Chapter 27: Inside & Out

Chapter 27: Inside & Out Melody seemed to hear her name and turned in their direction. Her face was marked with tears. "M-Misha...? Bran...?" Misha and Bran rushed forward as one. "Is she...?" Misha started to ask when they had arrived before the girl. Bran crouched, seemingly thinking along the same lines as Misha’s unspoken question. "Melody, what do you remember before being here?" "Before? I don’t..." Those frightened eyes darted around, seeing invisible horrors. Misha didn’t know when it had happened, but those sterile grey walls had become darker around them, and their surfaces were no longer smooth but spiked. "Just before this," said Bran, waving a hand in front of her face to get her attention, "were you in the hospital?" "The hospital...?" A spark of recollection lit up Melody’s eyes. "Coral... she’s..." "Right. You’re next to Coral right now, aren’t you," said Bran. "You’ve just fallen asleep while sitting next to her, huh?" "I’m asleep..." Melody repeated. Her breathing was more regular now. "Of course. This has to just be a dream..." Around them the walls became lighter and smoother. Misha glanced at Bran, wanting to ask whether this dream belonged to Coral or to Melody but thought better of it. Even if Melody thought this was a dream, let her know so much about the paranormal was probably not a good idea. Or was it? Misha had no idea. He decided to make a mental note to ask Bran about it later. While he was pondering things, Bran helped Melody to her feet. "Alright, Melody. Our job now is to find Coral. She’s around here somewhere and you’re going to be the key to finding her." Both Misha and Melody looked to him with surprise. "How do I do that?" Melody asked. "Simple. Just think about her and start walking. The space will morph to fit your thoughts. If it helps, you can close your eyes as you do this." "Walk around with my eyes closed?" "Only if you want. You won’t fall or trip on anything." Melody looked around skeptically then shut her eyes and started walking. Bran fell in behind her and gestured for Misha to follow, then put a finger to his lips. Misha swallowed back the questions he was burning to ask and did as he was told. But there was one question he didn’t need to ask since it was answered almost immediately. As Melody walked, the ground beneath her began to change colours, first pink, then purple, then finally into a fresh, grassy green which eventually became actual grass. Misha paused a moment and crouched to touch it and found that, yes, it really was grass. And that wasn’t the only thing to change. All around them the grey metal walls turned and spiraled further away until they eventually vanished into a stunning vista of a galaxy filled sky above and an orange-pink sunset sky around the horizon that now stretched out seemingly infinitely. Misha grabbed Bran’s arm in shock, but Bran gave his hand a comforting pat and said nothing. Trees and flowers grew up from the ground, sprouted then fruited, all in a matter of seconds and Misha even thought he could hear the twitter of birds in the distance. Finally, Melody gave a great sigh and opened her eyes. She put a hand to her mouth and gasped as she saw the beauty around her. "You must think pretty well of Coral," said Bran. "I..." Melody didn’t know what to say. "She’s my best friend." Just saying someone is their ’best friend’, while not nothing, isn’t all that exciting. Most people have dozens of ’best friends’ throughout their lives, but Misha doubted if many would create a literal dream paradise from just thinking about them. There was a soft cawing then a brightly coloured bird passed overhead. Its feathers gleamed in the setting sun and its tail was long and luscious. "...That’s a peacock," Misha pointed out. "...It is," said Bran. Neither of them had a seen a real peacock before and Misha stopped and turned to follow the bird’s flight until he could no longer see it. He frowned. Near the horizon, where the bird had gone, the colours didn’t seem quite as bright and even the glow of the setting sun seemed dimmer. Misha squinted. "Bran," he said, "what’s that?" He pointed. Bran looked. "That’s where we’re headed," he said, starting towards it. Both Melody and Misha followed. "But what is it?" asked Misha again. Bran didn’t immediately reply. Distance in the dream-Coil was deceptive, and it took the trio only a few minutes to reach the edge of the strange grey goo. After the brilliant colours and beauty earlier, the claustrophobic melancholy of this new area was even more stark. The ground was grey but unlike the metallic grey earlier, this one was veined with purple lines that pulsed and made Misha feel queasy. Those veins snaked across the ground, forming larger and larger veins off in the distance and they seemed to be the way that the grey goo expanded. The three stopped at the edge and both Misha and Melody looked to Bran for direction. Bran raised his sword and pressed its pointy tip into the goo. The stuff immediately recoiled, hissing. "If all that stuff around us before, the green grass, trees, starry sky, that was all what Melody thinks of Coral, then all this now," Bran withdrew his sword, "is what Coral thinks of herself." -- Grey. Everything around her was grey. The sky, the ground, the ooze that just would not let her go. Coral had given up struggling ages ago, though she could not say how long ago that was. An hour? A day? A year? Time seemed to meld all together and become something totally unrelated to her. She had nothing. But if that was the case, why did those creatures keep searching? Coral sat curled in the crook of a gnarled dead tree, the only bit of structure for miles. Around her grey creatures with glowing purple eyes that stalked and sniffed and padded their way through the mud with claws that dripped black and left black, oil-slick-like trails behind him. They had been circling for ages. Did she first spot them before or after she stopped struggling? She could not remember. Time meant nothing, after all. Coral wiggled herself further into the embrace of the old tree. She couldn’t run, she knew that, the beasts would catch her in a heartbeat, so what else was there to do? She leaned back and looked up at the grey sky. "Coral!" Coral sat up with a start. That voice! For a moment she forgot the prowling beasts and stood and looked to where the voice had come from. It couldn’t be... "Melody!" Coral tried to yell back, but her throat was parch and her voice ended up as barely a whisper. But a whisper was all it took for the beats to snap their attention to her. A dozen ravenous mouths opened in anticipation, saliva drooling from them but it wasn’t for herself that Coral now worried: it was for Melody. "Don’t..." she croaked, turning and moving away from the other girl. But there was nowhere else to go. A beast bounded toward her and snapped its sharp teeth. Coral flinched and stumbled backwards into the tree. She didn’t want to drag Melody into this, and she found it hard to keep going, but she still didn’t want to die. With renewed strength, she turned and began to climb up the tree. Melody yelled as she ran closer. Fortunately, Coral was a much more desirable target for the beasts, and they pooled around the base of the tree. They placed their clawed paws against the tree, testing to see if there was a chance they could climb it, but the frenzy at which they swarmed around trying this made it impossible for any of them to gain any purchase. Coral reached the very top of the tree and finally looked away from the beats. Melody was close enough now that Coral could see her face. Her face was flushed, and she was gasping for air. The girl had never been one for exercise. Despite it all, Coral found herself smiling. Then she noticed Melody’s feet. Or rather, the change that was happening on the ground around her. Green grass sprouted in her footsteps and a stubborn bright glow pushed back against the greyness. Coral didn’t think she’d seen anything more beautiful. Then she spotted two more people running some distance behind Melody. To Coral’s surprise, it was Misha and Bran. They were using the grassy line in Melody’s wake as a path to cut through all the ooze. But just as things seemed to improve, the beasts seemed to finally sense something amiss, and they turned and snarled at the three newcomers. Melody gasped and fell backwards as one beast leaped at her. Bran’s blade was fast, and it cut the creature down and two others before Coral could shout a warning. Misha stopped beside Melody, helped her up, then helped her continue on toward the tree, toward Coral. "Why...?" Suddenly the tree gave a shudder, and Coral nearly lost her footing. She looked down and saw that the beasts had begun to climb. "Jump!" shouted Melody.