Born of starlight and shadows

~Part thirteen: Stella (?)~

I had to be dreaming. That was the only explanation for this. Yes, the events of my life that just occurred were beyond crazy, and of course I didn't want them to be true, but not even what I saw and heard and witnessed could make this possible.

What I was witnessing started out like my old nightmare.

I was locked in a cage, and I could hear the faint whispers, as I always did.

"Please, help me..."

They grew louder and louder, and I found myself squeezing the cage's bars in a pathetic, stupid attempt to break free.

As I did so, the whispers-they changed.

"Don't do this," a faint voice whispered. "Please! Please!"

A terrible scream filled my ears, and I pushed even harder on the bars, trying to break free. And then-another voice. A woman's voice.

"You deserve this," she hissed.

A third voice came into the mix.

"Don't touch him!" this time it sounded like a girl.

The first voice spoke once more, in a quiet whisper just as before. "Jade..."

Then two dreadful, horrible noises: the sound of a gunshot, which intermingled with another pain-filled scream.

My heart began to pound-what was I hearing?

But to my amazement, the cage bars in front of me melted away as if they had never been there at all. I was trapped in an empty, vast world, surrounded by blackness on all sides.

Hesitantly I took I step forward, and immediately began falling through a whirl of color, chaos, and sound. I opened my both to scream, but nothing came out. I knew I was dreaming, but I could not wake up.

Everything spun past me so fast, too fast. I closed my eyes, but I could still hear a jumble of meaningless words and sounds. I desperately wished, desperately waited for an escape from this nightmare.

And then, I was no longer falling, but standing on solid ground. My eyes flew open.

I found myself staring into a pair of blue eyes the exact same color as my own.