Reverie [Bruno Mars - Editing]

Chapter ten

Chapter ten

Two days had passed. I could tell by the sun. It rose and set two times. It was strange how the sky was always the same here, so far. The colors would repeat themselves. As the sun rose it would dress the room I'm in with gold, then the sky would be settled with the same cloudless, never-ending blue. As the sun lowered, the sky would be streaked with gold again, sometimes orange, rarely pink, then the sky would morph into a sleek black surface, starless.

Both nights I dreamed.

The room was bare, stripped of all furniture. I stood in the middle of a star that was engraved in the floor. When I looked up, I saw nothing. Two figures appeared in front of me. A mixture of the colors black and white. “Adrian Hayes,” they had said to me, their voices monotone. “We welcome you.”

I squinted my eyes at them. “Where am I?”

“Aegrimonia.” They smiled, it looked like a knife had been cut into their skin to make it. “It means grief, or trouble of the mind. Joseph must have informed you of what we are about.”

“What do you want from me?” I just about whispered.

“Can't you see?” They took a soundless step forward. They were fading away, quickly turning into shadows. “We want your mind.”

That was the first night. That was when I realized how important it was for me to escape. But there were two things stopping me: There was no sign of a door leading outwards. I tried to find the lining of it when Joseph had miraculously slid it open, but couldn't. It blended in with the wall. And Bruno. He nearly surrounded my every thought, and I had this tiny flame of hope that he was thinking of me too, wherever he was. So my determination was set: I was going to find him and somehow get us the hell out of here. I wondered what these people wanted from him anyway, his music?

On the second night, I dreamed twice. The first time I dreamt of my mom. She was in the kitchen standing over the sink, her back was turned towards me but I could tell she was staring out the little kitchen window as she always did, a dishrag in her hand. I called out to her and she turned around. Her face was blurred over. I couldn't see her nose, her lips, her eyes. I screamed. When I awoke I couldn't move, my throat was tight, I couldn't speak. The room was in complete darkness but I saw the figure standing at the foot of my bed. I saw him come, and slide into bed with me. I heard his whisper, “Sleep paralysis.” and I felt his cold lips on my forehead.

I fell back into a dream.

This time I was in a corridor. It was so long that the ends disappeared into fog. There was white everywhere and appeared were thousands of doors, each one begging for me to open them. Then I saw him. He was walking towards me, his footsteps were soft taps along the floor. He reached a hand out, and I looked up at him. His eyes were a gentle brown, like the leaves that drifted in the wind before falling softly to the ground in autumn. I placed my hand tentatively in his, the warmth of his skin like a current. And then he was laughing as his fingers laced around mine. It was a contagious, soft laughter. It swirled around me, like music.

I had woken up with a jolt, my heart wildly beating. To my relief, I was the only one in the bed and I felt myself for any pain. Wasn't it supposed to hurt? My clothes were still on. Maybe it was just a dream. But I still felt Joseph's icy kiss like a burn on my forehead that told me it wasn't. Now I was in the bathroom. I peeled off my clothes and let the hot water of the shower run all over my skin until the water ran cold. I dried myself, putting back on my same clothes. I made a circle in the fogged up mirror. I looked different somehow.