True Reality

I tried to ask the questions that were filling my mind, but when I opened my mouth to speak the only thing that came out was something that sounded like a gasp. I looked at the boy. I felt a tingling feeling in the back of my mind, like I knew him.

"Water. You need water," he said frantically. He started looking around for a cup to fill up at the water fountain. Finally he just decided to pour out a blue chemical and use the beaker. I normally wouldn't have drunken out of a beaker that had some unknown chemical in it, but I was too parched to refuse.

He handed me the beaker and I gulped it down. The water tasted pure. It didn't taste like the water that I had at home. As it slid down my throat, I could feel it peeling away the substance that coated it. Once I finished my water, I set the beaker down on the table next to me.

There was a huge bang outside the door, like the sound a rifle would make. The boy ran over to the door and peered his head out then came running back over to where I lay.

"We need to go now," he said. There was an urgency in his voice.

I started to move my legs towards the ground. I felt sluggish and my mind was fogged. The edges of vision blurred as my gut wrenched. I felt like throwing up, but I pushed the pain aside, willing myself to move. I placed my feet horizontal to the ground and slid off the bed only to find that my legs were unable to support me. I grunted a little as the boy caught me as I fell from the table.

"Shit. They must have used a ton of it on you," he told me. What did he mean they used a ton of it on me?

He picked me up in his arms, holding me to his chest. I could feel the beating of his heart, and the way his muscles flexed as he held me. I started getting butterflies in my stomach. He started jogging towards the door, when a huge figure appeared in the doorway, holding a glimmering machete-like sword. It was one of the monsters from my dreams. I looked up at its eyes, but all I saw were endless pits of darkness. I could feel my heart beating rapidly in my chest, wanting to explode out. I started having flashes of my nightmares in my head.

"Put the human down," it said in a heavily accented voice. Its voice was deep and menacing. It struck me with fear.

The boy started to set me down on the floor. I started to panic; he couldn't leave me with this thing. But then I realized that as he stood up he reached behind his back and gripped a sword. He pulled it out in record speed and hurled it at the monster but he deflected the blade. The boy charged the monster but when he was within 6 feet of it his hands lit up and he shined the light into the monsters eyes. I stared, not believing what I was seeing. It wasn't humanly possible for someone to just have light shooting out of their hands.

The monster flung his hands up to cover his eyes. The boy's sword was shooting towards him with some unknown force. He caught it and pierced the monster right in his heart. I heard its yell and then it turned to ash.

I looked at the boy with fear in my eyes. He realized that what he had done frightened me.

"E-Emily…," he started towards me, but I cringed away, afraid that he might hurt me or even kill me. I pulled my knees up to my chest and hugged the counter wall that I was sitting up against. "Emily, please. I'm on your side. The Mog would have killed me and put you back in your fantasy world. W-why are you acting so strange?" He sounded hurt.

"I-I don't know who you are." I pushed the words up my throat and out my mouth with difficulty. I was relieved that I was able to speak again though.

"What do you mean you don't know me?" He had a worried look on his face. He started slowly walking towards me with his hands out to show me that he didn't have his sword in hand.

"I don't know you. I don't know where I am and I really just want to wake up from this dream." I felt my voice crack. I sounded like a child but I was scared. The image of light flying from his hands kept replaying in my head. "Please don't come any closer…"

He stopped where he was and said, "Emily, I'm not going hurt you. My name is John Smith. I came here to rescue you. Please just let me take you back to Henri. He'll know what to do."

I heard a machine gun firing down outside the door. It was close.

"Please, Emily. You have to trust me. I will tell you everything you want to know when we get back to the ship."

There was something about him telling me that I could trust him. "Okay."

He looked relieved when I said that. "Okay. But we have to hurry they'll be here any minute," he responded.