That night I cried myself to sleep, knowing my friend was dead because of me. But it's been months. I think. I've lost track of time. But I know he's gone. Or with her. I've tried everything since then, I've even resorted to Cora, to take her up on her deal, but she disappeared too, but not her minions, I still can't get past where my backpack was because of them.
I wake up and prepared my bag for another hunting trip. I look outside, but now the bright, vibrant sunrises look dull, and colorless, and the flowers covering the ground might as well be gray.
I plan to do it tomorrow. Try to leave. This will be my final time no matter what. I'll die, or I'll escape, and the truth is, I don't even know what I'd prefer. Sometimes my heart aches and I only want Jaxon. I never knew I'd be so sad about him, it wasn't even this bad with Graham.
I grab my bag, my hunting trips are always long now because I search for Jaxon. My bag's slung around my shoulder and I put on my new clothes I'd made. The ones Jaxon died for. Even if he isn't dead, he's not him, and if I ever see the one responsible again, I'll leave my mark. And it won't be pretty.
I begin to walk into the woods, as I get enveloped in the shadows of the trees as I walk. Every tree twisted and turned differently, every leaf has its own unique pattern. The insects welcomed me with fresh new bites as I swat them away. Then I saw it, a small snow-white rabbit. I pull out my bow, an arrow flawlessly.
As I pull the arrow out, it makes in almost unhearable shing. I aim the arrow and let it fly, it made a thwack sound as it hit. The bunny falls to the ground. As I walk to it I hear a sound. No way I think. As I leave the bunny forgetting about it I follow the quiet sound, there's no mistake.
I break into a run towards the sound, then I see one of her minions, usually if I hit them in the eye it knocked them out for a while. I don't have the time to shoot my bow though, I run straight towards it as fast as I can, before it even knows what was happening, I bend it's arm in a disgusting position with a loud snap. Of course it's only reaction is to get it out of my grip. They don't feel pain. When it's just one they're easy to take care of for a little while, usually. I lunge on top of it and pull out my dagger to stab it in the eye, twice to be sure.
I take a look at what I'd done, black ooze came out of it's eye, still draining and it's arm twisted behind his back. I wander when I got so violent I think as I turned away from the body when she killed him, I guess I think. As I turn, I see a large siamese house cat.
I let a smile out that I thought was gone forever. "Willow!" I say, ready to cry as I bend down to hold him. It's been so long since I've seen anyone. I just wanted someone, and Willow may not be human, but he is one of my friends. I tought I'd be alone forever.
"I thought she took you too,"
The sun is beginning to set, i think, we need to go. I plop willow into my bag, and of course, he fills the whole space.
On my way home, I grab the small white rabbit, although I do almost forget it. Willow jumped out of the bag with a plop. I smile again, so happy I didn't have to come home alone again, and Willow seems okay with it too as he hopped into the hammock with me. I let my eyes close, and let myself drift asleep.
I wake up, but I don't, I take a few steps, in front of me is a black void, it looks as if it goes forever. I shiver as I stare into the black void in front of me. "Hello hon," I could hear Cora's soft, calm, voice.
My fists clench at my side, and my heart beats rapidly. There's only one thing I feel, the most dangerous feeling, rage. I turn to see my enemy, the one who killed my best friend, her own son, the one I've been hunting, the one and only reason I'm not home.
"You," I growl. I begin to walk towards her and I'm full of surprise as my hand felt her skin. There is a loud snap when my hand met her now pink skin. I can touch her, I think. I can hurt her, I think. One million thoughts flow through my mind of what to do to her. For a moment, she's completely surprised too, like she didn't think I'd do it.
"Oh, don't be like that, I only wanted to talk to you," she says, her face changing from surprise to a smile again. "You should've thought about that before you killed your own son, when you let me scream your name and not answer,"
"He's not dead, he's simply-"
"I don't care if he's breathing, he's dead!"
"Dear, he's still him, that's why I came, I can't control him," I can hear Cora speaking, but it won't register. It's still him and he's not dead the words echoed over and over. I lunge at cora, all I can do is hope. Hope this works. As cora and I fall to the ground a knife appears in my right hand it worked! think as a grim look crosses my face.
I raise the knife, but when it shot down, I only felt the cold hard ground. "Don't be too excited hon, we share the dream y'know, we share the control of the dream as well,"
"You remember that deal I told you? Well, I gave a reversed ont to him, he acted faster, if he came to me without a fight, you could go home."
How could Jaxon do that and not tell me? But then again, I was about to do the same thing. "Why did I never get home then?" I ask, but I already know the reason. Cora is a deceitful snake who cares for no one.
Cora let out a sigh "Right to the point then, huh? Well, because I couldn't hypnotize him, I wasn't ready to let go knowing I'll regret it forever,"
"I can tell your unconvinced, here, let me show you,"
◈◈◈
I turned to face my mother, "did you eat?" she asked, washing the dishes.
"Yes, I did, ma I actually need to talk to you"
"What is it?" I held my breath.
"They found out, they know about the book," my mother's eyes were a mixture of horror, disappointment, and confusion as she fell to her knees.
"Mom I- I'll be okay, I just," I got on my knees in front to her, trying to get her to meet my eyes.
"I have to work for them, well, for someone, and then no one will know, ma I'll be okay!" I said. My mother finally looked up and a tear ran down her cheek. "How long?" she whispered. "How long until you're released," she said, not much louder. I held my breath again, "Five years,"
That was a restless night, for tomorrow'd be my first day. I don't think my mother even tried to sleep.
◈◈◈
Cora's hands raise up, and the void is no longer endless black, it now is full of colors. And it's like I'm watching it all over again, except I'm watching. I'm watching the day I lost Jaxon.
"There it is!" I watch myself say and then I ran over to the bag. My face still had color and the world around me wasn't so dull.
This is it. This is when I hit my head. I just assumed the minions attacked or something, but according to Cora's reenactment, it was Jaxon.
Jaxon watched me, his bright blue eyes following me to the bag, his eyes were a twist of determination and sadness as he picked up a rock. He threw it, hitting he hard in the head, and I fall, my brown eyes watched as everything happened but I soon fell asleep and must've forgot.
"Cora," he said, Cora materialized out of thin air. "You know it's rude to call your mom by their name, I know you do." she said smiling. Jaxon looked at my limp body. "Cora, I'm ready,"
The void's colors all disappear, and I'm there with only my thoughts, for what feels like hours, and it probably is hours but how would I know? I finally wake up.
I wake up to Willow's tail as thick as a baseball, as he watches me carefully from the side of the room. I wonder if he can sense dreams too I think. That's not important I tell myself, I need to decipher what's true and what's not. This is Cora after all.
I instinctively start cooking some fish on the fire. Today I'm gonna do something I've only ever thought about but never done. I'm gonna follow one of the minions.