Chapter Six Part One

There was an image in front of me and a red line that separates the two pictures, a watery portal-like image that stood in the darkness – one was bright, and the other, a dark gloomy place. I looked at both of the images before me, thinking –  what was this? Is this a fine line between where I should stand? Would this make a difference if I step on one of these images? Would this determine the future I was going to take?

I looked around me and saw the dark emptiness stretching as far as my eyes could see. There was nothing but myself, now wearing a white dress and barefoot, and a portal-like image. I gazed at the dark gloomy image – I could hear a voice, a whisper, telling me to come –  telling me to choose this path, that this would make me feel good, that this was a peaceful place.

The other image shone brightly suddenly as if to wave off the whispers of the dark. I gazed at it, taking a step closer, but I suddenly stopped. My feet stood frozen in place, I looked down and saw the red line glowing, no, rather pulsating as it glowed. Tracing the glowing red line with my eyes up down to the vast empty darkness on the horizon, I decided to walk the trail of the red glowing line. The two portal images disappeared behind me as I walked further down the emptiness, never letting the red line out of my sight for fear that I would get lost when I take my eyes off it. I glanced up my eyes meeting a red door at the end of the line – deciding to run to it as it was still too far ahead of me. I could hear a glass breaking behind me as I began to run, I looked back behind and saw the darkness slowly breaking inwards, falling into a white chasm. I suddenly began to quicken my pace as I horrifyingly saw the dark glasses break and fall into the white nothingness below. Catching up to my breath as I ran towards the red door –  it was only a few feet now as I drew closer to it. I could see the dark glasses breaking in my peripheral sight as I ran –  the only thought I had was fear of falling into the white nothingness.

The black tiled glass started to break rapidly as I drew in nearer to the red door. I could feel myself getting worn out and out of breath, my feet aching at the distance between the door and myself as I ran. The thought of the white chasm swallowing me up was the only will I had not to give up running towards the red door –  a safe place, or as I assumed it would be one when I open it.

As I took a step –  one step to reaching the red door, the black tiles broke and I fell into the white chasm. The fear that I had thought came flowing throughout my body as I fell within the reaches of the red door. I could only look at the red door with my hand reaching for it.Time seemed to slow down once again since I came here the second time I dropped the book in the library. I could see golden orbs floating around me, the red door getting farther away as I fell. I could only look at it helplessly as I fell. This time, I couldn’t feel the fear I had earlier. It was replaced with wonder. A wonder of what was beyond that red door? Was I not ready to see what was beyond the door? I breathed. I closed my eyes, feeling devoid of air around me.

I could hear the sound of my own beating heart in my ears, a calm continuous beat. My body falling freely slowly as if the world wanted to see me fall into despair. With my eyes still closed, all I could see was the memory of when I was standing in the window, looking at the gentle falling snow outside and the white-yellow shade of the lamppost. I saw myself covered in the duvet, I could swear I could see my own eyes staring up at me and then retreating into the warm bed.

I was startled when I opened my eyes, panning my head around to see myself floating in space. The green, orange multi-colored cosmic dust a few feet apart from me – staring at it came a serene feeling gushing around my body. And once again, I could feel myself fall slowly, a force pulling me down. The cosmic dust I was staring at came farther away just like the red door I tried to reach.

A feeling of unexplained sadness came in after the serene feeling as I was falling down towards the earth. My fall was gaining speed down, I could feel the heat in my back –  the blue atmosphere came within my sight, passing through the cold white clouds, my body falling helplessly like a doll. For some reason, I didn’t panic, nor was I afraid or fought against the fall. I let the fall take me to wherever it wanted to let me land. I could hear the wind roaring in my ears, my skin getting colder from the wind that roughly caressed through it, my dress flapping, my blonde hair obstructing my view.

Blonde? Has my hair always been blonde? Wasn’t it black? What was happening to me?

I closed my eyes again, and let the fall take me whilst the wind caress me. I exhaled.

-

I jumped up with a start. The sting in my eyes was still burning a bit, but not as much as painful as earlier.

I heard a gasp beside me. “Selina!”

I glanced at who it was, only to remember what she said before I lost consciousness. I scurried away from her and gazed at her, betrayal evident in my eyes.

“Wait,” she tried to get closer but I stopped her.

“Don’t,” I raised my hand, pointing at her to a stop. I quickly looked around me. I was in a huge yellow and red colored tent – the kind of tent you’d see in circuses. A plain silver and golden-colored silk pillows lay around adjacent to mine, a soft white fur rug beneath it. A small-sized brown table sat next to it with various fruits placed on top of it and a silver chalice beside it. The tent was small but cozy enough for three to four people to rest in it. I look back at Leah who was also looking at me with her brows furrowed in worry.

“I’m sorry–”

I stopped her mid-apology. “What did you do?” My voice stern and unwavering.

“I…”, she paused, biting her lip. “I took you to Neverwhere.”

“Where?” I had a confused look on my face. She sat down in front of me, situating her sling bag on her side and she tried to cup my hands but I moved my hand away from hers. The look on her emerald-colored eyes saddened as she looked down on the ground.

“I took you to a place where it would reveal the powers you had and how much you have of it. But I didn’t know it would be that chaotic. The people who go there didn't have that kind of reaction the way you did. But you,” her eyes met mine. “You have this power that could destroy this place.”, her voice shook as she said that.

“I…”, I remember the moment I saw myself with fire slithering around my body, the embers burning the green grass slowly, those red eyes I had. I stood up abruptly, stumbling in the process – my legs were still weak, but I didn’t care. I wanted to find out if my eyes stayed the way it was or if it had changed into this bright hellish red color.

“Where are you going?” I heard Leah ask behind me, trying to support me but I brushed her off.

“To find a mirror.” I rummaged through the pillows, throwing it out of my way. “ I need to see.”

Leah came to my side and grabbed my wrists, albeit roughly. “No, you don’t want to.”

I looked at her straight in her eyes piercingly. “I want to see.”

She glanced between my eyes as if searching for something, but found nothing as she let go of my wrist gently. She walked towards her bag and plucked out a small round broken mirror and handed it to me. I snatched it from her hand and glanced at my eyes.

I gasped. It wasn’t my eyes that also changed, but my hair too – flaming bright red eyes, golden blonde hair, my whole face softer than before. I gazed at Leah, I couldn’t fathom her expression looking back at me. I dropped the mirror on the soft fur rug and raised my hand. I wanted to try something else.

Closing my eyes, I visualized a flame. A flame much like what I saw on Neverwhere. In the darkness of my eyes, I could see a small flame slowly being lit – the small ember growing at a steady pace the more I thought of it just like the one on Neverwhere. I could feel the warm coldness in my palm, the steady and still dance of the fire. I slowly opened my eyes and my eyes widened in surprise at the huge flame in my hand. I didn’t think it was this huge in actuality when I envisioned it. A smile came up to my face shortly as I glanced up to Leah – who was amazed by it, and back again to the fire on my hand.

“Well I guess there’s no need to teach you magic after all by just looking at how you managed to control that huge fire on your hand.”

I jumped at the deep voice behind me, the fire in my hand suddenly spewed out of control, I recoiled at my own flame as it threatened to burn everything in the tent.

“Woah! Woah!”, the guy behind me quickly cast water within his palm and sprayed it to my hand, or rather my whole body and around me. I turned around and smiled at him apologetically, assuming that this tent was his and I almost burned it. He chuckled. “I spoke too soon, huh.”

“Sorry about that Mike.” Leah stepped in beside me. She then turned to me and introduced me to him. “Selina, this is Mike Lawson, he’s a Mavi.”

“Hello,” I reached out my hand for a shake which he gladly took. A Mavi, he’s from the South.

“Mike Lawson at your service m’lady.”, he bowed down after he let go of my hand. I awkwardly stood there.

Leah chuckled at my reaction. “You’ll get used to it. You’re royalty after all.”

Mike stood up straight and fixed his worn-out brown overcoat that he buttoned up over a white thin shirt and black jeans matching with formal black leather shoes. He had messy wavy jet black hair, he was skinny but looked smart, his round-rimmed golden-colored glasses sat atop on his wavy hair, his sapphire eyes shone brightly against the sun – I had never seen such bright blue eyes before as his. It complemented his whole refined face.

“Hey,” Leah called to avert my attention away from Mike. I look at her blankly. “Can we talk about what I did?”

My right brow twitched, remembering the pain I felt in my eyes. I glanced back to Mike, ignoring Leah. “Where am I?”

Mike stood there in front of us, looking between Leah and me, unsure if he should answer my question or leave the tent. “Uh...I,” he looks at Leah quickly before looking at me. “We are in Azgoth, a place where beginners learn their powers.” He walked over the flaps of the tent and opened it, beckoning me to come over to his side and look at what was in store beyond this tent. I glanced back at Leah – I couldn't read her expression at all, then walked towards Mike who was holding the flaps of the tent for me to see the place. As I approached the  entrance, I could hear the birds chirping and the laugh of people nearby, conversations that mixed in with the noise.

My eyes adjusted at the brightness after squinting, slowly opening my eyes – I could smell the fresh air in my nose, the cool air that hit my skin right when I stepped out of the tent. I could see the Mavi’s casting their element of water to a dummy, slashing through it, some were filling a bucket through a well, waving their hand up in motion and water sloshing in the bucket, some others were having fun splashing each other with their powers. Tents of tents lined up, a few stalls stood in a few corners, trading clothes for weapons and buying food for a penny. There were two or three hot air balloons that were flying up in the clear blue sky from afar – this was an epitome of a steampunk fantasy world. A smile found its way to my face.

If I could stay here in this place forever, I would.