The bars of the dark cage pressed uncomfortably into her spine. She tried to squirm away from them, but the cage was smaller than she had realized, and she couldn’t move in any direction. But soon the bars were the least of her worries. The Whispers had started.
There were people just out of her sight, whispering, and she couldn’t tell if they were male or female, young or old. She recognized the echoing voices, but couldn’t quite place them. The voices started out whispering, which slid into frantic mutters, which in turn escalated into a horrible crescendo. Soon the darkness around her was filled with heart-wrenching screams, pleas, and sobs. She couldn’t stand it for one more minute. She screamed and sobbed along with them, begging them to stop. Just as her heart was about to break, it all stopped, fading into the darkness along with the bars around her…
Natalie snapped awake, gasping for air. The nightmare had been so vivid this time. She looked at her clock and swung her legs out of bed. It was almost midnight, but after such a vigorous dream she was parched.
She slid down the stairs, careful not to wake her parents. The kitchen was dark, but she didn’t bother turning on the light. Natalie grabbed a glass from the cupboard, but stopped with her hand on the tap. For a second her mind had stumbled, and she had imagined herself back in the small cage of her nightmares. She frowned and narrowed her eyes as the odd flash hit her again. A vivid image and feeling of the cold bars in the darkness burned through her mind. Her head whirled and she stumbled. She slid down the wall to the floor. Natalie leaned her head against the wall and splayed her hands on the cool tile floor as the images flashed through her head. They were coming faster and faster, and soon the individual images merged to create one image, one feeling. Natalie closed her eyes tightly as she fell into her nightmare.
The cage hurt her spine, but she knew from experience that she couldn’t move. Was it possible that the bars were tighter than they had been the time before? As she tried in vain to wriggle away from the pressing bars, she noticed that something was different. Instead of seeing a blank stone wall, there was a heavy wooden door in her line of sight. Thick bands of steel held the warped wooden planks together, but the gaps allowed dim light to filter into the room.
The door creaked open with a screech worthy of a horror movie. Shadowy figures seeped into the room, flowing like water around the cage. She could see the outline of each person, but her eyes seemed to skip over their faces. Try as she might, she simply could not focus on a single face. One outline separated itself from the group and flitted towards her cage. The figure, who she could now tell was a boy, crouched down next to her, wrapping his fingers around the bars.
She forced her eyes towards the boy’s face, and all of a sudden she was able to focus on it. Blue eyes bored into her, seeming to peer straight into her soul. She gasped as she recognized the riveting stare.
The boy smiled upon seeing her reaction. “Natalie. Such a pleasure to see you again.”
“James? Is that you?” She whispered. The boy laughed at her shock.
“You were such a good friend, Natalie. It nearly killed me when you left. It wasn’t just that you left, but when you left you forgot about all you left behind. You forgot me.”
“I didn’t mean to—”
“We promised we would never forget each other,” he interrupted, “We promised that we would always be friends, no matter where we lived. But you lied.”
“James--”
He shook his head violently. “No. You’re going to say you didn’t mean to, and you may not have. When you left, you broke my heart. You could have said anything you wanted to me, walked all over my heart, but instead you did the worst thing possible. You left. You left me, and you never looked back. That was your mistake. Now it’s all too late. I wish we could go back, Natalie.” He slipped his hand through the bars and gently touched her cheek. “I loved you,” he said. With that he ran back into the throng of figures.
“James!” she shrieked, but he was gone.
The Whispers started, gradually building into the crescendo that was becoming familiar to her. The people advanced, reaching out for her. She yelled and yelled, yelling for the boy who left her to the hands of the shadowy figures. The people slipped their hands through her hair, ran their hands over her shoulders. Everyone seemed to want her. She could no longer see the walls for the crowd of indistinct figures, moans and pleas dribbling from their mouths. She yelled until her voice gave out, and when it did the cage and the stone room gave out with it into welcome darkness. In the darkness a pain pierced Natalie’s soul. The pain coursed through her veins, spreading throughout her body. She cried out, but as the pain continued her cry turned into a screech, her screech into silent agony. Natalie knew it was her time. She wouldn’t be waking up. But even though she wouldn’t be waking, she knew that she had a duty. She turned her sightless eyes down, and her gaze pierced through the clouds so that she could see James as clearly as if he was standing in front of her. As she looked down on him Natalie remembered his last words to her. ‘I loved you’. And in that moment, she realized that wherever she may be, she could never truly leave him behind.
