Children of Morpheus

Chapter 6

    It was complete darkness when I opened my eyes. There was nothing but pure black ink. Am I dead?

It felt like an eternity as I roamed the place. It was literally empty. I kept yelling and screaming for a sign. . . but none. A complete waste of energy and time. I lied down and tried to sleep. But still, there's nothing. 

    Where am I? 

    “Uncle Dean?” I called out as I felt the same way when dad died. I felt alone. I kept yelling his name, nonstop. I crawled down into a ball with my arms wrapped around my legs and cried. “Dad, I need you.”

    I opened my eyes and try to focus. This is a dream. My dream! The void shook as I start to feel the jolt coursing throughout my body. The place quaked and part of it turned in to a door with scale stone edges and wooden plank plate. Its glow slipped under the door as murmurs broke out behind it. I pushed open, and a blinding light came bursting out as if it was heaven opening-up to me, taking me to up there. I covered my eyes from the dazzling gaze with my arms and walkthrough without knowing what will be waiting behind all those rays.    

    A glow starts to gleam in front of my eyes. I opened them and saw a familiar face looking right at me straight, worried. I grunted and moaned with a headache that burned, as the blurry refracted shape turns into an image that is clear.

    “Rafael?” A familiar voice snapped and asked. “Are you okay? I'm so sorry.”

    I moaned as I weakly sat on a bed and kept shutting my blurry sight.

    My eyes went wide when I realized I don't know where I am. Sebastian looked at me with worry in his face. I yanked myself and quickly ran away from him. I turn with my back against the door, that was apparently locked. . . nice escape, I said to myself.

    This is not Sebastian's room. Where am I? I looked around me, still shaking. The room was small with a bed across the corner with old shelves filled with thick books and weapons. I looked beside and there something familiar sitting on a desk. My valerian necklace and silver-coated scissor with traces of blue stones align. 

    I raised my right hand, palm facing front, and start to wave it like I was about to attack. Sebastian took a step back trying to calm me down. He looked at me with wild yet sincere eyes, I think he's scared, and he's falling for it. He may have thought that I have certain abilities that can hurt him.

    ”I know how to use my talent, and I'm not afraid to use it.” I threaten him. Did I use a line from a cartoon? I asked myself in the back of my head. 

    “Calm down, Raf. Just breathe and everything will be okay.” Sebastian said in a soothing voice. “Put down your hand and everything will be okay.”

    “Okay? You tried to kill me!” I yelled making a point. “You fastened my hands and gagged me. And now, you're telling me that everything is okay!” 

    I'm mad at him for almost killing me and the other stuff but I admit, this is pretty funny. It's priceless. Ah, I wish I can just take pictures of his face.

    Then the door opened behind me and pushed me to fall down on the plank. It was Emma who hastily opened without knowing I was behind it. I broke my fall with my hands as Sebastian quickly tied them, again.

    Karma is real. And it's annoying.

    “Sebastian, stop doing that. Peter said that the children of dreams or children of Morpheus only have power in the Dream Realm.” Emma informed Sebastian. She helped me stand up and she untied my hands.  

    “Ahh, so he just waved his hands and pretend to have offensive power.” He said as he starts to realize that it was just an act for him to get away from me.

    “Yeah. And you look stupid by the way, you fairy!” I screamed. “I need to go home before sunset, Emma,” I said to her. “Before someone like him gets me,” I added as I kept shaking my head pointing at Sebastian. 

    “I said, I'm sorry,” Sebastian said as his voice was insisting his apology into mine. “And Peter wants you to have that thing.” He pointed at the dream shear.  

    “I know. This is my mother's dream shear. Wanna know what it can do?” I said as I walked towards him. Threatening him with it.    

    “A big no.” He quickly said. “Maybe you'll just stab me with that thing.”

    "How did you two managed to get me here?" I grilled.

    "We threw you in the window and drag you."

    "You did what! That's messed up! I'm just gonna leave." I said controlling my anger.  

    When I got out of the room, I jolted out and turn. It's the new antique shop that I noticed when we arrived here. It was in the rightmost corner of the town, near the forest. Thank God it was near our house.     

    The sun was already settling down as the shops began to shut behind me. I entered the forest as the purple shade of shadow turn the woods into an eerier place. I walked down the carpet of dried leaves and twigs like a child walking. Looking around me as I felt like something is watching me. A deformed humanoid shadow from my peripheral vision. It felt like a merry go round, twisting and spinning until everything is an illusion. A paranoia made by fear.

    I made it just in time to watch the sun settled in the west. The silhouette of the forest, as the form overlaid the sunlight making it look like a shadow with sunburst color as the setting. The wind carrying the crisp of the crickets like the melancholy song by the wilderness. 

    I sat on the couch as I told uncle Dean everything that had happened. As I told him the story, I didn't realize the pain in my shoulder and in my back were gone. Even the scratch in my legs and knees were gone. It was all healed. What happened in that antique shop? I even told him the dream that I had, about the darkness and the door. Which is weird, by the way.

    He told me that dreams are self-therapy. It shows us the problem that we are facing without even knowing that there's a problem. And the problem with dreams is that they are not direct. They display images that we can understand. And as children of Morpheus, it's our job to keep dreams as self-reflective.

I stayed in my bedroom thinking about what happened. Sebastian is different now. He's changed. Everything that I know about him is nothing. I don't even know if I could face him again, after all of that? I just really don't know.  

    A knock came bursting into the front door. Dean was already asleep and I don't want to wake him. He needs his energy. I came running down the steps and looked at the peephole, and it was Sebastian. 

    “What do you want?” I grilled as I looked at him at the hole. I took a crème in the refrigerator, fairy love crème and hate iron said the internet, and I'm hoping that's true. And if not, I'm just sticking the crème into his face. It's a win-win.

    “I just want to talk to you, please. I need one of my friends right now.” He begged as I opened the door and let him in. Then I threw the crème in his face.  

    I know that was stupid. But I'm ready if this "Sebastian" is not really Sebastian. I know I'm putting my life in danger but I think, I know how to use the shear. As Dean said, concentrate or focus. And now, the moment of truth. . . 

    “Still checking if I'm a fairy, huh?” He said while he licked the crème in his face. “Sweet. It's delicious.” 

    “Well, I tried.”

    I gave him a towel while he washed his face with water. I stood there waiting for him to finish up so this could be all over soon. And I kept poking him with an iron rod that my uncle had in his bag. . . which I will put it back before he realizes that it was gone. 

    “For the last time, I am not a fairy!” He said raising his voice.

    “It's better to be sure,” I replied while his face turned red. 

    He followed me into my room. He sat on the stool beside the vanity mirror as I lied down in my bed. It was dark at that time, only the silver glow from the heavens gave a dimmed light to the room. 

    “I just really want to say that I'm really sorry.” He started as he walked towards me and pat my knees, repeatedly. “Since my father died from that accident I just fell apart. And well, since your father died too, I thought we can understand each other.” 

    I jerked my body and sat, giving him space to sit down beside me.

    “Then 2 months later, you're gone. I never had the chance to talk to you after the funeral.” He added as his breathing came shaky and tears start to fall down his eyes. “You isolated yourself from us. From me. And, from Emma. We are supposed to be friends.” He gulped.

    “When dad died I was so angry. He left me by myself in this house. So, I just hit the road without knowing where would I end up.” I said as water starts to build up in my eyes. My heart feels like it's going to dry out. I felt the pain of remembering the day I got out of the town. “Then I ended in Pearl Hollow, where my uncle Dean lived. Finding out that I have this ability changed my world. And for that, I need to be strong like him. Then I figured my dream back at the shop, that I need to be strong for him. For Dean. And especially for my mom.”

    “Since the day you left, we all changed. Not just you, Rafael. It's all of us. We changed into something that we don't want to be.” Sebastian pointed out as he took a deep breath and gulped. He starts sobbing as his tears drench his clothes. “How did you get over the pain. The ache that kept reminding you about that someone who molded you. Loved you.” He wiped his tears with his hands.

    “I didn't,” I said realizing that my words are my finish. The end of my pain that captured me. “I didn't get over them. I going through them.” 

    Both of us cried until he fell asleep. I pulled him in the bed as I slept on the couch in my bedroom. I was glad I have my friend back. After understanding each other, I know its time to talk to mom. 

    I easily fell asleep and dream. I opened my eyes and there was this man in a robe standing at the middle bottom point of a 6 pointed star with white dots sitting on the other points. I moved to the side and there were other five men approached each point. Then the hooded man put a wooden carved lamp at the top middle of the star. He removed his hood and mom's face was there. She jerked her head and screamed. 

    “My book!” she cried out as loud that shattered everything around me that woke me up screaming.

The book. I jolted and grab the book from my drawer that woke Sebastian up. It was daytime already as he grunted in and snored.

    The pages flew by as I hurried to turn pages to pages, and read words per words. The screeching papers followed through like it was about to tear apart. Nothing. . . nothing about that key lamp. I continued turning pages repeatedly from the beginning to the last.

    “What's that?” Sebastian sat beside me and looked. He grabbed the book from me and opened it, as he started shaking disruptively like epileptic attack.