Lessons on Love

Forehead to Forehead

"Althea, I'm sorry."

The voice seemed to follow me as I walk through a long corridor. I couldn't remember how I got here but I felt tired, like I had been running and the adrenaline in my body had drained me and it felt like I was trudging through thick mud. My legs barely moved, my lungs burned from effort.

It didn't matter though because through the haze in my mind, I knew I had to get to the end of this corridor.

I had to.

As soon as the thought passed my mind, the large white double-door with golden handles that had been at the end of the corridor moved and stopped right in front of me.

This was it. I thought before swallowing thickly against the lump in my throat.

I reached out to turn the knob but as soon as I did, the door moved away again, like a game of cat and mouse; white washed walls stretched like latex and even the painting on them seemed to deform along with the patterns on the carpeted floor.

The door stops almost a hundred meters away from me.

"Althea..."

There it was again, that voice. At first I thought it had been Wila's but the longer I listened to it the more I realized that it was someone completely different. The voice sounded so foreign yet familiar. A stranger's voice that felt like...

Like home.

A sudden burst of light shined along the edges of the door and I could see shadows behind it, "Hello?" I called out. "Is anybody there?" Out of nowhere, the woman's gentle voice turns harsh with a warning, "You need to go! They might see you!"

Instead of scaring me away, I felt my feet begin to move towards the door. My heart thumping violently against my chest as my brisk walk turns into full sprint towards it. I could feel it. Something was there. Something important. I needed to get through that door and get it.

I manage to get within a few feet before my feet begin to lose traction, my shoes hitting the carpeted floor rapidly but not really getting me anywhere. Still, I kicked, scratched and jumped against the invisible force that was seemingly stopping me from reaching my destination; pushing my body to it's absolute limit. After a few moments of struggling against the invisible wall, it was like a string was suddenly cut from around my torso, arms and legs and I drop back on solid ground. After taking in a breath, I took off running towards the door then wildly slamming my shoulder against the door.

The wooden barricade flies open and I manage to register the bright sky and the rocks at under me as my momentum carried me to the edge of a high chasm.

I manage to stop my feet just before I could run myself off the seemingly bottomless cliff, "Whoa..." I breathe, my hands swinging lightly in order to keep me balanced on the crumbling edge of the rock face.

Despite the situation I wasn't scared. I didn't feel afraid. The darkness of the chasm seemed different, it wasn't black. It wasn't a shadow. It looked like dark, glossy pools of melted chocolate.