Viewer, Walker, Whisperer Chapter 1

This is a story that I wrote for my mother, and I've just decided to post it for fun. :)

P.S. The title 'Viewer, Walker, Whisperer' isn't actually the name of the story. It's currently untitled.

Chapter 1
Keri
The ice bear growled ferociously. I shivered, and I had great suspicions that this wasn’t due to the sleet of ice that had just blanketed me and the surrounding bushes.
“Charge!” A command was all it took for the war to start. Armies of well-equipped soldiers fighting against each other. Men on stallions wielding their swords. The two commandos were riding on ice bears; I wondered how they dared to.
I was so intent on watching them that I jumped and shrieked when a silver horse slammed into the little, straw hut next to me. My heart was palpitating.
Did anyone hear my scream? If they did, what would they do when they found me hiding insanely behind these bushes? Would they take pity on this little girl that was barely half of their age? Or are they unknown to mercy?
I kept my eyes warily on the soldiers closest to me; they were still fighting. It was as if nobody had heard my scream—the loudest scream I’d screamed until now.
Was it because they’d been too engrossed in piercing each others’ spears through their enemies’ hearts? Or maybe they had mistaken my shriek to be one that was in the path of death?
I considered all these possibilities, but none of them seemed to make any sense to me.
What if they hadn’t heard me because to them, I ceased to exist? I shuddered away from that possibility. Such things just didn’t happen, not in real life anyway. Only in fairytales, I reminded myself. Only in fairytales. Only in fairytales.
Suddenly, a hand clamped down on my shoulder and my breath caught in my throat. Maybe they had heard my scream and was trying to find me. Whatever it was, it didn’t matter. I was trapped now...
**
“Keri! Keri!”
Wait, how did the soldier know my name?
“Keri Hilton, you’d better wake up now!” The soldier shook me again, with more intensity this time. Wake up? I wasn’t asleep! I was in some place covered with snow that I didn’t even know existed!
“You have to go to school, Keri!” He shouted in my ear and, without warning, I jerked out from behind the bushes and back into my warm, familiar bedroom.
I sat up, panting. Beads of sweat were running down my forehead, dripping to my chin. My brother stood before me, a frustrated look on his face.
“Finally, you’re up!” He threw his hands in the air melodramatically and stormed out of the room, as if it contained some contagious disease that he didn’t want to get infected with.
I rolled my eyes and sighed, lying back down on my furry pink pillows. I blinked rapidly, tired, but not daring to go back to sleep.
It was getting worse and worse. The dreams. They were now more real than ever, as if I were really there, wherever my sleep took me, that is. I was so fearful that one day I would wake up, and wouldn’t be facing this room anymore. And I wouldn’t even know how to come back!
I put my hand over my face and inhaled deeply, trying to calm myself. Relax, Keri, relax. All you have to do is tell somebody. But despite my efforts to calm myself down, I simply couldn’t.
I knew that I couldn’t tell anybody! I had tried before, back when I was ten—and I am twelve now—and nobody listened! They had all thought that I was simply neglected and was trying to gain some attention. They didn’t even bother to listen to me! I groaned. What made me think that they would listen to me now?
“Keri!” My brother yelled from downstairs and I immediately got up, my long, black hair cascading down my back. No matter. I would just pretend that this snow-capped dream hadn’t even taken place, as I usually did.
After prepping myself for school, I grabbed my black-and-white satchel and hurried down the stairs, skipping two steps at a time. As usual.
I seated myself next to my brother and, after muttering a good morning, started scooping out the syrup to pour all over my pancakes. Kevin twisted around in his seat to face me and spoke in an annoyed tone, “What took you so long?”
My mind pondered over the vast number of replies I could give. Could I possibly say: oh, I was just thinking about how I travel in my sleep? Or maybe how I got melted snow in my hair this morning, like every other day upon waking up?
In the end, I simply replied, “You know, stuff.” He rolled his blue eyes and turned back to watch the news. I sighed internally, stuffing pancakes into my mouth roughly.
Why was it so hard to communicate with him nowadays? I used to be able to tell him everything! We were twins; the best of friends! I thought back to the days when we used to run around together in the garden, chase butterflies from the flowers; talk about anything and everything... Oh, how I missed those times!
But we slowly grew apart when all those dreams started. I was conservative; he was conservative. Actually, now that I think about it, he was acting almost as strange as I was when we were ten. He always gave one-word answers during the two months when my dreams had begun. He didn’t talk much either, which was odd, due to the fact that he had been the most talkative one in class.
I broke out of my daylight reverie when Mother came over to take my plate and put it in the dishwasher. “Come on, time to go to school,” Kevin said curtly. I placed the straps of my satchel on both of my shoulders firmly, then followed him out of the door. “Bye Mother, bye Father!” I called back and waved, although they couldn’t see it.
Kevin and I walked in awkward silence to the bus stop. It had always been this awkward with Kevin, especially when we were both alone—which was rare. He isn’t much of a good brother. Well, part of me argued, I’m not much of a good sister either.
All through our relatively short journey, my mind kept spitting out subjects to talk about. I had even tried asking him how school life was going for him—it was the first thing my broken brain could suggest—but all means of conversation were forced to stop at his mean tone.
If it would have done better to improve the relationship between us, I would have willingly sighed/groaned/moaned/complained at that moment, like what I felt like doing. But since it probably wouldn’t make an impact on anything except contribute—slightly—to noise pollution, I kept my mouth shut.
See? This is what I mean by ‘I couldn’t talk to anyone anymore’.
**
“Yo man, what’s up?” Kevin greeted his ‘brothers’—who were really just his close friends—and fist-slammed them; his usual greeting.
I was already used to this—and by ‘this’, I meant my only sibling ignoring me—so I crossed over to the opposite side of the bus stop, loitering there alone.
As usual.
Everything was as per normal today, except for me. I was the only thing here that wasn’t normal. Not since I’d unintentionally decided to reminisce about the past—the past that I wanted with all of my heart to come back again. I wanted the once unbreakable bond between my twin and I back. I wanted all the bad, odd dreams to stop. I wanted the past; I needed the past.
I clung onto this need all the way to school, where I sat alone during lunch; where I hung out with myself; where everybody pushed past me; where I was the most ignored. As usual.

--Viewer, Walker, Whisperer