Prisons of Stolen Dreams

by Christopher St. John Sampayo

  The children took regular classes each day since they had been taken to the shores of their glass world. They were taught art, philosophy, and various histories. The classes were at times in buildings in the city. Sometimes they were in the fields. Sometimes they were along the shores of the Sea of Glass.

  One day a new boy entered into their strange little world of the stolen. As Sarah sat in a room in the city waiting for her physics class to begin Belili entered. A boy followed her. He had bright blue eyes and very dark hair. He went to one of the desks in the room and sat.

  “Children, this is Patrick,” Belili said. She then began her lesson.

  Sarah was curious about this new boy. She knew they all were. He was not one of their group. He was an interloper in the tight community they had formed.

  After class he didn’t remain with the other children. Instead he followed Belili as she left. Sarah did not see him again till the next class.

  The children were suspicious of him. Why had he not been locked away with them through their years of captivity. Isiah was one of the most suspicious. He did not trust the new child. He did not trust this place.

  In truth neither did Sarah. However, she could not help but be intrigued by this boy named Patrick. She found herself watching him in class. He was very quiet. He would stare off into the distance in class. Often she saw him looking out the windows. However, whenever he was called upon in class he always immediately gave the answer to whatever question he was asked. He responded instantly. He did not even appear to have to think of it. No matter how complex the question was he always had the right answer.

  The other children noted this as well. They also noted that Belili treated him differently. She treated him as special amongst special children. Over time the children understood that he was the smartest of them all.

  It was whispered that he might be the one that Verse Zero was created to find. Sarah had to wonder what that meant for the rest of them.

  ***

  Sarah pondered this as she sat in the field during a class on differential equations. She wondered if Patrick was the one that this place had been created to find. She could not help but stare at Patrick and try to figure him out.

  Belili was teaching today’s class. The children sometimes had different teachers but the constant was Belili. She was explaining to them the mechanisms of how calculus worked. Sarah was now thirteen years old. Belili had begun the class by telling them the concepts they were working on were concepts that most people typically could not master till they were in their mid-twenties.

  The children all had with them tablets. They were computer tablets of a type that Sarah was not familiar with.

  Sarah was not looking at her tablet however. She was looking at Patrick. He was once again staring off into the distance. There’s something in his eyes, Sarah thought. There was some unique process of work going on in his mind. Sarah wondered what was going on in his mind that gave him such a thoughtful yet sad look.

  Suddenly Catalina stood up. “I can’t do this…I don’t get it,” she suddenly screamed. “I don’t understand any of this. I’m…I’m only a child. I’m not a prodigy.”

  The cry of her friend’s frustration pulled Sarah back to the class.

  Belili stopped her lesson. She smiled. “It takes time, Catalina. Even for the best of us sometimes.”

  “But I’m trying…I am...and I just don’t get it. Shouldn’t that be part of things? Shouldn’t I get it? Aren’t we supposed to be here because we’re able to just understand? I don’t. I don’t understand. I don’t get it. I don’t belong here. I’m not smart enough.”

  Belili stared at Catalina for a few moments.

  “Catalina,” she said. “I want you to listen to me very closely. Then I want you to repeat what I tell you.”

  After a few moments Belili said, “Catalina, you are very, very smart. You are smarter then you realize. You are smarter than others could imagine to be.”

  Catalina remained standing, still visibly frustrated.

  “Catalina, repeat what I just told you.”

  Catalina did not immediately respond.

  “Repeat what I told you, Catalina,” Belili pressed. “Word for word.”

  Catalina began to repeat what she had just been told.

  “Catalina, you are very, very intelligent,” she repeated. “You are more intelligent then you realize. You are intelligent in a way that others cannot dream.”

  Belili smiled again.

  “Now Catalina, I want you to think about what you just said. And I want you think back to what I just said. And I want you to think…did you repeat what I said? Exactly? Word for word?”

  Catalina paused for a moment. Suddenly a confused look appeared on her face.

  Belili went on speaking. “The answer is no. You did not repeat what I said word for word. You did not repeat it because you don’t naturally speak my language. I grew up in a place called Mesopotamia long before things like computers were created. Long before one could travel around the world. In this place I spoke a language called Sumerian. You do not know Sumerian, Catalina. You were never exposed to it. You speak the language of your era. You speak Castilian Spanish. However, it’s not important what languages we are speaking. What is important…is that we are understanding what we are both saying. Our minds are working so fast in this place that we are instantly translating what is being told to us.”

  “When you tried to repeat what I said word for word you really could not. Because some words and phrases do not perfectly matchup between different languages. They are translated to similar words. This goes for all of you Belili said. Very few of you have a common tongue.”

  The room was silent for a moment as this information washed over the children. Sarah started to think of her interactions with others in this place over the last several months.

  Belili began to speak again. “Children we took you all from different times…different places…you do not all share the same language. But…you understand. That is one of your first steps to being in this place. That is why you were locked in the rooms for so long. Your minds had to be prepared. You cannot just be brought into this place. We have to make sure that your minds can handle it. In the beginning when I was with you I would always speak around you in your language. Because we wanted to be careful in how we exposed you to these lands. The information presented to you here is…at a very high level. Even the sky above…”

  As Belili said this she looked at the strange heavens of this world. “Your visual acuity needed to be advanced to a higher degree then most humans so you could process the totality of what you see. The average mind…would just see a haze. It could not identify individual points.”

  Sarah reflected on what she was being told and a brief chill washed over her. She thought back to the nights that Belili would come into her room. She thought back to the strange skinny man who would appear at her doorway. She remembered how she would sometimes find dried blood on her head in the morning. Sarah realized this is what Belili meant when she said they were “preparing” the children. Sarah was not sure if this knowledge made her feel less frightened or more so. Once again she began to wonder exactly what had been done to her those nights when the tall man with his knives had appeared.

  Belili continued speaking. “All of you are from different times and different places. You are from different countries. However, all of you carry with you the spark of genius. We have found you. We found the best of you and we have sought to give you that which was missing. We helped restructure your minds to help you become even better.”

  “Catalina, never doubt that you belong in this place. Any of you. Your minds are unique in all of existence.”

  Belili then went back to her lesson. Sarah noted that Catalina seemed to focus on the lesson with renewed conviction.

  Sarah again turned to Patrick. He had continued day dreaming as Belili spoke. Sarah realized he already knew all this.

  ***

  Time went on
the children continued to become better acquainted with their new world and their new circumstances. However, they were still children. They still played games in the field and they skipped rocks in the water of the pond. At times they could forget their circumstances and just be children. This was their Neverland and they were lost together.

  Every day Sarah would find herself at some point looking up at the strange sky. If it wasn’t for the sky Sarah may not have believed any of this. The sky showed her the truth.

  The children moved in and out of the city more regularly now and Sarah had come to know more of the city’s residents. However, all the children stuck together and preferred to live in their rooms which for so long had been their cells.

  Sarah still saw Joshua. He watched over the children as if it was his task to keep up with what they were doing.

  Sometimes Sarah would stare at the strange forest in the distance that bordered the field. The woods were dark and full of shadows. Sarah would at times stare at the woods and try to pierce its depths but her eyes could only penetrate so far into the darkness.

  The dark woods were mysterious. Belili discussed at length the geometry of this place. It was in many ways a balanced equation. However, the forest was a variable in that equation. It was a place of uncertainty. It was an outgrowth of forces not truly comprehended.

  Belili always warned the children to be careful near the woods. Most of the children were frightened of them. In this bizarre place, the forest stood out as a true enigma. It was a mystery in a mysterious land.

  Children however, are curious. Sometimes in class they would ask for more information about the woods. Their instructors always seemed uncomfortable when the subject was broached. They never gave direct answers. Each time they responded to a question the response ended the same. The instructor would warn the children not to go into the forest.

  Sarah knew that this was one of the reasons Joshua watched them. He was there to make sure they did not stray to where they were not supposed to.

  Something about the forest kept drawing Sarah’s attention.

  Today was one such day. Sarah was in the fields close to the forest. She was staring into the trees. She was lost in the forest in her minds eyes. She was wondering what strange mysteries may lay there. She scanned the field. She saw Joshua. However, he was sitting by the pond. He was playing in the dirt as he often did. Sarah realized that he was not paying attention to the children.

  Sarah approached the forest. Before long she stood at the tree line. He body tingled from fear and excitement. She expected at any moment to hear Joshua shouting at her as he did whenever he saw children too close to the forest.

  As Sarah stared into the forest’s depths something caught her eye. It took her a few moments to realize what it was that she was seeing. There was the silhouette of a figure in the woods. The figure was watching her.

  Sarah looked to the pond. Joshua had still not noted that she was standing near the forest. Instead he was staring at the water with his mad smile. Sarah realized that it didn’t matter if he saw her right now. She was too close to be stopped. Sarah stared back into the woods. Then she entered them.

  She approached the figure that she saw watching her. It moved away. Sarah’s heart was beating very fast but determination pushed her fear away. She followed the figure through the forest. There were other shadows that seemed to move in the forest. Sarah ignored them. She remained focused on the silhouette that she had seen. There was something to this figure that she needed to see. She followed it till she reached a small clearing.

  She could not see the figure any longer. However, she knew it was there. She knew it was watching her.

  Sarah summoned all her courage.

  “Come out,” she said. “Show yourself.”

  There was silence for several moments. It was as if even the air hesitated. Then a figure emerged from behind a tree. However, it stayed enshrouded in the shadows.

  “Show yourself,” Sarah said again.

  The figure hesitated. Finally, it stepped forward. It moved from out of the darkness and into the light which streamed through the branches of the clearing.

  Sarah almost screamed in terror at the sight of what stood before her. It was a woman. More correctly it was what had once been a woman. Now it was nearly unrecognizable. The skin of the creature was shriveled and peeling off. The creature’s hands covered its face.

  Seeing this wretched creature, a wave of compassion washed over Sarah.

  “It’s ok,” Sarah said. “It’s ok.”

  After a moment, the creature lowered its hands. The horror continued. The skin of the woman’s face was blistered and burnt. It was missing an eye. Its face was gaunt.

  With her one eye, the creature could see the horror on Sarah’s face. She covered her face again and Sarah heard a noise. It took her a few moments for Sarah to realize what she was hearing. The creature was sobbing.

  Slowly it backed away and began to turn. The sobbing continued. It was such a sad and pitiful noise. Sarah understood why the creature sobbed. She sobbed because she knew how hideous she was. It was a sob of the lonely. In this moment, in hearing that sob, Sarah's heart broke for the creature that had once been a woman.

  “Who did this to you?” Sarah demanded to know. She felt a sense of rage at the injustice the creature had suffered. “Was it Belili?”

  The creature turned to face Sarah.

  The creature opened its mouth but all that came out was a strange grunt of a moan. It took Sarah a moment to realize why this was. The creature’s tongue had been cut out.

  The creature began to sob again and it fell to its knees. Sarah could not understand why she did what she did next. Her revulsion disappeared. She approached the creature. Slowly she knelt in front of it. She reached out and touched the cracked and blistered skin of the creature’s face.

  The creature reached up and grabbed Sarah’s hand. However, this did not frighten Sarah. The creature held Sarah’s hand close. As the creature stared at Sarah it made a strange face. Sarah realized that this pitiful creature was smiling. It was a sad smile but, it was a smile none the less.

  Sarah tried to return the smile. As she did so she thought of what other horrors this place might hold. She thought of the perpetrators of this evil upon this woman. She then thought of the strange mad look in Joshua’s eyes when he cast his gaze upon her.

  Sarah began to wonder if at some point this might be her fate. She wondered if at some point, she too might end up in a forest scarred and broken.

  ***

  The Philosophical Principles of Death. The Scripture of Farinata Uaegli Abertio.

  Gospel 000987

  Monsters live in the mind. They dwell in the psyche. They are mere creations of our imagination. They have no actual substance. What we call a monster is something we have projected our fears upon.

  Whether we create a monster in the real world by designating a person a monster, or it is only an imagined specter in the shadows makes no difference. In the end what is horror? What is evil?

  It is merely what we define it to be. It is a matter of perspective.

  What is the perspective behind the eyes of the one that we would call a monster?

  In the darkness where monsters dwell we cannot see them. Yet our mind sees them and projects power upon them. Our mind creates the...

  Verse Seven: The Elegance of Structure

  The City of Adar was built in the days after Farinata’s Prism was first activated. At the time Adar was just the area of Verse Zero where the occupants of the Sea of Glass were to be housed. The structures were modest. They were mainly composed of barrack like structures, dining facilities, and a hospital. However, as generations of geniuses were gathered to this place more structures were built. These buildings became a small town, then a city.

  Eventually it became a city unlike any other. It was a city built by prodigies.

  In this city a man named Beethoven once lived. In various lives he had been a compos
er. However, the Beethoven in this place had taken another path. He became an architect. He poured his passion and love into the creation of beautiful structures. The city was littered with his symphonies of brick and mortar.

  A garden of stone was built by a man named Plato. Plato’s Garden was filled with statues sculpted by the great genius himself. These statues were figures which displayed different phases of Plato’s ideas. It was a garden of frozen expression. It was a garden of frozen thought.

  One prodigy named Niels Bohr created buildings whose very walls shimmered with the materials of their construction. They flashed random patterns that reflected the spinning worlds they passed. These walls were much like the walls in Egypt that showed the stories of the Egyptians through Hieroglyphics. However, on the structures created by Bohr the stories constantly changed as they Sea of Glass sailed passed new and different Verses.

  Geniuses needed to express themselves and this city at the center of space and time was a unique place built by poets and artists. Each building was inspiration. Some were from an age of stone. Some were from an age of technology. These unique and different designs could be side by side in a city sailing through infinity.

  In this place of various possibilities at the crossroads of all creation the children of the Seventy Third Generation began to find their own paths through this strange new life of theirs.

  ***

  Catalina often sat on the shores of the beach along the Sea of Glass. She was falling in love with this beautiful world.

  She couldn’t help but get lost in the strange and beautiful sea of infinity. As she looked into its depths she could see a million different Verses with a million different possibilities. Catalina knew she existed in most of them. Somewhere was a her living in different circumstances and living a different life.

  The Catalina that had been taken to this strange land had been happy. Catalina’s father had a large library. She spent much of her time lost in the many books of that library. At a young age she quickly learned to read. In doing so she discovered that between the pages of those books was a universe. In some ways the library with its many books was like the Sea of Glass that she now gazed upon. They both contained a thousand hidden universes.