2 Jem

I grabbed my head, images flashing through my mind rapidly.

Those memories weren't mine-

Someone grabbed my shoulders.

"Meilan, look at me," the boy said.

"My name is Loralie-" I shouted, breathing heavily. The woman was a stranger- no- she wasn't a stranger. She was my mother… but she wasn't. I had a different mother, and she was back at earth-

A wave of pain hit my head again, and I stumbled out of the bed, avoiding their gazes. The world spun around me, and I rushed to the door. Wood splintered as my shoulder collided with the frame. Shouts and screams echoed around me. But I didn't care.

I needed to escape. I needed to get home. The hallways and corridors were endless, and I stopped at a dead-end, staring at a golden sculpture that was twice my size. I felt my heart seize up, and tears dripped down my face.

This household was worth multiple millions.

This wasn't a convention. This was so much more.

"Meilan!" I turned to see the boy sprinting down the hall. He reached out, trying to grasp my shoulders.

My hand met his face with a sicking crack.

"Call me by that name again, and I'll remove one of your limbs." He took a step back, shocked. Two other sets of footsteps followed behind him. My supposed parents. My gaze landed on a vase being displayed in the corner of the hall. I lunged for it, my fingers smashing the vase into shards. I snatched one of the larger ones and pointed it at the boy. "Where am I? Who are you? And why the hell does everyone think I'm someone called Meilan?"

He eyed the shard cautiously and raised his hands.

"Put the glass shard down, you might hurt yourself-"

I laughed, gripping the shard harder. Blood pooled in my palm and dripped to the marble floor.

"I'm not the one that should be worried about getting hurt." I tilted my chin up in defiance. "You have ten seconds to answer my questions."

"Mei- Loralie," he said, the words uncomfortable on his tongue. "You are currently at Lotus Manor, and I am your elder brother, Zilan." Without taking his eyes off me, he pointed at the two adults behind him. "Those are our parents," he said slowly.

I shook my head.

"Liar! Tell me the truth. What do you heathens want from me?"

His eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"Heathen? What's that?"

Silence gripped the hallway, and doubt began to work its way into my mind. Maybe this wasn't some elaborate prank. Maybe I did hit my head too hard and switched realities. Maybe he was right.

I dropped the glass fragment and stared blankly at my bloodied hands.

I should be feeling pain. And yet, all I felt was an overwhelming sense of nothing. Someone placed a bandage around my hand, snapping me out of my trance. It was the doctor. He had a kind smile on his face. He raised one finger to his hair, then pointed at me.

"He's mute," Zilan explained. I touched my dark, long strands of hair. My hair wasn't black. It was light blue. I screamed, dropping my hair in shock. Everyone was beaming at me like I was a pokemon that finally decided to evolve.

"Female Jems are quite uncommon," Zilan said proudly. "Congratulations, sister."

My jaw dropped, and I was overcome with the sudden urge to hit myself on the head again. The sharp sting of the wounds on my hands was proof enough. I was fully awake, and this was no dream. This was no prank. I really did land smack in the middle of a different reality. Was I a different person though?

I rolled up my sleeve, revealing my bare shoulder. Everyone gasped, and the woman- my 'mother'- raced across the room to examine the jagged scar running from my shoulder-blade to my collarbone.

She shouted and fussed over me, but I wasn't listening.

I turned and caught my reflection on a nearby copper mirror decorating a wall a few feet ahead. Same body. Same face. But different hair color.

"It's not uncommon for Jem's to gain unnatural hair colors as well as scars, while their body adjusts to the new level of mana entering their bloodstream." the doctor explained to the tear-stricken woman. "So far it seems her body has succumbed to the changes need to fully bloom."

They were wrong. I rolled my sleeve back down to conceal the scar. I've had that scar for over six years now. It was nothing new.

I knocked both the doctor's and the woman's hands off me.

"Don't touch me." The woman looked heartbroken. She wasn't my mother. My real mother was back on Earth. My real mother needed me right now, and here I was, wasting my time with a bunch of lunatics.

"Jem's? Blooming? You all must be crazy." The room tilted, and everything became fuzzy. I gripped my stomach, hit with the sudden urge to puke. I swayed on my feet, losing balance. My head hit the floor, and I was swallowed into the void.