Mirable Dictu

Vale vale vale vale.

Somewhere, there was a sweet sound. Too mellifluous to possibly be human and yet there was that girl on stage. Blonde hair, she glowed like a Christmas tree angel, her hands gesturing softly in her voice. There was a band playing. Faceless, they didn't matter. Jeremy thought he recognised the girl. Emma, maybe? Did he know an Emma?

He felt too serene to care.

Something touched his shoulder and a drink was pressed into his hand. Sipping, he milled around the busy place. He loved masquerade balls; didn't he? Had he ever been to one? Sip, sip. He blew a peacock blue plume from his lips. He felt deliciously on fire. Something,somewhere deep in his bowels told him that this was Bliss. Looking around, there indeed was angels, smiling faces, etched in ivory pallor as they glided the gilded hall.

Somehow the idea occurred to him that he had died and went to Heaven. He smiled again. How silly had life been after all. It was all bills and Sudoku puzzles and time running around in circles. He could see time now. He was smirking as he perched on a yew tree branch, kissing a woman with hair that rivaled the waterfalls surrounding them. Steel, cold steel hair and it shone.

Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini.

He looked down and suddenly began to giggle at his feet. White, daringly white sticks and even the veins had blanched to oblivion. Bare feet and there was the white suit of a preacher man. Wasn't that something about the Beatles? Or the insects. Battle of the Insects. That was a Japanese battle, yes? In the city of Yoko Ono. He clutched his head, sipping the drink again.

He shivered as someone brushed against his shoulder. The blonde singer, bright bright eyed and soft lips. She kissed them softly and something wrong happened. Jeremy reasoned that to kiss would be cosmic, orgasmic and then he'd know the secrets of the universe. But it was empty, barren of touch and something flickered, just for a moment. The hall and the blinding white light and the masked dancers had jerked from existence and he saw darkness. Then it all returned.

"You seem anxious." the voice glistened, making his ears dull to the world and the flicker seemed to be very little at all.

"I...I think I'm a bit...a bit...skillaboo," he frowned." No...that's not...that's...I can't remember." a shrug of the shoulders and they were dancing. And singing lay in the air, heavy and unjustified, against all forces of nature.

"You're too tense. You should...let go, I think," the angel said. "Come with me." They held hands and Jeremy felt swooping in the air, his stomach doing somersaults. Time moved his head and the woman he had been kissing, Jeremy recognised her too. But there were no eyes.

Crouching on the branch she had flown them too, she traced along one of his crow's feet.

"You are too concerned with right and wrong," she laughed, showing dark cavities in her teeth. "Morals are just politics, sweetheart. Just politics for people who don't like politics." The words were there and Jeremy understood them but they seemed to be just mirages. He felt off, dizzy.

"I don't care." he sniffed, looking down.

"You love me, don't you?" she smiled. A thunder shot and she started falling. Jeremy screamed. Looking over the edge and the place was filling up with dark figures, draped in the night sky. The soft sand that had carpeted the place was mud and blood was running free: not red but green. Poison. Whose blood? He shivered and a shot cut across his chest. He felt himself falling through the mist, to the ground. Can you die twice? Jeremy suddenly felt very sure of this. One of the hooded figures leaned down on him.He looked into the hood and he saw the face. He knew who it was. Emily. Was it Emily?

Her face faded and the forest swam back into view.

He gritted his teeth and stood up.

"What is this? Huh?" screaming at the dark. "I can't tell what is anything anymore! Up, down, left,right, good or bad!"

"That would be the point." a sweet voice, one that could not possibly be human. He turned around and the name that had escaped him returned.Erica stood there,quite calmly in a half-white, half-black gown. Her face seemed to be smeared with mud and her blonde hair had been haphazardly shorn off. Anger and resentment boiled inside of him - Jeremy was tired.

"You are really starting to get on my nerves." he said, trying to remain calm,cool and collected.

"And you are rather foolish but I don't make fun of you for that," she smirked at him. "I mean, you succumbed to the Bower of Bliss. Silly, silly boy. Still, I have faith in-"

"Where am I?" he spat, no longer willing to be led in blindfold. She didn't flinch and something about that unnerved him.

"This is the Forest," she stated simply. "And it is dying." He stared at her for a moment and laughed, tears rolling down his face. Disbelief and the entire ridiculousness of the situation took over his senses and he felt he was breaking down.

"So, you're some sort of hippy and you spiked my drink?" he grinned. Her face remained immobile before touching the bark of a tree beside her.

"These trees symbolise the universe. God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches, and a thousand tempests and floods. But he cannot save them from fools," she said, a sliver of sadness clouding her voice and Jeremy instantly felt bad for laughing. "Save the forest, save the world. It has to be saved from fools. And fools are travellers, wanderers, explorers."

"And what -exactly - has that got to do with me?" he sighed.

"Save the forest from fools. The only sure way is to kill them and snap the bones. And then...remove the soul." she smiled and Jeremy could swear that at one point, her eyes disappeared from her face.