Contradicting Worlds

Once I was inside my cell, I curl into a ball in the corner with chains around my wrists. I cry not because my plan failed but because I failed everyone once more. But I am partly relieved to find out that Mica isn"t dead after all, she"s still alive though I know that she"s barely hanging there but that gives me hope that I can still save her.

I didn"t know how long I stayed crying but soon I felt my eyelids droop with exhaustion and I succ.u.mb to sleep.

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

I wake up with a snout sniffing me. Or more likely, I woke up in my dream. I giggle when I realized that it was Irish who was sniffing me. "Stop it, I"m ticklish there." I laugh as she sniffs my neck. I don"t know how but all of my problems disappear every time that I am here. I rub Irish"s face as she snuggles into me. "Mhmm, I miss you too," I whisper. I stand up and brush some leaves on my body. "So Irish, what am I doing here?" I step towards her.

"I think you know why, your royalty." I tilt my head to the side, pondering why. My eyes widen in realization. "You"re finally ready, Your Royalty?"

I close my eyes, silently letting all the past events that have happened invade my system. Mica is fighting for her life because of me. She risked herself by getting the information and unraveling the secrets of the government. Samantha is helping me even though I have cut my ties with them. Lia, Daniella, and Aimee have risked their lives in order to help me too. My friend including Raven is now sitting in the dungeons because of me. Nikki is dead because of me. All of this had happened because of me. Do I deserve to know the truth? Do I deserve to be a royalty after all?

Then an image of Elisa pa.s.sed across my jumbled thoughts. She was smiling sadly at me while we stared at each other, waiting for the final shot to take. She mouthed the words goodbye to me just before a shot penetrated her back to her chest. I still remember how I held her close to my chest as she took her final breaths. I remember her whispering things to me that never made sense that moment but now I can finally recall what she told me before life was taken out of her. "Life is beautiful, you just must learn how to restore it." She had said.

My eyes snap open and I feel my cheeks are damp with tears now. Irish blinks down at me and I smile at her. I nod slowly but surely. "I am. I am ready." My voice came out surprisingly firm.

"I am glad," Irish blew out a heavy breath and I laugh. "You scared me there. I thought you would be like the former ones." I just shake my head at her while running a hand through her furs.

"You"ve made up your mind, I see." I whirl around to see Leo emerge from one of the trees.

"Leo!" I run from Irish to him and engulf him in a big hug. He gives me a throaty laugh. "I miss you."

"We"ve missed you too, kid." I reel back.

"I am scared actually. I am terrified of what the truth will do to me."

"Oh, it will hurt. The truth will always hurt you in every way possible but it is up to how you will be able to cope up with it or how you will use the truth in handling your problems and challenges." I smiled warmly at him. His words really are something. It comforts me in a way that sends warmth inside me. "Now, come on, kid. We don"t have time to waste." I laugh softly as he lowers himself to the ground. I climb on him and we speed off deeper into the woods.

Leo slows down as the tree of knowledge of good and evil came into view. I jump off him and head towards the tree. "Ellie," I turn around. "The tree of knowledge of good and evil holds the power of truth. And the truth isn"t always what it seems. The darkest secrets lie in the knowledge of knowing what was true and what was not. You must know what you really want to know in order to not lose yourself in the process." I gulp loudly and I look again at the tree of knowledge of good and evil. D*** Leo and his chosen words. Now I am hesitating. It"s all or nothing.

I nod at him and walk towards the tree. The tree didn"t change much at all, it is still as mesmerizing as ever but as I approach it, I realize that the colors swirling in its trunk is changing. It"s becoming a mix of blue and gold and it"s drawing me in. I reach out my hand, unconsciously. I press my palm and forehead on its trunk and I felt it. The connection. It"s warm and comfortable and somehow I just want to stay here and not move at all.

A movement to my right startled me. My eyes snap open and widen in surprise as I take in what"s in front of me. I am inside a house, a home if I might say. The wooden floor is shining and there are pictures hanging on the wall. A wonderful smell hits my nose. I inhale deeply and follow the amazing scent.

I heard giggles and laughing as I approach the kitchen. A family of three sits around the dining table, laughing and talking about somethings I couldn"t quite understand. I stood there while watching them. They look beautiful. The child is sitting on a high chair and is splatting food everywhere. She releases a high-pitch giggle when one of her food smacks her father"s face. How do I know that it"s her father? Well, you could see from his blonde hair and ocean colored eyes and the matched dimples they both have.

"Mama," the kid says before she laughs adorably. I look at her mother who"s now looking at her with adoration and love. She is beautiful. Her jet-black hair, large brown-green eyes, fair skin, freckled cheeks, and beautiful perfect shape lips. While her father is handsome with his blonde hair, ocean eyes, fair skin, broad muscles, and all, her mother is the simple example of an angel. There"s no wonder that this kid will be beautiful like her parents are.

My eyes went wide and suddenly the wind was knocked out of me. I cough a few times before regaining my composure. I see that my surroundings had shifted into something more peaceful. I am at a beach with beautiful scenery of the sun setting down across the horizon. I lift my gaze from the sun to the toddler running towards the sh.o.r.e. She"s picking up seash.e.l.ls and she"s now closer to the water. I watch in the distance as a large wave picks up far from the girl. She watches it too and her large eyes turn even larger as she watches it as if it"s the most amazing thing she"s ever seen. She turns around to walk away but she sees another seash.e.l.l being carried away by the current. She runs to it and it dawns on me what she was about to do. She"s trying to pick up the sh.e.l.l but the current is carrying it deeper and deeper into the water and as she struggles to keep up with its pace she doesn"t realize that she submerging into the ocean. I try to run but my feet are stuck in the sand. "What the fudge?" I curse under my breath.

Large waves are starting to form and the little girl is now far from the sh.o.r.e. I need to get to her or the water will swallow her whole. "You can"t intervene with the past, kid. That will cause great damage to the present." Leo"s voice sounded in my head. But...

The girl"s eyes turn large as she watches the wave before her, standing calm and ready to cause havoc. She lets out a loud scream and the wave consumes her, leaving no trail behind. A scream resonates around the sh.o.r.e and I recognize it as my own. The wind was knocked out of me again and I gasp when I feel myself floating.

Heavy. I am heavy. My eyes did a quick scan before something catches my attention. Fishes swim around. Wait, what? I feel my eyes turn large as I realize where I am. I am in the ocean. Without oxygen.

I start to panic but it immediately dissipates when I breathe in through my nose without drowning. It"s dark in here and it feels so cold but it"s also oddly beautiful. I can see the corals, the fishes, the variety of sea creatures swimming freely.

I can see a large shadow moving towards me but I can"t see it clearly since it"s dark in here. I squint to get a better view but lightning strikes up above causing me to have a good look at it. And my answer is holy sh**. An enormous thing that I haven"t seen before is swimming towards me. Though it doesn"t look scary, it sure looks intimidating. Lightning strikes again and I can see that it"s making progress in advancing. Every moment the lightning strikes, the closer it gets to me. Then a bolt of lightning followed by a thunder causes me to reel back. I know I should swim away but I can"t, it"s like I am frozen into place and all I can do is watch as it approaches me.

The sea creature is now in front of me. It is actually magnificent. Its body looks silky and dry at the same time and its horizontal tail resembles the one of a mermaid"s. It moves even closer to me and I nearly thought that it will eat me but I am surprised when it presses its head to my body as if it wants to snuggle. I smile in relief and press my hands on either side of its head. It nudges me with its head and swims around me. I immediately follow behind it, silently wondering how he can see me. "Whales," I almost had a heart attack when I heard Leo"s voice in my head. "They are the heart and the leaders of the seas. They are known as the guardians of the wild. They guard, save, and protect lost souls from being dragged into the multiverse. Now, swim along."

"Wait for a second," I said. "They know that I am here?"

"The whales do, as well as the eagles and the b.u.t.terflies, deers/stags and lions. Because we are the chosen guardians of the wild. They can see you and they will guide you. They know what you are there for." I gave him a quick nod then back up when I realize that he can"t probably see me.

"Okay," I reply and swim hurriedly to catch up with the whale. I didn"t know where we were headed until I saw a glimmer of a shadow moving south in the distance. It"s the medium size shadow and it doesn"t look like it is swimming downwards. I look at the whale beside me and it gives me a strange sound before moving towards the shadow.

As I get a closer look, it is not a sea creature but a kid and not just any kid but the kid picking up seash.e.l.ls. I move to swim to her but I am stuck in place just like what happened back on the beach when I tried to save her. I turn to see the whale shaking its head at me or that"s what it seems to say when it"s wiggling from side to side. It"s no use to put up a fight so I just stay floating, and watching what the whale will do.

I can tell that the girl"s no longer breathing from the way her limp body float deeper into the water. The whale swims to her but instead of urging the body to go upwards, the whale seems to drag the body deeper and deeper. My brows furrow in confusion. Then all of a sudden, I can finally move so I waste no time in following them.

As we get deeper the temperature starts to get colder too but I didn"t stop, they did. Then another sea animal swims into view. It"s gray and it"s large but not as large as the whale. They seem to be conversing silently, although I know it is something odd to watch because they seem like just staring at each other. Seconds after, a large bubble pops from the mouth of the other sea creature. I had to blink rapidly to make sure that I wasn"t hallucinating. G.o.ds, is what I"m seeing is real?

I am getting used to winding getting knocked out of me every time I time travel so it didn"t leave me on much of a shock when it happened this time.

I am on the beach once again but this time the sun is coming up. The sea bubbles from a distance then a large bubble comes out from the water. Like, literally come out. It came out! And inside it is the girl, sleeping peacefully. I watch as the big bubble float in the air and to the sh.o.r.e. Once the bubble is hovering a few inches away from the sand, it releases the girl with a loud pop, the bubble popping in the process.

The girl spits water and she"s taking gulps of air. "Claire!" I heard a woman shout from afar. I turn around to see the couple running towards their daughter. Her mother is holding a blanket and their faces are filled with worry as their daughter launches herself in their arms.

The girl is sobbing and her mother wraps the blanket around her while her father is running a hand across her back. "Where were you, baby?" Her mother asks.

"I-I-I-I w-was...j-just...collecting s-seash.e.l.ls...and then...the w-wave c-comed, mommy...I w-was s-soooo scareeeed." She wraps her little arms around her mother"s neck.

"Oh, sweetie. I am so sorry." They carried her into their house and I traveled again. Yeah, I guess that"s the term I am going to use now.

I traveled again and again, watching the changes of the girl from being an adorable little child to a beautiful young lady. She said she wanted to be just like her mother and father--they are scientists--because she wanted to save the animals. I saw in her calendar that I am now in the year 2018 and the animals are experiencing a ma.s.s extinction. No wonder why in our time, there"s so little amount of live animals to get fresh flesh from. I also watch her became friends with whales and other animals. I can see that they love her and that she is being broken-hearted from what"s happening to them.

I am now standing in their house-her childhood home--and she is arguing fiercely with her parents. "ARGH! I CAN"T BELIEVE YOU!"

"Honey, listen to us first---" Her dad tries to calm her down but she didn"t instead she whips all the things on the table causing them to shatter and clatter on the floor.

"Don"t you honey me, dad. For years, you were my role model, my hero, my frickin" idol! And now, now...you two were behind these things," she threw her hands in the air in exasperation. "You were to blame for all the terrible things happening today! Why the animals are slowly dying. Why the balance in the ecosystem is tilting! You were to blame for it all! Because of your stupid f*ckin" research or experiments! You were killing them!" Her chest is heaving heavily while her eyes flash daggers to her parents. Her eyes are teary too and she is as red as a tomato, from anger, I suppose.

"We are not killers." Her mother said firmly though I can hear that she"s struggling to fight her own sobs. "We did that because we were trying to save them."

"Save?" She gives a humorless laugh. "Is injecting that...that...that f*ckn" poison in their system what you call saving? Is it? Cause I am pretty that serum is stopping their blood from running, it"s making a d*mn clog in their veins making all the oxygenated blood they need to stop running. It"s killing them, mom." She spits the word mom as if it is something venomous and her mother visibly flinches and shrinks back to her dad.

"Don"t you dare talk to us like that!" Her dad shouts at her but she didn"t bat an eye. She stares at him with so much hatred, you can practically see flames in her eyes. "We did all of this for you!" Her mom gasps and Claire staggers backward.

"What?" Confusion is written all over her face as her brows furrows and she stares at her dad. "What do you mean?"

Her dad blew out a heavy sigh from his lips. "Remember when you were a child, you drowned in the ocean. We thought we lost you forever but then we saw you appear in the sh.o.r.e, wet and heaving and surprisingly alive. That day you disappear, there was a storm brewing, you shouldn"t have been alive...you should have been...you...have been..."

"Dead," she finishes for her father and her eyelids dilated a bit.

"Yes. So we count that as a miracle but we are scientists, we don"t believe in miracles. We search and search for answers but we couldn"t find one so we decided to just drop it. But as we watch you grow, we notice the slightest difference in you. You became more inclined in saving the wildlife, we see you talking to animals like you understand them, like you can hear their thoughts. We saw you taming a wild bear in the forest. We saw you playing with the whales and dolphins in the ocean. We saw you being friendly to a shark when you were twelve. A shark, claire. A f*ckn" shark. It should"ve eaten you but it didn"t. It even lets you touch its d*mn fins! And on your 14th birthday, we took you to the zoo to celebrate. Any kid would"ve loved it but you didn"t instead you said you didn"t want to go because it is a prison for animals and you hate to watch them all caged up. But we still took you. A lion got out of its cage at that time. They were so many people running everywhere and you got lost. You were so little so we couldn"t see you but then someone told us that there"s this kid conversing with the lion, trying to calm it," he laughs half-heartedly. "We saw you trying to tame a wild bear so we thought it could be you. It should be you. And we were right. You were talking with the lion and the people are in awe while watching you. You were making promises with the lion. You were saying that when the right time comes, they are going to be back in the wild. That"s when we know that you became special the day you drowned in the ocean. We tried to hide you to protect you from people wanting to hurt you. But nothing can be kept to the president. He took an interest in you and we have to beg him not to hurt you. So we made this agreement with him that we are going to work for him just for him to leave you alone."

Silence envelops the family. It seems to stretch into eternity when Claire finally made the first move to sit on the couch and put her face in her hands. "The agreement is for you to kill all the animals?" She asks in a hushed tone.

Her mother shakes her head. "No, honey. The president knew at that time what was happening to the animals. They were facing a ma.s.s extinction caused by a deadly disease. The president is kind, he wants to save them so he hires us to work for him, to search for an antidote."

"And d-did you? Did you create an antidote?"

"No," his father answers and she shifts her attention to him. "We didn"t. We couldn"t. We tried so hard but we couldn"t. We watch them suffer and die eventually so we invented this serum..."

"That will make their deaths quick." Claire nods in understanding but her eyes are still hooded. "Wait. Why can"t I remember about the lion, wild bear, and everything I did to animals thingy when I was younger?"

"You were operated when you were at the age of 8. That"s around the time after we find you taming the bear. We installed a chip device in your nape, we use it to alter your memories."

"What?" Claire asked it sharply that both of her parents flinched.

"The less you know, the less danger you will face."

"B*llsh*t." Anew anger formed in her eyes.

"Watch your language, Claire." Her mother said.

"Sorry," by the tone of her voice she doesn"t sound sorry at all. "But that is still b*llsh*t. And I want you to take it out of me, right now. I don"t care about effing anesthesia." She stands and goes around the couch to a table. She rummages before retreating and walking towards her parents with a small knife in her hand. She holds it in her parent"s face.

"What are you--"

"I want it out now." Her voice gives the finality while her mother stares at her with an expression of disbelief in her features.

My head threw back at the force of traveling unexpectedly and the air was knocked out of me again. Oh G.o.ds, please the next time it happens, please let Leo send a warning sign first.

I look around at my new environment. A very new environment. Unfortunately, I am still inside a house but somehow different. This house looks more civilized like the ones in the city but somewhat calmer and more beautiful.

"Pandemic break out..."

"Stay at home..."

"Countries quarantined because of..."

"Front liners risking their lives..."

"50 million to whoever..."

I hear someone saying things about a pandemic from the living room. So I followed the voice. A sofa gets into view as I turn to enter a doorway. I hear chatter everywhere. It is so loud here not like the last one.

"Hey, it is mine!" I see a boy trying to get something from the girl sitting at the end of the sofa. The girl sticks out her tongue to the boy. "Mom! Livy won"t give me back my phone!"

"Give it back to him." Their mother--I a.s.sume--emerges from a room in the hallway.

"He"s doing the "s.e.xting thing "with a girl mom!" She used her fingers to quote and their mom did a fake gasp and the boy glares at his sister (Again, I a.s.sume).

"What? You are still a baby. Arthur! Come here!" She shouts. A handsome topless guy came out from the same room and he instantly wraps an arm around his wife"s waist, kissing her pa.s.sionately as if there are no kids around. Their kids gag and make disgusted faces.

"EEEWW!" they both drawled out at the same time. Their dad chuckles while their mom presses her face in their dad"s neck. "Dad, take your sh** back in your room, please." The girl said.

"Yeah, no one wants to see their parents f*ckn" in their living room." The boy chides in. Their dad glares at them while their mom looks mortified.

"Watch your language!" both of their parents said. The kids mutter a sorry under their breaths before continuing on arguing. Their mom just shakes her head and their dad follows their mom as she goes into the kitchen.

The scenery shifted but I am still inside the same house although the events have taken a different turn. Armed men surround the family and they are forcing the little girl on her feet. She is struggling and trying to put up a fight but in the hands of these men, she just looks like a fragile doll. Her family is kneeling on the floor with her dad embracing her brother and mother. The girl bites down on one of the arms restraining her, earning a growl from the black man. The man releases his hold of her and she runs to her family, standing over them with her arms outstretched on either side of her like she"s trying to protect them. Her features look furious. No. Beyond furious, she"s agitated and I can feel the anger radiating from her as she glares daggers over the armed men.

They shifted their stance, in one swift motion, they have their weapons directed over the girl"s face but the little girl didn"t even flinch, if possible her body went rigid and ready to lunge onto anyone. Her mother"s cry causes her to snap her attention to her family who is now in the arms of the armed men. "We need to take her with us," the guy in a suit said.

"Not gonna happen," her father growls in disapproval.

"You are not the first family we encountered but you are the first one who manages to make it hard enough for us." His reply is ice-cold and although I can"t see his eyes since it is covered with black gla.s.ses, his features seem to turn stoic. The guy in suit nods in one of his men that is holding the girl"s father. And the man instantly put a fist in her father"s gut causing him to bend over and put an arm over his now aching stomach. Her father grunts and turns a bit red but he manages to shot a glare at the man-in-charge. The little girl screeches and her eyes went wide as she stares at her father.

She turns to the man-in-charge and her arm shot out. The man went instantly flying to the nearest wall, slamming hard enough to make the pictures hanging, rattling. Everything is in a blur after that. Everyone is moving fast trying to get a hold of the girl but she shows no mercy. Every time she feels that someone is approaching her, her hand will thrust out or she will send a menacing look over that guy and they will be either flying to the nearest wall or they will be on their knees or they will have their own weapons focused on them. The next second happens faster. The little girl is busy fighting the other guys that she didn"t notice a man sneaking up on behind her. A device made contact with her body and she is shaking furiously the next moment. Her body gives a last little shudder before going limp and slamming on the floor with a loud thud. Her eyes roll back to her head and she is gone. Unconscious.

I watch as her body was dragged away and thrown over the shoulder of a man. Her body sags sideways as the man carries her out of the threshold. Again, I tried to move but I am stuck (again) in my place. I turn my attention to the family only to find them kneeling again but now the men surrounding them are holding their guns to their heads.

I wail when each one of them lands on the floor, face-down, with their own bodies soaking in their own pool of blood. I watch in horror and in rage as they drag the bodies across the floor like they are nothing but ragged-dolls. An unknown feeling settles deep inside my chest and it is making me ache in a very uncomfortable manner. I can see nothing but black spots and I know that I will combust any second, right here, if Leo doesn"t make any move to remove me out of this place.

Out of my will or rather all of a sudden, I travel again and this time I can"t describe whether I am in a house or a mansion or a building. I think I"ll settle with the third choice. Every single thing here is white, even the walls are painted white.

Stomps of feet on the cold marble floor reverberates, causing me to jolt in surprise. I wait as a group of kids round a corner and they are now approaching me. I know they can"t see me so I made no move to hide. They all are wearing white and their expressions are blank, their eyes staring straight ahead. As I watch them bypa.s.sed me, I noticed a red-head girl in the middle of the line. She wears the same expression as the others but I can see the hint of worry and uncertainty in her eyes.

Her eyes dart around and a frown makes its way to her face when her eyes find mine. I frown in return and panic course through me. Can she see me? Could she possibly see me? How?

The questions running in my head were interrupted when the kids halt. The brunette kid forces to look away and another blank expression had made its way to her face. The kids on the front row turn around in one fluid motion to a.s.sess the others. They weren"t speaking, they were just making weird gestures with their hands in a robotic way.

After quite some time, the kids a.s.semble into three endless lines. A door--that I didn"t know existed--on the opposite wall open. It"s dark there, the complete opposite of the first blinding impression they made. Although it"s dark, I can still see the two people wearing white clearly. They wore white looking jumpsuits that cover them all the way down. Including their heads and only their faces are barely visible through the surgical masks they"re wearing and the odd-looking gla.s.ses over their eyes.

The kids went inside the room one by one when they heard their names being called. Each one of them walked robotically and silently into the room. My eyes search again for the brunette kid and when I find her, I finally recognize her. She"s the child in the house whose family got ma.s.sacred. I immediately felt grief along with anger. My heart clenches for her. She"s so young to lose her family unlike me who doesn"t even have the faintest idea if she had one even before all of this.

She moves out of line when her name was called. She went into the room and I follow suit.

Once the door closes behind me, I let my eyes roam around and take in every inch of this place. Although there"s not much to look at. I watch as the kid proceeds to sit on the recliner with a light focused on her face. She remains calm as the two people move around her and prepare things. Once done, the one on her right picks up a needle. Her eyes remained focused on the light above her as the needle invades her skin. She gulps lightly as her blood goes directly into the syringe. Her blood fills the gap in the syringe dramatically. While I was staring, Leo has planned something for me because so suddenly all air from my lungs run out and I travel again, this time I sure as h.e.l.l wasn"t prepared for anything.