My Little Light

Chapter 33

We both fell into a deep, refreshing sleep.

At least I thought so.

I opened my eyes.
Red.
The first thing I saw was red.
I blinked, clearing my blurry vision.
I lay in an opening of a big forest. Dark, massive trees were surrounding me. They made me feel small and irrelevant.
The sky wasn't as it usually was. The few clouds were black like gigantic lumps of coal slowly hovering further and further away from me to reveal the red sky behind them.
It wasn't the typical red you'd see as the sun went down. It was like blood about to rain down only to drown me.
Thinking abou the sun made me look for it.
It was nowhere to be found.
I shrugged.
I noticed how emotionally numb I felt.
All these usually horrifying things didn't bother me the slightest.
I stood up and noticed how heavy I felt.
It was as if something was dragging me down.
I inspected my body.
I was wearing my usual clothes. Nothing that would cause the feeling there.
I ignored it and started walking. I walked past tree after tree without a goal.
Wind started blowing against me as if it wanted to stop me from going forward. As if it wanted to keep me from going somewhere.
I kept going.

Trixi's Point of view :
I woke up. Something felt odd.
Yawning and stretching I sat up in my bed.
I looked around, checking for anything out of the ordinary.
The balloons in our room were hanging a bit lower than yesterday and the 'welcome back' banner was still in its place.
I smiled as I looked at it, remembering how excited Ally had been about my reaction even before I opened the room. She had tried to hide it but I still noticed that something was going on.
Ally. Was she okay?
I looked at the bed she was calmly resting in.
She was just laying still with a blank expression on her sleeping face. Nothing wrong here.
Maybe there really was nothing out of the ordinary.
I lay down again and closed my eyes.
Then I heard a heartbreaking scream.

Ally's point of view :
As I kept going the forest grew darker and darker.
At this point the bloody sky was only shimmering through the leaves of the trees forming a roof above me.
I didn't feel uneasy.
My feet felt heavier with every step and I frowned.
I looked down.
I was walking through some kind of liquid which stuck to my feet and made them heavier.
Due to the lack of light I wasn't able to identify what it was.
How impractical.
I kept going, my feet slower with every step.
Then I stopped.
I heard wood groaning beside me. I looked at the tree slowly leaning down in my direction, just about to hit me.
I could not move away so I just stood there, awaiting the hit.
It didn't matter anyway. Why would it?
I looked directly at the tree. Just before it fell on my head it stopped in midair.
Interesting.
I inspected it. It seemed familiar.
I reached out for a branch nearby.
As I grabbed it everything was flashed with light.
I closed my eyes only to open them quickly afterwards. The tears dropping down my face were left ignored.
The light was the brightest inside the tree. I assumed that I could use it to see what was holding back my feet.
Blood.
Heavy, dark blood was flowing around my legs, pulling down my feet.
I looked at it for a while. It was strangely hypnotizing.
Looking down I noticed that the branch felt... Different. The light shone stronger now.
I looked at myself. I was shining instead of the tree. I looked at it.

For the first time since I had woken up in this forest I felt something.
I felt panic. Pure utter panic.
I was holding on to my dead mother's arm.
Her face was right in front of me, her bloody eyes filled with insects feasting on her dead body. It looked terrifying but I could not look away. It was as if she was staring into my soul.
She was smiling.
"Did you forget about us Alysia? All these days you waste, training with your friends... Having fun... Not even wasting a thought about us. Pathetic. I suppose you didn't even need us."
I started shivering as tears flooded my face. I wanted to tell her that it wasn't like that. That I was thinking about them. That I needed them more then ever to guide me. But I couldn't open my mouth. The blood covering my feet was now blocking my mouth from opening.
She tilted her head, still smiling.
"You know you could have stopped it. If you had heard us you could have stopped it. This... ", she pointed at her mangled body, "is your fault. No matter what you do, you always end up hurting someone you love."
I shook my head. This wasn't right. I didn't do this. It wasn't me!
I wanted to run, I had to get away from my mother. It wasn't my fault. It wasn't me.
Could I have stopped it from happening? If I had just heard it...
I didn't know.
"You killed us Alysia."
I tried to scream against the blood covering my mouth but no sound came out.
I felt like it was suffocating me.
NO! I wanted to shout. LEAVE ME ALONE!
I pushed against the blood holding my feet in place.
Run. I had to run. I had to get away.
I heard my mother giggling. She reached out and lifted my chin. I couldn't resist her grip, I was unable to move my head.
"You can't run Alysia. You can't run..."
With the last word she disappeared along with the blood around me and I screamed out all my fear and sadness.
I screamed out my feelings of worthlessness, my guilt, everything.
Then I opened my eyes.