01: Tumult

Marielle finds herself being tossed about in her dream. She is chased, transported and pushed around. The whole thing leaves her quite confused. What else could go wrong?

A lone girl ran through an empty, black void. She ran and ran, but nothing ever appeared. The Girl was rather tall, slightly chubby, had waist length brown hair, and large green eyes. All that was with her was a window. It followed her everywhere. The window had nothing behind it, just another black void.

The Girl's footsteps echoed through the void. She didn't know how long she had been running, or for what reason, but she was running, that's all she knew. A faint whisper could be heard. It seemed to be in another language.

"Big Brother is watching..."

"Big Brother is watching..."

"Big Brother is watching..."

That was all she could pick out from the distorted words. It frightened her, but she kept running. She had the feeling that if she kept running, she'd find the end of the void. But what was the point? It was a void, after all.

"Run! Run! Big Brother is watching!"

Suddenly, The Girl tripped and fell, landing face down. The whisper grew to a barely audible mumble.

"Big Brother is watching form centuries away!"

When The Girl looked up, she was in the middle of an empty room. White walls, white carpet, white ceiling, white everything. The same window that was following her was now placed on the wall. She stood up and walked over to the window. 

There was a huge field outside. Miles of perfect, healthy, green grass! A clear blue sky! It looked amazing! But as she looked closer, she saw an image of a man in the window. She thought it was a reflection, but realized that it was actually a man standing on the other side. She took a few steps back and squinted.

The man had short, pure black hair that was slicked back with gel, except for his bangs, which were fluffy-looking and formed two arches over his forehead. The irises of his eyes were the color of onyx, his pupils glowing a bright blue. He held a black fan in front of his mouth, preventing her from seeing any of his other features.

"But..." she mumbled. "But you're-" she stopped mid-sentence and gazed at the man's eyes. It seemed like she a paralyzed! She couldn't move or speak, all she could do was stare at him. Suddenly, she fell backwards and landed with a thud.

"Big Brother is watching..."

"That voice... I know you! I know who you are! Now stop covering your mouth!!" She yelled. The Girl stood up and ran to the window, hitting it with her elbow in a desperate attempt to shatter it. Nothing happened. She slid down the wall and sobbed, covering her face with her hands. "Go away... go away..." she mumbled. She repeated that phrase a couple times. Who was he? And why did he seem so familiar?

Upon looking back up, she found that she was in a house. It was an amazing house! The walls were made of tan bricks, the floor consisted of polished wood, and well watered plants were placed around the room that she was in. 

There was a table in front of her. It had a bowl of water with lily pads and lotuses floating in it. There was a cup of tea that was still hot. "Someone was here recently..." she said quietly. She stood up and walked over to the table, circling it a couple times, sliding her hand on it's smooth surface. The house seemed so familiar, like she had been there before. As if it was her grandmother's house or something.

In her daze, she hadn't heard the rumble of a car engine. What brought her back to reality was the jingle of keys and the click of a door unlocking. She flinched and started to panic. "Ah... ah... AH!" she squeaked. Just as the door opened, she ducked under the table. "Maybe they won't notice if I don't move..." she thought to herself.

The person removed their shoes and walked over to the table to place some paper bags on top of it.

"Looks like a man, judging by the feet..." The Girl thought. "But I could be wrong..."

The man coughed and walked back to the door to put on a pair of slippers, which were orange and adorably decorated with a cat's face. Two cats, one with short, black fur and the other with long, orange, brown and white fur, ran up to him and greeted him by rubbing against his legs.

"Hey.... Stop that..." the man scolded them in a soft whisper. He reached down and started to pet them. The Girl's eyes widened as she realized that the mans face was level with her's, but he was too occupied by the cats to notice her.

"You're-" The Girl covered her mouth when she realized that she said that out loud. The man flinched and looked at her. He was the same man who was in the window! But he was slightly different... His hair wasn't as pure and dark as the other's, it was more faded with strands of gray throughout. His eyes were also different, they were a soft, pale brown color with normal, black pupils. The other man also appeared to be young and youthful, maybe in his mid-twenties. This man appeared to be in his late fifties or early sixties.

Although the man seemed to be surprised, his expression hardly changed. The corners of his mouth remained down-turned, his eyebrows were still relaxed, and his eyes were still tired looking. He kept staring at her, waiting for her to say something.

"U-um... hi..." she lifted her hand and waved quickly. The man didn't respond, he just stood up and sat at a chair. The Girl decided that it would be okay to stand up, so she did so. The man still didn't pay any attention to her. His cats meowed and rubbed her legs too, but she didn't reach down to pet them. "Hey..." she said to the man, who looked up at her. "So you can understand me, huh?"

The man didn't take his eyes off of her. She looked down and realized that there was a second cup of tea at the table. Assuming it was for her, she sat down. "So you knew I was coming...?" she asked. The man simply nodded. "Who was the guy in the window?" she asked, more sternly than the last time.

"Big Brother." the man finally spoke. His voice was soft and deep, something about it mesmerized The Girl. "I sent him to look for you. We've been waiting."

"Who exactly is this 'we'?" she frowned.

"You'll find out." The man took his eyes off of her to take a sip of his tea. "In the meantime, follow me." He quickly stood up and walked to the other side of the wall behind the table, cup of tea in hand.

"What...?" The Girl stood up and nearly fell while trying to catch up to him. "Wait!!" she yelled as she turned the corner. To her amazement, she wasn't in his house anymore. They were standing in what seemed to be an endless tunnel. Her mouth hung open in amazement. "What... on... earth?" A light breeze tugged at her feet.

"The cross-roads..." the man murmured. He turned his head slightly so he could barely see over his shoulder. "This is the cross-road between the four worlds."

"There's four!?" The Girl's eyes widened and her mouth opened even more.

"Of course there is. There's the Human World, where you come from. There's the Dream World, where you started out. These two are partially merged. If they were to completely merge, the chaotic things that you dream about would run free into the Human World. Then there's the Chảnāỵ World, where I originate. Everything good that you dream up comes from that world..." the man grew quiet. "There are the bad things, too. The nightmares. They come from the Zìb"i World."

"Who... who are you?" her voice quivered. "You seem so familiar..."

"I am... Bohoja. The Protector. I keep all of the Worlds at peace, making sure that they don't begin to merge. However, lately..." he grew very quiet and the atmosphere seemed to grow cold. "They've been interacting with each other."

"But shouldn't they be able to interact?" the girl tilted her head.

"Well, yes. But also no. Most creatures can freely hop between worlds. However, Nightmares and Good Dreams are supposed to stay in their assigned areas."

"I see... so why do you need me?"

"We need you, Marielle, to stop this. Of course, I, as The Protector, am here to keep the Worlds at peace, however I do not have the power to stop them from merging."

Marielle's eyes widened. "You... you know my name?!"

"Of course I do. Why would I choose you if I didn't know your name? Or anything else about you for that matter." Bohoja turned around and began walking towards her. "I've been monitoring all of your dreams ever since you were just a child. I always knew that you'd be the one to save these Worlds." he stopped walking when he was about 3 feet in front of her. "We need you. For the sake of the survival of the entire Human population's dreams, for my sake, you have to do this!" he took both of her hands in his and looked her directly in the eyes. "Please, Marielle..."

Author's Note

I wrote this at 3 A.M., so I apologize if it doesn't seem like it ties together very well.

Reviews

[Time Crosser]

Well you certainly caught my attention, i ended up reading it to the very end, which i don't always do. I very much liked the bazaarness of the story. At first i thought the heroin was just having a bad dream and that she'd get up, go to school or something, but it turned out to be a fiction piece after reading the very last paragraph. I really didn't know where you were going with the story until the end, which might have been your point. What i liked the most is your way of telling the story. Good job.

[Luci Frere]

Very interesting. I liked it lot! I'm curious as to what happens to Marielle, and the plot pertaining to the 'four worlds' caught my interest. Keep it up!