Life Eternal

9

"If i could turn back the time,
I'd make all right-"

She leaned her head against the ledge of her window. She was at the top of the building, overlooking the trees, the brightly full moon, and the dark sky filled with stars. She didnt know how she had the strength to stand but she did and she couldnt help but smile at the view.

In the distance ravens fluttered from the trees, she could barely make them out against the dark sky, they swarmed upwards like a coil of wings and began to sore closer and closer to her window. While some flew past the building, up into the sky and out of view, two of the birds remained and landed on her ledge. Beady eyes bore into hers as the two birds huddled together peacefully.

Arabella tilted her head and parted her lips as her heavy eyes observed the two. A slow hum of a creak could be heard as the door to her room opened behind her but she didnt look away from the ravens as she already knew who it was.

"You shouldnt be up here." She whispered her eyes now fixated on the reflection of his mask in the window. He didnt reply and only stood in the doorway. "Whats the point?" She asked upon seeing his reflection still there. He watched her from where he stood and cocked his head. "Everything seems so meaningless, I was given a chance and ive wasted it. Ive wasted time itself." She sighed and closed her eyes. "Just go away."

Yet she still felt his presence in the room and turned to him angrily. "Whyre you still here?" Then she began to approach him with raging steps and began to pound him against his chest, he stepped back yet took the hits. "This is all your fault!" She yelled with tears at the brinks of her eyes. "God! If you wouldnt have stayed, if youd have gone, kept to yourself even, I could go peacefully. Have nothing left to lose!" Arabellas hits slowed down as she just weakly leaned on his chest and sobbed. His arms went around her as if he tried to comfort her and she trembled. There was no warmth left in him, as if she was hugging a hollowed shell of someone she knew but couldnt remember.

"Youre so cold..." She whispered as she looked up into his beady mask. A rat scurried across the floor past them from a crack in the wall and water began to flow down the rough stone in a trickling noise."Whyre you so cold?"

Arabella woke up to the sound of the cold rain and a harsh crack of thunder. She was sweating, her breathing heavy, she shot up. Furrowing her brows she ran her fingers through her hair almost frantically as she tried to recall the dreams she had. But there were only bits and pieces left in her mind, mask, a rat, ravens, and words. Words she couldnt remember. It was on the tip of her tongue but she just- couldn't remember. It was driving her insane.

Realization over came her. She had to write all her dreams down and perhaps she could figure out what they meant.

Almost falling in a frantic mess, Arabella stumbled out if bed, eyes not yet adjusting to the darkness she rushed to the drawer of her vanity and pulled out a journal with a leather cover as well as ink and a quil.

"Diary,
28th December,

I cannot remember much of my dream except of the rats and the mask. It seems that whatever has been on my self conscious has deeply affected my mental capacity because these dreams, these horrid dreams, continue to persist. Less and less I remember them, becoming a faint memory, a puzzle that i cannot yet solve. Im hoping that i can deem what they mean and perhaps release my mental state of my sleep into sweet freedom away from these nightmares.

Sweet nightmares really. Dreams of my familiar friend, the man in the mask, whom ive seem to know in my dreams long before we could physically meet.

I fear Tobias is the one in my dreams and i Fear of the black rats.

-A. W. "