The ambient hum of rain hitting the outside wall kept me on the verge of sleep. Chained to this side of reality only by worrying about my friend. Cesar hasn't come back since his sudden escape all those hours ago and even the spies of Octavia couldn’t track him down. He was gone and I could only hope and pray that he was okay, and that he would come home soon.

Lucia suggested that I should ditch work the next day and go in search of him if he were to still be gone, but for now I wasn’t allowed to go and look on my own. I doubted I could find him either way - even without the sudden storm hitting the city, I was aware just how good he was at sneaking around. Cesar wouldn’t be seen unless he wanted me to.

I felt a sudden sting in my heart. That was yet another person who didn't want to see me. I knew that both Caius and him didn’t owe me anything, but still, some part of me couldn’t help but feel betrayed. I thought of them as friends and both kept something from me. I was not entitled to it, but considering the whole time traveling thing, I thought we needed more transparency.

I shook my head, looking at the dirty ceiling.

„My brain said it best - I am not entitled to them telling me everything.” The tone of my voice felt weirdly muffled, as if coming from behind a veil. And the dirty ceiling didn’t look anything like the one I grew to recognize as my own.

I felt soft fabric encasing my whole body, safe for the face. Yellow light poured through a square window, next to a door that could be described as the most generic looking ship door. The hum of rain was replaced with the quiet noise of the waves, and the subtle rocking of the vessel gave me a bit of sea sickness.

„It’s a dream, right?” I asked myself and the old wooden deck creaked, as if answering me. „I want to wake up. I can’t fall asleep now.” The ship reacted by opening the door. More of the orange light filled the room, allowing me to get a good look around my environment. The ship’s walls and ceiling were made up of straw, with some white material covering them, with spots here and there where it cracked and revealed the underlying woven structure.

The room was empty aside from the short table I layed on and a bunch of scrolls strewn around the wooden floor. I slowly got up, planting my feet on a strangely soft deck. It didn’t really feel like it was there. It more reminded me of dirt, as if someone simply painted the planks straight on the ground.

As I got closer to the door, the ship creaked. No, it giggled like a small child.

I looked behind me, trying to figure out what was that noise but I didn’t see the white woven walls. The ship was gone, replaced with an endless sea of fields and glistening water. The dark silhouettes, the lighthouse and that omnipresent wind. I was here again, meeting with the snake in the void.

„Do you still have it?” The invisible beast hissed. I was confused at first but quickly felt something cold in my fist. The silver timepiece sparkled in the orange sun, reminding me of the first time I came here. Of the dream that made me think I was at my home. I felt angry, something kept me here, in this world, against my wishes and it kept on reminding me about my old life.

„Follow it.” The deep voice came from inside of my skull.

„Why?” I whipped around and threw the little mechanism into the fields. Hitting some shadow by accident. It bubbled and disappeared, quickly replaced by another.

„Follow it.” The voice replied.

Strong feeling of pain caused me to fall to my knees, with the water splashing around. The middle of my right palm hurt more than anything I’ve ever felt. I looked at it, seeing my own fingers dance, hit by random nerve signals, ignoring my command. Something took over my hand, slowly morphing it and heating up my flesh. It bubbled and smoked until from the pouring blood emerged a small metal piece. Quickly joined by yet another, melting together and connecting.

I screamed, putting the hand in water but it only caused more pain.

It could have lasted a minute or half an hour, but when the pain finally stopped, straight from below my skin shined the metal case of a timepiece. Its snake-like arm rotating, pointing towards some distant direction.

„Follow it.”

This time I didn’t wait even a second, motivated by the prospect of more pain caused by disagreeing with the voice.

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

The sun was almost gone when the metal hand of the timepiece stopped reacting to my movements, gently spinning in place. I looked up onto the still water, disturbed only by one shadow, which in itself was odd, considering the thousands of groups of silhouettes I passed on my way there. But this one had something about it which made me feel attracted to it like a magnet. It seemed somewhat glossy from that distance, and as I got closer, the less it looked like all the other creatures.

The shadow seemed to be contained by a thin film in the shape of a human. The substance inside it was swirling and pulsing, like a puff of smoke locked in a glass bottle. Spinning and clumping around what looked to be a slender person shaped silhouette. Almost as if an invisible skeleton coated in a dark veil, was holding the whole creature together.

Water splashed around me as I reached the creature, waves emitting from below mine and its feet. The wrinkles on the mirror-like surface reminded me of graphics showing magnetism, with our waves colliding and merging, canceling out the energy in one place and strengthening it in another. Seemingly entangling together. I stopped, mesmerized by the view of this shimmering creature, lighted by the dying rays of a setting sun.

I reached out my hand towards it and felt something in my finger tips. The brittle crystal structure below my fingers wasn’t warm, or cold. It had no temperature and seemingly no texture. But the moment I touched it, a sea of cracks emitted from the contact spot, bringing with them an emotion. I felt loneliness and sadness, coming directly from the thing before me. Still like a figure outside, but containing a storm of dark smoke inside.

The surface cracked more, as I pushed my fingers inside. The material encapsulating my right hand like a thin layer of melted sugar. A thought or a feeling right at the edge of my brain compelled me to do this, and I didn’t dare to fight that emotion.

I didn’t feel like I was breaking something, it felt more like patting a friend on their back. The deeper my fingers sunk, the more emotions barged into my mind, and the less physical feeling my body received. It was as if I started to disappear, existing only as a vessel for the loneliness pouring into me.

The smoke erupted from inside, swirling around my hand, grasping for me in a welcoming embrace. Loneliness replaced by a different emotion. The comforting feeling of being afraid but knowing that you have someone that will help no matter what.

I looked up at the face made out of glass. It was cracked and shaking slightly, with the individual pieces deforming and merging, like parts of a mechanism. Shards interlocking together like gears, always in motion, never finished and never looking quite right. With its eyes flowing from place to place by just a bit, enough to not notice at the first glance.

I looked at it closer, the glass eyes stared back at me, or through me. Glowing with a ghastly glow, reflecting the last rays of sun. Forced by a weird sensation I looked behind me.

Two more silhouettes stood in the water. Both of them were humanoid but with protrusions on their heads. Like demons, staring back at whatever I was touching. And the fear it felt - it was the fear of them. They were looking for it, and judging by the direction they were coming from, they followed me to reach the glass creature. Now seemingly only waiting for the sun to disappear before they strike.

I looked back at the shadow I touched. When my head was turned it must have moved, and now it stood with its glass hand firmly placed on my right wrist. I felt pain, but not my own. It came from the creature, breaking and cracking as it touched my skin and the timepiece in my hand.

Suddenly the sun sunk below the surface of the water and for a moment the world around me stopped existing. With my stare locked on the blue glow coming from its eyes, and my body unable to move. It all lasted maybe a second and then the water around us erupted in a cacophony of splashes and waves. The liquid hitting our bodies and surrounding us in a foaming tornado.

I saw pieces of the glass creature falling off, pulled by the strong current, revealing the shadows inside. I felt pain, gripping my heart in an inescapable sorrow. I felt the loss of something that I could not understand. Then its fingers, or what was left of them, closed on the timepiece, and with a loud crack burned the metal around.

The timepiece was no longer a part of me. It left my hand and joined with the crumbling body before me. Quickly the water overpowered me and threw me back, away from the shadow. Making me regain all the senses, making me feel my own pain and cold, and sorrow, deafening me with the roar of waves.

And in the darkness that surrounded me, all I could see was a pair of blue eyes, quickly fading in the distance.

Then a single click of a mechanism emerged through the noise and a blinding glow came from the direction of the creature. I closed my eyes to shield myself from it and everything ended.

It took me a minute to understand what just happened. I escaped the dream, or whatever it was, thanks to the device which now was held by the lonely shadow.

I tore the blanket off me and jumped out of the bed. The straw filled mattress on which Cesar was supposed to sleep was still empty. And the storm outside has not subsided even a little bit. With water pouring in through the window of our room. I quickly put on some clothes and ran out of the house.

The night was dark, but the lightning made it possible for me to see at least a bit from time to time. The wet ground made me slip as I exited the door, but that didn’t bother me. I felt warm and happy, seeing him before me.

Cesar, wet like a rat that swam through a sewer, stood a couple of meters ahead of me, surprised by my sudden appearance.

“I’m not letting you be alone!” I yelled through the noise of water.

He answered me with a soft smile, which quickly disappeared as a wave of shivers shook his body and he fell to his knees.