Not Real. Not Imaginary.

PART FOUR: GREER. [The Willow tree]

It felt like just a flash…just as sudden as it happened it was over, and she…she was gone.

Again… gone. I was really starting to hate this situation…I hated to realize how much I needed her every time she was gone. I looked around me and everything seemed…empty without her.

On the bright side…I was back with her now…ready to help her live, like she should’ve always lived…happily…freely. The only problem now was…that I was still in The Prism, and had no idea of how to get out on my own…without Nina.

I was trapped again…but I was kind of happy, being ‘trapped’ there, inside her, instead of…well…the other place.

Maybe, since I was here now, I could figure out a way to be helpful to her…a way to help her unlock the past…from her current life and the others....

The darkness in there felt kind of welcoming in that moment…maybe because she had really missed me…maybe because I had missed her. That place...her place…Nina herself…was the closest I’ve ever had to a home. As empty as The Prism felt, without her ‘physical’ presence in it…I felt fuller then, that I had ever felt before, I felt…so much less loneliness inside of me....

I sighed laying on my back, watching up at the darkness…a lot had happened and I was exhausted. I just wanted to close my eyes…but I was scared that I wouldn’t be able to see her again after. Despite that, I was unable to keep my eyes open. They slowly closed and I couldn’t do anything about it.

And then, for the first time in…my entire life, I dreamt. I dreamt about a beautiful scenery: a green prairie filled with small multicolored flowers; butterflies fluttered everywhere around me, as if they were dancing…they looked like fairies. There was a soft breeze: refreshing and warm at the same time…it was so…welcoming. I could hear water running, probably a river…somewhere near that place.

I walked straight ahead for a little bit, until trees came into view…more and more everytime, until a lush green forest appeared ahead. It felt like a fairytale scenery all of a sudden. Even from where I was, you could see all kind of small forest critters running around…co-existing peacefully; and the butterflies, kept fluttering around…everywhere. It was so inviting, that I just suddenly found myself walking into the forest…without even realizing at first.

The forest just kept going and going for what felt like miles…. Nothing seemed too different, nothing seemed to change, and at that point…I had no idea of where to go from there. Suddenly I stumbled upon a path. The trees where a little further apart and almost seemed like someone purposely planted them like that…they seemed to be delimiting a path…it was almost like…the forest knew that I was lost and was now showing me the way.

Further down the path I could see a clearing. When I got closer, I saw there was a lake…fed by a small waterfall…it was probably the water running that I had heard before…but it seemed to be so far away from where I was in the moments before that.…

‘Maybe I just went the wrong way’ I thought to myself as I kept walking closer.

In the middle of the lake there was a small…’island’…with a majestic old Willow tree. It was huge, and it seemed to have been there for ages; the branches and leaves touched the water. It was almost like a literal tree house…it was so majestic, that your attention was automatically focused on it, no matter what.

I was so impressed with the tree that I almost missed the small cottage on a side of the lake. It was just a small rustic place. I walked towards it with curiosity, peeked in through the only window…which was facing the old Willow. There was not much inside…only the most essential things to live…. I walked towards the door and invited myself in, since it seemed to be empty.

From inside, your sight was deviated to the side window, right to the tree. You could see the tree, the lake, and the woods around that place…the woods that seemed to be hiding that place from the rest of the world.

I thought Nina would love that small cottage. She always talked about wanting to live in a small place in the middle of nowhere, deep into the woods, where no one could ever come to bother…and then, I realized…it was exactly the place that she had described so many times. It was Nina’s secret place…. That was the true ‘form’ of her Prism.

Not only that…but she described this place exactly…everytime. That means she remembered a little. Subconsciously she kept the memory of that place…of the Prism. To think about that…made me feel so happy….

She never lost all of her essence…she hid the fact that she kept small bits of her essence in the surface, ready for her to grasp them whenever she needed them. And maybe that’s what I was…that’s why she was able to feel me back then, and that why she held on to having me around…I was meant to help keeping her from the ‘shadows’…but she knew more than me…she knew more than any of us…and she kept me close to help her one day.

That thought, only made me more determined to help her break the cycle she had caught herself in. I had to free her…it might have been my purpose all along...or maybe I was reading too much into it.

No...she definitely knew that she'd need me to help her break her curse, she kept me around to help her...or... that's what I wanted to believe.

I’ve always wanted to help her…I’ve always wanted her to be happy and whole…and I knew…to be whole, was something she could only achieve by herself. She was the missing piece of her own puzzle. I was just the hint she had left herself.

After the realization…I was even happier. I felt like I had finally, after all my years of existence, found my real purpose. But it also made me sad…what if I was only a tool? What if that was all I meant for her? What if after all of that ended…she didn’t need me anymore? Would I…disappear?

I looked at the tree. It’s branches peacefully swayed with the breeze from time to time. It was almost as if it was breathing…as if it was alive. Was I alive? Was I…real?

As all these questions formed in my head…a figure made its way over the lake, towards the cottage.

It was a feminine figure…she appeared to be coming from the tree. She was dressed in green and earth tones…and she probably was there from the start…I just hadn’t seen her because her attire camouflaged her with the tree.

She stopped in the middle of the lake…only then I noticed she was basically floating. I couldn’t say she was walking on the water…she was floating like half of an inch above the lake. It was like if an invisible platform was there.

I came out of the cottage, and I could see her smile…even from there. I walked to the edge of the lake and she outstretched her arm towards me…as if she was waiting for me to go to her…actually, it was as if she was inviting me to go to her. I took a doubtful step forward, surprised when my foot didn’t sink in the water…then, I took another still fearful step…and again, I was surprised when I didn’t sink into the lake. So, I took another step, and then another…with a little bit of caution everytime, and pleasantly surprised whenever I realized I wouldn’t fall in.

Before I realized it, her hand was directly in front of me. I looked up at her and immediately recognized those eyes….

I reached her hand and shyly took it. Her gentle smile somehow turned brighter and, as I concentrated in the warm feeling of her hand in mine…a bright and warm light wrapped my body…and suddenly…I was back in Nina’s room.