The Oblivion

the boundaries

AFTER SORTING EVERYTHING out we were guided to our room. We had a short walk across lots of doors with numbers scrawled onto it on a golden plate, like the car license plate numbers. At room seven oh six, Martin, the man Miss Ash spoke to opened the door for us and revealed a small heaven. Martin wore the hotel uniform, but the way he looked at Ms Ash told a lot.

The room was a little simple, but incredible in comparison of my old box room. Ariana leaped onto one of the lined up beds, three in turn for all of us. They were white sheets that stretched onto the rims of the bed with fluffy and fresh pillows awaiting us. Instead of a floor a carpet of yellow and gold lay on the floor with embellished designs of mini suns that danced across the carpet. The lights were the same color as the lobby to give the room a golden affect. It was a massive room for us three to share, with a little hallway that led to a clean bathroom. I was a little disappointed that a television couldn't accompany us, but who was I to complain? A room with beds was enough. But we were all exhausted from the long day, and all we could do was drag ourselves into the beds. Ms Ash told us something about checking on us tomorrow, but it was just a murmur as I drifted off to sleep.

I ached to see what was behind the wall again, maybe I could get a better glimpse. But I could feel the tug of going to that dream yet I wanted to enter Oblivion, the place I didn't see in ages and I owed Brook a try.

I squeezed my eyes shut and pictured her, smiling in the sunlight. I pictured her laughter when she threw snowballs at me. I pictured her masked emotions when she told me about the dying elements of the night and day. I pictured her telling me that I was in an experiment. I pictured her being the warrior she is fighting for her brother.

Diminish her.

I opened my eyes, and this time Brook was again in the hospital room, fighting with the Nurse to see her brother. The motion felt strange and echoey, but I forced myself to stay in focus. The nurse was telling Brook that Brian was dead, and that they couldn't save her. Brook was screaming and refused to believe her. I knew it was up to me to convince her, which game me help of demising her.

Just a dream.

I recalled Brook telling me: This is a world where anything could happen.

I made my legs propel myself towards her and said, "Follow me, Brook."

I walked out of the room, feeling confident but hopeful that Brian would evidently be in front of her eyes as soon as I walked into the other unknown room. I seemed to be someone else as if I knew what to do. I opened the door, and Brian was there, motionless on the bed with tubes running out of a breathing mask. I heard Brook screaming behind my shoulder and I knew tears were streaming from my own face. This time I fell short before the fall, and I knew breaking down would rip me from the rags of Oblivion and I had to be strong, but it was too late now. The image of Brian dead on the hospital and Brook's weeps of horror was too much for me, so much that I felt her pain. I heard Brooks voice when she told me that I had to maintain myself if I wanted to pass the three challenging stages of Oblivion, but I felt frail and weak when I had to face peoples emotions of depression. It was just too much. It reminded me painfully of Blair, for no reason.

My heart dropped into an abyss as I staggered out of the medic room and everything seemed to sag. My surroundings turned faint and the vision was playing ring-around-a-rosy with me.

"You're just a little girl."

"Why are you doing this to her?"

"She will kill us all."

"That gunshot should have killed the girl."

"When will that brat ever give up?"

Divert her.

I was surprised when my father bobbed into view instead of Brook. When I focused I realized that she was there, actually, but she sat on a wooden stool beside me. We were in a white room, windowless but filled with air conditioning and cold white lights directly above our heads. I stared into the depths of my fathers eyes and searched his face desperately for a sign of emotion, but he just looked back at me impassively. My first instinct was to wrap my arms around him and choke on tears, but his nonchalant expression stopped me.

I felt something cold and steely nudge my arm. I looked to that direction and saw Brook extending her arm with a gun dangling from her hand. It was a shiny black, smooth and untouched.

No.

I will not.

I will never.

"Kill him," was the only syllables that came out of Brooks mouth. I stared at her.

What?

Brooks seriousness told me something big. I didn't like it. Who did she think she was, handing me a gun and telling me to kill my own father? But again, this was like a simulation.

Just a dream.

To divert was this.

"A nightmare of nonchalance, a leader of despair,

His loyalty shall not deceive you,"

The sound of my father speaking jolted me to his direction. His lips moved and I heard him speak, but because I wished he wasn't saying those words so badly, it seemed like it wasn't coming from him. I felt the gun touch me again, it's freezing surface uninviting. Brook didn't need to tell me anything more.

"But his unnerves are much to bear,

He crouches alone in the dark world,

Trespassing over many tales told,

its heart seems red, but it's iced with cold,

He watches you, a mask of dignity and innocence..." My father continued impassively.

I backed away. No way. I was never going to do this. I kept stumbling backward until my back hit a wall. Blank white.

I couldn't escape this place.

"But distrust him once, he distrusts you for eternity,

Beware of it's bewildering glare,"

My mind screamed at me not to do it, and my breath got taken away, and I felt like throwing myself off a cliff and I wanted to fling the gun away and I wanted to shove my father into an abyss and I wanted to shriek to the light of a thousand years.

But I just stood still.

As father said the words I looked at Brook, but she just glanced at father, waiting. I want to curl my hands around her throat, strangle her to death, burn her in coals, watch her scream in pain, and I hated her so much in that moment that I wondered for a split second if it was possible for someone to hate like this for doing this to me but I knew it wouldn't get me anywhere.

I will never know what will happen when father says the last words.

"Befriend it..."

I grab the gun without thinking. It felt heavy and I nearly fell over from its weight, or maybe the weight of what I was about to do. I never handled a gun before but everyone always said it was simple. Point and shoot. Shoot by pulling the trigger.

"For he is a—"

I heard screams fill my ears as I shut my eyes to escape this nightmare but no matter how hard I tried I couldn't. I felt so lost. So lost. But time was running.

I pointed the gun to my fathers body and looked away, my eyes still closed. I didn't care which part of his body the gun would hit, I just wanted it to all be over. My finger rested on top of the trigger.

"Do it!" I heard Brook scream, and her voice bounced on the walls.

As soon as she said the last word I pulled the trigger. I heard the gunshot split the air and the sickening sound of my father pausing through the last word.

I opened my mouth to scream, but it never happened.