The Dreaming: Dark Star (Book 5)

7.1. Deserted (Imorah)

That very same night, 1500 miles away from Liran, Imorah has the following dream

I'm walking through B block past the small waterfall and I'm heading toward the library.

I turn a corner, but instead of the waterfall, I see an unfamiliar corridor. I'm confused. I turn around, but I don't recognise where I am. I'm lost. I've never been lost before. I see a corner up ahead and run to it, and look down and see another long, unfamiliar corridor. There's something I'm forgetting. I feel it deeply; there's something I'm forgetting.

I look back the way I came and see a figure. It's a man — a stranger — and he's coming towards me. There are no strangers in any of the reaches — I know every face. I'm scared and run to find someone to protect me from this man, but I don't know where I'm going. I look back and see that the man is chasing me; he has no face, just a blackness where his head should be. I run around another corner and find a wall. It's a dead end. I turn and see the figure is very close now.

Suddenly his black, shadowy face emerges — it's Brother Silas and he's towering above me, staring down with a vicious snarl on his face, like he's about to attack me. I cower, but nothing happens.

When I look up, I see that the man's face has changed. It's the man in the desert.

I can't move

He walks towards me and lifts his cane up to my face. I feel nothing as he drives the cane into my skull.

It doesn't hurt. Light begins pouring out of the hole in my forehead, and then I feel my skull begin to crack open. I lie down on the ground and die.

* * *

Imorah awoke with a start, feeling terribly afraid. It took a few panicked moments to realise she wasn't in her bed and that the roots dangling above her head weren't strange arms trying to reach for her. And then it took a few more moments for reality to slowly sink back in. A few truly painful moments of regret when she realised she was alone, and outside, and lost, and there were no Brothers or Sisters around.

She curled up in a ball, crying, and tried to fall back to sleep.

...

Moments or hours later, she wasn't sure, Imorah felt something change around her. She cracked open an eye and saw the sky was beginning to lighten. She was tired and would have rather continued sleeping, but her mind began racing.

The nightmare she'd had last night haunted her thoughts — Brother Silas. Who was Brother Silas? She'd never met anyone named Silas.

Or have I? She wondered. She was terrified that Silas might be from one of her forgotten memories, and wondered if he was searching for her in her dreams.

In any case, the nightmare was a bad omen.

She ignored the thoughts and opened her eyes to see the sun's first rays breaking over the horizon, and felt a thrill rise up that helped her forget everything else.

My first sunrise, she reminded herself. The confusion and fear of the night seemed to fall away.

What was left was a feeling inside her belly: hunger. But she had no food. She should crawl out of this cozy sleeping nook and find something to eat.

She sat up and saw something sparkling out of the corner of her eye. With the light of the sun, the space revealed many little sparkling ornaments decorating the niche. Shiny pieces of metal, pieces of mirror, sparkling stones and little clay figurines.

She turned and saw that she was lying on something. Crawling out of the hole, she saw an old rug on the ground and many other small objects. A little dish, dried flowers, some kind of dried plant, some crystals, a few candles and another bigger figurine that was sculpted into the wall with clay. She'd knocked all of it over last night when she'd crawled into the hole.