Dreamer

“Are you not scared to die like them?” the strange man asked her, his dagger at her throat.

The young woman smiled, soft and sad. “This is not when I die,” she replied.

“It is if I say so,” the stranger said, the blade pressing closer against her skin.

She did not move. “Even you cannot ignore someone’s destiny,” she said. “This is not when I will die.”

Curious now, the strange man lowered his blade. Around them on the ground were her traveling companions, slain and dead for their food and supplies. The strange man had crept among the four of them during the night, killed her brother first, who was on watch, and then the elderly couple they had been traveling with. The young woman had awoken to the elderly woman dying and stood up to face the strange man, fearless. “How do you know such a thing?” he asked of her now.

“I dreamed as a girl that I would not die until I was old and in love, with children grown and left,” she answered him plainly.

“And how do you know that this dream was true?” he demanded, scornful. “It was just some little girl’s fantasy.”

“No,” she replied. “I have dreamed when all those in my family will die.” She pointed to her brother, slumped over near the log he’d once sat on. “I dreamed long ago that he would die tonight and said good-bye to him before I lay down to sleep. I knew that my mother would die of sickness and my father from bandits years before her.”

“Truly?” the stranger asked, intrigued now. She saw a flash of greed in his eyes then and knew what he would ask. After all, the man who knew how he would die was forewarned and mayhap could cheat his death when the time came. He raised his dagger once more. “Tell me, witch, how will I die?”

“I am no witch,” she replied, “only a young woman, now traveling alone.”

“Tell me,” he said again, ignoring the rest.

She shook her head. “I cannot,” she said. “I can only dream the deaths of those who have a place in my heart. Why should I care when you, a stranger to me, will die?”

He considered this for a moment and then sheathed his dagger. “Then, you shall come back home with me and be my wife, and when you come to love me, you will dream of my death.”

“Yes, I will,” she agreed.

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What is the cost of a dream?

She dreams the deaths of those she loves. He wants that power. And so, their life together begins, but all knowledge has a price.

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Dawn

How to say what you mean When everything is buried Inside, deep within, hiding Until the sun comes out again Something to keep on wishing for A night that ends and a day that

Lives forever For you For me For everyone

Maybe we can withstand the night
Just a little bit longer, just enough
To see the light come out once more
Just need a little more time to see
What will happen next and how much
Longer until the next day finally begins

Darkness

Everybody happy, celebrate again What are we singing for? Everybody wants to shout and leap Don’t forget the rocks below

Got to look down and brace
Yourself for the landing
Hold on tight to the feeling
Reuniting for just one moment

Can’t hide from the truth
This moment scares you
So much bad in the past
Is the darkness leaving yet?

Remnant

The last little light tonight

Is flickering
Is fleeting
Is ephemeral
Is dying

Wisps of smoke are all that remain.

Judgment

Find your center Steel yourself for the moment It’s time now to look up At the new horizon And judge whether the effort Is worth it this time

Maybe not, maybe never again
The passing of this time begins
Nothing else to do but wait
See the new dawn rise
Time to decide and realize
The shadows are getting closer

The Final Truth

I lay staring at the roof of the cellar. The thought resonating in my head is simple. How could things possibly get any worse?

Immediately, as though in answer to this half-formed thought, I hear a vehicle pull up outside. My host has returned. And even though I know who it is, I can’t help but wish for just one minute that someone else has arrived at this nondescript house that was nevertheless the scene of my many childhood adventures. Someone else. Anyone else.

But I hear the familiar click of the heels above me, and I know that my hope is in vain. Anxiously, I strain my ears to figure out which direction she’s moving in. The bathroom would be fine, the kitchen even better, but no. My heart sinks as that repetitive rhythm comes closer to the door shut tight above the stairs to my left.

There isn’t even a lock on the door. A lock isn’t necessary. It swings opens with little noise, and I close my eyes against the sudden light, not wanting a repeat of the pain from last time. I can still hear her anyways, walking carefully down the cellar stairs. Again, I vow to myself that if she would just come a little closer this time, I can overpower her, somehow get free from my bonds. It’s a lie, I know, but right now, it’s all that I have to cling to.

She is standing on the hard, cement floor that I am now reacquainted with so thoroughly. When I can finally see her, I am horrified to discover that there is a child in her arms, awake but silent, tear tracks still wet on his cheeks and eyes very wide.

“No,” I whisper, or try to, but not even my own ears can pick up the sound that passes my lips. I repeat myself, this time a mere breath louder. “No.”

“Isn’t he precious?” she beams at me, a small but genuine smile forming on her lips. She runs one hand through the silent child’s hair and then drops a kiss onto his forehead before she sets him down. He stays where he’s put, curling his arms around his legs and cuddling them close to his chest. The light hits just right so that I can now see the bruise already darkening over one of those blue eyes. The sight doesn’t surprise me, but still, a low coil of dread writhes in my stomach.

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"When does lying for someone else's sake become lying for your own? How far is too far, or is the liar damned right from the beginning?

A chilling tale of the cost of lying, both to others and, especially, to ourselves.

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Safety

Cower down in fear When the yelling starts Don’t know where to run Nowhere to hide, from All the truths and all the lies Deep inside, all of us Are hiding from the light Need to remember the Darkness isn’t safe at night Got to open our eyes And realize The way out is always there Even if it takes a lifetime To find out where