The Arks: Over Heaven (by Ben)

Chapter 23: Aurora's Nightmare

Part 1/3

“Why, Samuel, why?” Aurora muttered to herself as she felt tears cloud her eyes, “You’re so much like him. Like Borealis. Why do I feel this way toward you? Even when I know you’d never muster the heart to be with someone like me?”

She blinked a little bit, and then she felt herself falling asleep.

~

Aurora found herself drifting through the night sky. There was a blue haze that filled her vision, and she looked down to see Terran High down below on the horizon. It was dark, yet the sky was filled with thousands of stars. The moon hung in the sky like an executioner’s axe, and it looked even larger than usual. It was a beautiful sight, but Aurora knew that she was in a dream.

“It sure is entrancing,” Aurora thought as her eyes clouded. She felt a searing pain in her left wrist, and she looked at it to see the implant gem still embedded deep into her flesh and bone. It seemed to glow with even more intensity, and as it did Aurora felt her mind grip and tear away, unknown locations popping up in her head at an alarming rate.

The stars above her began to shine intensely, blinding her eyes. She let out a shrill scream, and with a flash she felt herself in murky waters. She gasped as she sat up. She was in the swamp of the island, the one she promised herself never to travel into.

“No, no, I can’t be here,” Aurora murmured. She tried to get up, but she could not. She saw many dangerous creatures prowling the area, and she felt herself struggling to breathe. She felt strange things sucking on her arms, and she tilted her head to see leeches attaching themselves to her arms, and sapping away at her blood. She saw four people traveling in the distance, one of them more familiar than the others, so she cried out for help.

“HELP! HELP! HELP!” Aurora cried out.

But nobody came.

Suddenly there was another flash, and she found herself in large, grass plains. She looked around for a moment, and eventually spotted a boy in the distance with stiff shoulders and long, pure black hair that reached his shoulders. He still wore a graduation robe and had a graduation cap on. Aurora realized that she could move her limbs, so she got up from the ground and walked up to the familiar-looking boy.

“H-Hello?” Aurora asked timidly as she approached him. The boy jerked around, and Aurora noticed that there was a weird substance obstructing his face. They were almost like white blobs.

“YOU,” the boy said, “ARE NOT WORTHY OF ME.”

“What do you mean? I- I don’t know you!” Aurora shouted.

“OF COURSE YOU KNOW ME,” the boy said. He showed his wrist to Aurora, and she realized he had no implant.

“Samuel?!” Aurora gasped, “No, no it’s just a dream. What you’re saying isn’t real. Samuel’s my friend, he’d never say that to me-”

“WHO SAID WE WERE FRIENDS?” Samuel asked, his voice distorted. Aurora’s mind flashed to the night where the group were reunited near that beacon.

“What?”

“YOU HEARD ME,” Samuel replied in a distorted voice, “NO ONE EVER SAID WE WERE FRIENDS. WE ARE ALLIES. THEY ARE NOT THE SAME THING. MY ONLY FRIEND EVER IS STAR.”

Suddenly, the ground beneath them began to squirm, and a dodo bird rose into the air, the blobs around its face obstructing its features. Star. It glowed brightly, and Samuel held onto her tightly.

“MY ONLY FRIEND IS STAR. SHE’S BEEN AROUND LONGER THAN YOU EVER HAVE BEEN,” Samuel blurted, “YOU ARE NOTHING TO ME BUT AN ALLY TO HELP ME SURVIVE.”

“I-I don’t understand!” Aurora cried out to the sky, “WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME?!”

No matter how hard Aurora convinced herself that this was just a dream, just a nightmare, Samuel’s words still haunted him. Aurora was nothing to him. Samuel very much would never care about someone like her. They had only met because of the circumstances of the island.

Samuel didn’t care about her.

Laughter shook the plains, and Aurora turned around with tears in her eyes to see Neddy and Ruby pointing their finger at her and laughing away. They too, had white blobs covering their faces.

“Look at that loser!” Neddy called out, “Look at that emo brat loser! She will never find love like us!”

Ruby was holding onto his arm and laughed along with him.

“She ABANDONED us, and fled like the coward she is! Of course Samuel would never accept someone like HER.”