A/N: Wow, I'm so glad you guys liked my last chapter! MadTom left a very good review, and so I want to clarify his question… He reminded me that Janice Avery was an 8th grader in the movie while still at Lark Creek Elementary. So sorry I forgot! I forgot to clarify just WHY there was a Lark Creek Junior High. You'll have to learn in a few chapters, sorry! :)
Chapter 14
The Dream
THE REAL EARTH
We all have strange dreams once in a while. Ones we can't explain, ones that are terrifying and strangely soothing at the same time. Often after we have them we cannot remember them, or we remember them so much that their events haunt us until our dying day.
This dream, my dear readers, will never be forgotten.
Jess stirred in the grass, trying to puzzle through just what he was seeing, and why it was so familiar. It was an odd dream, one you wouldn't expect a fourteen year old boy to be dreaming in any case.
And so it began, only to become stranger as it progressed…
DREAM SEQUENCE
"Leslie, come on!" A dark haired man that looked very much like Jess said. His hands were over a blonde woman's eyes, and for a moment the real Jess almost woke up. He had dreamed about that woman before, a few months ago, just as the barrier began to tear. The man looked somewhat familiar as well, but the blonde woman, (because in actuality, she was a grown Leslie Burke.) had left much more of an impression on him.
And the fact that her name was Leslie only hurt his heart more.
"Where are we going?" She asked. The pair was walking along a woodland path, well beaten by years of sneakers treading it. There was no rope, and only the remains of a redwood bridge were there to mark an almost-fatal accident and a now abandoned magical kingdom.
"You'll see." The 'Other Jess' smiled.
"Ugh." Leslie sighed.
"Relax Les, just a few more steps and we're there, okay?"
He took the blonde by the hand and guided her across a fallen log. (In fact, it was the very same log Jess in the Real Earth helped Maybelle over when taking her to Terabithia for the first time.)
After she stepped off, he led her to the edge of the creek and smiled.
"Okay, you can open your eyes now." He smiled.
Leslie opened her eyes and smiled. "A boat? You're taking me on a boat ride?!"
"Mmm." He smiled, carefully stepping into the boat before holding out his hand to Leslie.
"But you hate boats!" She continued. "You know, after what happened with the rope…"
"Let's not bring that up on our anniversary, okay Les?" He smiled, causing Leslie to smile back.
"Okay, okay."
Suddenly, the dream fast-forwarded itself, shooting forward in time. When it slowed down again, the 'Real' Jess could see that the creek had narrowed quite a bit, and the dark haired man was having difficulty steering the boat around the sharp curves and edges. (Little did he know that the boat was only a few feet away from where the 'Real' Leslie had hit her head and died.)
"Uhh, Jess…" Leslie said slowly as her husband tried to manipulate the boat.
"Yeah?" He asked through semi gritted teeth.
"Shouldn't we turn around?"
"I wish we could, but our only way out is through those rocks."
Leslie turned backwards in the boat to look at the rocks. It was a close cluster of sharp, pointy boulders protruding from the quick moving murky water. The only way of passage was a narrow pass on the right side of the cluster, near the embankment. It was clearly large enough to manipulate the small rowboat through, but that didn't dampen Leslie's fear.
"T-they're s-so p-pointy." She stuttered, and her fingers absent-mindedly traveled to the light but jagged scar on her forehead. That scar was a product of rocks very similar to those they were about to pass through.
Jess smiled sympathetically and rubbed her knee. "Oh, don't worry Les. We'll make it. Look," He said, stopping the boat just before the pass. "There's nothing there to snag the boat on, anyway."
Leslie just nodded meekly and gripped the side of the boat.
Get a hold of yourself, Leslie! She thought. Jess can handle it. RELAX!
Sadly, Leslie was wrong. While the pass may have been large enough for the boat to fit through, no one above the surface could see the rocks beneath the water. They were like the rocks that showed themselves from the murky creek, only shorter, and if possible, sharper. The bank along the side of the creek was covered in gnarled vines that were sharp and painful, but they camouflaged like chameleons in the woodland area, so no one could see them.
As the simple, wooden rowboat made its way through the pass, one of the boulders beneath the water snagged the boards, creating a hole. A root on the embankment snagged the side, tearing it there as well. Leslie's eyes grew wide with panic as Jess tried to get the boat of the rocky, rushing waters, but it was too late. Every suttle movement just tore the wood planks more, and the boat was beginning to fill with murky creek water.
"What do we do?!" Leslie cried in panic, her face like a ghost.
The creek decided for them. With one final deathly SNAP, the rowboat disintegrated, the crack reminding both adults of that day, twenty or so years ago, when a rope had made a sound of death like that.
Only this time, no one was there to pull them out. The two fell into the rushing water, their heads coming in contact with the rocky bottom only seconds after the rapids pulled them under. The world went black with unconsciousness, and then, about a minute later, it went black with death.
The dream once more sped forward, this time showing a little brunette girl in the arms of an elderly woman. The girl, maybe about eight or nine years old, had been crying for a while, whimpering only two names.
"Mommy, Daddy. Mommy, Daddy!"
And that little girl would forever be in his brain, her face filled with tears. The dream soon ended, showing a translucent barrier falling away, leaving nothing but air between two planets.
END DREAM SEQUENCE
Jess jerked awake, sweaty and panting. He grabbed his sketchbook and began to draw the face of the little girl he had seen. When finished, he could only think of one name fitting enough for the subject he had drawn. So, flipping the paper over, he wrote her name is messy flourish.
Samantha.
Still shaking mildly, he rose from the dirt, picture of the subject called Samantha under his arm. As he trudged back to his house, he couldn't help but wonder if that crying little girl missed her parents as much as he missed Leslie. He would've liked to give her a hug.
Little did he know that he would be seeing his subject soon enough, now that there was no barrier between the worlds…
A/N: Hey everyone, sorry if that chapter was stinky. And MadTom, I am not just beating myself up! (Like I usually do.: D) I am currently sitting in bed and sneezing all over my laptop. Yes, I'm sick. I knew it wouldn't be my best or longest chapter, but I wanted to update for you guys, because you're all so nice to me. :)
Hope the whole "Dream Sequence" thing wasn't too confusing…Originally I was going to write the whole thing in italics, like I do for memories, but I decided against it, because I know that if I read too much italic writing I go blind…
Anyway, review-pauses to sneeze- please!