(Still not feeling well, but I'm gonna write anyway, hopefully, it doesn't diminish the quality of my work)
Theo sat amongst the audience as curtains moved across the stage, uncovering the darkness behind it. A split second later, a spotlight appeared and lit up a small area of the stage where a young girl with white hair and silver eyes is sitting in an armchair reading with a small table next to the chair with tea and cookies on it. She removed one hand from the book and grabbed a cookie and ate it, not looking away from the book.
Theo looked around in confusion and found himself surrounded by shadows that suddenly started to clap slowly and slow, distorted music from a music box began to play from an unidentifiable location. The girl moved her book down and stared directly at Theo. A moment later, Theo noticed and jumped a bit, still confused as to what was happening.
"I don't recognize you." She spoke quietly without opening her mouth with an echo reverberating around the room. She closed her book and set it on the table next to the tea and cookies as the clapping stopped and all the shadows turned to face toward Theo. His heart began to beat rapidly as all eyes turned to him. "You... Aren't supposed to exist?" She said questioningly as she tilted her head a bit and the crowd repeated her words without any pausing and as a statement, each shadow off by just a small amount.
Theo's breathing became erratic as his nervosity and fear outweighed his confusion. The crowd began laughing in unison. The girl snapped her fingers loudly, forcing all attention back to her. The girl looked Theo dead in the eyes.
He began to take deep, heavied breaths as she stared into the innermost parts of his mind. The music suddenly stopped with a click as the room shifted. The room became one with many windows on one wall and many art pieces on the others, in the center of the room are two sofas facing each other with a coffee table in between them. On the coffee table are a teapot, a sugar container, two teacups, and some cookies on plates.
Theo sat on a sofa across from the girl as a new song began to play on the music box, still slow and distorted. The girl looked at him curiously as his breaths continued as they were. "There's nothing to be afraid of." She said quietly with the same reverb as before as she picked up the teapot and filled the cups, she then opened the sugar container and took two cubes of sugar, and plopped them into her cup. She picked up the spoon on her cup holder and stirred the tea.
As her words reached Theo, he began to calm down, almost against his will and his body began to move as she stirred her tea. He picked up the sugar tongues and put two cubes of sugar into the cup closest to him and stirred it as moonlight began to fill the room from the windows.
"The moon is pretty, wouldn't you agree?" She asked still with the air vibrating and filling the room with her voice. Hesitantly, Theo nodded as he looked out the window and saw a moon eight times the size of the one he's familiar with. "The moon represents a lot to the people of this world, would you like to know what all it does represent?" She asked. Again, with great hesitance, Theo nodded.
She gave a brief smile, then looked to the windows. "The divine light of guidance. It guides souls that have lost their way to a safe haven. A place where they can be safe, and a place I cannot go." She said.
Theo looked at her with a curious expression. She picked up her teacup and took a sip.
"I have yet to die. But I've also yet to live." She said as she set down her teacup and looked back out the window with an expression of longing. "I wonder what it's like. To live and die. It seems wonderful. To experience what the world has to offer. And to become but a memory of a person, and most of all, to be guided to my safe haven. A place where I belong." She said with a pained expression as a tear rolled down her cheek, drawing Theo's attention to her pale skin. Theo picked up his tea and took a sip.
'Tasteless?' He wondered as he took another sip.
"Unfortunately, that's not a luxury that is afforded to me." She said as she calmed her expression and turned her attention back to Theo. "I do wonder what force has brought us together, but..." She paused. "You should wake up." She said with a wry smile as the room began to fade away. "I hope to see you again, Philip Jackson." She said in a weak voice as the music began to disappear.
Theo jerked awake and looked around in confusion as he tried to get a grasp of where he is. As he looked around, he saw his family all sitting ad looking at him as the carriage began to slow.
"What was that about?" John who is sitting next to Sydney and across from Kendra asked.
"A weird dream..." Theo said as he sat up and tried to wake himself up a bit.
"What was it about?" Kendra asked.
"It's... Hard to explain. There were shadows. Strange music... A pale girl with white hair... And the moon was abnormally large." Theo recalled a few key details. John seemed shocked for a moment.
"You shouldn't pretend to have dreams like that." He said. Theo tilted his head.
"I didn't though?" Theo said confusedly. Kendra looked at John with a concerned expression.
"For clarification, were you in the audience of a play of somekind?" John asked. Theo thought for a moment.
"Sorta? For a little bit." He said as he recalled when the girl was sitting on stage.
"And was the girl reading a book?" John asked.
"At the start, yeah." Theo affirmed John's suspicion. 'Well, seems it was definitely more than a dream. Why do I suddenly have a feeling of dread?' Theo wondered to himself.
"I'm confused, how do you know so much about his dream?" Sydney asked. John sighed.
"Fuck..." He said. "Okay, so..." John paused. "There's an old story about limbo. It's a place where souls that are lost are dragged if they can't find the moonlight. Now, for a while, limbo was a lawless land where souls would devour one another as mindless beasts, so, the goddess of the sun created order by creating an overseer for limbo. A pale young girl with white hair and silver eyes." John explained.
"Why would I...?" Theo asked an unfinished question in confusion as he began trying to understand what John said. 'I mean, if that was limbo, then I should've been dead, right?' Theo wondered.
"Sometimes, in our sleep, our souls will also drift. They are recalled when we wake no matter where they were, but they still drift occasionally. Especially those with large mana pools." John explained. "Now that I've explained that, I need you to tell me what all happened, you said that it only started at the stage, right?" John asked. Theo nodded.
"I remember suddenly appearing in the audience, I was surrounded by shadow figures and a light was directed at the stage. It showed her, after a few moments, she set down her book and looked at me. It was like she was staring into my soul or mind. I don't entirely remember what she said, but it was something..." Theo said as he drifted for a moment. 'I do remember it, but I feel that it would be a poor decision to say it...' Theo thought to himself.
"She spoke to you?" Kendra asked in surprise. He nodded.
"Most of the time when you hear about these dreams, she stays silent and just continues reading and the person eventually wakes up..." John said.
"Well, after that, the room changed, there was no more audience, there were paintings all around the room, and to my left was a wall of windows going from the ceiling to the floor. She started talking to me, but I wasn't able to talk and it was hard to even think coherently." Theo explained.
"She had a full conversation...?" Kendra asked.
"Mostly talking at me, as I couldn't really respond. She even gave me tea, although it was tasteless." Theo said as he recalled the tea. "She seemed sad." Theo added as he remembered the tear that fell from her cheek.
"Okay, what else was there?" John asked.
"Well, there was a really big moon outside the window. Like, it covered most of the sky. It was enormous. She had explained what the moon meant to people, and why it was important, and then said that there's a safe haven for souls that she cannot enter or something along those lines." Theo said as the carriage came to a halt.
"Dear..." Kendra said. John nodded.
"We seem to have arrived. Let's get out and greet the others. We'll talk about this later." He said. Theo nodded, still slightly confused. He closed his eyes for a moment and leaned back in his seat as the others exited.
'So, what does it mean?' He wondered with a sigh. After a moment, he opened his eyes again and reached for the door, but suddenly stopped himself as he recalled how Gavin was suddenly pulled out of the carriage and killed.
Sydney suddenly opened the door and Theo took a step back and looked outside with fear. "You coming out or- You okay?" She asked. Theo felt his body freeze as he remembered the sound of metal cylinders rolling on wood and hissing out some kind of gas. "Theo?" She asked. "Theo!" She exclaimed in annoyance.
Theo fell to the floor as he was drawn back to the present moment. "Wh-what?" He asked.
"You exiting or not? They have to put the carriage... Wherever carriages go to be put away." Sydney said.
"Y-yeah, I'm going out..." Theo said. Sydney nodded, then walked away. Theo took a deep breath, then exited. 'Why did that happen?' Theo wondered to himself as he looked around to try and spot his family. Upon seeing them, he walked over to them, still, a bit shook. As he walked over to them, Kendra looked at him and tilted her head.
"You okay? You look a bit pale." She said with concern. Theo nodded.
"I'm fine." He said. with a small smile.
'I wonder why he got so scared when the door was opened...' Sydney wondered to herself as they all walked to the entrance of the house.