Revolution

Chapter 8: Dreams

Lucid dreaming.

She had read about it somewhere in a book, it's the phenomenon of being conscious amidst a dream; being aware that you were in a dream world. It was almost like having another world you can escape to. A fantasy world. Only when she pictured her ideal world, it didn't look anything close to what she was seeing now.

The sky on fire and bubbled angrily like a pot of soup, the lakes were diluted with thick blood running through them like veins. The ground was cracked dry and fertilised by scattered corpses and deserted weapons. But in contrast to all the chaos and discord, she found herself in a spotless white dress that flowed down to her ankles, her long inky hair draped across her shoulders.

Suddenly someone was next to her, she whipped her head around and her heart almost burst with relief. Tate. For a moment, she had thought she was all alone. The only survivor left from the product of a war torn country. But now that she saw him, she didn't feel quite so afraid. He was her best friend, the roof to her house. She couldn't even bring herself to think of a life without him. Althea gave him a small grateful smile and reached out her arms to hug him, but to her surprise, he jumped back with a disgusted expression written plainly across his face. Confused and hurt, she took a desperate step towards him.

"Tate it's me-"

"I know who you are," he spat, his words were weaved with venom. Her face paled."You're a monster."

"W-What are you saying-"

"You should be dead." Althea felt her heart drop and her lungs squeeze painfully against her chest.This wasn't a joke, the hate on his face was too real to be an act. His normally charming features were scrunched up with contempt, as if the mere sight of her repulsed him. He met her with a malicious scowl before turning around and walking into the field of corpses behind him.

"Tate! Please, listen to me-"

But he was already out of sight and her words were lost in the churning sound of destruction. Tears pricked her eyes and she sunk to her knees, covering her mouth in order to dull the screams that fell chorusing out of her mouth.

They will always spurn you. A grim voice boomed, the force causing her to squeeze her eyes shut shake her head in pain. Humans always choose what they know and understand. But you—you are different. They will turn against you.

***

A sharp pain stung at her cheeks and her eyes forced themselves open. She made no attempt to sit up or move in anyway. Her body was numb, as if someone had put a dampener over her muscles. All she had to do was think about the expression on Tate's face as he walked away from her and suddenly breathing seemed like a chore. And then there was the thing that the leaders had done with the blinding light that knocked her out. What was that? Magic? But obviously magic wasn't real, it only existed in books. Well if that was the case, then maybe she was living in a story. But that's just absurd. As thorough as she had searched the archives of her mind, she could find no logical explanation for what had happened. At that moment the world was enormous and foreign and she felt as small and insignificant as a grain of sand being carried by mountainous waves.

"Oh good, you're finally awake. I was afraid I was going to have to slap you again," Sabella mused, standing up from her crouched position and placing her hands on her hip. Althea didn't pay her any attention, she was too tired and confused to retort and instead went back to staring at the ceiling in a daze.

"Althea, can you stand?" This time the voice that spoke was deep, she immediately recognised it as Chief's and gave him a forced smile as he helped her up onto her feet. She had half expected to feel dizzy or nauseous, but instead felt a jolt of pain shoot up to her arm and was only mildly surprised to see that the veins in her wrist had turned an ugly shade of purple. Althea peered up from her wrist and turned her attention to the people standing around her, but their calm expressions only made her stomach lurch with dread. The whole thing was like one long nightmare. In fact, she reasoned, it probably was. She reached her hand up to her face and pinched cheek but was horrified when she did not wake up from the apparent "dream" she thought she was having.

"Oh my goodness," she murmured as the sudden realisation slowly dawned on her, "I have gone insane."