Good night Sal,” Salvador’s little sister Melena said. 

“Night, Mal,” Sal replied, turning for his door. 

Sal climbed into his bed and closed his eyes. 

His mind was blank until a peculiar dream stirred into his thoughts. 

It was a cold and dark day and the princess was running through the castle holding her two young siblings in her arms.

The princess walked into a room, right in the center was a portal showing a large house in the middle of mountains and trees. 

“You will be safe here.” The princess assured them by showing the little infants their new home.

In a new world. 

All alone.  

She took the two children and sent them in, leaving them on the front porch. Right before she exited the place, she looked back one more time, looking at their tiny faces.  She could have sworn she saw them wink. 

The girl came back into the portal, right when she stepped away she heard a cold raspy voice, “Seize her!”  Two hands gripped her tightly behind the wrist, cutting off her circulation. 

“Where did you send them.” The voice ordered.  He stepped more into the light showing his face. The man had the darkest shade of black hair and scars all over his face. His eyes were a deathly shade of black and his smile was cold and wicked. 

The girl was too scared to speak. 

“Tell me where you sent them.” The man orders again, stalking closer and closer to the girl. 

“I will never tell you!” The girl managed to say, “they are safe and protected from you and you will never be able to find them!” 

“We’ll see about that.” The man said. “The king's men are already looking for them.” He staked even closer, lifted her chin, and continued. “We can make this easy for you. You tell us where you took them and harm will never come to you. Or, we could find them ourselves and you can be sent away...like your parents.” 

“NO!” The girl screamed. She thrashed and flailed trying to loosen her grip. “I will never tell you.” 

“I am warning you.” 

The girl stayed silent, still trying to escape their death grip.  

“Very well then. Send her away.” 

And the girl was taken away into the mist. 

A voice stirred inside Salvador's head…..

SALVADOR! SALVADOR! CAN YOU HEAR ME? TRUST YOURSELF. FIGHT, YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO! TRUST YOU INSTINCT. SAVE ZING AND IT’S PEOPLE…. I KNOW YOU CAN...I KNOW YOU WILL…. 

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There was silence…

And the dream ended. 

Cold sweat trickled down Salvador's face as he abruptly woke up from the horrifying dream.

No, not a dream. 

A vision.

Memory. 

Someone had talked to him. 

 You know what to do. 

That's what the voice said. 

Sal looked at his clock which showed: 4:50 

He had been asleep for four hours.

 Sal closed his eyes and counted to ten. He took deep slow breaths. Once he reached one he opened his eyes and let his thoughts swarm through his brain. 

I never usually remember my dreams that vividly, Sal thought, remembering each detail and sound that he had seen or heard in the dream-the girl's screams and the babies' cries. Sal also remembered the dream-vision also going in slow motions in times that felt most interesting.

  After taking twenty steps on the marble floor off his humongous bedroom, Sal remembered something and rushed to his desk. 

He reached for the last drawer of his desk and pulled out a bronze journal with the symbol on the cover. It was a gold phoenix with its wings up and blue flame in between, this was the only thing that Sal had when his parents found him and his sister on the porch of their large mansion, Willows Manor. 

Willow Manor was an isolated Mansion in the deep mountains of Colorado, it was passed down from his grandfather’s grandfather. Thankfully, Sal’s parents made renovations when they got it, making it look more modern and 21 century.

Willow’s Manor was surrounded by tall mountains and had a beautiful clear lake in front of the house. Surrounding the lake there was lavender  Whomping Willow, there were water fountains and balconies for almost every room (even on the seventh floor) At night you could see the distant glow of the city which Sal always loved. It was like watching a light show from the farthest distance. Sal also loved it when it snowed and the mountains were covered in snow-making it perfect weather for snowboarding-which his parents only allowed him to do when they were in a good mood.   

The one thing that Sal hated about the mansion was it was so isolated that the nearest store was about twenty minutes away. for the longest time Sal loved living in a mansion far from the city but has he grew older Sal felt more distant

Other than the snow days, Sal and his sister were forbidden to go to the mountains so the only way Sal could enjoy the view was by looking at it through the top to bottom clear glass windows.

Sal usually spent most of his time reading books in the humongous library or getting homeschooled. 

Now that Sal thought about it the house that the girl went to looked like this house, they had the same whomping willows and bushes-but something about that house felt colder and less homey. 

Sal opened his journal with pictures of castles and monsters he would dream about. He went to the next clean page and named it “Zing” in the section he put the girl and the masked people, the castle, and the children. Sal stopped when his hand started to hurt, he put the pencil down and stared at his loopy handwriting, “Zing.” He told himself, the name sounded so familiar, like it was holding on to the edge of his brain unable to get back up.  

Sal sighed, he was so close to having a breakthrough in his life and it was gone in a second. 

Sal was annoyed. 

He was annoyed by being pushed around and made fun of because he had a mysterious past, weird marks on his hands, and now unexpected dreams.

Sal was forced to act like he fit in when he didn’t. Of course, he didn’t blame his parents-they tried everything but nothing worked. The only connection to this world was this dream and his journal-both of which was very unhelpful. 

Sal sighed, plopped down on his bed, and looked out his window at the colors of light that shone from the city. He could see very small speckles of movement and lights-as he looked down at the buildings and people a plan formed in Sal’s head-he wouldn't say it was a good one but it could work. 

Sal changed and headed for the front doors. 

His whole life Sal followed-now it was time to fight.