-Chapter 13-

Serena's dream... (In her POV)

I am flying through the fluffy, soft clouds on feathery angel wings. They suddenly turn into floating marshmallows and I am soon busy eating them. The sun's rays seem to show me that they love me with their warming light. I look up and smile at the sun. I feel the love it gives me. It feels so good...

Then, the strangest thing happens. The cloud/marshmallows drop earthward, and I find myself being consumed by darkness. The darkness spreads out of me, and into the entire background. Now I am surrounded by pitch-black darkness. The sun was gone, and with it its love. I blindly wander around, wondering why I am here. I also wonder what happened just moments ago. I feel someone's cold gaze, and terror strikes my heart. A voice mumbles something, but I cannot understand what it is telling me. I ask aloud, "Where am I?"

"You know where you are." the voice cackles back.

"I do?" I wonder.

I look around one more time, and I am with my family. I feel happy and loved, like I did when I was in the open sky. I suddenly get it! I am home! But it is strange... Nobody pays any heed to my presence. Nobody notices me. It is almost as if I am not there at all. Everybody is busy minding their own business. Then, they all drop to the ground. I run towards them, but when I get to them, they are gone! What is happening to me? I feel the same darkness overcome me, and then it spreads out of me and blocks out the image of my family.

I can feel my cheeks burning with anger, frustration, sadness, and confusion. Why do I feel these things? They were horrid feelings! I didn't want them invading my mind and body! But then, the same voice came again. It says something, but again I cannot comprehend what it is saying. I feel something whisk past my soul, and a new feeling comes to me. Hatred. Pure hatred for the voice. But where was the voice coming from?

The voice comes again, calling my name. "Serena. Serena. Serena." it keeps repeating.

I cry out, "WHAT? What do you want...? Who are you?"

But the voice does not cease its calling of me. It keeps saying my name, though I know not why.

"I'm here!" I call back to the voice, thinking maybe it's trying to find me in this aweful darkness. I keep saying the same thing, trying to guide it towards me, until the voice stops me.

"I know where you are! But do you know where you are?" it asks. Then it returns to repeating my name.

I am utterly confused. What is this voice? What does it want from me? I have no clue what to do now. I start thinking I might be in danger, but from what?

"Am I in harm's way?" I ask it.

It just repeats what I have said, as though echoing me. Soon the annoying voice gets faster and more cluttered, until it sounds like there are a thousand voices.

I can only walk around, trying to find where the voice was coming from.

There is the outline of a person. I feel refreshed and relieved knowing I am not alone. This must be where the voice is coming from! The outline is gray.

I waste no time in running to it. But when I get there, I find the outline I thought was a person is actually just some kind of smoke. It billows away, smothering the outline. Then I am struck with the feeling there is something bigger at hand. I still do not understand why I am here. I do not know where I am, but I am somewhere.

The voice suddenly returns to one voice, this time asking me who I was, instead of where I was at.

"I am Serena." I answer back.

"No! Serena is the girl who-" the voice stopped.

I can feel its fear lingering in the air. I do not know who this voice is, but I know it is trying to tell me something important. I urge it to continue its sentence, but the voice does not respond to me. It does not answer, and I no longer feel its presence. I know now that I am alone. The air turns chilly, but I pay no mind to it.

My instincts tell me I'm in danger, but logic tells me there is nowhere to run or hide. Fighting is out of the question. I am not strong. I know that. But I feel as though I need to do something!

A new voice makes itself known. "Serena." it says.

I feel fear overwhelm me. I cannot move. I stand, fearful of what is coming. But I do not know what is coming! I just know it will not be something good. MY instincts scream at me. They tell me to run! Run far, far away from here! But I cannot escape! I feel myself crying, but I do not bother to try to stop it. I want myself to be heard, even if it means letting my body speak for me.

"Cry, Serena. Cry. Scream. Be tortured. Be afraid." the voice taunts.

I cry even more. I do not know who this voice is. I want to have the other voice back, but I am scared of that voice as well. This voice is much more fearsome than the last. I realize that my hatred is uncompared with the last voice. I hate both, but this voice makes my blood boil. I cannot talk, so it keeps taunting me with what it wants me to be doing.

A light shines down on me through the darkness, and I feel less tense. I am scared of the light, though. It is mysterious. Does it want to help me or hurt me?

Either way, I feel drawn to this strange light. Every nerve in my body is yelling to go to neither the voice nor the light, but I shove the small voices in my head aside and walk slowly and cautiously toward the light. I feel as though both the voices and the light want me to come with them. But the voice is pulling me a different way than the light is. Which should I choose?

Before I could decide one hundred percent, the light flickered and went out. Now the only way to go is with the voice.

"Come to me, Serena." it commands in a deathly tone.

I obey, but I don't want to go with the voice. I am guided by the voice. Before I know what hit me, the voice is gone and a lone white dragon stands before me, crying. I cannot leave it this way, so I ask it what is wrong.

"Why...? Why, Serena...?" it cries. It flexes its huge white wings and flies. As it climbs upward, it circles above me.

However, I do not feel threatened by this dragon.

Two more dragons enter the scene, plummeting out of the blackness. One is red. The other is blue.

I feel threatened by both.

"Come with me, Serena." the blue dragon urges.

"No, Serena! Do not listen to the blue dragon! He will harm you if you go with him!" the red dragon warns.

I look up at the white dragon, still circling above me. She seems to be trying to choose between the red and blue dragons. Her flight patterns are indicating she wants part of neither. But, like me, she is alone, and therefore needs companionship. She is also watching me, seeing who I will choose.

I look back at the blue and red dragons. They start circling around me, but they do not fly. They have wings, however they do not seem to want to use them. They want to stay level with me. The red dragon keeps glaring at the blue dragon. The blue dragon keeps eying me.

I know I must choose one of them. But I can't. They are big. They can hurt me. I do not want to set myself up only to be hurt. Both dragons look familiar, as though I know them.

Right as I am about to choose, the white dragon swoops down in front of me and scolds me, "Serena! You should know better than to trust these dragons!" Then she seems to realize something. "Serena!" she screams, "Run! You are in grave danger!"

Both the red and blue dragon fly skyward with a burst of wind from their wings.

I know I should get out as well, but before I can run, I drop straight through the the darkness. I scream and cry for help, but no one comes to my rescue. I look down, and find that I am headed for a red glow. The glow gets brighter and brighter until I find myself in a fiery pit.

I am hot, burning alive. The flames lick at my flesh, and each flame burns in a different way.

Fireballs shoot at me, but I dodge them. Little by little, the flames are burning away at my skin. Already there are open wounds and sores. The blistering heat is scorching my body, but I can't get away.

I float up, looking down at my own body. It is collapsed and lifeless, still burning in the flames of that fiery pit. I try to look at the body I have now, but I see no body. I realize I am my soul. I have died. And I am watching my own death, feeling it, and thinking it.