Chapter Five

The bitter, blistering cold assaulted my skin. Cold. I'm so cold. Why the hell does it feel like this? I like winter, but this is something else. It feels like I've been buried under an avalanche in the middle of a blizzard encased in a block of ice.

I felt empty. Alone. It felt like something was fading, but I don't even know what it was. I felt heavy, numb, lifeless. What happened? Why do I feel like this?

A slow memory started to surface. It felt distant, just out of reach, but I felt if I just stepped forward I could reach it. Just one step.

I saw a forest full of trees as still and silent as rocks. But it felt weird, I could feel something coming off the trees, like energy, it felt like the trees were somehow alive, and they had symbols on them. Each tree wore a different symbol throbbing, like a heartbeats.

A sudden shift in the energy caused a large gush of wind that pushed the trees aside, leaving a straight path through. My body moved on its own, dragging me into a run down that path.

As I ran, the trees came back together behind me looming eerily, watching, waiting like a patient audience. Even the energy started to change, seeming like one by one the trees died as I passed, felling as lifeless as they looked.

My body felt heated, but it wasn't a pleasant warmth, it was sharp like it wanted to tear my skin from my bones. I wanted to stop running, take a brake, maybe sort my thoughts out, so I could understand what was happening, but I couldn't. I kept moving forward.

I ran until I felt like I was on the brink of collapse. My muscles were numb, my joints felt sore and the unimaginable pressure I felt, increased pulsating through every fiber of my being.

I only came to a stop when I was face to face with an alter. It actually looked more like a temple. The forest floor had turned into pure white marble with over two hundred dark gray mats neatly spread across it. In the middle of it all there was a sleeping beast, the same snow-white as the floor. It’s wings wrapped around itself like unbearable feathered shields. The beast’s aura beckoned me forward still, my body made the slightest effort to obey, but I couldn’t go any further. I was stuck on the spot.

The giant beast unfolded its wings and revealed a magnificent lion. Its fur glistened like ice crystals caught in sunlight. A real sight. I was unable, however, to fully appreciate the lion’s fierce beauty as my vision started to fade. I began to feel light-headed, my mind spinning before I fell, and I was sucked into oblivion, but just before my consciousness was sucked away, the lion wrapped it’s wings around me, cushioning my fall.

It was warm, and my body felt like it was floating, but everything refused to move anything, it was like being encased in air, sturdy enough to keep me in place but free enough to feel like nothing was really there. Peace.

****

“Hey you, time to get up. You’ve been asleep long enough.”

“Hey don’t shoo me away. That’s it get out of my house you disrespectful brat,” was the last thing I heard before I felt something hard hitting me in the side. Honestly it wasn’t hard enough to be painful but definitely noticeable.

I peeked my eyes a bit and quickly shut them when they were assaulted by bright light.

“Come on, up and at ’em.” I sat up slowly and made a second attempt at opening my eyes. This time I was graced with a lot less light and could finally observe my surroundings. I was in a simple wooden room with large windows. Small figurines lazied about all over, but the most prominent element in the room was the thin layer of white, something, covering everything, it looked kind o' cool. But it all came crashing in when I started to remember everything. From boarding the plane and actually making it to my dorm at Stanton but I died or at least I think I did. There was a piece of metal grazing my heart and then I was crushed by the falling ceiling so I should be dead.

“Oh dear, sweetr plewss list-,” my mind went into a downward spiral. Where am I? I need to leave. Where’s my mom? Dad? Ken? Are they OK? I pushed myself out off bed and moved towards what looked like a door. I need to leave now. I want to go home. My head started to spin and all the things inside my stomach wanted out, but before I could regurgitate my bones, my environment changed, and I was standing in front of my house.

“Mom, dad,” I cried, running to the front door, but I kept tripping over air. Come on, stop screwing around.

“Mom, dad, Ken, I’m here.” The door swung open but instead of the warm welcome I wanted, my body ran through with blistering cold. I saw my family, but it wasn’t the way I remembered them. What I saw were memories I shared with my family, but I wasn’t in those memories anymore. The smiles that surrounded me when I was young were no longer focused on me. The memories I had with my whole family they smiled at Ken. The ones I had with them individually, they chuckled to themselves.

“What’s happening?” What’s going on? Why am I not in any of these memories anymore?

The initial drive I had, got lost in all of this. What was this? This can’t be real. Stop. Please stop. Whatever this is please make it stop. I fell to my knees and completely collapsed. My entire body hurt. My chest felt like it was being ripped away from my body, the blood in my head felt like it would crush my brain. Pain. Why am I in so much pain? Please make it stop. I can't take it anymore.

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