Professor Luke and the dream road
Okay…so I'm back and stuff and ready to write a highly emotional chapter where you're about to learn something about Kat.
…Yay!
I woke up slowly. The world had been splintered into nothing and when my eyes opened I had to shut them again and I was drifting between the world and the blackness and…
My eyes snapped open and I rolled out of bed, landing on the floor in a heap of Flora and duvet.
I stumbled to my feet, thinking I would need to get ready for school, until I realized it was Saturday. I felt a wave of pure elation, knowing I wouldn't have to go to school. Then I suddenly froze and dropped back onto the floor.
What had I done?
I felt the wave of sobs but it wasn't real crying. There were no tears. It was just gasping that racked my body and I felt my stomach convulse inside me and only just made it to the bathroom in time.
Once my stomach was completely empty, I stared at myself in the mirror. Was this who I was?
"Flora?"
I spun round. It was the Professor.
Tomorrow I can tell the Professor that the only reason I did this was because of the dream road…
I couldn't even think of saying a word to him about it. I dashed past him out of the bathroom into my bedroom then slammed and locked the door. I let the tears gush down my face in a blur of salty water.
Then it hit me.
There was someone who I could talk to, someone who might understand. I got dressed slowly, still reeling from what I'd done.
In all the books I'd ever read, when you didn't mean something, you either remembered it as a blank or you were watching from some dark corner of your mind as you did something bad.
But I had stood there, knowing exactly what I was doing, and enjoyed it. I had just enjoyed torturing my little adoptive brother.
I heard a little cry next door. Luke had woken up. The Professor's footsteps, which I'd been hearing outside my room, raced to his. Now was my chance.
I unlocked the door and left the room quietly, before grabbing my bag and jacket off the hook by the door. I heard the Professor yell my name and I ran, out of the flat and down the stairs, out onto the street. Still shaking a little, I wondered if I could ever face the two of them again.
It took me at least five minutes of standing in a corner, trembling, for me to regain my sanity and walk down the road towards Kat's house. When I got there, I knocked on the door.
Kat opened it. She looked like she had just had a shower and was wearing a black t-shirt and leggings. When she saw me, she gave me a slightly sympathetic smile, and gestured for me to come in.
I was handed a mug of tea and sat down in Kat's living room; again. She looked at me.
"I assume you haven't talked to Professor Layton about this," she said, more of a question than a statement.
"I can't," I whispered, clutching the tea mug. Kat looked worriedly at me.
"Drink the tea, Flora, you still look frozen." I lifted the mug to my lips and almost choked on it.
"Sorry, I wasn't expecting it to be spicy," I said hurriedly. Kat smiled.
"Don't worry about it, my taste buds are messed up. At least, that's what my dad says."
My head jerked up. "Where is your dad?"
"At work." replied Kat, looking away. I fell silent for a minute.
"So, Flora," said Kat. "I've been in a similar situation to you, and Luke's probably just as angry at me as he is at you, because I killed you, so you can really talk to me about it." I looked up curiously.
"What happened to you before, Kat? How do you know the dream road exists?" Kat paused. For a moment I thought I'd gone too far, then she started to speak.
"His name was Andy. We were the best of friends…he was my only friend actually. And then one day he didn't turn up to school, so I went to his house. And he was sitting there, saying that he had just had a horrible dream where he walked along a road and it was burning hot, like the ground was on fire…I'd never heard anything like it.
Until I went to sleep that night, and I joined him to face the living hell. And it was literally hell. Luke's road is so cold-this one was so hot it was unbearable. I was there every night, walking with him, and one night, I did the same as you did last night. I said some really terrible things that night, and I've never forgiven myself. Andy was a bit volatile; he hadn't exactly had the most amazing life, so he flipped out and killed me after I said the most horrific thing I've ever said, ever." Kat shuddered at the memory.
"That's how I knew that the best thing was to kill you. I knew Luke was far too softhearted. And that's not a bad thing really. I hadn't realized how hard it was to actually kill someone, even if they would be alright in the morning." Kat took a deep breath, and smiled at me.
I stared at her. There was one thing she'd said, that bothered me, made me feel nervous. "Kat...your friend, what happened to him?" Kat took another deep breath.
"On the last night...no wait, you don't know this bit. The dream road is where your fear manifests, and it makes you face your fears, one by one. The last night...that's when your greatest fear appears. And you should know, that Luke's been told that if he fails to conquer that fear, fails to walk the dream road, he and everyone else he cares about will die.
So it was the last night. And I thought we conquered his fear. But when I woke up, I knew I'd been dead for a while...you'll know what that feels like, you were dead last night. And I ran round to Andy's, still thinking that he was alive...and he was dead." A tear rolled down Kat's cheek.
"Oh Kat, I'm so sorry," I whispered, but there was a new fear gnawing at me. Was Luke going to die whether he faced his fears or not?
Kat wiped away the tear. "It took me years to work out what happened, but when I did, it was horrible." She looked up at me. "We didn't conquer his greatest fear at all. We only thought we did. His greatest fear was that he would fail to complete the dream road, and all the people he cared about would die. He thought his dream was reality, and he paid the price!" Her face changed a little, became stronger.
"I've lost one friend to the dream road Flora. I'm not going to lose another."