-Laelyn-

We ran across the wet grass of the field, Beckham pulling me along. I couldn't run as fast as him at that moment- there was too much on my mind. First of all, what was with our new appearances? My hair was blue! That's not natural. Beck's hair was black and his brown eyes had turned green. He looked great, though. Stop it, Lyn, I told myself, you can't think about him right now. We had to find Daeva. That was another thing! All of the sudden Beckham decided to tell me that we needed to find this demon thing, or whatever she was, when just a few minutes ago he was yelling at me to stay away from her. What the hell was happening?

We made it to the school in a couple minutes. What were we going to do here? School ended at least an hour ago. "Is anyone still here?" I asked.

"Time difference," Beckham mumbled, "It's 12 hours late."

"So... What time is it then?"

"About five in the morning."

"What?" I exclaimed. It was light outside for being so early. "You mean we're stuck here for at least two more hours until people even start showing up to school?"

"Well, yes." He said, as if it were normal.

"What are we supposed to do in that time?" I wondered.

"Hopefully, find Daeva."

"And then what?" I questioned. "What are we going to do once we find her? We need to have a plan, Beck."

"...I'm not quite that far yet." He admitted.

"Then we can't go after her yet." I decided. Geez, did he think anything out?

"I guess not... maybe tomorrow?"

"No. We have to have a fully developed plan. And how do you even know that we can take her by ourselves?" I inquired. "We're going to need help."

"Who is going to believe us?"

"They believe in magic here, I think they'll believe it quicker than I did."

"Alright." He sighed in defeat. "But how long is that going to take?"

"I don't know." I shrugged. "But we can't do anything until we get more power on our side. To quote someone I know, 'Daeva is dangerous.'" Beckham rolled his eyes.

"I'm sure I wouldn't know who." He laughed. I laughed with him. It was nice to laugh, after having my world flipped upside down.

"This is sort of off topic, but I do have a question." I said.

"And what would that be?" Beck asked.

"You keep referring to Soryx. What is that?"

"Oh, right! Soryx is their planet name. Like we call our planet Earth."

"Oh. Well that makes sense. For some reason I thought it would have been the same." I laughed at myself. We laughed together again. All of the sudden, Beckham looked at me with wide eyes.

"You need to go home!" He said.

"Beck, you just told me I couldn't go home for at least a week." I reminded him.

"No, not Earth home. Your actual house home." He said.

"Why?"

"Well, when do you usually get up for school?"

"Six in the morning."

"Don't you think your family is going to freak if you're not there?" He questioned. Wait, I still have my family? Does that mean there's another me? "They're going to go crazy if their daughter is missing."

"What happened to... me?" I asked. "Was there a Laelyn here before we got here?"

"Before, yes. But the second you stepped through that portal, you replaced her. She won't come back until you return to Earth."

"That's terrible! I don't know how to act! I don't know my schedule! I don't know-" Beck shook my shoulders.

"Calm down! You just need to go home. Okay? Figure it out from there." He told me. "Oh, and remember. You're walking to school today."

"Wait, what?"

"Sorry," He said shyly, "I always get to school before you, and I kind of pay attention to you." Butterflies. No, Laelyn. He pays attention to you because you're immune, not because...

"Oh, okay. Hey! It's Alyrica's birthday today!" I said, distracting myself.

"Hold on, you don't even know if you two are friends in Soryx."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, everyone is different. Different than their Earthly selves, anyway."

"We look different. That's it."

"Well... Everyone else..." He started, "Everyone else has no idea who they are in the first dimension. If they somehow go through that portal, they replace and become the person they are on Earth, and another person just like them is created in the second dimension, Soryx, knowing nothing about Earth. It's the Curse of the Portal."

"The Curse of the Portal?" I said, testing the words out. "That's creepy. Why does the portal have a curse anyways?"

"Daeva's father put the curse on all the portals once he found out how to control them. Her family wanted to control the multi-dimensional universe as a dynasty, but that couldn't happen if other people could travel between worlds and dimensions as freely as they could back then." Beck explained. Wow, talk about absolute power.

"So Daeva's father is the ruler of the dimensions?"

"No. Their idea didn't go as planned, and some people were immune to the Curse of the Portal. People like us."

"We're... Immune? But how?" It was like the more I learned, the less I understood.

"No one knows, but Daeva didn't like that people had the ability to escape her father's curse." Beckham continued. "She decided that her father's magic wasn't powerful enough, and she killed him." I gasped.

"She killed her own father?" Tears stung my eyes. If I had a father, I would not have even thought of killing him.

"Yes. She murdered her entire family. She wants to be the only one who can have power."

"And we're standing in her way." I said, finally understanding. That's why she wants me dead.

"Precisely. So go home, act as normal as you can, and keep your head down at school. Meet me at the front sign at seven thirty." Beckham instructed.

"Okay." I sighed, mentally preparing myself for the day ahead of me. I ran the mile home as fast as I could, and crept into the backyard. How can I call it home? It's not. Everything is wrong here. I am not home.

There was a small balcony off of my bedroom, and I always accidentally left my door unlocked. I hoped that Soryx-Laelyn had the same tendency. I had always been good at climbing trees and I figured that climbing up to a balcony wasn't too different. As it turned out, I was right, and I was standing on the wooden floor in no time. Slowly and quietly, I moved over to the sliding doors that led to my room. I pulled gently on the handle, and to my great relief it opened easily and silently. Thank goodness.

Everything was exactly the same in my room, but it felt alien to me. Same furniture, same closet, same lamp. But it was different, and I didn't know why. Maybe it was just because I knew it wasn't mine. Closing the door behind me, I tiptoed over to my alarm clock to make sure it was set. Perfect. It would go off in over a half hour. I realized that I still had my bag slung around my shoulder, with my book and binder in it. After throwing it on the floor, I flopped on my bed and curled up, smiling gratefully. I could rest for awhile, and try to let everything sink in. I was in Soryx, and I was being hunted down by some sort of demon assassin. I had a week to unlock my magic potential so I could go back home. But before then, I had to help Beckham defeat Daeva. A sudden thought hit me. What if it takes over a week? How long am I going to be stuck here? I pushed the thought out of my mind. I'll deal with that if it happens. For now, I need some rest.

Author's note!

Alright guys, any confusion from this chapter? Any guesses about  who Beckham is? I know there was alot of information covered in the last two chapters, if it's confusing PLEASE tell me! Remember, comment your predictions and thoughts as always! Love you all!

Savy Pearson