“When they sleep with dreams so vivid and vibrant they would look and feel real. They were in fact real. When the chosen few slumber, realms, worlds and all times can and must be crossed. All fates need you, you chosen few. Sleep, adventure and fight well.”

The Symphony of Voices

Georgia started to speak, her voice stuttered and her vowels had started to flatten. All the work with the coach to lose her coarse northern accent that her fathers parents hated. They may be her guardians, they accepted the role, not because of love but simply because she had no one else. Three deep breaths later she was steady enough to talk. "I don't want this but if one of us doesn't stand for school council can you imagine what Penelope will do. She will make our life a living hell."

They sat around the table in their common room, for some reason a group of eight misfits had found themselves together and now they were close to sitting their final A-level exams. Each of them seemed so different and yet they actually enjoyed each other's company.

Louisa was frantically scribbling random colourful jottings on white copier paper. Georgia stared at the childlike drawings. She was distracted by her friend who had started with these sketches randomly, it was distracting.

"Stop." Georgia shouted above the friendly chatter and everyone but Louisa stopped. Her scribbles had become more violent and urgent.

"What?" Louisa barely looked up from her scribbles. Her eyes glanced then nothing.

"Stop, right now." Georgia grabbed at her friend's hand to stop them.

"I can't, it's like I've gone bloody crazy, out of my mind." She tried to flex her hands. "I dreamt of things I needed to get on paper and we know I can't draw, I'm going to do creative writing and English literature at Uni not art."

Everyone nodded in agreement except Georgia who didn't understand what they were agreeing with.

"It's just exam stress." Georgia said so firmly in her knowledge as she barely stifled a yawn.

"Nah, seriously mate." Aiden said in his lazy Australian drawl. "It's like last night was technicolour flashes of a brilliant nightmare."

"What he said." Graham hadn't stopped nodding like one of those crappy nodding dogs that you saw in kitsch shops. His soft Scottish baritone sounded like a gentle melancholic folksong.

"Did you not dream? Not see?" Sophia asked in her soft Irish lilt.

"I didn't sleep." Georgia answered as if they were crazy for needing sleep before she yawned a wide o again. "I needed to study more than I needed to sleep."

"You think we're crazy?" Aiden asked. "You were always the stable and grounded one.

"If I don't get into my first choice. My grandparents will end me."

"Yeah, yeah. We know they're the snobbiest snobs ever but they won't end you. You'll just have to get a job with the commoners." Aiden continued even as she yawned again. "Georgia just have a nap, it's the weekend. You're no good to anyone if you collapse, that includes you."

She curled up on the sofa without even thinking she was exhausted. She wasn't sure how long it took her to fall asleep but she was sure that her dreams were scary, bright and so vividly colourful.

"My queen." The voice was soft and yet insistant through the bright swirling fog. "My queen, you need to join your friends. We need you all." The voice wouldn't leave her as she seemed to be floating through the swirling colours she tried to move but her limbs were leadened as if she were both light as air and yet each tendon, muscle, bone and joint were tethered. Panic settled inside her.

"Don't panic my queen, all will clear when it is time and as time is short it will clear soon." The voice seemed further away, the message still seemed for her as random visions popped out of the fog. She tried to grab at items but she was still tethered, she was freezing, the chill seemed to seep into her right to her bones and yet she could feel sweat beading at the nape of her neck.

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She grabbed at the crown that forced itself out of the swirl and still her limbs didn't move. The crown. Just like Louisa had scribbled but it looked so solid and just out of reach. She started to move again as she floated through different locations, one after another not long enough to take in details but enough to see that nothing made sense.

She floated like a helium balloon tethered by a pretty curling ribbon. She breathed in heavy pants as her panic became more real much like the scenes she was floating through, she could taste and smell, not just see. Then she heard screams, and dissonant noises. Swords clanged, lightning flashed and sulfur filled the air. More screams, everything inside her tightened as she fought to move. She needed to help, as she recognised one panicked shout it was Alex and he never panicked he was the Mr Cool of their group. They never really understood him being with them, he was one of the cool kids after all.

Her body jerked as she flew on. New blurred faces, sounds and smells. The screams started again as she jerked more. Almost enough to break the tether as a screeched, high pitched scream left her lips and she was awake. Sweat clung to her skin as her wide eyes jumped around the concerned faces.

"What was that?" She huffed out each word through her gasped breaths.

"Not a damn clue Georgia." Aiden said as he let go of her shoulders and stepped back.

"We couldn't wake you. You worried us."

"You saw it." Louisa spoke like an excited puppy as she jumped up and down. "I'm not crazy am I?"

"Now is not the time." Alex spoke as their voice flipped from a clipped british accent to a flat US accent then as they flipped back again through their next sentence. This only happened when they were stressed.

"Georgia, you know I often talked about weird crap but this crap is the weirdest of weirdness. We all had the same type of dreams."

Georgia still wasn't awake enough to talk but her body and breathing had relaxed enough for her to push herself to a seated position.

Silence descended like a gathering storm in the room, the only noise breaking the gloom was a pencil scratching at paper as Louisa continued with her frantic scribbling.

They all jumped when there was a loud rat-at-tat-tat knocking at the door. No one answered at first before it happened again. By the time it had happened for the fifth and loudest time Aiden opened the door. "We heard you the first time mate."

"I am not your mate, you do however need me as much as I need you." A stranger was at their door. How had this man got through school security and why the hell was his voice familiar, she thought. She may have managed to sit up but she still wasn't aware enough to speak.

"How have you got into school grounds?" David asked, obvious distrust in his gaze.

She stared at the newcomer studying him, why was he putting her on edge so much?

"Ah Miss Parker you see something, you understand?" The stranger moved around the bodies that had crowded him.

David grabbed his shirt collar, he was the tallest of our group well six foot five, with long limbs and hair longer than hers. "You never answered my question and you talk to me, not her." David jumped and let go of the strange white haired man she was noticing more details about him but she had never seen him before now she was so very certain she recognised his voice.

"I don't see anything. But I do remember your voice. You were there in my dream." Georgia's words were clear and sure.

"Yes, I was. My Queen, I am here to serve you. To serve you all."

Her friends gaped at her. Their mouths seemed to simultaneously drop to the ground in a strange choreographed dance.

"I am no one's queen." She shook her head violently.

"You want to stand for the school council Georgia. Is that what he means?" Sophia asked as if considering the man and his words.

"I don't know, I don't understand." She rubbed at her temples. Her thoughts were swirling much like the vibrant fog from her recent dream.

"You need to understand and soon my queen. Everyone's fate relies on you all." His arms waved around the room wildly like a conductor trying to keep control of an orchestra filled with errant cats.

"Mate you look and sound more than a little on the crazy scale." Aiden drawled he seemed calm and yet she noticed the slightest tick on a muscle near his left eye.

The crazy conductor clicked his fingers and

Graham jolted his spine straightening. "Crap. It is real." His usually soft voice hardened to a harsh growl as his hand moved to clutch his chest over his heart, before he sank to his knees.

"I'm sorry Graham, they need to understand and showing works so much better than telling. If we had longer and the clock wasn't ticking I wouldn't have done this." The stranger suddenly looked like their age, late teenagers all seventeen or eighteen.

She couldn't move as her friends all rushed to Graham's aid. Not that they could help their stricken friend. All the panicked voices swirling into that vibrant fog and her limbs became leadened. "Enough." she said to no one and everyone in the room as she tried to move. Just like her dream, but she was awake wasn't she?