Life between two worlds

1

« ILIOS ! NOOOOO ! »

My poor eight-year-old brother, in the hands of a horrible person, a children kidnapper, who turns them into slaves, until death's gloomy veil surrounds those poor defendless little things to being them in its terrible kingdom...

I wake up with a start sweating. It is the worst nightmare I have made in my whole morose life !

I must see my older brother, quickly !

I immediately get up, failing at falling, then I run towards the opposite room which is my brother's bedroom. Never mind if I wake him up...

"Ilios ?"

No answer. Just a quiet place.

I turn on the light...

What is happening right in front of me fails me screaming !

My brother's bed is...EMPTY ! Nobody ! Just a book about the Middle Ages...

I did not dream, or...I am still in a nightmare ! Dreams, nightmares, real life, what is the difference ?

I try everything to wake me up : in vain !

Panicking, I run upstairs, failing collapsing in the stairs.

Once again, I catch the handle. Never mind if I wake Dad and Mum up ! I shout like a six-year-old child (what I am, actually) :

"DAAAAAD ! MUUUUUM ! ILIOS DISAPPEARED ! »

My parents jump out of the bed.

"What...What...what are you talking about ?"

Breathless after having run, I hardly articulate :

"I...Ilios is not...in his bedroom...I...make a nightmare...Ilios...has been...kindnapped...by...a naughty guy...there were...other children...guy's...slaves...until death..."

I cannot stop crying. Where has my brother gone ?

« Do not worry, sweet heart, we will find Ilios. »

I do not have any strengh left to pronounce a single word, my throat is tied ! Tears unleash on my face.

"Come, I will prepare you a good hot chocolate. It will pacify you. Then, you will try to sleep a little, is it okay ?"

I agree. I hope I will be able to go to sleep after such a nightmare !

Mum walks to my brother's bedroom while I stay with Dad in the kitchen for a while.

He puts a reassuring hand on my shoulder.

"So...what did you nightmared about, darling ?"

I swallow a long mouthful before answering him, trying to remember the more details as possible :

"I heard Ilios'voice.

He said he saw himself snatched, then transported to the Middle Ages, in a children jail ! Others seemed to be sleepy all the time. Their eyes were empty and their bodies were worse. They worked every day for a man dressed with a black cape whose hood hides the face. The children's work consisted of begging in the streets in town during morning, afternoon and evening, steal food from farmers, nobles and clergy, to bring it to that pitiless man. He called all children, make them drink a strange drink...And then, children became his slaves. When a child has become useless, that sinister person got rid of his or her corpse.

Only Ilios seemed to resist that horrible man's influence..."

A light of curiosity appears in my father's eyes.

"What ?

- Do not you find strange that Ilios contacts you thanks to a nightmare, that you have found a book about the Middle Ages opened in his bed, and that he is not here ?"

I shrug.

"I do not understand...

- Do you remember what your mother told you sometimes when she reads you a story ?

- Books make us travel and ever more, beyond imagination ?

- Exactly.

- What is the link with Ilios ?

- Well, do not you think that...

- But, Dad ! Ilios could not have disappeared, and finds himself in the Middle Ages !

- Really ?

- Of course, it is obvious !"

I laugh out loud.

"Fine. Errr...have you drunk all your chocolate ?

- Yes, why ?"

I start to yawn despite myself. We are Wednesday, very early in the morning.

"What about going back to sleep ? Do not worry about your brother..."

I raise my eyebrows, lightly perplexed. I stifle a second yawning.

"I know a little boy who needs a good night !

- Dad ! I am not three years old anymore !

- Yes, my boy ! But do not add more sleep disorder, you have enough ! Come, I go with you to your bedroom."

Dad takes my hand and closes the door behind him after having checked I am sleeping.