For Nevermore Season 1

wobble beneath her feet.
    The world blurred, then swam. Noella’s head started to pound and she fell to the floor, burning her knees on the carpet.
    “Are you okay?” Tori whispered, kneeling beside her.
    Noella moaned, then closed her eyes in an attempt to stop the vertigo. According to her senses of sound and touch, Tori was standing beside her, but when she opened her eyes, her vision was twisted, turning Tori into a violent blur beneath a turbulent sea.
    “I don’t feel well,” Noella said, clutching her stomach to keep from puking.
    The room continued to rock and sway, as Noella felt herself slipping between worlds, unable to grab hold of either. With no way to pull herself to the surface, she fell deeper and deeper into the void.
    “It’s OK, Noella,” Tori whispered, gently setting her hand on the back of Noella’s shoulder. “I’m here now. You’ll be okay.”
    Tori’s other hand fell on hers, and Noella found the rope she needed to surface from the in-between and root herself into her world.
    She squeezed her eyes closed, focused on Tori’s hand, and slowly counted backward from 10 in her head as she drew long, deliberate breaths, exhaling slowly until the seas of her world stopped stewing.
    Noella opened her eyes. Tori’s face was lit with concern as she asked, “How did you do that?”
    “Do what?” Noella said, playing dumb while waiting for the world to stop wobbling.
    “Appear like magic.”
    “What did you see?” There was a comfort in playing dumb, but it wasn’t warm enough to heat the chill of not knowing.
    “I was playing on my iPad, then I heard voices, super quiet, like they were in another room or something, but then I realized one of them was yours. Then it got a lot louder and you suddenly appeared!”
    Noella started crying, pulling Tori close and wrapping her arms around her. “Oh my God,” she choked. “I’m not crazy.”
    She sobbed against Tori, soaking the front of the girl’s pink tee, before managing to pull herself away. “It’s all real,” Noella said to herself more than Tori. Then she asked the girl, “Did you see anyone else?”
    “No, but I heard a man talking. He sounded mean, like he was yelling at you.”
    “Yeah,” Noella said, Dante’s rejection still fresh and stinging. But as strong as it was, her relief that someone else had seen her appear from nowhere was stronger.
    Tears streamed down Noella’s cheeks and she choked on her cry. “Oh my God,” she swallowed. “I can’t believe it. I can’t believe I saw him.”
    “Saw who?” Tori asked. “Dante?”
    Noella felt like Tori had slapped her.
    How does she know his name?
    “You know Dante?”
    Tori’s eyes went to the carpet. She looked scared to say another word, and sorry that she’d said the things she did.
    “How do you know Dante?” Noella asked. “It’s okay, you can tell me.”
    Tori’s brow creased, and for a moment Noella thought she would completely clam up, but she raised her chin then fixed her eyes on Noella’s. “Ever since we moved in, I’ve been having these weird dreams where I see this man standing here, just staring out the window. But whenever I try to talk to him, or he hears me behind him, he disappears.”
    “Does he have long dark hair, with a light curl at the ends, like a flip?” Noella asked.
    “Yeah!”
    “How do you know his name?”
    “I dunno,” Tori shrugged, “maybe I heard someone call his name. I’m not sure. I just do, like when you know what a word means even though you never learned it. I’ve never seen anyone else in the dreams, even though I’ve had them a bunch of times. I didn’t know they weren’t dreams until just now.”
    Noella looked outside. It was still light outside, even though she felt like she’d been gone for hours. “What time is it?”
    Tori looked at her iPad, “Three-thirty, I just got home from school a little while ago.”
    “What day is it?” Noella asked, making sure she hadn’t been gone for days.
    “Wednesday. How long were you gone?”
    “I dunno. I left school after lunch.”
    “Tori?” Jen called from downstairs. “Who are you talking to?”
    Tori’s eyes went wide. “Hide in the closet,” she whispered.
    Noella stood quickly, the vertigo in her head now only an echo, then quietly flew to the closet as Jen’s footsteps padded up the staircase. Noella slid behind a row of shirts, then closed the closet door just as Jen entered the room.
    “Nobody, Mommy. I was playing the