Otherland (10 page)

CHAPTER 15

The summons came again that evening, in the human world, where the sun was yet to set and the darkness yet to come. This time when he arrived, he demanded of the elders to meet with the High master, refusing to tell them anything. He wound up in the globed room, bowed on his knees, facing a presence he had never actually seen.

“She is not guilty of anything. She has no control over coming here. She doesn’t remember her human life, nor does she remember any of her travels. I know that I have been given the job to return her here, but I’ve known her since she was a child, and her being a child and now an adult, she doesn’t know why she comes here. Instead of trying to imprison her, we should be trying to figure out what has kept her coming here all these years. Instead of punishing her, we should be trying to help her so that she can make that choice of where she wants to be.”

And he was gently answered with, “I am All Knowing. There is nothing you can tell me that I don’t already know. Continue on with your mission as intended.”

And that was it.

Chagrined, he returned to the human world, completely exhausted, his human body needing so many things, mostly sleep.

She laid curled against the wall on her bed in her small apartment.

Not knowing what else to do, and needing sleep so badly himself, he crawled onto the bed beside her, needing to be close to her. Cautiously, he brought his arm around her. “I love you,” the thought instantly flared in his brain. Fortunately for him, it was only in Otherland when things could be communicated without speaking.

She sighed and pulled him into herself, “I love you too, Jacob Knight,” she murmured in her sleep, where he knew he’d be able to find her.

So holding her hand, he slipped into a deeper subconscious state, and found her in the inbetween “Aliyah,” he pulled at her arm.

She seemed surprised at first to see him there.

“Come with me. I want to show you something. Perhaps, it’ll help you with your memories.”

But she let go of his hand and burst out laughing.

“What? What’s so funny?”

“What are you wearing?”

He looked down at his armor, the strips of hide that barely covered his parts, while his shoulders, his chest, and his face were protected, his shield at his back, his sword in its sheath. “My – my uniform,” he said. “I am a Light knight, you know. Things take on different appearances between and within worlds. You used to love my uniform,” he pouted momentarily. “And you, apparently, have forgotten how this works.” He kept his head turned respectfully away from her.

“What do you mean things take on a different -?” The horror slowly dawned on her as she looked down at herself. “Where’s my clothes? Where’s muh-my uniform?” she grappled to cover her exposed nudity, while he tried to contain his laughter as much as possible.

“You’ve forgotten so much, Aliyah, and I fear it’s all my fault. You cannot just automatically take your physical possessions into this realm, as those belong in the physical world. You have to – you have to -,” and he could contain it no more.

He laughed harder than he had in ages, as first frilly blue underwear and a matching bra appeared on her body, and was just as quickly discarded. Then full-bodied armor appeared, crushing her to her knees with its weight.

“Aren’t Light knights supposed to be honorable and decent? Stop … looking at me while I get this sorted out.”

Finally, she settled on a simple, yet fitting, white dress, and a head-dress to hold back the long hair she’d sprouted in her attempts to cover herself.

“I want a sword,” she stomped her foot, then almost fell over with its unsuspecting weight. “Ah-ha,” she called, as she pulled it from its sheath. “Surrender to me, Light knight, and show me some humility for laughing at my inexperiences that I’m sure you purposely failed to inform me.” And her face was a crimson red.

While trying to suffocate the laughter, the Light knight said, “Aliyah, I think you’ve even forgotten how to use that. You can hardly hold it up.”

“I’m a bit rusty, but it’ll come back to me,” she said.

The Light knight once again burst out into a riot of laughter as rust came to cover her entire body.

“I’m a beautiful warrior princess,” she demanded in irritation.

And that’s exactly what she became, successfully choking off his laughter abruptly.

As a child, she’d always wanted to dress up when she came to the inbetween. She’d want to be a princess. She’d want to be beautiful. She’d want to feel as though she powerful and strong and undefeatable. Like a female version of Peter Pan, she’d look at this place as Neverland instead of what it really was. When her big brother admiration for him had turned into a child’s first crush, she’d come wearing a wedding dress, no longer strong and confident, but afraid and insecure. “Do you like my dress, Jacob?” she had asked quietly. “Do you think I’d make a beautiful bride?”

And he’d told her Yes, yes, he liked her dress and yes, she’d make a beautiful bride.

But then she’d looked up at him sadly, and said, “Would you love me and want to marry me when I am older?”

And there before him, as this place was past, present, and future, she had grown before his very eyes, and he’d gotten to see the glimpse of how beautiful she would grow to be, the child’s fuller features turned into a slimmer woman’s face with high cheekbones, that same pointy chin stuck out in both confidence and defiance, and the slim curvature of a developed female’s body accentuated with long golden-blonde hair, and he’d been struck speechless, seeing her like that.

But the glimpse hadn’t lasted long, because he’d ruined the moment and broken the child’s heart, just like that, by turning his back to her and reminding her that she was still but a child, and even if she wasn’t, it could never be.

Now, he was seeing her the same way he’d seen her then, so long ago, but no longer a child. This time, he felt his own heart breaking, because in her adult eyes, he could still see the pain of the child he’d hurt.

“Aliyah,” he whispered in wonder and adoration, and he bowed to her.

“If you
ever
speak of this in the outside world, I will kill you,” she said simply, while sauntering past him proudly.

“You have my word, Princess Aliyah.”

“What is it you wanted to show me?”

He returned to standing. “It’s this way. Follow me. Keep to the center, and if you hear the forewarning cry of the Lost souls, you run. There was once a time these paths were safe, but the Nothingness has spread so far, it’s beginning to breach our boundaries. Now, nothing and nowhere is safe.”

***

Dwayne drunkenly stumbled the path to her home. Everything had taken much longer than expected, the human body requiring so much and tempted by so many things. He’d greedily and thirstily consumed too much, and had to endure Danny’s body falling and passing out. Then the bathroom had been required, food and caffeine. It had taken far longer than he’d planned, so he spent his time chastising Danny for allowing his body to get old and weak and fat.

“We used to be able to drink until the sun came up, Danny. Snatch a couple hours of sleep and do it again. Now you’re worthless. You can’t handle anything. Your body hurts all over the place. You’re weak.”

“We’ve been walking for miles, Dwayne. I’m 62 years old.”

“If you hadn’t passed out back there like an old sop, we could have gotten a ride. Now it’s too late.”

“Then let’s find a place to rest for the night so that we can be strong when we face her. She’s got to be in her 40’s now.”

“Ah, but she’s not, Danny. She’s still young and sweet. Certainly not a child, anymore, but young enough. Our lives work. Our masterpiece. Now we just need to finish the final touches. We don’t have time to waste on sleep. We’ve already wasted enough. The greatest thing Aliyah has been good at is escaping. Tomorrow she could be gone, but tonight, Danny, my old friend, she is still here,” Dwayne said, looking up at the lighted window to her home. “Let’s do this, old timer.”

They rushed up the stairs, and there was a loud thump, and a cry, when Dwayne had tried to go through the door as his spirit form allowed him. He left the body in a fury and watched as it tumbled unconsciously down the stairs.

***

Aliyah and the Light knight were on an island, surrounded by water, with a single tree in its center. “Do you remember this place, Aliyah?” he said gently.

“I remember coming here as a child. I was safe here,” she sighed. “Though I recall it being much bigger than this, but perhaps that was only because my body was smaller.”

“No, your recollections are correct. It used to be as big as far as the eye could see, but this is all that remains. The Nothingness has grown too large, swallowing everything in its path. We’re doing everything we can to contain it.”

“Then why waste so many forces on me? I’m certainly not as much a threat as this Nothingness. I certainly haven’t been doing it on purpose in an attempt to harm Otherland. Why can’t they see that? I’m a good person. I can’t even kill a bug. Perhaps if my life had been better, I wouldn’t have had to escape here at all. That’s all I was trying to do. Escape.”

“From what?”

“I don’t … remember,” she said painfully. “All I remember is that here I felt safe. Out there, I don’t remember being here. In here, I don’t remember being out there. I remember you. I remember how much I loved you and wanted you to take me with you, or come back with me. More than anything, I remember our fights, because you would do neither.

“You would not stand up to the High master to allow me to be with you, nor would you defy him to come with me, as the human that you are, to your actual place in my world. You wouldn’t deny our love, but neither would you find a way to keep it.

“You just left me alone, time and time again, not allowing me to escape what I was running from by taking me with you, nor protecting me from the very thing that I was escaping. What kind of Light knight are you, after all, if you can’t protect the ones that need it,” she said bitterly. “No wonder the Nothingness is taking over. Your
Father’s
ruling is making it hopeless for everyone.”

“So you do remember. You once believed in him, Aliyah,” the Light knight said quietly.

“Yeah, and I once believed in hope and good things and love, and how well did that work out for me? The only time you ever show up is when I’m on the run and trying to escape all those things I can’t understand. What did I ever do to deserve any of this?”

“You didn’t do anything.”

“Yeah, I did. I chose to be a good person, and because of that, I have to spend my life suffering. Your High master certainly asks a lot of people. How much have you had to suffer and how many losses have you had to face for
his
endeavors?”

“It’s not him doing these things. Balancing the good and the evil requires constant maintenance.”

“Why balance it at all? Why not just get rid of the evil and give all of us a fighting chance to be able to live a life without all that?”

“It’s free will, Aliyah. It’s choice.”

“Choice?” her voice piqued. “I didn’t choose to spend my life paying for the choices of others, and that’s all it has ever been. You’ve seen the city.” She began to cry, “Every one lives their life in fear, that at any moment, at any time, someone else might choose to kidnap them and torture them for years on end with no choice to escape, except on the inside, until the person is finally old enough and strong enough to finally escape, then from there on out, have to spend their entire life running.”

He attempted to soothe her with touch, but she pulled away from him. “Is that what happened to you, Aliyah?” he whispered.

Suddenly, the island quaked and rumbled.

“Something’s happening. We must return,” he stood, his sword at ready.

“And I make my point,” she said dryly, harshly wiping at the tears on her face.

He went to grip her hand, “We have to hurry.”

“I can find my own way back, thanks. I’ve done it plenty of times without you,” she said, running on ahead of him.

***

Aliyah woke up first, attempting to sit up rapidly in bed, but Jacob’s arm was crushing her body. “Get
off
of me,” she mumbled, shoving at his arm. Then he woke and sat up before her. They both jumped out of bed, peering around them quickly to try to determine the threat.

“The door,” she said.

Slowly, he walked toward it, she behind him. He opened it fast, maintaining a defensive stance, but there was nothing there. He flicked on the stairwell light, and there he found a sprawled body at the bottom of the stairs. “Do you know this person?” he asked her while checking the male’s pulse to see if he was still alive.

She gradually descended the stairs, after finding her glasses, then looked at his face, studying it.

For a moment, the Light knight thought she didn’t recognize the man, but then she began to panic, “No, no, no, not again. Not again,” sounding like everything that was about to have a complete emotional meltdown as she ran up the stairs in tears and terror.