Realm Keepers 01 - Realm Keepers

grin.
    “Charming,” I said. “Now if you don’t mind…”
    He waved graciously. “Of course,” he said. “Carry on.” He stumped through the classroom, taking a seat right next to Raven.
    “Hey,” he said. “Name’s Calvin.”
    “Good to know,” said Raven, not looking up from her phone.
    “What’s yours?” Calvin prodded.
    “There are so many reasons I don’t want to tell you, I can’t count them.”
    Miles had been staring at Calvin through the whole exchange. “Your cousin is…” he began.
    “My cousin,” I told him. “Unfortunately. Let’s just get to work.”
    For fifteen minutes we pored over the book, getting the cities down one by one. I had him recite them alphabetically, then by population, then by the date they were founded. He started to grin as the names and the facts about them started to sink into his mind.
    “I think I’m getting it!” he said.
    “Not so fast, boss,” I told him. “Let’s run them again.”
    Suddenly something started tickling the edge of my hearing. A low whistling, barely audible in the momentary silence of the room.
    “Will whoever is whistling please stop it?” I asked, annoyed.
    Everyone was silent, except for the whistling, which continued. Miles looked over at me, confused.
    “What whistling, Sarah?” he asked.
    “That whistling,” I said. “Listen.”
    “I don’t hear anything,” he said, shaking his head.
    The quiet girl in the front row spoke up unexpectedly with her tiny voice. “I hear it, too.”
    Calvin leaned forward, cupping hands around both his ears. “What are you guys talking about?”
    Behind me, Blade spoke up. “No, I hear it.”
    I whirled. I had been sure Blade was the one doing it. But he wasn’t. And Raven certainly wasn’t. Neither was Calvin—I was looking right at him. Unless…
    “Calvin,” I said, as the whistling grew louder. “Is this some gadget of yours? Some experiment? An app?”
    “What the heck are you talking about?” he said. His eyes grew wide, but he looked like he was serious. “I still don’t hear the…oh, wait, there it is. Wow, it’s loud.” He moved to cover his ears with his hands.
    He was right. It was getting very loud. I tried not to cover my ears as I looked around to discover where it was coming from.
    “What the heck is that?” Miles nearly shouted, hands pressed tight to the sides of his head.
    “You guys are weird,” I barely heard Raven mumble, still in her phone. Suddenly she clapped her hands to her head, too. “Oh, wow! What the—”
    Suddenly I heard a thump . I looked to the front of the room to see the shy girl had fallen out of her chair to the ground. She was passed out cold.
    “Oh my gosh!” I cried, trying to run to her. But suddenly my limbs felt stiff, sluggish. My eyelids started fluttering.
    Thunk . Miles’ head hit his desk hard as he, too, passed out. I tried to shout, but I couldn’t. And the whistling was growing louder.
    “Aliens, man,” Calvin said, his voice breaking into a yawn. “This is how aliens…”
    Thunk . His head hit the desk.
    I turned to look behind me. Blade was already out. Raven’s head was nodding. I had to fight this. Someone had to warn one of the teachers. I had to make it to the door. I tried moving my legs, but it was like I was mired in molasses.
    Fight it , I thought. You have to—
    I fell to the ground, and darkness took me.

It seemed like forever before I woke up. Ever so slowly, I became aware that I was conscious again. My head felt like it was on fire. The whistling noise was still in my ears, but it was growing quieter and quieter, until it faded away completely. I could feel the cool linoleum of the classroom floor through the back of my shirt, and I pressed my palms gently into it, enjoying its chilly touch against my skin.
    When I opened my eyes I realized I wasn’t on the classroom floor at all—because I wasn’t in the classroom. I was looking up at a clear blue sky. It was a deeper, darker shade of blue than I’d ever seen it, like something in a painting or a photograph that somebody had Photoshopped on a computer.
    I felt like I’d been hit by a truck. Every part of my body was sore, from my head to my toes. But for a brief moment, it was kind of nice to just lie there and stare up. I would have felt like I was falling into an endless blue sea, if it wasn’t for my back pressing against the cold, hard…
    What was I lying on?
    That’s when Calvin’s face popped into view, appearing to