Prisoners of Prophecy

Chapter 32

Xantara

Is this a dream or a memory?
The thought came from the end of some long hallway that I could not see, and faded quickly from my mind. It could have been either; all I was sure of was that I had dozed off in Melany's room and that was no longer where I was.
But one thing was the same. Almost. Melany was still here with me, but she looked like she could be almost twenty years younger. I noticed that we stood at almost the same height, and then realized that this was a combination of both. Something that had happened before, which was now revisiting me in my sleep.
We were in the middle of a cluster of trees. Through the leaves, I could see houses, and cars passing by. The Sun was bright and the sky was blue and cloudless. The day was warm. Melany was smiling brightly, and I could feel a similar happiness burning in my chest.
That was all I could register when I heard Melany's father start to scream. "Miranda!" He yelled in a tone so full of anger that it chilled me so deeply I felt my very blood had frozen. "You get up now, Miranda! I'm not done with you!" His voice permeated the normal commotion of the neighborhood on a nice Summer day. Everything seemed still and silent - disturbed, even - after that.
Melany and I shared a worried glance. Her smile had disappeared and was replaced by an upset, pained wince. "They're fighting again," she mumbled sadly.
But it felt worse than that. The air was thick with tension. It seemed all life had left the area around us all at once. The silence was like a physical weight that settled across my shoulders. Neither of Melany's parents had made a noise after her father's outburst. I had some strange but somehow plausible feeling that something terribly wrong had happened.
"Melany!" He called suddenly, and the sweet tone he used was more horrifying than the quiet. "Would you come here, please?"

Wednesday, July 24th, 2019; 6:00am
A shrill alarm brought me out of my sleep. A moment later, the abnormally cold arm that had been draped across my stomach moved. Melany groaned, and the blaring noise stopped. For a few seconds, I lay there with my eyes closed, replaying my dream, which already seemed faint.
"Huh?" Melany's exclamation startled me out of my reverie. I opened my eyes to see that she had she had sat up and was looking down at me, her cheeks flushed with color, her dark blue eyes wide. "Sorry," she muttered, sounding a little embarrassed. "I didn't realize you were still here."
I sat up as well, turning to face her. Her hair was slightly ruffled, her gaze still cloudy with sleep. I felt another powerful wave of care for her wash over me. They had come quite often in the past few days, even when she was nowhere near. She seemed to be calming down - the most relaxed I had seen her here at ShadowWood, even. I thought she had never looked more beautiful than she did now.
I realized I had been staring blankly at her for longer than I had intended to and averted my gaze quickly. "My bad," I said quietly. "I must have fallen asleep not long after you."
"It's alright," Melany responded gently. When I could manage to look at her again, she was smiling, and her stare had cleared. "Seems to me we didn't get into any trouble, so it's fine. But if they don't actually care about where we go and how late we stay out, I wish they'd just take this damned thing off." She rubbed at the skin around the bracelet clamped tightly around her wrist. "It's not very comfortable."
I returned her smile. "But how would they shock us if we didn't make it to class on time?"
We shared a laugh. For a few moments, what lay beyond this small room was insignificant, almost forgotten. I wished that, even for a little while, I could stay like this. Put off facing the strength of something beyond the universe. Something that could have possibly created it.