. It was Brenna from her dream!
"You remember. Interesting." Leslie had a sly look on her face.
"Her name is Leslie, not Brenna," Alexander said with confusion.
"You thought you could cheat my curse,’ Leslie said to Kate. Well, you thought wrong." Leslie was so happy, she was about to get what she had wanted for centuries.
Kate thought of what happened last time.
"No, you can’t mean," her eyes widened. "No!" She started to run.
"Grab her!" Leslie yelled.
Two of Alexander’s friends grabbed her before she could get away.
Kate tried to get out of their grasp, but Alexander’s friends would not let her go. She started to cry, for she knew what was going to happen. She looked at Alexander with apology on her face.
"Now for the fun." Leslie started to chant. "Donovan, Master Donovan, grant me this wish. Make this being hate the one she loves, so that in not only in the sunlight as I asked you before, but in the moonlight as well, that she will want to hurt him. Grant this now through me!"
Leslie thrust her hands forward as before and a beam of light shot through her hands and hit Kate. Kate collapsed, still being held by Alexander’s friends.
"Bring her into the moonlight." Leslie was smirking.
They looked at each other, confused, but did as she said. As soon as Kate hit the moonlight she once again felt different. Her appearance changed as before. Her hair turned a dark blond, she got muscular, and her eyes burned with fire. She once again felt hatred for Alexander.
Kate stood up. She threw his the two guys backwards. She started to walk toward Alexander. Danny and his other friend went to stand in her way, but she threw them out of her way like they were nothing. Nothing stood before her and Alexander now. She ran up to him and started to choke him. He had fear on his face.
"Kara," he gasped.
For a moment she forgot why she was choking Alexander. She loved him once again. But the moment passed and she started to choke him again.
But then he grabbed her, catching her by surprise. He kissed her. She forgot the hatred. She remembered her love for him. And she kissed him back. Then they let go. And the curse was gone.
"No!" Leslie was really angry now. "This is not possible! Donavan, she defies me and in turn defies you. Destroy her now!"
A lightning bolt stroked the ground as a scream broke out through the night. The air was filled with the stench of burnt flesh.
Kate looked at the ground. There was a pile of smoking ashes where Leslie once stood.
"Oh." She had to look away.
"It’s ok, she’s gone," Alexander said. Kate looked at him. "We can live in peace now."
Kate looked at Alexander’s friends.
"I’m sorry for what I did to you."
"That’s ok," Danny said. "We now know it wasn’t really you."
Kate and Alexander looked at each other, with love in their eyes.
"Let me walk you home."
"Ok." And Kate smiled for the first time in a long time.
Everybody walked their separate ways. Alexander and Kate could finally be together in peace.
The End