Blinding Light (BLS Book 1)

Mila

Pastime…

Where am I?

…

Tears pour out of my eyes.

What the hell is happening to me? Why must the universe do this to me? What did I do to deserve this?

Snap out of it.

There must be a loophole to get out of here. I wipe the tears away and stand up. Karen had disappeared from the room. I have some sort of idea of how she did it. It’s a simulation of a type. I’m learning so many new things all at once.

How has my brain not exploded yet? I have no idea.

LOOPHOLE

I look around. This seems like a normal enough room. But this was also where it all started. I woke up, drenched in sweat after a nightmare. It wasn’t planned—wasn’t planned in the slightest bit.

Something that isn’t planned.

“The letter…”

The voice!

You’re back.

“Now, you know. I’m here to help…”

How can you possibly do that? You haven’t been much of a help at all these days. I’ve been alone, isolated.

“I can…only stay…for so long. Break…the barrier.”

Break the barrier?

And when I hear nothing else, I know he’s gone.

Break the barrier.

That must be what’s keeping me in here. I just have to find out what it is—something unusual, out of the blue. I look around, and my room is depressingly ordinary.

I sit down on my bed, frustrated.

Wait.

I let my nails dig into my skin. My sharp nails cut into the flesh of my forearm. I still feel the pain and see the blood, but I dig deeper. I gasp and let go. The skin knits itself together so quickly as if it’s magic.

I can’t be hurt in this world unless I want to hurt. Unless it’s something that I wanted to hurt or want myself to be hurt. Suddenly, my right palm tingles. I frown and turn my hand over. There’s a patch of skin that has healed but not completely. I look at my pale forearm again, and the skin is completely healed.

Hmmm.

The skin is rough in that particular spot and soft around the edges—it feels like a big blister from gardening or working. Almost like—

A burn mark.

Viens (come on), Mila, think! When did you get burned?

I look around. Suddenly, I finally see what I’m looking for—the loophole. In the dimly lit room, a black scorch mark stands out on the light brown wood.

…

That day, two people came into my room unexpectedly—unknowing that I was awake. But I was, and I remember it now. Something had stabbed or burned my foot. Something so hot that could cause a burn—a burn that could harm me—because it was real.

But after my conversation with that drunk man, I can’t seem to recall anything else.

Wait, I do remember something. There was a man—with goldish brownish eyes. He was like a magician.

What on earth was his name?

…

Silas!

That’s it! It was him. He had some sort of magic.

Now I know for sure, that he’s not a part of this world, my world.

Something about him seems oddly familiar yet unfamiliar at the same time. His yellow eyes only remind me of one being: Midnight. I almost laugh out loud.

Anything is possible, isn’t it? Midnight is a man—who’s been communicating with me…in my room, alone.

I shudder at the thought.

D’accord, no matter. That’s all in the past. Focus. There’s something about Mid—Silas that will help me.

I remember him jumping into the water—diving in, cannonballing in. I frown as my memory becomes unclear. I pace around the room, hoping to clear my head a little. I remember seeing…something in the water. And it’s the water that let me sink into. But everything after that is a haze. I remember the vision clear as day, just not how I got there.

D’accord. Backtrack a little bit.

Maybe it had something to do with the water.

That’s gotta be a hint! Some kind of mistake was used as a hint for me.

If the water revealed things such as the failsafe, that’s where I got the most of my memories from. I remember seeing memories of the present, past, and possibly the future—reality. The water…

Suddenly, Mother’s painting swirls in my mind. I frown, confused about how that’s going to help. It only depicts her friend, her friend’s husband, her friend’s three children, and her, laughing by a lake that looks like the one from Miracle Island.

If I did have some control in this place, I’m going to need to see the painting. I look through the cupboards and I find the painting, sealed in its glass container stored in my closet.

Tears sting my eyes and nose when I look at it. It’s the last thing Mother left me before she died. All three of the adults are smiling—the details are so vividly made it’s almost like I’m there with them. I could’ve been there, laughing with them, being happy. The lake, when I look at it again, it resembles the one at Miracle Island.

Somehow, my mother and the other woman and her husband traveled there?

I frown when I look at the other woman, she looked oddly familiar with her bright smile, perfectly straight teeth, and big brown eyes. The tall man standing next to her has forest green eyes. Even in the painting, he has this beautiful aura that draws me in.

“Like yourself…”

What?

But I get no response.

Like myself…how so?

When I look at the painting again, I realize why the woman looked so familiar.

It was Karen. Karen, who moments ago told me she was my mother.

How is that even possible? How could Karen have known my mother? My other mother?

I look at the three of them, so close and loving. Just then, I remembered something.

Raven told me I had a brother. I gasp, my breath hitching in my throat.

How could it be? I look at the painting again, tears stinging my eyes. I wipe them away to better see the painting. The little girl on the grass—was Raven. And the boy—

Was my brother. So that means, the baby Karen’s holding…is me. And the man…

I bring a hand to my mouth, falling onto my knees—it hits the cold, wood floor with a thud. But I don’t feel any pain physically. It was all in my head. The man was my father.

I squeeze my eyes shut. All these years, I thought he had left us, and maybe he did. But, I know that before everything had happened in the so-called 2328, I was loved by my mother, my father, my two siblings, and even my adoptive mother.

Everything suddenly seemed to line up perfectly. I gasp, realizing something I didn’t know before. That day, at the lake, I tried to end it. But the painting showed otherwise. It’s where the most important people of my life were, the last time they felt sane and joyful together. It represented so much more than just a measly painting. It was a huge mistake on my part to think the lake held something evil, something disastrous. But maybe—

Just maybe—

It was the other way around.

The oarfish. Sinking through the boat. The look on his face. His blue ocean eyes. It’s all coming back to me now. Silas turned into the oarfish, he can shapeshift or something.

Don’t know, don’t care.

But that day, he made a terrible mistake; because now I got it all figured out.

Karen, Mother, I don’t know what I did to deserve this. But I’m going to find out what the actual hell is going on beyond my head.

I don’t know why you would choose to betray me, and I’m unknown of the actual reason. But, I’m coming. I’m coming faster than ever. Faster than lightning. At the speed of light—a blinding light.

I kiss the painting and drop it onto the floor. The glass chips and shatters around my foot—it chips the top of my feet, cutting through the skin, making it bleed out. But it doesn’t hurt, I don’t let it hurt. I have control now.

One kill strike.

I pick up the piece and take a deep breath in.

You can do it.

I tell myself and make a deep cut on my throat.

I feel myself gurgle as the blood pours out. Even though the pain doesn’t come, my legs give out, and I collapse onto the wooden floor. My eyes were boring and yet burning into the ceiling.

I’m coming…brother.

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Thanks, with lots of smiles

☆•Yiona•☆