Meeting a Second Time Must Mean This Is Fate, Right?

“This way, run!” The white-haired girl grabbed my hand before sprinting through the trees, confidently making turns that I couldn’t even see in the darkness. I had probably never run this fast before, but the adrenaline kept me going. With every beat of my heart, I could feel the icy pinpricks that reminded me that there was a horde of flesh-eating monsters behind us.

Well, I guess I had said I’d wanted to see her face again, even if it was in a dream…

“I’m sorry we have to run so quickly, but it’s just for a little bit longer…even though I kicked that one off of you, these monsters all hunt in packs and they recover quickly…”

Her voice seems to be tickling my ears…how lovely…

This wasn’t the first time I’d experienced a recurring dream, but I was amazed at how exact my brain had been this time when it had reconstructed the details of this particular nightmare world. The monster-and-creepy-eyeball-filled forest we were running through now was the exact same as the one I had tried to avoid the last time I was here.

“Hold on to my hand, and do not let go, no matter how much it burns!”

That sounds nice, never letting go of your hand…

Yes, yes, of course I was scared, but since I knew this was just a nightmare I’d wake up from if anything really bad happened, I was also pretty calm. Especially since I wanted to float around thinking about the pretty girl whose hand I was now holding.

The hand that was now warming up rapidly as blue flames started to fan out from the girl’s back to form wings. By the time they stretched out to double her size, holding onto her hand felt like I was dunking my entire body in a pot of boiling water, but I still didn’t even think about letting go, because as the trees started to thin out, I finally understood her escape plan.

We were rushing towards a cliff. And of course, we were going to--

Ugh, I want to throw up.

I really shouldn’t have looked down, because all I saw was an endless abyss that made my head feel dizzy. My intuition told me that the pebble that I’d accidentally kicked when we lifted off still hadn’t reached the bottom of the pit. How wonderful.

“If you don’t like heights, why don’t you just look up at me instead?” I heard the Love of My Life call as she smiled down at my now upturned face. Brilliant blue wings, brilliant white hair…my angel…my love…

A piece of glass flew across my cheek, then another one, forcing me to look straight ahead instead of upwards. Even more shards of glass rained on the white-haired girl, but she didn’t stop flying. In fact, she sped up, trying to reach the floating rock platform that seemed to be in the middle of the chasm before the rain put out her fiery wings.

We made it just before her wings disappeared, and she gently guided me to the rock before resting her bare feet on it as well. She let go of my hand and swept off the shiny glass shards from her dress.

“Unfortunately, we’re going to need to take a break for a bit. I don’t recommend looking up, but even if the glass hits your skin, it won’t pierce it, though it does sting.”

“Are you an angel? A fairy? A ghost? A demon?” I blurted out.

The white-haired girl grinned, her violet eyes twinkling like stars again as she sat down with her legs crossed.

“Why don’t you tell me your name and find out? Your true name, of course.”

“Oh, I'm Amelia…” I replied, taking her lead and sitting down as well. The rock was cold, but well, so was everything here…

Except for her hand when she was flying…

Wait! Shoot, if she was actually a fairy, didn't that mean she could trap me here forever or something now that she knew my name?

“Hmm…that isn't your true name now, is it? Look me in the eye and tell me, won't you?”

“No! I’m not going to tell you my name! I know better than that!”

She laughed.

“I'm just jesting with you. I won’t hold you captive here, even if I get lonely.”

“Do you get lonely often?” I asked in a whisper.

“Well, not anymore now that I’ve met you.”

She smiled.

“The girl with the golden eyes and the jet-black hair, might you be some fairy yourself?”

“I don’t have golden eyes though? And my hair is dark, but I don’t think anyone would say it’s jet-black.”

“Well, here in the world of dreams, you can be anyone you want, you know.”

“You know this is a dream?”

“My name is Bea, by the way.”

“Bea! Hi! Nice to meet you, properly!”

“Enchanted.” She got up and grabbed my hand, pulling me towards the edge of the rock.

“We can’t stay here too long; the rock will crumble very soon.” I could see her gearing for a running start, so I quickly pulled her back.

“Can we rest just a little longer…my arm still kinda hurts from holding on so long before…”

“Oh, my, I was rather inconsiderate, wasn’t I?” Bea smiled as she let go of my hand before picking me up in her arms in a bridal carry.

“Is that better?”

“Wait, ah, what, how are you this strong?” I shouted. My dream intuition also told me I was blushing really hard, because you, know, this was so sudden, and now Bea’s face was so near to mine…

“You’ll need to put your arms around my neck, you know. For stability.”

“I…yeah….” I did as I was told, and this time I could definitely feel my face burning. I couldn’t look Bea in her eyes, so I burrowed my head in her neck…

Wait? What was I doing?!

“Ah, sorry! I didn’t mean to…” I quickly looked up to see her grin. Ah, her face was too close…

“You’re scared of heights, right? Don’t look down.” Bea started running again, finally jumping off into the sky, her body heating up as her wings appeared.

“I’m not too heavy, am I…?” I asked.

“No, this is a dream, so I have no problem doing this much.”

“If you say so…”

Even if this is a dream, am I allowed to be this happy? This scenario seems like something straight out of fantasy or fanfiction…

***

“That’s the Silverspirit River where we met. And there’s the Evervoid Lagoon, that body of water surrounded by those swirling whirlpools. And over there is the Glassmist Plain. It’s not actually made of glass, but I call it that since I’ve never seen it stop raining there the entire time I’ve been here.”

Bea had taken me to the top of an enormous hill made of skulls and bones that she had named the Heart of the Dead, and although it was definitely really creepy that we were sitting on human remains, it was also pretty cool being able to see so much of this nightmare world from up high.

“Have you been here long?” I asked.

“What does time mean in a dream? You should tell me yourself. When you wake up, how many hours will have passed?”

“Probably…six or seven?

“But you probably feel like you've been here forever, don't you?”

“Yeah, and…” I gulped. “I feel like I've known you forever, too.”

She put her hand up to her mouth as she smiled.

“I think it's morning, now.”

“What do you mean? It's just as dark as usual, except for the weird crescent moon spotl—”

And then, a gray and purple rooster bigger than an elephant appeared out of the sky with a loud yodel, crushing me before I had a chance to react.

Dammit.

Remind me to change my alarm tone…