Calva Aurea

Dormiens Mortuorum ~ Chapter 8

Purple and green. That's what I see, every time I sleep. Once I open my eyes, there are swirls of different shades of purple, and green. And when I look to the side, there's purple grass, and a green sky. Everything looks like a fairytale—a wonderland, even. Funnily, Wonderland is a nickname for this place, dare I say it's a better name than Decies Somnia.

I stand up from laying down, and take a look of the surroundings around me, not paying attention to the strange colored land, but rather the ball of light floating about 20 feet away from me. Yet, it doesn't surprise or scare me in the slightest.

The light dims down, and the orb takes the shape of a portal instead, and out steps the Fallen Star that I had found the last time here. It approaches me, and places both of its hands on my shoulders.

"It's been a while.. friend." I smile up at him, his glowing features almost blind me, but I manage to step back a little to let it settle in. I close my hands together, as he removes his from my shoulders. I rub my hands together for a moment, until I feel something wet arise from the fingers. When I look down to see, it's the black oil once again, and I grumble in annoyance.

"What is that?"

"I'm not too sure.. it only appeared a few hours ago when cleaning myself." We start to walk around, contemplating what the muck arising from skin could be, while also looking for the tree stump we found—so long ago.

The moment a tree stump comes into our view, we hurry towards it, just to find someone sitting in front of us. Strange, when we saw it, no one was there. The person isn't familiar, and isn't someone I've allowed into my space. They seem to be another Fae; yet they're dark–their skin, clothes, and wings all are the same shade of a brown, almost black.

"Why have you entered my Dream?" I ask, hoping to gain some answer as to why this creature has invaded my slumber. They look back up to me, and I can feel their eyes, glowing a royal purple, invade my mind.

"Wouldn't you want to stay here forever?" The voice doesn't come from their mouth. It doesn't come from anywhere, yet it still echoes throughout my plain. I start to feel worried, both as to why this monster is here, and to why the Fallen Star hasn't said anything. So I look back over to it, to not find a single trace of the glow that comes with its mere existence. I look back over to see the creature standing straight up, and just like everyone else, it towers over me, barely floating.

That's when I realize it isn't a Fae. It's not using its wings to fly. It's not flying, yet it's still in the air. My heart starts to race when it.. speaks again.

"I am only here to watch over, and to give you an offer, child." It speaks as though it talks through a translator. Like it's new to this language. But I stay silent–and the more it patiently waits for me, the higher it floats.

I stutter with my words, hoping to tell it to leave, but when I speak, it's low, weary, and sounds scared. "You are not..invited into this space." The beast cocks its head to the side, like it's trying to understand what I'm saying. When it does, before I can blink, it's face is invading my own.

I'm biting my tongue to keep me from pushing it away, for fear if it decides to chase me, or something worse.

"So you deny?" Like it's speaking, when the words are echoed across the terrain, its mouth curls down into a disappointed face, before flying over to me once again. This time, I gain the confidence to turn around, and run away from the unknown creature. My eyes shut tight as I maneuver through the trees and hills, like I'm still wide awake, and looking. I know this place like the back of my hand, and with my eyes closed but ears still open, it is not running, but flying after me. Yet, with not ever being here before, it still maneuvers as well as me, and keeps up with my fast figure.

I feel myself be toppled over and my eyes are forced open by its slender, long fingers. Instead of leaving me on the ground, it grabs me by the throat and forces me in the air with it, and when I look down, the hill we had approached disappears more and more out of view. It doesn't stop, and continues to fly farther and farther up, while its piercing gaze stabs into my heart, making it bleed fear. More and more the air leaves me, and I try to raise my arms and claw at him, but when I look back down again to see, the black substance is there again, wrapping around my hands and arms like veins, immobilizing my arm movement.

Yet I defy the laws of physics, and don't black out from this, I don't even see any black except from the beast itself. My face starts to heat up, and I can feel tears form and run down my face in an endless cycle. I don't even notice it at first when it stops flying up, and when I look around to see what exactly is around us, my eyes widen.

What is before me, is a round, red star. Huge, nothing I've seen is bigger than that. It's beautiful, but I'm forced to look back at the creature.

Before I'm plunged back down into the sleeping Galaxy that is Decies Somnia. Yet, I don't find myself scared. Rather, I marvel at what is in my sight, stars, moons, and so many colors, colors I didn't know existed. It's all.. marvelous. I thought the Cosmos would be scary, it's all so big, full of things we would never believe in.

I look back at the monster until it leaves my line of sight, and becomes a speck in this place, just everything else—just like everyone else.

"What I am, is a Phantom. I am created to bring you home. No matter what."