Search for the Soul Gem

Chapter Fifty-Five

     I woke up in my bed. The sun was slipping through my curtains that covered my windows, birds singing in the distance and the city even further in the distance. I opened my eyes through the haze of sleep and looked around the room. Around me was the room from my Brownstone in Brooklyn. I'd almost forgotten what it looked like. The hardwood floor with my $10 rug that I'd found at Goodwill. The fireplace that had been turned into storage for all the books that overflowed from the bookshelves that littered around my house. Pictures of my parents and Thalia and Africa were scattered across the ledge above the fireplace. I stirred slightly and looked around my room. On the table next to the bed, my cell phone vibrated. I turned to it and picked it up. 

     "Hello?" I answered. 

     "Did you just get up?" Thalia asked. Her voice sent a pain shooting through my entire body and I felt like I couldn't move. I lost the ability to talk or even breathe. Tears formed in my eyes and fell down my face, "Uh, Luc? Are you there?" she asked. 

     "Thalia," I finally managed to force out a shaky breath. 

     "Lucy, what is wrong? What's happened?" she asked. I sat up in my bed but I still couldn't figure out what was going on. 

     "Thalia, you-you died," I stuttered. There was a heavy silence on the other end of the line. It was only broken by her sudden laughter. 

     "You must have had some kind of wild nightmare. You need to lay off the ice cream before bed," she said. 

     "It can't be a dream. I felt it when you died and then there was Tony-"

     "Tony? Tony who?" she interrupted. 

     "Tony Stark? The genius," I said. 

     "Now I know it was a dream. Tony Stark is a comic book character. He's not real," she said. My mind was racing. 

     "What are you talking about, I met him," I said quietly, rethinking everything that I'd thought I'd known as fact. 

     "Honestly Lucy, are you feeling okay. Do you need to go to the doctor?" Thalia asked. I didn't know what to do. Every time I thought about it, it seemed to real. All the pain and emotion that I'd felt, felt too real to have been a dream. But then Thalia was on the other side of the phone. Alive and breathing. Could it really have all been just a dream? I reached around next to my bed until I found my laptop resting where I always left it. Once it was open and loaded I pulled opened the internet. When I typed in Tony's name, the first time that popped up was a Wikipedia page. "Iron Man is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books..." Was it all really just a dream, "Lucy?" she said again. 

     "I-I guess you're right. It was just a stupid dream," I conceded. But part of me still didn't believe it. 

     "Lucy," there was a long pause, "Lucy," a loud crash erupted around me. 

     I jumped up from the ground and looked around. The room was not the room in my house or was it Tony's. It took my brain a second to remember that it was the same room that I'd been waking up in for the past two days. The one Loki put me in. I sat deflated and defeated by the windows that looked out over the vast mountains. I still have no idea where we were. These mountains were like none I had ever seen. I pulled my knees to my chest. All this up and down was making me question what was real and what wasn't. Was Tony really in love with me or had I fallen for a Ponzi? Were my parents on a cruise or had they been killed by a drunk driver on their way home? Was Tony even real? Was any of this even real or was it all a convoluted dream? I sat in dizzy confusion for a long time, trying to sort out my memories. From down the hall, there suddenly was a harsh cry. I jerked my head up toward the door. I waited cautiously for the door to fly open and reveal Loki or anyone really. After a few minutes of nothing, I decided to pull myself up and investigate. I made a cautious path toward the door. My fingers shook slightly as I reached out for the door handle. It turned freely in my hand, allowing the door to open for me. The hallway was completely see-through and glass, looking out on the wood frames of the building. I walked along the hallway quietly. The hallway led back into the mountain behind. It shifted from a blinding white to almost nothing in a jarring second. I brought my hand out to feel my way down the hallway. My fingers ran along the jagged rocks to keep my blind eyes from walking me into a wall. This walkway seemed to stretch on forever in front of me in spanning nothingness. I wondered if this was real or if it was another insane dream tasked to disorient me. Before I could dwell on that thought for much longer, a sudden door flew open; casting white light into the hallway. I stopped and pressed myself into the wall as much as I could. A shadow appeared in the doorway, his eyes glowing like a cat's in the dark. He swung his head over to me and his devilish smirk glowed from the light behind him. 

     "Curiosity killed the kitty cat doctor," he croaked out. I swallowed hard and took a step back, "but that's okay. You're right on time. I need your hand," he said, striding over to me. I tried to turn and run but he grabbed my wrist. I cried out but I knew it was useless. No was here to hear me.