Chapter 379: A Rude Awakening
I was... awake.
It didn’t dawn on me that I was yet, until I felt the heat and light of dawn itself burning away at my retinas behind my closed eyelids.
My eyes felt like they’d been glazed over by wet cement that dried out overnight from how heavy and difficult it was prying them open to meet the real world again with real eyes this time.
The sun was angling weirdly in the sky for early morning which could only mean one thing: it wasn’t early morning, which, in turn, could only mean one other more crucial fatal thing – I was late for work.
Shit.
It’s funny, just what the hell? Why was I even thinking about work? Out of all things – work? Wake up in a soft bed of grass, get up, take a shower, and go apologize to the manager like I didn’t just see what I saw, didn’t just live through whatever the hell I just lived through – in there – in Ria’s long, long life.
No, work was just a distraction for my mind, something to make me not think ’cause a big part of me didn’t want to think about it, or even acknowledge it – it was just a bad dream, a long bizarre nightmare that existed only in my imagination.
.....
Only it wasn’t.
Now I knew who Silas really was. Then there’s also the matter of Ria’s children, those boys and girls in the field I saw way back when with started this whole trip down memory lane, I finally know what happened to them.
And perhaps most importantly, and perhaps a bit selfishly for even thinking it of any great importance... I finally understood what my mother really was like back in her prime.
Oh, how eye-opening of a trip it was. I shouldn’t be too shocked, I shouldn’t even be so hung up about it, but I was anyway. I already knew what she was like, she came and told me herself personally – but I guess this was just one of those things where you have to see it to even believe it.
And now I believed it. I didn’t even wanna blink now, if I do I might see it again, relive it all over again – her gentle smile, her kind gaze – they’ll be staring back at me again.
With joint muscles weary and bones cracking in agony, I shifted myself upright. So many things to settle, with Sera, with Sammy, work especially, it was going to be a long, long day today.
Two things happened immediately right after I pulled myself up, and I didn’t know which came first – whether it was one or the other – but either way, it didn’t matter, they both still happened.
Me nearly plummeting myself to a seemingly bottomless freefall off a cliff’s edge, and a powerful gust of sweltering hot air from out of nowhere bent the branches and swayed the trees of a forest nearby. In shock, from both happenings, I gasped and nearly boiled my poor lungs in the process.
Tears and heat stung my vision, along with a cough I couldn’t control, it was a miracle I even managed to drag myself away from the cliffside. My head was racing, and it was because of that – I immediately understood things right away.
I knew that forest, I knew that cliff, hell I even know those tall mountainous peaks looming beyond that cliff, the winding valley below, the four-winged, double-headed birds soaring in a flock up high in the expansive sky, I knew it all.
And that heatwave surging and dispersing, I knew that too. This bad dream, this nightmare wasn’t over just yet. On the bright side, at least I wasn’t just a floating, talking nothing anymore... so that’s nice.
Another sultry breeze billowed through the tall grass from the same direction of the forest, hotter, stronger, then a bright orange glow began to filter out like rays of pure sunlight through the gaps in the forest.
Tree after tree, the many rays of light shifted and weaved. They reminded me of searchlights in a way... like forest rangers out on rescue, flashlights in hand, scouring through trenches and fallen branches for that missing person.
Except here it was the exact opposite. Suddenly, a figure emerged from one of the gaps – my missing person – taking with her all the lights and rays from the forest coalescing as one bright beacon of heavenly light radiating off in the distance that was gradually growing closer.
I’ll just say this one thing before whatever else happen, happens... Ria does not look very happy to see me.
I barely got up to my feet, only had a second to steel myself, before a harsh shout came blowing my way along with the steady rise in temperature.
“Never come back, that’s what I said! Never come back, didn’t you hear?!” I watched her advance, stood by as she seized my shirt with both hands pulling me within inches of her enraged expression, and kept silent as she continued to shout. “How many times do you want me to say it?!”
Through a parched throat and nearly dried and chapped lips my voice managed to seep out of me, low and baritone. “As long as it takes to get you out of here, Ria.”
Wrong words apparently.
She was strong... stronger than me. I couldn’t do anything when she pushed me, and continued to push me. I still couldn’t do anything when the ground below me disappeared. I could flail my legs in the air, cling tightly to her outstretched arms as she held my body over the edge of the cliff.
This was the first I’ve ever seen her ire faced against me. The first time she’s raised her voice in anger to me. The feel of flames against my skin, which before always felt so warm and comforting, now only seared at my palms without relent. This was all a first.
“You’re leaving,” She said in a menacing whisper, her once springy carefree expression now twisted and malformed to a grotesque display of hate. “You’re leaving now and you’re never coming back. Who do you think you are messing with my head, with my memories?! You think making me relive everything is going to get me to change my mind? Good plan, dastardly plan, my man... sucks for you that it ain’t working!”
Briefly, I looked below me at seemingly freefall at my feet and instantly swallowed a mouthful of nothing. “You saw that.”
“It’s my head, genius, of course, I saw it. Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, happens in here without my knowing,” Ria hissed at me resentfully. “So did you enjoy the show? You had fun poking and probing at me like I’m some sort of science experiment?”
“Of course I didn’t,” I hissed, struggling hard to keep my hands latched onto her. “But you wouldn’t let me in... so I had to do what I could, didn’t I?”
“Yes, of course you did!” She said sardonically. “That’s what heroes do, don’t they? Always have to be the one to save the day, always have to be the hero! You just can’t help yourself! Well, alright then, Mr. Hero, do it! This is your one chance, right? Do what you came here to do!”
Her grip on my shirt slightly loosened, and I held onto her even tighter, feeling fingernails burrowing deep into her skin. “You’re making a mistake, Ria. Just put me down on the ground, I want to talk, let’s talk and we can – !”
“Yes! Yes! Keep going with that! Keep talking along those lines!” Her gaze was a mad one, her tone a derisive one. She wasn’t even listening anymore. “Use that silver tongue of yours, show me the error in my ways! Keep telling me I’m making a mistake, tell me I’m not thinking straight! I’m all ears, Hero! Keep going!”
Seriously, what was I supposed to say?! I don’t even have to think or plan! Not when I was literally holding on to dear life here, not when the pain was so great, and she knows that too!
Ria just didn’t care...
“My arms are getting very tired, you’re wasting precious seconds here,” was all she had to say to the agony showing on my face. “You saw my memories, tragic right? That’s plenty of ammunition free for you to use, so use it. Go, appeal to my humanity, my emotions, my connections... bring out my soft side. What are you waiting for? This is your one chance, isn’t it? Take your best shot!”
I watch as embers spark and fly from the locks of her hair. I notice that usually happens whenever she gets very emotional. In every memory I’ve watched, they always do that.
They were brighter but few when she’s angry, many but dim when she’s happy, and when she was sad... they were always bright, and they were always many.
And right then... so many drifted away from her so bright and dazzling.
“Come on, hero! Do it!” She continued to say, her small embers continuing to fly and wither. “Save me, already!”
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