This time, I’m sitting by a big reflection pool with
soft rose petals floating on the surface of the water and huge willows all
around. When I look up, I see the tops of the trees crowned with soft glittering
clouds. These soften the sunlight, adding an even more dreamlike quality to the
atmosphere. I look down at myself and see with a shiver that I’m wearing the
same silky lavender dress that I was wearing in the last dream.
I look up, sensing someone watching me, my life outside
of the dream fading into nothingness. I dismiss the feeling as nothing
important.
I look back to the pool and watch the petals gently
float as I wait for…for… Who am I waiting for? What am I waiting for? I
don’t know. With such beauty and peace surrounding me, it doesn’t seem to
matter much.
I look up to see the dark haired stranger walking
towards me. At first, I feel a surge of anger, but that’s replaced by the
sense of peaceful obliviation that seems to always prevale. I smile up at him as
he stops before me. He returns my smile with a cold stare.
“You led someone here,” he comments, eyes all but
sparkling with anger.
"I…I did?” I respond in a small voice,
surprised at how meek and frightened I am.
“Him,” he replies, waving a hand. Behind me, I hear
a pair of feet hit the ground.
I stand in surprise and turn to see who the newcomer is.
Professor Xavier stands there wearing clothing and standing in a stance that reminds me
strongly of Indiana Jones. In stark
contrast to the dreamlike fantasy land I was in before, I realize with a shock
of enlightenment that we’re standing in a dark, fowl smelling environment with
no kind of vegitation growing in the black, dry soil.
I finally know who I am and why I’m here.
I turn to the dark haired man to find him gone, replaced
with empty desolation. I turn back to the professor.
“Where are we?”
“We’re in his mind.”
“What?! H…how?”
“He took us here when he descovered me in your
mind.”
I open my mouth to ask a question, but am interupted by
a deep rumbling and violent shaking. As one, the professor and I turn around.
The ground is falling away, leaving a deadly void in its wake.
We turn and take off in a desprate run, unnerved by the
insainly evil laughter that overshadows the rumbling.
An impossibly
large distance away, there’s a complex of buildings that, for no rational
reason, is safe.
Just as the last of the ground is crumbling away beneath
us, we leap with all of our strength, needing to reach our salvation. For a
precious few eternal seconds, we think we’re going to make it.
Suddenly, we feel ourselves starting to plunge into the
void beneith us.
I’m not gonna let this loser win.
I grab the professor by the arms and concentrate on
making it to the other side, trying to use my mind to beat the monster’s. A
war of the wills.
With a burst of agony and a shower of crimson rain, a
pair of wings thrust out of my back. I scream with pain and the burn of
exertion as I pump my new wings and hold onto the professor for dear life. I
feel a powerful lift helping me along. I realize that the professor is adding in
his two cents.
At long last, we stumble onto firm ground. I fall to one
knee and lean forward onto the upraised one, panting.
“Damn…professor…I thought…we were just…in the
mind…” I gasp out.
“Sometimes the mental world is just as real as the
physical.”
I nod and look up as a derisive smirk sounds in front of
us. There stands our tormentor.
“You’ve made it this far. Now the terms are more
extreme. Before, my little butterfly, I would have mearly taken your power and
freedom, but you would have lived…” the young man starts.
“Now we kill you or we die, right?” Charles
finishes.
The stranger, now familiar, purses his lips and nods.
Next thing I know, the professor and I are in a dimly
lit hallway, holding two huge crossbows and dressed in skintight leather.
Damn…so this is what it’s like to be in a video game…
“I don’t have any powers,” the Professor
dispationatly observes.
Blinking, I try manafesting a stone from the other side
of the room. It ain’t happening.
"Me neither…I guess that dude doesn’t either,
then,” I respond, looking around.
My eyes widen
as an arrow just narrowly misses both the professor and me. Reflexivly, I raise
my crossbow and shoot at the fleeing figure, as does the professor.
We take off after him, running haphazardly down the
hallway. We burst into a large, open room and look around cautously.
Besides the beeping of machinery, there’s virtually no
sound. We both look around, wondering where the stranger got off to.
A figure
seems to leap out of nowhere and knocks the Professor down.
“Let us even the odds, my lovely,” the figure
comments.
“DON’T KILL HIM!” I screach as he raises his fist
to strike the stunned Professor.
Part
Seven
Part Nine
Mind Index