When I finally woke up for the second time this day, I found myself in my bed under a hefty pile of blankets. I feel so relaxed that I want to go to sleep again, no, I need to get up and do something.
"Thank you so much for coming over and treating my apprentice. It'd be an honor if you'd take some of these muffins with you as a gift!" Mr. Bartlett offers the ones I made to the store owner I saw earlier on my shopping trip. The person smiles and takes the baked goods he provides to them.
"She should take this for the next two days until her nausea goes away, remember to keep her from accidentally ingesting any more of the crushed crystals of dried fungus." The white-haired man that accompanies the shop owner advises Mr. Bartlett with a soft smile.
The shop owner made eye contact with me when they noticed my attention, causing me to turn my head away nervously. The feeling of dread begins to form a not inside my guts.
"Hello Helen, your teacher has told us quite a bit about you. My name is Asra; you should visit our store sometime that way, my lover, and I can educate you about the local herbs in this region." The white-haired man who I now know is Asra suggests to me while taking a seat next to my bed with his partner.
"Sure, just, give me a while to get used to you both." I grumbled, feeling cornered by the new people being in the way of my only escape route. Nowhere to escape left me with faking my comfortability to hide how intimidated I feel by this situation.
"Take all the time you need. Just remember to pop by sometime for an introduction of herbs and spices at our shop." Asra reminds me while a snake slithers out from his shirt and rests itself around his shoulders. Seeing that happen, I couldn't help but burst out laughing because the snake looked so cute and calm, crawling up out of his shirt.
"Faust seems to be very interested in you, Helen. See you soon." Asra remarks with a weird look in his eyes that freaked me out while his lover waved bye to my teacher and me as they both leave the room to go home.
"Mr. Bartlett, I'm fucking scared of that guy." I said with a deep frown.
"Don't be! He's the most trustworthy magician in the city! He's also well known to be trusted by our beautiful countess." Mr. Bartlett told me, trying to stick up for Asra and not make me scared of the guy, I guess.
"Fine, I'm going to sleep now, Mr.Bartlett." I said in submission before I laid back down into the bed.
"Hey, where are you going?!" Some moron yelled at me. Oh, I must be in a dream. I thought to myself as I walked away from the moronic person who had pissed me off after throwing their shoes at me. Whoever they are, I hate them so much that my heart is racing, and I physically can feel myself suffocating here in my dream and my actual body too. I can't even look back to see who it is because I know I might choke and feel my chest tighten even more if I did.
I continue to walk wherever I'm going in the black void that gradually becomes my old high school but with taller ceilings and broader halls with connected bathrooms of the boys and girls.
I am wandering past the bathrooms and out of the school building. Only to find me at the ocean where there is a wall of sand as tall as me behind my back and the tides only a few feet away from me. There's a ship off in the distance. When I take a step forward to see if I could get a better look at the boat, everything around me shifts and morphs into my bedroom, where Asra and his lover were treating me.
"Oh, time to do some problem-solving." I mumbled to myself while walking around the couple to observe their behavior. I walk behind the pair looking at their backs, noticing that Fraust had wiggled out of Asra's collar to look at me. Just enough for an inch of Fraust's neck be above the collar.
"Hey there, girl or I guess boy? Life must be tough when you can't produce your heat, right?" I said to the snake while petting it gently between its eyes. Fraust hisses back at me, which I can only assume they agree with me.
"Are you this nice in real life too?" I asked Fraust with a laugh as I pulled my hand away.
"She is, and you came to hang out with us like expected." Asra said to me while turning around and spooking all my wits out of me.
"What the fuck?!" I freaked out and backed up seven feet away from him.
"Asra, doesn't she remind you of someone?" His lover commented while covering their mouth to stifle their laughter.
"She does, but nowhere close to his dramatics." Asra noted with an eye roll. "Your gate is somewhat enigmatic of a maze, Helen. Very, moody." he adds while looking around with a hand on his chin.
Wow, thanks. I thought to myself, feeling a bit irked. "This is all a dream, so fuck you and go away." I grumbled while turning away from them to walk downstairs.
"You're a complicated person, aren't you, Helen?" Asra says to me, profoundly sighing in exasperation.
"I'm not, I'm just stupid and weird. Now fuck off, I'm going back to that beach to bury some jellyfish that dried out in the sun — offerings to whatever gods that are out there." I said more so to myself than to any of them.
The scene abruptly ended there because I woke up to someone poking me in the cheek.