Amanda's slim figure stood on a cliff overlooking the California coast as it stood against the constant beat of the ocean waves.  It's a struggle that tests the shore's will against the untiring waves whose only purpose is to slowly drag it out to sea.  Amanda's black hair rivaled a raven's feathers, so dark as to absorb all the light that came near it; her flowing curls were like the last gasp of a wave hitting the beach below.  Having naturally wavy hair was a mixed blessing to Amanda; while everyone envied her wavy locks Amanda often thought that she would be much better with straight hair, like everyone else.  That was until she realized that her hair was envied, after which she came to regard it as a blessing, a unique quality all her own.  It took many years for her to realize her uniqueness, but when she did it seemed to release her from her shyness.  Amanda's best feature were her green eyes; a shade of green that rivaled a fine emerald or the green of a new spring.  Her mother would often say that her eyes where like a window to Eden, so rich with life, teeming with the essence that is existence.  To look into them was to gaze upon that perfect garden and to see what might have been.  Amanda was not perfect but her parents felt that she was as close as anyone had come so far.  Her nose was straight and slim, and not at all pretentious.  Her skin was a light alabaster shade that was quite better then being totally pale, or so she always told herself.  Her frame was slender but strong, like a reed of bamboo she stood, proud but never egotistical or boastful.  Her hair reached the middle of her back and on top of her head perfectly framed her brow.  Her appearance spoke of a kind and modest sense of being in this girl of 16, who was called a blessing by all who knew her.  She stood like the shore, confident, against the crashing waves.  The rose colored glasses she wore seemed to shield her eyes from the evil that men do.  To literally look at the world in a rosy haze, for all the evil and good in the world is created by the souls that inhabit it.  Those with intellects, who create their Gods as an ideal and their Devil from the mirror image they see.  The shore does not know of this artificial morality, this man-made separation between what is considered good and what is not.  It is like everything else in the universe, morality inert.

Amanda is a character that exists in the pages of a book.  She has only as much dimension as the writer who conjured her up could give her.  She is timeless, and will remain unchanged.  Yet, she is alive in her own way; she lives in the mind of not only the writer who conjured her up but also in the minds of those who create a picture of her in their minds.  Amanda's qualities appealed to one Dana Follows, and so she saw herself being like Amanda.  It was her fondest wish, since the first time that the picture of who she thought Amanda was began to form in her mind, to be totally like her.  Dana read the pages of her book until the words were firmly entrenched in her brain.  Every detail was known to her, yet she continued to read her book until the words began to move from the page and into every aspect of her life.

Dana's wish was to be more like Amanda in every way.  Reading the words on the page conjured up an image of a perfect girl in Dana's mind.  She now found herself acting more like her literary heroin.  When she looked in the mirror she saw Dana, but so wanted to see Amanda staring back at her.  If only she could change her eyes a little, she thought to herself.  Then, maybe then, would she be that much closer to being like Amanda.  The obsession grew over time.  Dana's light brown hair, which she had been proud of a few years ago, now looked wrong to her.  At one time she considered her hair to be her best feature.  It was long and gleaming, and it caught the light in just the right way and seemed to sparkle and glow, like a diamond does when it catches a beam of light.  It was her pride and joy at one time, but that was before Amanda came into her life.  Now Dana didn't see that shine in her hair.  She wanted her hair to be jet black, and absorb the light rather than reflect it, like Amanda's did.  While shopping for a few things one day Dana spotted an eyeglass store and strolled into it with the hopes that she might find a pair of glasses that Amanda was described as wearing.  She looked around and found a pair that closely matched the ideal pair.  In the book there was little to go by way of a description, but Dana searched her recollection and pieced together the details of what Amanda's glasses should look like.  She placed the pair she found upon her nose and looked into one of the many mirrors around the store.  She posed and stared into the mirror.  The salesman waited patiently as Dana gazed into the mirror.  If there had been any doubt in Dana's mind that Amanda would not be caught dead in this pair of glasses she would have taken them off.  However, the glasses seemed to be what Dana had in her mind as the "perfect" pair of glasses.  She bought them and another part of her transformation was complete.

Dana's friends noticed the changes in her personality and in her appearance.  They wouldn't have thought it such a strange thing since they were finding themselves too, and were also transforming their look.  However, the change in Dana went so far that she didn't want to be Dana Follows anymore; she wanted to be Amanda.  And in that lay the difference.  She had gone so far as to introduce herself as Amanda to strangers.  She made her friends call her Amanda too, telling them that it was her middle name and that she preferred it to her first name.  Her friends took her at her word, but began to find it preferable to not spend as much time around Dana anymore.  She began to isolate herself, finding one other girl who understood her.  Hannah Evanson was a shy girl and found it hard to make friends.  So, it was no wonder that she didn't let go of her friendship with Dana when others did.  Hannah found it perfectly strange to call Dana by Amanda.  Nevertheless, Hannah was not going to loose her only friend over something as trivial as a name.  Seeing as there were not that many people who were willing to hang out with her she ignored the whole name thing.  It was better than spending her time alone, she thought.  A crazy friend, Hannah thought, is a whole lot better than not having a friend at all.

Dana's waking moments were now being spent thinking of how she could be more like Amanda.  She had her look, and even found some clothes that closely matched what Amanda was described as wearing.  She walked around talking like the character and even thought herself the incarnation of Amanda in the real live world.  Never for a minute did the thought that Amanda had never really existed ever come into her mind.  For Dana Amanda was real, and was now coming to life within her body.  Dana saw it as a privilege to be the vassal through which Amanda came to life.

Dana's parents were in the middle of a bitter divorce; too busy separating their lives to be concerned with Dana's transformation.  That and they thought that Dana would simply grow out of this phase in her life.  Hannah wished that it would happen sooner than later, for she didn't enjoy Dana as Amanda too much.  Dana was very much like Hannah, before she changed.  Both were shy, and both dreamt of being more like the characters in their favorite books.  Hannah, however, never thought to transform herself into one of those characters.  She thought of the characters as mentors, as models to strive for, but not to imitate.  There was a point in which Dana did not want to be Dana anymore.  She found her need to be Amanda shortly after her parent's divorce.  Her parents loved her, but the love that they once shared for each other was long dead.  It had been replaced by bitterness and scorn towards each other.  In the middle was Dana, not about to understand how two people who loved each other so much when they started their lives together could hate each other with the same passions that sparked a love between them.  She partially blamed herself, though she could not pin down any one reason for her own guilt in the matter.  She simply went with the assumption that she had done something wrong, and that that one act soured her parent's love for each other.  In short, Dana blamed herself for the divorce.  Of course her parent's problems had nothing to do with her.  If anything she was the reason why they stayed in a loveless marriage for so long.  However, Dana never grasped that concept, and simply found it easier to escape into another person, with another life all the better than hers.

That was the true purpose of her transformation.  She didn't want to be Dana, the home wrecker.  She wanted to be Amanda, the perfect daughter whose parents were still together and more importantly still in love.  With the transformation complete Dana saw her life becoming all that she wanted it to be.  No more would her friends avoid her.  She would get new friends, better friends than before.  Her parents would not get a divorce.  Having the perfect daughter would assure that.  Amanda was perfect in Dana's mind, and to be like her, or rather, to be her would assure her everlasting happiness.  With Amanda's essence in her, as well as her courage and her heart, Dana knew that she could face any problem with the certainty that everything would turn out fine, just like in her books.  Dana was drowning in her sorrow, and Amanda was her lifeboat.  She put all her hope in the fact that being another person would change every negative thing in her life into a positive.

Dana walked on to her school with a new attitude.  This was the first day that she was truly Amanda.  She was ready to take on the world.

The days went by and Dana seemed to have no troubles with her new persona.  She had stood up to a couple of the popular girl's taunts with a wit that she always had, but never displayed.  She had allowed herself to finally say what she was thinking through her Amanda persona.  Everything seemed to be going so well, Dana had actually made a few new friends in the writer's club, and even got a few complements on a couple of her Amanda like poems.  However, the whole point behind Dana's transformation was to keep her parents together.  Yet, even as Dana was putting the finishing touches on her transformation her parents were putting the final touches on their divorce.  In the weeks that it took the papers go travel their judicial journey Dana noticed that her parents were getting along a little better, though her father was still out of the house.  Then came the day that her mother walked into her room to tell her that the divorce was final.  The news hit her like a cement truck traveling at a hundred miles an hour, though she played it off while her mother was still in her room.  After her mother left Dana cried until she didnÂ�t have any tears left to shed.  And then she cried some more.

Her whole world was crumbling, and being Amanda had not helped.  However, instead of putting aside her new persona she felt that she had not done a good enough job as a daughter, and that if she tried harder there was still a chance that her parents would marry again.  Nevertheless, the harder she tried to be Amanda the worst things got for her.  Slowly she was letting go of who she was and becoming more like Amanda.  Even in her transformation she had always thought in the back of her head that she was still Dana, just with an Amanda mask that she showed the world.  Now, with the pain of her parent's divorce she lost herself in Amanda and no longer had that though in the back of her head to ground her.

The final drop in Dana's faith that her parent's would get back together came a couple of months after the divorce was final.  It was her father's weekend to spend with Dana.  She still had enough of a grasp on reality to stay Dana while she was with her father, though she now had two thought processes going on in her brain.  One was her own thoughts, and the other was Amanda's personality coming through, stronger.  It became like an internal struggle for Dana's mind between the two personalities.  Dana still held dominion over her mind, but Amanda's personality exerted its will more and more.  When Dana's father told her that there was no chance that he and her mother would ever be together again Dana saw no use for her Amanda persona.  However, it was now a fully formed personality and it began to think on its own, and didn't want to seize to exist just yet.

As Dana saw the futility of being Amanda for her parent's sake she returned to just being herself.  However, she found herself dreaming of Amanda persuading her to let her live again.  Dana would wake-up in a sweat every night.  In those dreams she had she was being pursued by Amanda down a long forest path that resembled the path in the Dark Woods in the book.  At the end of the path she would find herself looking down a tall cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean.  Dana would wake up just as Amanda was about to lunge at her and throw her off the cliff.  Every night for a weeks she had the same dream, and no matter what path she took in the woods she would always end up caught overlooking the cliff, with Amanda blocking her only escape.

Dana went to Hannah for help.  She told her how she had been a fool for letting this Amanda thing get out of hand.  She also told her friend that she knew that the moment she let Amanda catch up to her was the moment she would no longer exist.  Hannah reassured her, but did recommend that she talk to her parents and get professional help.  Dana hesitated.  She already felt that something she did made her parent's stop loving each other, now she thought that if her parents learned about this it would make them stop loving her.  That was out of the question, but she had no idea how to suppress Amanda.

That night Dana did not want to go to sleep, but as the hours went by and midnight turned into 1 a.m. and 2 a.m. turned into 3 a.m. she found herself struggling to stay awake.  It was no use, for around ten after three her tired eyes got the best of her.  Again she found herself in the forest, though this time she thought that she wouldn't run away from Amanda.  Amanda came running up the path like the previous times, but Dana stood firm.  Amanda did not slow down and as she closed in on Dana she leaped up in the air and everything went black.

Dana found herself in a house, a house that resembled the description of Rose Haven, Amanda's house in the book.  She sat up in the bed and realized that she was in Amanda's room, but could not understand what had happened to her.  Dana looked around the room and found every single item that was described in the book, right down to the small burnt spot on one of Amanda's carpets, the small nick on the edge of her desk, and the scratch on one of window panes.  "How can this be?" she asked herself, puzzled at the very notion that she was in a place that only existed in a book, and in her mind.  She walked out into the hallway and down the stairs.  She paused at the foot of the stairs and turned to the kitchen, where the smell of pie was emanating.  She entered the kitchen and found a pie sitting on the table.  On the stove was a pot of tea brewing and next to the pie was a cup and fork.  Dana looked around for a moment, and found her way towards the back door.  She stepped outside the house and found herself staring at a rose garden, the one Amanda tended to with loving care.  Everything was as she read it in the book, down to the last detail.  What Dana didn't understand was how she found herself here.

Meanwhile, in the real world, the Amanda that Dana had conjured up was living her life in Dana's body.  She didn't have Dana's fear of rejection, so she found it easy to make friends and talk to people that Dana would have never approached.  No one questioned what Amanda did because Dana had conditioned everyone to not only call her Amanda but to think of her as a different person, the person who was now in control of her body.  As the days went on, Amanda ingratiated herself to more and more people, until she made just about as many friends as a person could handle.  In class she was sharp and was one of the first to raise her hand to answer any and all questions.  Amanda could not do anything that Dana herself did not have in her to begin with, she was simply willing to tap into those emotions and knowledge and express them outwardly.  Amanda found herself the talk of the school, for everyone wondered what had happened to Dana to transform her into this outward person who seemed to have none of her previous reservations.

Back in Rose Haven Dana heard the sound of a horse coming from the path in front of the house.  She quickly ran to the front and saw a person who appeared to resemble the description of James Miller, Amanda's neighbor in the book.

"Hello Amanda," shouted Mr. Miller at Dana, "I hear Benjamin is off to San Francisco yesterday, I'm sorry to hear that."

Dana remembered those words from the book, they were from the second chapter, after Amanda's love, Benjamin, had left town for a job.

"Yes," responded Dana, "He left yesterday."

"I'm sure he'll be back right quick."

Dana smiled at Mr. Miller as he began to make his way down the path again.  After a moment of thought it was clear to Dana that Mr. Miller saw her as Amanda.  She quickly made her way back into the house and into the front parlor.  There she looked into a mirror that hung on the wall.  She was not entirely stunned to find herself not looking to her own face but that of Amanda's looking back at her.  I'm in the book, thought Dana to herself.  She did not know how it was possible, but it did appear that she was not dreaming, but actually in the make believe town of Windy Meadow.  Dana walked to town in order to see if she would wake-up from what she still believed to be a dream.  Nevertheless, there was something about this place that was beyond a dream.  None of Dana's Windy Meadow dreams had ever been this detailed.  In her dreams she had viewed Windy Meadow as a passive observer, and not an active participant.  Now she was seeing everything through Amanda's eyes.

A few days had passed and Dana was happy that she had not awaken from what she thought was a divine dream.  She thought that she had finally found a perfect place where she could be happy.  The characters had not deviated from the story of the book for the first day.  However, on the second day they did things that were not in the book.  It seemed to Dana that where ever she was she could changes things.  Events that happened in the book still happened, but not in the same way they were written.  Dana found herself content, and unwilling to question where she was anymore.  Ever since she first read "Amanda of Rose Haven" she had wanted to dwell in Amanda's world.  Now that she was here she didn't want to leave.  She began to forget the troubles she had faced before, for there was nothing but happiness in her new place.

A week passed and Dana had almost completely forgotten her real life.  This life was so much more fulfilling, and without heartache or pain.  Amanda's parents from the book treated Dana with the love that she sorely missed.  It was all she wanted, and more, because it was perfect in every way.

However, things began to change on a walk through the woods near the abandoned mill.  In the book, Amanda and her friend Sarah West had always wanted to see what was in those woods, but were always too afraid to venture too far into them.  Once, the two decided that they would explore the woods with another friend, Erin.  The three of them only got a few yards in before Erin fell down a hole.  Amanda stayed with her while Sarah went to get help.  Erin was saved, and was not that hurt.  However, the three saw the accident as a omen to stay away from the woods.  They ventured to try to explore those woods again, but that was in the second book.  Yet, Dana thought to herself that she would be able to succeed where Amanda and her friends had failed.  Having read the book she knew exactly there Erin had fallen and she would not make the same mistake.

As she passed behind the old abandoned mill Dana began to tread lightly.  The forest canopy was thick and what had been a bright day turned into a twilight haze that was not too easy to see through.  Dana made her way carefully around where the book described Erin falling and made it past that point.  She smiled as she looked down the hole that had once almost consumed Erin.  "Not me," she thought to herself.  She turned away and made her way deeper into the woods, those unexplored woods that Amanda had not been able to penetrate.  But, as the woods got thinker she ran into an invisible wall that she could not pass through.  She put her hands up to push through but was meet with the feeling of paper on her hands.  The same paper used in books.  She moved from side to side but could not break through.  She used her finger nails as a claw and scratched a piece of the paper away from the forest background.  In the hole she had left was now another piece of paper, underneath the one she had just ripped off.  There were words, but not enough to make out what was being said.  She ripped the page some more and revealed more of the words.  She read the sentence and realized that she was looking at a sentence in chapter 8 of the book, the chapter after Erin fell into the hole.  The author of the book never wrote a description of the woods behind the old mill because Amanda had not passed through there yet.  It was meant to be a mysterious place without a description.  Dana realized that since the woods really didn't exist in the book she could not travel through them.  It would seem that only those things that were in the book could exist in her dream world.

On her way back to Rose Haven Dana thought of how wonderful this place was, but also how incomplete it felt.  As wonderful as it felt to be in Windy Meadows, it wasn't real.  Nothing that didn't exist in the book existed here, and by that it made the place all the more unreal.  Dana thought of home, and though it was not the perfect situation it was real.  It's important in the human condition to have some misery in one's life, if only to define and contrast the happy moments.  Dana's week in Windy Meadow was wonderful, and filled with moments that she was going to carry for the rest of her life.  However, she now wanted to return to her real life, and face her many problems.  The alternative was to stay in a make believe world that didn't ever change.  Her only problem now was, how to wake up from this dream.

Amanda was doing much better in Dana's life.  In one short week she had talked her way into the 'in' crowd at school.  Hannah was not part of that crowd, and so because of that she felt as though Dana had left her for greener pastures.

Dana went back to the only place she could think to escape this make believe world, Amanda's room.  In her mind it was the logical place to start since that is where she was when she arrived in wherever she was now.  As she stood in Amanda's room she looked around, looking for anything out of place.  She really wasn't sure what she could do in order to return home.  Like Dorothy she thought that clicking her heels together three times would send her out of this Oz, but it didn't work.  Dana sat at the edge of Amanda's bed and thought about what she could do to return home.  Nothing came to mind.  The hour was getting late and her tired eyes got the better of her.  She slept quietly until the next morning when a she heard the sound of the floor creaking besides the bed.  She quickly woke up and rose.  Standing at the foot of the bed was Amanda.

"Dana," she said in a calm voice, "I know you want to go home... and I'm here to help you."

"Why would you want to help me?"

"Because, I'm a part of you... only I'm that spark that lives within you that is the Amanda from the book.  When a writer writes he or she conjures up a character.  For the most part a character is someone the writer knew.  It doesn't always have to be one person either; a character might also be made up of many different people the writer knew.  Nevertheless, a character finds life in a writer's words.  A part of that life lives within the writer, and a part lives in the words on the page.  You tapped into that life and conjured up your own idea of what I mean to you, just like everyone else does when they read my book."

Dana sat listening to Amanda speak.  Soon the two were conversing like old friends.  They talked the whole day, about the book, about each of their lives and about how Dana could return to her life.

"The Amanda you created through your actions has taken your body and mind over."

Dana thought for a minute and asked, "How do I get back to my real life?"

"You must fact that other Amanda, the one that brought you here."

"Then what I punch her... I give her a stern talking to... What?"

"You must simply face her... but really what you will be facing are your fears.  You fear many things Dana, most of all rejection and the feeling that no one loves you.  I know what you have gone through, but that doesn't mean that your parents don't love you.  Facing her means youÂ�re willing to face your fears.Â�

Dana began to cry, the pain of her parent's divorce was like an open wound, and talking openly about it was akin to rubbing salt in it.  Dana cried as Amanda began held her.

"It wasn't your fault Dana... you should never have blamed yourself for the decisions your parents made in their lives.  I can tell you that I know that they love you, as much as they always have.  YouÂ�re not the reason why they decided to separate."

"How do you know?  How can you know for sure?  How can you know anything?"

"Because Dana," said Amanda with a calm and confident tone that reassured Dana.  "I know you... I know what you feel in your heart.  There is a part of you, deep inside, that understands how much your parents love you.  That part also knows that the divorce had nothing to do with anything you did.  Search deep inside your feelings and you will know that it's true.  Nothing they do to you comes from hatred.  It all stems from love.  Still, you must learn to face your fears.  Your fears manifested themselves as Amanda, and you let her take over because you felt that she would make everyone love you again.  No one stopped loving you Dana, except yourself."

The day went on with Amanda reassuring Dana, until the stars began to come out again and the sun went to rest on the other side of the world.  Amanda and Dana went down to the kitchen where the two talked over dinner.  In that conversation Amanda and Dana spoke of many things.  Dana had found a good friend in Amanda.  Yet, if all went well, and she escaped this dream world, she would never speak to her new friend again.  The hour grew late and the two retired for the night.

The next morning Amanda and Dana set off towards The Shadow Woods, located outside of town, near the ocean cliffs, where Dana was chased in her Amanda dreams.  The two friends figured that this was the place were they might be able to confront Amanda.  As the two reached the path Amanda paused.

"Dana," she said, "You have to go on ahead on your own."

"I know," said Dana with a nervous smile.

"Believe in yourself and think of home and I'm sure you'll get back there.  This is the most wonderful time of your life, don't waste it in a make believe place.  You can't ever convince time to slow in order to fully enjoy your youth.  Cherish the moments you have now.  Trying to hold on to them will only make them slip through your fingers."

Dana nodded her head, smiled at her friend and began to cry.

"What's wrong," asked Amanda.

"Will I ever see you again?"

"I don't think so."

"Then this is good-bye then."  With that Dana gave Amanda the hardest hug she had ever given anyone.

"A little part of me will always be with you Dana, as long as you remember the words that moved you so much."

Dana smiled again and began to walk up the path.  The path meanders though the woods until it reaches a small clearing.  In the clearing is a well, the well where Amanda and her true love Benjamin met to profess their love for each other in the book.  The lover's well was said to grant wishes to anyone who throws a small stone into it.  Dana picked up a small pebble, closed her eyes, made her wish, and cast it into the well.

Dana walked to the cliff and there stood Amanda, a little different for her time in the real world.

"I hope you like what I created for you Dana," said Amanda with conceited temper in her voice.

"I want my life back," yelled Dana as she pushed Amanda towards the cliff's edge.

Amanda grabbed at Dana's clothes.  "Stop this," she shouted, "If you push me down that cliff I'll take you with me... and if you reach the bottom youÂ�re as good as dead."

Dana still struggled with Amanda, as the thought slowly made its way into her conscious thoughts.  She wondered if Amanda was right, or if she was simply saying something, anything in order to save herself.  It must have been true.  Dana loosed her grip on Amanda's clothes.

"There, I'm glad you came to your senses Dana... killing yourself along with me isn't going to free you from this place.  Dream world or not, you hit those rocks down there and your as good as dead," said Amanda with a smug smile on her face.  Amanda's words were far removed from anything in the book that Dana realized that this Amanda was not the same that she had wished to be.  The Amanda that stood in front of her now had thoughts of her own, and wanted to live as much as Dana wanted to return to her life.

"This is my life now," continued Amanda, "Your going to stay here like a good girl and like it.  Now... if you don't mind, I have a life to get back to."

Amanda turned around and was startled to see her double, Dana's friend, standing on the path leading back to the woods.

"Not if I can help it," said Amanda as she pushed her doppelganger towards the cliff.

"You don't know what you're doing," cried the second Amanda as both closed in on the edge and plunged down the side of the cliff.  Dana did not want to see the aftermath; instead she winced and took a deep breath as she heard the two Amanda's screams suddenly stop.

Dana sat on a small patch of grass, contemplating her only way to escape from this place.  In every falling dream that Dana had ever had she never reached the bottom before waking up.  She knew no other way to wake herself up from this dream world.  Both Amandas had warned her that reaching the bottom of the cliff would mean certain death.  Nevertheless, there seemed no other way to escape.  Dana could simply walk away from the cliff, but then that meant that she would have to live the rest of her life in the Windy Meadows in her mind.  To all in the real world she would be in a perpetual self-imposed sleep from which she was too afraid to wake up from.