Infinite: Power

Chapter 10: Moonlight

To Belle Craw seemed unbelievable that a person could survive for so long without having nutrients in her organism. She tried to find the way to feed the sleeping girl somehow. Of course, she would do it without her husband's knowledge. He had insisted on doing only what Stawen had ordered them to do. Even though Belle considered Stawen a son and a very respectable figure, she couldn't stop herself from wondering if he could be wrong this time. Yes, the water idea had worked, but they hadn't awakened so far. There had to be something they hadn't tried. So, she'd try to feed the girl first and then, Francis, as Brooke liked to call him.

"Brookie!" She prepared a solution, a serum that contained vitamins and different kinds of nutrients to keep the girl healthy. "Brookie, I need you help me with something here!"

Their house wasn't too big, so Brooke could hear her from wherever she was inside of it. However, there was no answer. Belle looked outside the kitchen's small, rectangular window to the backyard. It was pitch dark out there, the moon was probably hiding behind some clouds.

"Brooke?" Her voice sounded alarmed when her daughter didn't answer. "Brooke? Hayden?"

Perhaps they were at the guest room. It was an extension of the house and one had to go through the back door, walk across a small yard and go through the guest room's door to reach it. They probably were along the sleeping strangers again. Gathering the equipment she needed, Belle walked across the kitchen through the backdoor and knocked before entering the guest room. It was freezing cold that night and she didn't even want to glance at the deserted fields that surrounded her property.

"Girls, I'm coming in." She opened the door. But the girls weren't there.

None of them. Including the sleeping one.

This must be a dream. This must be a dream. But I can feel it on my skin. In and out of me. The coldness. The coldness, stronger than the one I felt inside that cave. I don't understand where I am, I don't understand why everything is so dark. I just cannot stop from looking up to the sky, because it's a dark blue sky and never in my earlier dreams had I seen it so vividly. It's a sunless sky. Everything is so cold. I think there has been nothing more beautiful than this ever before in my life. Yet, I cannot enjoy it as much as I wish. It hurts. My body. It really hurts and it's the strangest pain I've ever felt. I can feel things flowing all inside of me. There is something wrong with it. As I drag myself across a strange ground – it feels like 'hairy' and humid – a part of my body moves on its own. My chest can't stop coming up and down, as air comes in and out. I don't understand. I look around and I find no one, and I hope I don't because I'm frightened and I don't want anyone to see me like this. But I take my time to sense what has happened to me. Have I been sleeping? Why do I feel like something is out of place? I woke up in a room and ran the hell away from it. The ground where now I'm walking is too soft. Something pinches my right arm. There is some sort of metallic needle there... I take it off and throw it to the ground. I can also smell something. There's a scent in the air that is unknown to me. Everything, everything is unknown. I try to keep calm but I'm too annoyed for the – quicker and quicker – movement of my chest as I get more and more nervous. I am alone and this seems to be a 'night'. A night so vivid that scares me. I need something. I need—an explanation. I want to wake up but at the same time, I'm loving every second of this night, wishing I don't have to go back to the golden, dead and eternal day our world is condemned to.

Where is Old Tommy?

Something round and white that was hidden behind the darkness shows up. Shiny and majestic. The owner of the dark, night sky, Old Tommy would say. It is not the right time to get emotional, but my heart can't help to feel joyful about seeing a moon for the first time. It's so pure and distant, and beautiful and refreshing, compared to the hot and suffocating sun...

"This is no dream." I say to myself, in Hangen. My voice is raspy and nearly soundless. But I know I'm right. I accept it. It is not hard as the wind currents make me shudder, and I feel it as real as life itself. "I am really here. This is actually happ—"

My throat gets blocked, strangely. My nose aches. My eyes burn and my view turns blurry. This is strange. I blink several times until I can see better. I can locate a big wooden building not so far from me. Perhaps I will find answers there. I cannot lose it. I need to focus. I need to know how in the world I am here now.

I walk to the building. I start hearing voices. Loud voices. Louder. They speak English. They are female. They aren't too far. I walk around the building very carefully not to be seen. They're very close. In fact, I poke out my head to catch a glimpse of what is happening, because one of them is giving terrifying creaks and I am starting to get scared.

I see two people. Two girls. And their hair is like nothing I've seen in my land. Not to mention their appearance. But one of them is slowly walking backwards, frightened, while the other is bent, moaning in pain as if her stomach hurt. There is something wrong with her. Something that I've never seen. I rub my eyes to see better because one second, I believe the girl is short and has long reddish hair, and the next, her appearance changes and the hair is short and yellow, and it makes no sense to me. Am I hallucinating? Maybe not, because I know the other frightened girl sees it too.

"Hade..." The girl in pain speaks with a bit of effort. "Ha-Hade..."

"Stay away from me!" The girl's voice sounds less brave than she probably meant it. "Stay—Stay away--!"

"It's... It's me!" The changing girl has now adopted one of the two forms. Her hair is now short and yellow. Her face is thin. Her body is slim. I had no idea that a human being could change like that in just a moment. "It's Brooke!"

"You're not Brooke! You're not--" The girl was crying. "What are you?! Monster!!"

"Hayden, it's me! It's really me, I can explain! Just look at my eyes! My eyes haven't changed! Look!"

I hide my head for a second. I thought one of them had seen me. I poke again and this time, the frightened girl is closer to the other, staring right into her eyes. She takes both hands to her mouth.

"It is fucking-you!" She exclaimed, not so fearful anymore and a bit more amazed. "Fuck. How the fuck—"

"Hayden, watch your language!!" The slim girl said with disapproval.

"You're the ghost that I've seen! You're her!"

I don't understand. But the slim girl nods slowly.

"Yeah. It's me."

"How...? How can you...?"

"I don't know! I... I haven't told anyone..."

"You should tell your dad!"

"No!" The slim girl looked now frightened. "I-I just can't tell dad, I... it would break his heart, he'd be scared..."

"Damn, I'm scared! But don't... don't cry... Ugh... it's you and at the same time, it's not you... looking like this... you need to change before your mother tries to find us!"

"I don't—I don't know if I can yet... it just hurts every time it happens."

I feel sorry for the slim girl. I have no idea what they're talking about, but the despair and hopelessness in her voice are heart-breaking. I need to walk away before they see me.

I turn quickly away to a sound, a creaking sound. One of the doors of the wooden building had opened and a gigantic four-legged creature is running right towards me! I scream my lungs out as I try to get away from it – nearly dragging myself – but then the two girls see me and scream at the same time, while the creature runs past me. Later, I was informed, it was just a horse.

I lie on the ground, looking at them with wide open eyes. They look as though they have been hit on the head with a rock. Stupefied.

"Oh. Crap." They say, together.

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