I think I've found the right place to begin. The story opens with an overcast scene as it begins to rain. The sky was bronze. The neighborhood was quiet. The trees swayed in a steady southerly wind. Someone was walking down the street. The rain had begun to make her hair and her clothes very damp. She walked through the puddles on the sidewalk, the road to her right and a black iron fence to her left. She wondered that no cars passed by on the street. And no people were in their yards. Not even one of the houses she passed by had a single window lit. She walked slowly, carefully. Up ahead she saw a gate in the black iron fence that she was walking along side. And the gate was swung open. When she reached the gate she went through it veering off the sidewalk. She trod slowly on the wet grass. The grass was enclosed on all sides by the black iron fence. Huge trees loomed overhead. She walked between small stone monuments that were separated by several feet. The rain running down them made the stone look darker than it really was. Many of them were marked with flowers. She noticed that names and dates were engraved on the stone. She read the names in her head as she passed by, “Austin Harrison, Ali Jentley, Jackson Dale, Joseph Careheart, Hannah Careheart, Gordan Seth, Anna Micheals, Robert Edwards, Misty Williams, Alexandra Cepear.” She spied someone out of the corner of her eye, which caused her to jump inside. She realized he hadn't seen her yet because his back was to her. Whoever it was, he was about twenty feet away from her and off to her right. He was on his knees in front of one of the stones. She suddenly recognized the boy. It was her brother. She called to him, but he didn't look up. She walked to him briskly. “Sadier... Sadier...” she called as she walked to his side, but he didn't move. She was now close enough to read the name on the stone that was in front of him. It was written in a long tall font, “Saymi Davidson.” He turned his head slowly and looked up at her the rain running down his face. “Saymi,” he smiled weakly as he said her name. “You're name is written.” That's when she realized she was in a graveyard.
Motion caught her eye causing her to glance up. Had that tree swayed or was her imagination playing tricks? Then she heard a rustling of leaves, and a creaking of a branch. The tree was clearly under the strain of something. Yes, something was climbing down the tree. Someone. It was a man climbing down the tree. When the man reached the ground he turned to face them, and his image was so horrid it took her breath away. His clothes were tattered and torn. Scars and wounds covered his body. His face was massively deformed. He had a short broken nose. And worst of all were his eyes. Those eyes. Solid red eyes were his eyes. They blazed like a fire hotter and hotter with every step as he put one foot in front of the other closing the distance between himself and them. Sadier and Saymi were frozen in terrible freight. Saymi lost her footing and fell hard on twigs and cold leaves, her breath knocked from her lungs, her legs locked. The creature approaching suddenly screeched a piercing scream, his mouth coming unhinged. More trees swayed. More leaves rustled. More horrifying creatures reached the ground and started enclosing on them at all sides. The creature slowly extended his hand as if to snatch Sadier with his deathly grip.
Suddenly a strong gust of wind. A flash of something the nature of lightning. Someone had an arm around each of them somewhat laying on them in a protective pose and was saying, “Hold tight. Do not be afraid.” Sadier felt someone's hair on his cheek. Someone had apparently jumped right in the midst of the creatures. Beyond her hair and her shoulder Sadier could see the creatures fighting tooth and nail. He heard horrible sounds of battle and wrestling. His sister, Saymi, was unconscious.
“Let's go now,” the girl said suddenly. She moved quickly, scooping up Saymi's limp body in one arm and somehow managing to grab Sadier's hand also. She jerked him across the grass and leaves with a painfully tight grip. Sadier was in a daze but he remembered one of the creatures coming within striking distance, but for some reason wasn't able to land the blow.
She lead them through the black iron gate and out of the graveyard. With Saymi still in her arm she sprinted down the sidewalk dragging Sadier along. Her expression was stressful, her fuzzy golden hair flying wildly behind her. The creatures struggled with flaming fury to reach them edging closer. It seemed that there was no escaping them.
He sat up quickly and turned off his alarm clock... He felt the sheets on his legs, and his body sinking into the mattress. His eyes flashed over the familiar surroundings of his bedroom. His heart beat at an incredible pace, his breath quick.
He sat there eyes wide staring into nothing as the dream came back to him a chunk at a time. The morning light beamed through his curtain into the small room. He rose and tried to go through his normal morning routine, his mind racing. He gazed into the bathroom mirror shaking his head, laughing a bit. “It was just a dream, man. It was just a dream.” But when you have a dream like that it's realer than life for the first several minutes following at least. Believe me I know. I remember. It's not something you can just dismiss.
He stepped into the sunbathed kitchen, and started pouring himself a bowl of cereal. It was a warm September day. His godfather had already departed for work. His expected that his sister, Saymi, would soon join him in the warm kitchen. He had this uneasy thought in the back of his mind because of the dream. He wanted to rush into her bedroom and make sure she was alright, but he didn't.
He didn't have to wait much longer though. She rolled into the kitchen with a quiet greeting her hands deftly maneuvering her wheelchair her brown curls bouncing. As she ate breakfast, he stood looking out the window. A flock of sparrows were enjoying the morning on their bird feeder.
She noticed his long staring and slow tense movements, and asked him what was up.
“Oh nothing...” he said. “It was just a dream.” He paused, and then realized he was into it now to back out. “Yeah, it was kind of a nightmare I guess,” he continued shrugging. He told her most of it, but spared some details, the ones that were more jarring to him, like how her name was on the grave stone. “That girl though,” he said. “I keep thinking that I know her from somewhere maybe. (laugh) I don't know. Maybe at school. Wait a minute, yeah, at school...” he mused his heart jumping at that connection.
Sadier and Saymi go to Waterfall Academy which is the east-most school in the settlement. I, Sal, also go to school there. It's kinda out in the middle of no where. Right now, Sadier is in eighth grade, and Saymi is in seventh. This was the first day of the third week of the school year.
Half an hour later a yellow school bus squealed to a stop outside their house. The bus had small black stickers on the side that read “Waterfall Academy.” Sadier helped his sister board the bus with the help of a special handicapped lift. It tended to draw attention. It produced a loud buzz when moving up.
Saymi rolled onto the bus and found her place in the back. Sadier sat down in a rubbery bench and looked out the window as the bus accelerated. The girls on the bus liked to tease Saymi. They talked about her in a slightly belittling way, and they nicknamed her Tin Legs because of her clunky wheelchair.
Sadier didn't think much of all that. There was a lot of bulling at the school, most much worse than that. He himself took his fair share. It was just part of school. He'd been beat up before, jeered at. Nothing anyone can really do about it. You better just get used to it.
The bus bounced along a cobble road that abruptly transitioned to a paved one. Sadier gazed out the window his mind mulling over the dream again. Who were those creatures? Why was his sister's name engraved on the gravestone? And the truth is as frightening as the nightmare had been there was something intriguing about it to Sadier, and in a scary way even healing. Though he had no desire to experience it again he couldn't help but hope that there was something more to it than just a dream. He imagined that he might keep an eye out for the girl that had appeared in his dream while her image was still fresh in his mind. He was more and more sure that he knew her from Waterfall Academy, maybe one of the upperclassmen. It was kind of awkward in a way dreaming so vividly about someone that you don't know very well. Well, he wouldn't tell anyone about it, lest them tease him.
Out the bus window Sadier saw the academy rise into view. It sort of towered on the hill there like an epic white castle. The main entryway was rather glorious considering it wasn't a big school.
As Sadier walked to his 8am Psychology class, his eyes scanned the crowd of students hopeful that he might spot the older girl that was in his dream. But he really didn't know what he would do if he found her. During his first four classes he had a lot of trouble keeping his mind focused on the boring instructor because scenes of the dream were looping in his mind over and over. His classes went quickly enough though, and soon it was lunch time.
Sadier sat himself down at a blue table and pulled his lunch from his backpack. It was just a few minutes after noon. As he was taking his first few bites he looked up and suddenly, there she was. No doubt about it. That was her. Clearly the girl that was in his dream. But then he thought he noticed something eerie. Was she was walking towards him? To his shock he realized that she was making eye contact with him. He looked down quickly. When he looked back up she was right in front of him standing on the other side of the table. She had fuzzy, unordered blonde hair, her green eyes and her mouth were stern. She looked down at him with a serious expression. She sat down in one of the chairs across from him and folded her arms on the table. Sadier met her gaze perplexed and intimidated. He would have liked to run away.
After a good while she spoke in a very low voice, “Do you remember having a dream last night?”
Sadier's heart leapt. He nodded, his brown eyes wide.
“How much do you remember?” she asked.
“All of it I think,” he replied.
“Do you understand it?”
“No,” he said.
She breathed in and out slowly and looked away to figure out how to take the conversation in the direction that it needed to go.
“How in the world do you know about my dream?” he asked.
“Do you remember that they tried to kill you last night?” she said ignoring his question.
“Who were they?” he asked.
“They were demons,” she replied. “It wasn't as close as it seemed to you, but it was closer than I like it to be. They're out for you because you've been chosen. Sadier, our lives aren't always quite as they seem. There are many misconceptions about the supernatural. The upperworld is woven into everything we see. There is a lot to learn and it's going to be hard for you to get your mind around some concepts because we all start out so far off in our thinking.”
“What are you talking about?” Sadier said frightened, “It was just a dream.”
“No,” she replied. “It wasn't just a dream.”
“I don't understand,” he said.
“Sadier,” she said rising. “Just be ready tonight when you lay down and go to sleep.” The moon was big and round that night, and so were his big brown eyes reflecting in the bathroom mirror as he brushed his teeth. At first he had thought she was just crazy. But after musing about it the rest of the day he was less sure. He hadn't understand much of what she said, but the short conversation made Sadier entertain the possibility that something a little more on the crazy side was going on here. Because of this, he was absolutely terrified to go to lay down and go to sleep. He thought maybe he could stay up all night long to avoid it. However, he realized that if the girl really did know what she was talking about, and if she really did want to protect him then he would want to follow her lead. “Good night,” he said to Saymi in the hallway.
“Sweet dreams,” she replied. She always said that. But tonight it have him big chills down his spine. Sadier set the alarm on his phone for 6:39, and plugged it into its charger. He rearranged his pillow and pulled back the covers. He tucked himself in and closed his eyes.
Then after just a moments Sadier fell asleep.
No comments:
Post a Comment