Hallucinations

         In the midst of all the twirling and dancing around me I realized... this wasn't dancing; this was something entirely different.
         My heart was caught in my throat and it felt as if my lungs had shrunken in size-- it was so hard to breathe. It suddenly became a priority of mine to get out of there.
         I untangled my hands out of Daniel's and began my journey through the maze of "dancers."
         "Hey! Priscilla, wait! Where are you going?" Daniel called out after me.
         For a second I wished I hadn't left him. I turned around and saw him following me, pushing through the crowd, with his eyes full of questions. My heart knotted up inside me, but I twisted back around and hurried out the doors, greeted by the chill of the frosty moonlit air.
         My golden blond hair looked like long strands of gold thread as it flew behind me. My mind raced, my chest heaved, and with a sigh I lay down in the crisp, frozen grass.
         Without realizing how long I had rested in the grass surrounding me, I was startled when Daniel tapped me on the shoulder.
         "Sorry..." he said.
         I shook my head. "It's fine. I should be apologizing... I shouldn't have ran out on you."
         "What happened, anyway? Why did you just run out of there like that?"
         "Well... I don't really know... for some reason at first I saw everybody dancing around us and then suddenly I got this vision in my head of everyone performing some sort of... witchcraft? I don't know. I don't know what happened, really." What was wrong with me? I thought.
         A puzzled look crossed Daniel's face. He sighed and looked at me with his deep blue eyes and said, "Are you alright, though? I mean, you looked pretty frightened."
         I nodded. "Yeah, I'm okay."
         "Good," he said and the corners of his mouth crinkled up into my favorite smile. "Now what do you say we get out of here?"
         I let him pull me up off of the grass and we walked together to the diner that wasn't too far away.
         I opened the door and heard the soft clang of the bell that hung on the door. The warm air swirled around Daniel and I and comforted me, causing me to forget about what just happened for a little while.
         We sat at the nearest booth and shared a plate of warm, salty fries.
         "I know that tonight's been pretty confusing and strange, but I don't think what I saw was just a hallucination. It seemed so vivid and real... as if it was actually happening," I told Daniel before I took a sip of my lemonade.
         "That's how hallucinations are," Daniel explained with a smirk.
         I frowned and Daniel laughed.
         "Look, I'm being serious when I say that... I think something's going on around here. Witchcraft, I suppose." Daniel didn't look as though he was taking me seriously, though.
         "Priscilla," he whispered. "I believe." Then he broke off into hysterical laughter.
         "Ugh!" I screamed, and shoved the hot plate of fries away from me.
         "Aww, come on. You don't really believe in your own hallucination do you?"
         I scoffed at the word 'hallucination.'
         Daniel sighed and leaned forward, twisting my golden hair around his fingers and resting the palm of his hand on my cheek. "Nobody can explain what happened tonight, but let's just forget about it, okay?" he said, as if it was just that easy to drop the topic and move on. I wasn't going to give up, but I let it drop for now.
         Not too long after, a familiar haze blurred the edges of my vision and everyone in the diner transformed into witches, bending over bubbling potions instead of meals. I gasped and my vision came back, all of the frightening witches disappeared, and Daniel gave me a worried look.
         I cleared my throat and reached for a fry, but the plate was pulled away from my grasp.
         Daniel's hand was firmly gripping the plate and he asked, "You didn't just see a bunch of witches again, did you?"
         I paused and replied, "Yeah, kind of."
         "Kind of? You did!" He shouted. I didn't know what to do or say; Daniel had never acted that way.
         "I'm sorry! I can't help it!"
         Daniel shook his head slowly and got up. "I don't think we can be together until you stop with this nonsense," and with that he walked briskly out the door, the bell clanging.

{TO BE CONTINUED}