2019-10-02 - Standing on the Edge

Isolde literally felt like she was dying. Like if she closed her eyes she wouldn't wake up again. She had given in and called 911 to bring her to the hospital when this started. They had hooked her up to all kinds of machines and fluid bags. Her brain was foggy and she was in and out of sleep.

So how she ended up on the roof of the hospital, Isolde didn't know. She could hardly move, like someone had laid a series of 10 pound bricks on her body and walked away. The sky was cloudy, a sickly sort of green and purple. This had to be a Dream. It had to be. Skies didn't look like that did that? Maybe they did.

Now, Isolde had never been afraid of heights, but when she drug herself over to the edge and peered out - she knew they were way, way too high up. There were clouds! You could touch the clouds. Sickly green and purple that they were - they still just felt like clouds.

Drawing in a breath, Isolde tried to will herself the energy to stand up. Struggling to her feet, staring straight ahead. Trying to see what else could be seen through the clouds.

"You could try falling off." A voice behind her spoke, startling Isolde so badly that she did almost fall over the edge. "It's only a dream right? You can't get hurt in dreams." But that wasn't true. Right? Isolde took a small step back - away from the edge. Keeping her unsteady focus straight ahead. Not daring to look back at the owner of the voice. Because it was a vaguely familiar one. It was a man's voice. It wasn't Alexander or Itzhak, or even August. "Don't you want to see what's at the bottom?" Suddenly the voice and it's owner were right behind Isolde. The voice was low and warm in her ear, sending a shudder right through her.

"But I'll get hurt. Won't I?" Isolde's voice was tired, quiet.

"There's only one way to find out, Izzy." There was a gentle nudge to her lower back - which felt like it sent fire through her veins. And not in the good way. A low whine escaped her as the voice spoke again. "If you jump, you can be with me again." He promised, though a bit of a harder nudge back towards the edge followed it.

Isolde yelped, stumbling forward and on to her knees. Gripping the edge of the roof. It was promising. Wasn't it? It sounded nice...and all she had to do was-"NO!" Isolde shouted. "No no. Y-y-you're not. You're not him." She pressed her hands to her head. "I don't want. I don't need." She pressed her hands to her head harder. Everything was throbbing. Everything hurt.

Strong arms picked her up and Isolde started to struggle and thrash. It delayed the arms for a moment or two, but before Isolde could do anything effective- she felt herself going airborne. She wanted to scream, but nothing came out. Those wild, feverish blue eyes saw him for just a moment. Emory - standing there on the edge, watching her fall.

I'm going to die. This flu, this Dream, it's going to kill me. I'll never get to see anyone again. I won't get to free the shadow. No one else will know about it to help. No one else can see. Isolde kept falling and falling through the strange colored clouds. Kept waiting to slam into the ground and for everything to go dark.

Except it didn't happen.

Instead, she landed softly on something. Like she'd been floating the whole time. It was inky black, and rubbery...and moving. She was being wrapped up by it. A tentacle? No..no...it was...a frog leg?

If Isolde wasn't feeling like death itself and trying to figure out what was going on - she might just be ecstatic. Frogs were the best after all. But...she didn't know about this one.

Three large, sticky, toes wrapped around her. Lifting her up. A single eye opening. A cyclops frog! The eye was pinkish gold. It was the color of the eye in her dreams. It belonged to the being. Was this the being? No. No, it couldn't be.

Isolde was lifted higher, and then let go. Falling again, but this time a long tongue reached out and grabbed her. It was so fast, there was no fighting it. She was about to be eaten by this thing! And...she was. It swallowed her whole.

More falling. Like it was an endless black pit of nothingness.

This time it wasn't like she was floating. This time, she slammed into the damp, stone floor with a sickening thud. Did something crack? She was sure something had cracked. A rib maybe? Isolde moaned in pain as she turned on to her stomach and promptly vomited before started to pick herself up. She swayed, like she might fall again. "Why are you doing this?" She asked to the empty room.

All around her, it seemed that doors started to open. Hundreds, thousands of doors. But no. They weren't doors. They were eyes and yet...Isolde started to walk towards one. She could beckoning whispers all around her. Come to us. Become one with us. Come and see. See. SEE! Suddenly, in her flu-addled mind, Isolde craved that clarity that Pwill had bestowed upon her. That power. Isolde tried to reach out with her mind, tried to find her creature again but it was to no avail. Nothing was working. It was all...empty. The tangles of her mind were woven too tightly. Like they wouldn't let anything through.

Isolde stood in front of the unblinking eye. It was just big enough that if it was a door - she could have entered it. She reached out, compelled to touch it. While the eye remained unblinking when her fingers touched the slimy, squishy surface, it did begin to shift and change. She didn't even really notice until she found herself being pulled in. Like a vacuum was sucking everything up.

Everything went black.

Isolde found herself laying on the ground outside the hospital. People rushing all around her, lifting her, putting her on a stretcher. Falling in and out of consciousness. How did she end up outside? It had just been a Dream, hadn't it? Snippets of conversations sliding through. Did she jump out a window? Did she jump off the roof? She was still alive though and she was okay.

Well there was a broken couple of ribs, but that was it. Not enough to have jumped from very high. Isolde knew that was from the Dream. Right? The rest was a mystery for the hospital workers to figure out.

I'm going to die in this hospital. In this place. This flu is going to kill me.