Part I- His Last Dream
Part II- His Last Dream
Part III- His Last Dream
Both characters reflected each other, separated by the
thick icy material. The ghostly creature also touching the lake had its legs up,
and floating as if also swimming in water as if imitating MAGIC in its own way.
The thing didn’t have a face and thus no expression could be read, but the
irritated human imagined it to be smiling and most likely in a burlesque
manner.
The young human hit the frozen layer with the dull part of
the knife but no significant damage occurred. A few small cracks could be
seen and these were enough to embed the knife. The desperate man backed up a little
and kicked the knife in the ice layer as hard as possible. He kicked it until the ice finally
cracked enough for him to pull and push it apart to make an exit.
The creature moved away by pushing itself up first as if
coming out of the water too, but then it moved to the side and out of MAGIC’s
vision. The protagonist didn’t forget the blade and with the last breath he had
in his lungs; MAGIC took hold of it and pulled it out from the piece of ice
that was been pushed away with his feet. After acquiring his only weapon, the
young man came out of the smoking water. He went forward and out of the gap no
longer having sight on the creature; he thought the spirit was long gone but
he was wrong. Only two feet away, the creature remained static. MAGIC noticing
the pale monster while trying to stay on top of the unstable frozen surface;
planned his next move with the intention to either kill the being in one blow; but
then he thought of just to harm it and possibly torture it in order to make it
talk or indicate where the kidnapped victim was located.
MAGIC jumped and ran towards it; the spirit flew to the
opposite side and turned to swept MAGIC away by controlling the wind around.
The exhausted man walked a few steps back due to the force the wind was
exerting on him. When the wind ceased to propel the young man; he took
advantage of the time and with perfect aim threw the iced dagger to the
creature’s back just when this one tried to escape.
The spirit drop to its knees and screamed in pain; from
the injury a viscous black substance came out. The creature gave up and let
itself crash completely on the icy ground, oddly the body didn’t look heavy in
mass but still resonated on the ground. The sight could be described as a
lightly angelic feather falling on the ground in slow motion, dust and fluff
weren’t on the view but might as well have been shadows of falling stars,
meteors without a name. MAGIC with a certain confidence approached it,
confidence like a hunter that had killed its prey.
A few steps away and MAGIC could already taste victory
along the bitter taste of rage. The being been a whole mess of disgusting
accumulation of mass and fluid, no longer had any beauty for it was all vomit
along the black acid that was coming out of its nonexistent mouth. The
disdainful man kicked the knife further in, making the creature kiss the
ground. A sound, a lament, a cry was in harmony and frequency with the melting
noise of something. Fumes came from underneath the injured spirit; the smell
and whatever followed next could only be described as sulfur burning. Blue
flames also appeared and the impassive human only moved to the creature’s left
side. He took the blade out with his left hand while putting pressure on the
creature’s back by stepping on it with his right foot, similar gesture and
position as when he was retrieving the knife out from the frozen lake.
Difference only in effort for it didn’t require much of it to be out of the
carnal body.
The droplets of black acidic liquid rapidly melted the
ground at touch, after slowly descending from the untouched blade. The smell
changed to putrid meat, if it weren’t for the destructive composition of the
viscous liquid, maggots could have easily lived in the flaming organism that
appeared to be in decomposition. MAGIC’s face had no change even with the
deplorable view, instead of having any sort of sentiment for the thing; he
pushed the body by kicking it to make it face him. Just as he turned the
corpse, flames came from the new gap in the lake. It could only be said that
MAGIC opened Pandora ’s Box by doing it like a lid coming off from a pan in
fire. This incident only lasted for 4 seconds and left the creature immobile on
the iced lake, while its blood coming out of the back dissolved once again the
fragile ice. The unsympathetic man contemplated the scene while moving around
the gap and the apparent cadaver. MAGIC
crouched to stare at the thing; a stare bitter and chilly like the deeps of the
ocean was, in a few words insensitive like a stone statue during a rainy day.
It didn’t take much of anything to him, thoughts or feelings in order to stab
the creature’s chest. An automatic response to a cold stimulus; the thing
busted in timid, orange, and inoffensive flames. The bonfire left an open
laceration filled with more grotesque liquid. The spirit bizarrely enough had
the strength to effortlessly repeal the attack, and tried to throw its attacker some feet away but was a vain attempt. MAGIC’s blade penetrated the burning spirit not
once, nor twice, but multiple times he stabbed the creature until the young man
satisfied his desire. Lungs, stomach, chest and heart, and still the creature
didn’t move at all and thus, it stayed in the same place wishing to die, to
disappear, and to be free…
A strong wind hit both characters and the lake cracked,
broke apart and finished up melting. The villain slide down to the lake’s water
and a splashing noise reached the young man’s ears. He closed his eyes and
covered his face with his arms in order to avoid getting wet by the burning
water but no blazing fluid reached him. MAGIC opened his eyes and black
feathers were scattered everywhere, no signs of blood on the remaining icy
surface, but he could see the healing water turning black. The unconscious
being inside the lake was rapidly losing blood and mixing with the clear water;
contaminating and tainting the lake’s clear and innocent nature. MAGIC in
somewhat of a fright, but because of the change in the water since he could
care less about it at the moment. Our hero snapped out of the moment and
remembered the reason behind slaughtering the creature.
He tried to reach for the body in order to ask for IT but
it was too late. The corpse submerged fast as if made out of metal and sank
without any resistance. Unavoidably, MAGIC cursed out loud and prepared quickly
to go after the cadaver. He very well knew that it may all be pointless, that
the creature if alive may or may not tell where IT was. It was also
questionable that the thing could even speak or in any other manner
communicate. The burning water could possibly do something to the disgusting
creature and heal it to the extreme that it might be able to fight back
underwater. There was also the likelihood that nothing could be done if the
thing was already dead by the time the man could rescue it, since all the black
blood might make it impossible to find it in time. MAGIC took a big breath and observed
the false sky. Could it have been a time to pray? Or perhaps a chance to ask
for divine intervention, an opportunity to beg for a miracle, was that the
moment?
He gallantly smirked while closing his eyes and entered
the lake once again. The water healed painfully his physical wounds but only
those exterior ones. However, thoughts of guilt didn’t cross our hero’s mind
and more or less there wasn’t much time for anything, nor even denial.
Unexpectedly, the creature’s blood mixed well with the water. The young man
expected a thick texture and unlikely to mix with the healing water. The view
from above seemed like a petroleum split and the smell, color, and texture of
the strange liquid might have been as well oil and very close to gasoline.
MAGIC swam as fast as he could towards the source of the pigmentation. He
attempted to clear his view by moving the liquid away from him with his arms,
but it didn’t do as much as the blending of both liquids. It didn’t take him
long to find the creature dissolving in what appeared to be acid, black blood,
bubbles and even foam were the signs of the chemical reaction that was taking
place between the creature’s skin and the lake’s water. The whole sight could
be described in few words as Hydrogen peroxide been poured on an infected
injury but occurring underwater instead of been in an open air area. The time
to heal and the scar that would stay will all be soon forgotten by him but not
by IT.
The disguise and the white mask dissolved in front of the
young man’s blue eyes and thus he found the forever lost IT.
MAGIC didn’t know what to do at the sight of the shocking
discovery; he could only stare until IT clearly hit bottom. The black liquid
broke down as it was dispersed and its color desaturated into red. MAGIC finally went to grab IT after contemplating
the scene; the water's pressure felt heavily on his back and especially on his
chest. He slowly picked up IT and swam back to the surface. The only burning
sensation came from within him piercing his body from back to front, a pungent
commotion coming from his lungs. In nature belligerent as it was penitently for
it was like a savage creature luring and screaming in order to leave the cage
that holds its freedom. Not as much to seek revenge but to yell and shout to the
world its mad feelings that had the sound of falsehood but that alleviate a
genuine pain.
The nameless hero reached what was left of the icy
surface, which could barely sustain itself in place after the whole tumult.
After retrieving IT and taking the very injured body out of the water with a
lot of struggle, MAGIC checked for the open wounds that remained as fresh and
deep as when he made them. The only difference been the color of the blood,
this time a vivid red liquid came from ITs body. A fresh scent in the air
surrounded both, a mix of roses in full bloom along hydrangeas sprinkled with
dew.
The blood on the crystal floor matched the colour of dry
leaves in autumn, that somehow appeared out of nowhere around MAGIC and
IT.
Leaves, blood, the lake and IT, were the only things that
MAGIC could see. He didn’t care about his surroundings and focus on one way or
another to repair the fateful damage. MAGIC wanted to cure the wounds but only
blood suppurated when he pour water; the almost desperate man also tried to put
pressure with his hands to stop the drainage of ITs life.
“Shit! Nothing is working and I don’t even have a damn
clue if this is all. There might even be internal hemorrhages.”
MAGIC not knowing what to do next, he thought of tearing his
clothes to make a tourniquet but the majority of open injuries were on ITs
chest. How could he close them? Where could he find needle and thread? Less
likely, how could he find someone to help? Just when he was about to pass the
point of a nervous breakdown, IT opened its eyes and tried to talk.
IT could barely recognize MAGIC, everything to its eyes
was blurry and the pain of the wounds strangely increased.
-“Don’t worry, everything will be alright.”
Both of them told each other at the same time, an
involuntary reaction that both of them couldn’t help but to say. They faintly
smiled at the occurrence but didn’t last long for IT’s eyes became watery and its
lips were dry and almost chapped. So much to say, explain and tell, with apologies in
between, but so little time to do so.
Truth is that IT didn’t want MAGIC to leave; for once IT
had a peaceful and enjoyable time with someone.
So, IT lied by telling the young man that he could leave by jumping from
the cliff that was not so far from where they were. Actually, it wasn’t much of
a lie but more of concealing information of what IT knew. The most effective
way for anyone to leave the place is what our hero did, which is to kill IT or
the other option was to commit suicide. The few, who have traveled and ended up
in this bizarre place, either have killed IT or themselves. Either way IT always
ended up waking up on the lake all alone after such occurrences happened, with
no clues and whereabouts of the person who either kill themselves or IT. All of
this, IT could not tell MAGIC, no courage or strength could have been enough to
outweigh the anxiety of facing him afterwards.
Afraid of the future, IT could only but wish for the best and wait, not
knowing that time would rather race and pass faster than IT expected to the
point that it was too late. The young man driven by a natural force to leave
the strange place could have easily jumped from the cliff to oblivion. If it
weren’t from IT, who changed his surroundings and molded the environment at
will in order to stop MAGIC from doing so. In return, the land changed IT to
the creature MAGIC slew.
Filled up with the sentiments of guilt and regret, IT with
its last breath said:
-“I’m sorry. I didn’t tell you that you had to kill me to
be free, Thank you for everything… I…”
After a long
silence, the man with penetrating azure eyes reacted and shook the corpse as an
attempt to make IT talk once again to finish the sentence. He called IT several
times but it was all useless, the body felt cold like snow and only emptiness
could be seen in its eyes. The man felt a supreme anger towards everything,
expressing it by hitting the floor several times until his hand was numb. His
and ITs blood run and mixed on the cracked ice like rivers connecting.
-“Why didn’t you wait for me to reply? I do…”
He pondered and
deeply thought about the idea that was running in his mind, while closing his
eyes he shouted to the vaporous world as if challenging it “I’ll do the trade!
Whatever you need, I’ll give it for you to be free! Tell me, what is it?!”
He moved his head up to face the sky but instead of facing
the heavens, the young man saw the usual grey ceiling of his room. The man, whose skin had been tanned by the beach’s
sun, sat on his bed and rubbed his eyelids while yawning. He turned to see his desk to check the time;
it was around 2:30 am and he let his body drop once again on the bed. Facing up
once again to the dull ceiling he wondered about his awakening.
-“What was I dreaming? Was it a nightmare?”
He mumble to himself and thought “Damn, I can’t remember
anything, but I have the feeling it was something… somewhat important.”
The sleepy and tired man yawned again, but he finally got
up, went to the kitchen, drank some water, and tried to remember the dream he
had while he went back to his room. Every effort to remember was futile, he
couldn’t recall anything and even tried to go back to sleep as if trying to
continue the dream.
Nothing happened. He couldn’t sleep and got up to go to
work. That day nothing unusual occurred. Night came once again and he tried to
remember but still nothing of what actually happened pass his consciousness.
Fatigue got the best of him and he slept most of the night with no dreams to
evoke. He didn’t dream that night, or the next one… The nameless man had indeed
a name, a house, a family, and place to return. Thus, this man didn’t have the
need to remember the place where he forgot his life; he also didn’t have the
need to remember the person that he doesn’t need.
The only thing left to say at this point is that a fair
trade occurred at a certain time, at a certain place, at a certain space.
Events, places, and people are forgotten even when something as significant as
freedom has been obtained through sacrifice. This is only a tale, a story, a
dream…
The last dream a young man had during a lukewarm starless midsummer
night.
End~
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Authors Note: This is the first ending that I have intended to have for this short story. However, since it doesn't explain in depth the character I have made a short continuation. This one is called "IT's Endless Dream"
"IT's Endless Dream"