A Time for Love

Day 24

I open my eyes. Whatever it was that possessed me, it must have pulled me to somewhere else. 

Lightning strikes the ground. 

What was it that Mae said about me not being with them, though I was? Where was I?

I'm in an abandoned white house. Going down the hallway, I see room after room. There are empty beds and paintings that hang, but the people shown have black marks and blood streaks over their faces.

Into one I go, where an elderly lady lays in the bathroom. Her eyes are vacant, and her breathing has stopped. Her jaw drops open, and spiders crawl out. I scream. 

Her mouth pulls em under. I'm fumbling through space again, until I fall onto a hill next to a long chessboard. 

"You have to understand. When they found out that I was a spy, a comrade for China's army, they gave me the worst punishment possible. They pushed me into the elevator, down to the deepest, underground basement where no one goes" says Mae.

I look for her, but cannot see her. 

Lightning strikes again. The sounds of the Lu family muddle out as I see a soldier go sprinting across the chessboard, with tears streaming out of his eyes. Suddenly, a long metal spike strikes through it's chest. I run behind a large boulder, as the dinosaur eats it's flesh absentmindedly. 

I stare ahead of me. To the far right corner, where the field strays to the woods, there is an army of soldiers staring at the monster.

I crawl on hands and feet quietly, with them silently encouraging me on, until I reach the woods. They shuffle me with their hands into the foliage. 

"What is that thing?" I ask.

"A monster" answers one of the men. He looks like an elderly, tall, olive-skinned, Spanish conquistador from the 1580's. Next to him is a knight, an astronaut, and a WW1 soldier wearing a gas mask. "It steals soldiers from both space and time to battle with them."

Deep into the woods hides a dark-skinned, Spanish girl. 

"Her name is Rebecca."

"Rebecca" I whisper-chime, smiling. "Do you want to go on a walk with me? We can check if there's something to eat in the woods."

The silent girl nods. Taking my hand, we are walking through the woods together. Picking berries, we find they are not poisonous, and that they are, in fact, quite delicious. 

Then we come across a clearing where a large tree stands. In the middle is a head - my head.

The berries I'm holding fall to the forest floor. My face looks back at me - shocked, scared, but mouth forced shut. 

The girl is unmoved by the scene.

"We came to get you mommy" says Rebecca. 

"What?"

I stare back at myself, and my twin confirms this with her eyes. My heart is pounding, and my feet are immobile. 

"You must come with us Annie. You're consciousness is splitting itself. If you don't come - me, my mommy, your children, her children, and everything will fall apart. 

She reaches out her hand to me. 

"The tree-spirit is sorry for scaring you like this."

With that, my daughter takes my hand, and we enter into the tree.