Quest For The Key

Chapter 10: Unexpected Visitors

A mouse in a mansion,

scuttling around it’s house,

home seems so far away,

family, friends, cheese seem so distant,

the future is a paw in front of another,

that’s scarier with ever step,

and with a growing build,

gets lost in all of the commotion,

Maple and Jack were thrown back in their white prism. Iris and Libya were no longer there but they had left a doll behind purposely or accidental, Maple was not sure which. Maple wasn’t sure of anything anymore. Jack was whimpering to himself and banging on the door. He didn’t even look up at maple as she paced the room stopping by the bed. “ Why are they doing this” he thought “ Don’t they know Maple is dramatic enough?” That thought maybe him laugh a bit but his smile faded as he heard his sisters sobs. She ran to the bed.

Why her?  What had happened? Why was that monster of a man doing this? She tried to clear her head but it didn’t help  or make it any less painful. She pictured her parents locked in a room with less then they had and no food , which wasn’t much to begin with. Pictures swarmed in front of her eyes. She saw flash backs of her childhood, images of her parents, memories that had passed. She saw the look over and over again that her mother had given her before she was dragged away. The terror in her eyes.  Maple could no longer feel the bed that she now lay on, the pillow that she now drowned in tear stains, she no longer heard Jack, or anything else. She was utterly and completely mute.  She slowly cried herself into a restless sleep.

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It’s snowing lightly. As I walk the sky is dark. With furry? With anguish? Anticipation? As my feet shuffle along a cold cobble path in a park. SWOOOOOSH!!! The wind whips my hair, frowning. The cold bites at my skin. Those snowflakes, angel feathers floating down to earth stick to the hair on my bare legs. My hands go up to my shoulders shivering but my naked feet keep walking in the flaming hot powder that coats the ground. Where am I going?

Then I see her far off. In a white , thin frock, her lose hair tumbling down her  back. I get closer and closer, now realizing how much taller I am. Then I stop. SWOOOOOSH!!! WEEEEEEE!!! Whines the wind with pain. The girl is speaking softly but even straining I cannot hear her for the life of me.

“ Girl”. My voice sounds wrong. Not me, too rough. She turns to me and it is a girl I have never seen before. Why is she in my dream? Who is this girl? She still murmurs so I find myself shaking her violently. No! What, am I doing?!

Just then I see the bones beneath her skin start to shift as she screams with agony collapsing in the snow. Her body squirms like a rattle snake in sharp jagged movements.  Now the wind blows, enraged with me. It’s screaming, actually screaming at me, shoving me back away from the wriggling girl but I protest and push back with all my strength. With the girls dying breath on her lips in one final paining gesture she exhales her life. At that moment the wind stops abruptly and her chest lays still, her heart un-moving. She is dead somewhere far away, she is dead somewhere.

Her body is covered in freshly fallen snow but I still make out her features. It’s not the girl I saw before. As I peer over her, she is different, her whole bone structure has moved and now she looks like an entire new girl but I recognize her somehow. She is so beautiful with the face of an angel, pale glowing skin with lightly dusted freckles on her nose. Now I see it. I stand over her and she lays bellow me dead to the world. Now I know who she is. The girl lying dead in front of me is ......ME!!!!

I weep for me, I weep for the girl lying dead before me. “ Who was she” my voice cracks as I yell to no one. Suddenly, writing appears in blood before my eyes with the name Maïa. I scream in terror, at her open ghostly looking eyes and cry harder. Somewhere my name is being called. “ Maple, Maple” but, I can’t move, no matter how I try. I just cry harder, petrified with fear because I know all dreams have a reason, and I am scared of what this means.

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Maple was woken by a very gentle, tap on the shoulder. She ignored it . “ Jack go away” she thought, still disturbed from her nightmare though, she payed more attention to the voice hat followed. It said, “ Maple? Dear? Are you all righer t? Speak to me!”. Maple knew that voice. She had heard it every day of her life. The day she was born, when she learned to walk, to speak, the first day of school. Maple felt a hand. She knew those fingers that moved through her hair when she was upset. It was her mother. But? Maple sat up and stared around. Sure enough there was a smudged figure in front of her, she could not see it  very well.  Everything was swirling and blurring. The tears blinded her, made things smear.  They were like a veal over her eyes, catching on her nose and running off her cheeks onto the pillow. Maple rubbed at her eyes desperately. Could it be she was just imagining all this.  Seeing fairly well now, Maple looked closer at the figure again, only seeing the out line of her round face and her nose. “ Maple? It’s me! Lauren! Do you remember me?” the figure yelled . Of Course she did! “ what a stupid question to ask mom!” cemented maple , returning to her natural colour of skin. Lauren bent down and embraced Maple in a bear hug.

“ Jeremy, honey come quickly. Maple is awake.” Mrs. Woodmer called out. Maple looked around her. Oh.  She was still in this room , but her parents were at least here.  She saw Jack crying in her dad’s arms as he made his way over to the bed as well. Seeing all of her family together again made Maple’s eyes water. Tears were on the banks of her eyelashes. She blinked them back. “ Lauren you woke him up. Jack was just getting to sleep.” complained Mr. Woodmer but stopped short when he say Maple. “ I saw you get dragged away? How did you? When did you? I don’t understand!” said Maple. “ And neither did we” replied Mrs. Woodmer. “ at first we thought we would never see you again, but we were wrong.’ “ As soon as you were taken away we were brought bake in to talk to Centra. That is after your mother had finished her screaming.” continued Mr. Woodmer. “ He told us  how important it was that you children went out on the Quest, so, we decided that we would let you go. You would be safe. He said that he would send 20 men with you on the Quest in case. After he had gotten our answer he wanted yours but he told us you were so worried about us, you refused to give it. That’s when we decided that we would come to your room and to talk to you about it. What do you say?” Maple was speechless but Mrs. Woodmer could see right through her disguise telling her that they were never really in any danger. Maple thought about it and finally said she would have to discuss it with Jack. He was asleep though so she had to decide there and then and since there weren’t any disagreements left to say that she couldn’t go she decided they would go out on the Quest. Her, Jack and 20 armed guards on horses back.