Part Nine: Flightmare

Standing in the centre of town, there are people all around me, walking, shopping, talking and selling. Calm and composed in my favorite suit I stand there watching them, feeling taller and more free than any of these faces that move along so mindlessly in the world day after day. I remember those dreams I had as a child, the dreams that followed me throughout high school and even until last night. The dreams that started off so frequent as a young boy but then began to diminish more and more throughout high school, appearing in my mind only once ever so often now – the dream of flying.

As I stand watching these people I wonder a great deal of things and I question as I stand there in a black silk suit with a red tie.

Are these people really free? What is control? Are we in control of our lives, of our time? Where do these people come from? What paths have they crossed? What have they accepted and chosen to live with?Is there a purpose behind this life we lead each and everyday with all the ups and downs, other than reaching heaven or hell? Why does everything seem so mindless and controlled? Who would give life to us and give us the opportunity to make a choice if everything is already written in stone to be controlled to exact proportion? Why do I feel like something is wrong with this world?

These people walk on by me, their faces hiding their true selves, their eyes so accepting to their fate of the future and their past. I remember my dreams, the freedom, the power, the ability to defy everything mankind is inbred to believe. A coldness slithers along my skin, almost like a sense of ability I have but fear to apprehend and make my own.

In my dreams I have always feared lifting off the ground, for I feel so helpless to direction and speed of my flight that I often in my dream regret forcing myself off the ground in the first place. And as I stand there I wonder while watching the crowd of faces and lives about me if I should dare defy what the world of man knows, what I myself know.

Taking a deep breath, and closing my eyes I feel again the chilling satisfaction of freedom slithering along me, but this time within my skin and inside my veins. Like a flashing camera, the images of my life parade through my mind - the hurt, sadness, loneliness, anger, fear, pain, worry, doubt, torture, and desire. And as I open my eyes, I make the choice.

The world I know has changed, there is another light in front of my eyes, a new hope present in the faces of those in the crowded centre and in the air like a living existence. I lower with fists clenched tightly and then I push up, my body rocketing towards the bluest sky above.
As I open my eyes again, I feel my head humming. The cavern is dim as the light of the fire diminishes. I sit up, the strange Mr. Cook is gone and a silence lives in the red, burnt orange and gray cavern.I stand up, feeling more rested than ever before, yet hurting from the way my body had lay on the ground so heavy from the first sleep I have had in days.

“Sleeping beauty…” he says as he appears over the mound from deeper inside the slash in the ground, “I had a feeling you’d wake up today.”
“Today?”
“You’ve been sleeping a long time.” He smiles with answer, “I tried to wake you but…I thought you were dead for a second.”
“I…” I begin to say when Cook interrupts me. “We need to get back to the surface.”
“Why, don’t you think its safer here?” I ask worriedly, eagerly not ready for any running or fearful breathing. “There are shadow soldiers nearing us, I could hear them in the ground.”
“What?” I frown, almost sure again that this is the dream and that I should be flying towards the clouds in reality.
“My ear, pressed up against the cavern wall, its trembling.” He explains with a shyness that brings with it a calmness to my emotion. “Will we be any safer either way?” I ask as he motions towards me dusting his hands on the legs of his jeans. “Probably not. But at least up there we can try and find the others.” He says heading around up the slanted ground.

“Others?”
“Our little family of lost one’s, like you. We group with anyone we find wandering this shit hole. You might just find new answers to your questions from Hero.”
“From Hero?” I asked turning to start following him. “Of everyone in the family, he’s been here the longest. We call him the hero because he helped us all evade the blackness.” He answered as he continued up the sloped cavern.
“How long has he been here?” I ask hurrying wearily and hungrily behind him. “Long enough to be part of both man and the blackness.”

His words had barely touched air when raging roars and moans and high pitched screams boasted from the darkness behind us further into the cavern and we spun around to see nothing but flaming red eyes rushing deep in the darkness.“Run!” screamed Cook as the shadow soldiers came scoring out of the blackness cloaked in darkness with fire red eyes.