Alisiyad Chapter 3 ~ The Mill (Part 2)

Liseli didn’t know what had happened.  Her legs felt wobbly and her vision blurred.  She sank back against the doorframe, but there was no doorframe.  Instead she stumbled into rough bark and slick moss . . . tree trunk.  Tree trunk?  She rubbed her eyes; they took a moment to uncross, and she continued to blink in confusion.  She backed away from the tree — it was definitely a tree — and looked all around herself like she was being shoved into a corner.

One moment ago she had been in the Mill, following behind Russ, herding him out.  Then he’d yelped in pain and flung his arms out as he fell back, stomping on her foot.  Her head had connected with his shoulder blade and she’d shoved him forward, then something had happened, something . . . something a little like falling and a lot like hitting the ground.  It had only lasted a moment, and she’d been blinded.  She’d heard herself say something she couldn’t even understand.  She hadn’t felt as if she’d really been there . . . .  Or anywhere.

Now this.  Russ was still in front of her, bent over double, with his hands clapped over his face, groaning.  Liseli barely paid attention to him.  She looked beyond, at the mountains.  Mountains?  Yes, mountains, tall ones, with cloud halos and snowy tops.  She reached out and touched the tree trunk again, steadying herself.  She was standing next to a small grove of trees in a field between two woods.  That was not right.  The Mill was by a river.  But now the Mill wasn’t there, and there was no river.  The field she remembered was wide all around, the trees should not be that close.  But they were.  Tall thin trunks, pale green leaves that fluttered and whispered in the breeze, a dry warm breeze.  Before her, field grass sprinkled with wildflowers stretched up a slope.  That was not right either.  The ground was flat around the Mill.  But it wasn’t.  Now it wasn’t flat and it wasn’t around the Mill.  No Mill.  No Mill Road.

Mountains.

“It’s wrong,” she muttered, shrinking back into the grove.  Seeing things.  Must’ve hit my head . . . concussion . . . that’s it.  Yes.  Or no.

Russ slid his hands away from his face and rested them on his knees, still bent over.  He looked up at her, squinting.  His expression barely changed as he looked around, then he just clutched his stomach and moaned, “I’m gonna be sick.”

Liseli dropped her hand from the tree and stepped forward.  “Wh-what did you do?”

“What did I do?”  Russ’s voiced cracked.  He straightened.  “I didn’t do anything!”

“You went out first!”

“Well . . . you pushed me out!”

“Yeah but you did something!  You had to, this has never happened before!”

“How the hell could I do that?”  He waved his arms out at the mountains.  He stopped, struggling to take a couple deep breaths.  “I fell.  It grabbed me.  You saw it.”

“I . . . didn’t see anything.”  Liseli backed away, then turned and looked up at the trees in the grove.  They were almost like walls — no, bars.  She turned around again and stared at Russ.  He said nothing.  You don’t want to know what he’s talking about.  “What are you talking about?”

“The . . . the light.”  Russ wiped at his eyes with the back of his hand.  They looked bloodshot, but they’d been red before . . . .  “And the edge, the road . . . and . . . I don’t know!”  He waved his hands again.  “All that stuff.”  He sniffed.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”  Liseli shook her head.  “But something’s happened.  I don’t know . . . where we are.”  She hugged herself, nervously, staring up at the mountains.  They kept drawing her eyes, so huge and foreign in the distance.  She wanted to hide from them; inch behind a tree in the grove.  But she was afraid to move, now.  She didn’t know what Russ was mumbling about.

Russ moved.  He turned and stared a little closer at everything around them, curiously.  She didn’t know why he didn’t look surprised, shocked, scared.  Something.  He was just looking.  “It’s not bad,” he said after a moment, and she thought she’d misheard him.

“What?”

“I think it’s okay,” he said, less sure, darting a glance toward her and shrugging.  “I mean . . . I dunno.”

“But where are we?”

He shrugged again.

She started to feel impatient.  “Russ—”

“Well, lemme look around,” he said.  She wondered if he understood how wrong everything was.  Maybe it was a concussion.  They were really standing outside the Mill and he didn’t know why she thought it was wrong.  Wait for a minute, her vision would clear.  Then she’s say “nevermind” and . . . uh oh.  He’d started to head up the slope.  The idiot.  She had to stop him before . . . something else . . . happened.  But instead she just watched, wondering if something would really happen to him.

He stopped at the top of the slope and paused, then looked back down.  “It looks okay,” he called.

“What do you see?”

“Trees and stuff.”  He shrugged.

“Stuff?”

“Grass.  Hills.  Those mountains.”

“What about . . . what about the road?” she ventured.

“Which one?”

“Mill Road!”

“No roads.  Come see for yourself.”

Liseli considered it for a moment, and came out of the grove, but then she stopped, shaking her head. “No, come back down here.”  It didn’t seem wise to be walking around like the world could be counted on to remain under their feet.

“But—”

“Just get back here, now.”  She pointed at the ground in front of her.  He obeyed, looking reluctant.  “What are you thinking?” she asked.  “You don’t just go ‘exploring’.  Don’t you realize . . . it’s . . . it’s . . . what makes you think it’s ‘okay’ now?”

He avoided eye contact, rubbing the back of his neck as he shrugged.  “Doesn’t hurt, I guess.”

“Doesn’t hurt?”  She felt like shaking some alarm into him.  Instead she just lifted her hands and said, “Am I the only one bothered by this?  A moment ago you were gonna be sick, now you’re running around like nothing’s the matter!”

“It’s not as bad.”  Russ edged away as her voice rose.  “The road was bad, this isn’t.  And I’m not running.”

“It is bad!  It’s . . . .”  She paused.  Well, it wasn’t really bad, it was . . . wrong.  Liseli turned away from him, shaking her head.  The air was clear and the colors were vivid, the blue sky and the greens around her.  It felt solid, not surreal anymore, and she started to feel a little calmer despite herself.  Nothing was dropping out from under her feet.  It made no sense, but maybe . . . maybe . . . .  A thought occurred to her, and she looked up at the mountains in relief.

“Oh, of course.  This isn’t really happening.  I’m not here, you’re not here, this is just a dream.”  She smiled.  “Why didn’t I think of it before?  It’s the only explanation.  Good.  Maybe this whole morning’s been just one long bad dream.”

“Ah . . . I don’t think so,” Russ replied.

“Why not?”  She swung around and glared at him.  But now, he’s not really there, that’s all part of the dream.  So no need to get angry.  She took a breath.  Ah.  Liseli felt the need to move, to keep these positive thoughts flowing, so she started to pace.

“Come on.”  Russ smiled a little wryly.  “Would I really be in your dream?”

“Of course!  You’re in my dreams a lot!”

“What?”

She stumbled and blushed.  “I mean, my, uh, nightmares.”

He was silent for a moment, dwelling on that information.  “Your nightmares?” he repeated, his voice cracking again.

“Yeah.  So this could very well be a dream, and most likely is.”  She nodded, calmly.

He darted a glance at the mountains, as if to make sure they hadn’t slipped away.  “But we can’t be having the same dream . . . can we?”

She started to pace again.  “That’s right.  If you’re having your own thoughts, you’re not just a figment of my imagination, but I know that I’m not a figment of your imagination, because I’m having thoughts . . . .  But, of course, I don’t know if you really are having thoughts, because what you’re saying could be just from my imagination, too!”

“But I know I’m not your imagination,” he objected.

“Yeah, yeah . . . but do you know that I’m not part of your imagination?”

“Liseli . . . .”

“One of us is just in the other’s imagination, and there’s no way of knowing, in either case, if the other person is real!” she declared, jabbing at the air with her finger, in triumph.

Russ shook his head.  “I . . . uh . . . I dunno.  I don’t think we’d be having this conversation in one of my dreams.”

There was silence, broken only the rattle and sniff of his breathing.

“Oh God,” Liseli sucked in a disappointed breath.  He was probably right, damn him.  Well, no . . . .  And you can’t flip out, no.  Something will make sense eventually; it has to . . . .  If this was the real live Russ, she couldn’t let him see her lose it over and over again.  If he thought it wasn’t so bad, she would not be the paranoid one.  Composure.  Manage the situation . . . she clenched her fists.

“We have to get back,” she stated.  “That grove of trees is where we walked out of the Mill.  We have to walk back into the trees, back to the Mill.”

“You’ve already done that.”

She waved her hands impatiently, “Yeah, I tried it.  We didn’t.  You walked out of the Mill, you walk back in.”  She stepped aside.  “Okay?”

“It’s not gonna work,” Russ protested.  “I mean, the edge is gone, there’s nothing there.”

“Do it, Russell,” she pointed, but lowered her hand when she saw it shaking a little.

“Li—”

“Do it!”

He shook his head, but walked past her toward the grove.  Liseli got behind him and fixed her eyes on his jacket, hoping to pass under the trees and find herself in the gray interior of the Mill.  But it didn’t happen.  Russ stopped and turned around, and they were still standing in the copse.

“Ooookay . . . .  Walk back out again,” she said with forced calmness.  He sighed, but did as told.  They emerged into the same field at the base of the hill, looking at the same distant mountains in the sunshine.

“I told you,” he said, “it’s gone now.  Sorry.”

“This can’t be happening!”  Liseli swung her foot in a half stomp, half kick.  “No!”

Russ turned around to look at her, again.  “Calm down,” he said.  “It’s gonna be alright.”

“What?  How can you say that?  Look around!  We don’t know where the hell we are, or how we got here!”

“Yeah, I know all that.”  He sighed, wiping his hair away from his forehead, as he looked off into the distance.  “But . . . you know, didn’t you ask me — at the Burger House — if I ever wanted to run away . . . find something different?”

“I don’t even remember what I said at the Burger House, I was flipping out, then,” Liseli muttered.  As if you’re not, now . . . .

“Well, you said that.”  He paused, but when she didn’t respond, he shrugged.  “I just thought maybe you wanted something like that.  This.  It’s different.”

“Okay, no, this is not what I wanted.”  Liseli shook her head.  “I did not want to be stranded in the middle of who-knows-where, alone with you.”

“Hey!  I’m not a monster!” he protested.  “I . . . I don’t know what happens in your nightmares, but I’m not going to do anything to hurt you, so—”

“I wasn’t even thinking about anything like that,” she said coolly, tilting her chin in the air.

“Fine.”  He fixed his gaze on the ground.

“Listen, my point was that I didn’t plan for this, and I don’t even know what ‘this’ place is, and that’s not a good thing,” Liseli explained, waving her hands.  “I don’t know what this ‘road’ and ‘edge’ is that you keep going on about, and I don’t know what else is gonna happen next, so I don’t think it’s ‘okay’, okay?”  She stopped and took a shaky breath.

He closed his eyes, but then opened them again and said, “Listen.  All I know, is that we’re here now, wherever here is and however we got here.  So what are we gonna do, since walking in and out of the trees isn’t working?”

She bit her lip, and squinted around.  “I don’t know,” she admitted.  “If we leave here, looking for people, we might get lost . . . and the way back has to be here, right?”

He shrugged.

“Well?  You have any bright ideas?” Liseli asked in exasperation.

“I think . . . ” he stated, but drifted off into silence.  “I think,” he tried again, “we should find water.”

“I’m not thirsty.”

“Well, I am.”

Liseli wavered.  He was right; they would need water to drink and food to eat if they were going to be stranded here indefinitely.  Yet that still wasn’t going to help them get back.  If getting back was even possible.  Which it *is, she insisted.

Russ surprised her by turning around, before she voiced any decision.  “Come on,” he said, “I have to drink something.”

He paused for a sudden, violent cough, and she remembered his cold.  Great, she thought.  Sickness and dehydration.  Just great.  Russ began to walk away, back up the hill.  She caught up with him.  “Are you gonna be alright?”

“Yeah, I just need some water,” he said.  “Then we can try to figure out what’s going on.”

Liseli looked over her shoulder at the grove of trees, trying to memorize the unfamiliar landscape so that she could find the place again.  “Yeah . . . yeah sure.  Okay,” she choked out the words.  “Let’s go.”