Dreamscape: Saving Alex

Chapter Three

"Crap, crap, craaaaaap!" I flicked off the last golden specks of dust from my shin. I must be dreaming. I had to be dreaming. There was no other explanation, except the absurd notion that the game had eaten me. I shook my head. I wasn't even going to go down that road. I was dreaming, but how could I wake up? Besides the fuzzy light, I couldn't see a thing.

My imagination worked overtime; terrifying ideas ran through my mind. Whatever was happening to me, it certainly wasn't real. Call it a dream, or maybe a hallucination. I didn't know what this was, and I really didn't care to find out. I just wanted it to stop.

"Wake up!" I ordered myself, pinching my arm. "Wake up!" I gave into the tears at the edge of my eyes. I shook with despair until I heard the Dreamscape theme song again. It played in a pattern of rustling leaves, squawking birds, and the shuffling of my own toes. The air buzzed in rhythm. It was different, fuller perhaps, than the game, but I still recognized the cheerful tune. It wasn't supposed to sound like that.

I frantically grabbed the ground. Cool dirt stuck beneath my fingernails, and sharp needles poked my fingers. A strong whiff of pine and sage assaulted me. Nothing was familiar. I had never wanted so badly to smell my mom's overly sweet cinnamon popcorn in my life. But it wasn't here, and I didn't want to be here either.

I yelped and scooted back, covering the top of my foot as something sharp punctured my skin. My bare feet dug into the ground, pushing me backwards until I stopped against the rough bark of a tree. A small trail of blood trickled down my foot where I'd been attacked.

I cried, which only made my vision worse. Nothing appeared from the rustling leaves. Nothing else crept towards me. I saw nothing. Yet I knew things moved just beyond my sight. I was scared. Vulnerability pinned me against the tree.

I waited until the throbbing in my foot became tolerable and pinched my arms again. A bruise grew near my elbow. Why couldn't I wake up? The fear I had brushed off at first now exploded. I couldn't breathe, I couldn't see, and I couldn't think.

And when I finally could see, I screamed. Not a silent whisper, but a full-blown scream that shook me from within. Unfolding around me was a world only hinted at in the video game. My mind was blown.

Holy crap! What was going on?

It was ridiculous. I mean, I had played this game for years and seen some beautiful paintings in art class. But what I saw now surpassed anything I had ever seen. Rich colors and angles blended together perfectly. Unlike in the scrub forests at home, layers of greens unfolded before me—bright green, dark green, forest, olive, jade, and lime.

My fingers itched to draw, to capture the details and add it to my wall at home. My trophies and ribbons proved I had natural talent, but nothing I drew at home compared to what I saw now. Even in the shadows, vibrancy existed. Neons and pastels flashed around me as birds flew from branch to branch. When they landed, clutching onto the undersides of the branches, I swallowed hard.

No matter how I admired the beauty, it scared me.

Squeezing my eyes shut, I made a wish. I didn't want much. I just wanted to wake up in my bed. When I re-opened them, I saw red and purple splotches on my arm from my manic pinching. It hadn't worked.

Something beyond my control was at play. I needed more time to figure it out, but I didn't think I would get it. Time was my enemy, at home and here. I had to move. Sitting here pinching myself wouldn't get me home and that's what I needed to do. Find a way home.

I thought back to freshman English and reading "Alice in Wonderland," and even further back to watching "The Wizard of Oz" when I was eleven. I wasn't the first girl to get stuck in a fantasy. Granted, I was real, and they were in stories...but it was all I had to go on. If Alice and Dorothy could find their way home, so could I. This would be a piece of cake. If this was Dreamscape, I already knew all the twists, turns, and crazy creatures here.