The Keeper Exams

Chapter Twenty-Nine - Reality vs. Dream

User: infinitywordlover

Name: Crysalis

I grit my teeth in reflex as a medic points some of the bluemist on my calf. There's a tingling sensation, but other than that it does not hurt. Yet for some reason, my mind always thinks that it does.We're down to nine now, and a small flicker of guilt runs through me. It's as if by surviving, I had stolen a dead person's place in surviving. My eyes close in exhaustion; tired from all the crying I had done, tired from the sight of death, and tired from the harsh, artificial light. But behind my eyelids, the images are no better. Screams of the fallen echo in my ears, I see them crashing to the ground, their eyes dull and lifeless...because of me. There was no gruesome, scarred, monstrous creature responsible for their death. It was ME. More guilt pulses through me, pushing tears down my cheeks. At last I can't stand it, and my eyes open again. I stare across the room absentmindedly and my eyes catch on Zander. Cuts and scratches trail across his body, and I flinch just at the sight of them. His once pristine blond hair is dirty and matted now, but as he turns, I can see that his eyes shocking silver-blue eyes are unchanged. His gaze locks onto mine and he smiles. My heartbeat speeds up at the gesture, and an almost uncontrollable grin spreads across my face. A huge weight seems to be lifted off my shoulders, one that I hadn't even realized was there."Alright sweetie, you're done now. Just sit tight, and you'll be led to the third stage," a medic says.At her words, my chest tightens, and my stomach flops in protest. I'm not ready, I want to say, but I've said it since the very beginning and no one has listened yet, so I don't bother We're led individually down a maze of tunnel by a guarde, and mine is a woman with flaming red hair, and sharp green eyes. Her steps are willful and confident despite the fact that every tunnel looks the same. The air is growing saltier as we continue, and I realize that we're probably under a body of water. Ahead of me, the guarde has stopped and she opens a door, gesturing for me to go in. I obey, and find myself in a cloud of white mist. The door snaps shut with ominous finality, and a moment later, I fall to the floor. When I wake, my first reaction is that I'm in heaven. A brilliant white light surrounds me shining and flickering far and wide. Blinking quickly, my eyes adjust the scene around me and although it turns out different than my first impression, my perspective does not change.I sit upon a small wooden platform in a sea of shining blue. The waves lap gently against the edge of it making a peaceful, splashing noise. Above me, a pale blue sky stretches endlessly from horizon to horizon, and within it is the warm, glowing disk of the sun. It feels impossible that a contest such as this one would contain an island of tranquility such as this one so I conclude that I'm dead and this is heaven, but I know I'm not dead.Closing my eyes, I stand up, simply listening to the noises of the waves, and feeling the warmth of the sun on my back, but deep down, I know I can't stay forever. I'll have to leave sooner or later to find shelter, and food. It turns out to be sooner. As the sun reaches its peak, the heat becomes unbearable pressing in on me threatening to suffocate me. My breath shortens and quickens, and my heart speeds up. An intense feeling of claustrophobia wracks through me. There is no escape from the heat, no escape, but then my eyes drop to the water. There is no hesitation as I leap in, and then there is only pain. Fire coats my skin, burning me, killing me. I open my mouth to scream but that only succeeds in getting water in my mouth, and then the fire is within me as well. My hand strikes towards the surface, flailing and fighting for survival. The air provides no mercy; the heat of it only helps to sustain the fire in my veins, and tears flow down my cheeks swirling away into the depths. But despite the pain of it, I know it's my only savior. I seize onto it, calling the chilling winds of the arctic north to me. I imagine the smell of snow in the air, and the sight of flurries of white floating to the earth, and then it comes. A freezing gust of wind blows across my fingertips, and I tug it to me. I twirl it around and around until it forms a sufficient tornado, and allow it to pluck me up and out of the waves. And then I'm flying! The wind twists and turns beneath me, tossing me through the air to where I'm not sure, but somewhere at least. I spread my arms, a laugh of relief bubbling up inside me. For a moment, I let the wind seep into my soul, its pure freedom bringing a smile to my face in a way that I haven't felt for months. The wind has no worries, not even a single care, and for a little I let it take away mine too.But it doesn't last. I can feel the wind drooping, losing its conviction, and I feel myself dropping. My eyes open and to my surprise, I find myself over an island. The wind finally drops completely and I tumble to the ground, my limbs tangling into each other until, I roll to a stop. My chest rises and falls heavily, my breath coming in short gasps. I rise to a standing position looking at my surroundings, and the rush of adrenaline from the wind slowly fades away.A low howling noise blows constantly through the landscape, and a chill travels down my spine as I hear it, it's a noise that would make one think of wolves, but this time, it's just the wind. Sand dunes rise all around me in elegant curves and edges. My senses strain against the wind to find a sign of danger, but all I can see specks of sand being lifted into the air by the wind and set down somewhere else. All I can hear is the long droning noise of the wind hurtling through the landscape, and I realize that it's a sort of lonely noise.Just hearing it makes me think of the friends that I had made over the past few weeks, Loira, Sabrina, and Zander. A smile tugs at the corners of my lips at the thought of them, but then it slips away when I realize that they aren't here. I'm alone. A strike of fear stabs through me at the thought of it. They had kept me sane and grounded. They were the ones who kept me from going completely mad. You know how when you're watching a scary movie, you have to watch it with other people, even if you don't like them, otherwise you'll lose all sense of reality and fall into the movie. This is the same thing, without them, I could lose myself.I press my fingers into the sand searching for the solidity of the earth. I find it and sink into it, letting it still me, but suddenly the solidity is gone. The sand shift under my fingers, the ground beneath it quivering. Earthquake. An strange emotion strikes through me: betrayal. I had always been able to count on the earth to calm me down, to stay still and solid, but now it's shifting, even more uncontrollably than the other elements. I jerk my fingers away from the sand, my heart thumping loudly in my chest as the first of the tremors hit.There's nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, nowhere to escape to. My only choice is to cover. I crouch down, my hands over my head shutting my eyes tightly. Sand whips up around me, scratching and tearing at my skin. The peaks of the sand dunes start shift, tilting and sliding down the slopes. Soon my ankles are covered in sand and then my knees, and then my shoulders. In a last ditch attempt I seize a ball of wind and hold it to myself, before the last of the sand comes crashing down on my head. Taking small, shallow breaths, I push at the sand above me. It doesn't even budge. And then I switch my attentions to the sand beneath me. Slowly it begins to rise pushing me with it, but it's too slow and my lungs begin to burn. Don't panic, I think to myself. It will only waste air. The sand above me begins to loosen and finally I break free with a huge breath of relief.The ground still shudders around me and press my fingers back into the sand determined to stop it. All these years, the ground had been able to keep me calm, well now it's my turn to calm IT consider it repayment. I imagine myself reading on my bed without a care in the world. Rain pounds against the window outside, but inside it's warm, and bright. My heartbeat slows and I nearly lull myself to sleep but shaking my head, I return to the task at hand. I imagine my emotions radiating out into the earth touching at its very core. Slowly the vibrations weaken, but I don't myself get too excited. It's not over yet. The Earth strains against me. It wants to move, to destroy, but my hold is firm, and then silence. The sand dunes no longer have their elegant patterns and shapes now, rather, they are merely large mounds of sand with only a vague shape. But it doesn't matter, the wind will reshape them soon enough. I continue onwards, not quite sure of my purpose until my stomach begins to yell at me angrily. I need food and shelter. Maybe there's a cave I could stay in I think, but suddenly a sharp pain stabs me in the ankle. I try to turn my head to look at my attacker but my muscles refuse to obey. My fingers twitch rapidly and I feel my heart speeding up. No! I try to scream at it. Slow down! I've finally realized what has happened to me, and my heart speeding up is only increasing the pace of the poison. Already my veins burn in agony with it, and I stick my fingers back into the ground as something begins to drag me along the sand. The Earth is solid once more and I call on it to slow me down. My eyelids droop, and the thud of my heart slows. But as I look up, I see death. I see Penny screaming as she's swallowed by the Earth. Theresa slumping to the ground like a bag of potatoes. I see Millicent's terrified and desperate eyes as she and Edwin plunge into the lava below. Tears spring to my eyes and I weep with sorrow and guilt. The visions fade, and I realize that I am now hanging by my ankle from the ceiling of a cave. Below me something scuttles around, and fear thuds into the pit of my stomach. I have heard that scuttle before, except quieter by a thousand times. I desperately do not want to look but my eyes, as if by magnets are dragged to the creature. I can't help but scream in terror, and immediately afterwards I burst into sobs of horror. My heart begins to race once more pushing the poison through my veins. It's a ginormous spider the size of an average boulder, and now it clicks its teeth menacingly. But then it shifts and I'm not looking at a spider, but Zander. He bares his teeth in an expression I have never believed him capable, and stalks closer. And then it's the spider once more. Colored spots bob in front of my eyes manifesting into the faces of horrid monsters, and the classmates. The cave seems to wobble and shift and I think absently that it's another earthquake, but then it seems to completely turn upside down and I realize it's not.And the Zander is back and he opens his mouth to say something but the only thing that comes out is a low hissing noise. He paces closer and closer, circling me, and I scream louder and louder.And then he opens his mouth again, and sharp fangs reveal themselves glinting in the low evening light. Confusion swirls in my mind as it tries and fails to tell reality from dream. He mouth closes around my wrist and I scream in horror, kicking wildly and flailing around. I knock into the stone wall and my vision stills. Zander disappears and the spider goes in for the kill. I flail and swing away from the spider and it clicks its teeth in annoyance. I seize a stone outcrop as I pass it, and hold onto it. The spider clicks again and then it begins to swarm up the wall, the hairs on its legs easily keeping hold of the rough wall. I search through my mind for a way to save myself and finally I come up with an answer. " Have a taste of your own medicine," I say. I hold out my hand, imagining the liquid that flows within the spider. And then I imagine the venom from its fangs leaking into the bloodstream. Nothing happens for a second, but then it flops over on its side twitching uncontrollably. I grip a rock tightly in my fingers as I creep towards the creature.The rock sails towards it and knocks straight into the head. It twitches and spasms but then it stills. I nearly vomit in revulsion, but I slice off a leg with the edge of a rock and begin eating. Each bite makes me want to throw up and shudder in disgust, but if it's for survival, I will do it.