The Dreamfarer

1

Everything was burning.  

She stood in the midst of the falling wreckage, trying to gain her bearings. She did not remember how she got here; it was as if she had been placed in the middle of this scene by an invisible hand, the only frozen component of a film that had already begun.

"Maeve! Maeve!" a voice screeched from somewhere beyond her line of sight. Her spine tingled with terror; she could not possibly be here. This could not possibly be happening right now. The fear only intensified as she tried to reorient herself to the situation - did she sleepwalk? Maybe she had amnesia. Where was she?

"Maeve!" the voice screamed, more insistent this time. She shook her head and started to move; it didn't matter how she got here. The fact of the matter was, she needed to find that pained voice. She would never be able to forgive herself if something happened to it.

"Vivienne! Where are you?" she called out, coughing as the smoke flooded her lungs. She could not figure out what sort of building she was in, but she could tell it was made of wood from all the debris crashing down around her. One piece hit her in the shoulder, and she felt a scorching pain. When Vivienne started crying, however, she ignored it and pushed on.

"Viv!"

"Mae, I'm stuck! Get me out of here!"  

Maeve tried to take another step forward, but her eyes began to burn. She blinked rapidly and tried to call out to Vivienne again, but her throat was raw, and she could barely breathe, let alone make a sound. She fell to her knees and began to crawl, hoping to make it to another door, praying that it would be the one Viv was trapped behind.

She wasn't so lucky. The fumes overtook her, fogging her mind, and she crumpled to the ground in a useless heap. Her eyes fluttered closed, bright flashes behind her eyelids the only indication of the fire that raged around her. The last thing she heard before blacking out was her sister, screaming for help.

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Even when Mae felt that she was awake, she did not open her eyes. She was afraid she was still in the burning house, as the crying was still as prominent as it had been before. Only after a few moments did she realize that she was snuggled under soft blankets, her head on familiar pillows. Cautiously, she took a peek at her surroundings...

And breathed out a sigh of relief when she recognized her bedroom.

She kicked off her covers and slowly lowered her feet to the ground, cringing at the feel of the icy wood. Over the past few weeks, winter had come on with fervor. Their town had been blanketed by layers of snow, the ruthless response to such a long and beautiful summer. Autumn may as well not have existed; the leaves flew off the trees so quickly it was as if the gods themselves had reached down to shake their trunks.  

Vivienne cried out something unintelligible, and Mae shuffled over to her bedside. Her sister was thrashing around under her sheets, her eyebrows furrowed in an anguished expression. Mae reached out to grab her shoulder, shaking her awake. Vivienne sat up like a bolt, looking around desperately, her eyes wide.

When she focused on Mae, she burst out in tears. "Oh, Mae... I had the worst dream."

Mae matched her sister's gaze with surprise. Is that what she looked like when she was scared? It must be, seeing as she and Vivienne were identical twins. It used to be disorienting, looking into someone else's face and seeing a reflection of herself staring back at her. Now, it was such a familiar sight that it tended to comfort her; except, of course, when the reflection looked this upset.

"About what?" she asked tentatively. Weird, that they both would have had such bad nightmares on the same night.

Vivienne shivered. "Well, you were in it. We were stuck in a fire somewhere, and I kept screaming out for you, but I couldn't find you... eventually you stopped responding to my calls, and then I collapsed, and I felt the fire, I felt it, creeping up my arms..."

Mae tried to hide the trembling of her hands. "It was just a dream, Viv," she said.

Vivienne stared at her, her royal blue eyes swamped with worry. "I know that, of course... it's just..."

"It's just what?" Mae prodded when her sister cut off.

Viv swallowed hard and continued, "I've had nightmares before, Mae. I've even had ones scarier than this one. But... what made it worse than any I've ever had before is how... distinct your presence in it was. Usually, when people show up in my dreams, I just hear their voices, or wake up picturing their faces. But you... you were there."

I know I was, Maeve thought to herself, but of course she couldn't say that out loud. She would just frighten her sister further, and it was not as if she had an explanation for her.  

The unbidden memory of her last dream - the one before this nightmare - struck her then, placing in her mind the wondrous image of the beach she had wandered along just a short time ago. The sand had been white and soft as silk, the water entirely clear. The sun shone down on her with a smiling face, and the fields of flowers in the expanse behind her waved at her in the gentle breeze.  

She remembered chasing a songbird along the shore, laughing as she extended her hands toward the pure blue sky. It was humming what sounded like a child's lullaby, and was entrancing, hypnotic... she felt sure that it would lead her somewhere she would never want to depart from.

At one point, she reached so high into the air that her body decided to deny gravity, carrying her away from everything she had known. The instant she touched one of the songbird's feathers, it spooked and darted away, whistling at a faster pace. From below her, she saw the waters rise; then she was embraced by the gossamer clouds and her sight was traded for her consciousness. She woke up with a smile on her face, still affected even after traveling back from that realm of contentment.

"Of course I wasn't. It was just a dream. It will seem like nothing in a few hours," Maeve finally responded, trying to keep her voice flat. She knew that she had to gain more understanding on what was happening to her before she troubled her family with it; Vivienne in particular. She and her sister had grown up side by side, basically developing into one entity over time, and worrying Viv over something that might just all be in her head seemed pointless to her.

Vivienne exhaled slowly and nodded. "You're right. I'll just... forget about it."

Maeve plastered a smile on her face and assured her twin that she was making the best choice, that of course it was nothing; after all, how could it be? How could Mae have been inside her dream - her stream of unconsciousness? It was ludicrous, impossible...

 And yet.