Coil of Worlds

Lara groaned in utter frustration, scrubbing her hands across her face. She huffed into the empty room in disbelief, “This can’t be happening to me.”

She nibbled on her bottom lip as she glanced around. It was supposed to be impossible to have the same dream again, wasn’t it?

With another quick glance around, Lara realized it was the exact same hallway from before, except this time the girls were gone. For a brief moment, she was optimistic. Maybe the children’s parents had found them.

She shook her head. The more probable answer was the two girls, afraid for their lives, ran away in search of a safer place to hide. She closed her eyes as she took a deep breath. In the middle of inhaling, she started coughing. She covered her mouth with the sleeve of her shirt. She leaned over as she tried to get her breath and rubbed away the tears from her eyes. How could she have forgotten the horrific smell?

Straightening again, Lara stifled a shrill shriek, emitting a barely heard squeak instead. Her cheeks heated, a telltale sign she was blushing like mad.

Dropping the material from her face, she stared with wide eyes at what she first thought was an apparition. A set of golden eyes popped out from a darkened corner. Their unwavering intensity made Lara feel like prey, and instinct had her stiffening and shifting her weight, readying to take flight at the least provocation.

But instead of searching for an escape route, Lara hesitated, struck by how alien the eyes were. Unlike the pale blue of the children, these golden eyes were interlaced with spidery tendrils of molten brown. She shivered in reaction with growing alarm. They were inhuman yet beautiful at the same time as they completed the face of an already imposing woman.

Why the hell was she standing there? Even as Lara questioned her sanity and her mind raced with half-formed plans of escape, the predatory gaze left her unable to break its hold on her.

The other’s voice shattered the silence. The words laced with self-confidence, the woman barked, “What are you called? How did you come to be in this room?”

The confidence was unnerving in an odd way. It wasn’t because she felt threatened, though she did. Instead, it had everything to do with the fact that Lara knew there was no way her voice could ever possess the same level of confidence. She tried to swallow and found her mouth had gone dry. She swallowed again with an audible click. Her voice came out like a breathless and bewildered teenager caught sneaking out of her bedroom window.

“I’m Lara Conners and I-I fell asleep and I c-came here.” She didn’t even think to lie. She took in a shaky breath when she realized something. She was telling someone in her own dream her name. In a dream! With a sudden surge of bravery, she asked, “Who are you?”

The other woman’s hawk-like face considered her, raking her gaze up and down Lara’s body, making Lara feel like she was being dissected, all her secrets on full display.

“Rayn is what I am called,” the woman’s deep and melodic voice answered after a long pause.

Giving Lara another long, assessing look, she spun around. Moving gracefully toward a side exit down the hallway, she said with absolute authority, “You will follow me.”

Lara’s head snapped up at the command. Commanding voice or not, under any other circumstances, Lara would have put her foot down with anyone giving her an imperious summons. Then she snorted, and her rising temper evaporated. Nothing would come of her if she decided to be momentarily cowed by the woman.

Shrugging her shoulders at the idea of following someone in her own dream, she jerked forward, her joints unlocking with difficulty. Lara glanced around in consternation. She’d already managed to lose the strange and forbidding woman. Then she made out an almost imperceptible difference between the tunnel and a subtle darkening of one section of the room. Barefoot, she hurried after the woman whose golden eyes turned to impatiently await her approach. Following the woman around the corner, Lara left behind the cluttered and filthy room for the tunnels beyond.

Lara woke up to sunlight filtering through the blinds. Glancing at the clock, she grimaced when she saw her alarm had been going off for ten minutes. She reached over and turned it off. Her alarm always reminded her of a service truck in reverse, making it nigh impossible to sleep through. She leisurely stretched before rolling out of bed.

Her dream had changed from a potential nightmare into a weird encounter. Tension leaked away after she looked down at herself. For some reason, Lara expected to see something different in her appearance. Even while she mentally berated herself for such a foolish thought, a shiver ran through her. Unlike most dreams, the details weren’t dissipating. She remembered those piercing eyes as they regarded her. She recalled the stench, and her nose scrunched up in reaction. Lara snickered, shaking her head at the absurdity of her fears. She needed to get ready for class instead of worrying about last night.