AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"Paige!" A man shouts from everywhere, nowhere, above, below.
Paige? Is that my name? Each step I take toward the voice feels like moving granite, and yet I persist. I have to. It is my destiny.
Shame fills me as each ragged lunge forward takes more effort, more time, just more. A better person would move faster. A more worthy person would be on shore already. A more capable princess would lead the way without struggle.
Soon, I'm frozen in place, the water climbing and freezing with every inch as it covers my calves, then my knees, moving up my thighs and finally, within millimeters of my pelvis, it halts.
Everything is bright light, so blinding I cannot see.
"Paige!" He shouts again. "I will find you… I will find you."
A mist, blood-red and smelling like wet metal, fills the air until I scream…and scream…and scream a word I've never been allowed to say before.
* * *
"Help! Help!"
I feel cool air fill my nostrils as I sit up in bed, covered in sweat, the scream still choking my throat. It's a spasm, though, and not a sound. The words aren’t real, just remnants from the dream, and as I pant in the darkness, in a new, strange place, Winnie looks up at me from the foot of my bed, her head tilting with curiosity.
Then she stands, walks into my lap, and sets her chin on my thigh.
Today is a new day, and my routine is a form of worship.
When chaos erupts, I've been taught turning to routine and structure is how civilization prevails.
The manual I seek has all the answers I need.
There is no searching.
There is no questioning.
If I listen to my masters and follow their careful instructions, then all will be well.
To regain purpose, the page says in bold letters at the top with handwritten notes and diagrams below it. These manuals, I've been told, are an accumulation of documentation of artifacts, spells, and alchemy from centuries before me, stretching back to a time before there was a difference between the New World and the Old.
Long before cars and planes, a time when boats and sailors were the most powerful beings on earth, men explored the world for me.
It is my job to be grateful for their work and to fulfill the destiny that they've carved out for me.
The first handwritten instruction says to drink saltwater. Not too much, but just enough to regain a sense of connectedness to the sea. Our bodies are mostly made of water, and salt is a conductor, I've been told. When I was younger, I was confused. I thought they meant that salt was in charge of symphonies. No one laughed when my misunderstanding was revealed.
Perhaps that was the message from my dream.
Saltwater.
The universe is wise.
The prophecy unfolds before us in mysterious ways only divine beings can know. Who am I to question? I am a receiver. I simply accept what life sends me.
I walk into the unfamiliar kitchen, Winnie at my ankles, and find a pitcher of cold water in the refrigerator. Everything I need is there: perfectly stacked salads, two per day, with an appropriate ratio of macronutrients in them.
Two cups of soup.
Small containers of cream for my coffee and tea.
Tiny shots of aloe vera juice.
And an assortment of vitamins I’m to take, even when they trigger nausea.
