Chapter 8: First Third: Sadie
Sadie was alone.
She waited in the swirling winds of the nightmare, her strength flickering in and out like a candle in the wind.
"Sadie, you'll be late for work!" Her mothers voice was stern. Sadie was overwhelmed with the panic that consumes the tardy, grabbing her lunch and running out the door.
"I'll make it!" she panted.
As she approached the Big Donut, she was horrified to find that it had torn down by a huge storm! How did this-
She gasped, memories flooding back. This was just like… the first dream! Or was it the second? Either way, this was some serious dejavu. She unfocused her thoughts, focusing on remaining in this particular dreamscape. Right down to the ice cream in the sand, this was the same scene as before.
She found Lars, bewildered as before, staring out over the destruction.
"Can you see Steven?" she asked, impatient.
"Uh, what?" He stammered, but Sadie was ahead of him. She spotted Steven's back as he strolled up the hill towards the lighthouse.
Just like before!
She ran on, completely ignoring Lars surprised yells. Maybe… maybe if she caught Steven this time, the whole thing would turn out differently! Her heart was weighted down with hope.
"Steven! Steven, stop! It's Sadie!" She screamed.
Steven halted right before reaching the lighthouse door, his mouth open as he turned to face her.
"Sadie! I finally found you! Oh, Sadie! Sadie!" He fell to his knees, stars in his eyes as he grabbed Sadie's hands.
"Well, hello to you too Steven." Sadie said, surprised by this outpouring of emotion.
Steven quickly stood up, clenching his fists and bouncing in excitement. "I've been looking for you for nights! I was dream walking all over, but I could never quite catch you! Sadie, you have to wake up!"
Sadie rolled her eyes and sighed, despite the furious pounding of her heart. She wasn't alone. Steven had actually found her this deep in the nightmare?! She could hardly believe it.
"You know I can't do that, Steven. I really appreciate this, and…" she felt her voice tighten as she considered the thought of Steven leaving again, "I can't wake up. You know that…" She started to ramble.
Steven shook his head. "No, you can't wake up on your own. But that's why me and Pearl have come up with a plan!"
Sadie racked her brain. Pearl was one of Steven's gem moms… ya, the tall skinny one? Or the red one…?
Steven grabbed her hand, and she felt a rush of joy. To not be alone. To be wanted.
She felt tears start to well up in her eyes.
"C'mon Sadie! You can find out more in here!" Steven gestured towards the lighthouse. "H-hey, don't cry. It's gonna be ok."
Sadie shook her head silently. Rubbing her eyes, she allowed Steven to lead her into the lighthouse.
The interior of the gloomy place seemed somehow brighter, the sunlight sneaking its way in through the cracks in the rotting wood, blurring into white fuzzy spots in in her teary eyes.
As they reached the wide-open room at the top of the Lighthouse, Sadie saw that a huge, glistening machine stood squarely at the center. Long wires ran from a capsule shape and disappeared into the shadows.
"Ta-da! We can use this!" Steven held out an arm to show off the weird machine, which emitted a weird green light.
"What does it do?" Sadie asked tentatively, walking forward and basking in the green glow of this technology that was to be her savior. "I don't get it… how'd you get something like this… into the dream?"
Steven frowned, looking confused "It's complicated… something about changing the patterns in your uhhh… delta brain waves! Hey, I remembered!" Steven smiled wide.
Sadie mirrored his expression. "So does how it work? I don't want to spend another second here."
Steven walked over and pressed a button on the machine, and a chamber slid open with a "beep!" Foggy white smoke billowed out, smelling almost of dry ice.
Steven bowed, gesturing for Sadie to step inside. "Ladies first."
"R-really?" Sadie stammered. "This is it?"
Steven peaked open one eye, not wanting to break his stance. "Well, it's the first step." he whispered.
Sadie glanced at him again, her heart quivering nervously.
"Alright, let's do THIS!" she cried, shouldering forward into the shocking chilly interior of the capsule.
The glass pane closed in front of her with a hiss, and she held her arms tightly to her body in the cramped space.
"Steven?" She called, voice echoing over the loud hissing of the machine. "Is this uh- normal?"
She saw Steven's face floating in the frosted pane of glass, and immediately sensed something was wrong.
She slammed her palms against the window, eyes blank with fear.
She saw others begin to materialize in her view; Ronaldo, Lars, Steven's gems moms… they all glared into the pod with a cold triumph, eyes narrowing, yellowing… this was…
Face contorted with hate, Steven's forked tongue shot out of a lipless mouth as he hissed his victory "Now you'll be one of uuuuus!"
Sadie screamed with the force of a collapsing sun.
She punched the glass window into a million tiny shards. With a single stomp of her foot she shook the entire lighthouse to its foundation, causing it to ripple outward into a fantastic explosion. The deceitful Sneploe fell trashing to their deaths, Saide alone standing on a single plank of wood supported by nothing but improbability. The world was dark and screaming once again.
She threw her face into her hands, tears streaming down her face like a waterfall.
When will this end?
She couldn't trust anyone. Because everyone she met here was just some weird reflection of her own desires and fear and thoughts. How many times now had she been tricked by her own cruel mind? She constantly forgot that a hodgepodge of imperfect emotions and memories had rebuilt her entire world with each dreamscape she stumbled in and out of.
She sank into a ball and cried while the black winds howled around her, knowing that her strength would soon fail, and she'd find herself down yet another dead-end rabbit hole.
Chapter 9: Second Third: Lars
Lars was digging methodically through his closest. He clawed aside childhood toys and old clothes, driven by a mindless panic. Where was it?!
Suddenly he turned his head upward, eyes fixating on the string dangling from the door to the attic. He'd try that.
Balancing rather precariously on a box full of old books and dvds, he reached his arm up and… there! Got it!
Louder than thunder, a flood of shattered glass poured like water from the dark interior of the roof, lapping at his waist as it squeezed through his closet into the room behind him. Lars leapt back in shock as a body rode down on the glittering wave, slamming into the ground.
"Lars."
Sadie raised up pleading eyes, chunks of glass glittering in her hair.
"How could you leave me there?"
"AHHHHH!" Lars awoke screaming, tearing at the sides of his bed. He felt sick, clutching his knees and burying his head in his legs.
It was so cruel. Every time he managed to slip away into darkness, he was shaken back to life by some hideous, guilt-ridden nightmare.
It'd been a week since the "Nightmare Incident," yet Lars still felt like he was still living in one.
He studied the patterns on his skin cast by the watery dawn sunlight, filtering in through the ineffective block out drapes on his window. It was always some variation of the same thing. "How could you leave? Why would you let me go? I'm all alone."
He rummaged through his blankets and found his phone, seeking the crutch of routine to calm his anxiety.
Buck Dewy – 9:03 pm – re: Vigil for Sadie
Hey dude- just making sure you didn't forget about the vigil tonight. We'll all be there. Hope to see you there.
Sour Cream – 10:01 pm – hey guy
We're all here for you dude. You should come.
Steven U – 10:32 pm – Lars!
we love you lars! please come!
Lars angrily flicked off the screen. He hadn't gone.
You held vigils for dead people. Missing people everyone knew was dead. Sadie wasn't dead. He'd seen her. She was still alive, trapped in that disgusting nightmare world… alone.
In other words, worse than dead.
Lars fought off the indulgent urge to cry, gritting his teeth. He wanted to crawl out of his skin and never come back to this awful town.
Suddenly felt he felt even more awful. He hadn't gone to Sadie's vigil!?
Sadie was one of his best friends. Even… more than a friend, or something like that. He'd had so many things he'd wanted to talk to her about, and never once had he considered that he'd never be able to say them eventually if he'd wanted to.
He was greedy and stupid, always assuming that he had plenty of time to work out his feelings before he confronted them. Now he only heard her voice in nightmares, wondering if she really was calling out to him, cursing him for leaving her alone.
He clutched his head. But she's not dead! Why should I grieve?! It's not fair!
But if she wasn't dead, where, exactly, was she? He never got anywhere in his dreams. Multiple times he had willed himself to find and help Sadie before he went to sleep, but it's not like his stupid dream self ever remembered the instructions. He just ended up awake, sweating and horrified by another pointless nightmare.
He focused on his fuzzy memory of Sadie's body being spirited away by that one gem. Was that really as good as dead? Suddenly a thought occurred to him, the origin of a plot.
Steven.
Steven would know.
Lars was tired of this. He was tired of everything, tried of hurting. He hadn't gone to work or hardly left his dimmed room. He's built his own cage of solitary suffering from rod iron bars of guilt, hardly aware of what he was doing.
But it wasn't going to get any better like this. He hadn't gone to Sadie's vigil. Perhaps this was the least he could do?
He pulled out his phone and furiously started texting.
To: Steven U- 7:16 am - Subject: hey
Steven where is Sadie
He waited anxiously for a reply, watery eyes watching shadows as the sun rose into the sky. His tired eyelids where actually starting to close when the buzz of his phone shocked him awake.
Steven U – 8:45 am – re: hey
what do u mean exactly?
Lars snorted, annoyed at being forced to clarify his obvious message.
To: Steven U – 8:46 am – re:hey
I mean where is her body
Steven replied quickly this time.
Steven U – 8:47 am – re:hey
I told you shes not dead. :( she's here at the crystal palace. she's safe! I told u, pearl is going to find a way to wake her up! do you want a hug lars we are all worried about u
"She's here at the crystal palace."
That line alone mattered to Lars.
He got out of bed and put on his clothes. He was done waiting. Sadie was mad at him for leaving her behind. So he'd have to go back and find her, no matter what the cost. His dignity, his life, whatever. First and foremost, he was doing this for himself, so he could stop being utterly miserable while both asleep and awake.
But... he also really wanted to see Sadie again. It no longer seemed so impossible to admit that now. To hear her voice, to see her smile, to have her do all his chores at the Big Donut, to watch his back while he took naps. He'd never envisioned a life without all that, but now it seemed both endangered and impossibly precious.
As he stood up and flicked on his light, he felt something sharp in his pocket. Annoyed, he fished a minuscule shred of blue-green stone out of his jean pocket.
Weird. He vaguely remembered finding it somewhere, but that was it. It was small, but awfully cool looking. It was a dorky habit left over from childhood, picking up shiny things.
Shrugging, he lazily slid the shard back into his pocket just as his phone buzzed again; so demanding!
Steven U – 8:47 am – re:hey
lars are u ok? :(
Lars took his phone and angrily switched it off. Not just putting it in sleep mode, but actually turning his phone off. This was a quest; a foolish, most likely ill-fated quest, for Lars alone.
Chapter 9: Final Third: Sadie
Somewhere in the off-distance, a musical tone began to sound.
It mirrored Sadie's own sorrow, layered and complex but unapologetically sad. There was a certain clarity to it; a kind of vibrancy that seemed unusual to her now.
Sniffing, she raised her head. The sound was alluring; reaching deep into her mind. Squinting, the saw that a vibrating blue-green light was floating in the distance.
Well, it couldn't hurt her any worse. Hopefully.
Sadie walked slowly towards the source of the dancing music and light, a willing moth to a flame. It was so strange… so alien. What was-
Sadie was knocked back as a huge creature reared up out of the soot. Bellowing and hissing, Sadie's world became the wonderful emerald-blue of the monsters body.
Her first impression of the thing was the flowing mane.
Long tendrils emerged from its body, gliding together and flowing just like thick long hair underneath the water. This undulating movement never ceased, a mesmerizing coat that surrounded the creature's narrow head and covered its body. Ribbons tapered from long pointed ears, and it had a narrow, almost skeletal face with a sharp snout that opened to reveal rows of small pointed fangs. Large crystal formations peaked out from beneath the tendrils on its back, like coral covered with gentle anemones.
It was the definition of a sublime animal, albeit not one native to Earth.
Whining and clicking, it twitched its head much like a bird trying to get a good bead on its prey. It jerked closer to Sadie, then back, opening its glowing mouth and wailing.
"Shhhhhh..." Sadie whispered. "It's ok, huh? It's ok…" Sadie cooed at this monstrosity, feeling no fear in a world that could never kill her.
The animal leaned closer, and she looked it straight in the eye; round, sad eyes with bright white pupils.
"Hey, hey, you're just lonely, huh? Can we be friends? I'm just lonely too." She held out her hand in a careful gesture of appeasement.
The creature sniffed at her hand, clicking deep in its throat. Sadie held her breath.
Suddenly it pushed forward, running the side of its face against her arm like a cat, hissing softly. Sadie felt a slight electrical tingling on her arms as she was enveloped by its lashing mane, feeling a deep sense of calm come over her.
Was this another dream? She didn't feel the usual fog of confusion that came with the lower-level dreams…
Closing her eyes, she laid her check against the greenish monsters slender head.
"Have you been here the whole time?" she whispered. "What are you? You're wonderful." Sadie felt totally safe inside the gently glowing blanket of its mane, more at peace than she had been in her entire life. The monsters soft clicks and eerie humming filled her ears. So beautiful.
The creature reared back, clicking at Sadie urgently, leaning back and forth playfully.
"Hey, what should I call you? Hmm?" She brushed her hand along the monsters long tail as it circled her.
A word began to form in the back of her mind, slowly fading into life.
"I see…"
"Dioptase."
"That's kind of long. How about I just call you Di? For short?" Sadie spoke conversationally, feeling that maybe the creature did understand.
It clicked and tossed its fantastic tendrils, long claws flashing on bird like feet as it clattered about happily.
"Alright, Di. What's up? Do you need something?"
It swept its elegant face back around to meet her, and she somehow read need in those bright eyes. It leaned up on its hunches, it's chest emerging as the sea of wisps split wide. Set into its body was a ring of jagged indents, like a collar.
But only a single blue green shard, the one in the center, was actually in place. The other indents remained empty.
Sadie went blind as a series of location flashed through her mind; in each one a shard of Dioptase waiting.
Vision returning, she gasped.
"You need all of those back, don't you? You're incomplete without all of them." Sadie supposed. "And you need my help?"
The creature clicked in agreement, nudging her with its nose.
"No problem, Di. I'll help you out."
Sadie felt finally complete. She had a friend. A goal. Purpose and reason.
She smiled. "We'll complete you together."