Chapter Text
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Emma and her friends walked away down the empty halls footsteps clicking on the tiles, leaving me in my locker, filled with trash.
I screamed and shouted, fists smashing on the door of the locker. No one heard me. I stopped after a while, throat raw.
I gave up.
I'd been in the locker for two hours before I started getting tired. My breathing, shallow and reluctant, had been disrupted by a yawn. Once the inevitable gagging ceased I noticed that my knees had bent, slipping through the filth of the locker to press up against the doors. My head soon followed it. The locker didn't feel so dirty now, the once clammy tampons warmed to something approaching a comfortable temperature. My mind almost thought it like my bed back home, where I could fall asleep peacefully, before something squelching under my foot snapped me right back to reality.
I wasn't crying anymore, and my eyelids felt heavy. Despite the inappropriateness of the thought, I couldn't help but think of my bed again, warm memories of soft hands and softer words. My mother had always helped me fall asleep, when I had been too afraid of the monsters and other things that hid in the dark. She would pull the blanket up to my chin, and tell me it was a special blanket, that could keep the monsters out. Then she'd tell me to dream of someplace bright and kind, and it would all be better in the morning.
I could use that right about now. Hell, I'd even take the blanket.
Maybe it'd be there when I woke up.
And with that, Taylor Hebert fell asleep, and dreamt.
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I was in a silvery desert, that was full of something that wasn't sand.
Huh.
I picked some of the not-sand up and let it tumble through my fingers. As it fell I could swear that it was forming patterns, and I watched as sandy stars and faces flashed briefly before vanishing. Then it ended, and I stood up. Looking down at myself, I noticed that I was still coated in filth.
Well, there was an easy solution for that.
It occurred to me, as I dropped back down and rolled in the not-sand, that this felt far more real than any dream I'd had before. I was thinking clearly, for one, and nothing was really happening. No monsters wearing fleshy masks, no painful memories, nothing. I looked up, at the sky, and frowned. It seemed... closer, somehow. The stars were noticeable, and though there was no sun or moon in the sky it seemed about as bright as late afternoon, when the shadows begin to really stretch. But, other than that, nothing.
My earlier comment about thinking clearly might not have been true after all, as I was certainly handling this whole thing far more easily than I really should be. I supposed knowing that it was a dream helped. Still, it was nice, and I'd enjoy it while it lasted. I closed my eyes and prepared to wake up.
Weird. I opened my eyes and sat up. Nothing had changed. I got to my feet and peered off into the distance. Still nothing. I looked again. Still noth- Ah ha! There was something on the horizon!
Wait. Didn't that make it about 3 miles away? Damn.
I started walking anyway. Maybe this was some sort of vision quest, and I had to go there to meet my spirit animal or something before I could wake up. The locker certainly had enough fumes to start one. Did it really have to be so far away though? I could see more of it peeking over the horizon, spires and towers that made me thing of some sort of castle.
When it finally appeared completely I gaped. I was right, but the word castle seemed almost inadequate. It looked like someone had taken the Disney Castle and made it go Gothic. And huge. Gigantic stone blocks, twice my height in some cases, made towers that seemed to be doing their level best to defy the law of gravity.
Then I noticed how old it looked. A number of the towers had fallen, and most of the rest had collapsed roofs. Stones taller than me were scattered around like toys, and decay hung around the castle like fog. Also fog hang around the castle like fog, but that was more of a footnote to the decay.
I stepped forward, towards the gates that I had only just noticed. They were, respectable I supposed, but rather dwarfed by the scale of the castle. As I got even closer I noticed why. The gate was made of two matching, over-sized horns, whose provenance I could only guess at.
I put my hands on the gates and prepared to push, only to stumble as they swung open noiselessly. Convenient. I stepped into the environs of the castle. And then I stepped back, having just noticed the stairs. Stairs that... huge should not be able to hide like that. I was beginning to feel rather put upon as I looked up at the hundreds of marble steps, many of which had been broken, making the trip precarious. I went up the stairs, frustration setting in. I suppose it was to be expected that I got the boring vision quest. No monsters or excitement at all, I thought as I finally reached the castle's main doors, flanked by two massive empty pedestals. The doors opened after a bit of effort, and I made it into the castle.
My first thought was: more walking?
My next thought was: finally.
Because there, at the end of a really stupidly large entrance hall, was something interesting, in a manner other than huge.
A throne on a dais, flanked by tattered curtains, with something inset at the top, green and shining. My feet echoed off the marble as I walked towards it, and if it weren't for the damaged nature of the room I might have felt regret at spilling the not-sand across the opalescent stone.
Still better than the contents of the locker.
The throne, I was unsurprised to notice, was rather over-sized, though less so than the rest of the castle. The kind of throne a professional basketball player might have. At the top, in a hexagon as large as two of my fists sat a shard of emerald the size of my thumb. It was out of my reach as it was, however, and I had to stand on the armrest of the throne to even try to reach it. I stretched, standing on my toes and my fingers brushed the gem, knocking it out of place. Of course, this is when I slipped and fell, knocking my head on the way down.
That hurt. Rubbing my head I stood up, and noticed that the stone wasn't there. Typical. Maybe it had fallen behind the throne? Pushing dusty velvet curtains out of my way I noticed two things.
One was the lack of any crystal, emerald or otherwise.
The other was a door, one that, despite being done in marble and gems seemed very familiar. It was my door, the one to my bedroom at home, seen from the outside. I walked towards it slowly, half-expecting some sort of twist. It would fit with my life up to this point wouldn't it? Maybe it would open to the interior of the locker again. Or, more keeping with the theme of this dream, yet another long hallway.
Hoping, dreaming that it might be something else, someplace warm and safe, I opened the door. What I saw was a shifting mass of mist, small lights like stars or diamonds flashing somewhere deep within. I also saw shapes, shapes that reminded me of my bed back home, my dresser and my window. I stepped through.
And entered my room. The shout of joy I let out was entirely justified, but I stifled any further sounds after seeing the birds outside rustle their feathers. It looked like it was late afternoon, the sun beginning to slip down the horizon, shadows spilling across entire streets, the moon hanging faintly overhead. I must have missed school, I thought, rather wildly, and began to chuckle, my whole body shaking.
It was then that I noticed that silvery not-sand was falling off my clothes, making a mess of the floor. Clothes that, if I wanted to (I didn't), I could still smell the stench of the locker and it's contents off of.
This time my shout of joy startled the birds out of their roosts entirely, and likely disturbed more than a few of the neighbours too. I didn't care.
I had powers.
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