How We Deal With Misery

Dream .1

"My sister was a loud, yet secretive person. She never spoke to us, never reached out at all." Her stare went straight through me, as if she couldn't see me. As if I didn't exist.

"What do you mean? I was always there!" I protested, but she walked away as if she never heard a single word. Her steps echoed through the empty darkness, leaving me to chase after her barefoot.

"Hey!" Farther and farther she went, and though I was running, I couldn't seem to catch her.

I never questioned why it was dark, or why my seventh-grade sister was now as tall as a seventeen year old. I never questioned why her voice was so cold. What I questioned was how she could do this me.

I've always been there for her, even when she was wrong. I've made sure to be there. I bared part of my heart to her. How could she say that I never reached out to them?

Before long, mg legs gave up and I fell on my knees. My sister remained walking, until she disappeared. Then she came.

My second sister, dressed in the same manner as the first, rubber-soled heels on her feet. Her hair was in an efficient french twist.

"I never knew her. I always thought she was half dead. She certainly showed no concern for me.

"What do you mean?!" I ran up to her, but she couldn't see me either. Her eyes were blank, empty, and when I reached out to shake the living hell out of her, my hands merely passed through her shoulders.

As if she was a ghost.

Or a delusion.

Then I heard a masculine voice, chuckling. The figure of my second sister turned to hazy fog, and there, my own living nightmare, my own Facade, emerged.

Tall, pale, faceless--but for a large, mocking grin--he walked, scythe in one hand, and a clipboard on the other.

Then he sat on the floor, facing me as he made himself comfortable. Then lifted the clipboard, and cleared his throat.

"Analysis of Harmony, a genuine copy for advancing death.

Secretive, selfish, uncaring..." He began to list off the words I had condemned myself with, hurting like a spray of hot grease, or a barrage of pebbles. Shakingly, I stood up, before screaming.

"Lies! All of them!" Hands tightly covering my ears, I backed away in panic. The Façade grinned, and continued on, even as I screamed, cursed, pleaded, begged him to stop.

Tears were pouring from my eyes, and my sobs were so loud it rang inside the empty, black space. My throat was hurting, mybhead pounding loudly, and blood rushed in my ears. For a moment I could even hear the fast beating of my heart.

Then finally, the Facade ended the torture. Standing up, he approached me, grin still on his face, the only facial feature he had.

"Follow me, to your future."

It was cold. So cold. And he was the only living warmth.

So I took it. And I died.

The morning after this strange dream was quiet. And I was alone once more.