Collided Sky (Auras of Pneuma)

Chapter 3 (Lucid Dreams)

As he walked into the greenhouse, he marveled at how everything grew so wild; up the sidewalls of the greenhouse with no true direction or shape to be confined to. Nothing was trimmed or pruned, it all just stretched out. To some, it may have seemed to be chaotic but Darius saw it as being unrestrained and free; to him,it was perfect. He slowly strode further into the greenhouse, amazed at how many species of plants he had never seen before. The lush and vibrant greenery stimulated his mood like a fresh charge to an old battery.  He ambled through the rich, warm, soil that made up the greenhouse floor as the blue-tinted fluorescent lights flickered faintly above; leaving him memorized by a feeling of peacefulness as he walked on. Suddenly, the feeling eluded him as he heard something faintly scattering around in the distance.

He began to feel uneasy as the scuffling noises became more apparent in the background.He began walking further into the greenhouse all the while staying as alert as possible.

"Aunt Syndie." He called out.

The feeling of curiosity became nervousness that traveled through him when he didn't get a reply. He paused for a second trying to catch which direction the sound was coming from. He carefully took his next step, hoping not to attract attention to himself but the sound just stopped all of a sudden. He stood there for a few seconds wondering if whatever was making the sound was worth running into. As he stood there, stewing in his wavering thoughts, it became disturbingly too silent; like an eerie quietness in a crowded room. Just as he began to slightly let his guard down, he heard a faint whisper but was unable to make out what was being said.

"Aunt Syndie, is that you?" He shouted out with concern.

He again got no answer but suddenly he heard the scuffling noise again, then the whispering. One after the other, over and over until he felt as if the sounds were bouncing up against his eardrum. Strangely, he felt compelled to follow the whisper deeper into the greenhouse and find out what it was. Setting a steady pace through the overgrown vegetation, moving and pushing through the tall plants, he steadily continued on until he stumbled onto a large circle where none of the plants grew into. There was a chair that was placed perfectly in the middle of that circle and a black book with gold symbols laying on the seat of the chair. The book seemed to look very familiar to Darius but he just couldn't remember from where. Darius remained hidden in the dense plants,looking around to see if he could see what would have been making the noises he had been hearing earlier. Before he could get his head together, his mind was quickly taken away by the disturbing sight of seeing his aunt Syndie, about five feet to the left of him, knelt down on all fours in her light purple, sleeveless, long nightgown.

She moved around the ground, in a direction away from Darius, on her hands and knees at the edge of the circle. Only stopping at certain spots, she would lean in real close and begin whispering to the plants. He then realized that this is where the scuffling noises were coming from. As he watched her in confusion, everything he saw seemed so unnatural and bizarre. As she was whispering, the plants she whispered to would flow backward as if a gust of wind ran into them and shook them softly. Concerned, worried and confused, Darius slowly started making his way towards his aunt Syndie. When he got to her, she was still on her hands and knees whispering. He reached his hand out to lightly touch her shoulder and see if she was ok but as soon as his hand got close she reached back, grabbed his wrist, quickly spun around and stood up to where she was looking at him eye to eye. Her eyes had a haze of white that covered them like the eyes of someone who was blind. Black fragments of soil crammed underneath her fingernails as small amounts were faintly smeared across her cheeks. His heart stopped for a second as she stood there with a blanket of no emotion on her face.

Abruptly,she let his wrist go flinging it down towards his side and swiftly clinched the sides of his arms. Darius tried to break free of her clutches but it was no use as the strength in her grip was unwavering stronger than he had ever experienced. As she held him there, she pointed her chin up towards the sky and began motioning her jaw as if she was trying to regurgitate something. The popping sound of her jaw and the clicking noise of her tongue pressing to the back of her throat incessant as her efforts finally became evident. Darius watched as a large ball of light slowly crept up from her chest and into her neck as it slightly protruded through her skin. Once it reached the back of her throat, she tilted her head forward and looked at Darius. She began to stretch her mouth open wide; so much that her jaw snapped loose; stretching the sides of her lips so thin that they seemed that they would split. Darius again attempted to break free from her grip once again; vigorously shaking and shifting himself over and over again but he couldn't clear himself of her grasp. Once she got her mouth open as wide as she could, the ball of light that illuminated the back of her throat shone so brightly that it was blinding. It shined deeply through her eyes, leaving behind only an outline of her iris while the rest was irradiated with light. She then took in a deep breath through her nose filling her lungs to capacity and with one sweeping breath, she released an ear-piercing scream that unleashed the blinding light; completely engulfing Darius.