The Four Dimensions of Corey Emerson

By the Fireside

            “Alice!”

            The voice was nothing but familiar to me, but I didn’t want to open my eyes. Even if I wanted to, there was an immense amount of pressure on them. I opened my mouth and took a deep breath. It was a thick breath, which triggered me to see what I was breathing.

            I screamed into the water, but only bubbles came out.

            “Alice!” I heard again.

            It was all muffled and I looked up to see white. It wasn’t really white; it looked like dusty glass.

            I floated up to touch it. It was ice. I began to panic. Under ice, I was useless. I was defenseless. Water strengthened me, and I could breathe, but dread and terror overruled all judgment.

            It was freezing cold and I was tensing up by the second. I knew, then and there, my time was limited in below zero degree temperatures. Yes, I had some leverage to be out in the cold longer than regular people, but I was still half human; I could freeze to death, like anyone else. I was never told this, but while in the water, I quickly began to realize it… amongst other things.

            I started banging on the ice, and gulping in water. Every breath I took froze my nostrils and stung my chest. I continued to bang.

            “ALICE!” The muffled voice screamed louder. Again and again.

            I blinked rapidly, trying to keep my eyelids from sealing shut.

            There were dark figures above me: three large, one small.

            I screamed out my name, and a person above echoed it back.

            The figures, I saw, began jumping and stomping on the ice. I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer, but I alternated darkness and cold for what seemed like hours, but passed by as mere minutes.

            “Whoa! Whoa!” The same familiar voice exclaimed.

            The three large figures ceased jumping, and within seconds, a small hole was forming in the ice. It was melted.

            As soon as it was big enough for my arm, I shot my hand through the hole and onto the surface.

            A large rough hand grabbed it. It wasn’t a familiar grasp, but I held on, nonetheless.

            The hole became bigger, and I took another breath of coldness, shooting my other hand up. The same large, rough-like hand grasped it.

            I was about to shout but everything suddenly became blurry. My arms were a mix of red and blue and the tips of my fingers were black. I guessed the rest of my body was the same. I accidentally choked on air as I was yanked up and onto the surface. I blinked several times, my heart pounding through my soaked clothes and frozen limbs.

            “Ah,” a voice sang, near me. I looked up to see that Corey Emerson was holding out a gray, wool blanket, and grinning ear to ear. Despite not seeing him for five days, I hadn’t forgotten what he looked like. After all, I had been lying next to his corpse for two days, not letting the sun nor the moon phase me.

***

            “I told you I'd find you...”

            There were so many questions. First things first, apparently Emerson, Bran, the blacksmith Fletcher, and Adophin had found my body in the ice three weeks prior to when I woke up. Just then, I remembered that a day in the dream world was a month in the outside world. And I had wasted two months doing absolutely nothing... I had wasted so much precious time... Anyhow, Bran had said that it would have been dangerous to take me out of the ice or force me awake, before I was Released from the dream, so the four of them left me in the winter. I had no idea how they survived in the harsh cold for three weeks, but Emerson had told me that it had only started to snow a couple days before I awoke. No matter how much he denounced his heroics and dialed down the tale about how 'simple' it was to find me (apparently, my body had been hoping around destinations and different Dimensions the whole time.