Alice Mare

Milky White

“Letty! Are you alright?! Letty!” I called out from the top of my lungs as I was running towards her. She was lying motionless on the ground, her hair tangled messily and her clothes streaked with dirt, as I arrived beside her I immediately knelt down, regretting it as soon as I did since the ground I was kneeling on scraped my knee.
“Hey! Letty! Wake up!” I called out, shaking her as I did. Repeating the process I soon came upon the responses I wanted, her eyes flickered a little followed by a hoarse voice slipping from her lips.
“I’m… thirsty.”
“T-Thirsty?” I echoed, relief washing over me as I let out a sigh. “Wait right here I’ll get you something to drink.”
Standing up I felt a sharp pain shoot up from my leg and looking at it now it seemed worse than I thought. Limping my way back through the forest path and back to the shack I quickly went to the well I saw earlier. Letty won’t mind drinking well water right? I mean this must be where the tenants of this little shack take they’re water from right? Throwing the bucket down into the well I let it sink down deep enough to have it brim full with water, but as soon as I tried lifting it up I knew I had overestimated myself. The combined weight from the bucket and the water were too much for my thin arms so I decided to at least have the bucket half full. After the tiring ordeal of getting the bucket up unto solid ground I felt the muscles in my arms ache with every little move I make. I must’ve strained them I thought to myself. Looking at the bucket now and imagining myself carrying it all the way back to Letty was already making my muscles ache from the thought of it, but what was I supposed to do? Right then and there it struck me and I felt like an idiot for not thinking of it sooner. Use a glass stupid head you can’t let her drink from a bucket. I quickly made my way back into the house and immediately found what I was looking for, an empty cup sitting on top of the kitchen counter but from its mouth was a piece of paper poking out, taking the cup and unraveling the paper I started to read.

“One day, mother said we’d go for a walk.
I didn’t want to, but she dragged me by the hand into the forest
Like usual, after walking a long way, mother said we’d take a break
You stay here, she told me, and I sat there the whole time
it got dark. I was scared. It was pitch black.
I was so, so scared. So I closed my eyes and talked to him.
What’s your name? What’s your favorite food? What don’t you like?
I was surprised. He wasn’t like me at all.”

I felt my breath catch in my throat as I read the page. How could a mother leave her daughter like that? I felt my chest tighten as I folded the paper into my pocket with the other pages. This was no time for worrying about pages I needed to get a cup of water for Letty. Scooping up a bit for myself and to wash my knee, I took the remaining water to Letty whom I found in the same position she was in earlier.
“Here.” I said as softly as I can and offered her the cup.
“Water!” She exclaimed at the sight of the cup. Grabbing the cup from my hands and drank it vigorously. “Thanks! I was really parched!” She said finally after drinking her fill and tossing the cup aside.
“Dying of thirst was more like it.” I chuckled. “What are you doing here Letty?
“Me? I woke up here, but there’s no one around. I was too scared to move. Allen do you know where this is and why we’re here?”
“Well I… I don’t really know where we are.” I admitted. “But someone told me that this is a dream.”
“A dream? Really? Is that right?” She eyed me intently as if I were a suspect being interrogated by the police but seeing I just told her something weird I can’t really blame her.
“Well I’m surprised!” She announced suddenly, her every cheerful smile on her face.
“huh? What do you mean?” I asked confused.
“Well it looks exactly where I used to live.” She giggled but soon her smile faded as she looked down on her feet, something was bothering her I can tell.
“Um… Rick isn’t here. He’s usually there holding my hand in my dreams.” She sighed. “It’s really scary on my own. Rick…”
She looked glum for the first time since I’ve known her, she was usually the energetic power house of our group but now she was scared and alone, I didn’t know what else to say.
“You’re not alone Letty, I’m here right?” I offered the most comforting smile I could muster as she stared at me as if I just confessed to her.
“…Allen. That’s right. I’m not alone.” She said her smile finding its way back into her face. “Plus this is a dream. I can just wake up and things will be back to normal.” She giggled and took my hand. “Okay! Let’s play! It’s my first time playing with someone else in a dream.”
Now this was the Letty I knew. I smiled. “Okay what do you want to play?”
“Hey, hey before that this is where we first met right?” She smiled innocently as if she just said the most normal thing in the world but to me her words rang in my ears like a bell.
“What do you mean Letty?” I asked but she was already across the clearing and staring at the signboard that was pitched on one side. I ran to her as quickly as I can.
“Letty! What did you mean when-.” I was cut off short.
“The words on this sign are too hard for me to read, but can you read it Allen? It looks like some kind of riddle! It looks neat!”
“Never mind that! What did you mean when you said this is where we first met?”
“Huh? Like I said this is where we first met.” She smiled and skipped away. “By the way don’t run too fast. I’m a pretty slow walker.”
“Don’t worry you won’t be moving around for a while.” A croaked voice said out of nowhere, and as soon as I turned to face the speaker a blinding light flashed before I could see him.
“H-Hey! What are you doing?!” I heard Letty ask grumpily as soon as she could see.
“We’re playing a game.” The croaked voice said again but this time I could sense a sinister intent with his words.
“What game?” Letty asked, her mood changing drastically when she heard the word “game”.
“Try asking your friend.” The croaked voice said gesturing to me who was crouched on the ground still squinting my eyes shut. I heard Letty come near me, her boots crunching with each step.
“Allen are you ok?” She asked, resting a hand on my shoulder.
“Y-Yeah I’m fine.” I opened my eyes slowly, adjusting myself to the environment, but as soon as I opened them I knew something was wrong. I tried blinking a few times but still it was the same, my vision was if you want to call it a blur. My eyes were seeing two different things at the same time and that my head felt like it was going to crack open.
“Agh! My eyes! My head! It hurts!” I cried out, holding my head digging my nails deep into my scalp as if I can relieve the pain by doing so.
“Allen please calm down!” Letty held on to me as I began to thrash from the pain.
“It hurts! It hurts so much!” I groaned.
“Let me take a look!” Letty said holding my head still. I tried to stay still the best I could and looked straight towards Letty. However as soon as I did I heard her gasp, her fingers trembling.
“What’s wrong?” I groaned
“Y-You’re left eye… it’s milky white.”