Mirable Dictu

Jeremy awoke in darkness as he felt his lungs collapsing within his chest. Nothing but blackness swallowed his surrounds and utter silence was heard. His hollowed out heartbeat echoed through the abyss. Jeremy tried to call out, but his mouth formed no words. His broken and boned body felt different he noticed, it was more dense and hard to control as if his body was transformed into an anchor and was being pulled down into the biggest crack in an ocean floor. He was stuck floating in freefall in a large body of dark blue water. No sound came from his lips, just air bubbles. Pressure was forming in his chest, pains arched down his back and his heart felt like it was about to explode, but he couldn’t do anything about it. He’d never felt this type of pain before and actually thought about dying. When those deranged thoughts crept into his mind, he saw a bright yellow light that glowed and grew as it came closer.

Jeremy reached out his hand to touch the light and as he did a big gasp escaped his lips. He kept gasping as fresh air welcomed his body, he felt he had drowned and came back. Jeremy panicked, but calmed down once he realized the ocean that once trapped him, was only knee deep. His hands wiped the access water from his face, and Jeremy sat in the puddle observing and questioning where he was. He wanted to call out for someone – anyone, but he knew no one was going to answer. The boy wanted to cry because he didn’t know who he was anymore, his life never made sense and people never understood how he viewed the world. His body soaked, he trembled, while resting his head between his legs, sitting in the puddle crying his eyes out.

“Why are you crying, I thought you were a big boy?” he looked up, sniffled twice, as he blinked repeatedly.

“Who’s there?” Jeremy questioned.

“Your mother, who else.”

“My mother’s dead, nice try –” before he could say anything else the same yellow light he had been seeing through his entire adventure appeared – Erica he thought – and at that moment he felt some hope, some security. But nothing was there, only the same forest he was previously at. The smell of dead grass and dried water ran fresh in his system. His clothes were no longer wet and once again he felt like screaming or kicking anything in sight. Why has this happened to me? a question he’d been asking all long and no one was giving him answers.

“Jeremy, whats happened to you?” he eyes shifted quickly, toward the center of the forest where he assumed the voice came from. Standing alert and off to the side, he saw a figure in a black robe moving forward, every power in Jeremy’s body was telling him to move backwards, but something about this Shadow was different. He was not frightened. The purple aura that orbited around the Shadow’s body vanished as the boy stood in shock. Jeremy couldn’t see the Shadow’s face deep within the hood, but felt he wanted to know.

“What do you want from me?”

“I want you to come home,” the voice sounded sad, and Jeremy felt that. The cloak’s hood removed and Jeremy wept at whose face he was taught to hate and fight – his mother’s.

“Why?” Jeremy asked, breaking down and resting on the ground. “You’ve put me through all this – my memories – my life!”

“I had to see if you were strong and brave,” she sighed, placing his hands to his face. From that one touch – a mother’s touch, all of Jeremy’s memories projected through his body and flashed within the forest trees. “I had to become a Shadow in order to find your soul. You’ve been lost for a long time, baby and ever since, I’ve been searching for you – with the help of others.”

“Why does it hurt so much – why don’t I know who I am?”

“Hush, take my hand and don’t say anything, just sleep, Jeremy, you’re safe now,” his mother whispered, safely and slowing rocking her son to sleep.

The conflict between Shadows and the other kind was lost between memories and reality of a world far beyond the reach of people like Jeremy, and ones who truly understand the nature and power of such things.

Save the forest, save the world.