A Curious, Mad Dream

I fell back onto the lush green grass of the hillside; a dreamy, lopsided grin on my face. My eyes fluttered closed as the strong perfume of wild flowers wafted by my nose carried by the gentle breeze caressing my skin. I wrinkled my nose at the heavy floral scent in the air, yet I did not find it completely unpleasant. The sun shone happily and bright in the clear blue sky coating my skin with comforting warmth. I was sure if I lay out too long I would grow red underneath the sun’s rays, but I was too lost in the blissful feeling of serenity to care. I inhaled the fresh air deep into my lungs before releasing it with a happy sigh. It’s so peaceful here…

“Ace!” A distant, male voice called out. I groaned and propped myself up on my elbows. My eyes squinted open; I put up a hand to block the brightly shining sun. Off in the distance I could see a dark figure running up the steep hillside nearly stumbling a few times. Although the sun shadowed the front of the man, I knew exactly who it was.

A smile brightened my face as I waved an arm over my head.

“Henry!” I cried out in greeting. My high school friend collapsed down beside me breathless from running up the hill. I giggled rubbing my hand soothingly along his back.

“Are you going to die on me, Henry?” I inquired flipping over to lie on my stomach beside him. I propped my head up in my hands; my elbows crushing the soft, green grass.

“If you keep making me chase after you up this hill I just might,” he mumbled into the grass not even bothering to lift his face up from where it was pressed to the ground.

I sighed regretfully. “Seems like it might be time to find a new best friend then,” I teased. Henry immediately turned over onto his back and quickly sat up.

“The hell you will!” He scoffed smiling down at me. I laughed and rolled back over onto my back to sit up beside him.

“I’m only teasing,” I assured him dusting the small fragments of grass off my black and white striped leggings.

“I know that,” he huffed poking his tongue out at me. I rolled my eyes at his childish ways. I swore he was a ten year old stuck inside a 20 year old man’s body.

I reached out a hand and ruffled my friend’s soft, shaggy brown hair. Henry grimaced batting my hand away as he tried his best to fix the mess.

“You messed up my hair,” he whined making a face at me.

“Keep your face that way for too long and it will get stuck like that,” I playfully warned poking his forehead.

“That’s what you always tell me,” he sighed nudging my shoulder with his. I tucked a fly-away strand of my black hair behind my ear.

“So why were you searching for me this time, Henry?” I asked meeting those warm brown eyes. A spark of excitement brightened those eyes at my question.

“Oh yes! I bought you a gift!” he smiled cheekily. I narrowed my blue-violet gaze on my friend.

“I thought we agreed on no birthday gifts,” I reminded him. He flashed me a guilty smile.

“I couldn’t help myself. I, uh, saw this and…thought of you,” he nervously chuckled rubbing a palm across the back of his neck. “I figured since it was your 20th birthday and all…you deserved something special.”

I released a defeated sigh unable to stay angry with my best friend. To be quite honest, I was rather happy that he had thought of me enough to buy me a gift.

“Alright, alright. Let me see it, then,” I told him holding back my excitement. Henry knew me better than anyone. Sometimes I felt like he knew more about me than I knew about myself. So whatever he had bought for me, I knew it was going to be amazing.

“Don’t get your panties in a twist,” he laughed hearing the barely contained excitement in my voice. He reached into his jean pocket and pulled out a small, non-descript bag. I arched a dark brow wondering what it could be.

From the bag, Henry slowly lifted a gold chain from the opening. At the end of the chain was a pendant in the design of a clock. The clock face appeared old and yellowed with age although upon closer inspection it was instead colored a dark gold. Protecting the center of the clock face was a small, round gear with rigged edges. Inside the middle of the gear sat a spiral metal piece with a single clock hand formed into the design. A thick, silver link chain dangled from the bottom of the clock to loop around up the back of the golden encasing to attach itself to an intricate golden design. The design curved off the encasing of the pendant to form its way to the top of the clock and connect to the slim, golden chain.

The overall look of the clock pendant was beautiful and rustic in its appearance. Although many might find the gift horrendous and gaudy…I found it absolutely breathtaking. I gradually reached out for the pendant, opening my palm so Henry could rest the heavy clock and chain in my hand. I brought it closer to my face; my fingers lightly trailed along each groove and dip of the clock.

“It’s amazing, Henry! Where did you get something like this? I’ve never seen anything like it in the antique stores here in town,” I breathed flipping the pendant over. Etched into the gold plating was the initials T.S.; I brushed my fingers along the inscription.

Henry rubbed his palm across the back of his neck laughing nervously. His eyes touched upon everything but my face.

“Sometimes you just get lucky, you know? Here let me put it on you.”

My blue-violet eyes lifted to meet his. Why was he behaving so strangely all of a sudden?

“Okay,” I replied reaching out a hand to give him back the pendant. Shortly before his fingers were able to wrap around the item, I saw a rabbit with fur that was as white as the purest snow dart across the grassy area behind Henry. It disappeared into the brush at the edge of the forest that spanned out over the hillside beside us. I probably wouldn’t have thought much about it if it weren’t for the fact that this rabbit had been wearing a deep red vest with a silver chain dangling from one of the pockets. That was what had snatched my curiosity.

“Henry, did you just see that?” I asked retracting my hand that held the pendant. Henry’s hand fell back into his lap as my eyes stayed locked onto the brush.

“See what?” he asked his brow twitching. His brow only ever did that if he was forcing himself to show a certain emotion. I opened my mouth to ask him what he was hiding, but a flash of white caught my eye again.

The snow white rabbit poked its head out of the green foliage. It stood on its hind legs and waved for me to follow it. I blinked a few times seriously wondering if I wasn’t going crazy. The rabbit was still there though furiously waving at me to go with it.

“There, Henry!” I shouted pointing to the intelligent rabbit by the brush. I wanted to know I wasn’t the only one who could see him. Henry jumped startled by my sudden shout. The rabbit dashed back into the forest which only caused me to grow frustrated when Henry decided THAT would be the time he’d look.

He turned back to me with a look of concern. “Ace, are you—”

“I’m NOT crazy, Henry! It was a white rabbit wearing a tiny red vest with a silver pocket watch,” I explained angrily as I stood to my feet brushing off the grass. “I’ll show you I’m not crazy. I will find that rabbit!” I shoved the pendant into the pocket of my shorts and took off towards the forest.

“Ace, wait! You don’t—”

Henry’s words of warning trailed off into the distance as I ran into the dense forest. My eyes scanned the ground looking for any signs of the white furred rodent. I saw a flash of red and white race passed some trees leading further into the center of the forest.

“Wait!” I took off after it doing my best to keep it in my line of vision. I stumbled over fallen tree limbs and even managed to tear a few holes into my new pair of black and white striped leggings. Far back near the entrance of the forest I could hear the distant cries of Henry warning me about what I was doing. I ignored his words and pushed forward.

Streaks of light poured in through the spaces between the trees shedding light over the forest floor as I strained to keep up with the mysterious, vested rabbit. My long black hair flowed behind me with the wind that blew against my face from how fast I was running. At points I felt like I wasn’t even running anymore; instead I felt almost like I was floating along the ground. I became so focused on following the strangely dressed rodent that I failed to notice the thick tree root that curved up out of the ground. I let out a startled shriek as the toe of my converse caught the underside of the root causing me to trip and fall to the leaf covered forest floor. I scraped my hands along some broken twigs and managed to hit the corner of my forehead on a small, pointed rock that had been hidden under some leaves.

I rolled over onto my back; the bottom half of my legs from the knee down were still draped over the root that was the cause of my downfall. A dark brown color now stained the once pristine white of my striped leggings on the knees. Dusting off as much dirt as I could from my stained knees, I slowly pulled my legs off the root to stand shakily on my feet. The dull pounding of my head caused me to reach up and lightly press my fingers to the throbbing area. I jerked my fingers away with a hiss as a sharp pain shot through my head from the gentle touch. Red stained the tips of my fingers making me grimace. How was I going to explain this to mother?

“Ace! Are you okay? Where are you?” Henry’s voice, laced with fear and concern, called from somewhere nearby.

“Henry? Henry, I’m over h—aaagh!” I cried out in surprise as I felt myself being swung over someone’s shoulder. What struck me as odd was the person was wearing a deep red vest…

“HENRY!” I screamed for my best friend as I did my best to struggle out of the captor’s grasp. I stopped struggling though when I discovered the more I thrashed around the more my head swam with dizziness. I felt myself being carried further into the forest; Henry’s cries switching between growing fainter and becoming nearer.

“Please remain calm, Miss Hart. You have nothing to fear,” a soft male voice assured. The way he paused after the last word made me wonder if the word ‘yet’ hadn’t been meant to be tacked on the end

I beat my fists against the man’s muscled back. “Right now is the WORST time to tell me to remain calm! You’re kidnapping me! HENRY!” I yelled even louder than before for my friend. It was a yell that was very much horror movie worthy because of its intense pitch of sound. I saw my dark headed friend sprinting towards us in the distance.

The man carrying me sighed as he stopped at the base of a large sycamore tree.

“Seems we’ll have to return here at the clock tower although I wanted to try and take you straight to the castle to see the queen. However, your incessant need to call for help has put a bump in my original plans,” the man sighed irritably. I saw the ground tremble beneath the man’s feet as the deep sound of tearing broke the silence of the forest.

“What are you tal—” My sentence ended with a gasp as the man swung me off his shoulder to cradle me against his chest bridal style. Soon we were falling down a massive hole at the base of the sycamore tree. My arms instinctively wrapped tightly around the man’s neck so that I wouldn’t fall alone down this dark abyss.

We had become nearly shrouded in darkness; our only light being what streamed through the hole above us that increasingly grew smaller in size. My eyes roamed over my kidnapper’s face, but there wasn’t much I could make out except for the fact that his hair appeared almost white in the last rays of light that shone in through the hole. Before the hole closed, I saw Henry dive in through the opening after me. His body was pointed straight so he could have a better chance of catching up to us. He stretched a hand out towards me.

“Hen—!” My scream died as the man touched two fingers to the center of my forehead causing my eyelids to grow heavy with slumber. Before I fell victim to sleep’s seductive spell, I heard Henry’s voice call out as if from very far away.

“Vincent, please! She needs more time!” My best friend cried out.

Vincent?

Then my body grew limp as I lost consciousness.