Chapter 12: Unconscious Dreams
The entire world seemed to stop as I fell for what seemed like countless ages through the blue sky, and then, my head came into contact with cement, and as blood trickled down my forehead, I was instantly knocked unconscious.
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"Seems... Seems... Nothing is as it seems..."
My eyes snap open upon hearing the strange faraway words, and I find that I am now staring into the complete darkness once again, "Where am I?" I ask, standing up on a pair of very shaky legs, but no answer is heard, "Where am I?" I repeat, angrily, "WHERE AM I?"
"Nothing is as it seems, Beatrice... Nothing is as it seems..."
"Who are you?" I call out, but my eyes are forced shut once again, and I scream my lungs out, but no one can hear me; my mouth is somehow forced shut once again, and I am drowning in misery...
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Her plait of blonde hair whips around as she turns to face me, "But you're dead!" I scream, realizing that she has remained unchanged, "You're dead!"
"No, Beatrice," she hisses; a forked tongue issuing from her mouth, "It is you who are dead."
And her face fades away into painful darkness.
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"HELP ME!" a voice is screaming through the void; taking me away from the darkness.
"Who are you?" I ask, and he comes into focus; a handsome boy chained up in what appears to be a prison-cell; my heart melts at the sight of him. He is so needy. He wants my help-- but before I can reach out to touch his scared face, he fades away once again, and is replaced by darkness...
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"Trust no one," she whispers, as I open my eyes once again, "Who are you?" I call.
"A guardian," the voice whispers, "Beatrice, you must wake up. There is something of grave importance to be learned here... When you awaken, follow your heart, and not your head."
"But-- wait, I think I know you… Are you the one who--?"
"My identity is irrelevant-- but yours on the other hand is not. You must discover it now as opposed to later."
"Please-- no. You need to tell me who you are… I must know. Your voice…"
"…is familiar," she finishes, "but you cannot dwell upon it. Don't harp on--"
"Who are you?" I scream, angry at being told off.
"Do not be afraid," the voice whispers, and I am plunged into darkness once again.
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My eyes snapped open once again, as I realized that the dreams had not been real-- thank God. A car screeched somewhere down the road, and I jumped out of the way to avoid the pain of being run over by the madman driving, "Watch where you're going, asshole!" I called after the driver, angrily; the same way I had reacted thousands of times before when I had still been living on the streets. I had seen someone-- a kid-- no more than five or six run over once years earlier, and the idea of me dying like that wasn't too pleasant. Like they usually did, the driver ignored me, and tossed out an empty bottle of beer, Drinking in the afternoon-- not the best of signs, I thought, as I absentmindedly jammed my hands into my jeans pockets, and began to walk away from the crowded streets-- all the cars, I mean. My forehead was throbbing painfully, and I remembered there had been blood-- a bruise or lump was definitely going to form on the spot-- damn. It was just like the night Jacqueline had given me the apple, only that time, it had been on the back of my head-- the sneaky bitch… It was uncanny. I looked around myself wildly; I did not recognize anything-- how predictable. Where am I? I wondered, realizing that my forehead was continuing to drip red blood onto the sidewalk-- but, as soon as the blood stained the ground, it would disappear-- this was strange indeed, What has happened to me this time around? I wondered, continuing to look around me at the world that was so modern-- but also strangely beautiful to me; hundreds of yellow taxicabs were rushing down the streets-- just like in those cheesy made-for-television movies you can't help but watching to have a good laugh; people were running in and out of the many shops-- most of them quite overpriced, by the look of things, while apartment buildings towered thousands of feet over us all; my heart froze in my chest as I realized where I was. New York City, I thought to myself, ignoring the pain in my head, and beginning to run down the streets; I practically passed right through hundreds of people, and they ignored me-- I realized that I had only been sent here to watch. I obviously could not intervene again. Oh, well. It figured.
I blinked sleep out of my eyes; the dreams that I dreamt all day-- or whatever it had been, were frightening-- Who had those people been, and the boy… The boy-- he had been the most maddening of them all. Why had he sought my help so…? I wondered, continuing to walk; it was troubling, after all. That boy had seemed so helpless, but what had it all meant…?
I paused in mid-step.
My mind was buzzing with questions once again-- and there were many. I had wanted to ask Elaine who had sent me to witness the atrocities that had taken place on Mars all those years, but it was as if my mind had been wiped blank before I'd even the chance to ask-- was it a friend of Elaine's, perhaps--? Another faerie, even? It hadn't been a shaska. Otherwise, I'd be lying in that cave, deader than I was before…
And why had I been sent here, of all places? Surely, nothing relevant could have taken place in one of the largest cities in the world, and this wasn't the future, for I had just seen some bus pass by advertising some film from the mid '80s. This was obviously the past.
So, why was I here?
I stared at a group of people walking beside me; they were chatting casually-- fear was not present in their voices; this was obviously one of those minor occurrences that Elaine had instructed me to watch out for.
I heaved a heavy sigh; life had gotten so very complicated after death…
The sun was beating down on us; it wasn't as bad as the desert place, but I still broke out in a sweat. I wiped it away from my brow, and my heart stopped mid-beat; I stared at a woman running out of a nearby shop, and I murmured my surprise as I recognized her. She was tall, dark, beautiful, and at least seven months pregnant…