Unlikely

4: The mansion

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*3,981 words

It was difficult to understand why Jisung and the other children his age were made to learn a language that did not exist on Earth. From eight years old until the end of high school everyone was required to take classes on what was known as 'The Domain'. The language everyone learned was supposedly the common tongue in a realm separate from the universe they knew.

A mere ten years before Jisung was born, a mysterious phenomenon began. People were disappearing. And not in a way that was natural to the human logic. Those that vanished would be living their every day lives, and it did not matter who they were or how old they were, anyone could find a strange, deep purple light creeping around the edges of their rooms or following them along the streets before they disappeared.

Jisung didn't know what research was done or how anyone managed to discover a language originating from the world people supposedly vanished to, but he, just like everyone else, was taught to fear it.

As with anything mysterious and practically impossible to learn about, the world whispered claims and rumors regarding The Domain. Some said there was really no other world and that a secret world government was offing people as a form of population control. Others said the other realm was nothing to fear, that it was paradise for those who worked too long or too hard through their life. The one Jisung chose to believe was that it was an untouched world, filled with natural beauty and a gentle society.

Though The Domain was discussed in every day life through classes, it was not a topic Jisung, or anyone, really thought about or took note of. After all, it was still a strange and rare thing- people vanishing in a flash of purple. Any time it happened, the news of it was broadcasted to the world, and Jisung had only ever seen three broadcasts within his twenty years of life.

Jisung celebrated his birthday alone. It was a little lonely, but more peaceful than anything. He had a dream that night of falling through dark clouds, skin damp, ears ringing from the air rushing around him. Towering trees of twisting red leaves reached out to grab him or impale his body, only for him to jolt awake seconds before impact.

The dream was strange and unsettling. He visited his parents that weekend to distract himself from the strange sense of doom that settled over his shoulders in response to the dream. He went shopping with his younger sister, listened to her life of navigating high school. He felt better.

Two weeks later, he had the very same dream. It didn't freak him out as much.

Until he started having it every night.

 It was always the same, falling from unimaginable heights, fog and rain, trees reaching. But the trees changed every time. Sometimes they were blue, swaying and flowing like water within a stormy sea. Other times they were black, sharp and pointed, dead branches clawing the sky.

The final time he had the dream, the trees morphed into towering pines, this time opening up to swallow his body within a shadowy abyss.

Jisung woke up gasping for breath, his lungs tight, his skin layered in a sheen of cold sweat. He did not sleep well for the following three nights.

When he finally fell asleep again properly on the fourth night, his dreams shifted.

He was standing in an endless plain, flowing, golden grass waving in the wind around his knees. The trees that once reached for him were in the distance behind him, shrouded with fog that was beginning to approach. He wasn't sure why he ran, but he did, legs loose, hands heavy.