Chapter 2

Collin is sucked into a vision he can't explain...

Chapter 2 (Collin)

Almost as quickly as Collin’s mind submerged into his daydream (starring an imaginary dungeon with the maniacal Ms. Palmer dancing around the prone forms of students begging for sunlight) it was overthrown.

The prison rippled, and before thought was possible he was thrown into a gaping hole in the side of his dungeon. A force stronger than his own will pulled him away from his classroom, and the air surrounding him distorted violently, rippling and cracking like glass under pressure.

His chest was on fire. The air screamed and his world exploded. He cried out, though he did not know if he was still connected to his body.

A blast of wind shrieked through Collin’s mind, drowning him in a torrent of frigid air, and he grappled with the gust tearing him away from consciousness.

‘Not here…’

His silent plead was ignored. The eruption ripped through and he fought the familiar tide shredding his hold on this world until he was left with nothing but resolute blackness and silence pulsing around him. His reality was easily tossed aside by whatever strange power ruled this ability. Any hope of going back was lost in the flood of power ripping through him.

Collin knew he had lost his grip with the real world if he’d gotten this far. He belonged to whatever limbo his visions propelled him into. He was well aware he had no jurisdiction here. Any moment the prediction would crest and crush him with the knowledge of what was to come. There was no squeezing your eyes shut and praying that you wouldn‘t see. Here, your wishes held no power.

He waited.

This was by no means the first time that Collin Price had a vision that twisted his own imagination into a jailer’s cell where he would be held to await a glimpse of the future.

When he had turned seven they began quite innocently; little flashes that barely interrupted his day. Like a glimpse at eight in the morning of his mother making chicken for dinner or the teacher surprising them with an extra ten minutes of recess before he ever made it to school.

In those days Collin welcomed them. Time however only twisted his gift. Soon enough, only a few months after the first fleeting peek into the future darker possibilities began to play before his eyes.

He would be imagining playing outside and suddenly his yard would be dark with smoke and sirens. The next week a home a half mile from his burned to ashes.

A playful hand out the window during a car ride triggered screeching wheels and burnt rubber heavy in the air before his cousin’s girlfriend was hurt in a car accident on her way to work a month afterward.

Yet they weren’t always connected to his daydreams. Pretending to be a knight once led to being locked into a struggle with a dragon until the beast swallowed him whole into a black abyss that showed him his mother losing her earring when it fell down the drain of the kitchen sink.

The black hole inside the dragon’s maw did not compare to the nothingness he found himself in now.

The void that surrounded him played with his mind. His eyes, so use to seeing color and movement dilated, questing for light. His pupils created brilliant splashes of red and white that exploded in his sight. Faces seemed to hover before him whenever the bursts occurred. Horrible faces in various stages of pain. Collin could not decide if they were mere figments fashioned by an imagination laced with a terrible fear or really haunting him in this terrible nightmare.

He quested for some sort of illumination…something to tell him what was hiding in the darkness. He tensed. He felt like a child, scared and waiting for someone to jump out from their hiding space at him. Simultaneously hoping they would never appear and longing they would so it could all be over with. The faces were gone, replaced with an eerie emptiness.

His breathing had stopped, and although his body seemed to be able to exist without oxygen, the force constricting his chest drove him to the edge of madness as he tried to inhale air that was not there. Suffocation with no end.

He could not move. His limbs struggled against the nothingness that held them. His scream was lost before it ever reached his lips.

‘This must be hell. Oh God, this must be hell. What is this showing me?'

With nothing left to fight, Collin wrestled against the panic inching over him. Steeling himself, he tried to remain calm and wait for whatever it was this vision wished him to see.

Sometimes they weren’t clear right away. Like the time Kai’s little sister fell out of her tree house, and the only thing he had seen the night before was the clear blue sky awash with the tears of a five-year-old. Being only eight at the time himself, Collin could not decipher a meaning or warning. He only knew he had felt a searing pain shoot through his right leg and then suddenly was looking at a watery wide-open sky. He had felt guilty afterwards; Lindsay had worn a cast on her leg all summer. This was not like that.

This was just nothing, just resolute Blackness. Where there was always something for him to see all that surrounded him now was pressure; bone crunching pressure that was twisting him in its deadly embrace, leaving him caught and unable to even cry out his agony.

Although many times his visions had foretold of some sort of physical pain it had never crushed him like this before. He was accustomed to feeling the pain in his visions with an almost detached observation. Like an echo of what was happening to the subject of the prediction. This was different; the devastating heaviness on top of him was driving him to the very brink of his limits.

‘I can’t…I’m going to die here.’

Just when the end seemed imminent and Collin began praying for suffocation to welcome him it was as though someone had shoved him into reverse. He watched in amazement as the darkness enveloping him shrunk to a tiny dot in the center of his classroom. His stomach flipped with the remnants of the abrupt change, and his world spun as vertigo maliciously toyed with his balance. Collin immediately tried to move, tried to prove to himself that he was undeniably back in Ms. Palmer’s classroom and not still imprisoned in the liquid black world that had been his existence just moments before.

Only he couldn’t. Dread surged unpleasantly through his chest. His thoughts came frantically and forcefully, ’This isn’t right…this feels wrong.’

Fifteen years of enduring his strange ability had given him a clear idea of what to expect each time this unknown power threw him into a vision. His familiarity had seared the truth firmly into his mind.

Collin knew something was different this time.

His eyes would not even move within their sockets, and he tried to maintain a semblance of composure while he took in what surroundings he could see.

‘This isn’t Ms. Palmer’s room…’

Taking a moment to process his change of location, Collin started to settle, ‘This is the school…at least I’m in the school.’

It was only after a few moments when the trapped boy realized there was something much more out of the ordinary occurring before him than merely being in a different classroom. ‘They’re all moving backwards…’

The familiar schoolroom played out like an old VHS tape on rewind. People he recognized as easily as the school went about, undoing their tasks. Collin stared in wonder as Joey Durst ambled backward from the teacher’s desk to pick up something from the ground and sit down in his chair again, the smirk he’d started with pasted back on his face. ‘What’s happening?’

Collin’s confusion mounted. What had been, until a mere breath ago, like watching a day backwards was rapidly changing again. Everyone’s actions were becoming jerky. Joey began going forward and then into reverse again, like a tape skipping, eerily giving his friend a marionette’s choppy forced movement. The comparison sent a chill through Collin. The smile that had seemed so natural mere breaths before seemed pasted on and sinister. A throaty laugh engulfed his being, and the room spun out of control.

“Having fun yet, young prophet?”

Collin tried to squeeze his eyes shut, but the image of the room swirling wildly continued to surge before him. Nausea raced through his stomach and he began to choke on the bile that fought its way up his throat. Heaving and coughing, he was thrown to the ground.

Collin wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, and acknowledged his movement‘s abrupt return. He let no joy blind him. Allowing him to control his limbs may not be a kindness. Collin could feel the truth. Someone or something was seizing his power. The malevolent energy engulfing this strange place spoke evilly to him, and Collin felt sure this unknown usurper would enjoy letting him the use of his limbs just to see him run.

Rising to his feet Collin took the opportunity to survey the prison he faced. Incomplete darkness coated the walls, ceiling, and floors that held him. An unsettling purple haze prowled at the boundaries of his eyesight. Unlike the darkness that had held him before his strange visit back to the school, this appeared to be a room of some sort. A chamber awash in black velvet and crushed amethyst that despite its beautiful ingredients left a disquieting reaction curled in the core of Collin’s being. The entire placed reeked of magic.

Collin was not sure what told him the metallic smell coating the air was magic, but he trusted his instinct and tried to quell the urge to close his eyes and start chanting “there’s no place like home.”

He took a deep breath in and nearly choked on the scent. The power that saturated this place was old and dark…in its presence Collin felt like a pawn standing before a mighty queen, irrelevant and hopelessly trapped.

The laugh sounded again, “So young. So brave?” The voice delicately lifted the end of the sentence transforming it into a question. “Let us see…”

Before Collin had time to comprehend the coolly delivered words, the world was destroyed with a terrible roar. Purple light blazed before him, through him, and around him, burning with an intensity that tore a scream from his throat. His chest was lanced with a sharp blinding pain. He was certain if he looked down he would be revolted to find a wound gaping where his heart once was.

And once again, swiftly everything changed.

The school appeared before him again, sporadically emerging only to disappear again. The rooms so familiar and comforting warped in front of him, leaving them empty and cold. The sun that normally streamed through the windows abruptly ceased like a light on a switch, and darkness fell outside the school. Lightning struck the lawns. People he had known his entire life screamed and ran from the unnatural electricity, trampling each other and screaming hopelessly while this twisted magic stole their futures away. The bleakness pushing against him brushed tears across Collin‘s eyes. Kai’s face swam before him.

“Why won’t you help them Collin?”

A laugh danced around the school, and more people fell. Arrows flew from the windows like black deadly sheets of rain.

Collin raised his hand, desperate to stop the tears falling from her eyes, “Kai- I can’t - I don’t know how…”

Memories played out like silent films until they were all he could see.

Kai punching him in the stomach on their first day of kindergarten.

Summers and Christmases…

Kai’s thirteenth birthday party, when she ignored him, and hugged Johnny Allyson just to make him mad, but then kissed him later and made him promise not to tell.

School plays and countless nights in their treehouse…

The Easter Collin’s dad died…

The beginning of school. The moment Collin decided to tell Kai he loved her…

Collin‘s heart ached. ‘Nothing with her…please just not Kai.’ For years he had hoped and prayed he would never see a vision with Kai in it. Never have to watch helplessly as her future paraded before him. He had always felt that was the one prayer he had been granted…until now.

‘Please not Kai…’

The reflections of the past fell away until all that was left was Kai, just Kai with her slightly messy hair and luminous green eyes. Smiling eagerly at him like she always did right before she was about to tell him something that had her so excited her enthusiasm spilled over and drenched him too. She held out her hand and Collin watched the words, ’Come with me,’ fall from her lips. She danced away from him, twirling in a dress of gold. Collin began to move towards her, all the preceding horrors skittering away like shadows from light. She held out arms and spun around and around like a child. Just as Collin was about to reach for her she abruptly fell, and her laughter pealed like the most beautiful bell on a sweet spring day.

“I fell Collin…help me up.”

After the complete silence that had been most of Collin’s vision, Kai’s sweet voice sent shivers up his spine. He bent towards her, ready to pull her to him. Ready to hold her close and whisper into her hair how much he loved her. He knew she would smell like strawberries and rain. A delicious combination on her, mere shampoo and soap on any other girl.

Collin knelt on the fresh green grass that had grown around them while he watched Kai dance, and leaned towards the girl he loved. All awareness focused on her. She sat like an angel on the meadow of grass, her legs bent in front of her and a pout and a smile warring for supremacy across her mouth.

“Catch me Collin.”

Collin threw himself towards her, his laugh joining Kai’s in the air as he lay behind her waiting for her warm body to land upon his. Collin could not count the times they had lain like this in their special place in the woods, her head on his stomach, soaking in each other’s warmth.

Collin felt the grass envelop him in its softness, cushioning his back almost as well as a mattress. The stalks brushed against his arms and legs tickling another chuckle from his throat.

“I’m so happy you’re here Kai…”

Kai’s voice was warm and sleepy as she cuddled into Collin’s chest, “Me too Collin…me too.”

Collin began to sit up, his only wish to run his fingers through Kai’s hair and look into her eyes again. She giggled when he shifted position and Collin basked in the glow of her happiness. He could live the rest of his life here…Collin closed his eyes and filled his lungs, letting air and contentment race threw his veins.

He ran his fingers through the softness of Kai’s hair and sighed. “Kai…I‘ve been wanting to tell you something. I-”

Collin looked down at the girl in his lap and terror stabbed his heart. Gone was the glowing girl that had danced this meadow into existence only moments ago.

Kai’s face was deathly pale as blood trickled in small rivers from her mouth and nose. A small smile still graced her lips and a thin laugh fought through the dark red liquid dribbling from her mouth. As Collin watched in horror Kai’s eyes glazed over and her laughter morphed into a cackle. A manic grin grew across her face and she threw her head back and shook with delight.

Collin grabbed her shoulders at a loss of what to do. Her laugh that had so recently sent shivers of pleasure running down his spine was now making every hair on his body stand on end.

“Kai what’s-”

Kai’s body began convulsing and the blood that had been seeping from her began to pump out of her with a greater intensity. Great streaks of crimson ran down her neck and painted her gold dress their morbid hue. The insane laugh vibrating through her body deepened until it resembled the taunting voice that had called to him before Kai had come and stolen his awareness away.

Kai’s back went limp, and her entire being seemed to crumple in Collin’s arms. Her eyes stared expressionlessly at the sky and her face seemed to lose any illustration of emotion. The blood that had so freely pored only moments ago had stopped and was already drying, leaving her porcelain face stained with great swaths of red dulling and cracking on her cheeks and neck. She was silent and still, paused for eternity like a broken china doll, still smiling helplessly up at the rapidly darkening blue sky.

The laugh continued riding through the air on the wind that had suddenly began churning around him. Collin pressed his fingers to Kai’s throat and collapsed onto her when he did not find what he sought.

“Please Kai…wake up.”

Part of him acknowledged that the anguish cascading through his soul left a physical footprint everywhere it touched him. His whole body ached with loss, and his heart hammered frantically, against all odds beating, although it felt torn beyond repair.

“Collin…” The voice sang his name, high and taunting.

Collin lay Kai’s head down on the blood-soaked grass and stood. He was battered and bruised to the core, but the unexpected realization that this was all a vision kept his emotions at bay. He made sure to brace himself and stand with his back straight and tall against the gusts that were now buffeting against him.

‘This is all just a vision…you let yourself forget…but this is all just a vision. ‘

”What do you want?” Anger stalked along the edges of his voice. “You can stop toying with me now.”

The laugh slammed into him with the force of a living being. “Oh, prophet how you amuse me.”

Collin’s frustration doubled and he swallowed down his scream of outrage, “I’ll ask you again. What do you want from me?”

A shimmering form materialized at the edge of the field and began walking slowly towards him, its voice raced out ahead of it, “Only to see how strong you are young one.”

The wind threw the smell of death and rot at Collin. It reached into his nose and forced him to remember Kai lying on the ground near him. Against his wishes he looked to the small form almost hidden in the grasses near his feet. As he watched her, the once green and plush vegetation turned brown and began growing around Kai’s legs, like some twisted spider web about to ensnare her. Collin moved to pull her away, to save her from whatever made the grass wish to steal her away. Only the delicate laugh floating across the rapidly decaying field brought him back. ‘It isn’t real. She’s fine somewhere else…’

“Not good to show such weaknesses Collin…” The shape moving in his direction was decidedly female, her voice husky and seductive.

“How do you know my name?”

She released her laugh into the atmosphere one more time, “Oh I know many things about you my dear. What I do not know is how long you can stand there broken before me. How long your legs with support you before they crumble…seeing a loved one dead and buried is never an easy task.”

“Buried?” Collin’s head whipped to take in Kai only to find the ground rapidly swallowing her into its embrace. Her eyes still stared blankly towards him, but her mouth tensed into a cruel grin. Her voice slid over his skin, leaving him shaking, “Why are you leaving me Collin?”

“Kai-” Collin jerked and stopped before he threw himself into the maw that was pulling Kai into the earth. He forced himself to turn away, “What do you want?” Collin was willing to plead for release from this hell.

“Am I annoying you prophet? Are you angry?” Collin still could not make out what the woman taunting him looked like. She stayed to the edges in the shadows, teasing him with his imprisonment. He wished she would step into his view so he could see the look of shock pass over her face when he brought her down. He would throw her to the ground so that it could consume her too. Collin hoped she fought tooth and nail to get free. He hoped she drowned in her own hell.

“Of course I’m angry. A coward is playing with me and she won’t even tell me why.”

The woman sounded genuinely amused, “Coward? Oh my dear…you are mistaken. It is not I who will take the part of the coward at the end of this play.” She paused, her words seeming to hang in the air unfinished.

Collin watched as she danced, mimicking Kai’s movements perfectly. She still kept her face shrouded in the darkness, “Tell me love, do you think your little one there would do the same for you? Do you think she would face down the unknown? Do you think she would stand before you when she had no more moves to make and defeat was calling to her? Or do think you clothed her in gold for a reason?” She continued her dance, painting on a layer of seduction absent in Kai’s movements.

Collin swallowed, “Of course…of course she loves me…” He trailed off. His thoughts stumbled over one another in a battle for what he wished was the truth and what he hoped was mere insecurity.

“You do not sound so sure little one. Is she merely fool’s gold?”

Collin’s anger boiled, “She loves me. Is that what you need? She loves me more than anyone will ever love you.”

More laughter, “Do not be so sure of that prophet. Men have died for loving me.” The hazy figure clapped her hands seemingly in glee, “That she loves you is all that is important. Excellent. You may run along now.”

“What?”

“Oh do not worry my handsome one, you shall see more of me soon enough…” She dipped her words in honey, presenting them to him sweet and syrupy, “Now go.”

Collin felt something pierce his chest with enough intensity to send him flying backwards. Amber light devoured him, washing his vision in its intensity, lending the rotten garden and the woman before him an ethereal moment until they both disappeared. Her laugh stalked the fading light until blackness eclipsed everything and his world was silent for a moment until…

“Mr. Price if you must fall asleep can you please do so in a bed like a normal human? Not like some animal drooling all over the desks of my classroom? Honestly…”

Author's Note

Like I've said before, this is a pretty rough draft. I want this to be much more polished before it's over, but I do need a general idea of the pace, the character, and so forth. Grammar and I don't get along, so I suspect lots of typos. This will be updated fairly frequently. I have alot of it written already.

Thanks again for your time!

K. D. Wagner