"Am I dreaming?" I whispered soft enough, that it might as well have been an inner thought. My hand slowly reached for the foreign object. I was lightly shaking with antic.i.p.ation and fear. I studied its strange appearance as my arm stretched out for it.

It was only the size of a matchbook. Its sides were rounded and smooth. It had to be a rock or gemstone, but its shape gave me the impression that it had been molded or shaped to its current form. It had no color because it contained all of them. My mind knew that wasn't possible, but it sparkled every color I had ever seen. It even gleamed with a few colors I never knew existed, never imagined. As soon as my eyes could focus on one color, it would switch to another as if the color before it was never there. The sight was maddening and beautiful at the same time.

"Pick it up," I said, just before my fingers reached its kaleidoscope surface.

"Lucas, are you sure you're okay?" Renee asked. She had leaned her body over the edge of the front desk to get a better look at me on the floor.

"I'm fine...I...I just slipped," my voice cracked. That's when things became really weird...

* Pick it up. *

"What did you say?" I asked Renee, confused. She blinked at me in disbelief.

"Huh, I didn't say anything..."

* Don't be afraid. *

"Did you hear that?" I asked, again. She only stared at me harder. In my head I heard the words clear as can be. It sounded like a robotic whisper. I was going crazy. I must be very sick. I started to panic.

* Pick me up. *

The metallic whisper echoed inside my head. It felt soothing and comforting. Instantly, I began to calm down. My fingers slid over the mysterious thing, just inches from its surface. I let them dangle there for a quick second. In that moment, its shape began to change and slowly pushed upward toward my fingertips. I gasped. With my eyes pulled tightly closed, I enclosed my hand around it. Time stopped and the fire behind my eyes vanished. There was no sound. Only a low vibration throughout my body. Mostly in my chest. I tightened my grip around the thing as best I could. It felt like I was trying to close my fingers around a ball of liquid. It felt slick but dry.

"Incredible..." I smiled, wildly. I slid my legs underneath me and sat up with my hand still around the object. Slowly, I rose to my feet. As I did, the mysterious, talking jewel changed inside my fist. It became a solid, dark black stone. It looked as smooth as gla.s.s, but felt sticky. Like a thousand tiny suction cups were coating it. I lifted my arm and found myself straining. It was heavy...real heavy. It felt as if I was holding a bowling ball in my palm. Holding the stone to my chest, I made sure no one could see the beautiful burden in my hand.

"Incredible," Renee said, mimicking me. I snapped out of my daydream and found her curious stare. She nodded towards me with a smirk and hung up the office phone. In my foggy state, I hadn't even heard the office phone ring.

"What?" I asked, nervous.

"You can go."

"Huh?" I was lost.

"Today's your lucky day. Ms. Chan can't make it right now...family emergency."

"Emergency?"

"Yep. Princ.i.p.al Garner is on vacation too. So, you get out of jail free today." She laughed at her remark, more proud than she should have been. I let out a deep breath and reached over for my backpack. I made sure not to let the unbelievably heavy stone fall from my grasp.

"Okay, I'll see ya tomorrow," I joked. She shook her head with another laugh.

"Stay out of trouble, Lucas."

I raced out of the office and headed straight for my locker. The mysterious object reflected my worried eyes within its shiny surface and started to feel cold. Ice cold and growing heavier by the second. Within the first few steps down the hallway, the muscles in my arm were already beginning to ache. I wasn't sure how much longer I would be able to carry it.

Moments later I was walking up to my locker. Urgently, I opened its door and scrambled to make a clear spot for the rock on the bottom of the locker. When I tried to set it inside, my fingers felt stuck to it. Almost as if we were one. After a few seconds of trying to shake my hand free, I had to use my other hand to pry it away from my fingers. Slowly, it separated from my skin, leaving a cold pink welt on my palm. It fell to the bottom of my locker with a metallic thud. I glanced around the school corridor to be sure no one else heard it. With a deep gasp, I slammed the locker door shut.

"This is impossible. What have I found?" I asked the locker door. Was I in some crazy science fiction movie? Was I dreaming?

* Pick me up. *

The metallic voice was back. I didn't know what to do.

* Pick me up. *

I ripped open the door again and found the mystical orb lying there like a gla.s.sy piece of coal. It looked a little bigger than before. I pulled my cell phone from my pocket and snapped a picture of it. The flash from the camera flickered three times. It was only supposed to flash once. It seemed to happen in slow motion.

On the first flash of light, it looked like my locker was engulfed with faint smoke. The smoke looked black and filled with moving particles. They were bright yellow and rushing through the blackness like fireflies. On the second flash, those streaks of yellow reached out and wrapped themselves around my phone. If it hadn't happened so fast, I might have dropped my phone, but I didn't have time to react. On the third and final flash, the smoke was gone and the golden fireflies entered the smooth gla.s.s screen of my cell phone. It tickled my hand as it did. Flashing yellow streaks swirled around the screen, bouncing off each other like fireworks before settling into the background. It left a small, pulsating birthmark on the touchscreen.

"What the..." I thought I was going crazy. I slowly closed my locker again and slid down the sheet metal of the lockers, to the floor, and caught my breath.

* Pick me up. Please. *

"What is happening?" I asked, trying to ignore the voice in my head. From above me someone answered.

"Soundcheck."

"Huh?" I said, dazed. From the floor Morgan smiled above me. She looked curious and sweet. Her schoolbooks loosely clutched to her chest, and her hand pointing down the hall.

"Tonight's the big concert, Luc. Remember the flier...from this morning..."

"Umm..." I stared up at her.

"They're setting up now for a quick soundcheck," she said, with a wink. I stood up, swiftly.

"All of them? Do you think she'll be there?" I asked, stupidly.

Morgan rolled her eyes. "Of course, it is her band after all!"

"Sorry, Mo. I'm having kind of a...umm...crazy day." My pulse quickened. "What should I do?" I sounded pathetic now. I couldn't quite shake the last twenty minutes of my life.

"Go talk to her. It's the perfect opportunity."

"Really?"

"Go! Now!" Morgan grabbed me by my shirt and pulled me toward the auditorium. I shuffled my feet slowly, picking up my pace as I walked forward. Morgan gave me a quick thumbs up and ran off down the hallway. I swallowed hard and pulled the red flier from my back pocket. My fingers slid along the worn creases and I read it for the hundredth time.

ONE NIGHT ONLY.

THE SIGHTS AND SOUNDS OF.

"SISTER RED"

DOORS OPEN @ 7 PM.

LEVEL 04: Connection.

Stepping through the auditorium doors, I searched the giant room. Most of the overhead lights were turned off, leaving all the seating in shadows. The stage was alive with multicolored lights that lit up every corner of it. The band was casually tweaking their instruments and positions of their equipment. She...was nowhere to be found.

Off the right side of the stage stood Mr. Stein, the schools eccentric music teacher. He was sipping on a cup of coffee and bored out of his mind. He supported every kind of musical expression, but preferred that is was written hundreds of years ago and performed with a full orchestra.

"Come on girls! We only have another fifteen minutes before the Drama Club needs the auditorium," he announced, through a long yawn. The girls in the band ignored him with a laugh. I kept searching the dark corners of the room. She had to be here somewhere. It was her band, her gig. No luck, she wasn't here. A lump in my throat appeared as my anxious nerves faded away.

"Oh well, maybe next time," I whispered. My relief was more than obvious. I whipped my phone out and inspected the mysterious yellow scar pulsing on my screen. It was luminous in the hardly lit room. My mind started racing with questions again. What had I found? Was it really trying to communicate with me? Was I borderline insane? I needed to get back to my locker. I spun around to begin my journey back to the insanity in my locker, but my turn was stopped abruptly as I smashed into someone rushing through the doors and towards the stage. My phone flew out of my hand, along with the contents that the stranger was carrying. A stack of black and white T-shirts rained all around me, and to the floor. One flipped over my shoulder and rested there as I tried to focus.

"Watch it!"

"I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention," I apologized, embarra.s.sed.

"No kidding!" she snapped.

I froze in place as I realized who I had just b.u.mped into, "Olivia."

"You need to watch where you're going!" she cursed. Her long, dark hair was tied loosely in a messy bun on the back of her head. Two black sticks stuck from the roll of hair like an X. Some of her bangs fell past her angry green eyes. Green, I thought to myself. She picked green today. Her nose was adorned with a small, silver stud on the left, and her lips were a dark red frown.

"I don't have time for this!" she continued to snarl. Her brow tightened as she watched me frozen by her features. I reached down, picked up a couple shirts and handed them to her. She quickly s.n.a.t.c.hed them from my hand. It snapped me from my zombie-like state.

"Hi," I choked. She glared at me. She was so beautiful, even though she looked as if she might hit me. She said nothing and looked around the floor. She settled the scattered shirts into a loose pile.

"I'm Lucas." My voice almost failed me. Embarra.s.sment washed over me. She huffed and a small puff of air made her bangs dance in front of her face.

"Can you see my phone? I need my phone," she said.

My eyes searched the shadowy floor. "Uh...here..." I reached down and found both our phones lying next to each other. I smiled when I noticed she had the same exact brand of cell phone as me. She must enjoy her gadgets too. I handed it to her with a nervous smile.

"Sorry again."

"Lucas Ryan...right?" she asked, as her eyes searched mine. I nodded yes, but said nothing. She slipped her phone in the waistband of her jeans.

"The boy with two, first names," she teased, still wearing her pout.

"That's me."

"We had Art cla.s.s together last semester," she said, as fact.

"I think so." I played dumb. She sat three desks from me and loved to draw and sketch. She hated working with paints and always nibbled on the ends of her pencils. She never talked to anyone during cla.s.s and finished the semester with an A-. Her favorite color was black. She preferred her music loud. She started playing guitar in the 5th grade. She loved two things in this world and two things only; her music and her younger sister, Sophia. Yeah, it was safe to say...I remembered her.

"You're that computer genius kid, huh?"

"I guess," I answered, blankly. It could have been worse, she could have used the word nerd. She looked at me hard.

"You coming to the show tonight?"

"I wouldn't miss it." I sounded way too eager. She looked at me for a long moment. In that moment, a connection was made. It was a thin one, but it was there.

"You can keep the shirt." She walked past me quickly and ran up on stage.

I pulled the black T-shirt from my shoulder and glanced at it for the first time. It had a picture of a little girl with pigtails in her hair, holding a single rose. She looked sad. Below her, in dark red writing was the name of the band...Sister Red. I studied the little girl closely. She looked awfully familiar.

From the stage the sound of a crashing guitar chord filled the room. It vibrated with a violent crunch that held there for a long moment. A few buzzing seconds later, it began to fade. Olivia stood at the front of the stage with her black and purple guitar slung across her shoulders. She was looking directly at me, almost through me. Her red lips pushed against the microphone in front of her.

"Nice to meet you...Lucas Ryan," she sang, deep and haunting. I stood silent with my heart pounding in my chest. Olivia Weaver, the lead singer and founding member of Sister Red, my secret crush since grade school...knew...my...name.

"You too," I mumbled.

LEVEL 05: Higher Ground.

* Pick me up. *.

My eyes began to blur as I spent another long minute staring at the outside of my locker. I had wasted ten minutes just standing here, staring. My brain ignoring the constant messages whispered inside of it. I barely made it through my last few cla.s.ses of the day. Now, as the school halls emptied, the mystery in my locker seemed to fill my every waking thought.

"Luc, you coming?" Roland asked, with a smack to my back.

"What?" I stuttered. Roland continued his stroll toward the school doors.

"Taylor's waiting on us. It's showtime!" he laughed, and scooted through the doors, leaving me in my personal Twilight Zone episode.

"Football practice," I nodded. I had almost forgotten. Our little gang never missed a practice. I took a long, deep breath and ripped open my locker door. "Whoa."

My secret stone had almost doubled in size. It even looked blacker, if that was even possible. A slight bend had begun to sink into the bottom of my locker. Its weight must have increased immensely.

* Pick me up. Pick me up. *

"That's unbelievable..." I reached out and placed my hand around it. It was now the size of a box of playing cards and as cold as ice. It sucked my hand to it like a powerful magnet. Its freezing surface stunned me.

* Pick me up. *

My pulse doubled its pace. I tried to lift it up, but found that I couldn't. The harder that I tried, the heavier it felt. I could probably pull the school's flagpole out of its concrete home before I would be able to make this crazy thing budge. Its weight had increased so much in just a few hours, I was amazed. I pulled at it, in vain, one last time.

* Pick me up. *

"Pick me up? Yeah right!" I pouted. I tried to release my grip, but found my fingers welded to its surface again. Last time I had held it, I had to pry it from my palm and I barely managed to do it. Now, it was impossible to do. I began scratching at my hand, trying with all my might to unwrap my fingers from the stone. No use. I was trapped and growing scared.

"Great!" I yelled. It echoed down the empty hall. There was no way out of this. With a soft thud, I rested my forehead against the locker door. Taylor and the gang would start to wonder where I was at if I didn't show my face soon. How would I explain this?

"Come on...think," I said. My head continued to bounce off the locker surface repeatedly. In my mind, I begged the mysterious rock the same thing, over and over again...please let go, please let go, please let go. All I heard in response was...pick me up.