Dreams haunted Aggie all night. Visions of large, terrible monsters from the Trials flashed through her mind, never ending.

She woke in a cold sweat, clutching the rumpled blankets to her chest. She sat up, eyes flickering around the dark, shadowed, sickly sweet-smelling motel room. Reaching over to the crooked bedside table, she tugged on the lamp switch, the pale light shooting around the room, illuminating the old-fashioned dresser and large, ornately carved mirror.

Dark figures were cast upon the walls, and Aggie drew the blankets up to her chin, shivering, though not from the cold. A frigid feeling overcame the girl, one she got when a monster was near. But no, impossible! There was no monster in this odd, new world. At least that's what she thought...

•••

Aggie dragged herself onto the bright blue-and yellow city bus Echo had recommended. She plopped down in a window seat and pressed her forehead to the cold, smooth glass. She gazed sightlessly out to the bleak world, so different from hers yet the same in many ways.

Soon she arrived at the bricked walls of North Oak Middle. Asking an adult for directions, she found herself in her first class of the day: science.

She spotted Echo sitting at the back of the class and hurried to her, sliding into an empty seat. Aggie self-consciously tucked a piece of hair into her ponytail.

"Hey," she said awkwardly.

"Hi, Aggie. Tired?" Echo asked when she noticed the bags under the dulled jade-green eyes that stared at her.

"A bit. Didn't get much sleep last night." Aggie forced a small smile onto her face.

"Visions?" Echo inquired. "Your, uh, book, mentions that Willow and Blossom get those a lot. So I assumed you get them?"

Aggie shook her head in disbelief. "Clever girl. You're right. I'm never going to get used to me being from a book. It seemed so real..." she trailed off, thinking of the grim feeling that had passed over her last night.

If I got out, then did the monster, too? As soon as the thought appeared, she banished it, refusing to believe anything of the sort.
Aggie turned her focus back to Echo, who was rambling.

"...and we need to get you back." She saw the nymph's dazed face. "You didn't hear much of that, did you? No matter, it was mostly unimportant stuff anyway."

Agatha looked at her sheepishly. "Well, I agree with having to get me back-" The school bell rang, interrupting her.

•••

The classes flashed by, a blur of odd learnings, and was soon heading back to her motel.
Aggie sighed. This world is so different from mine.

Once she got off at her stop, and had thrown her stuff in her room, she set off to a small park she had spotted while on the city bus.

As she walked, her thoughts kept coming back to the visions and noises she had heard in the darkness of her room.

She walked through the trees on a small trail, the twittering of birds and the rustling of leaves in the breeze, never quiet, but in a peaceful way.

Aggie sat down on a rickety wooden bench she had come across. She pulled her dagger out of the sheath hidden by her shirt, running her finger along its gleaming edge.

As she lost herself in her thoughts again, she didn't notice the sudden silence that blanketed the trail.

Aggie sighed, sheathing the knife and standing up to stretch, turning to walk back to her motel room.

After she took a few steps, she froze, finally tuning into the uncanny silence. No birds, no rustling leaves, not even a breeze.

The cold feeling washed over her again, and a black shadow swooped across her vision, lashing out at her.

She drew her dagger again, slashing at the thing, but it just went right through, as if it was a ghost.

It gave a shrill cry and spun into a ball, vanishing, leaving Aggie to run to the motel and lock the door, heart racing and breath shallow.