Harsh Realm

Part 7

“There’s nowhere to go, so why can’t I get there from here?” – Most of the Time, Josh Canova

Part 7

        That night, for whatever reason, I suggested that we go out back and watch the stars.

        Sounds cheesy, I know. But, when I realized that I was dead, I wasn’t too worried about keeping up with my favorite TV shows or movies anymore. It just seemed pointless after a while. Even watching them felt like a waste of time, which is funny because when I was alive, I told myself that I’d catch up on a bunch of TV shows and movies when I had the time.

        Now that I had the time, I couldn’t have cared less about those types of materialistic things. Plus, after all that Sage and I had been through lately, I thought we deserved to relax. And star gazing seemed like a good way to do that.

      I snuck up behind Sage, who was laying on the couch listening to music, and abruptly pulled one of her earbuds out. She jumped and sat up quickly, practically falling off of the couch altogether.

      “You scared the hell out of me!”

       “Tell it to someone who cares,” I said sarcastically. “Besides, we’re the only two people here, it’s not like you didn’t know who it was. No reason to be scared.”

        “Maybe you scare me, did you ever think of that? Hmm?”

        “Sage, why would you be scared of me?”

        I laughed, as if the idea were the most absurd thing I’d ever heard in my life, and she opened her mouth to speak, but then closed it.

        “Exactly,” I stated.

        “What do you want, anyways?” She asked.

        That reminded me why I disturbed her in the first place. I grabbed the blanket off the back of the couch, and folded it over my arm.

        “Come on,” I told her.

        “Where are we going?”

        “Out back to watch the stars,” I explained.

        “Why on earth would we do that?” She complained.

        And my mom’s thought I was an angsty teenager. Sage had me beat by a long shot.

        “Sage, what else are we going to do? We’re dead and we can’t leave the house, so there aren’t many options.”

        “Fine,” She whined, heading toward the back door.

        She pulled both of the doors open and exited into the backyard. I turned on all the patio lights to their dimmest setting from inside the house, and then went outside.

        I walked out onto the grass and laid the blanket down while Sage was at the edge of the fence petting an orange alley cat. I thought to myself how odd it was that there were animals here, but not any people.

        I laid down on top of the blanket and placed both of my hands behind my head as a cushion. I lowly whistled The Munsters theme song causing Sage to notice me. She stopped petting the alley cat, which meowed in protest, and came and laid down next to me on the blanket, sighing in content as she did so.

      We were both quiet for a couple of minutes, happily taking in the vast and open sky. It wasn’t completely black, but a very dark blue. The kind of blue that a grandparent would argue with you about, insisting that it was black and that you were the crazy for thinking otherwise.

      “Did you ever get your wish?” I asked.

       “What?”

        “In that video, it was your birthday, and I asked you what you wished for. You said you wished for a trip to Disneyland. Did you get your wish?”

       Sage chuckled, and I thought it was so cute I had to contain myself from telling her right then and there just how much I loved hearing her laugh. I didn’t want her to think I was weird. At least, not any more so than she probably already did.

        “Yeah, actually. We went when I was 12.”

        “Was it fun?”

      “Oh my god,” She smiled, “it was so much fun. I’ve never seen my mom throw up more in my entire life than she did at Disneyland.”

      We both broke into laughter, but then we fell back into that comfortable silence. The kind of silence that only becomes comfortable when you’re doing something as simple as watching the stars. There’s no need to fill every single second with words. It’s the right amount of quiet.

        “Sage?”

        “Hmm?” She replied in a hum.

        “Do you ever wonder what we’re doing here?” I asked. “Or where here even is?”

        “All the time.”

        She furrowed the eyebrows, and started chewing the inside of her cheek absentmindedly.

        “I wonder if there’s a name,” I pondered aloud.

        “A name for what?” Sage asked, not peeling her eyes away from the sky above us.

        “For wherever we are.”

        She was silent for a while, probably thinking about what I’d asked just as heavily as I had been.

        “I call it the Harsh Realm,” She admitted.

        “The what?”

        “The Harsh Realm,” She repeated.

        “Hmm,” I hummed. “The Harsh Realm,” I said, testing how the words sounded. “Any reason why you call it that?”

        Sage turned to look at me for what felt like the first time. Her eyes pierced mine, and I couldn’t help but think that I loved them. Her eyes. Not her, but her eyes. Oh god, how I loved those eyes.

        “Think about it, Nate,” She said, “everything I’ve told you here, every truth I’ve had to reveal to you, has been harsh and bitter and mind shattering. I mean, you saw the Reality Room. Watching my family like that is… brutal. And it’s like we’re,” She paused, “it’s like we’re in a limbo of some sort, a realm.” She continued. “I’ve read tons of books where there were realms and alternate realities and universes. And in those books, realms are fun, fantasy filled adventures. This,” She gestured to the world surrounding us, “is the harshest realm I’ve ever known. It’s not a fantasy, it’s a nightmare!”

         I was too stunned to say anything, so I didn’t. Instead I took her hand, because I felt that she needed it. And maybe, I needed it too. It was a sliver of normalcy in this strange place. When she didn’t pull her hand away, I relished in the fact that she was opening up to me. Because for now, it seemed like all we had was each other. 

******

This is not the end of the book! Just putting that out there... there will be more chapters lol. Please comment and/or vote! :) I know things seem a little slow right now, but trust me, next chapter things will get a lot more interesting! ;)

(Dedicated to Twenty One Pilots for putting out a new single called Fairly Local which is AMAZING! I can't wait for the rest of the album omg. The video is to the side.)
-ladyginger97