The Other Side

Chapter 1

The Other Side

Chapter 1:

It was a Friday morning, at daybreak. The sky was at its usual overcast firmament in a darkening broad of stormy clouds. The thunder, lightning and swirling clap of wind were substantial as it blew heavily against the trees.

 I, Lana Grey, could hear the ghostly sounds of the wind heavily blowing against my house as I lie comfortably beneath the covers of my bed, in a light slumber. Despite the whistling of the wind outside the white wooden walls of my house, I dreamt, though in fact I knew it was not a dream at all: it was most certainly made up of the obscurities a nightmare could convey.

I knew, even in my dreams, that the images I saw were just flashbacks of a frightening terror I had once experienced in reality.

 First, I re-witnessed the terrifying burning of several men and women, who had seemed rather innocent to me as a little girl and very young-even more so than my mother. They were the men and women who had been taken from their homes after their houses were searched thoroughly. No one knew what they found, but if they were tied to a post and burnt to death in front of the whole town, then we knew it must have been something horrible.

 Then, in a quick flash, as if the lightning had hit me right in the eyes to change the course of my nightmare, I found myself standing in front of the Wall.

 I wasn't my seventeen year old self anymore though; I was now myself at seven years old. I recognized this memory instantly.

 I, little Lana Grey, was standing on my side of the Wall, the North Wall, dressed in my Dora the Explorer shirt andmini skirt that my mother had bought for me for my sixth birthday. It had fit me for another two years.

 The strong swirls of wind were blowing my waves of red hair in front of my eyes. My younger self had no idea what she was doing there, though I, facing the nightmare myself and remembering clearly, knew that it had been the screams on the south side of the Wall which had drawn me in, fixated towards the Wall in the first place.

 In my dream, I watched myself move closer and closer to the Wall, illegally crossing the line drawn by the council by means of Mayor Christopher's orders. I continued to walk up to it until little me was facing the silver-coated Wall. It was much like a force field- like the ones you see in the movies- up close, though it was not see-through at all. In her small mind, young Lana thought it must have been built by means of magic.

 I watched as my smaller self flinched, when again the roaring screams on the other side of the Wall sounded. Mayor Christopher said that the Wall was very much sound-proof to the human ear, though it did not seem at all sound-proof to little Lana from that moment on. In fact, the screaming was quit loud- deafening, one could say.

 Instead of taking a step back or turning around and fleeing the situation, dream Lana stepped closer to it and touched it with her petite little hand. I remembered it feeling smooth and cool to the touch, kind of like glass, though it wasn't quite the same. I could remember hearing a small buzzing sound that seemed to be making my hand tingle under its touch. Now that I thought about it, I believe it had sounded and even felt much like an electrical current. It looked like a wall of oddly silver-painted bricks, but at the same time, it was nothing even remotely likea wall of bricks.

 Suddenly, under the touch of little Lana's hand, I watched the Wall ripple like a wave. I remember now that- under the wave of the Wall- my hand had started to tingle even more, like pins and needles, and I watched little Lana quickly removed my hand from it. As soon as little Lana did that, the rippling stopped.

 I watched as little Lana Grey began to turn away, suddenly afraid again, until she heard another small noise on the other side of the Wall, much like a whisper. The noise coaxed Lana to approach the Wall once again. I knew, as I watched-having experienced this situation once before- that this was not good.