And now...a preview of my next story!

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Tatie sat down heavily, breathing out a tired sigh.

“This,” she announced “is starting to suck.”

“Our lives suck,” snorted James, still staring at the T.V. “They always suck. There’s no ‘starting’ about it.”

“Can it, emo boy,” Tatie snapped at him. She turned again to Jacques, shaking her head wearily. “Seriously, though, Lyra is...” she lowered her voice, so that Lyra, asleep in the other room, wouldn’t hear her “...getting to be more trouble than she’s worth. I mean, she’s nice, I guess, but she’s so sick all the time, and she doesn’t have a job, so she’s definitely not helping pay the rent. I really wish Jones hadn’t dumped her on us like this. I understand you owe him, but...”

“I know,” said her boyfriend soothingly, putting an arm around her shoulders. “I know. But, I’m getting everything worked out, and I’ll be getting back to work again pretty soon.”

“Yeah, Tatie?” spoke up James. “It’s not every day your workplace burns down with everyone in it, you know, like his did.”

“We could always get rid of Mr. Cranky here,” said Tatie, narrowing her eyes at him. “That would-”

But she never finished her sentence.

She was cut off by an incredibly horrible sound. A long, ragged, absolutely terror- stricken scream coming from Lyra’s room.

“Oh my god,” she whispered to Jacques, turning to him in fright. “I better go see what just happened.”

She rushed into the other room without knocking, Jacques trailing behind her.

The lamp was still on, and it’s yellow light showed Lyra to be laying there in bed, tangled in the sheets. Her chest was heaving, she was trembling fiercely, and though she moved her eyes to face them, they were full of a distant terror. Her skin was chalky, her hair a damp, sweaty mess, and under her eyes there were dark pinkish- brown circles.

Tatie shivered involuntarily. How disturbing Lyra’s dream must have been, she could hardly imagine.

And she stood there for a few moments, before realizing that she was in fact scared to approach Lyra.

Scared to speak, too, but she worked past that fear.

“Lyra,” she said. “Are you OK? What happened?”

Lyra didn’t answer at once, but instead dragged herself into a sitting position, still breathing hard.

“I...” her voice was faint and hoarse “I just...” she seemed to have trouble getting her words out.

“Had a night-” Tatie started, but was suddenly cut off.

“I saw people dying,” Lyra said in that quiet, hoarse voice. She shuddered, unspeakable disgust in her eyes. “I saw them. People dying. That was...no normal nightmare.”

A.N) I see dead people! I didn’t realize until after I read that part how alike that was to what Lyra said XD.

Anyway, if you enjoyed that snippet, then READ MY NEXT STORY goes all evil, Tale of the Lost, to find out what happens to these four unlucky flatmates. It’s probably going to be a bit darker than Reject Your Realities (hey, check out that title), but there will still be some romance and humor in it. It also has alternate worlds in it (I just love those XD), but they play a very different role.