Flutter
Chapter One: Blackout
Adan
I sat alone, sipping at my coffee slowly without really tasting the searing liquid.
The ordinary coffee shop was dimly
lit, and about to get dimmer; as one of the hanging lamp’s bulb pulsated,
flickering like a Morse code message. It was a twenty four hour place, and at
three in the morning there was a surprising amount of people scattered
throughout the shop; sitting at tables and bar stools at the counter. I wondered
what they were doing here at this time of the morning.
I took another sip of the bitter
coffee and tried not to grimace as the harsh flavor slid down my throat,
warming my body as it traveled down. I used the coffee as a distraction,
something for my hands to do while I waited. The more I forced myself to drink
it, the more I regretted not just getting something off the laminated breakfast
menu. The waitress sauntered over to me again,
and presented me with what I was sure was meant to be her most enticing smile,
sticking out the pot of coffee in a flirtatious offer.
“Can I get you anymore coffee?” Her
voice was syrupy sweet and that, combined with the suggestion of coffee, made
my stomach twist.
“No thank you.” I said just as
sweetly, returning her smile. I had the feeling I could have been a complete
jerk, and she still would have swooned.
“Well then stranger, can I get you
anything else?” It was hard to miss the invitation in her question, but just in
case I had, she made sure her point was made with her body language.
“No, but thank you. I’m just waiting
for a friend,” her face fell slightly, but brightened when I added who I was waiting for. “He shouldn’t be
much longer.”
“Well if you need anything, you just
holler.” She winked and turned away.
I couldn’t help but follow the swish
of her hips as she walked behind the counter and disappeared into the kitchen.
I shook my head and tried to grind away the image that was burned into my eyes
lids, with my fists.
I turned, looking out the window. It
was pitch black outside, with no light to be expected for months. Big billows
of angry clouds covered the sky with the promise of stormy weather for the
people of this small town.
It was the middle of the year on
this side of the world, and the middle of winter as well. Most of the towns
that surrounded this area, had been sunless for months and expected to be
sunless for a few more. After almost twelve years of this pattern, it wasn’t a
big fuss anymore. If scientists couldn’t explain it, then a town of less than five
thousand people didn’t have a chance.
I looked down at the table and began
to skim the outdated article that had been cut from a newspaper ten years ago,
and placed under a thick piece of glass. It talked about how the town looked as
though it would be left without any sun for the second year in a row. A year
before the published date of the article, the sun suddenly disappeared for
nearly seven months, leaving nothing but storm clouds in the sky. No one could
explain why this had happened or how long it would continue.
There was an epidemic of chaos after
the first month with no sun. Crime, in the towns affected by the missing sun,
sky rocketed to an alarming high. You wouldn’t think so much violence could
exist with only a few thousand people, but it was there. Everyone swore it was
the end of the world, an omen for the sins of all the wrong doers. Stores were
raided and houses were broken into, people spent weeks underground expecting
the worst. Reinforcements were finally called in, and everything eventually
started to calm down enough that it was safe to go out without being harassed.
After almost eight months of no sun,
the town’s people had awakened one morning to find the first sunrise. Again, no
one could explain what made it reappear or why any of it had happened in the
first place, but people considered it a positive sign and a blessing when it
returned. When it happened the next year and the year after that, no one knew
what to think anymore.
No one except for me.
I knew what caused the sun to
disappear and hide for months at a time, depriving this side of the earth its
warmth. What I didn’t know was why or
how it happened.
I took another sip of my cold coffee
and made a face of disgust. Blah! I
didn’t know why I continued to drink the stuff. I pushed it to the other side
of the table, so I wouldn’t impulsively pick it up again. I waved off the
waitress as she started to work her way toward me once more, she put on a full
pout but turned around.
I looked at my watch and realized it
was just about time to get moving again. We still had another day of traveling
if all went well, and I wanted to get out of here before we got hit by this
storm.
I decided to wait for Aaron outside
and shifted out of the booth, reaching into the back pocket of my jeans, and
throwing down enough cash to cover the coffee and tip. As I passed the counter
I tried to ignore the look of longing in the waitress’s stare down, as she drew
lazy circles on the top of the counter with a red finger nail. The door of the
coffee shop chimed, and I nodded a goodbye to the waitress, pushing my way
through to the outside.
I stood off to the side, knowing
Aaron would be back anytime now. I shoved my hands into my pockets, and rocked
on the balls of my feet to keep myself occupied. It was cold, but it didn’t
bother me. I kind of liked it, or at least had adapted to it. I played the part
because it drew less attention to me. People tended to notice the only person
that wasn’t trembling and flinching away from the icy bite of the weather.
This would be our last stop before
we finally reached them, and Aaron had needed to get some last minute supplies
before we headed out. I wanted to be there already. The closer we got to our
destination, the more anxious I felt, which I took as a good sign. Everything I
had been put through, my entire life, up until this point, had been put in fast
forward, literally. I had been
waiting for this moment for as long as I remembered. Now I just wanted this
task to be over, but everything seemed like it was going in slow motion. It had
been so long since I had had to live life at the natural pace of time.
I saw Aaron walk around the other
side of the diner. Pulling my hands from my pockets, and cupping them around my
mouth, I blew hot air into them. The bitter smell of stale coffee filled my
hands, and I grimaced.
I
was going to have to brush my teeth before we left, I thought
to myself.
Aaron walked up to me nodding, and I
took a deep breath.
“Let’s go get ourselves an ice
Princess.”
Chapter Two: Ripple Effect
Sara
I couldn’t remember exactly when I had become aware of the fact that I was in a dream.
I couldn’t remember anything
actually.
It was so dark I couldn’t tell at
first if my eyes were open or closed. I blinked rapidly, trying to distinguish
a difference between the two. It was an intense kind of darkness and it
immediately had me feeling claustrophobic. It didn’t help that I felt almost
completely restricted, but by what? My breathing came harder and faster, and I
tried not to freak out.
I didn’t know how long I had been
asleep, everything in the ‘where and when’ department of my brain seemed to be
pretty fuzzy. The more I realized just how little I could remember, the more
the small pin needles of panic started to spread throughout my body, making my
fingertips and toes tingle with numbness. I desperately tried to construct some
memory of where I had been, or even what I had been doing last, but everything
seemed to blur in my mind - including this dream. I knew it had to be a side
effect of still being comatose somewhere, and honestly that’s all that kept me
from going into full on hysterics. Everything inside me was screaming that
something wasn’t right, and it went a lot deeper than being held hostage inside
a dream.
I hate the kind of dreams where you
know you were in one, almost like looking into a window at yourself, but no
matter what you do you just can’t wake yourself up. Sub consciously, you know
when you are dreaming; there is always that lingering nagging feeling deep
inside, sending off warning bells that something just isn’t right, and I was
experiencing those signals loud and clear right now.
Scratch that, this wasn’t a dream;
this was definitely more a nightmare.
Dreams, at best, were something that
you didn’t mind sleeping through, or getting woken up from at the most
inopportune moment. Nightmares on the other hand were trap doors, dead ends
around every corner, fear gripping suffocation; and no matter how terrifying
they seemed to be, it was almost impossible to be woken up from one when you
wanted nothing more.
I had been so absorbed with the
disorientation of the memory loss I was struggling with, that I hadn’t actually
stopped to let myself think about the actual nightmare itself. But now I was
starting to feel…cold? And that
distraction took me in another direction. It occurred to me then that I was
trapped, and for the first time since becoming aware of my circumstance, I
realized I couldn’t move anything. Was I standing? Or was I lying down? I
didn’t even know, but the fact that I was doing either of the two in this
nightmare, and I was just now realizing it had me freaking out more.
Attempting to focus, I pulled in all
the corners of my concentration and tried to figure out my surroundings. I
couldn’t see more than a few inches from my face, so trying to squint to see a
few feet in front of me was beyond out of the question. My eyes had
adjusted to the pitch black I was surrounded by; it was definitely brighter
now, like someone had lit a lantern and was slowly adjusting the strength of
the flame.
I still couldn’t seem to put into
words exactly what I was surrounded by. It didn’t help that my vision was
completely clouded either, like I was looking through fogged-over glasses.
Whatever I was bound by was solid, and not entirely clear; it had a good grip
on every inch of my body. The only thing I had any room to move was my head and
neck, and even those I couldn’t move much.
Trying to analyze the situation of
my dream could easily have been, hands down, my worst idea ever. At least I thought so. I still couldn’t remember
past memories, so trying to remember past bad ideas was probably not going to
happen at the moment-
Ugh! I scolded
myself. I was getting side tracked again.
I currently had bigger problems to
sort through. Starting with: why couldn’t
I wake myself up?
Maybe I was just in too deep a
sleep, and it was going to take a while to coax my brain to finally react.
I couldn’t seem to feel anything
around me; and even though I wasn’t physically uncomfortable, the simple fact
that I seemed to be snugly enclosed in something was extremely off putting.
Breathing seemed to be next to impossible; and I struggled to drag small
amounts of air in through my nose to keep myself from passing out-not only from
lack of oxygen, but from the frightening unknown.
Could
someone pass out in a dream? I didn’t
know.
I tried to focus on what my fingers
could feel; but they were numb, so the attempts were useless. I also wasn’t
exactly sure where they were, it felt like my entire body had fallen asleep.
The loss of feeling also made it hard to determine if I even had clothes on.
The list of things I was unaware of continued to grow. Instincts had me
attempting to look down, but I was drawn up short; the tip of my chin rubbed up
against something smooth…cold and…wet.
I
shivered.
Just like that, the memory was
there, flashing in my mind like big, bright, neon lights blinking: remember me, remember me! Instantly I
was able to breathe just a little bit easier. It was as if the chill had triggered
something inside my head, and suddenly I could remember being sick, extremely
sick. There had been two weeks of intense flu like symptoms. If flu symptoms
could be on steroids, mine had definitely taken a few hits. I remembered having
a high fever, cold and hot spells - I had been burning up one minute and
completely overcome with the chills the next. Horrible headaches had attacked
me, as well as a dull ache that settled into my bones. That’s what this was: I
had obviously gone delirious, most likely from the rollercoaster of symptoms I
had suffered, and now they were messing with my mind.
I could feel it again, my body was
starting to shiver from the coldness I felt earlier, and I prayed that this
would be enough to awaken me. My breathing started coming faster, and I could
see the small vapor clouds it left in front of me inside the small cave that
surrounded my head. Suddenly everything seemed so real to me, making me doubt my earlier thoughts and I was
beginning to doubt if this was a dream at all. I was starting to see things
clearer now, and the edges around my dream no longer blurred. Instantly the
small area I was in was bathed in a soft, golden glow of light. I still
couldn’t move my head to look down, or even around me really, but my newly refined
eye sight could finally focus on what was surrounding me.
No,
not surrounding me, trapping me, I
thought.
I blinked several times, and
squinted, my brows pulling together in confusion, and I shook my head in
denial.
This
wasn’t real; I had to be dreaming, my mind argued against the
infeasibility of what I was seeing.
I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and
dragged my teeth over my bottom lip, and as hard as I could stand it, I bit
down on my lip until I could taste the faint metallic flavor of blood. I waited
a couple of seconds, waited to wake up, but nothing happened. I opened my eyes
slowly and instantly wished I hadn’t, the light around me had grown brighter,
and there was no mistaking it this time.
Oh
my god! I thought frantically, as I realized what I was trapped in.
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