It was boring. Watching the re-enactors walk the grounds had grown tiring fairly quickly. This was my fifth time at the old battlefield in the past two years. This time, I just felt that something was off as my friends and the rest of the students stood in the plaza that held the old mission's stone walls. The guide's droning voice made it hard for me to focus as he spoke about the pivotal events that led to Texas' creation as an independent country.

It all felt different. The air felt charged with energy as soon as I set foot in the fortress. "The place is giving me the willies," came tumbling from my lips. The re-enactors I had seen were all around the plaza. Some were dressed in little more than peasant rags, while others were dressed in mountain man buckskins, and still others wore old wool clothes. The winter cold sent a shiver through me, fervently hoping it was winter's last gasp.

"Keep up, Victoria," Dr. Babbage said, spurring me to catch up with the back of the class. I heard the guide droning on. "Those thirteen days in February and March of eighteen thirty-six paved the way for the defeat of the Mexican army in the battle of San Jacinto and what would ultimately end the rebellion." The guide said boredom dripping with every word.

"So whatcha doing for your birthday?" Lucas asked as he came over to us. I had known him since the first grade when my family moved to San Antonio.

"Going to visit my dad in the hospital. Mom says he should be home soon." I looked over at my bespectacled friend. "Why? Want to come along?" The guide kept talking, and I raised my hand to ask a question.

"Yes, do you know what happens this year that doesn’t happen every other year?"

I nodded in reply. "Eighteen thirty-six was a leap year just like this year. So this year is one of the few years where we celebrate the full thirteen days the battle took place instead of twelve days every three years."

"Very good, Victoria," Mrs. Babbage said, one of the few times the stern older woman looked at me with approval.

"Nah, I hate the hospital. But I asked Mr. Lagrand if you could come to the gaming club to try it out," he said with a wistful tone in his voice.

"I don’t know. I don’t think it would be my thing." I said coyly, wringing my hands. Okay, I thought to myself, I think it would be totally my thing, and Michael will be there. "I mean Brandy and the others think I’m strange enough as it is." Lucas nodded his head in agreement.

"The queen bitch." He snorted quietly so that only Caroline and I could hear it. "Still just pop in this afternoon. We’re starting a new campaign," Lucas said excitedly. "We get to play the original Dungeons and Dragons." His blue eyes sparkled mischievously.

"Wait, there’s more than one type of D and D?" Caroline asked puzzled.

"Yeah, original, two-point zero, three, three-point five, and four," he said with a smile on his face. "Then there are the derivatives like the D twenty systems that have both fantasy, modern, and this futuristic one." Oh god, I thought to myself, save me from nerds.

The blond rolled her very expressive eyes at him. "What does that even mean? Seriously?"

I heard a mighty sigh and looked over to the other side. One re-enactor stood hunched over near us, shaking his head. He looked like a picture of Jim Bowie. "That one thinks of life as a game. If it was so easy, the battle could have been replayed and won. It wasn’t supposed to have played out that way at all." He said. "If we had listened and been able to get the guns out, things might have ended differently."

"What do you mean?" I asked, eyeing him. I was still thinking about the various versions of dungeons and dragons.

"My orders were to take away or destroy the stores in the mission. We didn’t have the oxen to move the guns," he snorted. "They called it a fortress, only to the surrounding homes was it that. What gave it her strength wasn’t her walls. It was my men and their courage and honor." He continued to speak. I eyed him critically as he continued to talk about the battle. "We were all cocksure and full of piss and vinegar."

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

"And then what happened?" I asked quietly.

"Mrs. Babbage, Victoria’s talking to herself again!" One of the other students cried.

The man looked up at her startled in surprise. "You can see me?" He said shock in his voice and then was gone in the blink of an eye.

Lucas was looking at me curiously when I turned to look at him in shock. "What happened?" He asked.

I blinked in confusion, then pointed at where the apparition had just stood. "Did you see the man that was just standing there?"

Lucas reached out and took hold of my quivering hand as it pointed to a spot that was on the ground next to us. "Man?" He asked quizzically. I tried to explain what I had seen, to describe the man, but I knew I wasn’t making any sense, and then a floating blue box appeared before my eyes. Before I realized it, I had scanned the text, with a startled squeak. I collapsed bonelessly to the ground. "Dr. Babbage, Victoria passed out again." A boy cried out before I lost all sense of awareness.

I woke to someone shaking me and softly calling out my name. “Victoria, are you okay?” I kept my eyes closed and answered the officious voice of Dr. Babbage.

“No, I have a migraine, and someone keeps shaking me.”

The shaking stopped almost immediately. “I’m so sorry, is that what happened?” Dr. Babbage replied.

“Yes,” I lied. While I had migraines when I was younger, I had not in several years. What I really wanted to do was to keep my eyes closed, partly due to my embarrassment and to try not to think about the blue screen and its message.

“Do you think you can stand?” Dr. Babbage asked.

“I think so?” I said lamely. I didn’t want people to think less of me, but I also didn’t want them to think I was crazy. They would have if I told them I had just seen the blue screen of death.

“Good. Luke will escort you to a seat while we finish up here.” The older woman’s bony grip gave my hands a squeeze as she inexorably pulled me to my feet. “Luke.” The woman said as I felt other hands on my elbow. "What happened?" Luke asked as he led me to a bench.

“I don’t know. It had to have been a migraine.” I said. He felt his arm shake. “No, that wasn’t it. You always get flushed, and your right eye twitches when you have a migraine.” Luke replied. I looked at him, my eyes opening wide. “How?” I asked.

“I’ve known you since first grade.” He said sheepishly. “Anyway, what happened?”

I looked around surreptitiously to see if any of the other students were watching. “You won’t believe me.” I said with a whisper as he led us to a bench. I looked into Luke’s dark gray eyes.

“I believed you about the fairy in third grade.” He whispered back. I remembered the damned fairy. I had just turned eight. It had been like a ball of light that danced through the flowers in mom’s garden that summer. No one else besides Luke and my brother Vincent had believed me that Fairies were real.

I took a deep breath, to calm my nerves Before I spoke. “It was really weird. I was standing there, and I thought there was a re-enactor talking to me.”

“Wait, why did you think he was an actor?” Luke said glancing around. I pointed to one of the other people dressed in period costume, a man in buckskins holding a Kentucky long rifle. “Well, just like that guy over there.” I whispered. “He’s dressed like one of the soldiers that fought in the battle.”

He looked where I had pointed, and then his eyes narrowed. ”Victoria, I don’t see anyone there…” he said tentatively. “Are you sure?” He asked.

“Yes. He’s right…” I said as one of the other students walked through the figure. The girl visibly shivered, like she had something walk on her grave. “Oh, my god!” I hissed as I paled in realization. The blond girl went right through the man. My eyes went wide as I felt panic start to set in. “I feel like I’m losing my mind.” I said clutching at my head. “She, she just walked through a ghost.” I hissed as silently as I could.

“Victoria, are you alright?” Caroline asked me as she approached. “Y’all look like a monkey just danced on your grave…

”

I swallowed reflexively. “I… I think I saw a ghost.” I stammered. My attention was drawn to a small spot in front of my eye. It seemed to throb rhythmically. As if it recognized my attention, it once more unfolded into a flat blue box before my eyes.

“Victoria? What’s wrong? You’ve gone pale again.” Dr. Babbage said as she came over and reached out a hand, grabbing my chin then examining my face.

“It’s just my headache.” I said as the older twisted my head and her hand through the Blue obstruction. It was Schroedinger’s message board I thought with a giggle. It wasn’t real, but it seemed to hold a message for me all the same. I hoped I was having some sort of fit, but the message seemed all too real.

Happy 16th birthday!

You have 1 hour to complete setup and registration, or the system will initialize with default settings.

Do you wish to enter Set up? Y/N