The For Real and The For Fake

The For Real and The For Fake

by Isabella Burgos

“It’s suspicious, the color of this flower, don’t you agree?” Pyre’s voice engulfed the starstruck teen as she wearily agreed. She felt so exhausted. A large part of her was confused, her eyes darted around the empty darkness that was once her dorm room.

“It’s my favorite smell. In fact, I think you might like it. Here, come here my child.” The fire goddess sounded almost hostile, like a snake nearing its prey.

Rosemary felt the hairs at the back of her neck stand at the thought, was that what was going on? Was this real? Surely not.

When she’d sat in silence for too long, the goddess hissed. “Come here,” the words seeped out of Pyre’s mouth menacingly slow.

Rose cleared her throat, it took a second for her to be able to lift a foot off of the black floor. Slowly, she took a few nervous steps towards Pyre. Rose glanced from the lady’s eyes to the orange flower, she sighed gently before slightly leaning down. It hurt her eyes to look at the glowing petals for too long, so she wasn’t surprised when her eyes shielded themselves gently. A deep inhale of the thorned flower had Rosemary stumbling back in agony, almost tripping over her own two feet. Then, she felt it. The nasty feeling hit her like a bag of bricks; and, in less than a second, a blood curdling scream forced its way out from the very pit of her stomach.

Rosemary’s cherry blossom pink hair bounced happily as she walked through the courtyard of her school. Her school. She had never thought she’d get the chance to say those words, not in a million years. The Academy of Elements is the toughest of all the Elem schools, the other four aren’t nearly as popular despite having heaps more students. The Academy was the hardest. The hardest to live at, the hardest to work at, and it’s especially hard to make friends. The reason being that it’s a school for “exceptionally gifted children.” It’s a general school, meaning powerful children from every Element live together in a single castle-like structure.

When Rose was younger, she was constantly told she was gifted. She took the compliment like a grain of salt. Of course she was gifted,

so was everyone else in the town she grew up in. It wasn’t until she was eleven that she realized it.

It wasn’t often that the young, secondary schooled, Rosemary had the word “freak” thrown at her and when she heard it, the boy felt her wrath. Quite . . . literally. You see, the sweet Rosemary has the power to control lightning better than she can control her emotions, and although her powers can be extremely dangerous, they’re also considered an “exceptional gift.”

When the time came for the headmaster of The Academy of Elements to choose the new-coming students, Rosemary Paloul was the first name on the list; not that she was aware of this fact.

The dining hall was as full as possible, the 276 students were spread out across the room as they ate dinner in peace. Rose sat in a group of four. Layla, Ronald, Jessi, and herself.

“I don’t think I’ll ever get used to it, you know?” Jessi thought out loud, stealing a glance at Rosemary from across the wooden table.

Rose nodded with a sheepish smile, she chewed her food before responding. “It’s magical! Extremely eerie, but magical nonetheless.”

Layla furrowed her eyebrows slightly, “You think eerie? I don’t know if it’s just the fact that I’ve been obsessed with the thought of this place since I was five, but I gain happiness whenever I step foot inside.” She didn’t make any eye contact as she spoke, focusing on stabbing pasta with her fork.

Confliction washed over Rose. Was she to explain why she felt this way about the beautiful building she’s grown to fall in love with, or should she stay quiet and hope that her intrusive thoughts blow away?

“Rosemary!” Ronald sung the name out teasingly, causing the girl to snap back into reality. A questioning hum sounded through the friend’s ears, making them laugh quietly.

“You were staring,” Jessi muttered, cheeks tinted lightly.

“My bad! Sorry, so sorry. I was just lost in thought,” Rose stuttered out, she always became embarrassed easily and this was definitely one of those moments.

The sound of the school bell rang loudly, cutting off the sentence Layla was about to start, Rosemary sighed thankfully. She took one last bite of her food before standing up and pouring herself a glass of water. She bid the group of teenagers a goodnight, then let herself get lost in the crowd of students that were headed towards the fire-hall.

Hair fell in front of her face messily as she jolted awake with a squeal. Her breaths were heavy and deep, her lungs felt sore and used. Her eyebrows crinkled in pain, wincing as the feeling slowly subsided. This dream. This horrible, horrible dream. She’s had it seven times in two weeks, but this time was extremely different.

The Goddess was much different than she’d heard in the stories she was told as a kid. Rose remembered the elder Fire Elems telling her stories about a beautifully kind higher being, but the dreams she’d had recently told a completely different story.

Pyre was definitely not as kind-hearted as everyone made her seem. It’s not even nice being in her presence. She has this subtle darkness about her that, dare Rosemary even think, got darker and darker as these dreams progressed.

It wasn’t abnormal for the Gods and Goddesses to visit their Elems, especially the children and teenagers in school. They’d usually pop up in dreams to tell the kids to focus on school, or to let go a little bit and not put too much pressure on themselves, or to warn them about something. Whenever the Gods and Goddesses made an appearance in a dream, it was for a good reason and always with good intentions. They never popped up in dreams to put anyone in pain, that was unheard of, and that terrified Rosemary to some extent.

“Rosemary Paloul?”

Two words spoken, and the girl’s heart dropped straight to her stomach. She glanced around the room, noticing quickly that all eyes were on her. She swore under her breath, realizing quickly she couldn’t just pretend she wasn’t there. The only head of colored locks in the school belonged to her, and they were noticeably brighter amongst all of the blondes and brunettes that sat around her.

Rose cleared her throat anxiously, tucking a strand of pink behind her ear as she stood up out of her seat. She treaded up the few stairs of the lecture hall, towards the entrance where Headmaster Kingsley stood waiting.

“Sir?” she nervously questioned.

The headmaster sighed slightly, “If you could please follow me.” Rosemary nodded quickly, following close behind Kingsley as soon as he started to walk.

The urgency laced in his strides made curiosity run straight through the girl’s head, what’s going on? I wonder if he somehow knows about my dreams—that’s actually extremely unlikely, let me not make myself anxious.

After a few minutes, they both stood at the arched door to Headmaster Kingsley’s office. Rose took quiet and heavy breaths. That has to be the fastest I’ve ever traveled across the castle. Kingsley cleared his throat and opened the large wooden door, letting Rosemary through first before walking in after her.

“This way . . . ” he spoke in a hushed voice, leading the girl towards the bookshelf behind his desk. It was as if the headmaster was scared someone would hear him, even in a room where it was just them two.

With the quick pull of a book, a part of a shelf collapsed into the floorboards to create a door. Rose’s eyes widened at the sight before her. A room in which mirrors covered every inch. The ceiling, every wall, even the floors. It was impossible to tell how big the room actually was due to all of the mirrors reflecting off of each other. Towards what Rose assumed to be the middle of the room, stood four enormous statues.

Each statue was a replica of the four Elemental higher ups: the Gods of air and water, and the Goddesses of earth and fire. Rosemary almost didn’t recognize the Goddess of Fire, and her blood ran completely cold at the sight of the statue.

“Th-that’s Goddess Pyre?” Rose winced slightly as she stuttered pathetically.

“Yes, and from my understanding, you’ve been seeing her in your dreams.” It was a rhetorical question, Rosemary knew that; but she also knew that this statue of Goddess Pyre was absolutely not who she’d been seeing in her dreams.

So she’d told the truth. “No,” she glanced away from the statue for the first time. She set eyes on Headmaster Kingsley, who looked as if he’d just seen a ghost. “Their features are so, so similar . . . but looking up at the statues now, I’ll admit that I didn’t know it was her until I looked at the symbol that’s carved into the base. I say this with absolute certainty, the woman in my dream is not Goddess Pyre. Not at all.”

It was silent for a few moments, anxiety building up in Rosemary’s body. She felt a heavy pit in her stomach.

“This is the part where you tell me who has been coming into my dreams, uninvited, to harm me.” Rose took the deepest breath she could manage, tears welled up in her eyes. “This is the part where you tell me I’ll be okay.”

This time, it was the headmaster to take a deep breath, “I need

you to wake up.”

The girl’s eyes snapped towards Kingsley, “What did you s-”

He cut Rosemary off, “The Moon Goddess has returned,” the man took hold of her arm. Forcing her to make direct eye contact, “Luna.”

Rosemary jolts awake with a loud shriek. She looks around the room, a sense of deja vu washes over her. There are no walls and no ceiling, just pitch black floor that continues past her field of vision. The same room she’d seen in her dreams. She shut her eyes and took a deep breath, preparing herself for the agonizing pain that she was sure to come. When it didn’t, she slowly opened her eyes again.

Dark, empty, numb and cold. On the bright side, it doesn’t feel like my intestines are being set on fire, right?

The voice she dreaded hearing every night sounded in her ear, “Wrong.” She flinched aggressively, no freaking chance.

“Every freaking chance. Have fun!” An evil laugh echoed against the non-existent walls, and then she felt nothing but pain.