Choices for a Fated Destiny

Chapter 12

~◇~

"Reality is created by the mind, we can change our reality by changing our mind." - Plato

"Your consciousness is actually experiencing your mental model of reality, not reality itself."
- Michael A. Singer

~◇~

Carolaine Collins

Am I going crazy? I'm so confused.

What happened to my stable logic, my unwavering faith in the truths of the reality of my life?

My internal belief system of what's real and what's not has been mysteriously rewritten ever since that stupid invitation was delivered! My life's been turned upside down. I now feel lost, so unsure of myself and everything around me. I don't know what to think or believe anymore.

Looking around the strangely quiet entertainment area, an oil painting catches my attention. It's a beautiful illusion, an artistic masterpiece portraying a ship in a bottle, floating on a calm ocean. However, inside the bottle, the ship's being tossed into the air by massive angry waves surrounding it like flames.

Surely nobody's able to truly navigate in such stormy weather!? I doubt it. Besides, I don't think the captain even has to, since there aren't any ports in his storm! In reality, that ship can't actually go anywhere, can it?

My reality's certainly not what I'd always believed it to be either. I'm like the captain of that storm-weary ship who'd suddenly discovered his world's actually confined within a glass bottle.

Or... maybe it's not. Maybe it's our perception of the ship's reality that is limited. Maybe reality itself is the illusion. After all, I now have firsthand experiences of a lot of supernatural crap. Especially from earlier tonight. I have trouble believing it all, and I'm the one who experienced it! Why would others believe me?

Maybe I'm going crazy. Maybe I've imagined all of it... Or... maybe someone in this family put a spell on me, and since then, everything's been an illusion? But why?!

It just doesn't make any sense. I'm a nobody. I've never even heard about these people before that invitation arrived!

But, what if it's that Mr. Reese...?

Nah, he's just a name, a character in the stories! I don't even know if he's real!

It's all just my overactive imaginations. It's got to be!

Okay.

Well, then, how can I explain my dreams? My nightmares and fears about red eyed beasts are because it really happened. Paisley saved me from that toothy monster. That was real.

It all sounds so fantastical, so absurd, and yet it happened. Paisley confirmed it. Paisley was right there next to me the other night as well. I saw her, I heard her, I felt her! She grabbed my hand when I heard that invisible powerful being with the scary temper outbursts and the strange, invisible, tentacled powers...

The mere thought of what that creature could've been, what it looked like, the power I felt rolling off it... It's sending shivers down my spine. Whatever that creature was, it was more evil than that red-eyed beast, that's for sure!