The Realm of Silver

Chapter 1 | Strangest Dreams

The night had begun. The silvery light of a young moon fell on the ground and the trees outside, but none of the soft color penetrated the eerie bedroom. Alexis lay wide awake in her bed, unable to sleep. It was not that Alexis was unable to sleep. She was refusing to sleep. It was late at night, and she had to wake up early in the morning for her classes, but still she refused to sleep. Because sleep meant dreams, and it were the dreams that scared her to bits. For almost two weeks, she had been having these dreams. They were always the same. But an even more peculiar fact about these dreams were that every time she woke up, she could not remember what happened in those dreams. She knew the dreams were always the same, but she could not remember what she saw.

Alexis was exhausted. She knew she could not keep awake for much longer. She tried thinking of the dreams, trying her best to remember something, to try and understand why she was having these dreams and what they could mean to her. But she couldn't come up with anything.

She almost felt as if she were looking into someone else's dreams. As if these dreams did not belong to her.

What a weird idea, she thought.

Searching her brain for the memories she knew were not there, she drifted off to sleep - back to those dreams.

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It was around twilight, at a lonely road where no light could be seen either way for miles. After a moment, a black car came silently down the road. In it were a middle-aged couple, the wife holding what looked like a newborn baby in her arms.

Her daughter.

Anyone looking at them wouldn't have thought, even for a moment, that there was something unusual about them. They looked calm enough. A bit too calm, perhaps. However, no one could have known, what with the darkness that actually seemed to turn itself and veil them, that they were asleep. The darkness bended itself to cover the moving car from view as if by magic.

And then, suddenly the man driving the car snapped out of his sleep, only to see a dark, hooded figure standing in the middle of the road, the car about to collide into him. Without giving it a second thought, the man reacted, and the car swerved to the left, down a cliff.

The man had already died when the baby woke up. By some miracle, she was unharmed. But her father was dead and her mother seriously injured, unable to move.

Then the woman opened her mouth and, in a voice barely audible, said, "Leo... help,"

She seemed to be calling someone. And, indeed, a moment later a young man appeared. He seemed to have materialized out of thin air. Even though it was too dark for anyone to see clearly, the woman knew that it was whom she had called for.

The young man, Leo, looked at the woman with shock, and asked, "What happened?" His voice trembled.

"I- I don't know," was her reply.

"Come with me, I may yet be able to save you," he pleaded.

She shook her head.

"There is no hope for me now, but take my daughter..." she heaved in a deep breath, her breathing becoming scarce, "save her life, take her... my sister's house..."

And with those words, she breathed her last.

Leo reached out and cradled the baby in his arms. He took one last look at the wreck, a hint of moisture visible in his eyes, and disappeared into the night.

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Alexis awoke with a start. She'd had the same dream again. She did not understand why she kept having those dreams again and again. They had to mean something, right? She knew these dreams were not normal. She knew that. But what could possibly be the reason why she kept having the same dreams again and again? As Alexis slowly came to her sense, she realized that it was already morning. She squirmed out of bed, knowing that she would once again have to leave her thoughts behind and get ready for the day. She would have to forget about the dreams until night came, just as she had been doing for the past few weeks - disturbing weeks.