Happy 666 Day!
It has been quite a while, no? Although this is a short chapter, it is necessary, or at least to me. There will be a future chapter (most likely the very next one) that will be done on seeing as how it is too graphic to put it on here. I don't think it will be a required chapter for the story, but it does help explainthe psychological process that Emma is going through. You may or may not read it. It is your choice. Anyways, since Summer break is almost here, I'm confident that I'll be able to finish this fanfiction. Until then, enjoy the chapters while they come!
"Adam Aceldama." She stared intently down at her shriveled fingers as she whispered this, the words, every single individual letter, scanning the surface of her mind with thought. Adam Aceldama. A savior or a demon, Emma could not figure out. He was unseen. He was an essence, a voice, something that was not completely solid. All in all, Emma saw him as a riddle waiting to be broken.
What else could he have been? He spoke in puzzles, she knew that much. Never did he state bluntly a clear, logical fact throughout that whole conversation in the little room. Like a frustrated parrot, she was just about ready to pluck every single feather out of her body because of this tugging feeling that never seemed to cease beyond the bone of her chest. Something was not right. There was something behind all of this. Something she was not getting.
"I am here to tell you that you live in a middle world. A world existing between the storm, and the aftermath. You have a key others do not—a key to the barrier. A key to the core. A key to someplace new and familiar all at the same time…"
…Was he speaking of her dreams? Were these illusions of hers a 'middle world'? If so, where was it located? Who lived within it? It was an exact identical to the very town she lived in. The very town she had lived in her whole entire life. Was this the world that was new and familiar, all at the same time? Emma moaned quietly under her breath, resting the back of her head against the cold, hard wall. A terrible headache pounded through her. It caused an earthquake in her head and a tornado in her chest. She simply could not understand.
"Who is this Adam Aceldama?" she almost growled in frustration, her eyes burning into the metal door opposite of her. A random guard was peeking through, his eyes holding a stupid daze, but she looked past him, past him into another realm of thought. She began to sob.
X0X
"How are you feeling today, Emma? Not too terribly sick, I should hope?"
"I do feel sick. I feel sick every moment of my life because I am sick."
"Oh, now, now…don't have a sour tone with me, dear. I'm your friend. Merely a concerned friend, that's all."
Emma stared blankly towards the black curtain, stared through the hole in the middle of the glass and imagined she was on one of those boats—the enormous kind of boats that wealthy people own and drink their champagne on. Cruise ships, she corrected herself. Not boats. She felt like she was inside one, rocking back and forth, consumed in the imprisonment of it, knowing that if she stood and opened the door and took a step outside, she would tip over into the roaring ocean and never come out. The voice was all around her. The voice swallowed her, ate up her attention like fueled energy. She was almost angry that this sheer voice had total control. "You've never even met me."
"You'd be surprised," came the cool reply. This sent a shiver down her spine. "I see many things, Miss Emma. I could go as far as to say that I see everything in the world, and nothing at all. I see not only with my eyes, but also with other sources available to me. I understand tragedy, happiness, fear. I understand disease."
A stinging hate flared up inside her, scorched her throat and caused her eyes to narrow. She was on the edge of her seat, ready to create a brown hole in the curtain with her blazing eyes. "You can't possibly understand what disease truly is," she whispered harshly, "Until you've caught it. Until you've bonded with it, danced with it, talked with it. Until you know you are going to live with it for the rest of your life, and then finally die with it." She wondered if he had only said this to flick a sensitive nerve inside her. It had worked.
A chuckle. One that most likely said, 'What a child, what a child. Unknowing, typical. Naturally, what a child.' Condescending, that's how it sounded. That's all he had to do, chuckle, and she got the message. But he chose to speak aloud anyways. "You don't believe me, dearest. But it is true. Although I am not a papered scientist, I am very much aware. I know what goes on inside and out."
"Why don't you show your face?" she murmured desperately, wanting to break the glass separating her from her observer. She wanted to see him. She wanted to know that he was solid, that he was whole and a real human being behind that dreadful curtain. "Please? Just to me? I won't tell anyone else, I swear by it." Her mother always taught her not to swear, but she'd overlook that, just this once.
"Not just yet," the voice rejected. "Not right now. Not here."
"But there will never be a chance elsewhere!" she cried, shocked by the bitter tone of her voice. "I'll be stuck in this hospital for the rest of my life. They can't fool me. Where's the cure? If they'd made one, I would be out of here already." This man should have known that. If he claimed to know everything, he should have at least known that.
"There will be a chance." Silence. The air around her was still. She thought she misheard at first. "It is possible that you can escape from the walls of this sickly home, and live once more. I never lie, dearest. I never lie." This promise…it was suspicious, and therefore she had to tackle it with firm caution, she reminded herself. Although a wave of hope and excitement overtook her, she did not let it overwhelm her. There must have been a catch. There had to be.
"What to I need to do?" she asked slowly, legs squeezing tightly together in anticipation.
"To leave this place and never come back?"
"Yes. To leave and to never come back."
"Use what the town gave you. Try to break that barrier, the transparent wall between worlds that only you can enter and exit. Dream, Emma. Dream, and the other universe will release you."
Dream.
Is that all she needed to do?
It seemed all too simple.
She knew, without a doubt,nothing was ever that undemanding.
