Thanks for waiting. Took a little longer to update then I would have liked but I find as I am writing I like to go back to previous chapters and change some things as well as put some foreshadowing and whatnot in there so I like to be a few chapters ahead of the updated ones. Thanks for being patient and thanks for the reviews. It is surprising seeing how much reviews help me feel good about my story and make me want to write more since my writing is not only for me :) so thanks for that!
Recap: "The Rebels live!" she screams. The rebels. That is one of the additions of last night's nightmares. What does it mean? I am almost too distracted to remember what happens next. Quickly I turn to Alice to tell her to close her eyes in preparation for the blinding light, but she is gone.
"Alice!" I yell before slapping my hand over my mouth. Oh no. Was I heard? Where is Alice?
Jumping out of my hiding space, I look around the forest frantically. Where could she have gone? Why would she leave? Unless…
Unless she is in another trance? I remember her vacant stare. Of course! Why did I not make sure she was okay? Stupid!
In the distance the conflict continues. "You! Give that to me!" The Trucelentor growls. I freeze in shock. That isn't apart of the nightmare.
My blood runs cold. Alice.
Without thought I run back towards the scene of the Trucelentor, the woman and the dead body; back to my worst nightmare. I can only pray that Alice's visions will not be the death of her, but I know they'll be the death of me. I am running back to the place where there is no escape from death. I won't survive this. As soon as they see me, I'll be killed. But I've no time to think more for as I come into view, I see Alice.
Both the woman and the Trucelentor are staring up at Alice, my sister. Her tiny little body, her short crazy hair, so frail and little, is standing in the direct path of danger. Her stance is defiant, and she does not move.
I'm about to scream her name like she may magically disappear from harms way, but the woman beats me to it. "Don't let them have it!" she screams. I can already see the Trucelentor pulling out its dagger. I am frozen. My mind screams to move but my muscles resist. "Give it to the Rebels!" Before she can say anymore, the dagger is lodged into her skull and she drops silent forever. I scream.
Blood. Death. So quick. Right in front of my eyes. Taken by a dagger through her skull.
I am shocked and disgusted. Never have I seen the woman die. I suppose somewhere in the back of my mind she has always been my beacon of hope in my nightmares; the one person that I never had to see die in the night. And now, so violently, so suddenly, she is dead. Part of my scream belongs to the manner of her death, the other to the fear of Alice, still standing there in harms way.
My body, free at last, begins sprinting towards Alice. To do what? I don't know.
I am only half way there when a light begins trickling from Alice's fist. "Alice!" I scream as if to warn her. What type of wicked is this? The light starts dim and slowly intensifies its brilliance as it proceeds to consume her body. I am in panic, yet so is the Trucelentor.
It's shrieking and I think I am doing the same. Her tiny body becomes the sun. In front of her the Trucelentor begins to move, but before it can take its first step, the light explodes out, consuming the Tangled Forest.
Right before I am forced to close my eyes, I see the Trucelentor's form dissipate between the light particles. Like the light had squeezed its way in-between his very bodily substance and carried it away. My last thoughts are that my body will do the same, but then it is dark again.
My eyes are wide from the sharp contrast of the brilliant light to shaded forest. But everything is the same. The trees are still green and lush, and the leaves scattered around the ground have not been blown away or even touched but by the soft wind that remained. Everything is intact. Except the Trucelentor. All that remains is its heavy cloak.
Halfway in between myself and the Trucelentors remains stands Alice, clenching her fist around a small object, still emanating a trickle of light. Without another moment, she collapses to the ground in a faint.
"Alice!" my voice is hoarse and comes out as a gag. Her small body spreads out on the ground, like a mock imitation of the dead bodies that surround this part of the forest.
I am by her side in an instant. "Alice!" I whisper loudly, because I do not know if we are yet alone in the forest. Alice remains silent, except for her long breaths like a sleeping princess. With a gentle thud, her arm falls off its resting place on her stomach and a small stone falls from her fist. Right away I notice the small light emanating from its core.
As soon as the stone hits the ground, its light fades and it is the small ordinary stone I find on the dead mans body last night and every nightmare before that.
The feeling I get is hard to explain. Alice remains still but I feel like I am falling through air. The world seems to tilt in all sorts of ways that I never thought possible. My mind struggles to grasp the meaning of this.
This little insignificant stone, that I have run my eyes across when I have gone to the dead man in an attempt to save something I didn't understand, this stone that I have touched in fake curiosity one-hundred-and-one times in my nightmares, was the key to surviving? A mere insignificant rock?
Awe? Shock? Disappointment? Anger? Jealousy? It was everything.
How could this little stone do so much?
How could this really be the key to everything?
Why haven't I been able to figure this out? I could have stopped all my nightmares.
Why did I have to die and suffer so many times during the late nights all because of this stupid rock?
Why did my own sister of flesh and blood take one try at my nightmare, and solve everything, where I have suffered years of sleep deprivation, of the fear of nighttime, Alice takes it with ease, coming in to save the day in one single try.
I am happy. I am. Why shouldn't I be? I am alive. My sister is alive. I should be grateful that it only took her once to solve the big mystery, else we could be dead. For real.
But I didn't save us. Part of me knows it should have been me. I should have been able to come in with the white horse to save the day, I have experience. The evil side of me I suppose thinks that we could have survived with me. I found the hiding spot. But of course, then again, I did not find that either. Alice found it. Alice again saves the day.
I do not know where my bitterness comes from. Here, my little sister lays her head on my lap from exhaustion after saving my own life, and I cannot think of one thought of pure gratefulness.
I'm disgusting. An ungrateful survivor.
I should be ecstatic. I survived my nightmare, no matter whose help I received along the way. The Trucelentor is dead, or gone, or whatever happened to it. Alice killed it. Nobody kills a Trucelentor. It's unheard of.
How long have I sat here? A few seconds? Minutes? We should go.
We are in the Tangled Forest, not extremely far from the capitals market, and a Trucelentor has just been destroyed in front of our very own eyes. No one could have heard it, we're too far. I do not know if anyone could have seen it. It was a bright light, but perhaps the sun is enough at its highest that it will go unnoticed.
What if we are still in danger? What if there are other Trucelentors not too far? Can they sense when one of their kind dies?
The Trucelentor is bound to be noticed as missing by nightfall. How much danger are we in? Can we simply go back to behind the castle walls and continue our lives? Would they know it was us? How could they know? Would they question everyone in the village, ask them where they were at this time of day?
What happens if we can't go back to the castle? How do we know if we can or can't? What will we do if we can't?
This brings me back to Alice, who is still faint. Her long breaths continue and I have no hope in waking her. It is like she is in a trance of sleep. The hero-worthy rock lies at an offensive distance from us, mocking me. I am almost tempted to pick it up and chuck it into the woods. But I know better than that. I give Alice another weak attempt at a shake, but she won't budge. Even if we should go back to the castle, I can't carry her dead weight all that way, at least not before the sun begins its decent and we are both noticed missing as well. Even so, someone would see and question. I certainly can not go back to the market and ask for help. They'll certainly question me when they see the two dead bodies and the unmistakenable heavy black cloak once belonging to a Trucelentor. Then what? Tell them the truth? "Yeah you see my faint sister here lying on the ground grabbed this here rock, made it glow like the sun and 'poof' the Trucelentor who had been chasing us disappeared." Yeah that would go over well.
The only people I trusted were Angela, and Alice. Seeing as Alice was lying on the ground in a mini comatose, she'd be no help. Never would I drag Angela into this mess, mostly because she is getting old and plump so probably won't be much help carrying Alice anyways. But also because it wouldn't look so good to some people seeing me walking all by myself back to the castle and then coming back to the market with Angela and then going back to the castle with Angela and I carrying a limp Alice. The market knows Alice and I too well not to be worried, curious or appalled.
This really only gives me one option, wait for Alice to wake up. If she wakes up soon, maybe we'll be able to run back to the castle, staying hidden as best we can. Then we can fill Angela in and she could help cover up our longer than normal absence. But if Alice doesn't wake up soon, I don't know if we can go back. We would be questioned, found out and punished severely.
I at least have to get us out of here while I wait for Alice to awaken. At least far enough just incase the Trucelentor was not entirely alone. What if they have a search party out already?
I am back in panic mode. I figure I can carry Alice's small figure far enough from the scene of the crime. Maybe we'll go back to the hallow tree.
Before we leave I grab the brainless rock. I figure if we run into another Trucelentor I might be able to flash the thing at it and scare it away, not likely. But I stow it in the pocket of my baggy work trousers anyway. It's got to be important to the Trucelentors, better they not get it.
I take another hesitant look at the woman. So real. All my life she has been this tortured fictional character and now, she is real, but dead.
What were her last words? "Don't let them have it?" Could she really mean that piece of granite? I guess it was a pretty important rock if it dissipated a Trucelentor. But what about "Give it to the Rebels?" Who or what was or were the Rebels? At this point, I don't know what's possible anymore.
But I do know that sitting here and thinking about all this is not safe. I need to get Alice and myself away from this area.
I take one last look at the woman before leaving. In my last look, something catches my eye: her right arm is clutching something at her chest. I don't want to go over, but what if it some stupid important pebble or something? Who knows? Who know that a stinking rock would be so important? At this point I am not taking chances of looking past something "insignifigant". Her head wound is gruesome, but the curiosity is too great. What would she possibly be clutching to at the last moments of her life through all this pandemonium? Maybe it was a lover's gift, or a family heirloom, that's what I thought about the rock. I should not go over. But what if it has something to do with these mysterious Rebels?
With quick hesitant steps, I walk swiftly over to her body where the stench of metallic blood and death are almost too great. It takes me only a second to see that it is a chained necklace. I reach down hesitantly to move her cold hands to see the design, when a cold shriek tears through the air. I snap up. NO! I've waited too long!
Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!
I should have known there would be more out in the Tangled Forest! Without thought or hesitation, I yank the necklace out of her cold, stiff grasp and run to Alice. I'll worry about the guilt of stealing her jewelry later. I don't know what I plan to do, outrun the Trucelentor?
Maybe it's far enough, it did sound far away. With whatever strength I have, I pull Alice up into my arms like a cradled baby. I am about to run when I hear the fast approach of hooves. Horses? Trucelentors don't ride horses?
Preview: I freeze. My eyes widen…a person comes into view…First he sees me standing with Alice, and then notes the two dead bodies near us… the shrieks continue