Dreams…
Isobel sat on a plane reading her book. Next to her sat two young girls.
They were whispering to each other as the plane took off. Finally the one sitting in the window seat called to her "Excuse me?"
She looked round. The girl looked shy and rather embarrassed. "Would you-Would you like a lollipop?" she asked, offering a bag of Isobel's favourite's.
Isobel smiled at the girl. "No thanks." She told her. The girls looked a bit upset, and Isobel wandered why they had offered her a lollipop. Then came a voice from in front of them.
"Ella, Nicole, why don't you offer that girl next to you a lollipop?"
"We already have, mum!" the two girls stage-whispered simultaneously.
Then another voice interrupted. The voice of an old lady. "Eh, what's that?"
As the two girls, Ella and Nicole, annoyed their sister by putting puppets in her face, Isobel listened to the conversation of the two adults.
"Well mum, there's a girl next to Ella and Nicole who's travelling on her own and I told them to offer her a lollipop, which they apparently have already done. I don't know if she accepted or not, but I do know they asked." Said the first voice, Ella's and Nicole's mum.
Isobel tuned out. These people's pity was not something she needed.
She turned her attention instead to the cleverly disguised book in front of her. Because, contrary to what the other passengers and the air stewardesses would have thought, It was not a book. It was a communicator and information pack about her current mission.
Because, I ask you now, reader, why would you think a girl of about eleven or twelve would be travelling alone late at night? The official story, given to the stewardesses, was that she had two parents who were constantly travelling, and she was forced to split her time between the two of them. She was home-schooled, supposedly by both her parents, but in reality by a man of no relation whatsoever to her.
She didn't need the concern and anxiety felt on her behalf by the stewardesses, and she'd seen enough hardship to cope without their kindness. But nonetheless, Isobel was grateful.
And she didn't realise just how safe her dangerous life had started to feel while she was in the air as she dropped her communicator and slipped into a dream…
"Run, Isobel! Hide! Or it'll kill you too!" a woman's voice yelled at me. I was crying "No, mummy! I won't leave you!"
The woman who I called my mother was visibly distraught as a pepper pot shape approached. Before I could prevent her, she pushed my tiny body under the bed.
I heard a fearsome cry of "Exterminate!" and my mothers dying scream before giving in to the tears.
The monster turned towards me, towards the bed. "Identify yourself!" It shrieked at me.
I crawled further backwards as the metal monster approached me. Just as it was aiming It's weapon, I leapt out from under the bed, my tiny five year old self, and raced to the door. How I got there before the Monster fired I'll never know, but I managed it and raced out the front door.
The Monster didn't some after me. It obviously didn't think I was as important. It had murdered my parents and had probably decided that It had no need of following me as its mission was complete.
But still I ran. I ran, on and on, until I eventually had to stop. I wandered in the forest seemingly endlessly, desperate for food and water.
I was just about to give in and just let myself die when I heard a voice and saw a blurry face swim into my sight.
"It's alright sweetie, we'll get you somewhere safe." A kind voice reassured me.
The poured water into my mouth and after a few moments I managed to grasp the bottle myself, drinking it down quickly.
But as I finished I felt nausea rise within me. I turned to avoid the kind people and threw up all over the grass, before everything faded to black.
The scene changed and I was sitting with the same lady who had rescued me.
"Now, what's your name?" she asked kindly. My lip quivered as tears threatened to overwhelm me.
"Isobel Foreman." I whisper.
Then another voice came, saying "Wake up, Isobel! Do you want a sandwich?" and the scene gradually disappeared.
Isobel blinked open her eyes to see a Stewardess smiling down at her. "Hello again, Isobel-Now, Which sandwich would you like? Tuna, mushroom or tomato?" the stewardess asked, smiling down at her.
Isobel felt herself answering in a daze, not knowing what she was saying- as became clear when she found herself with Mushroom, which she hated-, feeling shaken.
She hadn't dreamt of her past in a long, long time.