I stared into the darkness, brown hair a mess around my face. This was not the dream world I had in mind. Somehow I had fallen asleep and woken up here, in a dream, in my dream, tell me again how this was possible?

Yet these stones staring back at me had faces, it couldn’t be real. I am just a normal girl, right?

You know that’s not true Amara.

I sigh, that voice again. It was true though. I wasn’t normal.

I tried to be normal for a long time but I had given up a while ago, the dream world was like a home to me, I was there so much of the time. The golems in front of me was stones, stones with faces staring at me. I had to do something, they were waiting for something, either something to happen or for me to do something, but I didn’t know what.

I sat down and suddenly I found myself in the garden, the one that was always outside my house, when I lived with my aunt, Marybelle. I spent so much time out there, letting the soft breeze blow through my messy Brown hair, let my eyes slip shut and my mind travel to other worlds. That was something I loved to do, sit outside and let my mind travel elsewhere, feeding my imagination.

The garden was always beautiful and I liked to think of it as magical, even if it was cold it never seemed to touch my precious garden, with a stone bench just barely underneath the willow tree that gave it some shade, a small stream and some many colored flowers and plants scattering the ground. I loved it.

Suddenly a large shadow diminishes the peaceful air of the garden causing a shiver to travel up my spine.
I look over, there’s my stepfather, the man who I never got along with, Daragh.

I bite my lip, the voice inside of me I had long ago given up on getting rid of, and she told me she was deception. And she wanted this emerald comb and I promised to help if she didn’t leave me, I liked having her around, she kept me company.
He looks angry and I frown, my blue eyes showing some uncertainty of what he wants.
“Amara, get here now”

His voice is steady but his eyes are fierce and that makes me worry.

Don’t listen to him, turn your head and pretend you don’t see him.

I decide to listen to the voice and turn my head, blue eyes staring into the small stream in front of me, my bare feet resting in the grass. I hear him walking over and he grabs my wrist, I flinch on instinct and look over at him.

Ask him about the emerald comb, he might know
I open my mouth, the words taking a long time before I finally ask
“Do you know anything about the comb? The emerald comb of deception?”

“Why do you need it?” he hisses, and I want to back away right now, his voice and his face makes me shiver. I don’t like it when people are mad at me but I can bear it especially with Ariaena (deception) whispering in my ear at all times. I won’t back down, I never do.
“because I just do why—“ I am about to say more when a bird flies by and it looks right at me, I wriggle my wrist free of him and stand up, the grass feeling cold now beneath my feet and with a short look down I notice it is no longer grass but stone, it has a path that leads forward. I don’t know if I want to follow it or not, something screams at me to not go down this path but Ariaena seems excited.

Go.

“I don’t want to” my voice shakes slightly, it looks and feels wrong but she hisses in my ear more urgent.

Go!

Feeling my feet begin to walk, as if in a trance I walk further down the path and I see it. A brilliant gleaming emerald comb and something passes through me. Looking around with wide and curious blue eyes I see a girl, my age but with raven hair and gray eyes and I recognize her even though I’m sure I’ve never met her before, she’s deception, she’s the girl that’s been whispering to me all my life!
“What’re you doing over there?”

My voice is softer than I intend it to be but she hears me none the less.

“Because I have my comb back well I will have it soon enough, Amara”

She holds out her hand and I find myself reaching over, the emerald comb in my hand as I hand it to her.
She smirks, not a dangerous one but it still sends shivers up my spine. The way she said my name and the way she looks at that comb that’s now in her hand.

She places it in her hair and she seems to become more solid and steady compared to before when it seemed I could look through her.
“Thank you child, you might want to turn around. You’re kind of trespassing with the guardians. Sorry about that by the way, I’ll come save you in about possibly 50, 25 years, depending on when I get the chance” she disappears after saying that, in a cloud of green smoke, but her words seem to stay.

And suddenly I remember the golems, the stone faces staring at me, the stones in the dream and I gasp, whirling around, and sure enough I am surrounded by those stone faces. What she said suddenly makes sense as they grab me, I squirm, kicking and trying to get free as I feel something making my legs heavy and impossible to move.

I look down and my eyes widen, I am turning to stone! I stole from them for deception and now I am paying the price, I look up, blue eyes sad as I turn to stone.
A girl, a human girl trapped in stone until someone, someone comes to rescue her. A poor girl used by deception.