Descending Shadows: Into the Light

“Wake up, Moon, it's not safe here,” spoke the silhouette. It was my mother, and behind her was my father.

“Mom, Dad, what are you doing here?”

“It's not safe here; you must leave quickly!”

With those words, they disappeared before my eyes.

“Who are you talking to?” came a voice from near me; it was followed by someone touching my shoulder and waking me up. The voice was Leslie’s.

“So, that was just a dream,” I said. But my mind was still heavy: ‘But what does this mean? Why now?’

“What’s wrong, Moon? What did you see, Moon?”

Arabella, who was drinking some water a couple of feet away, overheard our conversation and walked up to us.

“I saw my parents, but what they said… I don’t know… It was odd.”

“In any case, let’s hear it,” Arabella said.

Leslie was worried by the time I finished explaining my dream. “Maybe we should get out of here while we still can.”

“I don’t know, but even if we are to leave, Arabella needs to be at full strength. We can’t be running around like this forever.”

“I might need a couple more hours to recuperate. I’ll get us all out of here after that,” Arabella replied.

Leslie and I nodded, and I looked over to find Jason and the rest of the children fast asleep. They all looked so peaceful, even amidst all this madness. But I didn’t want any of them to endure this darkness any longer. We needed to be free of those monsters. I eventually fell back asleep, and yet again, I saw my parents. The dream felt so real, and I woke up right after. I was stressed afterwards; I couldn’t—or rather, I didn’t want to fall asleep again. I wondered whether my parents would show up before me while I was awake, but it was not so. An hour must have passed, and I was asleep once again.

Soon after, I was dreaming; I could see my parents in front of me again. They walked away from me, calling out to me to follow them, which I did. But, suddenly, a tap on my shoulder woke me up. It was Leslie, and she seemed anxious.

“Moon, the monsters are back and they're trying to come down! We need to get out of here!”

“Arabella, can you teleport us?” I asked.

“I hope so,” she replied.

We all held hands as she chanted, but luck was not on our side. But then I remembered my dream. I asked the others to trust me and led them along the path my parents showed me in my dream. We soon found a passage, but it was too small for the adults. I didn’t know what to do. We could have sent the children to go ahead, but we knew not what dangers awaited on the other side. Jason and the twins held on to me tightly, refusing to leave.

However, lucky for us, Nolan spotted a rock on the wall that seemed out of place and pushed it, pushing the roof of the passage further up and freeing space for everyone to go through. But time was yet to favour our side, for the monsters came pouring in right when we started passing through. We let Arabella and a few others escort the children to the other side, while the rest of us stayed behind and held our ground. One by one, we cut down our enemies as they tried to overpower us. But amidst the chaos, I heard Arabella calling out to us. She was ready to perform the spell.

As I decollated the last of them, we could hear the echoes of another horde coming our way. There was no time to lose. We all held hands quickly as Arabella began to chant once again. This time, her eyes glowed. A couple of monsters rushed towards us, but we were gone in a flash. I looked around, and to my astonishment, I was back home. We all were.

We cheered and hugged each other, but our sweet celebration was to be tainted by bitterness… Arabella collapsed before our eyes, and behind her stood one of the monsters. I drew my sword and slew it instantly as my eyes grew heavy with tears; they rolled down my cheeks as I knelt before Arabella’s lifeless body and held it up for one last hug. Right then, I felt a touch on my shoulder. I looked up and could see Arabella's spirit beside me. She moved away from me and the crowd as two more figures materialised before us; they were my parents. I looked behind me to see if everyone else could see them, too—and they could. And with one final smile and wave, the three of them disappeared in a bright light. Jason cried and ran towards them, but I held him back. I hugged him tightly as he cried while asking them to stay.

It took some time, but I finally managed to console my little brother. Everyone got together that night and celebrated our return to normalcy—if you could even call it ‘normal’ anymore. I guess by that day, our definition of the word had shifted to something darker and more painful, but at least the worst was behind us.

—End—