The Dreamer: The Book of Godspells

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

We started dancing again, and I noticed the Shades eyeing us, or me, more and more. They looked at me as if they were confused why I was dancing with Blaze and Colik, and not standing around, watching alongside them. They watched me like I didn't belong, but maybe they were right: did I belong?

"And the wings," Blaze started, ignoring Colik, ignoring the Shades, and seeming to only focus on me.

"Yes, why am I wearing his wings?"

"Piper, tell me. What do you feel around him?"

"I don't know."

"Yes, you do. You have to."

"I feel lost and found at the same time," I said honestly.

"Elaborate," he said, and the way he said it was as direct as Colik was when he wanted to know more about me.

"I feel lost in my emotions around him, unsure if what I am feeling is real or just because of this dreamworld."

"And found?"

"Found because if I knew this feeling with him is, or could, be real... well, it is a feeling that I could see myself feeling forever."

"And that is why you wear his wings. Those wings are his marking on you. That you are his."

"I don't want to just be marked. Isn't that my choice too, to be marked?"

"Did you not choose to wear his wings?"

"I didn't know."

"Piper, we all know. Even if it is just subconsciously." I felt defeated, like I had been trapped, again. I didn't want to feel this way about him, especially if it was just all a game. I did not want to be a pawn.

"It is not just one-sided," he said, noticing my despair.

"What do you mean?" I watched as he looked over at Colik and Lulu, talking, before answering me.

"You chose to wear his wings, yes, but he chose to give them to you just as much as he chose to go into the Broken Woods."

"So."

"No one goes into the Broken Woods unless they have to, unless they have a reason to. And Colik went into the Broken Woods for you. You wear his wings now, and he will not let us, his family, near you. I just warn you, whatever happens, to be careful."

"Be careful?"

"Do you know anything about stars?" Blaze asked.

"Not really." But I did think the question was random.

"Can I tell you?" he asked, quickly. I noticed the Sirens' song was slowing down, and I wondered who I would be dancing with next, if anyone at all.

"Some stars burn out. Instead of fading, their lifeline explodes, leaving remnants within their own bodies, and for others to encompass. More stars will form, but not without being a part of each other, and not without repercussions of other matter in the worlds," Blaze started, his words rushing, like his words had a deadline. I listened hard, not sure what I was listening to, but tried to take it all in, just the same.

"I don't know if you know this, but you are made of dust. You are dust, particle matter, from your world, as we are stars, or starlight, from ours. Did you know that?"

"No..." I started, but Blaze interrupted me and instead spun me around. I could feel the tension, the disparity.

"Dust comes and goes. One body leaves, dust appears to form another. But if a star was to run low on fuel, it taps into another. To survive, it will run through successions of others, as a way of survival, to not end."