Chapter Three

Mind Games and Torture

The sound of crickets seemed to fill the air, though Donovan hardly minded it. She rather the sound of those annoying crickets than silence. Not able to get comfortable, she shifted around in her make-shift bed. It was a blow up mattress topped with blankets and a single pillow – not the comfiest assortment for her to sleep on. The snores of her friends filled the room.

She blinked back tears, trying not to think too hard on the past events. After Jo had announced that she was now dating Adam, Donovan had grown quite upset with her friend. They ended up having a huge quarrel right there on the pathway, gathering a large audience around them. As a result of the quarrel, Donovan walked over to Emma's dorm and asked if she could spend a few days in her dorm. There was no possible way where she could return to the dorm that she shared with Jo and was expected to be civil there.

Emma and Abbi had welcomed Donovan with open arms and snagged an old blow up bed for her to sleep on, temporarily. Donovan didn't really mind too much what she slept on, as long as it wasn't in the same room as Jo. Even still, Donovan was having a hard time trying to fall asleep. It didn't matter so much, though, since she only had one class the following day. She had plenty of time to waste with not sleeping.

Then a thought occurred to her – why was she losing sleep over this?

Jo literally did not deserve any of her tears or to be in her thoughts at any waking moment. Then again, Donovan had absolutely no idea how she could erase Jo from her mind. Talk about a hard task! After everything that she had been through with Jo, it wasn't like she could just erase her from her memories. They had spent so much time together – most of her memories at Delawell were connected to Jo. It would seem absolutely preposterous to leave Jo, but then again, there was no way that she and Jo could become friends again. Jo had made the decision to throw their friendship away over a guy.

Donovan twisted and turned some more, wondering what had triggered Jo to say 'yes' to Adam. Jo knew full well that Donovan had her heart set on Adam. Wasn't it Jo who had said that Adam was nothing but bad news, anyways?

Maybe Jo had said those things just to protect Donovan. Perhaps she knew that Adam was bound to ask her out – maybe they were having a thing far before their conversation earlier this morning and Jo didn't want to hurt Donovan. Perhaps she was just trying to lead her away from Adam easily.

Then again, Donovan had been crushing on Adam for eight years, and there is no way that Jo and Adam could have been in a secret relationship for that long. Jo has known for eight whole years that Adam was bound to one day be Donovan's, so why did Jo steal him away from her? That was so not friendship goals!

After hours of overanalyzing the whole situation, Donovan eventually drifted off into sleep. Her mind landed in a place quite different from where she was used to.

****

"Donovan, hurry up!" a voice called her. She turned around, whipping her dark brown hair everywhere, yet she couldn't find the voice. There were so many people around her on the paved walk ways! Tall buildings surrounded her with big lights and signs. A series of red steps was in the middle of the paved space that no one was using. What was the purpose for them even being there? Her eyes shifted around to view the amount of people just stumbling past her, all with some strange device in their hands or to their ears.

What were these strange people doing? Donovan squinted her eyes, wary of everyone around her. Those strange devices were nothing that she had ever been warned about in any of her magic classes. Besides, she didn't even have the slightest idea as to where she even was. Nothing around her looked familiar – not even something that she had seen in some book! She was quite the reader, too, so for a place not to be even recognizable from a book really meant something.

Her mind faltered as she scanned her knowledge for some sort of clue as to her location. The only answer that she could up with was to explore. She began walking and as she did so, she looked up at all of the tall buildings. Why were they all so tall here? It sort of scared her, if she were to be completely honest with herself. Whilst looking up at one building, some blonde girl bumped into her.

"Hey! Watch where you're going!" the blonde screamed, irritated.

Donovan bit down on her bottom lip. "Maybe that should be you. There you were walking, only focusing on that strange device in your hand! Say, what is that?"

The blonde scoffed at this. "Um... My phone, obvi!"

Confused, Donovan bit down harder on her lip. "A phone? What does that do?"

The blonde seemed to laugh harder at this. "Is this a joke or are you Amish?"

Not understanding, Donovan only shook her head.

The blonde completely lost it at this point. "Wow, what a weirdo."

Donovan stared at the girl, wondering what in the world was happening, though she couldn't seem to place what was so out of line here. The girl just walked away, laughing as if something funny had just happened, though Donovan had no idea what was so funny. She was completely confused and wanted to get out of this place, as soon as possible. What did "obvi" even mean?

The confusion was a source of pure torture for her, and she had no idea how to escape from it. First, she had suffered through the mental torture that Jo had put her through and now she was stuck in some strange place that had even stranger devices. Donovan tried to fight back the tears. She couldn't even remember getting to this strange place. She just sort of appeared here.

Donovan looked around, her head hurting from all of the confusion and the mind games. Why wasn't it all written out straight forward – all of the answers that she needed? Why couldn't they be there for her? She hated this – absolutely despised what was happening and wished she could just be transported back home.

She rather be with Jo than stuck here in this realm.

To be continued...

**** 

Author's Note:

So what would you do if Jo was your friend and had done this to you?  

Anyone have any guesses as to where Donovan is?!

Thanks for reading, friends!

- Ali xoxo