The next morning, I woke up and got  ready. I climbed down the stairs to  the living room, where I saw my mom and dad busy with their morning  works. My mom, Helen Wilde, noticed me and greeted me with her usual cute smile, "Good morning, darling." I saw her meddling with things in the kitchen.

My dad, Robert Wilde, was wearing his gold framed pair of spectacles and was reading his newspaper. Both my parents had beautiful black eyes and brown hair.

"Hello, sleepyhead," greeted a voice from inside the study. That familiar voice belonged to my one and only sister, Sweety. She was reading her high school books. She was a bit taller than me. She had long black hair and attractive black eyes, traits that I shared with her.

"Good morning, brainyhead," I replied with a teasing look on my face. Though we had a difference of two years in age, we used to tease each other over every silly little thing. 

But that day, she didn't react to my comment and instead went on with her books. That had been happening for a while. Actually, that had been happening for the past couple of years. That must be the effect of high school, I guessed. I was worried about joining high school next month. 

We had been living in Pleasanton, a small city in California. The phrase 'Home Sweet Home' suited us perfectly. We owned a small home, which was sweet and comfy. The small garden outside our home made it more pleasant. My mom was a professor in the field of Atomic Science and my dad was a Meteorologist. Though they were  busy people, we used to have breakfast together.

Once we finished our breakfast, my mom asked, "Cathy darling, would you go pick some apples from our tree?"

"Sure, mom. Be right back," I replied and rushed up the stairs.

We had the tree right in front of our home and it was very tall. I had to go upstairs to reach them. And so I did.

While I was upstairs, my eyesight fell upon the empty bird cage. It was once filled with chirping birds but not anymore. It had a huge door, big enough for any human to pass through. We used that door in case we needed to clean the cage.

As I was about to near the apples tree, a sudden breeze blew my black hair over my face, which brought back the weird memories of the day before. That plant and the breeze . . . You are just imagining things, Cathy. Such weird incidents don't happen. Just when I thought things couldn't get any weirder, I heard a small thud sound in the empty bird cage.

Slowly, I moved towards the cage in order to check the reason for that  noise. As I was about to touch the lock of the door in that cage, I was startled when I bumped into something and fell down.

It was not something, it was a girl. A girl with beautiful, blonde, straight hair and I noticed that her sea-green eyes bore into mine. She was wearing a pink shirt with a matching short skirt. She appeared all of a sudden and out of nowhere. 

She looked at me and waved her hands in an apologetic manner saying, "Sorry! I didn't expect you to approach this way." She reached out her hand to help. I didn't know what to do.

Who is she?

As I was wondering, she took my hand and pulled me up. I was shocked. Once I got up, I jerked myself from her and stepped back.

Then, I saw a glowing light behind her and a boy emerged from it. He was taller than her. His round, black eyes and his big eyebrows gave him a funky appearance. He wore a green sweatshirt.

Who are they? Aliens, perhaps? But they look so human-like. This is so not happening. Should I shout for help? Should I call my sister? Why am I doing nothing? Do something, Cathy. And I did the first thing that came to my mind. I started to run back towards the staircase.

"Do you think running away now will let you forget what happened yesterday? Or are you just going to keep on running away from that?" that boy spoke in a hard tone.

My heart skipped a beat. I stopped short. What!? How did he know?

"We know what happened yesterday. And we also know the reason why," he continued as if he had just read my confused mind.

I slowly turned around. "Who are you?" Finally, I found my voice to speak.

"I am Josh and she is Jenny. We...."

"Oh, so wait, you are not aliens? How did you even emerge out of the empty bird cage? And what is it that you know about me?" my voice was merely a whisper when I uttered the last question. By then, I became so scared to think that, all the things that had happened yesterday were not just the work of my brain.

Both of them turned back to see the  cage and again at me. "Well, we  didn't really plan it this way. But this  is how portals work," Jenny said casually as if that was a regular thing.

Portals!? Did I hear her right? "What portals? What are you talking about?"

"You will get all your answers if you  will kindly allow us to explain," replied Josh.

I nodded weakly.

Wow! His attention seeking tone, his erect posture, everything reminds me so much of my Philosophy Professor.

"If I am not wrong, you had experienced some weird happenings yesterday. But believe me, they are  normal in our place. We are from  Illusia. And we are here to escort you to the Elite Academy, where you will learn to control your powers," finished Josh.

That was not the slightest version of  the explanation that I had expected. What is he talking about? I don't have any powers.

My face was growing pale. I felt super scared. "What do you mean? I have powers?" I was starting to grow curious at the same time. This was one such moment where I had to experience fear, along with a touch of curiosity.

"Well, you are not the only one,"  saying that Jenny placed her hands over the ground. Within a few seconds the building started to sha ke. She then stopped, "You will understand it much better in the Academy."

I stumbled back. What just happened? She shook the whole building? . . . Just with her bare hands? How is this possible? Suddenly, I remembered that they had mentioned about portals. "You still did not explain me about the portals?" I enquired.

"It is exactly what the name suggests. It connects our place and yours," said Jenny.

If they are from a different place, then how . . . ? "How come you knew about the weird things that happened to me? How did you find me?" I asked.

"We cannot give you more details  here. Come with us, to Illusia. Come  on, you can trust us and I am sure  you will not be disappointed," said Jenny and let out her hand for me to grab it.

Don't Cathy, don't take her hand. Who knows if they are even saying the truth? What if they are just kidnappers? I was so confused.

"Trust you? You just emerge out of an empty bird cage, introduce yourself as you are from another place, tell me that I have powers. You also prove that you are similar to me . . . by . . . by . . . shaking this whole place with just your hands. You then invite me to come with you. Okay, so you landed here through portal and all. What if you didn't just come here to kidnap me? How can I trust you?" I voiced all of my doubts continuously.

They once again looked at each other. "How will you trust us?" Josh repeated my own sentence with a slight grin and looked straight at my eyes. "You can trust us. We would never hurt you. I give you my word. We are just here to protect you."

"Come on, Cathy. Look at us. We know you. Who do you think will help you in this situation? We are your only chance to know more about yourself. You are a lot more than you think you are." By uttering those words, she stretched out her hand still closer to mine.

She was right. I knew, I was still confused. I didn't know who they were. What Illusia was? But somehow they knew about me and about what had happened the other day. I was not sure what I should do. But I was curious to know what was happening to me. And the thought that nobody else would explain about it was really bothering me.

Though I doubted if I trusted them, I took her hand. I didn't know what that choice of mine would do to me. But I was willing to take the risk, if that meant learning more about myself.

And I was constantly, repeatedly saying to myself that I would return home without anyone noticing my absence. I couldn't imagine what my parents would do if they found out that I was missing.

Josh took something from his pocket which resembled a small, glowing white ball. He then threw that towards the cage, which Jenny hit with her clenched fist. That ball burst into glitters and a glowing white opening in air appeared, right in front of the cage. Together, uncertain of what lay ahead, I stepped towards the glowing light, leaving my home behind.