Tales from Septins Mind

Chapter 7 – Dream and Illusion

Andrew ran halfway to home before he slowed down and realised how pointless running was. It had appeared from nowhere, why did he think home would be any safer? The thought sent his heart racing again in raw fear. He forced himself to a more normal pace, walking quickly the rest of the way home. His thoughts blurred and confused him as his brain tried to piece together and understand everything that had just happened, buzzing with fear at the same time. That thing had hurt Elizabeth, had made her vanish. Was she ok? The thought gnawed at him. If only he had not been such a coward. If only he had been special like Elizabeth was convinced he was.

Finally he reached home and walked inside, still feeling useless and cowardly. His parents weren’t home yet so he didn’t have to explain why he looked so depressed. He grabbed a chocolate bar from the fridge and trudged to his room before sitting down heavily on his bed, ripping the wrapper off and taking a large bite. He chewed slowly as his mind began to calm down and he tried to review what had happened rationally. Listing things off in his mind.

“Large monster made of shadow and smoke. Check. Hates people like Elizabeth, dreamers? Check. Elizabeth yelled something about fighting Nightmare. Then she got smacked down by it.” He took a deep breath. “Check.” In his minds eye he saw it glaring at him and heard its vicious voice as it told him it was disappoint and that it had friends waiting for him when he took down the dream wall. Whatever that meant. “This is crazy…”

Andrew finished the chocolate bar and decided he didn’t want to think about it any more. So he headed to the lounge room and flicked on the T.V. to drive out what little thought he had pushing around in his head. He managed a good two hours of brainless watching before he had to help his parents with chores after they returned from work. After which he had dinner with them and then did his homework, or most of it and went back to his room to listen to music and mess around on his computer a little, chatting to friends, seeing what movies were on this week and a number of other meaningless teenage computer uses.

When he went to bed he had managed to forget most of the terrifying afternoon. As he drifted off to sleep he heard Elizabeth’s shrill scream of pain and fear as she was smashed across the park by a tendril of shadow. It was an unpleasant thought to fall asleep to.

Andrew heard the rustle of wind through leaves and opened his eyes. Strewn at his feet were shades of autumn, carpeting the forest floor. Sunlight filled the forest with streams of amber and orange light, magnifying the colours of the trees and leaves. Old wood and the musky smell of decaying leaves filled his nostrils. He had a strange sense of deja vu as he began to walk slowly, leaves crunching at his steps as he went, disturbing the perfect untouched forest, walking through the corridors of tree trunks that stared down at him in sombre silence as he passed, leaves gently falling from their outstretched limbs in a soft rain. A haunting song filled the silent forest, sorrow and regret filling the melody of strange words that washed over his mind. Female, he thought. How could anyone sing a song that sad and not be crying? He listened as he explored.

The entire scene flickered, and there along with the forest of golden autumn were ruined walls. Andrew hurried towards them, and they vanished back to dense forest as he reached them. He touched the trunk of the tree’s where the ruined wall had been and felt nothing but tough wood and moss beneath his fingers. He had had this dream before. It did not feel like a dream at all. There was an eerie reality to the sounds and he did not remember any of his dreams having such a vivid sense of touch.

“Why am I here?” He said out loud.

The song stopped, mid-note.

Andrew looked a bit perplexed at the surrounding tree’s and said, louder. “Is there any one there?”

Silence but for the soft sighing of wind brushing leaves and branches was all that replied.

“Well ok then. Guess I will keep dreaming then and just explore.” He pushed into the deeper forest, still not sure what was happening with the flickering ruins that had appeared and vanished. After a few minutes he stopped and sat down with his back to a tree, looking around at the forest and leaves, the sky he could see through the branches overhead was the brilliant golden orange of sunset still. The surrounding forest flickered, and he was surrounded by crumbling, stone buildings and he was leaning against a mostly fallen down wall. Beneat his feet were cobblestones, overgrown with moss and weeds but very easy to make out.

Andrew leapt to his feet and headed for the nearest ruined doorway he could see, determined to have a peek inside before the ruins flickered away again. He got inside and found himself in a room a few metres across and about twice that lengthways. His shoes kicked small stones and ground them against the stoney floor. In the wall opposite the door a small half ruined structure jutted out a half a metre. Andrew crouched down and looked inside and smelled the faintest smell of ashes caked into the interior of what he supposed must have been a fireplace for this building. Andrew looked around and found nothing else of note, if there was anything else in the building it must have long decayed away to dust or was disguised as rubble from the roof which was open to the sky.

He was still poking around in a pile of rubble with a foot when the air around him suddenly became heavy and stifling, like a great weight had just fallen on him, he stumbled and nearly fell, leaning on the wall for support. The pressure on him increased and he fell to his knee’s, the pressure wasn’t purely physical, it was on his mind, trying to smother it. Andrew yelled in fear and pain, trying to fight it off without knowing how or what was happening. The pressure built to a point where he was sure he was about to fall over and black out when there was a sound like a crack, he wasn’t sure if he heard it with his ears or his mind alone. But the pressure was suddenly gone, completely.

That was when the voice that had been singing earlier screamed in despair and anguish.