Alone
Episode 107
“Cerian?”Arisannawhispersasshe grips the doorframe and searches the forest for some sign of him. It’s as if he vanished.
“Cerian!” She calls louder this time, but there’s still no response, other than his heart pounding to match her own.
He didn’t wake without her, did he? She wouldn’t still be in the heartlanding if he had, though. They’re supposed to be together here.
Unless this isn’t the heartlanding. What if it’s a regular dream?
It sure didn’t feel like a dream as he ran his hands along her sides a few minutes ago.
But then dreams often seem real until you wake.
Either way, he’s gone, and the thought of venturing into the forest without him turns her knuckles white as she clutches the train.
No one could possibly expect her to get off without him. And to what end? He’s not standing there waiting for her. At least not as far as she can see.
What if the doorway is some sort of portal to another place? And all she needs to do to find him is step through it?
But what if it isn’t? And what if the train disappears as soon as she steps off?
Her words from their last excursion in the heartlanding return to her, and she winces.
I’d follow you anywhere, Cerian Westaria.
Did she mean it?
She calls his name again, but there’s still no response.
This is either the heartlanding being an awful, awful...entity.
Or it’s a nightmare.
At least nightmares eventually end. And so do nights in the heartlanding.
Maybe she’ll just wait it out.
Slowly, she releases her grip on the train and steps backward. One step. Two steps. Then she hurries to the nearest row of seats and drops to the cushion, keeping her eyes on the open doorway the whole time.
She’ll just wait here for him to return. Or for her to wake up. That seems safest.
But where did he go? And why?
Cerian’shandclosesaroundempty air as soon as his feet hit the ground, and he spins around, but both Arisanna and the train are gone.
And their forest by the lake has been replaced by something much more sinister. The wind whistles through branches overhead that loom black against a midnight blue sky. They’re rough and jagged, and they feel wrong. Not like the trees in his familiar woods.
These trees are not benevolent. If a tree can be benevolent, that is. He never thought so before, but a chill creeps up his spine at the coldness of this forest.
Hopefully, Arisanna isn’t somewhere in these woods. She’d be terrified, especially alone.
“Arisanna!” he calls, but a growl of thunder is the only response.
Her heart races to match his own, and the urge to panic fills him, not for his well-being but for hers.
“I wish to be with Arisanna.”
