The place is completely silent. There's a long and large hallway, right in front of us; and another one which goes from one side to another. Everything is green.
Anyone would say this place is harmless, inhabited. But there's something in the air that keeps hitting my nose and mind, making me shiver: the smell of blood.
"We have to split up." Spud says.
I shake my head. "No, I don't think that's a good idea. We need to stay together. It's safer."
Considering the dimensions of this place, it's really probable that if we decide to go alone, we'll get lost.
Haley makes a noise with her teeth, because of the cold wind that comes suddenly.
"Don't worry, babe. I'm here." Alex hugs her and she makes a face.
"Thanks..." She says, pulling back. "I'm cool." I laugh a little, but not loud enough for them to hear.
We decide to walk to the left. Trixie goes in the front and I go in the back. I spot Haley in front of me, while Spud approaches to her.
"Hey" he says, taking something from his bag. "Do you want your coat?"
"You brought my coat?!"
"Just in case, ya know. One more piece of cloth on you won't hurt."
She smiled and put the coat on.
"Thanks... I..." That's when she stops talking and everyone stops walking. Ahead of us, we see a silhouette, coming towards us; which makes everybody get prepared to fight. But as the figure comes closer, it shows others behind it. And suddenly, they're not just silhouettes anymore: they're people; people we know.
The first one to reach us is Sun. She's wearing her usual hippie cloths, and a smile on her face.
Haley runs to see her, her eyes bright with hope, until Fu shouts.
"Careful! They're not real! They're ghosts!"
"Ghosts?!" I ask him.
"Not really. They're creatures who steal the appearance of a person you miss or love, and start to torture you with it. Don't listen to anything she says, Haley!"
But it seems that, in fact, Haley isn't listening to anything Fu says. She just keeps on walking. I don't know how to get her out of this; it's like she's hypnotized, by the false hope. And I don't blame her.
When I turn around, I see someone getting closer to me.
Jake.
"Fu..." I try to keep control. "What should I do?!"
"Say something you'd NEVER say to the real person."
"Okay..." I say with a shaky voice, while fake Jake stands in front of me. But he's so similar... The eyes, the skin, the smile. Everything is as I had longed to see.
"Oh Rose..." He speaks with his old voice, and my heart melts. Although that what he says next makes it break. "Why would you have to be such a weigh to carry?! I was under depression because of you, because you were careless and got lost inside that dimension." He starts to cry; and I think that so do I. I can't really tell. "How can I even trust you again?"
"I'm sorry..."
"ROSE!" Fu shouts to me. "HE IS NOT REAL!"
"I..." Think. You need to think. Something you'd never tell Jake, not in a million years. Just think, and keep control.
Suddenly, I know exactly what I must say; so take a deep breath and look at his eyes.
"I don't love you. I've never loved you and I will never be able to love you!"
Each one of those words hurts me as much as would hurt real Jake; and I try not to cry, despite of the tears that I see on his face. Finally, he starts to fade away; and I no longer see him in front of me; feeling relieved, but also sad.
I hear Trixie's voice, sharp and rude, like she's disgusted. I bet that's not really her. "You destroyed my life, Spud. I hate you, I hate you!"
I run towards Spud and tell him that's not real; and what he must say. He is pretty fast actually; he just says "I don't care about you" and the ghost disappears.
I look around and Trixie is alone; maybe her ghost already disappeared.
But there's someone left: Haley. She cries, standing in front of Sun, who keeps saying things which make her sob even more.
"Why Sun?!" I ask Fu.
Fu tries to get her attention, but it's worthless; all she's able to do is to listen to what fake Sun says.
"I don't know" he says, finally. "It's Haley."
I touch Spud's shoulder and say: "We must do something that wakes her up!"
And I can't really tell what went through Spud's head at that moment. All I know is that he grabs Haley's shoulder and kisses her softly; pulling back right after. She is stunned for a moment; but then she turns to Sun and realizes she's not real.
"I... I-I will never do my homework, ever again. I didn't even like when you gave me lessons."
And by the end of the last sentence, Sun was gone. I smile.
She hasn't changed.
"Let's go" Fu says. "We must find a way to... Oh..."
When I see it, Haley is kissing Spud and then lets him go.
Fu whistles twice and Haley makes a face to him; but then looks again at Spud. Both of them smile.
—
We take a while, but we finally get to the end of the "green area". But I don't know how to go on.
"At the entrance..." Fu says "There was a word, on a stone, remember? Do you remember the word?"
I nod. But I didn't know Fu saw that as well. "Towsd. But-"
"There!" Trixie says, pointing at a letter on the top of the first door: T
"They're just letters, maybe it's in order; just to locate the rooms."
"So why is the next door's letter an O?"
I run towards the door she talked about and see the O on it. Then, I run to the next one and see an W.
That's enough to convince me. Whatever this word means, it's leading us to the right place; and, right now, that's all we need. Maybe we will go home today, everyone safe, and with Jake and Gramps.
Maybe we can find a way out. Maybe we will.
Finally, I spot the door with a D.
Fu approaches and touches the door handle; then he picks something from his folds and fits it in the keyhole. Suddenly, something comes to my mind.
"Fu..." I say. "Why there wasn't a ghost for you?"
He doesn't even turn to me; he keeps trying to unlock the door, but speaks, eventually.
"Let's just say that... I have some kind of magic that protects me from that."
I know he won't say it, so I don't ask anything more.
There is a click and the door opens. Fu rushes inside and I stand near the door, while the others do the same as him. I hear a noise of chains and a weak voice whispering something I'm not able to understand. Then another click, and another.
"FU!" The voice which was weak now seems stronger. It doesn't take longer for my eyes to adjust to the darkness; and as soon as they do, I see it all.
Jake is hugging Fu, with a huge smile on his face. He holds the talking dog and kisses his mouth suddenly. I can't help it and laugh.
Fu cleans his mouth with his paw. "Yo, Jake, don't do that again!"
Lao Shi is beside him, happy too. But when his eyes meet mine, his tiny eyes go wide open.
"JAKE!" Haley rushes into the cell and hugs her brother.
Jake hugs her back. "You guys rock!" He says. "I can't believe you all came here!... Spud! Trixie!" He raises his head and sees his friends, who walk/wheel towards him to hug him too.
But I don't go there. I don't run to see what I had waited so bad to see. I just feel the butterflies in my stomach and the heavy sensation inside my chest; that only get worse when his eyes meet mine; and everything stops.
"Back off!"
What?
He said that. He's shouting at me. Why?
"BACK OFF!"
His grandfather touches his shoulder. "Young dragon..."
"She's not real! She's one of those ghosts, I know!"
Great. He thinks I'm a ghost.
"She... She's real, Jake." Fu says.
Jake stares at me and then at the shar pei.
"How..."
"She is."
It's stupid, but I start to cry. I walk to him, not too fast, and stand right in front of him. He touches my cheek; and starts to cry too; but two seconds later, he kisses me. And I kiss him like an 6 years after kiss, like a forever after kiss. I wrap my arms around his neck and he pulls me closer, grabbing the back of my coat. I run my fingers through his hair.
When we finish, I'm breathless. I put both of my hands on his face.
"You-you're back." He whispers, smiling.
"I'm back..."
"YOU'RE BACK!" He says and hugs me, raising me from the ground and spinning around. I laugh hard.
"Yeah!" I say, laughing; and, for a moment, I just keep looking at him, remembering how his eyes are.
"You KNOW that he kissed me before he kissed you, right?" Fu says and everyone laughs when I make a face to Jake.
I put a hand on my hips and make a circle in the air with my index finger. "I can't believe a DOG just stole mah man!"
Then, completely out of the blue, Alex appears at the door. "HEY! I found a way out!"
We stare at him. He looks like he's been running, but how could he find us? In fact, I don't remember seeing him since the ghost accident.
"Where the hell have you been?!" Trixie asks him, with an eyebrow raised.
"I was trying to find a way out of here; and I did! C'mon!"
"Hey, wait there-"
And he runs away from the cell. Haley runs to follow him, making us follow her. What is she thinking?
We run, covering several hallways, and running past a huge glass wall; while Haley shouts his name, begging him to stop; then, he takes one last turn. But as soon as I take it, I hit Jake's back, who stands like a statue, just like the rest of my friends.
It's only some seconds later that I see what he's staring at, the reason why everyone stopped running: a man, with a metal dragon skull on his head and face. Behind him, there's a giant dark-purple dragon; and lots smaller shadow dragons.
The Huntsman smiles at the Dark Dragon and, turning his head to me, says:
"Hello, Huntsgirl."
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Author Notes:
Hey guys, thanks again for reading!
Hope you're enjoying it!
xoxo :)
