CHAPTER TEN - The Beach of Deception
I’ve never been this cold before. The cold is excruciating and unforgiving. My jaw is locked down, chattering endlessly and sending vibrations straight through my skull, and my entire world is ice and freezing and shivering. Everyone was right— That stupid fucking dragon and that stupid fucking idea! I think being proven wrong is what hurts the worst more than anything. I really thought I’d be able to save the day… I was so close, too!
Anton is here now, he kneels by my side and Maggie approaches as well. I brace myself for a stern lecture that never comes. Instead, Maggie says something to him that I can’t quite make out. He stares at her for a second, his expression unsure. She yells at him, again something I don’t understand. All I can hear is the chattering of my teeth.
“…close your eyes,” Maggie says to me, her voice urgent and clearer now, “Just close your eyes.”
I close my eyes, breathing laboredly and noisily as nearly-frozen tears roll down my cheeks. I can hear them sizzle and melt once they reach the warm sand below. And though the sand is warm, and the sun is like a hundred huge bonfires in the sky above, I cannot feel their heat at all. It’s like I’m stuck in an ice cube, and all this warmth just bounces off of me.
“Are you sure this is going to–?” I hear Anton begin to ask. He sounds on the verge of panic.
“It has to!” Maggie barks exasperatedly, “If it doesn’t…”
For a second, everything goes dark, and there’s no more shivering. A brilliant light starts to envelop me– wrapping around my body in a sweltering grasp– and when I open my eyes there are deep blue and rich purple sparks everywhere; I’m drowned in magic. Magic like being bathed in sequins and fire– hot and sparkly and setting all my problems right! I open my eyes, feeling reborn and ready to GO! No longer cold, I feel like the whole world’s energy has been pulled inside my body!
“Th-That was…” I hop back up onto my feet, wired as hell and ready to leap back into the sky, “AMAZING! What happened?”
“We… We just saved your life with our magic combined,” Maggie pants, exhausted and wiping her forehead, “Mister Hong, y-you scared us so bad!!! You could have died!!” She doesn’t even bother to stand up, and tears are welling up in her eyes.
Anton stands up, not looking at me. He seems just as exhausted as Maggie, and he remains silent.
“But what about that dragon?! I still have to–” I start to say, the amazing feeling I had beginning to leave my body.
Anton roughly grabs the top of my head and directs my gaze towards the open sea, where the dragon is struggling to fly away as its wing is melting into the water below.
“Oh. So I was a hero! I really did save everyone! At this rate, it’ll melt away completely and we won’t have to deal with it ever again!”
So safe to say I’m not a complete failure! Even if things didn’t exactly pan out the way I’d hoped for, things still turned in my favor, didn’t they? I look up at Anton as he lets go of my head, but he’s looking very stern and not proud of me at all.
“Thoughtless actions do not a hero make. Though you may have succeeded in your little mission, you scared us half to death. While you were incapacitated, Maggie informed me that this is no ordinary dream, and that anyone who dies within it will also die in reality– well, except for her since she does not exist on the same plane of reality as we do. Although I still do not trust her fully, I do not want to risk anyone here losing their life. Especially not you.”
“A dream that kills people? How stupid! You guys were still able to save me anyway, so what’s the big deal?” Maybe I’m not taking things as seriously as I should be, but I find it hard to believe that could really happen.
“The ‘big deal’ is that I likely have lost the use of my magic from your little stunt. If anyone gets harmed, I will not be able to save them, and Maggie may not be able to, either. Just look at how weak she’s become.”
I look, and she’s still on the ground, looking very sickly. Anton was right, and I guess do feel kind of terrible, but things could’ve been a whole lot worse if I hadn’t done anything. I really don’t think she could’ve defeated that dragon on her own.
“I am not upset that you chose to save us all,” Anton says, interrupting my train of thought, “I am only upset because you were hurt, and because I am rendered magic-less. What is to happen if you get hurt again? If someone else gets hurt?”
“You’re acting like I got hurt on purpose! You know, I didn’t mean to be ‘thoughtless’. I didn’t have any time to plan things out. I just saw her struggling and I knew I had to do something!”
Maggie stands up, weakly, and walks to us.
“I appreciate you s-stepping in,” she says, her voice barely above a whisper, “I’m so relieved I was able to save you. And I’m so happy you saved everyone. That dragon wasn’t supposed to be here. I don’t kn-know where it came from.”
She steps forward, slumping against me.
“Agh!” I exclaim, panicking as I try to prop her back upright, “Maggie!”
“There’s… s-something I couldn’t tell you until now. I can’t hide the truth anymore.”
“What are you talking about?”
She transforms back into her snake form, slithering up my arms and draping herself weakly across my shoulders.
“There isss a division in the sssea. Walk into it, and it will part for you,” she hisses, “Walk in a sssstraight line to the end of the ocean, one in front of the other. Don’t turn back. Don’t look back. Don’t ever pausssse. Jusssst keep walking. Sssssomething is trapping you here that liessss at the end of the water. Reach it, and you will wake up. It issss the only way; if you don’t reach it you will be trapped forever.” Her voice trails off and she grows limp.
“M-Maggie?!” I try to get her attention by poking her, but she’s unresponsive. I look up at Anton, my heart racing and hands trembling, “I don’t know what she’s talking about! What do I do?”
“Something trapping us here at the end of the ocean… Preventing us from awakening… Hmm. I’d like to awaken sooner rather than later, and if she is correct and we cannot awake without reaching it… I’d say it is our only hope at this point,” Anton mutters frustratedly, thinking aloud, “What have we to risk?”
“Nothing. Nothing at all. We have to wake up! I don’t wanna be trapped here forever!”
“That is the spirit,” he replies, “Now let us gather everyone together and see if she is telling the truth.”
Once everyone’s been informed of the plan, we get right to work. It took very little hesitation for Tim and Catherine to join us, because, after all, they don’t want to be trapped in this dream forever either (with Tim saying something about having an idea for a song once waking up). I was kind of surprised how quickly Catherine agreed to join, seeing as how earlier Maggie had to really convince her to stay with us. But I think this dream is wearing her down just like how it is with Anton and I. I feel like the more I explore this dream, the more I want to wake up. I know everyone feels the same way. I can just tell.
Our straight line is organized by height for visibility reasons; I’m in front, of course, since I’m the shortest. Anton’s all the way in the back because he’s so large, and while normally I’d feel a bit lonely without him right next to me, this arrangement is actually preferable since he’s still kind of upset and I don’t want his negative energy latching onto me any more than it already has. I begin to take a couple of steps into the ocean, and indeed it does split right in front of me! It makes me think of Moses a bit, from what I remember about the Bible.
“Remember guys,” I announce with all the confidence I can muster as I begin to walk forward, “No looking back, no turning around, and CERTAINLY no stopping!”
With that, we march into the parted sea. As we journey onward, we get deeper and deeper into the water until it reaches taller than our heads. It’s like being in an aquarium, and we’re getting deeper into the sea than I’ve ever been just by swimming! It’s honestly pretty amazing; I can see all the ocean critters swimming next to us and there’s brightly colored coral and pebbles on the ground. Even though I still feel kind of freaked out and really just down in the dumps about this whole thing, my morale is boosted slightly by how incredible this dream has become again.
“Woah!” I exclaim as a school of flying fish leap out of the sea over our heads to cross the divide. Their scales glimmer in the setting sun like diamonds. They look beautiful, like angels almost.
“Damnit, Hong!” Catherine replies angrily from behind me, “You scared the shit out of me! You can’t shout like that!”
“Oh, sorry. My bad,” I sigh, careful not to turn to face her while talking, “I couldn’t help it! I’ll try not to do it again.”As we keep marching forward carefully, the sun above us continues to set and turns the sky from blue to orange-pink to pitch black. There’s a crescent moon over our heads, and I can see all the brightest stars and planets in the sky. It really does feel like we’ve been dreaming forever, and even though this dream is beginning to feel quite fantastic again, I want to wake up more than anything. I can’t help but think of all the things that await me in reality once I wake up, and it almost makes me feel homesick despite the fact that outside of my own head, I’ve been sleeping in my room this whole entire time.
I look down at Maggie, still wrapped around my shoulders. She isn’t moving, but she’s alive and breathing. Just passed out, maybe? I hope she won’t be stuck like this for the rest of the dream! I reminisce on our first encounter; I thought she was kind of annoying and I didn’t want her guidance. But now, I think it really would be nice for her to be the one taking the lead and telling us where to go! I have no idea where we are, and I can only hope that she truly meant what she said about the thing waiting at the end of the ocean for us.