Into the Unknown

Charlotte’s Perspective:

I dreamt of the Circus since we saw it, of swinging on the trapeze, swimming like the mermaids, and even flying. My mind is in utter buzz about everything that the Circus introduced to me, my Papa remains steadfast in his convictions that that is the closest to fantasy I will ever get, and so I deiced that I want to join the Circus, like Mama would have had her own mother not died years prior.

We’re in Church as this thought runs though my mind. Papa is to my right, while Mama is to my left, Sasha besides my Mama so we don’t play with eachother while at Church which we used to do when we where both a lot younger, and we’ve told them this, but they still think it’s best to keep us separated.

A large grin on my face as we’re bowing our heads to pray, at least they think I am as I whisper another the new wish of mine, “I wish to join the Circus…”

“No you do not!” Papa shouts while glaring at me, as the whole service hears him, he blushes which is the first time I’ve seen him embarrassed. Mama glances awkwardly at him as he falls silent, “sorry.” He says aloud once more then goes back to praying as we all are.

I giggle thinking this is funny when I feel my Mama’s hand gripping my thigh, “Be proper, we’re in Church,” she whispers to me.

I don’t understand Church, it’s every bit as fantasy to me as my Papa is telling me that my dreams are. “Why, isn’t this Fantasy?” I ask my Mama and my Papa bolts up. But realizes where he’s at and sits back down.

“Charlotte, if your not going to participate in reality, then go wait in the atrium and keep quiet.” Papa tells me as I stare at him.

“This isn’t reality.” I tell him, scooting past Mama, and then Sasha down the center aisle as all eyes are on my leaving, I get to the large glass doors and leave for the atrium as requested and walk forward, only to hear the doors open again, and Sasha bounds out.

“We’re in Church, Lotty, you shouldn’t be making Papa mad here.”

“If they get to believe in some invisible person in the skies, then I get to believe in my own world. In my own dreams that I have seen, it doesn’t make sense that only they get to believe in the fantasy of some higher power aiding them, and I don’t get to believe in riding a giant fish…”

I was already going to head outside, the sun is high in the air and humid when we arrived, my layered dress sticking to my skin, and inside isn’t much better, there is a pond in the back that I head for as Sasha follows.

“It’s far too hot today, why not come swimming with me?” I ask her as I see the old rope swing on a tree branch overlooking the pond, where during summer events we’d come and swim, but today isn’t such a day.

With darkening clouds high in the skies off in the distances, I do know rains are coming. Still if we’re going to get wet, I might as well get soaked. A gazebo off to the side for those wanting to get out of the sun as there aren’t many trees back here for shade

“No,” she tells me as she follows me close to the edge of the pond, the waters giving off such a cooling breeze I take hold of the rope and twist it around my legs so I can kind of sit, or hang from it like they did in the Circus.

“I’ve deiced I’m going to join the Circus,” I tell my sister who looks at me curiously.

“Really?” She answers with enthusiasm, “you’d look so neat.”

As I swing from the rope, I try to act like the women I saw hanging, the Mistress of Death during the final act of the performance as she did battle against the large skeleton that was marionette by those inside. It was so awesome.

Although eventually my legs give out from trying to hold the rope to long and dangling over the waters, I fall in with a splash, and Sasha giggles, “Lotty, your going to get in even more trouble with Papa…

She falls silent as we both look towards the opposite edge of the shore line as a snowy owl has landed in a tree. We both know about Sue and something sinks in my as the bells chime from the Church, and folks are filtering out, the front entrances at an angle so you can see the pond as soon as you leave the Church.

Thunder booms behind me as I start to panic, and race for the shores, but my clothing is weighing me down as the Owl screeches and my Papa and Mama turn to face the shores as they leave the building.

“Charlotte!” My Papa shouts as they both run towards the pond when I hear a pop and my vision blurs…my arms seizing all activities.

Sasha’s Perspective:

Papa runs forward, stripping his suit jacket as another lightning strikes the lake behind our church. The jacket lies before me as he dives into the waters while my Mama looks to the edge of the shoreline. Lotty having been in the waters trying to prove a point to Papa when the sudden storm came upon us, lightning striking the waters as Lotty remains motionless where she was and Papa grabs her, swimming her back to shore as quickly as he can, panting and soaking he carries her with grace over to the near by gazebo, shouting orders. As those that lingered after the service to talk with friends and catch up gather from the disruption.

Running to follow them I have tears in my own eyes as I see Lotty laying on the planked floor, motionless as one of the church goers is our family doctor, and joins Papa. He then begins by getting her dress jacket off her and starts to do compression as he looks up, staring at my Mama, then I. “Muriel, get Sasha out of here!”

“Lotty!” I sob, while my Mama grabs my arm and pulls me away, I see my papa’s panicked face, even possibly crying, but he’s still wet from just swimming.

Everyone is trying their best to stay out of the way as someone shouts they’ll call an ambulance.

Charlotte’s Perspective:

I see myself drifting aimlessly above my body in a gazebo, my sister being pulled hard by Mama, she’s crying…both of them are and the group of Church goers all gathering around to help, I wonder what has happened as thunder cracks and I shudder, seeing the storm clouds close by when I am pulled, my sight is pulled to a snowy white owl in a near by tree, and it’s watching me as I travel away from this. I recall seeing that same face in my dream while I road the Betta Fish, as if a guide, Sue, she’s Sue.

I am turned around as my form is but light, but I still have hands and legs, a general outline of my body, yet bare. Ascending toward the sun now which becomes eclipsed and I am sucked forward. “I don’t want to die yet…” I think I say as the Snowy Owl soars up to me.

Flying with me as best she can, staring at me, as if softening this experiences as the sun appears far closer then I’ve ever seen.

Toward the sun Sue soars with me and it’s as if I’m being suffocated as I am sucked into the black hole like sun as white feathers from large wings beat and I follow though a tunnel as the white feathers are numerous and falling before fading in this void. My ears a buzz with sounds I don’t quite know how to describe, like the static you’d hear from a radio once the broadcast ends. I see the large bird, flying and soaring, spiraling and laughing as it echos in the emptiness on though onto it’s other side of this tunnel as I stare back, my form no longer mine as my human body remains behind and I am cast far out into space as nothing more then a sphere with many long tails.

My sight upon the world drifting away from me, although I don’t understand how I have eyes, I can see my form, but a ball of light with long tails leading away from me, dragging toward the Earth as I am far from it, staring, wandering what is going on, why am I like this?

The bird flies back toward me as her wings spread above me as I look up to see the huge form of Sue as she flies forward, positioning herself below me and I’m locked in sync with her, traveling on her back.

Dancing forms of shadows gain colors as the forms of animals take shape from the circus all around me now as many take shape of outlines as wisp before their forms solidify as Tasmanian Tigers, they all stand on their hind legs and exude human like characteristics as they look to be cheering while rocking back and forth, and then I understand what this is, I did die, and this is somehow my mind trying to comprehend my death.

A soft spoken voice much like my mother’s sends forth complements as I remember my dream from that night in my Papa’s study.

“Radiant. Glorious. Lovely.”

“Mama,” I realize I have a voice in this new form as the voice echos off into space around me, I see thousands of stars but I can’t move, or if I am, there is no noticeable differences.

Storm clouds channel past my form, or what ever I am as a large and deep wine colored dragon with a fiery mane flies past me, long and thin like a snake as it starts doing a figure eight within the gathering of dark clouds that grow turbulent from it accelerated pace. Soon covering it’s form as all I can see are the flames of the figure eight before even that dwindles and a dark and frightening form moves, something giant and far larger then Earth that I have stopped drifting from, rather I am moving toward it on the back of Sue as her laughter continues to echo.

Far larger then even I—as if I where an ant—steps over me, and I recognize the pant legs. My Father walks around the Earth and stands behind her, staring with sinister intent at her. As his form begins to smolder with flames arising around him until it’s but black smoke forming a wolf, and looming over the Earth.

Rising his claws around her and encasing her so that she’s caged with his fingers as I am sent forward. Scared and afraid a light shines brightly from a star far behind me and shadows dance over our form.

I soar beneath the wolf’s gaze and as I get close and see that one of its eyes, the right one glows red, with a slit pupil while the other contains many eyes of different color. Being fearful as the colored ball that I am dims to a gray as I enter Earth’s atmosphere and hear her screeching as Sue’s laughter halts.

“Sue!” I call out to it, I can’t believe this is real. She flaps her wings and give me a side eye over her shoulder.

“Oh how I’ve been waiting for this day.” A woman's voice echos, also with a spring to it. “Charlotte, don’t be afraid of what you’ll experience here. God’s preparing you for what you’ve wished.”

“What I wished?” I question, yet no response as we fly over Earth, her form so much larger and we soar over the lands.

Slowing, she begins gliding, her wings no longer beating as I witness the structures that have been built up by man starting with a city, and what I am familiar with and continue on, but then it just stops, progress slows to a stop as I soar over a highway leading into a city I’m not familiar with.

“The world is changing.” Sue answers my unasked question.

The roads are congested with motor vehicles that have all stopped as trees and roots take hold of the city and grow at a rapid rate, consuming all man made structures as nothing is left and I being to see people, happy and content, yet no longer wearing what I am familiar with. As my brief stay here watches them in simple clothing, crossing a rope bridge. We pick up speed as my color changes to orange as I get excited as the world expands to far more land masses before me as if a painting stretches out. Zooming over her at blinding speeds, which I feel no resistance to as I would expect winds to pass me, but none do.

“The world is far more expansive then you could have ever imaged.” She again narrates our adventure though where ever she’s taking me and I think back to the lightning…

We pass over the lands I once knew, all overgrown with large trees that continue to grow around me. Coming upon an ice wall where I thought the Antarctica was and into the outer lands that while alive I knew nothing about and the thought of death creeps in, as I stare at the huge owl that I’m hovering above as she’s flying, we’re both flying. “I’m dead?” I hear my childlike voice whisper the question. My color dimming at the thought.

What we’re passing vanishes as instead a large crowed standing around the familiar gazebo and their concussive chatter filling my ears as she flies closer. The crowed vanishes so it’s just the gazebo, but still chattering from those inside. I see my family within as it’s walls vanish and now I just hear my family.

“Is she really dead?” Sasha asks, as my mother as she’s pulls her away.

“Not again…” My mother says, thinking more of Papa as I understand that much.

They too vanish as now we’re flying really close to the enlarging scene of my Papa doing chest compression on my while staring at me with frantic eyes, trying to revive me.

“No! You can’t have her. Not another one!”

He lies his head on my chest, listening for a heart beat as all I can hear are the beating wings of Sue, and my Papa’s raspy breath, he’s not speaking…

“Please God, don’t let Death take her!”

He goes back to doing chest compression on my lifeless body as my mouth hangs open, my eyes closed, and my body moving only with his force on my chest.

“You can’t take her, you can’t!”

Sue flies over the scene, quiet as can be as I try to look back and watch, trying to hear my dad’s continual pleads for my own life.
“You can’t have her!” He tries listening for my heart again, but rises and goes to do more chest compression's when I see my mother’s hand come over his shoulder, and he looks back at us, I see tears in his eyes, he’s so tired looking, he never wanted this to happen, but it now has and I’m sad that I had a part in his mental break down here. The scene vanishes as we’re high over the skies again.

“Yes…and no.” The owl speaks, her voice hushed, “Your about to jump in consciousness, so I don’t expect you to understand yet…” She’s kind, yet stern, her voice humbles me.

“I died…” I question myself, seeing what I just did, I died, I am dead, and I’m not going to ever be alive again…

As we soon pass mountains my form seems to change once more, I regain legs and arms, yet my body is but glowing light, I fall atop the Owl and am riding her as I see the lands shake and quake, as if fabric was being batted for cleaning, I feel the bumps as they pass below me and then the world curves above skyward as I gaze upon the turning lands as around us, rushing waters are knocked-up into the skies and fill the air above me, while the Owl evades them as she carries me. Landmasses below begin to be carried upon the waters and embedding themselves into the skies and I feel as if it’s all cradling me. Many more landmasses fracture and follow the flows of water around, moving with the wake of the ocean as they are sent over my head, above me, cracking and loosing their original shape due to the quakes. Yet they never fall back down, their they remain. Stationary, yet flowing along the turbulent currents.

“Mother Tara is forming, God’s giving you a visual.” The Owl tells me, I wonder if it’s really Sue that I am on as she looks back at my glowing form. “I am Shu Fang, the Burden of Greed.”

I feel warmth behind me as I see the sun, it’s color changing to a softer blue yet still as radiant and becoming the center of the world as my form drifts closer to the lands now, and I see many giant trees, a jungle even as I and Shu Fang soar over the lands and past large creatures that trample the ground…

Dinosaurs!

“There are Dinosaurs here?” I exclaim, marveling as she glides past them coming closer to the ground. Herds of them, some duckbills grazing from a far while a stampede of triceratops and other scatter. Out of the jungle behind me I see what is causing them to stampede as many Tyrannosaurs rush them. I try to hurry, I try to make my form soar faster, but as I am skirting the lands, their forms are passing right through us as if I’m not even here.

We leave the clearing as the Tyrannosaurs corner a young calf separated from the herd. And over the ocean waters, pass a large floating whale that eyes me, she notices us as we pass her and I know her for some reason.

“Edith, Burden of Gluttony, though I doubt you’ll need to see her.” We’re soaring closer to the waters below as pods of dolphins leap around me as I follow, even Betta Fish are mixed in with them, just as large as I hear clatter, as if millions of babies all talking at once, oohing and aahing around me.

“Telepathy, we all have that ability…we hear all.”

But soon waters turn to land once more as we soar over the lands while I past many odd looking creatures and peoples of different shapes and colors but I recognize structures like homes and buildings before coming to lands with many rocky spires and an overgrown jungle, surrounded by huge trees, like sky scrapers that kiss the clouds high above them. Then I see tree roots arching their way into the skies and we come closer and Shu Fang’s form begins to brighten as I am.

“Seems we’re to depart soon, we’ll meet eventually so until then, have fun with yourself.” Her form completely deteriorates as I lose grasp on her feathers and fall, while gliding still, but the ground comes ever closer, spying crystal clear waters as I see Betta Fish swimming in them and traveling over the trail that I took with that girl to ride the Betta Fish. Closer and closer to the fallen tree that’s huge.

A woman with pale skin and pretty blueish violet hair is floating over a large hole where the tree once stood and moving her arms and body about acting upon some invisible force that drags the red drapes of her clothing around her. She looks like she’s dancing upon the winds. I don’t think she even notices me like that whale did but I slow, coming to what looks like a hedge maze and I see many children inside it, but a group of them are still, and one is even in a blue bubble as I head for that one, with zero control for where I’ll end up.

Slowing down even more, below me a ball of water sits, just floating there above the ground that has vines starting to ensnaring it. For a moment I am still, and then my form plunges though no guidance of my own into the ball where for a moment I am greeted to amber eyes that gaze as me before I am flipped, and my eyes blink as the waters around me fall to the ground the vines back off.

She stands… we stand as I am in her body now, yet I am in no way in control, rather I am just staring though her eyes as if I am her. She examines her self acting like she was just shocked. She is in a simple brown tunic much like I recognized from the girl that I saw in the vision…am I am now in her body?

“What happened?” I hear her voice ask as she questions aloud, she doesn’t seem to be any older then. “I have to speak with Priestess Kayla about this…”