Staring dry eyed and exhausted into the dimly lit abyss, Taylor lies exhausted on the floor of his prison. Sleep has evaded him since he arrived, now he was sure he was seeing things.
Every time he closes his eyes the memories return to haunt him. Six millennia of failing to protect her. ’How on earth could she say she loves me when I am to blame for so much harm?’. The exhaustion will soon set in and he will be thrown into his personal hell again to re live another failure.
“Taylor?”
“Eve? Oh no, not another dream.” Taylor stands up to face his next torment.
Eve runs up to Taylor and embraces him. “I thought I would’nt see you again.”
Pulling away from her embrace he steps away and turns his back to her. “You’re obviously not real. Please just leave me be. I have been tortured enough in here.”
“Taylor it is me! You brought me into your dreams just like you used to.” She rushes around in front of me to protest my rejection. “What is wrong my love?”
“The memories you showed me were lies. I have had only time down here in this featureless pit. Time to remember the truth of what has happened in our lives together. Now I understand why you call me cursed.”
“That is not true Taylor! Before you ended up here you taught me that you are my blessed, not my cursed. I love you for all you have done and I hate that he is torturing you here like this. Is there anything I can do?”
“See you can’t be real. The real Eve never said she loved me despite my endless belief in my love for her. Unless you have something useful to say you can leave.”
“I can’t leave unless you send me back, but maybe I can help you.”
“Sure, why not.” He says defiantly, his imagination has been useless this far.
“Okay so can you focus on one of the memories you say you failed me in?”
“I thought you were here to help not torture me.” he whines
Eve stomps her feet together and puts her hands firmly on her hips. From top to bottom it was clear she has had enough. “Listen here you blubbering baby. If you want my help you will do as your told otherwise I will just turn and walk into that darkness until I wake up in the real world.”
“Wait! That’s all I have to do to leave? I thought you said you can’t leave”
“No, that’s all I have to do, I think, better than standing here with you being a baby. You don’t have a body to return to.”
“So, how do I get out of here?”
“That is not the most important question you should ask.”
“You sound like a Jedi Master.”
“What in the name of the gods is a Jedi Master?”
“Someone who makes annoying statements that make no sense at all. What is the most important question then?”
“Should you.”
“Of course I should get out of here as soon as possible.” Taylor says flailing his arms over his head in frustration. “This pit of despair is horrible.”
“Yes but you’re a dreamer kept inside a dream. Don’t you understand what this means?”
“You know what? No! I have no freaking idea what this means and I am way too tired to care.”
“Think about that for a second now, your in a dream and you are too tired. Does that make sense to you?”
“Nothing has made sense after you showed up in my apartment that night, why the hell should this be any different?”
“Are you going to keep talking like a sailor or listen to me.” she says returning to her scornful lecturing pose.
“Fine.”
“Now, you are much better at this than I am; but I think I might just be able to do this if I concentrate.” she stands there with her eyes closed and a concentrated look on her face. As she seems to struggle with something challenging Taylor begins to feel his energy restore and wakefulness return. When she finally opens her eyes he looks and feels fully restored.
She breathes heavily while she waits for him to say something. “Just concentrate on what you want to happen.”
“So I just have to concentrate on anything and it will happen?” he closes his eyes then opens them a moment later to find he had succeeded. “Oh wow, um, I didn’t actually think that would work. Sorry.”
Eve glances down then covers herself as best she can. “Gods be damned! Just once I would like to teach you about dreaming without you wishing my clothes off you dirty pervert.”
Giggling, he turns away to give her privacy.
“It’s a lot harder for me to do this than you. Dream my clothes back on this instant.”
Doing as she asks he gives her some clothes and turns around. Now she wore the same dress she had on the night she was attacked. Taylor started to think about that attack and what he was forced to do. The whole scene began to play out in front of him as he watched.
“You need to stop blaming yourself for this. He made his choice.”
“Wait, you can see this.”
“Yeah, it’s right there for anyone here to see. You have to be careful what you think about here; thoughts become real in your dreams.”
“Oh.” the memory vanishes. “So, why am I staying here again?”
“Two reasons. If you are here that means you’re in his head; that’s easily the best advantage we have ever had over him. If you can get into his head where his consciousness is you can be our eyes where we have never had them. You could warn us of his plans before it’s too late by simply bringing me here.”
“I see, kinda like a spy.”
“Exactly like a spy.”
“What’s the second reason?”
“Oh, um, well, I don’t actually know how to get you out of here.”
“Well then it seems my choice is help your little resistance movement or live in a pit of despair for the rest of time.”
“This is no time to joke Taylor, he means to commit genocide.”
“You mean to tell me that of all the things that I do every lifetime, making light of tense situations is not one of them?”
“Honestly? You do it every time and you almost always die when you do.”
“Really? Wow, I just thought it was a coping mechanism. So I can predict the future with sarcasm?”
“It’s always the same thing with you and I don’t like being patronized. ’It’s not like a bear is going to jump out of that tree and eat us.’ ’Those dog eatin’ brits ain’t got the sword skill to get past me.’ ’Let the hunter come, I am no prey’ always the same before you die. This is not funny!” she rants, the last a teary scream burdened with frustration.
Taylor walks over and hugs her. Her streaming tears bathing his shirt in salty wetness. “All this crying to get your way? You should have saved it for something I had a choice in.”
A smile broaches her teary face and snuggles up a little closer. “I will remember you said that.”
“You should go. I have spying to do.”
“One more hug.”
“Your already rounding a hundred.”
“Just hug me.”
“Fine.”
They finish hugging and part ways. Eve walks into the void with renewed tears. Her heart mourns for the separation. In her heart of hearts she knows this could easily be the last time she sees him.
