Let Your Fantasies Unwind

Chapter 4

I'm floating along somewhere. It's dark all around, and the only thing I can see is the light at the bottom of this forever going pit. I try to go to it, but along the way, I run into trouble.

My family is here, my three siblings and two loving parents, all crying, all hugging one another, all mourning for a reason. I go up to them to find out what the problem is.

I talk, but the words are lost. No one even moves their head to see what made the noise. I prod one of them, but they don't swat my hand away. Tears swell up in my eyes.

'I'm sorry I failed! I love you guys, and I hope that I will find my way back. Going forward wouldn't be as simple as going back in time. The future coordinates are more complicated, so that's why it's easier to go back...I miss you more and more with each passing day.' I smooth my sisters' hair. 'I love you...'

With that, I float off to some other place, in this forever darkness.

]~[

My mind whirls, and I slowly wake up. I hear noises go on around me, and I feel everything, and then I finally open my eyes.

Everything moves slowly, either that, or I'm in hazy. I sit up slowly, so if I do come into contact with something, it's slowly.

I see that the first candle is all out, and there is a second one, next to it. The door is open ajar, there is a cup of water on the bedside table, and a few roses in a vase too. On the foot of the bed, there is a note. I lean forward to grab it.

It reads:

'Young girl,

I shall be back soon. I had to go take care of some business, but do not worry. As for your headache, I do hope that it went away in the time you've been here.

You ask what is the time of year and such, and I shall answer that it is the year eighteen-eighty, and the month of November. You have been here for three days already.

You ask to go outside, and you shall, but only in time. We need to trust each other before we do...things.

You will be needed in the future to help me with certain tasks, of which you are not to question, but rather do as you're told. And because of that, we need that trusting bond to grow.

When I return, I shall show you around this house, but only after I return. If I find that you went out earlier, before my return, you will be punished for your actions.

Kind regards,

O.G.'

I set the note down on the bedside table and drink the water as I think things over. I'm going to live with the Phantom. Not a bad thought, except for the fact I'm gonna have to help him with his tricks, and there might be an 'or else' bit if I don't follow his orders. Lovely.

I need to charge my phone, badly. When it dies, I won't be able understand him, or anything else really. And when it does, because I doubt he'll return in time for me to explain, things are going to be awkward, and more difficult. Then things are going to be bad because I didn't follow his orders. Great.

'I might as well do it though. I've got no other choice.'

With that, I get off the bed, and pad out to the hallway. I look around in the darkness before taking the second candle along. I wander farther than I did beforehand, and try to find a window, skylight, a door leading to the outdoors, anything. I try all the doors, finding some unlocked, but not what I'm looking for, and some locked, meaning they are possibly what I need.