The Golden Chest

Chapter 1
If Words could Kill
“Alex, stay close. We have to find Grandma,” Adrianne Hailing said to her twin brother, Alex. They were searching all over the abandoned jailhouse (at least they thought it was an abandoned jailhouse. They didn’t know where they were) for their grandmother. But no matter where they looked, they just couldn’t find Grandma.
“Adrianne, we’ve been looking forever, and we still didn’t find Grandma.” Alex gave a big sigh. “I don’t think we’ll ever find her”.
“Yes we can. No keep looking,” Adrianne replied to her brother. But even she knew that her grandmother was gone. But she wasn’t willing to give up hope. She tried to hold it in and keep looking, even though she knew it was no good. She was going to hold it in for Alex, since he was all the family she really had at the moment.
After ten silent minutes, she turned to her brother and got a big surprise: Alex wasn’t there behind her. He was gone.
Adrianne couldn’t believe her crying eyes. This was it. She had no family. She lost everyone. She lost her mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, and now her one and only brother.
“Alex!! Alex!!” Adrianne screamed and screamed her brother’s name at the top of her lungs. Than something scary happened: she heard a voice, but it wasn’t Alex’s voice; it was much, much more scary and colder. “Kill her... Kill her… Kill…her…”
It kept repeating the same thing over and over. Then she felt a piercing pain first in her ankle. She looked down to make sure nothing was wrong. She looked down at her left ankle to her mysterious birthmark that encircled her entire ankle, and gasped: it was glowing bright red.
Then a severe pain came from her neck. It was so painful and awful that she gave a scream. After that, then-
“AHHHH!!!!!!” Adrianne sat up from her bed and looked around. She was in her bed, safe and sound. Then she realized that she was drenched in sweat. She looked in the mirror on her bedside table and noticed that her waist-length curly looked more fire-red than sandy blond. She had the same effect with her green eyes.Her usually leaf-green eyes were also fire red. Then she looked down at her birthmark on her ankle and was relieve to know that it wasn’t glowing and there was no severe pain in her neck.
Then her grandmother and her twin brother, Alex came running in, a bat in Grandma’s hand. Adrianne noticed something different about Alex’s appearance. His hair looked more faint blue than sandy blond like hers, and his typically leaf-green eyes were the same shade of blue as his hair.
“Adrianne, dear, are you alright?” Grandma went over to her granddaughter and put her hand on Adrianne’s forehead. “You have no fever.” Grandma looked over to Alex with his faint blue hair and sweaty face. “You’re just as sweaty as your brother.”
“I’m fine, Grandma,” sighed Adrianne.” Just another bad dream.”

“Are you sure you’re alright, dear?”
“Positive,” Adrianne, but the truth was she wasn’t exactly quite sure if she was alright at all. These nights made Adrianne wonder if she was even a normal girl.
Grandma looked from Adrianne to Alex. “Well since you both are sweating, I want both of you to take a shower and go back to bed.”
Alex looked at his grandmother. “What about you?”
“I am going back to bed.” She kissed Adrianne on her bead, and headed toward the door. “Good night,” she shouted over her shoulder, and went into her room.
Adrianne sat up in her bed. “What was your bad dream about?” she asked him. She looked up at her and noticed that his hair color went back to sandy blond.
“How do you know that I had a bad dream?” Alex asked.
“That question sort of answers itself,” she said, waving her finger from her to her twin. She was mainly referring to them both sweating and their hair color situation they had just had. “Now tell me about the dream you just had.”
Alex went over to Adrianne and sat at the foot of her bed. “Well…you and make and Grandma were in some jailhouse or something like that. And then, while trying to find our way out, Grandma somehow disappears. And you and I try to find her. But after searching for a long time, you disappear, and then I heard a voice saying something about killing, then…” Alex paused. “Do you know those really weird birthmarks we have on our left ankles?”
Adrianne nodded. She and Alex both have birthmarks that encircled their entire left ankle. They were almost exactly alike, except Adrianne’s was slightly thinner. “What about them?”
Alex continued. “Well, it just all of a sudden started glowing, like, bright blue. Then-out of nowhere- I felt this really severe pain in ,my neck, and the next thing I knew I was in my bed drenched in sweat, and my hair’s been looking kind of faint blue.” Alex gazed at his sister. “ Isn't that weird?”
“It is weird,” Adrianne replied, deep in thought. Than something came to her mind. “Oh my god, Alex, the same exact thing happened to me! My hair was fire-red, I had the same dream… don’t you think this is weird?”
“What’s weird, sis?” Alex replied. ”The fact that two identical twins had the same dream? Call me crazy, but, doesn't that sound like the kind of thing that people would say a twin thing or something?”
“That’s not what I mean,” said Adrianne. “It’s the fact that for the past few weeks we've been having these scary dreams and we've been having them at the same time. And everyone we have looks realer and scarier than the other. And our hair changes color. And us sweating. Isn't that weird?”
“Wow, that is weird,” said Alex. “Why do you think all these really freaky things have been happening to us?”
~3~
“I have no clue,” Adrianne said to her twin brother. “Maybe we should ask Grandma.”
Adrianne, do you honestly think Grandma would have a thing to do with all our bad dreams, hair-color changing, and all the other odd things that have been happening to us the past few weeks? Do you honestly think that?”
“No,” Adrianne replied. “But I still think we should ask her, even if she has no clue what on earth is going on between our bad dreams.”
Okay, we’ll ask Grandma,” replied Alex. “You know, speaking of the dreams, did you notice something different about this dream?”
“What’s so different about this dream?” Adrianne asked, curious to know the difference between this dreams and her previous ones.
“It’s that this dream looked more scary, realistic, and kind of familiar than the other ones.” Alex looked at his sister. “Didn’t you think that dream looked kind of familiar to you in any way?”
“Now that you mention it, it does look familiar. Like we’ve seen it before.” Adrianne looked at her brother with an anxious look on her face. “How’s it so familiar? And where have we seen this dream before?”
“Adrianne, I have no clue where on earth have we seen this dream before,” said Alex, deep in thought. “All I know is that we’ve seen it before.”
“Thanks for the info, Alex,” Adrianne replied sarcastically, looking disappointed. “You know, I don’t know why, but I’m just so curious to know where we’ve seen this dream before.” Adrianne looked at her brother with deep interest. “Aren’t you?”
“I actually am pretty curious,” replied Alex. “I’m not sure why, but I think this dream has something to do with the other dreams we’ve been having.”
“You’re probably right,” Adrianne replied, no matter how much she really didn’t want to admit it. “Well, is there something else you want to say to me before I take a shower, Alex?” Adrianne asked, half hoping he would say no.
“Just one more thing about the dream,” said Alex. Adrianne sighed and said, “What is it?”
“You know how there’s this really cold and scary voice is saying something about killing?”
“How can I forget?” Adrianne mumbled. “Seemed like he tried to kill me.”
“Well, doesn’t his voice sound just as familiar as the dream?” Alex replied, looking at his sister anxiously.
“It seems familiar to me.”
“Oh my god, Alex your right,” said Adrianne. She slapped herself on her forehead with her palm. “How could I have missed that?” Then Adrianne frowned. “But we remember as much as his voice as we do of the dream.”

“True”, Alex replied, disappointed by how much they knew. He sighed. “You know, out of all the scary dreams we’ve had the past few weeks, this scary dream is the most annoying one yet.”
“Tell me something I don’t know,” replied Adrianne, her face in her hands now. “Man, I’m overwhelmed just by thinking of this stupide, freaky dream.”
“You have no idea,” Alex replied wearily. ”I’m so stressed out over this stupid dream I wish weren’t having any of these stupid, odd dreams.”
“Me, too,” Adrianne replied. She stretched her arms and gave a big, long yawn. “Here’s another thing: no matter how tired I am, I just can’t fall asleep.”
“Me neither,” said Alex, giving a yawn as big and long as his identical twin sister. “Why can’t we sleep tonight?”
“I’m not sure,” Adrianne replied, giving another big, long yawn. “Maybe it’s because we don’t want to face another freaky dream that’s even freakier than the other.”
“You’re probably right,” Alex admitted, as much as he didn’t want to. “Hey what time is it?”
Adrianne looked at the little red clock on her bedside table.” Three-fifteen in the morning.”
Alex sniffed the air, than he had a disgusted look on his face. “Gross!” He covered his nose with his hand. “What is that smell?”
“I think it’s us,” Adrianne replied, sniffing the air. ”We really need a shower.”
“No kidding,” Alex mumbled, sniffing her shoulder. ”Especially you.”
“Thanks, Alex. You’re such a saint,” Adrianne remarked, sniffing her brother. “A stinky saint, nevertheless.”
“Ha-ha, you’re funny,” Alex retorted, using the same amount of sarcasm as his identical twin sister. “We need a shower,” he said without any sarcasm. “Really badly.”
“You’re right, I’ll go first,” replied Adrianne, standing up and taking out pajamas and a towel. “See you.”
“Wait! Adrianne!” Alex called before she could go out the door.
Adrianne stood in the threshold, with red pajamas and a red bathrobe in her hands. “What?”
“Why do I have to go last?” Alex asked his twin.
“Because I have to go first. Duh,” said Adrianne, rolling her eyes.
“I know, but, why do you have to-“
“Do you really want to argue, Alex?”
“No.”
~5~
“Good. See ya.” Adrianne waved bye to Alex and went into the bathroom down the hall. After about 30 minutes, Adrianne was in her pajamas and was just about done drying her hair.
“Sure took you long enough,” said Alex, standing up from waiting for Adrianne outside the bathroom door as she was taking a shower and blow-drying her hair in his sweaty state. “Why does it take you like 20 minutes just to blow dry your own hair?”
“Alex, have you forgotten, my hair is waist-length,” replied Adrianne, referring to her sandy hair. “It doesn’t exactly take a blink of an eye for it to be dry.”
Alex thought over this for a moment. ”Have you ever considered getting a haircut?”
“I can take a trim, but a cut, absolutely not. I’ve had this hair since I was six, and I’m not cutting it six years later,” said Adrianne, stepping out from the threshold.
“Whatever,” said Alex, walking into the bathroom. “Sweet dreams,” Alex called as Adrianne went down the hall to her bedroom.
“Less likely,” Adrianne shouted behind her shoulder before shutting the door to her room.