Stairs to the Attic

The State of Dreaming III

With her throat raw from all her yelling and shouting at the heavens to bring her friend back to life, Morgan miserably sat down next to her friend's corpse in the grass as she ignored the need for a glass of water. Her baby blue eyes glistened with tears at the sight. Her friend's once lively vibrant eyes were now a dull dead brown. Her tan skin was turning pale and her pink lips becoming a blue hue. All signs that her friend was, without a doubt, dead.

That's when a voice booming from above startled her from her grieving.

“Find Catlin.”

“...what?” Her voice croaked and she cringed at the sound.

“You need to find the real Catlin. You need to kill the others that have her face. They will all think they're the real Catlin. Once you find her...you will be one step closer to escaping this dream. Unless of course, this isn't a dream...”

“But I already killed her,” she replied miserably, gesturing to the dead body before her.

“She was not real,” the voice answered simply.

“Am I real?” Morgan glanced between her friend and her own hands that were covered in her blood.

The only response she got was a laugh. She knew right away that laugh was going to become annoying.

“You need to find the real Catlin if you have any desire to leave this dream.” Morgan decided this voice was the reason behind them being here in this current predicament. “Tick tock. The clock is ticking. I'd get a move on if I were you.”

Morgan hesitated. She was unsure if she should leave her friend behind like this. According to the mysterious voice, this Catlin she killed...wasn't real. But she still felt like she owed her body some respect. Quickly, she picked some nearby roses and settled them ontop her body, arranging her hands to hold them. Before Morgan left, she shut her friend's lifeless eyes so she was no longer staring vacantly up at nothing.

Morgan wiped away the blood on her two swords and ventured on through the hazy world. It was an odd adventure. It hadn't started out well though of course, resulting in the death of Not Catlin. Her thoughts kept going back to how she got here in the first place. All she can remember is falling asleep with Catlin right by her side.

It was hard, having to strike down her friend each time she ran across a Catlin that was immediately hostile towards her. Lots of thoughts tumbled in her mind as she watched her blood pool around her friend. Why was she killing her? Why was Catlin trying to kill her? How was she supposed to know which was one was real? She thought that maybe the real Catlin would be the one who wouldn't attack her at first. But how was real Catlin supposed to find real her? Or had she already killed the real Catlin without realizing it? Was she even the real Morgan?

She stopped short in her tracks at that thought. Of course she was the real Morgan. But the voice had said that the others that have Catlin's face thought they were real. Did the same go for her?

Morgan was soon becoming all too lost in her own turbulent thoughts. It began to give her a headache that annoyingly throbbed every second. Maybe she was making this out to be too complicated than it needed to be.

Due to her being so involved in her mind's thoughts that she barely heard the groan of pain from her left. It was quiet, almost like a silent cry for help. Morgan almost passed it off as nothing until she heard it again. She searched for its source and when she saw who it was, her heart nearly stopped.