Immortal Light: Wide Awake (15 page)

“
Okay,” Lucy said as she sat back
in her seat. She closed her eyes and rested her arm on the window,
putting her thumb and forefinger to her forehead to try and shake
the uneasiness.

Her eyes shot open suddenly. She
felt for a moment that something awful was about to happen. Mark
was looking over at Dave’s car, gauging the slight lead he had,
when they blew through the intersection at Main Street and sped
into the shallow turn. She felt him take his foot off the gas and
the car subtly began to decelerate. Then, before she could even
warn him or scream, she looked out the window and saw in the
darkness, an eighteen-wheeler not twenty yards ahead, pulling into
the road from the next side street. They were going to plow right
into the back wheels of the tractor section. Just as Lucy wanted to
scream, it was suddenly and inexplicably clear what she needed to
do.

Without thinking, her body reacted as if by
sheer instinct. She reached up and, with all the strength she had,
grabbed Mark’s body with her left arm and the steering wheel with
her right arm and pulled them violently in her direction. She felt
the car jerk to the right, which made their bodies want to stay
left, but she somehow willed the two of them down as low as they
could possibly go below the level of the dashboard.

At the moment of impact, Lucy felt shards of
glass hit her face and arms. The screech of metal was deafening,
but she held on with all her might to Mark’s body, pinning him on
top of her with her hand clutching the back of his head to resist
the reflex of sitting up. Every part of the car above them seemed
to explode in a cacophony of earsplitting horror, and suddenly
there was nothing but wind and the sound of ricocheting metal and
glass behind them.

She had done all she could do, but something
was still wrong. She felt a quick lurch as the car accelerated,
realizing Mark’s foot was still resting on the gas pedal. Opening
her eyes, she saw copious amounts of blood soaking the hair just
above his right ear, and then a violent bang and a jolt sent
everything into blackness.

Lucy lay motionless. She could feel her eyes
moving behind the lids. Everything outside of her was quiet and
calm. Sensing no weight on her, she shot upright and realized she
was sitting on the ground. The forest was the same as it had been.
She jumped to her feet. Looking around at the trees, her heart
pounded in her chest.

“
This is wrong. This is all
wrong,” she said out loud as she looked toward the sun. Not knowing
what to do, she started to yell for the only other person she knew
would be there. “Benjamin! Benjamin! I need your help!”

There was no reply and no sign of
him. She looked around frantically in the recesses of the
trees.

“
Please tell me you’re here!” she
yelled.

As she finished scanning the woods, hoping to
see the person she had been avoiding for days, she noticed that
Mark was lying near her in the clearing. Somehow he was
there.

“
Mark!” she yelled as she ran to
him and dropped down beside him.

His eyes were closed and his face was
peaceful. She gently turned his head to look at his right ear. The
last time she had seen it, the brief second she had had to look at
him before being thrust back to the rainforest, he was bleeding
from that spot. But it looked just fine; there wasn’t even a
scratch. His hair wasn’t so much as tousled out of place. He looked
perfect.

With her hands on his chest, she softly shook
him. “Mark, Mark, can you hear me?”

He didn’t respond.

She put her face close to his face with both
hands on his cheeks. She could feel tears welling up inside. A
terrifying feeling began to rip its way through her body, a feeling
that he might be dead. The tears rolled down her cheeks as she
pleaded with him to respond.

“
Please, Mark, please. Wake up. I
need you to wake up.”

She touched her forehead to his and the
torrent of tears flowed freely. Mark still didn’t move.

Lucy had to get help. At the very least she
had to get out of this dream and back to reality where she could
help him. Benjamin had to be there somewhere. He was always there.
She didn’t even know why it was pertinent; it was all a dream. She
was making it all up in her subconscious, so it didn’t really
matter if she found Benjamin at all. But, the fact still remained
that, in the waking world, Mark was badly hurt, and she might be,
too, and Benjamin was somehow the key to her waking up.

As she closed her eyes to regain
her faculties, she heard something behind her. It sounded like
footsteps running through the undergrowth of the forest. Lucy stood
up quickly.

From directly ahead of her, she
saw a figure moving rapidly toward her. She could tell it was
Benjamin by the shape of his body and the familiar stride. A chill
went up her back as she remembered the last dream she had, and just
like the last dream, as he got closer, she saw the sword in his
hand. In a way, she welcomed a repeat of the last dream; at least
she would wake up.

She clenched every muscle in her body waiting
for the sword to pierce her chest, but to her surprise, she saw
Benjamin slow to a walk, and just before he entered the clearing,
he stopped and sheathed his sword in its scabbard. He stood there
in the shadows looking at her.

“
Benjamin, I need your help. He’s
going to bleed to death if I don’t wake up. How do I get out of
here?”

“
It’s going to be alright, Lucy,”
he said, taking steps toward her.

“
I need to wake up, how do I do
that?”

As he approached, she could see his sparkling
green eyes and they were soft and gentle.

“
That’s the last thing you should
do if you want to save him. If you want him to live, you have to
save him from right here,” Benjamin said.

“
What are you talking about? This
is a dream; I can’t do anything from here!” Lucy said
frantically.

“
You have a special gift, Lucy,
and right now you’re going to use it to save Mark.”

“
What are you saying? I don’t have
any gifts; this is a dream! It’s just a dream! I need to wake up if
I’m going to save him!”

“
You know what your gift is;
you’ve seen it work before. Focus on him. I’ll help you however I
can, but I’m not there, so I can’t do it for you.” Benjamin came up
behind her as she sat down beside Mark. “You need to trust
yourself. It is in you. I believe in you. Now you have to
believe.”

Lucy felt confused and scared. She had no idea
what he meant about her gift. She looked back toward Benjamin and
tears came again. Her eyes pleaded with Benjamin to help
her.

“
Lucy, you have an internal energy
that I know you’ve felt before. You need to use that energy to save
Mark.” He looked into her eyes, “I know you can do
this.”

Looking back at Mark’s serene and motionless
body, she wiped the tears from her cheek. “But I can’t! I don’t
even know what you mean. Please, help me.”

“
I can’t; you have to do this,
Lucy.”

“
No! Please, you have to.” She was
starting to get manic.

“
You can do this, Lucy,” Benjamin
said encouragingly.

With a pained and seemingly frustrated
expression on his face, he turned around and headed back into the
woods. Lucy jumped up to chase after him, but Mark needed
her.

“
No, you can’t leave me!” she
yelled after him. “Not Now! I can’t do this!” Her plea became
convulsive gasps as fear contorted her body and she cried out, “You
can’t leave me; I don’t want him to die! Don’t you get it? He’s
dying and I’m trapped here!”

She doubled over, sobbing, falling
to the ground. She ripped a handful of fern leaves from a nearby
plant and felt the foliage crumple in her fingers. In her anger she
wanted to turn them into dust. She wanted to pulverize them out of
frustration toward Benjamin. All she had known of him was
abandonment and fear. Why couldn’t she just let him go and go back
to her life? Why couldn’t she wake up and get help for
Mark?

As Lucy sobbed, her body relaxed.
In her hands she held the mutilated leaves and as she felt the
texture of them she suddenly felt compassion for them. She felt
shame at her actions and pity toward the destroyed life for which
she had shown such disrespect. As she looked through the obscurity
of her tears, she tried to stretch out the fragile stems and leaves
she had just tried to destroy. Doing so, she alarmingly noticed
that bright, rich color had begun to spread from each vein of each
leaf she held. She wiped her eyes to make sure she wasn’t seeing
things. Without a single doubt, the leaves were revitalizing. She
picked up the pieces she had dropped and held them all together.
Vivid green was spreading all over and she felt something tickling
her knees. Looking down she saw that from the base of the leaves,
very thin winding roots had sprouted and were reaching toward the
ground, demanding nutrients. Life was being renewed to the plant.
Life as it was meant to be. New life was given, and the plant
accepted it.

Lucy’s eyes opened wide in surprise; she
couldn’t believe what she was seeing. It made sense because of her
past experiences, but here it was, happening right in front of her.
The plant was coming back to life just like the moth, like the
bird. Holding the plant to the ground, Lucy watched as its roots
dug deeply into the soil and drank up the richness of its new home.
It was amazing to see the plant sprout new leaves and the coarse
tendrils elongate as they stretched out, not toward the sun, but
toward Lucy.

That’s it,
Lucy though to herself.
That’s what it is.

She released the plant and turned
toward Mark lying nearby. Recalling the moth at her desk and the
bird in her yard, understanding coursed through her.

“
Is it that easy?” she said in
disbelief at the notion.

With a sense of panicked urgency, she threw
herself down and wrapped her arms around Mark’s neck and shoulders,
cradling his head. She was surprised when she felt the electric
sensation again that she had felt on the dance floor and in the
car. She suddenly realized that the electricity had not been coming
from him; it was coming from her. She held Mark tighter, and it
didn’t matter that it was all supposed to be a dream. She simply
focused all of her life force on Mark. The electric sensation
engulfed not just her arms, but her whole body.

“
Come on, Mark. Wake up. I need
you. I need you to live.”

She tried with all of her strength to summon
enough energy to revive him, but he still felt like dead weight in
her arms. It wasn’t enough. She wasn’t enough.

“
Please, Mark, please come back to
me. You have to live!” Lucy could feel a greater flow of energy as
she begged him to live, and she was beginning to feel the strain on
her body and soul.

“
Please, Mark, please. I can’t do
this. I can’t. Please wake up.” Doubt in herself began to turn to
despair as she screamed and cried for Mark.

“
Take me, instead!” she yelled to
the heavens, then redirected her plea to the forest. “Help me!
Benjamin, I need you to help me!”

Darkness began to creep in around her. She
held fast to Mark’s lifeless body and fell backwards with him as
her whole existence and life was sucked into a black hole. She
fought it with every ounce of her strength, but at last she gave in
to the despair and everything went black.

“
Lucy, Lucy!” The words seemed to
echo as though down a long empty tunnel. Someone was calling out to
her.

“
Help me, where are you?” she
called back.

“
Lucy!” Again she heard the voice
calling her name, but it was closer.

“
Help me, please!” she called
again. Her eyes popped open. She felt cool air on her face and the
smell of the ocean in her nostrils. Staring down at her with eyes
stricken in panic was Mark.

“
Oh, thank God, you’re alive! Are
you okay, can you move?”

Lucy’s mind raced.
Where am I?
she
thought.
Am I alive?
She tried to recall the last few moments. She had been in the
forest with Benjamin. He told her she had a gift. She had to save
Mark. She looked up at him and examined his face. There wasn’t a
scratch on him. She recalled his blood pouring down her arm. Her
arm was clean.

“
What happened?” she said; her
voice cracked.

“
You totally saved us. You pulled
me down out of the way. I don’t know what happened exactly, but
look at the car.”

Mark helped her to a sitting
position. In front of her, the airbag hung from the dashboard,
having been deployed when the car collided with the corner of a
bicycle shop storefront. Looking behind them, she saw the
semi-truck stopped in the middle of the road while the driver
surveyed the damage. A trail of glass and debris led to the roof of
the car which rested in a twisted, mangled heap beneath the
trailer. From across the street, Lucy saw two figures running
toward them. Kat and Dave were yelling to ask if everyone was
alright. She saw the headlights of all the cars in the caravan
gleaming through the opening between the truck and its trailer.
Mark tried his door, but it was jammed, so he jumped over the top
of it and rushed around the front of the car to Lucy’s side. He
tried that handle, but it was jammed as well.