1 A Dream Come True

Leaning over the tightly packed suitcase, Erin looks over her clothes and things one last time. She couldn't believe that the day had finally arrived to begin her study abroad in Ireland. Since she was a small girl she had dreamed of one-day studying abroad and now, at 20 years old, she was finally getting that chance.

Erin had been packing for at least three weeks, trying to make sure she hadn't forgotten anything but also trying not to over-pack. "How do you pack for a year in a foreign country?" she thought quietly to herself for about the millionth time. She pondered the silly question again and shrugged, figuring she could always get anything she forgot. It wasn't as if she was going to some desolate region where she'd be unable to get any necessities.

With a final glance around her tiny bedroom in her parents' home, she sighed happily to herself and decided it was now or never. Erin had never traveled out of the country and had never traveled on her own at all. Feeling nervous but excited, she closed the door on her familiar, comfortable room and pulled her suitcase behind her down the narrow corridor. She had no idea what was to come but she was excited to finally be making this trip.

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Finally, after a seven-hour flight across the Atlantic, Erin had arrived. She had just passed through customs and decided to freshen up a bit in the restroom before finding her way to the next leg of her journey, a three-hour train ride from Dublin to Galway. She wasn't particularly looking forward to another three hours sitting but she stretched her legs as much as she could while glancing at her reflection in the mirror.

Her loosely-curled red hair reached just past her shoulders and her emerald green eyes gazed back at her. As she checked herself and prepared to pull her hair into a comfortable bun, a sudden energy passed through her. As she peered into the mirror, a strange thing happened. Reflected back at her was no longer her own self but another woman entirely. The face gazing back at her was remarkably similar to her own but slightly different, and her clothing was nothing like the comfortable jeans and sweatshirt she was actually wearing.

The strange energy continued to pulse through her body, making every hair on her body stand on its end. She shook her head thinking she must be daydreaming but when she looked back in the mirror, the face was still slightly unfamiliar and her clothes still not hers. She looked closer at the woman peering at her--- this couldn't be real, could it? As she looked more closely she noticed what looked like a faint electric blue aura surrounding the reflection.

Shaking her head one more time, she figured she must just be overtired, that her single hour of sleep on the long journey was making her see things. When she looked back one last time, the other woman was gone. The bizarre electric buzz in her body lingered but her reflection was her own now.

"What the ...?" she pondered in her head.

"It must just be exhaustion," she determined to herself as she finished pulling her hair up and checking her now-familiar reflection. She decided it was time to go, she only had an hour to get to her train and she needed to figure out how to get to the station.