Dreamwalker

“For our notes, can you please state your name and confirm your status?” The voice seemed to fill the room you walked into, yet no one was in sight. There were only four drab concrete walls, besides the mirror on the wall facing you. Two way mirror, you guessed. They see you, but you can’t see them. 

It had been a while since you’d seen yourself in the mirror. In the plain, almost medical looking gown you wore, you looked haunted. Starved. Alone. You’d been alone for a while in that cell they put you in. You could hear the others talking sometimes, mostly in the native Sokovian, but you never joined in. There was no use. Most who came here, most of the people you heard, they never came back. You expected to be one of them. 

“Miss? Please state your name and confirm your status.” 

Your voice cracked as you said your name. Your mouth felt dry. 

“Your status.” 

“Test subject,” you said curtly. There was no response to that, not for a few seconds. 

You looked ahead of you once more, at the thing emitting blue light. It looked like some kind of staff. It was golden and sitting on a contraption holding it upright. It went up in a point, almost like a claw. The staff housed some blue gem in the middle. 

“Walk forward. Begin the test.” 

You looked at yourself in the mirror and then at the gem. You walked forward, shuffling your feet. 

The gem shook in its place, stopping you in your tracks. What was it? Stones don’t shake of their own accord. 

“Walk forward.” The voice sounded impatient. 

You continued towards the staff, the gem seeming to grow more volatile the closer you got to it. It sparkled as you looked at its chaotic movements. As you grew closer, it seemed to glow brighter, casting the room in more blue. 

Two steps from the stone, it detached itself from the staff, floating right in front of you. Your brow furrowed. Curiosity getting to you, you reached out to touch it. 

The blue exploded off of the stone, revealing yellow under it. So bright a yellow that it washed out all of the blue and filled your eyes. You couldn’t see anything else but the stone and its light. 

You don’t think it wanted you to look anywhere else. 

You saw something in that light. Images. Brown hair, green eyes, flashes of red and gold metal and blue fabrics and green skin. You saw yourself surrounded by destruction. You saw yourself looking down at that destruction surrounded by people. You saw so much in so little time, your mind raced to fit it all. Your eyes began to hurt and water as you took in much more than you could. Tears fell down your face as you tried to look away. Everywhere you looked, you just saw more. More of your past, more of your future. More of those same green eyes and pink lips curved into a smile. 

You wanted to scream, but no sound came out. All you could hear was your name on the lips of people you didn’t even know. People you didn’t want to know. People that you knew that you had to know. You didn’t even realize when it all had faded into one monotone voice. 

The voice on the speaker. He said your name two more times before you had calmed down. Your hands were up in a defensive position as you looked around, eyes still wet and blurry from tears. The stone was back in its position on the staff, blue as ever. 

Your breaths came in short as you wiped your eyes and backed away from it. 

“Miss? What did you see?” 

“Everything.” At least that was what it felt like. Your mind was quickly filled up with those images, so quick that you stopped trying to remember what you saw last. Besides those eyes. Those green eyes that reminded you of forest and grass in the summertime. Whoever they belonged to, you had to find. 

“Am I done? I would like to go now.” Your voice was raw as you spoke into the empty space. The three people behind the glass looked at each other. 

Three people? Yes..there were three people there. You felt them, their presence. In your mind, you started to become aware of a lot more than those three people. You became aware of the walls and how thick they were and the people past them. Their minds and thoughts and feelings started to flow through yours. 

‘No one has ever survived direct contact with the stone,’ you heard someone say..or think. 

‘More testing will be required.’

You felt them before you saw them, turning around seconds before they reached the door. Two guards walked in, guards you’d only seen when they walked you in here.

They led you back to the cell block you were in. There were cells on all sides of the wall and only one door for people to move in and out. The cells were all small and uniform with a small bed and toilet. Your cell was on the wall opposite the door. 

This time, no one spoke a word. The cell block usually had a few people speaking at any time, whether it was about finding out where people were from (it was mostly Sokovians) or who the others were and why they were there. 

It was completely silent, but you could feel the most pressing thoughts of the others. Thoughts about how you were alive. How you came back. No one ever comes back. How it must fare well for them if you came back.  You could feel the awe people were feeling at your return, feel the loneliness and fear they felt being kept here. 

You couldn’t tell if it was a good thing that you were alive. You didn’t know what to make of what happened. Your mind didn’t seem the same. You couldn’t think, not with all of the thoughts of other people around you, which was a whole other thing that you couldn’t figure out. 

Why could you feel so much more? Why could you hear thoughts? Why could you feel the feelings of other people? What happened to you? What is wrong with you? 

Anxiety was building up inside of you. Your heart started to beat faster and your breathing was becoming irregular. Moments later, your vision clouded. You couldn’t see anything but that yellow light again. You stopped breathing as you were overtaken by another flash of images. The same concrete walls you were just in, but instead of seeing yourself, you saw those eyes. Green eyes and brown hair walking forward towards the stone. You wanted to stop her, whoever she was, but as quick as it came, the vision left. You started to breathe again, almost hyperventilating. 

Your senses came back to you immediately and you turned toward the door of your cell. A guard stood there staring at you with a puzzled look. He looked young, maybe a couple of years older than you. 

‘Her eyes..’ 

His thought jumped out at you. What was wrong with your eyes? You felt his confusion mix with your own. You looked at him intensely, trying to glean any more of his thoughts from him. Unbeknownst to you, you peered into his mind. You were looking at yourself. You were staring ahead, eyes shot open and glowing that same yellow of the stone. Returning to your own mind, you tried to focus on what you saw. That was you…but from his perspective. His mind. 

Before you could think any more about what you just did, another guard walked into the block. The guard in front of your cell noticed this and straightened up immediately. 

The new guard walked past your cell, stopping at the next one and opening it. “Out,” he shouted in Sokovian. 

Instantaneously, you felt fear washing over you. It wasn’t from you, but from the person..or people in the cell next to you. Moving closer to the door of your cell, you peeked out to look at who came out. It was a boy in a shirt and pants, the male version of the plain dress you had on. He had blonde-ish hair and blue eyes and looked to be about your age, about 17. 

The guard wasted no time in grabbing his arm and pulling him farther out of the cell, signaling to the younger to close the door. 

‘My sister,’ you heard him think. He glanced back at the cell as he was being dragged out. The feeling of fear only intensified from the cell next to you. 

‘Please come back. Don’t leave me here.’ That had to be his sister in the cell. Her thoughts were pressing against your mind, so strong and worried. Her anxiety only heightened your own. 

You could feel the guard and her brother moving farther away from the cell block. He was most likely going where you had been. You hoped he would live, even though you didn’t know him at all, if only for his sister. 

“If she came back, he might, too. Don’t think the worst, girl,” a voice came. It was an older man on the opposite side of you. He was closest to the door, able to see her in the cell. He spoke softly, hoping to ease her fear. 

“He’s the only one I have left.” Her voice was quiet and her sniffling was audible. You felt her shuffle onto the bed. She was still after that for a while.