Take Me Away

Chapter 4

I was in a field. A  huge, overgrown field that seemed to stretch on for miles upon miles. I sat up on a bed of flowers, gazing at the endless horizon before me. "Where am I?" I tentatively asked to anyone who could possibly hear me, but no one answered. "Anyone?" I called, pulling myself up off the ground to stand.

Glancing down at myself, I saw that I was no longer dressed in the silky, red provacative uniform for the dance, I was dressed in a simple white shift. It fell just to my knees, and it was the softest thing I'd ever felt. I blinked, realizing that my hair was still pinned back with Cyril's pin, and my mother's comb was still in my hair. I breathed out a sigh of relief, since I never wanted to lose that piece of my family.

I started walking aimlessly around the field, and though it was beautiful, with millions upon millions of flowers, it seemed.... dead. The flowers were vibrantly colored, but there were no sounds of bees or any other living creature in the field. I looked along the ground for any sign of a bug, but there were no ant hills, no rabbit holes, nothing that gave me a clue that I was not the only living soul to wander around aimlessly across the endless field of flowers. 

"Help!" I cried out, as the memories of Cyril invaded my mind again. They came in flashes, each bringing me back to what he had asked of me. Cyril, kissing my forehead. Cyril, watching me in the crowd, and disappearing. Cyril's question, "Do you want me to take you away?" and the evil red cloud that had formed in the shape of his body and had enveloped mine. 

"PLEASE! Anyone?" I begged to the skies, but as I looked up, I saw that the sky was a stormy grey, but the field still looked like it was bathed in beautiful sunlight. "Help me!" Tears streamed down my face from the fear I felt inside, hoping that this would not be my entire life.

"Would you please shut your trap, miss?" a dark, looming ghost like thing moved into place next to me. It was in the form of a man that I didn't know, but at that point, I didn't care.

"Could you please tell me where I can find Cyril?" I asked, looking at the shady man expectantly.

The shady man chuckled, and started to drift away. "PLEASE! I think I'm lost,'" I begged him.

He turned back, and I think I saw pity in his eyes. "You are not lost, love," he said. "You are dead. This is the Elysian Fields. Welcome to your afterlife."

I felt to my knees, as tears streamed down my face. "Nnnnooooo!" I screamed, hoping that he was wrong. Hoping he was just a dream. All I could do was scream and hope. 

"Melisande!" I heard a familiar voice call desperately out to me. I looked up to the looming grey sky, wishing I could hear that voice again. It sounded like.... Cyril. "Melisande! You have to wake up now! Come on, sweetheart. You have to wake up."

That voice was enough to make me open my eyes.

***

My eyes fluttered open, and I gasped for air. Cyril was sitting next ot me on the bed that I laid on, and he pulled me into his arms as I woke up. "Thank the Gods," he said. "I didn't know if it would work."

"W-where am I?" I asked, looking around me. I was no longer in the Elysian Fields, which was a relief. Wait.... was that a dream? It must have been, because I was now awake.

"You're in my castle," he whispered, pulling away and letting me go. As soon as his embrace left me, I felt a sense of emptiness, and I wanted his arms to wrap around me once more.