𝐢. FEELINGS ARE CONFUSING

                                    

                                          

                            

                                
                            
                              
                                  
                              
                              
                                
                                  
                                  
                                
                              
                             
                            
                            
                          
                          
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  BAILEY HAD BEEN HAVING THE same dream every night now. She always found herself back in that strange forest and the same thing would repeat itself. She would notice the bioluminescent moss, be entranced to head northeast toward the largest tree in the forest and stumble upon the same palace. There were times when she woke up just as she found the castle, other times she would wake up once she reached the door, but not once had she ever gone inside. The voice was too powerful, calling her indoors and Bailey always ended up turning around. It was the strangest thing. She'd never experienced something like this before. She was the type of person who had a different dream every night, at least that's what it felt like when she could remember her dreams. Usually, they were out of her mind the moment she woke up never to be brought up again. This was a complete anomaly. 
There was no concrete evidence that dreams had meaning, only speculation and theory. The human subconscious was still a mystery to most of the scientific community and Bailey was no different. How she hated not knowing things, not understanding her own mind. It was so infuriating. What was her subconscious trying to tell her? Who was this voice that kept trying to lure her inside that palace? How had her mind even conjured up such a place? 
Bailey would have been more enthralled with her thoughts if she hadn't caught the unmistakable scent of a smoking burner rising from the kitchen. If she was smelling it from the attic something was seriously wrong...
She quickly ran down the stairs to the second floor, there she saw Bella had also come out of her room with a look of panic. 
"Hold on, you're not cooking?" Bailey pointed at her elder sister. They both paused for a moment as the realization set in. If Bella wasn't in the kitchen and Bailey wasn't in the kitchen either, then that meant the one cooking had to be—they both rushed down the stairs just in the nick of time.   
The jar of spaghetti sauce Charlie'd stuck in the microwave was only on its first rotation when Bella yanked it open and pulled it out. 
"What did I do wrong?" Charlie demanded. 
Bailey stared at her father bemused. "You're supposed to take the lid off first, Dad. Metal is bad for microwaves because, you see, microwaves are a form of electromagnetic radiation, like radio waves. As such, they generate by a magnetron which pulses back and forth rapidly inside an oven at a carefully calibrated frequency. Microwaves bounce off the oven's interior mental walls, pass through paper, glass and plastic and they get absorbed by food—specifically the food's water content. This makes the molecules oscillate back and forth, creating heat and cooking the food from inside out, the outside in, or uniformly, depending on where the water lies,"
Bella poured half the sauce into a bowl, and then put the bowl inside the microwave. She fixed the time and pressed start.
Bailey walked over and inspected the metal lid closely before continuing.