Chapter II: The Hermit
In which a harsh reality awaits...
AWAKEN.
How long has it been since I last slept? Since I last dreamt? Hundreds of years of cryo-stasis… and not even a single dream… not even a single thought. And now? I can sleep, I can dream, but the price I paid for such a privilege…
Why was I the only one to awaken? Why was I the only one chosen to suffer? Is it karma? It is fate? Or is it merely the cruel humour of some unforeseen god? I never asked for this… I never wanted to be special… I just wanted to be… me…
So, should I rebel? Should I curse the gods for everything that has happened or should I just accept that life is pointless, and see what lies at the end of this dark path? I don’t know…
Before I stepped inside that pod, before I closed my eyes, life was so very simple. The world was ending, and we could do nothing but hold tight and try to ride out the storm, hoping that we would live to see tomorrow.
Now? We have ghosts and demons and regret…
Now? We have sleep, and dreams, and agonizing, meaningless hope…
The Glade. The place of destiny. The place of death. The place of dreams….
AWAKEN.
How could I have been so foolish? How could I have believed for even one second that I would find solace here? I should have stayed on that fetid hill, and waited patiently for the end. Instead, I find myself standing in a glade… in The Glade. This is a dream that much I know, because if this were reality, then the vision standing before me would already be gone.
She is here, the girl with violet eyes. The girl with ivory-white hair. The girl with no name. She is standing where she stood before, in that other, less desirable place. This time, she does not fall. Instead, she turns to me, with her eyes full of hope and sadness.
“Help me, please, help me!” she cries, as crimson tears start to trickle down her face.
The dream shudders, sending the earth itself soaring into the air. I fall to the floor, trying to find an anchor for my flailing body. The sky wheels overhead as I try to regain my balance. I look around and see that the glade has vanished, replaced by an endless darkness. The girl is still here, a rock in the storm. Turning to me, she extends a pale hand, beckoning me closer. I reach for it, but another shudder sends me reeling. The landscape blurs once more and I find myself back on that bone dry hill. I want to scream but my words have left me, fleeing after my escaping sanity.
Another shudder, another blur of colour and sound, and another new location. I am standing before my pod, a monstrous thing designed not for comfort but for salvation. The girls sleeps within, and try as I might, I cannot break the glass shell that keeps her from me.
AWAKEN.
Again, a blur of colour. I am once again within the glade, staring at the violet-eyed girl. I’m tired of this charade. I’m tired of this dream, and its maddening randomness. Turning my back on the girl, I try and run, but an unseen force stops me in my tracks. I cannot move. I cannot speak.
Only my eyes are left under my control, wheeling wildly within their recesses. She is close enough to smell now, a smell of sickly sweet honey, mixed in with the noxious fumes of the pollution. She closes her eyes as she embraces my paralyzed form, and as she looks up to me, I begin to scream, her bluish-green eyes boring into my mind.
AWAKEN!
Awakening Page 8