“If I go to sleep, will this become nothing more than a dream?” asked Victoria, and rightly so, considering the events of that day. She had been tired the entire day, and she had been yawning, ever since 5 P.M., and it was clear to see that she had been deprived of sleep, either that, or, she had been busy, processing the new people that already seemed ingrained into her life. Though only eight, Victoria thought it’d be a good idea to take a short nap, in order to destress from the recent mayhem that ensued within the beginning and ending of that school day. Alone at night, with no one else to talk to, and her phone lethargically charging, as though its battery was shrinking, Victoria decided to snug into her blankets, and within a few minutes, she was sound asleep, and soon enough, dreaming.
With her sleep, it felt as though only a moment passed, though a few hours had past before she saw the sight from two nights before; in the warped, velvet sky that had surrounded her completely, was the horizontal chasm, of which contained the irregular cats, that had tried to capture her within their depths, though, in this case, they stayed quiet, stalking Victoria, who was seemingly standing in the space below her. Seemingly through telepathy alone, the cats communicated to her of their one goal, of which was-
“To join us in the breathtaking view? Huh, odd. Wait, why can’t I hear what I am saying? Whatever, this is a dream, after all,” silently said Victoria, as though her lips moved, the vibrations were silenced, soon after they sounded. From their tones, she softened slightly, though she was still on guard, as despite the knowledge of this having to be a dream, she was scared for what things she may see, and for what might be etched on to her memory, forever, though it wasn’t quite as photographic as she’d like. She reached forward, far away from the cats, and yet, the portal only appeared to be far away, as she could touch what it, along with felines, just from this far distance. Realizing she had been in front of her presumed threat, she simply accepted, and walked through the crack in the unworldly spacetime
Victoria clasped her dry, flaky hands on her head, as though she was experiencing a pernicious headache, not uncommon for her, though in this case, it was rather the silvery hourglass that she had seen in her last dream, at least the one that didn’t make sense, unlike, that, one, but the hourglass was only visible in the periphery of her vision. Victoria stamped her feet loudly, possibly infuriated by the trappings of this dream, or perhaps by the waves emitted from the glittering hourglass. Fortunately, this unearthly dream wasn’t oscillating between the realm that contained the visible hourglass, with sand that swung in loops, defying gravity, with purple haze of the area with the furry aperture in space and time. She tried walking towards the glass, though the grayscale ground, seemingly by itself, altered its geography and temperature, which became apparent when she stepped on a particularly hot part of the surface, stinging her feet, and burning the bottom layer of her shoes. Ouch, what the hell!
Despite her slow approach, the hourglass became smaller in her view, almost as though she has been moving away from it, or its general vicinity, though Victoria quickly remembered that this was only a dream, and hyperbolic geometry was to be expected, not unheralded, for the other odd details pierced into her mind. For one, she pondered how she could feel pain during her sleep, especially in such a setting, where the colors were muted, and shapes malformed and changed constantly, such as the very ground she had found herself stuck on. Despite the difficulty at sighting the muted hourglass, she spotted it once more, though she became confused, as despite the resupplying of the top with sand from the bottom of the pile, the top area was rapidly draining towards the side facing downwards, though it wasn’t quite as steady as she had hoped, for it seemed that nothing in this illusionary area was predictable. Due to the unnatural properties of the region, she simply decided to wait for the glass to finish its unbalancing of the sands inside its stretched confines, which she only noticed after studying its shape for what felt like a few hours, though time didn’t move on a linear path, either, when compared to the real world.
At last, the top of the hourglass had been emptied into the lower chamber, and at that point, it had stopped refilling the top, and the sand remained at the bottom. When this occurred, Victoria heard a chime coming from each grain of shining sand, ringing like a bell, before mysteriously disappearing, eventually leaving a depression within the enclosed space. As she kept looking, the hourglass’s base seemingly began to wane, before she looked at the larger picture of the glass; it had begun, though rather torpidly, tilt, almost as though to reset the ending of such a rotation. But as that happened, the hourglass’s base no longer touched the ground, and as though it was sentient, the hourglass began to float and fly, rather erratically, like a hummingbird. Starting at a steady pace, the hourglass soared past the vast expanse of emptiness above them, of which it decided to move away from Victoria, who got up in the possible need to pursue the abstract structure, as it slowly leaned to its side. However, it only seemed to levitate, further, and further, into the empty abyss, aloft in the temperate void, at least, until it wasn’t.
It dropped suddenly, though due to the odd physics of this mystical plane, it fell straight down, in the same position it had once floated, high above, in. As it neared towards Victoria, she felt pulled towards the obtrusive object, as though it had its own gravitational field, and with her head’s deteriorating status, she thought it was not the noises produced by the hourglass, but rather that it may have a strong magnetic field, as well. Along with the other properties and characteristics of the hourglass, it also seemed to violently fluctuate in size, which may have just been a quirk of dreaming. The quiet atmosphere of the area seemed to slowly become stronger, as she felt as though she was being crushed, as though she was in a cavernous ocean trench. However, once it had met with the ground, the silence was notably crushed, as it made a loud thudding noise, and with such an event came her ears’ newfound sensitivity, as she heard distant humming, the passing of wind, and even her own breath. It wasn’t the only thing that changed.
“Where- oh, huh? I can hear myself again, I guess. This is a weird place, though I guess I am kinda weird. What happened to the stenchy world with that ‘Pearl’ person?” gasped Victoria, as though she needed to manually respirate. In her new surroundings, she saw bleached rooms, full of relic furniture, though it was clearly modern, with fluorescent lights on the painted ceilings, and a large fridge, standing oppressively over her, though it only seemed to get larger, and everything else, too.
“Wait, what the heck! Why is everything . . . oh, wait! I am shrinking, but my features; they are becoming more childlike, almost as though I was . . . wait, I am! I am regressing in age, how the hell do I get out of this nightmare!” screamed Victoria, though no one was there to comfort or acknowledge her, except for her estranged parents, well, only one.
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Victoria didn’t like to think of her step-dad as anything else other than her real father, more so since she felt bad for him, though it was hard to pretend like it was the truth, especially when her real father was still alive, somewhere out there, and that he had entered her life when she was 9, by which time, she had already grown accustomed to the lack of a paternal figure. On the opposing side, she wished her mother wasn’t actually her biological parent, for she was far more temperamental and nasty, when compared to her step-father. Though she didn’t quite recognize the layout of this anachronistic structure in her new point of view, she finally realized for what it was, for it was-
“My old house. Before we moved. Before they, l-l-left,” slightly sobbed Victoria, and like a true predator, her mother struck when she was most vulnerable.
“Get up, Victoria, or do I have to count to three?” her mother impatiently waited. “One, two . . . three, get up now! Or do I have to show you who’s the boss in this household!”
“No, no, mom, I will now!”
“You dare raise your voice at me? I will not tolerate this disrespect! I made you who you are! I created you! You must follow what I say, unless you want to get out?”
“No, no, I don’t,” fearfully whimpered Victoria, who had nearly forgotten the emotion of fear once she grew past her mother’s height.
“That’s what I thought, and now, y-y-you mus-s-s-s,” stuttered Victoria’s mom, as though she was suddenly melting, though a few moments later, it was quickly proven to be true. As though she was artificially created using slime, her mother evaporated into a green vapor, as well as the entire house, crumbling and collapsing, as the beams that held the house’s structure bended and snapped with a quick crunch, that seemingly echoed throughout the tumbling house, with the old, brown furniture at the slimy floor meeting the same fate as the dream version of Victoria’s mother, as well. However, a stabilizing force sat silently at the side, and as Victoria looked back, the oversized hourglass had turned on its side, and it appeared that it had already reached its apex, for it was leisurely rotating back, right-side up. As the surrounding area melted into the slime, and sawdust and metals fell from high above, the hourglass sensed that it was time for a change of scenery. With sudden, powerful pulses emitted from the glass, the scene embraced what it truly was; a dream that began to unravel, as the stickiness of the slime lessened on Victoria’s feet, until it could no longer be felt. Then, at once, the ground unsolidified, becoming holographic, and suddenly dropping Victoria, along with the glass, towards the bottom of a never ending crevasse
Victoria ungracefully fell down the infinite ravine, who was stuck on the hourglass, now, due to its gravitational capabilities, and slowly wondered when she would be able to awaken from this liminal dream. Despite being perfectly lucid, she couldn’t quite control much, aside from one singular trait, of which, from her limited understanding, only she had; her scarlet hair, of which she had changed to the hue of a deep viridian mixed with deep blues. Though it wasn’t much, the feeling of control flowed through her body, reminding her of a better time that she yearned for, though what she had to painfully give up was equal in price; control. She wished to reunite with her siblings, even if she hadn’t known that, one day, she would be nostalgic for such a past, full of terror, and as much despair, from all who were the weakest. And as she plummeted into the ominous depths, she saw the truth, as the hourglass started its journey to be upright, once more.
As close as hallucinating within a Victoria saw a set of preternatural images, images of which were unspeakably terrifying and unreal, quickly freezing her in place, as she could only stare, stricken with curiosity. She saw her mother, berating her and her siblings, only in this case, she was wielding a knife, as though she needed self defense against her own children. Next, she saw each of her younger siblings, aside from the youngest, talking to her, as though they were creating a plan, before suddenly flashing to Victoria on her bed, hearing the creaks of the entrance door. She remembered bits now; after they had conversations with her other siblings, they would talk to her. Then, they would leave. Was she the cause of all of this, or had it been something more sinister? The next image appeared, of a particularly bad night with their mother, where she began to beat them, with her bare fists; an act of pure detestment, from both sides, and, perhaps, this was the reason they had left. But one, never left, but who could it have been? Then, another bright picture flashed, contrasting the darkening pit with the incandescent glow of the ethereal memories, forever captured in an image. This time, Victoria was inside of a hospital, and she knew well what it was.
Life was a simple affair, back when Victoria was younger, for she still had a single sibling left, out of the others who had left, on no notice. She and him used to play together, despite them being only half-siblings, and the age gap between them, though it didn’t obstruct their bonding, over the terror that might be inflicted in the night, as she had known them, and could see the signals that day, for she had teased James, again, and he made a vague threat, something about the usage of a firearm, though she didn’t quite remember the details. However, something happened that was less predictable, for in one second, they were walking down the sidewalk, cautioning their approach back home, but they hadn’t been cautious enough. For mere milliseconds later, and one of their lives was taken away, though, to Victoria, it was two. On that same day, during nightfall, he was gone. With this, the locked information kept away from her consciousness was unsealed, and with it, came the lowest point, quite literally, as they reached the bottom, and fell into a shallow pool. The murky waters were cool and refreshing, and as the hourglass chimed, Victoria couldn’t help, but feel the water on her head. She submerged herself in the thin waters, and felt another lock removed, and when she reemerged, she came upon her new discovery.
She, had at last, remembered; all of her siblings had ran away, and her remaining brother, the only one, aside from her, to have remained, was hospitalized, due to trauma to the skull and hemorrhaging of the head, though Victoria didn’t quite recall how that happened, or any further details, as within her sleep, it was fuzzy and distorted, like the aberrant cats that guided her into this capsule of time. She wistfully imagined a world where she and her siblings had different parents, ones who were kinder and far more attentive towards their needs, and perhaps, her siblings had reached a better family, though she couldn’t have known. As she looked back at the dusty hourglass, barely visible at the corner of eye, it was close to finishing its cycle, and she had but a few seconds left, before she was taken to a fresh, new sequence of indescribable sequences, strung out in an anomalous format.
She quickly glanced back, and the hourglass finished its rotation, where the exiguous nature of her life, shown off by her own mind, tore her apart, as she began to shake and cry, where no one could see her tears. Then, she woke up, almost instantaneously, in a cold sweat, with each bead of liquid tingling on her body, in the middle of the dark, with tears slowly leaking from her eyes. And as the fog cleared, she ultimately became aware of what had happened, though pieces were missing. She had forgotten what had happened to him, though she remembered this: her youngest brother, Fabian, had his brain exsanguinated, due to the tissue ripped and torn to a fatal degree, like a wet sheet of paper. He was gone, forever. They were gone, forever.
She sat, then, upon her cold bed, now uncomfortable, and equally as repulsed at what she had finally rediscovered. Alone at night, she laid back down, lowering herself slowly, and once her heavy head had met the cushions of her balmy pillows, she fell back into a deep sleep, with no more dreams to haunt her.