Dream Catcher

Chapter 2 - The Darkness Is Coming (Part 1)

My canvas was white. It stretched as far as I
could see left, as far as I could see right. It was
infinite, and it was mine to colour.
I sat down where I was and stretched out on the
ground with my hands behind my head. I
blinked and with a little flash, half the white
space became a huge hill of grass that I was
lying on. I closed my eyes, and when I opened
them again, the rest of the white was covered in
a thick velvety black dotted with diamonds that
shimmered and shone in the light of the
crescent moon above me. I smiled. Night. The
best time of day. The time when you could
escape to a world that you could control, with
no work, no chores, just being alive. I looked up
at the moon above me.
"Evening Moon." I said softly to the sliver of
light. Slowly, the moon twisted and twirled until
two eager eyes and a smiling mouth were
looking down at me.
"Hello Eli!" the moon exclaimed. "How are you
tonight?"
"Content as always," I replied like I always did.
"And you?"
"The usual as well," sighed the moon as it
smiled and looked around at it's glimmering
diamond coat. The moon usually complained
about how it was trapped in the same sky all
night and forced to share the same sky as its
sister, the sun, during the day, never getting to
explore the world below the horizon. But I had
other questions for it tonight.
"Don't you ever think that there is some place
other than this endless white world?"
"I do, Eli. But it is not a place I can go. I am
bound by the skies. But you. You can dream. I
cannot do that, Eli, but you can. You can dream
yourself out of this place. And you must,
quickly, before he comes."
"Who?" I asked, sitting up. The moon looked
worried.
"I have not heard much, but of what I have
heard, he is terrible. He is only but a small force
at the moment, but he is growing fast. They say
he comes crawling, thick and dark like oil,
leeching into dreams and blocking out all light.
They say he corrodes all dreams until life itself
is sucked out of his victims, leaving but a body
and a blood stained dream. That is not a sight I
wish to see, Eli. You must run, before he finds
you here."
"How!?" I asked panicked now as I scrambled to
understand what the moon was telling me.
"I do not know, Eli." The moon said. "I do not
understand dreams. I am just the moon. But
someone will come for you, they are already
searching, I can feel it."
"WHO!?" I asked again.
"I do not know. But you will find him Eli. I
know you will. You are a bright girl. Now I
must say goodbye. My sister the sun is calling
on me."
"Wait! Will I see you tomorrow?"
"Perhaps, perhaps not. I do not know what
tomorrow brings. Sleep safely my child."
BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP...!
I sat up straight in my bed, covers tumbling off
me. I craned my neck to look out the window in
front of me, only to see the majestic moon dive
deep into the fiery heart of the rising sun. I
looked away as the intense light burned my
eyes.
BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP...!
I looked to my left and slammed my hand down
on the buzzer on my clock. The numbers were
flashing. I shook my head to shake out the sleep
and the memories. I had forgot to set my clock
again after the power outage last night. And
now it was waking me up early. I groaned and
leaned back against the headboard. I slowly
closed my eyes. I wonder...
I was back on the hill again, though the soft
comfort of the night was gone and the flaming
tongues of daybreak were singeing the grass on
the horizon. I reached up my hand to the pale
orange sky and imagined I was grabbing a piece
of the wall. It gathered in my hand like cloth.
Carefully, I peeled back my canvas like a sticker
to reveal a desert world with deep purple skies
and bright colourful auroras waving and
flowing above millions of floating white orbs
suspended over the dry, brittle ground. Another
world... That was when I saw one of the orbs
spew a thick black liquid like a fountain, only to
be engulfed with it and burned until it was no
more than an oily puddle. It was him, I thought
almost instantly.
I quickly pulled the cloth-like piece of wall back
into place. For good measure, I thought of duct
tape and duct taped the patch I had pulled on,
just in case. I sat down then and started
breathing quickly. Panic was taking me over. My
place, this endless white canvas, my refuge from
all the problems life threw at me, wasn't safe
any more. I could never come back. I could feel
the tears on my cheeks, and I tried to fight them
back but to no avail. I finally broke down and
let the tears take my pain away.
I suddenly felt a large amount of water splash
my face, a lot more than the tears could have.
"Eli, get up! Now! You are going to be late! GET
UP!" I sat up in my bed and shook the water
from my shoulder length chocolate brown hair
like I did almost every morning. My dad usually
had to resort to extremes to wake me up most
days. I opened my eyes to look at him. His
mouth curved in a grimace, looking down with
displeasure at the water droplets I had sprayed
across his bleach white lab coat. I giggled. He
glared at me and stormed out of my room, cup
in hand. I knocked closed my bedroom door
with the heel of my foot and walked over to my
closet. I grabbed a random sweater off the shelf
and fumbled in the dresser drawer next to the
closet for a random pair of jeans. I could care
less what I was wearing. I wasn't trying to
impress anyone at school. I had yet to actually
meet a boy I would do anything more for than
smile and say hi.
Turns out, what I grabbed was a long, but tight
fitting black hoodie, and my oldest, but most
dependable, pair of deep blue jeans. I threw
them on without hesitation, and marched over
to the bathroom to brush out my hair. I grabbed
the brush and started pulling through the thick,
chocolate strands. I looked in the mirror and
stopped brushing. Some thing was different. My
eyes were different. They used to be ice blue,
almost gray. But now they looked almost purple,
and the pupils were wide and an endless deep
black. I was shocked, and found myself getting
lost in the deepness of my eyes.