A/N: This will be the only authors note unless questions need answering from feedback. PLEASE read and review. Praise it or tear it apart, I don't care. I want to know all the faults and all the virtues of this story, so fire away. OK, I changed the point of view. I decided that Terrance shouldn't be the narrator. Who is? Ah, but you'll find that out later. For now, the narrator will speak directly only in chapter introductions.
So ha!
1
The story I am about to relate to you might seem far fetched. Hell, if I hadn't lived it, I wouldn't believe a word of it. But I am telling you now, every word that you are about to read is fact. These events truly happened. I was there to experience every heartache, tear, laugh, and scream of it. Whether or not you believe me is your decision. You can pass this story off as the mere ramblings of a troubled soul. You can remain in your blissful ignorance, roaming a world that you think you think you are familiar with, but that you know nothing about. I am not teaching you a lesson. This isn't a fable. Aesop was a prat who didn't realize that morals exist in our every day life. Symbolic elements can be taken from the very life you saunter through everyday. Your driver's license is your freedom, your first steps a beginning on the road of life. Something need not be fictional to hold symbolic meaning. So if this story may hold such meanings, take that as a testament of its truth.
But then, what is fiction, really? Does fiction have boundaries? Does it have walls, skies, or grounds? What makes a story fictitious? Does a lack of fact equal a lack of truth?
I don't know if this tale will answer those questions for you. But as for me, I'm left more confused then when I started. Never had my beliefs in my own existence been questioned as they were then. I had always been and there were those that had always not been. You never questioned the reading of a novel or the viewing of a movie. Unless the flashy tag line "based on actual events" popped up on screen, you finished that movie with a sense of confidence, a force field between you and whatever troubles you had just viewed.
That confidence is ill-placed. I will shatter it, and thus free you and prepare you. Perhaps I should let the events explain themselves. All of this took place with the span of three months. That was a few weeks ago. I fear waiting longer to tell the tale…
Terrance looked up from Allen's face only for a moment to view the others in the room. Sitting right beside Allen were his mother and father; his mother grasping his hand. Allen's lifeless body lay in the hospital bed, the beeping of his heart monitor the only noise to break the room's silence. Even the breathing was hushed and the sharp sounds of sobs had finally died down. Derek, Jamie, Joseph, Galatea, and Andrew's faces all wore the stains of tears. Terrance knew that a mirror would show the same of him. They had all cried, cried until they ran out of tears.
Allen's head was wrapped in a bandage, one that greatfuly didn't turn red this time. They had refused to allow them to stay as they dressed it. Terrance was glad the bleeding had finally completely stopped. But he what made him happier was that, perhaps, they wouldn't force them out of the room again.
Allen was struck by a car. But that wasn't the whole story. Allen, being the man he was, had been willing to sacrifice his own life to protect another's. Terrance looked once again at Andrew. He was only thirteen, yet Terrance knew that a sense of responsibility had added to the grief for this boy. For Andrew was who Allen saved. While they walked together, Allen spotted the car speeding at Andrew. Without blinking, Allen pushed Andrew out of the way, taking the force of a speeding vehicle on himself. The hit wasn't bad, however. It was when Allen landed on his head that the lights when out, the lights that, a week from the event, still hadn't turned on. Allen had spoken of Andrew once or twice before. He had always spoken of him as the little brother he never had. A boy with fiery red hair and a sharp glean of intelligence in the eyes. Terrance recognized that look. It was the look on all those in the room. Terrance had developed his own theory on that. He thought that that look acted as a magnet, an irresistible force that drew them together. All of them held that spark of intelligence that set them apart from society.
A lot of good that intelligence did now, here was his best friend lying in a hospital bed, and all the intelligence that Terrance had couldn't help him. The helplessness he felt right now was one that he had never felt before. All he could do was be by his friend's side and wait. Terrance yawned and turned to the clock on the hospital room. Special privilege was given to visitors of coma patients. They were allowed to stay past visiting hours with the hope that anything normal might stir the person out of it. It was one o'clock now, and Terrance felt the heavy strain on his eyelids. In the corner of his mind he noticed Andrew's mother taking the now sleeping boy from the room. The other began to file out, all except him and Allen's parents.
"We'll be back in the morning." Derek said, laying a hand on Allen's mom's shoulder, "None of us have work tomorrow, so we'll be here all day."
"Thank you." She said in a shaky voice, gripping Derek's hand, "Thank you for everything."
"You stayin' man?" Terrance vaguely heard Derek say.
"Yeah, I'll sit through the night." Terrance looked towards the doorway, "He would have stayed too."
Derek nodded his head and looked after Terrance, "Yeah, I think he would have, just like every night." They were talking about Andrew, of course. Each night, the boy's limp body had to be carried out of the hospital. They hadn't known Andrew too well before this happened, but there was a lot of time to talk, and the more they talked, the more Terrance began to think that he saw what Allen saw in the boy. A pure heart, always leaping to help others, always caring for those close to him.
"Strange coincidence that such a boy is named Andrew, huh?" Terrance said with a slight grin.
"He reminds me a lot of Ender as well," said Galatea, "Maybe that's why Allen likes him so."
"There's a little Ender in all of us." Terrance turned to Allen, "he always said that."
"Hey, man, if you're staying here, get some rest, alright?" Derek said as they all headed slowly for the door.
"I'll try." Terrance nodded before he turned back to Allen. Still lifeless. Still asleep, still unmoving and unblinking. God, I just wish I could do something.
Long after Allen's mom and dad went to sleep, Terrance finally began to drift off. His vision fogged over. The fog began to take shape, shifting itself into castle corridor. Terrance looked around, then looked down at his body. He felt his chest, making sure he was there.
Dreaming. I must be lucid dreaming. But I don't recognize this place, nor have I ever seen it.
He took a few steps forward, feeling hard stone beneath his tennis shoes. He followed the corridor around a curve…
"Terry…"
Terrance stopped dead. A whisper? His name. But only his friends called him Terry. There it was again, louder this time.
"Terry…"
Allen's voice, echoing off the stone walls. Terrance called Allen's name back, and began to quicken his pace around the corner. The calls were returning now, relief beginning to pour through the voice.
"Terry! Terry, over here, to your left!"
Terrance turned to his left side and stood facing only a wall. He touched the wall, only to have it shimmer away to reveal a mirror.
But it wasn't him in the mirror facing him, it was Allen. He stood just over five and a half feet, his brown eyes looking outward. His head of brown hair held no evidence of the accident, and he stood with a rather relieved smile taking his face.
"I knew it! They underestimated you guys!"
"Allen? Allen is that you? Where are we?"
"We, Terry, are in a hospital room in nowheresville Alabama. Our minds, however, are on a prison plain."
"A prison plain? But this must be a dream, nothing like that exists."
"It's OK, Terry, I'll explain later. The main point here is that they underestimated you guys! They thought none of you had the power to come here, but they were obviously wrong."
"Who is 'they'? What kind of dream is this?"
"Terry, this isn't a dream. You are really here, and so am I. In our world I am in a hospital bed in a coma, but in this one, I am a prisoner, they trapped me here. This mirror holds an enchantment on it. Only a person truly close to the prison, somebody who is willing to risk their life for that prisoner, can free them."
Terrance stepped closer to the mirror, "How is it done?"
Allen grimaced. "That I am not too sure of."
Terrance gave a look at Allen, then slowly extended his hand. Instead of touching cool glass, his hand went through the mirror and into the other side.
Allen barked a laugh, "It would be that simple, wouldn't it? That bastard."
Allen gripped Terrance's hand and Terrance tugged with all his might…
The entire room jumped as both Terrance and Allen leaped awake at the same time. Everybody went frantic, shouts for the doctor were aided by Andrew dashing out of the room. Allen didn't resist the hands pushing him back into a lying position. He merely looked over at Terrance and smiled at the expression of sheer shock on the other's face.