All fairy tales have happy endings. It's true. The princess meets her prince and they live together happily ever after. It is only true because it's a fairy tale. Maybe this was the start of the corruption that took inside the head of the little 10-year-old girl. I bit my lip in irritation as I saw her giggle in anticipation of what wonders the future was to bring.
She excitedly jumped from the seat that she had slid closer and closer to the television while watching the movie and ran towards the kitchen to tell her mother all about what she saw and started to sing all the broken lyrics that her tiny head withheld. I looked to observe the mother who, in one way or another, reminded me of my own.
With sweat seeping out of her skin and dark circles that hid well under her warm smile, she worked tirelessly in the kitchen to provide the family with a healthy meal. Worried the steam of the kitchen would harm her child, she told her youngest to show her father the song and dance she had just learned from her movie. The obedient, cheerful, and adorable child ran to her father, her green frilly dress added to her imagination of truly being a princess herself.
The pot-belly man lay on his rocking chair, snoring away as the newspaper in his hand slowly slipped down on the floor. The little girl's loud voice woke him up "Daddy! Look at me dance!" she said gleefully as she burned a hole in her father and my ears with her awful nonsense singing. The father slowly grasped the situation and adjusted his glasses to focus on the tiny loudspeaker. He smiled at his daughter, "Wow! My little bird must be the best singer in the world! She is so talented!" he laughed to himself. The young child met her father's eyes and smiled ear to ear.
'Why do I have to watch this now?' I picked up the jug of water at the table and poured it on myself.
'Okay, that's enough. Wake up!'
The water didn't have any effect on me.
It ended up spilling on the floor.
"Agh! How did this happen?" The mother hurriedly rushed over to the table to clean the spilled water. I watched her scrub the floor in front of me, till her hands passed by my legs. She could not touch me.
'I hate it when this happens, sorry lady I didn't mean to bother you'. She still could not have heard me if I had said it out loud.
I was present.
But I did not exist in this reality.
If I could even call this reality.
The narrator beside me snickered, 'how unusual for him to find such things amusing' I thought as I walked towards the front door to change the scenario. That's how it was usually done when water did not affect me.
I regretted the moment I stood outside.
I should have realized sooner that something was wrong.
'Wake up! damn it!'
A heavy explosion blinded me while my ears rang loudly.
'I am not present here! So why is this affecting me?! What is happening?!' I ached.
The narrator who had been silent until now finally spoke in a chill daunting voice:
"The fate of the unspoken waits along
What is right and what is wrong?
Welcome! The appointed one!
Embrace the madness and be saved
For there are decisions to be made"
He chuckled as he spoke, my heart pounded faster as I realized that this was no longer one of my average dreams.
'Ah, damn it!'