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There is a story I have to tell, but I do not know how it ends.
Stories linger. There's a place I know where stories come to gather, where they drift around until someone grabs onto them, and if they're worth catching, a good person, someone with an ounce of decency in their veins, they'll shine that story until they can show the world what caught their eye about it in the first place.
But then, some stories tend to shine on their own.. but this story, this here.. this isn't a great story that does so. This is one that I understand I have to shine, to polish. And to be honest, I never really knew how to do that. I was never a good person, that way.
So you're going to have to trust me on this. I apologise in advance.
There is a place called Amneshire. It's where the souls of the dead go after they die, or perhaps more importantly, are forgotten about. Some never realise they're dead. After all, how often in a dream do you question it's existence?
They say love will make you do crazy things. But then, is there anything else in the world that's truly worth fighting for? Truly worth dying for?
Grix Thraves stood in the road. Cars sped past him on either side, not noticing him. After all, why would anyone notice an imaginary friend?
Now Grix had been an imaginary friend for longer than time can count. He had been seen by a few creatures over time, but none that were as special as she. None as special as Renna.
She had grown old with him. Instead of giving up on the childhood fantasy of imaginary friends, she decided that she wanted to stay with him for the rest of her life. And that, she did. On her deathbed, with Grix not aged a single day from the moment she'd met him, she told him very softly that she couldn't have imagined a sweeter life than the one she had spent with him.
Leon, another imaginary friend, watched as Grix did something he wasn't sure he was able to do. He broke down and cried.
You must understand that imaginary friends, above all, question themselves as being real. They do not believe they can feel things like love, pain, fear. Yet, Leon watched as Grix broke down and cried whilst the doctors and nurses around Renna tried to resuscitate her, completely ignoring their presence.
Renna was dead.
Grix wasn't even sure if he even could die.
Yet the car threw him backwards, and he felt a terrible pain as the wheels chewed up his body.
------------
How do you wake yourself from a dream? Some people never question their existence, never believe for a second that this couldn't be real. Some people however, never feel the grasp of reality in their lifetime.
Is our journey before death simply preparation to what lies beyond it? Do our actions and thoughts in life represent what we will become after we die?
How strong must we be, for when we die, to hold our identity? How strong must we be, when we dream, to hold our morals? To hold ourselves true?
Love will make fools of us all.
Grix walked between the wooden buildings, constructed gently and swayed in the wind, kicking up sand and twisting it around the small town. Where perhaps you would find a moon in the night sky, there was simply a giant sleeping cat face. In daylight, it watched the land and it's people.
This was Amneshire. The place where lost souls end up.
If you didn't hold on to your identity, you would lose yourself in a place like this. You're become another faceless creature, lost, walking around and distracted by the thought that there was nothing left to gain.
Wooden buildings, and a tall sign that hung the word 'Transport' over the sand below it. A tavern stood before him with an open door.
-------------
Leon found Grix's body crumpled and broken at the side of the street. Nobody would ever notice it, nobody would ever mourn it. An invisible body that lay in the gutter.
"Oh.. you idiot. You damn idiot."
Some questions are too big for some people. They're too big for all people, but some have the courage to try and answer it with the best that they know.
Grix killed himself to go to where souls go to rest. In this life, he was immortal. He gave it up to try and find the person he loved.
Some questions are too big.
-------------
When you find someone who can feel in a way that perhaps you cannot, sometimes they help you to feel again too. Their love in their heart is a passion so incredible that even those so set in their ways can be overwhelmed by the power of it all.
Sometimes you don't want to lose that person. And sometimes, you want what's best for them. Something that, if they didn't do, they would always regret.
Renna could be lost. Renna could be another faceless person in a world of people who had forgotten who they were.
Can you ever remember the beginning of a dream? It's not known, but for the few first moments, you realise you're in one. You only have a few seconds to drag yourself out of it, before you're lost again.
Lost to the wind of imagination.
Leon injected his body with the serum. He thought of Romeo and Juliet, the tragic lovers, and the same poison on which he used into his veins. He didn't know if it would work. He didn't know how long he'd be dead for. Perhaps even, he may not come back at all.
But this was for the most noble cause of all. When so many people do not believe in love, when they believe they cannot feel it.. you want to hang on close to the ones that truly do. The ones that light up when they talk about other people. The ones that really care.
And these are the stories that really matter. The stories that will always be timeless because love.. love is the greatest challenge, the greatest adventure, of them all. It was something worth fighting for.
Leon injected the poison into his arm.
Something worth dying for.
--------------
You only have a few moments before the dream takes you. It will reach into and pull your identity from you, and you're left only as a shell of a person, your original intentions shattered and lost. Nobody deserved that.
Leon stood.. faceless people walked past him, side by side. All going about whatever they had learnt to do in their life. Whatever they had felt comfortable doing..
Any of these faceless creatures could be Grix. Leon started shouting across the crowd.
"Grix! GRIX! WHERE ARE YOU? GRIX?"
Faceless people completely ignored him.. and in a matter of moments, he'd be lost too. Lost to the sea of dreams.
"GRIX!"
Leon ran through the crowd.. desperately trying to find an inch of hope, something that might help him recognise..
Why had he done this.. this was hopeless..
The change from the known to the faceless is never pretty. The known fades away, never appearing again.
Leon rushed into the tavern, a faceless bartender serving faceless men at the bar.. all reliving their lives, doing exactly what they feel comfortable with..
Leon felt his mind drifting.. becoming free.. leaving the world of thoughts behind..
What you become comfortable with..
In the corner, a faceless creature was playing piano.
"Grix.. GRIX!" Leon yelled, as he fought through the crowd to get to the piano player.
The pianist continued to play, ignoring Leon's shouting.
Leon began to turn faceless.
"GRIX!"
Faceless men and women around him fell over each other as Leon stumbled forwards.. and finally caught the faceless pianist in his arms.
"Your name is Grix Thraves. Your name is Grix Thraves!"
The pianist stopped playing and looked at Leon, who had almost completely lost his features now.
"You came here to find the person you fell in love with. Remember her! Her name was Renna Ulazier! No-one made you as happy as she did. She was ill, and you were her imaginary friend. You looked after her! You cared for her.. You found something in her that sparked life in you."
Leon fell to the floor.
The pianist sat there for a moment.
I guess you can't really ever wake someone from a dream so easily. Unless you remind them of the things that really, truly, mattered to them.
"Leon?" The faceless man asked.
"Leon.." Leon replied.. "That's.. that's my name."
"Leon, where are we?"
"Leon.. I'm here to help you Grix. I came in here to help you find Renna."
Grix's face began to slowly return.. he stared at his arms as they faded back into view.
Leon lifted himself up. Suddenly he felt a terrible pain in his lower back.
"Why.. why did you come in here, Leon? I was.. I came in here looking to see if anyone could help me find Renna, then.. I just saw the piano.."
"I came in here.." Leon's pain was getting stronger. "Because I know how useless you are on your own."
"Hey, Leon.. stick with me now.. fight the pain. You're switching."
"I.."
"Your name is Leon Ralphalski. You created me, long before we met Renna. I was your imaginary friend, and then you died. Remember? You've been here before Leon. Your name was Ralph back then, does that help? Then you came back to me, as another imaginary friend. Renna made you real. Just like we made so many creatures real, Ralph."
"You're a fox?" Leon asked.
Grix stood in a long brown dufflecoat and jeans, his long bushy tail between his legs. "And you're a wolf, Leon."
Leon felt his face, the fur against his paw.
"All these faceless people here.. they're lost, Grix." Leon looked around the room. "They believe they're just doing whatever makes them comfortable. How will we ever find her?"
Grix sat down in the chair. "She could be anywhere by now. But.. I know I came here for her. I know now. I'm going to search for her."
"Then I'll come with you." Leon said. "I poisoned myself Grix, to come in here and help you, but it won't last. I don't know how long I've got."
Grix paused to take that in. "I don't know what to say."
"Thanks would be nice."
"Well.. yeah but, you risked a lot to come here Leon."
"It's for good reason. Now, where do we start?"
-----------
The town of Transport was very small, but had it's own train station, like all towns in Amneshire. Lost souls could travel away from Transport if they felt like they were missing something, if they couldn't find anything worth staying in the dream for.
Can anyone become suicidal in a dream? Can they lose their will to live, when their world is exactly as they'd desire?
"I guess sometimes the dream isn't enough." Leon said, watching the train. "Suicide for the soul."
The pair walked to the train just as it was leaving, and watched the souls inside stare vacantly out of the windows.
I suppose it was the nature of things. If everything lasted forever, there wouldn't be any room. Advancement came from the fear of death, of ending. And like the souls here, they're ready to move on, to be cast aside. Who knew where the train truly went, where it's last stop was.
Sometimes, in a dream, you don't need to be told what things do. You just know. Grix winced a little as the train started to pick up speed.
"Any later and I might have been on that train, Leon." Grix said. "I know that track's a one way line. I know the creatures on there.. they don't want to come back. They.."
Grix's eyes met Renna's.
And at that moment, she realised who she was.
"She's on the train." Grix said, running to catch up with it as it sped away.
"What.. you saw her?"
"She's on the train, I saw her eyes, it's her, Leon, it's her! She's on the train and she's going to be taken away!"
Leon looked around.
"She's going to lose her soul Leon! She's throwing it all away!"
Grix watched as the train sped out of view.
--------
Renna fought backwards through the crowd of people, unable to move inside the carriage.
"Stop the train! Stop the train!" She yelled, but nobody paid attention. The carriage was full of people who had found no use for their soul, who were lost without that something to keep them alive.
"What have I done.." Renna said to herself. She clambered through the crowd of people, and managed to get to the back door.
No handle.
She shook herself against it, threw her shoulder against the window, banged.. but..
Wait.. what was that?
----------
"Kick the damn thing in the belly, kick harder! Yaa!"
Grix and Leon rode the two horses as hard as they could, galloping along the side of the rail track that led towards the train.
"Faster! Come on!"
Leon rode like a pro, kicking his heels into the underside of the horse, which kicked up sand with every hoof, holding himself up by his legs over the saddle below him.
Grix was focused. He'd never ridden before but for some reason he knew exactly what he was doing. He had to get to that train.
The two horses began to gain on the train, which had started a downhill roll into what seemed to be a bridge up ahead.
Renna kicked at the door, desperately trying to break it open.
Grix and Leon moved from riding side by side down the hill, their horses slowing down as not to slip, and galloped in a single line behind the train, which passed over the bridge.
Grix looked down to the chasm below on which the bridge crossed.. a darkness that seemed to travel on forever.
"Look up, Grix. You really don't want your horse to slip here."
Grix took up the reins and slowed down the horse a little, then kicked it onwards towards the train.
The bridge finished, and continued onwards.. Leon and Grix rode either side of the train, with Renna screaming to them from inside the carriage.
Grix rode close to the end of the carriage, and swung himself down..
"Leon, Leon I need you to help me.."
You never know how long a dream will last. It seems to happen in an instant. Your memories of the dream, are they real, or were they part of the dream itself?
Leon had vanished. His time was over.
"Grix, open the damn door."
Grix looked through the glass at the cat that looked back at him. She was young again, young in her looks, young in her mind.
"Renna.." Grix shouted. "There's no handle."
Renna looked through the glass and tears began to form in her eyes.
She spoke quietly, but Grix could read her lips.
"I don't want to die." She said. "Not now."
It is said that love makes you do crazy things.
"Jump off Grix." She shouted. "Jump off before the train gets to the end."
The dead end for the soul.
"I'm not going anywhere." Grix shouted. "You're going to come back with me. Leon's going to revive me, then we're going to bring you back, as an imaginary creature. Just like us. We'll be together forever, back in the real world. Nobody can ever see you but you get used to it."
"Grix.. I can't get out."
"Did you try all the other doors?"
"They're locked shut. They don't have handles either."
Grix motioned Renna to move back, and he tried smashing the glass with his fist.
"Jump off Grix, before it's too late!"
"I'm not going anywhere!" Grix repeated, getting angry.
"Grix.."
Renna looked up at Grix through the glass.
"For me. Please. I don't want the last thing I see to be you dying."
"I'm not giving up.. I'm not!"
"Grix.. you gave me more in life that I could ever ask for. You showed me how to love, you showed me how to smile. How to truly feel for someone when I thought I could never feel again. How to love someone unconditionally, how to never ask for anything in return, even though you gave me so much, you gave me the world Grix. You gave me the world and I can't spend my last moment knowing that you died foolishly trying to save me."
Grix stood staring at Renna, listening to her.
Tears began to roll down Renna's face. "I know you love me. I know that. But this is foolish. You have so many people that you could help. So many lives that you could change. You can't give all that up for me."
"I can't let you go Renna." Grix said, before crying himself. "I can't let you go!"
"Yes you can. You must. You must do it for me because if I have to watch you do something dumb yet again you'll ruin every single thing we ever had. You hear me? It'll ruin everything. And if you don't jump off this train right now I'm going to claw my eyes out, and I'm not kidding because I can't bare to watch you die and I'd rather suffer in my last moments than see you do it."
Grix broke down crying and fell against the glass. "I can't let you go Renna."
"Do it in the name of love, Grix. Your heart is too special. Use it to help everyone around you. And if you want to remember me then do so, but know I always loved you. I love you Grix. I love you so much. Don't make me watch this."
The train began to pass through a dark tunnel, a tunnel with no end.
"I.."
"Leave me Grix. Leave now while you still can."
"I love you Renna. I love you so damn much."
"I love you too Grix."
"You were always stronger than me." Grix said. "You were always so strong."
Grix turned around, blinking through tears, and jumped off the train.
He fell to the floor, landing on the railway.. and the last thing he saw was Renna mouthing something to him.
"Thank you."
And the train passed through into the darkness.
Stories linger. There's a place I know where stories come to gather, where they drift around until someone grabs onto them, and if they're worth catching, a good person, someone with an ounce of decency in their veins, they'll shine that story until they can show the world what caught their eye about it in the first place.
But then, some stories tend to shine on their own.. but this story, this here.. this isn't a great story that does so. This is one that I understand I have to shine, to polish. And to be honest, I never really knew how to do that. I was never a good person, that way.
So you're going to have to trust me on this. I apologise in advance.
There is a place called Amneshire. It's where the souls of the dead go after they die, or perhaps more importantly, are forgotten about. Some never realise they're dead. After all, how often in a dream do you question it's existence?
They say love will make you do crazy things. But then, is there anything else in the world that's truly worth fighting for? Truly worth dying for?
Grix Thraves stood in the road. Cars sped past him on either side, not noticing him. After all, why would anyone notice an imaginary friend?
Now Grix had been an imaginary friend for longer than time can count. He had been seen by a few creatures over time, but none that were as special as she. None as special as Renna.
She had grown old with him. Instead of giving up on the childhood fantasy of imaginary friends, she decided that she wanted to stay with him for the rest of her life. And that, she did. On her deathbed, with Grix not aged a single day from the moment she'd met him, she told him very softly that she couldn't have imagined a sweeter life than the one she had spent with him.
Leon, another imaginary friend, watched as Grix did something he wasn't sure he was able to do. He broke down and cried.
You must understand that imaginary friends, above all, question themselves as being real. They do not believe they can feel things like love, pain, fear. Yet, Leon watched as Grix broke down and cried whilst the doctors and nurses around Renna tried to resuscitate her, completely ignoring their presence.
Renna was dead.
Grix wasn't even sure if he even could die.
Yet the car threw him backwards, and he felt a terrible pain as the wheels chewed up his body.
------------
How do you wake yourself from a dream? Some people never question their existence, never believe for a second that this couldn't be real. Some people however, never feel the grasp of reality in their lifetime.
Is our journey before death simply preparation to what lies beyond it? Do our actions and thoughts in life represent what we will become after we die?
How strong must we be, for when we die, to hold our identity? How strong must we be, when we dream, to hold our morals? To hold ourselves true?
Love will make fools of us all.
Grix walked between the wooden buildings, constructed gently and swayed in the wind, kicking up sand and twisting it around the small town. Where perhaps you would find a moon in the night sky, there was simply a giant sleeping cat face. In daylight, it watched the land and it's people.
This was Amneshire. The place where lost souls end up.
If you didn't hold on to your identity, you would lose yourself in a place like this. You're become another faceless creature, lost, walking around and distracted by the thought that there was nothing left to gain.
Wooden buildings, and a tall sign that hung the word 'Transport' over the sand below it. A tavern stood before him with an open door.
-------------
Leon found Grix's body crumpled and broken at the side of the street. Nobody would ever notice it, nobody would ever mourn it. An invisible body that lay in the gutter.
"Oh.. you idiot. You damn idiot."
Some questions are too big for some people. They're too big for all people, but some have the courage to try and answer it with the best that they know.
Grix killed himself to go to where souls go to rest. In this life, he was immortal. He gave it up to try and find the person he loved.
Some questions are too big.
-------------
When you find someone who can feel in a way that perhaps you cannot, sometimes they help you to feel again too. Their love in their heart is a passion so incredible that even those so set in their ways can be overwhelmed by the power of it all.
Sometimes you don't want to lose that person. And sometimes, you want what's best for them. Something that, if they didn't do, they would always regret.
Renna could be lost. Renna could be another faceless person in a world of people who had forgotten who they were.
Can you ever remember the beginning of a dream? It's not known, but for the few first moments, you realise you're in one. You only have a few seconds to drag yourself out of it, before you're lost again.
Lost to the wind of imagination.
Leon injected his body with the serum. He thought of Romeo and Juliet, the tragic lovers, and the same poison on which he used into his veins. He didn't know if it would work. He didn't know how long he'd be dead for. Perhaps even, he may not come back at all.
But this was for the most noble cause of all. When so many people do not believe in love, when they believe they cannot feel it.. you want to hang on close to the ones that truly do. The ones that light up when they talk about other people. The ones that really care.
And these are the stories that really matter. The stories that will always be timeless because love.. love is the greatest challenge, the greatest adventure, of them all. It was something worth fighting for.
Leon injected the poison into his arm.
Something worth dying for.
--------------
You only have a few moments before the dream takes you. It will reach into and pull your identity from you, and you're left only as a shell of a person, your original intentions shattered and lost. Nobody deserved that.
Leon stood.. faceless people walked past him, side by side. All going about whatever they had learnt to do in their life. Whatever they had felt comfortable doing..
Any of these faceless creatures could be Grix. Leon started shouting across the crowd.
"Grix! GRIX! WHERE ARE YOU? GRIX?"
Faceless people completely ignored him.. and in a matter of moments, he'd be lost too. Lost to the sea of dreams.
"GRIX!"
Leon ran through the crowd.. desperately trying to find an inch of hope, something that might help him recognise..
Why had he done this.. this was hopeless..
The change from the known to the faceless is never pretty. The known fades away, never appearing again.
Leon rushed into the tavern, a faceless bartender serving faceless men at the bar.. all reliving their lives, doing exactly what they feel comfortable with..
Leon felt his mind drifting.. becoming free.. leaving the world of thoughts behind..
What you become comfortable with..
In the corner, a faceless creature was playing piano.
"Grix.. GRIX!" Leon yelled, as he fought through the crowd to get to the piano player.
The pianist continued to play, ignoring Leon's shouting.
Leon began to turn faceless.
"GRIX!"
Faceless men and women around him fell over each other as Leon stumbled forwards.. and finally caught the faceless pianist in his arms.
"Your name is Grix Thraves. Your name is Grix Thraves!"
The pianist stopped playing and looked at Leon, who had almost completely lost his features now.
"You came here to find the person you fell in love with. Remember her! Her name was Renna Ulazier! No-one made you as happy as she did. She was ill, and you were her imaginary friend. You looked after her! You cared for her.. You found something in her that sparked life in you."
Leon fell to the floor.
The pianist sat there for a moment.
I guess you can't really ever wake someone from a dream so easily. Unless you remind them of the things that really, truly, mattered to them.
"Leon?" The faceless man asked.
"Leon.." Leon replied.. "That's.. that's my name."
"Leon, where are we?"
"Leon.. I'm here to help you Grix. I came in here to help you find Renna."
Grix's face began to slowly return.. he stared at his arms as they faded back into view.
Leon lifted himself up. Suddenly he felt a terrible pain in his lower back.
"Why.. why did you come in here, Leon? I was.. I came in here looking to see if anyone could help me find Renna, then.. I just saw the piano.."
"I came in here.." Leon's pain was getting stronger. "Because I know how useless you are on your own."
"Hey, Leon.. stick with me now.. fight the pain. You're switching."
"I.."
"Your name is Leon Ralphalski. You created me, long before we met Renna. I was your imaginary friend, and then you died. Remember? You've been here before Leon. Your name was Ralph back then, does that help? Then you came back to me, as another imaginary friend. Renna made you real. Just like we made so many creatures real, Ralph."
"You're a fox?" Leon asked.
Grix stood in a long brown dufflecoat and jeans, his long bushy tail between his legs. "And you're a wolf, Leon."
Leon felt his face, the fur against his paw.
"All these faceless people here.. they're lost, Grix." Leon looked around the room. "They believe they're just doing whatever makes them comfortable. How will we ever find her?"
Grix sat down in the chair. "She could be anywhere by now. But.. I know I came here for her. I know now. I'm going to search for her."
"Then I'll come with you." Leon said. "I poisoned myself Grix, to come in here and help you, but it won't last. I don't know how long I've got."
Grix paused to take that in. "I don't know what to say."
"Thanks would be nice."
"Well.. yeah but, you risked a lot to come here Leon."
"It's for good reason. Now, where do we start?"
-----------
The town of Transport was very small, but had it's own train station, like all towns in Amneshire. Lost souls could travel away from Transport if they felt like they were missing something, if they couldn't find anything worth staying in the dream for.
Can anyone become suicidal in a dream? Can they lose their will to live, when their world is exactly as they'd desire?
"I guess sometimes the dream isn't enough." Leon said, watching the train. "Suicide for the soul."
The pair walked to the train just as it was leaving, and watched the souls inside stare vacantly out of the windows.
I suppose it was the nature of things. If everything lasted forever, there wouldn't be any room. Advancement came from the fear of death, of ending. And like the souls here, they're ready to move on, to be cast aside. Who knew where the train truly went, where it's last stop was.
Sometimes, in a dream, you don't need to be told what things do. You just know. Grix winced a little as the train started to pick up speed.
"Any later and I might have been on that train, Leon." Grix said. "I know that track's a one way line. I know the creatures on there.. they don't want to come back. They.."
Grix's eyes met Renna's.
And at that moment, she realised who she was.
"She's on the train." Grix said, running to catch up with it as it sped away.
"What.. you saw her?"
"She's on the train, I saw her eyes, it's her, Leon, it's her! She's on the train and she's going to be taken away!"
Leon looked around.
"She's going to lose her soul Leon! She's throwing it all away!"
Grix watched as the train sped out of view.
--------
Renna fought backwards through the crowd of people, unable to move inside the carriage.
"Stop the train! Stop the train!" She yelled, but nobody paid attention. The carriage was full of people who had found no use for their soul, who were lost without that something to keep them alive.
"What have I done.." Renna said to herself. She clambered through the crowd of people, and managed to get to the back door.
No handle.
She shook herself against it, threw her shoulder against the window, banged.. but..
Wait.. what was that?
----------
"Kick the damn thing in the belly, kick harder! Yaa!"
Grix and Leon rode the two horses as hard as they could, galloping along the side of the rail track that led towards the train.
"Faster! Come on!"
Leon rode like a pro, kicking his heels into the underside of the horse, which kicked up sand with every hoof, holding himself up by his legs over the saddle below him.
Grix was focused. He'd never ridden before but for some reason he knew exactly what he was doing. He had to get to that train.
The two horses began to gain on the train, which had started a downhill roll into what seemed to be a bridge up ahead.
Renna kicked at the door, desperately trying to break it open.
Grix and Leon moved from riding side by side down the hill, their horses slowing down as not to slip, and galloped in a single line behind the train, which passed over the bridge.
Grix looked down to the chasm below on which the bridge crossed.. a darkness that seemed to travel on forever.
"Look up, Grix. You really don't want your horse to slip here."
Grix took up the reins and slowed down the horse a little, then kicked it onwards towards the train.
The bridge finished, and continued onwards.. Leon and Grix rode either side of the train, with Renna screaming to them from inside the carriage.
Grix rode close to the end of the carriage, and swung himself down..
"Leon, Leon I need you to help me.."
You never know how long a dream will last. It seems to happen in an instant. Your memories of the dream, are they real, or were they part of the dream itself?
Leon had vanished. His time was over.
"Grix, open the damn door."
Grix looked through the glass at the cat that looked back at him. She was young again, young in her looks, young in her mind.
"Renna.." Grix shouted. "There's no handle."
Renna looked through the glass and tears began to form in her eyes.
She spoke quietly, but Grix could read her lips.
"I don't want to die." She said. "Not now."
It is said that love makes you do crazy things.
"Jump off Grix." She shouted. "Jump off before the train gets to the end."
The dead end for the soul.
"I'm not going anywhere." Grix shouted. "You're going to come back with me. Leon's going to revive me, then we're going to bring you back, as an imaginary creature. Just like us. We'll be together forever, back in the real world. Nobody can ever see you but you get used to it."
"Grix.. I can't get out."
"Did you try all the other doors?"
"They're locked shut. They don't have handles either."
Grix motioned Renna to move back, and he tried smashing the glass with his fist.
"Jump off Grix, before it's too late!"
"I'm not going anywhere!" Grix repeated, getting angry.
"Grix.."
Renna looked up at Grix through the glass.
"For me. Please. I don't want the last thing I see to be you dying."
"I'm not giving up.. I'm not!"
"Grix.. you gave me more in life that I could ever ask for. You showed me how to love, you showed me how to smile. How to truly feel for someone when I thought I could never feel again. How to love someone unconditionally, how to never ask for anything in return, even though you gave me so much, you gave me the world Grix. You gave me the world and I can't spend my last moment knowing that you died foolishly trying to save me."
Grix stood staring at Renna, listening to her.
Tears began to roll down Renna's face. "I know you love me. I know that. But this is foolish. You have so many people that you could help. So many lives that you could change. You can't give all that up for me."
"I can't let you go Renna." Grix said, before crying himself. "I can't let you go!"
"Yes you can. You must. You must do it for me because if I have to watch you do something dumb yet again you'll ruin every single thing we ever had. You hear me? It'll ruin everything. And if you don't jump off this train right now I'm going to claw my eyes out, and I'm not kidding because I can't bare to watch you die and I'd rather suffer in my last moments than see you do it."
Grix broke down crying and fell against the glass. "I can't let you go Renna."
"Do it in the name of love, Grix. Your heart is too special. Use it to help everyone around you. And if you want to remember me then do so, but know I always loved you. I love you Grix. I love you so much. Don't make me watch this."
The train began to pass through a dark tunnel, a tunnel with no end.
"I.."
"Leave me Grix. Leave now while you still can."
"I love you Renna. I love you so damn much."
"I love you too Grix."
"You were always stronger than me." Grix said. "You were always so strong."
Grix turned around, blinking through tears, and jumped off the train.
He fell to the floor, landing on the railway.. and the last thing he saw was Renna mouthing something to him.
"Thank you."
And the train passed through into the darkness.
Very nice indeed. I for one find it ifficult to add the element of... je ne sais pas. The removal of fantasy fiction from fact, the easy injection of which that works so well here.
I can't say that I'm a fan of the style, which jumps around a lot, but given the nature of the story, and it's context, it's probably the ideal method.
Enjoyed.
I can't say that I'm a fan of the style, which jumps around a lot, but given the nature of the story, and it's context, it's probably the ideal method.
Enjoyed.
Thanks very much tnc, I was quite emotional writing this, the very last scene really hit me as I viewed it with my visual imagination, I have no idea if I really put it across as well as I saw it.
tnc wrote:
> And I'll finish with a question - was the animals and the
> references to a previous life showing that these imaginary
> friends were once people?
It's more to do with 1) I like animals and 2) If I'm going to make up a story involving an alternative heaven, or life after death, maybe I should distance myself from humanity in a way.
tnc wrote:
> And I'll finish with a question - was the animals and the
> references to a previous life showing that these imaginary
> friends were once people?
It's more to do with 1) I like animals and 2) If I'm going to make up a story involving an alternative heaven, or life after death, maybe I should distance myself from humanity in a way.
First, powerful stuff.
The empathy with the imaginary friend and use of questions to seemingly convey man's own internal battle worked well, as did the use of the narrator to tie the segments of what was happening together. I thought it fitted the 'short story' category pretty neatly (far better than most I've read) by the distinct separating lines, almost like chapters, breaking the story into manageable parts and making it seem complete, rather than something that was knocked off straight onto the 'net.
The theme of sacrifice for "the name of love" is one most would consider reasonably obvious, which was why I thought your handling of it was pretty damn good.. making it into something involving and thought-provoking :c) Now, this is how I perceive this, feel free to correct me ... the musing on what worries an individual most, of becoming lost and simply fading from existence because there is no-one around to remember you down the generations (explored through Renna's loss) was poignant.
Again the moral message towards the end, of always staying true to one's aims, lest you become another 'faceless' person was effective, as was the surreal quality of Amneshire, with the revelation of Grix and Leon appearing as animals.
Top notch writing. And heh, I liked the use of your own name ;c)
And I'll finish with a question - was the animals and the references to a previous life showing that these imaginary friends were once people?
The empathy with the imaginary friend and use of questions to seemingly convey man's own internal battle worked well, as did the use of the narrator to tie the segments of what was happening together. I thought it fitted the 'short story' category pretty neatly (far better than most I've read) by the distinct separating lines, almost like chapters, breaking the story into manageable parts and making it seem complete, rather than something that was knocked off straight onto the 'net.
The theme of sacrifice for "the name of love" is one most would consider reasonably obvious, which was why I thought your handling of it was pretty damn good.. making it into something involving and thought-provoking :c) Now, this is how I perceive this, feel free to correct me ... the musing on what worries an individual most, of becoming lost and simply fading from existence because there is no-one around to remember you down the generations (explored through Renna's loss) was poignant.
Again the moral message towards the end, of always staying true to one's aims, lest you become another 'faceless' person was effective, as was the surreal quality of Amneshire, with the revelation of Grix and Leon appearing as animals.
Top notch writing. And heh, I liked the use of your own name ;c)
And I'll finish with a question - was the animals and the references to a previous life showing that these imaginary friends were once people?
There is a story I have to tell, but I do not know how it ends.
Stories linger. There's a place I know where stories come to gather, where they drift around until someone grabs onto them, and if they're worth catching, a good person, someone with an ounce of decency in their veins, they'll shine that story until they can show the world what caught their eye about it in the first place.
But then, some stories tend to shine on their own.. but this story, this here.. this isn't a great story that does so. This is one that I understand I have to shine, to polish. And to be honest, I never really knew how to do that. I was never a good person, that way.
So you're going to have to trust me on this. I apologise in advance.
There is a place called Amneshire. It's where the souls of the dead go after they die, or perhaps more importantly, are forgotten about. Some never realise they're dead. After all, how often in a dream do you question it's existence?
They say love will make you do crazy things. But then, is there anything else in the world that's truly worth fighting for? Truly worth dying for?
Grix Thraves stood in the road. Cars sped past him on either side, not noticing him. After all, why would anyone notice an imaginary friend?
Now Grix had been an imaginary friend for longer than time can count. He had been seen by a few creatures over time, but none that were as special as she. None as special as Renna.
She had grown old with him. Instead of giving up on the childhood fantasy of imaginary friends, she decided that she wanted to stay with him for the rest of her life. And that, she did. On her deathbed, with Grix not aged a single day from the moment she'd met him, she told him very softly that she couldn't have imagined a sweeter life than the one she had spent with him.
Leon, another imaginary friend, watched as Grix did something he wasn't sure he was able to do. He broke down and cried.
You must understand that imaginary friends, above all, question themselves as being real. They do not believe they can feel things like love, pain, fear. Yet, Leon watched as Grix broke down and cried whilst the doctors and nurses around Renna tried to resuscitate her, completely ignoring their presence.
Renna was dead.
Grix wasn't even sure if he even could die.
Yet the car threw him backwards, and he felt a terrible pain as the wheels chewed up his body.
------------
How do you wake yourself from a dream? Some people never question their existence, never believe for a second that this couldn't be real. Some people however, never feel the grasp of reality in their lifetime.
Is our journey before death simply preparation to what lies beyond it? Do our actions and thoughts in life represent what we will become after we die?
How strong must we be, for when we die, to hold our identity? How strong must we be, when we dream, to hold our morals? To hold ourselves true?
Love will make fools of us all.
Grix walked between the wooden buildings, constructed gently and swayed in the wind, kicking up sand and twisting it around the small town. Where perhaps you would find a moon in the night sky, there was simply a giant sleeping cat face. In daylight, it watched the land and it's people.
This was Amneshire. The place where lost souls end up.
If you didn't hold on to your identity, you would lose yourself in a place like this. You're become another faceless creature, lost, walking around and distracted by the thought that there was nothing left to gain.
Wooden buildings, and a tall sign that hung the word 'Transport' over the sand below it. A tavern stood before him with an open door.
-------------
Leon found Grix's body crumpled and broken at the side of the street. Nobody would ever notice it, nobody would ever mourn it. An invisible body that lay in the gutter.
"Oh.. you idiot. You damn idiot."
Some questions are too big for some people. They're too big for all people, but some have the courage to try and answer it with the best that they know.
Grix killed himself to go to where souls go to rest. In this life, he was immortal. He gave it up to try and find the person he loved.
Some questions are too big.
-------------
When you find someone who can feel in a way that perhaps you cannot, sometimes they help you to feel again too. Their love in their heart is a passion so incredible that even those so set in their ways can be overwhelmed by the power of it all.
Sometimes you don't want to lose that person. And sometimes, you want what's best for them. Something that, if they didn't do, they would always regret.
Renna could be lost. Renna could be another faceless person in a world of people who had forgotten who they were.
Can you ever remember the beginning of a dream? It's not known, but for the few first moments, you realise you're in one. You only have a few seconds to drag yourself out of it, before you're lost again.
Lost to the wind of imagination.
Leon injected his body with the serum. He thought of Romeo and Juliet, the tragic lovers, and the same poison on which he used into his veins. He didn't know if it would work. He didn't know how long he'd be dead for. Perhaps even, he may not come back at all.
But this was for the most noble cause of all. When so many people do not believe in love, when they believe they cannot feel it.. you want to hang on close to the ones that truly do. The ones that light up when they talk about other people. The ones that really care.
And these are the stories that really matter. The stories that will always be timeless because love.. love is the greatest challenge, the greatest adventure, of them all. It was something worth fighting for.
Leon injected the poison into his arm.
Something worth dying for.
--------------
You only have a few moments before the dream takes you. It will reach into and pull your identity from you, and you're left only as a shell of a person, your original intentions shattered and lost. Nobody deserved that.
Leon stood.. faceless people walked past him, side by side. All going about whatever they had learnt to do in their life. Whatever they had felt comfortable doing..
Any of these faceless creatures could be Grix. Leon started shouting across the crowd.
"Grix! GRIX! WHERE ARE YOU? GRIX?"
Faceless people completely ignored him.. and in a matter of moments, he'd be lost too. Lost to the sea of dreams.
"GRIX!"
Leon ran through the crowd.. desperately trying to find an inch of hope, something that might help him recognise..
Why had he done this.. this was hopeless..
The change from the known to the faceless is never pretty. The known fades away, never appearing again.
Leon rushed into the tavern, a faceless bartender serving faceless men at the bar.. all reliving their lives, doing exactly what they feel comfortable with..
Leon felt his mind drifting.. becoming free.. leaving the world of thoughts behind..
What you become comfortable with..
In the corner, a faceless creature was playing piano.
"Grix.. GRIX!" Leon yelled, as he fought through the crowd to get to the piano player.
The pianist continued to play, ignoring Leon's shouting.
Leon began to turn faceless.
"GRIX!"
Faceless men and women around him fell over each other as Leon stumbled forwards.. and finally caught the faceless pianist in his arms.
"Your name is Grix Thraves. Your name is Grix Thraves!"
The pianist stopped playing and looked at Leon, who had almost completely lost his features now.
"You came here to find the person you fell in love with. Remember her! Her name was Renna Ulazier! No-one made you as happy as she did. She was ill, and you were her imaginary friend. You looked after her! You cared for her.. You found something in her that sparked life in you."
Leon fell to the floor.
The pianist sat there for a moment.
I guess you can't really ever wake someone from a dream so easily. Unless you remind them of the things that really, truly, mattered to them.
"Leon?" The faceless man asked.
"Leon.." Leon replied.. "That's.. that's my name."
"Leon, where are we?"
"Leon.. I'm here to help you Grix. I came in here to help you find Renna."
Grix's face began to slowly return.. he stared at his arms as they faded back into view.
Leon lifted himself up. Suddenly he felt a terrible pain in his lower back.
"Why.. why did you come in here, Leon? I was.. I came in here looking to see if anyone could help me find Renna, then.. I just saw the piano.."
"I came in here.." Leon's pain was getting stronger. "Because I know how useless you are on your own."
"Hey, Leon.. stick with me now.. fight the pain. You're switching."
"I.."
"Your name is Leon Ralphalski. You created me, long before we met Renna. I was your imaginary friend, and then you died. Remember? You've been here before Leon. Your name was Ralph back then, does that help? Then you came back to me, as another imaginary friend. Renna made you real. Just like we made so many creatures real, Ralph."
"You're a fox?" Leon asked.
Grix stood in a long brown dufflecoat and jeans, his long bushy tail between his legs. "And you're a wolf, Leon."
Leon felt his face, the fur against his paw.
"All these faceless people here.. they're lost, Grix." Leon looked around the room. "They believe they're just doing whatever makes them comfortable. How will we ever find her?"
Grix sat down in the chair. "She could be anywhere by now. But.. I know I came here for her. I know now. I'm going to search for her."
"Then I'll come with you." Leon said. "I poisoned myself Grix, to come in here and help you, but it won't last. I don't know how long I've got."
Grix paused to take that in. "I don't know what to say."
"Thanks would be nice."
"Well.. yeah but, you risked a lot to come here Leon."
"It's for good reason. Now, where do we start?"
-----------
The town of Transport was very small, but had it's own train station, like all towns in Amneshire. Lost souls could travel away from Transport if they felt like they were missing something, if they couldn't find anything worth staying in the dream for.
Can anyone become suicidal in a dream? Can they lose their will to live, when their world is exactly as they'd desire?
"I guess sometimes the dream isn't enough." Leon said, watching the train. "Suicide for the soul."
The pair walked to the train just as it was leaving, and watched the souls inside stare vacantly out of the windows.
I suppose it was the nature of things. If everything lasted forever, there wouldn't be any room. Advancement came from the fear of death, of ending. And like the souls here, they're ready to move on, to be cast aside. Who knew where the train truly went, where it's last stop was.
Sometimes, in a dream, you don't need to be told what things do. You just know. Grix winced a little as the train started to pick up speed.
"Any later and I might have been on that train, Leon." Grix said. "I know that track's a one way line. I know the creatures on there.. they don't want to come back. They.."
Grix's eyes met Renna's.
And at that moment, she realised who she was.
"She's on the train." Grix said, running to catch up with it as it sped away.
"What.. you saw her?"
"She's on the train, I saw her eyes, it's her, Leon, it's her! She's on the train and she's going to be taken away!"
Leon looked around.
"She's going to lose her soul Leon! She's throwing it all away!"
Grix watched as the train sped out of view.
--------
Renna fought backwards through the crowd of people, unable to move inside the carriage.
"Stop the train! Stop the train!" She yelled, but nobody paid attention. The carriage was full of people who had found no use for their soul, who were lost without that something to keep them alive.
"What have I done.." Renna said to herself. She clambered through the crowd of people, and managed to get to the back door.
No handle.
She shook herself against it, threw her shoulder against the window, banged.. but..
Wait.. what was that?
----------
"Kick the damn thing in the belly, kick harder! Yaa!"
Grix and Leon rode the two horses as hard as they could, galloping along the side of the rail track that led towards the train.
"Faster! Come on!"
Leon rode like a pro, kicking his heels into the underside of the horse, which kicked up sand with every hoof, holding himself up by his legs over the saddle below him.
Grix was focused. He'd never ridden before but for some reason he knew exactly what he was doing. He had to get to that train.
The two horses began to gain on the train, which had started a downhill roll into what seemed to be a bridge up ahead.
Renna kicked at the door, desperately trying to break it open.
Grix and Leon moved from riding side by side down the hill, their horses slowing down as not to slip, and galloped in a single line behind the train, which passed over the bridge.
Grix looked down to the chasm below on which the bridge crossed.. a darkness that seemed to travel on forever.
"Look up, Grix. You really don't want your horse to slip here."
Grix took up the reins and slowed down the horse a little, then kicked it onwards towards the train.
The bridge finished, and continued onwards.. Leon and Grix rode either side of the train, with Renna screaming to them from inside the carriage.
Grix rode close to the end of the carriage, and swung himself down..
"Leon, Leon I need you to help me.."
You never know how long a dream will last. It seems to happen in an instant. Your memories of the dream, are they real, or were they part of the dream itself?
Leon had vanished. His time was over.
"Grix, open the damn door."
Grix looked through the glass at the cat that looked back at him. She was young again, young in her looks, young in her mind.
"Renna.." Grix shouted. "There's no handle."
Renna looked through the glass and tears began to form in her eyes.
She spoke quietly, but Grix could read her lips.
"I don't want to die." She said. "Not now."
It is said that love makes you do crazy things.
"Jump off Grix." She shouted. "Jump off before the train gets to the end."
The dead end for the soul.
"I'm not going anywhere." Grix shouted. "You're going to come back with me. Leon's going to revive me, then we're going to bring you back, as an imaginary creature. Just like us. We'll be together forever, back in the real world. Nobody can ever see you but you get used to it."
"Grix.. I can't get out."
"Did you try all the other doors?"
"They're locked shut. They don't have handles either."
Grix motioned Renna to move back, and he tried smashing the glass with his fist.
"Jump off Grix, before it's too late!"
"I'm not going anywhere!" Grix repeated, getting angry.
"Grix.."
Renna looked up at Grix through the glass.
"For me. Please. I don't want the last thing I see to be you dying."
"I'm not giving up.. I'm not!"
"Grix.. you gave me more in life that I could ever ask for. You showed me how to love, you showed me how to smile. How to truly feel for someone when I thought I could never feel again. How to love someone unconditionally, how to never ask for anything in return, even though you gave me so much, you gave me the world Grix. You gave me the world and I can't spend my last moment knowing that you died foolishly trying to save me."
Grix stood staring at Renna, listening to her.
Tears began to roll down Renna's face. "I know you love me. I know that. But this is foolish. You have so many people that you could help. So many lives that you could change. You can't give all that up for me."
"I can't let you go Renna." Grix said, before crying himself. "I can't let you go!"
"Yes you can. You must. You must do it for me because if I have to watch you do something dumb yet again you'll ruin every single thing we ever had. You hear me? It'll ruin everything. And if you don't jump off this train right now I'm going to claw my eyes out, and I'm not kidding because I can't bare to watch you die and I'd rather suffer in my last moments than see you do it."
Grix broke down crying and fell against the glass. "I can't let you go Renna."
"Do it in the name of love, Grix. Your heart is too special. Use it to help everyone around you. And if you want to remember me then do so, but know I always loved you. I love you Grix. I love you so much. Don't make me watch this."
The train began to pass through a dark tunnel, a tunnel with no end.
"I.."
"Leave me Grix. Leave now while you still can."
"I love you Renna. I love you so damn much."
"I love you too Grix."
"You were always stronger than me." Grix said. "You were always so strong."
Grix turned around, blinking through tears, and jumped off the train.
He fell to the floor, landing on the railway.. and the last thing he saw was Renna mouthing something to him.
"Thank you."
And the train passed through into the darkness.
Stories linger. There's a place I know where stories come to gather, where they drift around until someone grabs onto them, and if they're worth catching, a good person, someone with an ounce of decency in their veins, they'll shine that story until they can show the world what caught their eye about it in the first place.
But then, some stories tend to shine on their own.. but this story, this here.. this isn't a great story that does so. This is one that I understand I have to shine, to polish. And to be honest, I never really knew how to do that. I was never a good person, that way.
So you're going to have to trust me on this. I apologise in advance.
There is a place called Amneshire. It's where the souls of the dead go after they die, or perhaps more importantly, are forgotten about. Some never realise they're dead. After all, how often in a dream do you question it's existence?
They say love will make you do crazy things. But then, is there anything else in the world that's truly worth fighting for? Truly worth dying for?
Grix Thraves stood in the road. Cars sped past him on either side, not noticing him. After all, why would anyone notice an imaginary friend?
Now Grix had been an imaginary friend for longer than time can count. He had been seen by a few creatures over time, but none that were as special as she. None as special as Renna.
She had grown old with him. Instead of giving up on the childhood fantasy of imaginary friends, she decided that she wanted to stay with him for the rest of her life. And that, she did. On her deathbed, with Grix not aged a single day from the moment she'd met him, she told him very softly that she couldn't have imagined a sweeter life than the one she had spent with him.
Leon, another imaginary friend, watched as Grix did something he wasn't sure he was able to do. He broke down and cried.
You must understand that imaginary friends, above all, question themselves as being real. They do not believe they can feel things like love, pain, fear. Yet, Leon watched as Grix broke down and cried whilst the doctors and nurses around Renna tried to resuscitate her, completely ignoring their presence.
Renna was dead.
Grix wasn't even sure if he even could die.
Yet the car threw him backwards, and he felt a terrible pain as the wheels chewed up his body.
------------
How do you wake yourself from a dream? Some people never question their existence, never believe for a second that this couldn't be real. Some people however, never feel the grasp of reality in their lifetime.
Is our journey before death simply preparation to what lies beyond it? Do our actions and thoughts in life represent what we will become after we die?
How strong must we be, for when we die, to hold our identity? How strong must we be, when we dream, to hold our morals? To hold ourselves true?
Love will make fools of us all.
Grix walked between the wooden buildings, constructed gently and swayed in the wind, kicking up sand and twisting it around the small town. Where perhaps you would find a moon in the night sky, there was simply a giant sleeping cat face. In daylight, it watched the land and it's people.
This was Amneshire. The place where lost souls end up.
If you didn't hold on to your identity, you would lose yourself in a place like this. You're become another faceless creature, lost, walking around and distracted by the thought that there was nothing left to gain.
Wooden buildings, and a tall sign that hung the word 'Transport' over the sand below it. A tavern stood before him with an open door.
-------------
Leon found Grix's body crumpled and broken at the side of the street. Nobody would ever notice it, nobody would ever mourn it. An invisible body that lay in the gutter.
"Oh.. you idiot. You damn idiot."
Some questions are too big for some people. They're too big for all people, but some have the courage to try and answer it with the best that they know.
Grix killed himself to go to where souls go to rest. In this life, he was immortal. He gave it up to try and find the person he loved.
Some questions are too big.
-------------
When you find someone who can feel in a way that perhaps you cannot, sometimes they help you to feel again too. Their love in their heart is a passion so incredible that even those so set in their ways can be overwhelmed by the power of it all.
Sometimes you don't want to lose that person. And sometimes, you want what's best for them. Something that, if they didn't do, they would always regret.
Renna could be lost. Renna could be another faceless person in a world of people who had forgotten who they were.
Can you ever remember the beginning of a dream? It's not known, but for the few first moments, you realise you're in one. You only have a few seconds to drag yourself out of it, before you're lost again.
Lost to the wind of imagination.
Leon injected his body with the serum. He thought of Romeo and Juliet, the tragic lovers, and the same poison on which he used into his veins. He didn't know if it would work. He didn't know how long he'd be dead for. Perhaps even, he may not come back at all.
But this was for the most noble cause of all. When so many people do not believe in love, when they believe they cannot feel it.. you want to hang on close to the ones that truly do. The ones that light up when they talk about other people. The ones that really care.
And these are the stories that really matter. The stories that will always be timeless because love.. love is the greatest challenge, the greatest adventure, of them all. It was something worth fighting for.
Leon injected the poison into his arm.
Something worth dying for.
--------------
You only have a few moments before the dream takes you. It will reach into and pull your identity from you, and you're left only as a shell of a person, your original intentions shattered and lost. Nobody deserved that.
Leon stood.. faceless people walked past him, side by side. All going about whatever they had learnt to do in their life. Whatever they had felt comfortable doing..
Any of these faceless creatures could be Grix. Leon started shouting across the crowd.
"Grix! GRIX! WHERE ARE YOU? GRIX?"
Faceless people completely ignored him.. and in a matter of moments, he'd be lost too. Lost to the sea of dreams.
"GRIX!"
Leon ran through the crowd.. desperately trying to find an inch of hope, something that might help him recognise..
Why had he done this.. this was hopeless..
The change from the known to the faceless is never pretty. The known fades away, never appearing again.
Leon rushed into the tavern, a faceless bartender serving faceless men at the bar.. all reliving their lives, doing exactly what they feel comfortable with..
Leon felt his mind drifting.. becoming free.. leaving the world of thoughts behind..
What you become comfortable with..
In the corner, a faceless creature was playing piano.
"Grix.. GRIX!" Leon yelled, as he fought through the crowd to get to the piano player.
The pianist continued to play, ignoring Leon's shouting.
Leon began to turn faceless.
"GRIX!"
Faceless men and women around him fell over each other as Leon stumbled forwards.. and finally caught the faceless pianist in his arms.
"Your name is Grix Thraves. Your name is Grix Thraves!"
The pianist stopped playing and looked at Leon, who had almost completely lost his features now.
"You came here to find the person you fell in love with. Remember her! Her name was Renna Ulazier! No-one made you as happy as she did. She was ill, and you were her imaginary friend. You looked after her! You cared for her.. You found something in her that sparked life in you."
Leon fell to the floor.
The pianist sat there for a moment.
I guess you can't really ever wake someone from a dream so easily. Unless you remind them of the things that really, truly, mattered to them.
"Leon?" The faceless man asked.
"Leon.." Leon replied.. "That's.. that's my name."
"Leon, where are we?"
"Leon.. I'm here to help you Grix. I came in here to help you find Renna."
Grix's face began to slowly return.. he stared at his arms as they faded back into view.
Leon lifted himself up. Suddenly he felt a terrible pain in his lower back.
"Why.. why did you come in here, Leon? I was.. I came in here looking to see if anyone could help me find Renna, then.. I just saw the piano.."
"I came in here.." Leon's pain was getting stronger. "Because I know how useless you are on your own."
"Hey, Leon.. stick with me now.. fight the pain. You're switching."
"I.."
"Your name is Leon Ralphalski. You created me, long before we met Renna. I was your imaginary friend, and then you died. Remember? You've been here before Leon. Your name was Ralph back then, does that help? Then you came back to me, as another imaginary friend. Renna made you real. Just like we made so many creatures real, Ralph."
"You're a fox?" Leon asked.
Grix stood in a long brown dufflecoat and jeans, his long bushy tail between his legs. "And you're a wolf, Leon."
Leon felt his face, the fur against his paw.
"All these faceless people here.. they're lost, Grix." Leon looked around the room. "They believe they're just doing whatever makes them comfortable. How will we ever find her?"
Grix sat down in the chair. "She could be anywhere by now. But.. I know I came here for her. I know now. I'm going to search for her."
"Then I'll come with you." Leon said. "I poisoned myself Grix, to come in here and help you, but it won't last. I don't know how long I've got."
Grix paused to take that in. "I don't know what to say."
"Thanks would be nice."
"Well.. yeah but, you risked a lot to come here Leon."
"It's for good reason. Now, where do we start?"
-----------
The town of Transport was very small, but had it's own train station, like all towns in Amneshire. Lost souls could travel away from Transport if they felt like they were missing something, if they couldn't find anything worth staying in the dream for.
Can anyone become suicidal in a dream? Can they lose their will to live, when their world is exactly as they'd desire?
"I guess sometimes the dream isn't enough." Leon said, watching the train. "Suicide for the soul."
The pair walked to the train just as it was leaving, and watched the souls inside stare vacantly out of the windows.
I suppose it was the nature of things. If everything lasted forever, there wouldn't be any room. Advancement came from the fear of death, of ending. And like the souls here, they're ready to move on, to be cast aside. Who knew where the train truly went, where it's last stop was.
Sometimes, in a dream, you don't need to be told what things do. You just know. Grix winced a little as the train started to pick up speed.
"Any later and I might have been on that train, Leon." Grix said. "I know that track's a one way line. I know the creatures on there.. they don't want to come back. They.."
Grix's eyes met Renna's.
And at that moment, she realised who she was.
"She's on the train." Grix said, running to catch up with it as it sped away.
"What.. you saw her?"
"She's on the train, I saw her eyes, it's her, Leon, it's her! She's on the train and she's going to be taken away!"
Leon looked around.
"She's going to lose her soul Leon! She's throwing it all away!"
Grix watched as the train sped out of view.
--------
Renna fought backwards through the crowd of people, unable to move inside the carriage.
"Stop the train! Stop the train!" She yelled, but nobody paid attention. The carriage was full of people who had found no use for their soul, who were lost without that something to keep them alive.
"What have I done.." Renna said to herself. She clambered through the crowd of people, and managed to get to the back door.
No handle.
She shook herself against it, threw her shoulder against the window, banged.. but..
Wait.. what was that?
----------
"Kick the damn thing in the belly, kick harder! Yaa!"
Grix and Leon rode the two horses as hard as they could, galloping along the side of the rail track that led towards the train.
"Faster! Come on!"
Leon rode like a pro, kicking his heels into the underside of the horse, which kicked up sand with every hoof, holding himself up by his legs over the saddle below him.
Grix was focused. He'd never ridden before but for some reason he knew exactly what he was doing. He had to get to that train.
The two horses began to gain on the train, which had started a downhill roll into what seemed to be a bridge up ahead.
Renna kicked at the door, desperately trying to break it open.
Grix and Leon moved from riding side by side down the hill, their horses slowing down as not to slip, and galloped in a single line behind the train, which passed over the bridge.
Grix looked down to the chasm below on which the bridge crossed.. a darkness that seemed to travel on forever.
"Look up, Grix. You really don't want your horse to slip here."
Grix took up the reins and slowed down the horse a little, then kicked it onwards towards the train.
The bridge finished, and continued onwards.. Leon and Grix rode either side of the train, with Renna screaming to them from inside the carriage.
Grix rode close to the end of the carriage, and swung himself down..
"Leon, Leon I need you to help me.."
You never know how long a dream will last. It seems to happen in an instant. Your memories of the dream, are they real, or were they part of the dream itself?
Leon had vanished. His time was over.
"Grix, open the damn door."
Grix looked through the glass at the cat that looked back at him. She was young again, young in her looks, young in her mind.
"Renna.." Grix shouted. "There's no handle."
Renna looked through the glass and tears began to form in her eyes.
She spoke quietly, but Grix could read her lips.
"I don't want to die." She said. "Not now."
It is said that love makes you do crazy things.
"Jump off Grix." She shouted. "Jump off before the train gets to the end."
The dead end for the soul.
"I'm not going anywhere." Grix shouted. "You're going to come back with me. Leon's going to revive me, then we're going to bring you back, as an imaginary creature. Just like us. We'll be together forever, back in the real world. Nobody can ever see you but you get used to it."
"Grix.. I can't get out."
"Did you try all the other doors?"
"They're locked shut. They don't have handles either."
Grix motioned Renna to move back, and he tried smashing the glass with his fist.
"Jump off Grix, before it's too late!"
"I'm not going anywhere!" Grix repeated, getting angry.
"Grix.."
Renna looked up at Grix through the glass.
"For me. Please. I don't want the last thing I see to be you dying."
"I'm not giving up.. I'm not!"
"Grix.. you gave me more in life that I could ever ask for. You showed me how to love, you showed me how to smile. How to truly feel for someone when I thought I could never feel again. How to love someone unconditionally, how to never ask for anything in return, even though you gave me so much, you gave me the world Grix. You gave me the world and I can't spend my last moment knowing that you died foolishly trying to save me."
Grix stood staring at Renna, listening to her.
Tears began to roll down Renna's face. "I know you love me. I know that. But this is foolish. You have so many people that you could help. So many lives that you could change. You can't give all that up for me."
"I can't let you go Renna." Grix said, before crying himself. "I can't let you go!"
"Yes you can. You must. You must do it for me because if I have to watch you do something dumb yet again you'll ruin every single thing we ever had. You hear me? It'll ruin everything. And if you don't jump off this train right now I'm going to claw my eyes out, and I'm not kidding because I can't bare to watch you die and I'd rather suffer in my last moments than see you do it."
Grix broke down crying and fell against the glass. "I can't let you go Renna."
"Do it in the name of love, Grix. Your heart is too special. Use it to help everyone around you. And if you want to remember me then do so, but know I always loved you. I love you Grix. I love you so much. Don't make me watch this."
The train began to pass through a dark tunnel, a tunnel with no end.
"I.."
"Leave me Grix. Leave now while you still can."
"I love you Renna. I love you so damn much."
"I love you too Grix."
"You were always stronger than me." Grix said. "You were always so strong."
Grix turned around, blinking through tears, and jumped off the train.
He fell to the floor, landing on the railway.. and the last thing he saw was Renna mouthing something to him.
"Thank you."
And the train passed through into the darkness.