Children of Morpheus

Chapter 16

    “Help! I need help! Please, help!” A woman's voice came into the darkness, begging for someone. 

    I looked around in the empty, but nothing. My fists shut closed as I kept hearing the woman's familiar voice, echoing in the endless walls of this void. It began to glow as I imagined an orb of light again, to beam the shade away from the place where I'm in, but it was useless. 

    “Mom, where are you?” I called out following her scream of desperation and need. I fear that there is something or someone is trying to hurt mom.    

    Then a gleam set behind me like an emergency light. A door appeared, the same as the last door before this. I grabbed the knob and felt the sudden pain, and misery of my mom. My eyes start pooling with tears, with the voices of insanity filled my head and opened it.

    I was in a cave with mom hiding behind a rock. She was wearing ripped clothes from top to bottom with bleeding bruises across her body and face. She covered her mouth shut as I kept hearing her hard and heavy sobbing and sighing. Her hair was cramped yet still messy behind her head with a dark shade of black eye in her left. 

    She rolled her body with her knees like she was hiding from someone. Her tears came audibly that echoed the glooming walls of the cavern. Then a footstep was heard inside, like hooves tapping on the ground. I peeked above the rock and saw him. . . I saw Pan with the same pipe tied around his neck.

    “Where are you dreamer?” Pan said with a wicked smirk in his face. “Dreamer, I know you're here.” He said with assurance in his tone. “I'm not finished with you yet." 

    Mom quivered with her hands covering half of her face. Forcing herself to stop sobbing and whimpering as it took longer and heavier with uncontrollable breathing. The hooves came clearer and louder as Pan draws near.

    “Run,” I warn her in a whispering tone. “Mom, you need to run.” 

    But nothing, I touched her but my hand waved right through her. I felt her pain, her anger, and desperation that was deprived of her. 

    Dean.” She whispered under her hard breathing. “Zane, please I need you.” She called out. 

    “There you are!” Pan smiled as his pipe swung from his neck. He grabbed mom in her shoulders and tried to pull her into him. Then he laughed insanely and vile.

    Mom screamed.

    Mom raised her hand towards his face and light came bursting out from her. Pan hissed as his emerald eyes shut and jumped back from mom. She then ran as fast as she can, away from Pan but he got hold of her on her feet that made her land on both of her hands.

    “I love someone who put up a fight,” Pan said in a disgusting tone and smiled maliciously. He pulled her closer to him and grabbed both of her arms, holding her back against the ground while he was on top.

I panic and screamed as loud as I can abruptly with emotions going crazy inside me, as I tried to dive at him to save mom. But I was taken back again to the darkness. Back to the miserable and annoying emptiness that I always ending up.

    “I need to go back! I need to save her!” I yelled at the voice with pain and anger. “I need to go back and help her!” I begged.

    “No, there is nothing you can do.” The deep and husky voice said. “That is your mother's dream when she got into my realm. When she got into the Dream Realm and got―” the voice stopped for me to continue the unspeakable truth of who I really am. 

    “So she was—” I stopped, thinking that it can't be true. It can't be, isn't it? Zane was my father, not him. “It can't be true! I know that it was all a dream. It can't be!” I yelled at Morpheus. But the painful part is that deep down I know it's true. Anything that happened to me in my dreams happens in real life.

    “Now you know who you truly are,” Morpheus announced as a cold damp wind came blowing into me that flew me in a beam of light. 

    I opened my eyes and I was back in the Dream Realm. It was the same chaotic realm when I left. I felt betrayed, lonely, and felt dirty. I just lied there, with the leafy arms that danced from the wind that sounded like a flute. 

    The realm was the same when I left. The ground shook and shifts into a slime-like ground and turn back again or shift into something else. Tall mountain edges shaped like the face of a man that connects to a waterfall from the top of the clouds. The heavens were full of moons and suns glowing with a beautiful blend of colors. 

    Forest surrounds the path with trees that changing its color constantly while I lied. Then the rock moved deep into the colorful forest by itself like it has legs. I quickly jumped out and stayed in the path.

My emotions are like the Dream Realm, it's chaotic. I don't know what to do, what to say, or how I will explain this to Dean. This revelation of truth is too much for me to handle. 

    I started walking along down the path as the ground shook and the birds screamed. The flock dived down behind me that twisted around to look as it flew up again to the other side.

    I can't shake the dreams that I saw, especially the dream that mom had. No matter what I do, I will see Pan in this realm. Even if I avoid him, there is nothing I can do. I closed my eyes and try to focus on a horse instead of the dreams.

    A neighing cry snapped behind me that made me glad that I can control my thoughts. I look back and saw the horse with a saddle on its back. I stared down and saw it with human legs, then I quickly spun around to avoid that  awful sight. 

    “I will not ride a horse with human legs," I said aloud to myself. I looked back at the horse, creep out. At least, it doesn't have arms, I said.

    Then something hugged me from behind. I felt an intense fear crawled down on my spine as I slowly looked back. Now, the horse has arms! The sight made me shiver and pushed the horse as the wind came flowing from my hand and flew the twisted animal away from me. 

    “I can find the sword by foot.” I said to myself as I forced myself not to think about the horse. Then another horse cried from behind that made me run and never look back again. And now, I'm trying not to imagine two things. 

    A scream broke out from the sky that the birds flew and dived again. I followed it, deep inside the wood that leads me into a wooden shack. The scream continued as I gazed around, and saw a crow with long sharp claws for grasping, that sounded like a human petrified scream while a small snake slipping down from its beak for a tongue. 

    “Annoying isn't it?” A voice stood behind me, hearing his hooves tap the ground. “I know you'll be back,” Pan added as he laid his hand in my shoulder, which made me feel disgusted and violated.

    I turned around and saw him. His face reminded me of everything that I saw, and especially everything that I never wanted to see. I didn't make a sound as I just kept walking away from him. He then smiled and just followed me from behind.

    “You know who I am?” He asked and I kept my mouth shut as anger is slowly filling in deep inside. “Do you know who I am to you?” He added.

    A horse would be nice right now, I said to myself as I paced onwards. He galloped ahead and stopped me as his smile grew wild and his green eyes stared at mine. 

    “If you're looking for the sword, the rock roamed towards the cave near the mountain's foot.” 

    I rolled my eyes and continued walking on the path as it began to shook and shift. Stones floated around like there was no gravity, my feet stayed on the ground as Pan floated around above me, calling my name.

    “Let's have a father-son bonding,” Pan called out hovering around me as I steamed out and let my anger take in charge. “Rafael, your father is waiting for you.” 

    “You are never going to be my father!” I yelled at him as he continued to smile. “You are nothing to me,” I said staring at his eyes while his grin fades and changed into anger. 

    “You will not turn your back on me, son!” Pan shouted.

    Then everything fell down from the ground. He grabbed my shirt and pulled me closer to him. My hands glowed as root-like vines burst out from the ground and wrapped around, from his feet slithering to his neck slowly. He smiled again.

    "Are these real plants or dream plants? He should've taught you how to use your other talent, my son." 

    “Don't call me your son!” I yelled and waved my hand that the vines crawled into his neck and twisted it as I heard a loud snap and from him. He didn't even flinch when I killed him.

    It felt good killing him, while my mom's scream echoed in my mind and heart. The crow followed, shrieking above me all the way to the cave that Pan said. In a weird and deep way, I know he's telling the truth about the sword. What is happening?

    I remembered the cave where my mom was deprived by Pan, is it the same cavern? I asked myself, as I stood there in the mouth. I think it's the same cave.

    “I have so many great memories of this cave.” The voice said in a soft tone. “One of those memories is your mom. She's beautiful, isn't she?” 

    My anger took over again as I screamed at him. The sky roared with me as flashes of light curled above us with the wind twisting. A Lightning shot directly at him as I smell his burning flesh toasted. 

    I put on a brave face and jumped right into the mouth. My hands gleamed as I summoned an orb of light that will give way to destroy the shade. Everything haunted me like a ghost following me.

    “I have a deal for you, my son.” Pan smiled again, with his flesh all healed up. “I have your mother right here,” he grabbed a bell behind him and kept clanging it. “Your mother's soul is trapped here with me, begging for me to set her free.”

    “I don't believe you.” I rolled my eyes as he walked closer to me. “That bell has my mom's soul?” I laughed as he draws near the bell into my ear and wiggled it. 

    “H-help me, please! Someone help me!” A soft yet crying voice blended on the clinging sound of the bell. Then a cloud of dust molded into a figure of a woman bleeding.

    “H-how?” I started as my eyes grew in pain and surprise. “How did mom would end up here?” I asked as tears start to flow from my eyes. Everything just stopped for a moment.

    “When the fairies attacked your house when you're little, they captured your mom and was lashed out at her back. She dreamt for the very last time and I managed to sucked her soul into this bell.” He said as he hid the bell in his back again. “In exchanged for my freedom is your mother's soul.” He demanded. 

    Should I do this? I am still having doubts but it's mom. Mom has a chance to be free from the grasp of an evil maniac. That's why I can still dream of her. Her soul was trapped here.

    I nodded while I shut my eyes.

    “Please say hi to your older brother for me.” He said, walking towards me. “You've met him in the Realm of the Faes.”