Dream People

Once upon a time—no, not once upon a time. Some things transcend time. Some things make time stop all together, or speed up. So “Once upon a time” is not appropriate in this situation, nor is “In a far off land” or “On a dark and stormy night.”  It all took place once upon a dream.

Because it was a dream.

A dream and yet reality.

In this dream-life, there was a wall, at least 50 feet high and made of gray stone that was nearly unbreakable, that divided the dream-world in two dream-parts. Living along with this wall were two girls—only twelve at the time, maybe a little older—named Emily and Amily. They lived close to one another, but on opposite sides.

One dream-day, when exploring, they found each other purely by chance. Both girls stumbled across a hole in the wall, a chink, where a voice could pass through but nothing else. They could only describe to one another what was happening on the other side of the wall, and they would. They would go and sit at the wall, and discuss random things for hours on end. They would talk about everything and nothing.

Time passes though, even in the dream. They turn thirteen then fourteen. Emily found herself becoming addicted to the hole in the wall, she couldn’t help herself. So she tried avoiding the wall, and she succeed for six months. But she came back, she always did, in the end. Back to that spot where a voice could pass freely. But by then others had found the spot. And they began to know all the others that came, all the other people that relied on a faceless friendship. A friendship with someone that didn't know you, who couldn't judge you based on looks, or accent, or history. You had a clean slate. Where you could be whoever you wanted. Amily could be whoever she wanted.

They were brave, those two. They talked about such private things, things other people would not even think of telling to a complete strange. But they were not strangers, the girls said. They knew each other, they told each other everything, just because they had never seen each other didn’t mean that they didn’t know each other. They talked too much, maybe. Emily, believing every word Amily said, began to think of her as a goddess. Amily was poetry personified, elegant and beautiful. Someone who was beyond amazing, invincible.

Things began to change though, Amily stopped coming to the wall as much as she used to. Which terrified Emily, had she done something wrong? “Amily?” Emily finally asked, “What’s wrong?”

Emily could hear her friends breathing falter, as if she were unsure how to answer.

“I,” Amily stopped. Emily took a deep breath, leaning against the wall, telling herself, over and over, that nothing was wrong.

“Monsters,” Amily said at last. “They’re everywhere over here, attacking at random and I don’t know what to do.”

Emily left the wall soon after, paralyzed with fear. As if monsters where coming for her instead of her faceless friend. She had heard of the monster attacks, they had them there on her side of the wall—in fact, several members of her family had fallen to their raids but the monsters never seemed so real or close to home as that dream-day.

Emily cried. She cried a lot, hating herself for shedding a tear for the girl behind the wall whom she didn’t even know. She cried too often, and she knew it. Hated it. It was a terrible feeling, to hate one’s self for caring for another.

She told herself it would be okay. That Amily’s area might be safe by now, that the monsters had moved on. She spun pretty hopes out of rotten yarn, wrapped herself in them, and turned to the distractions of day-to-day life. For the most part, it worked.

Still, as time elapsed, she went to the wall once more, hoping that the invincible Amily was still there, couldn’t help herself from doing so. And Amily, of course was. She would always be there, desperate for Emily’s attention.

During the next few weeks everything looked like it would be okay, the monsters started moving farther and farther from Amily’s area.  The world would be safe again, and Emily and Amily would be the two that sat at the wall and talked once more. Monster free.

Though Emily somehow knew this wouldn’t last somewhere deep down.

Somewhere, Emily didn’t know where, among their laughs and stories, Amily slipped in that she was injured by a monster. Badly injured, and while Amily seemed to say it straight faced (not that Emily would know); Emily was breaking down on the other side. Weeping tears of pure anguish for her invincible Amily.

And while Amily returned to her comfy bed in her dream-home, Emily lied on the ground near the wall, curled up in a ball waiting to hear from Amily again. Wanting to ask her questions, to know exactly how bad Amily’s injury was.

Others soon came to Emily to make sure she was okay, and she was forced to tell them of the girl on the other side of the wall that was injured by monsters. Soon the whole village knew of Amily the Goddess from the other side. They all waited for her, hoping she was alright.

Days went by with no sign of Amily. The crowd grew in numbers and they all sat at the wall and cried for the girl. Finally, a week later, Amily’s voice echoed through the crevice.

“Amily! Are you okay?” Emily asked as the crowd ‘round her silenced. Emily thought she could hear Amily on the other end laughing with a friend, the first red flag Emily should have listened to.

“No not at all, I don’t think I can do this the pain is so bad and the doctors are all taken,” Amily’s voice said. The crowd couldn’t believe their ears, the stories they had heard of the Invincible Amily mustn’t be true. The girl behind the wall was cowardly and crying. They soon lost interest in her. Slowly, they departed, leaving the girls in private.

“Amily, please you must fight! You’re stronger than this, you can beat it! I know you can, don’t lose hope. Please don’t, do it for me at least!” Emily cried out. Leaning against the wall, shaking and angry. Angry at Amily for not fighting harder, and at the monsters for causing her dream-friend so much pain, but mostly at herself for not being able to do anything but talk.

“I just, I can’t. I hurt so bad, I can’t do it,” Amily ran from the wall.

Emily yelled for her friend to come back, but the message didn’t seem to reach her. She pounded her fists on the wall until her knuckles gushed blood, and then tried scaling the stone wall but failed in the end.

Bloody and crying, Emily ran to her father’s shed. She found rope, and tied it all together into one long strand. She burned her hands on the rope, but she barely felt it. Quickly, she tied a large stone to the end of the rope and ran back to the wall. Emily didn’t know how to explain it, she had this burst of adrenalin as she lunged the rock fifty feet into the air and over the wall. She scaled the wall in minutes flat.

Emily jumped from the wall, giving no thought to the 50 foot drop, thinking only of not losing her dearest friend.  As she hit the ground her legs seemed to shatter into millions of pieces.  She stumbled forward pushing her broken legs further along, her hand on the wall to keep her from falling.

And finally, Emily reached the spot where voices could be heard and sitting there completely unharmed was a girl. Emily knew it was Amily, it had to be. Her heart seemed to collapse in on itself as she realized what Amily had done. Lied to her, broken her, caused her more pain than anyone had before.

Years they had known each other and it had all been a lie. It was as if Emily was a puppet and Amily her master, but now all the strings had broken and Emily was free, and she hated it. She wanted everything to be like it was, back when they were twelve and foolish. But time never runs backwards, even in a dream. What had been done, was done. And now Amily ran from Emily and watched her from a distance as Emily sunk to the ground next to the space in the dream-wall, in her dream-world, filled with dream-people and spun lie after lie to the person on the other side. Stating that her name was Amily, and that there were monsters.