Hey so if you read the first chapter before this chapter this second chapter came into existence, you may notice that I have switched to present tense. It will be my last switch, promise. (mainly because it took way too long) But I really think it helped the story on a more personal level and a better way for the action to come through.
Thanks for reading hope you enjoy :)
Nighmare
It always starts in the Forest; usually a peaceful day. The birds are singing the leaves are rustling in the soft wind and the sun gently peaks in through the little holes of the forest's roof. I know I am in the Tangled Forest because the tree trunks are large and twisted.
Sometimes my serene surrounding can go on for hours, other times it ends within seconds.
The birds stop singing and the sun disappears behind grey clouds. Through the years I've come to memorizing my nightmares even in my sleep. Usually the blood red berry bush gives it away. There is always something off about the bush, the way it snakes its gnarled head around the thick trunk. There is always the dead man; so beautiful with his pale skin and golden hair. Young, too young.
Sometimes he looks like he could be sleeping, tired from a long days journey. Other times, he's covered in blood, gashes on his head, his chest, everywhere. There's always a rough stone laying on his chest, like some ritual to perform after the death of a loved one. I always wonder if someone was with him when he was killed and had only just enough time to give their respects by placing the stone where I see it lay. It's not long after I spot him that I hear the shrieks and the woman's cries.
After this, I either run or stay to fight. When the man looks like he is sleeping, I tend to stay, like if I can protect him, he'll wake up. When he is bloodied, I tend to run. Sometimes I stay or run either way, when you have one nightmare so often, you tend to have a lot of time to try new things.
When I stay, I am always killed. There is no way to fight. How do you fight a Trucelentor and win? You don't. The woman always comes into view first, more surprised than anything to see me. She tells me to run. She tells me to help her. She tells me to never give him it. I never know what she means by the last one. But it doesn't matter because soon the Trucelentor comes, and I am dead.
When I run, I am always caught before I get far enough. Sometimes I am caught by the Trucelentor, other times by one of their demon dogs. I never know how they know I am here. They just do.
Either way, I die.
Until last night.
Last Scene: Frozen, on edge, and about to throw up my insides, I can't think. It is my worst nightmare, coming true. If it really is, I know what happens next, and we can't stay here.
Rule number two: don't let them see you.
We have to hide. They'll be coming.
After I woke up this morning, I told Alice that my nightmare changed by saying there was a tea party, which she knows is an obvious lie. The thing she does not know is that my dream was different, just not in the way I said. The thing that changed in my last dream is that I finally ran and found a place to hide before they found me.
A shrill shriek comes from the woods behind us and then a terrifying scream of a woman. We had to go quickly.
I grab Alice and will us in the direction that I remember. Alice follows but she's still rigid from shock. Seeing the dead man I'd become too familiar with.
My eyes frantically roam the forest for the tree with the hollowed out base.
I practically drag Alice. She won't cooperate and I am afraid to yell for fear they might realize we are here. My breath is labored and my arms to weak to drag her so strenuously. "Come on Alice!" I whisper low. We'll never find it at this rate.
It is no where in site; maybe my latest dream about the hiding place was wrong. What if this really isn't my nightmare? What if that screaming woman is running away from a dangerous man and not the Trucelentors? What if I can actually help her?
A high pitched shrill comes again and I know it is a Trucelentor. I know that scream. It has to be. There is nothing I could do for the woman. Those hooded yellow eyes that are after her will win.
There's no way to describe a Trucelentor. None at least that can accurately depict the gruesome horror they inflict. People say that the only reason a Trucelentor has power over a humans fear so strongly is because of their eyes. Their eyes aren't even eyes. They're floating yellow orbs under the darkness of their hoods that pierce through your skin, burning your insides and making you squirm in fear.
You don't ever see a Trucelentor just walking around. They rule Elevatia, but they don't roam it. Unless there's trouble, people will never see a Trucelentor in their lifetime, and around here we consider that a good thing.
The Trucelentors don't act as our rulers but rather as our gods. They have their fake human king who pretends to rule.
Living behind the castle walls, I've seen the King far more then I have cared to. His sickly transparent skin, his fragile frame and shaky hands only emphasize the pathetic puppet he is to the Trucelentors. Like he actually makes the law. Like he actually cares for "his people". What is actually worse is that people are okay with it. Or they choose to ignore it. It's a joke. The Trucelentors wave this ruling figure in front of us, a person of our kind, and call him our King and we don't do anything. How many people have rebelled? Zero. Fear is the worst trait of a human being.
As a girl who lives right under them and works directly for them, it makes me sick. But worst of all, I don't do anything either. I could. I could try and revolt. Maybe if I did and got enough attention, others would try and revolt with me. I have the inside advantage. I could. But I don't. I am weak. I am pathetic, even compared to the King.
We continue through the forest and I am about to scream out of frustration and panic when Alice tugs on my arm hard.
I am about to scold her for slowing us down when I notice her eyes. They're blank again. She is having another trance. She point in one direction and I know she means for me to follow. I am a little afraid at this point to follow her seeing as she is the one that got us into this mess, but I am running out of options. The shrill is getting louder. We turn to the left a bit and run on. I almost cry out when the hollowed out tree base comes into view.
However Alice found it I have no clue. I don't even know how this could possibly be exactly like my nightmares, but so far it is and at the moment I don't care how Alice found it, only that she did. All I care about is how to stay alive. I have to beat it this time.
I push Alice's head down so that she stumbles into the hole with a thump. I follow close behind.
Soon we are in the hallowed out space of the tree, pressed up against the shadows with the screams becoming louder. All we can do now is wait. I wonder how much I should warn Alice of. There is only so much left of my nightmare before I wake up. My last nightmare was the strangest of all because I hadn't woken up because I was dead, at least not that I knew of. I had woken up by a light, a blinding light.
Alice is still in her trances, staring blankly into open air. She has had them way too much in one day, in one week. I just hope it isn't another 'message'.
Alice told me once that her trances are messages. Sometimes the messages are presented by feelings, sometimes visions, and other times by a woman's voice. I can never say that she is crazy, as much as I want to. But if I say that she is crazy then what would that make me with all my nightmares, especially now that they're coming true?
Over the years her messages have been nothing but obscure. They don't happen often but when they do Alice would get sudden urges to go so something or tell someone something. One time she had the sudden urge to go to the library of all places. I followed her in the dark as she ran to the library eager to read. We aren't even good readers. Our reading and writing lessons stopped when we became orphaned and then started back up again, more vigorously, when we were to become ladies in waiting but then stopped when we became servants. Because of this, I found it extremely annoying that Alice had such an urge to go to the library.
Usually all she picked up were history books. History books here in Elevatia are some what of a joke. Everyone knows the Trucelentors have destroyed all the accurate ones, replacing them with false accounts of the "fall of man" as they call it.
Yet Alice was persistent. For the remainder of that month she went to the library in secret. The only thing she ever came back with that was the least bit interesting was a small bundle of maybe two pages that she had ripped out of what might have been a journal. She told me she found them squeezed in between two shelves near the bottom. It was written in very neat handwriting, but neither Alice nor I could make out the meaning of it. It had probably been ripped from the middle so we had no context of the start or finish. I felt discouraged to read it over anymore, feeling more like an idiot with every read. The words were hard to understand and the thought process the person went through was too confusing.
Alice said that the person was looking for something and that he or she was afraid of being caught. I didn't know how she figured that out, but I felt even more discouraged because I was even an idiot compared to my own sister of flesh and blood. Alice told me not to worry about it because a 'message' had helped her out. The point is, Alice's messages never seem to get us anywhere. If anything, they get us into trouble, like right now.
"Leave me alone I don't have it!" the woman shouts, bringing me back to reality. She is closer and I know it will happen soon; the thing that always confuses me the most in my nightmares. I whisper to myself gently that there is nothing I can do. There is nothing I can do to help this woman.
You can't kill a Trucelentor.
I close me eyes and rest my head on my knees and listen closely, waiting for my queue.
I have never survived a nightmare. When I have tried to save the girl, the Trucelentor always kills me with its various weapons. I've never seen the Trucelentor actually kill the woman. I have either died first or am too far away. I don't know why Trucelentors continues to relentlessly chase her when he could easily kill her. What is the point? What does she have? Or does not?
The woman gasps and lets out a sob. She is at the body. "Emery!" She sobs again. This is where she stops running. "Emery! No!" She screams at the dead body.
"Where is it?" the Trucelentor shrieks. The woman is too busy sobbing to answer. There is a whip and the woman cries out.
"Leave me alone! You'll never find it!" She screams and several more lashes are broken. This is the part I never understand. What is it looking for? What does the woman not want to give him?
"Your kind will be destroyed!" The woman screams. She has become quite bold. No one can kill a Trucelentor, let alone their entire species. "The Rebels live!" she screams. The rebels. That is one of the additions of last night's nightmares. What does it mean? I am almost too distracted to remember what happens next. Quickly I turn to Alice to tell her to close her eyes in preparation for the blinding light, but she is gone.
Doo Do Doo Do Doo Do Doo Do (twilight zone)