Enter Infinity

I sat up immediately in bed clutching the thick comforter and felt a scream rise up my throat. There was a drop of sweat about to fall from my forehead but I caught it with the palm of my hand. Another nightmare.

Sunlight seeped through the blinds of the window. I began to cry the minute I realized I was safe under my own roof. I couldn’t handle these dreams anymore. They were beginning to feel too real and it always took a few minutes when I awoke, to realize that I was under my own roof.

I examined my thin, tan arm and found that everything was still in tact. No broken bone, no blood, just my arm. But I could still feel the pain; it was tingling with pins and needles almost as if it had actually happened. Why were these dreams so incredibly realistic?

I glanced over to the bedside table where the alarm clock sat; the time read 8:40 a.m. I fell back in my bed and tried to sleep in a bit more. A normal teenager would sleep in until 12:30 p.m. during summer break, but not me. I would always wake up early from terrible dreams.

I managed to fall asleep for another hour without a single thought. I climbed out of bed, throwing the blankets to the end and hurried to the washroom. I washed my face with face wash then hopped into the shower. A nice hot shower helped me relax when I felt shaky or tense. I rinsed my hair with the water and streaked conditioner through my long, thick brown hair.

Turning off the tap and grabbing a towel, I wrapped myself in it and walked back to my bedroom. Walking into the room, the bed was placed at the center of the far wall. The walls were painted a very light shade of purple. My thick, cozy comforter was a pale shade of blue. The window was to the right of the bed, and the night stand sat to the left of it. The wall to the far left had two dressers placed against it. One tall and one shorter with a large mirror, both made of old oak wood. My room was quite plain and simple. That didn’t say much about my personality.

I walked across the peach coloured carpet to the dresser and pulled out a pair of denim jeans and a plain navy blue polo T-shirt. Once I was dressed, I rushed down the hard wood hallway and down the spiral staircase. I was about to leave out the front door when my mother stopped me in mid stride.

“Where are you going, young lady?” she asked in that calm, gentle voice she had. I looked at my amazingly gorgeous mother and suddenly felt a bit of jealousy. We shared some of the same features but there was something about her that I could never compare myself to. We shared the same thick brown, wavy hair and we both had pure blue eyes which was slightly rare for a brunette. What made the difference was that I looked incredibly tall next to her. I’m 5’5, she’s just 5’0.

“I had plans to go to Cassandra’s place to hangout? Is that okay?” I finally spoke aloud.

“Well alright Rain. What time will you be back?”

“Uhm, well I was planning on staying out till around dinner time” I questioned if that was a good time for her. She agreed.

“Alright, but Rain be careful. It’s a dangerous world my dear,” she warned me. She always had been an overprotective mother.

“Yes, Mom, I understand and I will be careful,” I sarcastically remarked and then walked over to kiss her lightly on the cheek. “Love you Mom.” And I ran out the door.

I cut through the woods again, like I usually did to get to Cassandra’s complex. There was a large fence that I had to climb over to have access to the forest. Why the giant fence? Well, because those woods were said to be haunted, haunted by a prince who ruled those lands four hundred years ago. Spooky, right? My Dad used to tell me the stories that my grandfather told him. I was a child then and I believed in fairy tales. Once you hit my age, (That’s eighteen by the way) you stop believing in such silly things.

I continued to walk down the trail. The path was cluttered with trees and bushes. Some of the plants had gorgeous pink and purple flowers attached to them. It was hard to believe there was a neighborhood beyond the trees. I loved walking this path. I could hear the whispers of the trees and the whistling of the wind. The air smelt fresh and unpolluted. I could hear the animals chattering and the bugs buzzing. This was my idea of paradise.

I made it to the place I had marked as the halfway point. It was a fairly small clearing and it was the most beautiful place I’d ever seen. There was a massive willow tree off to the left and the sunlight was determined to seep through the weeping branches just as it did the blinds in my bedroom. All around the tree grew healthy and gorgeous orchids.

I walked up to the great tree and placed my hand on it. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I felt at peace. As I moved my hand around the rough texture of the tree; it almost felt like it was breathing through me.

“She’s beautiful isn’t she?” an unfamiliar voice came from behind me. I twisted myself around to see a boy.

I took a minute and looked at the stranger. He was tall; about six foot two with short, styled brown hair. His eyes were so blue that they almost looked white like snow. He wore a long grey trench coat with tight, slim jeans. He wore a dress shirt under the coat with a casual black tie. He stood with a smile on his face and his hands were in his pockets. He looked like he was from a perfect portrait. He was absolutely stunning. Any artist would kill to use this boy as a model.

“Yeah, she is a beauty,” I blushed and looked down at the ground.

“You have no idea just how beautiful she is,” he said in a whisper.

I turned back to take another look at the tree. “What’s your name?” I swirled around to face the boy once again, but he was gone. I took a few steps forward and looked around. My heart sank. He had vanished, like he had never been there at all. ‘Ghost’ had been the first thing to run through my mind. Then I laughed at myself. A ghost, yeah right! The wind blew hard suddenly and the willow tree creaked. A shiver ran up my spine and I felt the urge to run. I booked it out of the forest to Cassandra’s place. She was not going to believe this encounter.