Edge of Dreams

3✯

Edge of Dreams

I look down at my sister asleep in her cot. She gurgles whilst staring up at the mobile with her brown eyes. Putting my finger in her grip, she holds on tightly. A hand is placed on my shoulder and I look up to see my father looking down on us fondly.

"She's so pretty."

"You both are," he replies, stroking my hair.

"When she's big enough, can she come fly with me?" I say looking at my father confused.

His eyes flash with sympathy. "She can't fly. She's not like you. You're one of a kind."

"I wish she could fly too," I say turning and leaning my chin on the edge of the cot.

✭✭✭

When I wake up my face is aching and so is my back, but mostly my face. I'm lying on the floor surprisingly, and the room is empty, except for a few stragglers. I bring my hand to my cheekbone and hiss from pain. A bruise is sure to develop, the hit was so hard, I'm sure it could have broken my face.

Sitting up I inwardly groan from the pain. I frown a little to see that not even Stephanie has hung around to wait for me. I don't expect her to, since we only just recently met, but she is the closest thing I have to a friend in here.

I had been knocked out and nobody cares and just left me lying on the floor. It clearly shows that everyone is selfish here. And you have to fend for yourself.

I see the last few people leave and follow after them quickly, not wanting to get lost or end up late. A few people glance at my face as I pass them in the corridors, but that's all. They barely pay attention to it. When I finally get to my next room, I'm ready to fall face down on the floor when I see ropes hanging down above us. And not even from a moderate height. They hang up from-

"6 stories high." Somebody murmurs, I don't know who, but whoever said it makes me more nervous than before.

I'm ready to throw in the towel and give up. My arms still ache from holding onto the bars. My face hurts from being punched. My back hurts from landing awkwardly on the ground after being knocked unconscious. It's safe to say, I will not last the day, at least not without ending up in a full body brace.

Already, I see the reckless teenagers start shimmying up the rope. I'm reluctant to walk over towards a rope. It feels harsh and rough against the palm of my hand and I'm already afraid to lift my feet off the ground. I take a deep breath and watch the technique of how others climb up. And instantly, I'm ready to laugh. They all look like caterpillars racing to the top. Or at least, the burnouts do.

The others, who I find so easy to point out, climb up with only their hands, not using their legs for grip. "What the actual fuck?" I whisper with an incredulous look at who I recognise as Sara and Ember. Both of them are swinging around and jumping from rope to rope like monkeys. When they grab a hold of the ropes other's are shimmying up, some slip and fall, others hang on tightly. Luckily, no deaths, as of yet.

Before I get in trouble for not participating, I pull myself up on the rope and attempt to climb up it. My shoulders ache and remind me of the pain that will come in the morning. I see I'm one of the few near the bottom so I try to pick up my pace. When I reach where most of the class are, I slow down.

Suddenly my rope shakes and I hold on for dear life, placing my feet on one of the knots. Hoping not to die. I look up and see it was Ember swinging by, and then sadly, I look down. I freeze. Not even Link can save me this time. I was never really afraid of heights, until today.

I start to shake a little, I don't know how everyone is supposed to get down but the only possible way I will be getting down, is by falling.

"Hey Avery!" I whip my head to see Stephanie, some ropes away from me. "Keep climbing." says Stephanie with a hard look on her face.

"I can't." I huff. "How are we supposed to get down from here?" I make the mistake of looking down again and close my eyes.

"There's an escalator."

"And we couldn't have bloody used one to get to the top?"

"Here's the issue Avery. Those mad people swinging around? Yeah, they like to make the last few people climb back down. Which is why I'm saying, keep climbing." She says the last words sharply, like an order. Then the thought of having to climb back down comes into my head.

It's the lazy part of me that gives me enough motivation to start climbing again.I forget about the height, I forget about the pain. Why? Because I really don't think have the effort nor energy to climb back down without falling to my death.

I keep going until I'm near the top. What I couldn't notice at the bottom, was that what I thought was the roof, is actually a platform. With holes where the rope went through, which I guessed I would have to climb through also to get onto the platform.

I pause for a moment, looking around the room to see there's only four other people climbing up the ropes. And it's only those people, who I have to beat. "Those bitches," I mutter, and force myself to climb faster. Right until I feel a grip on my wrist and for a moment, I'm afraid that they'll throw me off. Instead they pull me up and help me climb onto the platform.

The owner of that hand, strangely enough happens to be Blaze. Pulling out of my grip, he brushes his dark hair back with the hand he used to help me up. I blink at him. A second later, I see him reach a hand out to my bruised cheek and instinctively flinch away, but all he does is barely graze it. He smirks. "I forgot how hard Ember can punch. Better keep clear of her burnout. You'll get yourself killed. Unless you have a death wish." says Blaze with a raised eyebrow, then he walks away, just like that. And suddenly its like I can breathe again.

"You did it Avery!" I hear Stephanie say excitedly. I try to smile but I'm too exhausted. "Let's go to the escalators. Watch out for the holes," she says walking to an open door where others continue to disappear through. "I' really proud of you Avery," says Stephanie beaming, it's the most interactive I've seen her. It's refreshing to know that whilst she's been here for a while, she isn't a teenage robot and as affected from this place.

Just before I go through the door, I look over to where some of 'the others' gather, making the few who came last climb back down. For a split second I feel guilty, but it's soon replaced by a feeling of accomplishment.

In this place, you have to fend for yourself, and that's exactly what I will do.

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*~Faith, Trust & Pixie Dust~*