Labyrinth of Dreams (old)

6: The Voice

Chapter 6

Close your eyes; enjoy the colours that seem to fill the darkness inside your eyes. Appreciate this beauty and unify these dancing paints with a brush. Create your masterpiece. As your mind slowly drift into this world that is no longer real, you have found your other, in this lovely surrealism.

This is your dream. Or are you the dream?

It had sounded like somebody was calling out to me. The melodious harmony of rhythm and pitch tickled my ears, pulling me out of this shell I had built around myself, beckoning me to wake up.

Gently, I lifted my weary eyelids. It was almost as if I were a bud sprouting from the muddy soil and finally seeing light. The light was blinding here. I could feel myself shrouded in sweet clouds of candyfloss with sweet fragrance caressing my nose, enveloping me in its heavenly scent. 

Then, of course, it all vanished.

This lesson had hit me hard repeatedly not just in real life, but in dreams too. However, this was also something I could never truly get used to.

My heart thumped heavily against my ribcage as I took in the new vastness. My claustrophobic self crawled out of me as I sudden felt suffocated in this emptiness. I could not make sense of direction or space. There was no floor, no ceiling, no walls, just a vast empty grey.

Faintly I made out the dark silhouette of a man. A gasp caught in my throat. Instinctively I looked for a place to hide but found none. I was exposed and vulnerable.

“Salut,” he croaked his deep booming voice which seemed to reverberate in the place I was at. I was in a dilemma of asking him where I was and greeting him back. I decided on the latter just so I would not make an enemy of someone who might potentially be help.

“Hello,” I murmured, still unsure. Darting my eyes everywhere to avoid eye contact, I felt my palms perspire madly.

This feeling. Why is this so familiar? I had felt this before, except that what I felt right now is intensified exponentially. The dark feeling was so overwhelming I was apprehensive. The man’s features gradually came into view. The angular nose and beady eyes pierced my calmness. The eyes enraptured mine in theirs.

“We’ve met again,” he greeted monotonously in a teasing tone. I fought to keep my cool and shot back a “Really?” that sounded more like a statement than a question.

The man’s already small eyes narrowed at me, one of his thick black eyebrows cocked at an angle.

“You don’t remember? We’d just met before this.”

“From what I know, all my memories of you only started from when you came in just now.” I replied curtly.

“You are not her then…” He muttered but I still caught the words by reading his lips. I kept that as a note in my head but did not probe him further since he most likely did not want me to see that.

“Then, how did you come here?” He asked.

I bit back a humourless laughter and rolled my eyes. So you think I chose to came here?

“I don’t know,” I simply said.

“This is the Land of Dreams, where dreams can travel in and out freely,” He said. “Does that remind you of anything?”

I almost wanted to laugh at the absurdity of hi s statement. That guy either sucked at lying or needed to the mental institution. He most likely needed both.

“Are you implying that I am a dream?” I teased. That was ridiculous!

“If you were not a dream you could not be here,” He replied tonelessly and turned his back to me, preparing to leave. Was that because I was not “her” and not worth his time anymore?

“What if I were ‘her’?” I challenged. The words slipped out of pure impulse. I had not even thought about it and it just escaped my lips. While I had toyed with the idea of bring up the point about “her”, I was taken aback by my audacity. He was some creepy and scary dude and here I was, challenging him. Did I not want my life?

Do I even have a life anyway? If I were a dream like he had put it?

That seemed to have made him halt his footsteps. He swiveled around, summed me up once more. His beady eyes scanned the entire length of my body and I thought I saw his straight taut thin lips curve a micro-degree up.

“If you were, then I am here to tell you this…”

***

I woke up with a start. My head hurt. I surveyed the living room. Had that been a dream? What was that pain in my head? I was dreaming about a man, no? Oh man, that sounded so wrong!

Shaking the sleepiness off me, I pushed my heavy head from my wooden study table. In front of me, were the Maths worksheets I had attempted to do before I fell into one of my favourite states-the state of dreaming.

Beside my worksheets was crab-meat pasta with tomato sauce and a note. I picked the note up half-heartedly:

Have some food. I would be in my study – Mom

P.s. Rae?!

My mother knew about Rae. The food probably was proof enough the house was not burnt down. I was still here and unscathed anyway. I looked at the scribbles on the paper. The sense of security and home that washed through me made me smile. The neat cursive scribbles of my mother could do just enough to make my day. Stuffing the pasta in my mouth I allowed my tongue to toss the pasta and play with it in my mouth.

Closing my eyes, the sweet flavour filled my senses and brought me to another level of satisfaction. I loved food. They could erase all stray thoughts from one’s head and clear it of its worries.

“…tell you this… ‘You’ll never know if the dream is dreaming you, right?” a low booming voice said.

My eyelids sprang open. My senses went on full alert. I could hear the words just in my ears. It almost felt as if somebody was whispering in my ear. I frowned and surveyed my surroundings once more.

Rae?

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Aha! I am so proud of myself!! Even if this chapter is quite short and I have not updated in a long time, I am really proud of the starting. It is not a quote (sorry, I know you guys like it but I want to have something cool and original by me hee hee) but I wrote it myself. Don’t you think it’s cool?

Vote and Comment! <3 Add it to your Reading List?

Things will get a lot more exciting from here ;)

renn <3