Sentilia

This time when I regained consciousness I knew where I was. Maybe that was exactly what made me hesitate before opening my eyes.

I opened them slowly, focusing first on Kleio who was hovering over me. And then I saw him again, Dr. Skythe, and my cheeks started prickling again. He was slightly turned away from me, but I could see his perplexed face. Something was clearly bothering him. I wanted to reach out and touch his face. But the thought vanished instantly. Kleio spoke: “Elis, she’s coming around.”

Elis turned to look at me; I could swear there was a glimmer in his eyes as he met mine. He walked straight to me and gently put his lightly trembling hand on my forehead.

He took a deep breath and he whispered softly, with his deep, velvet voice: “How are you feeling Max?” He had called me Max. I smiled. “I’m Doctor Elis Skythe; you can call me Elis, if you’d like.”

“Hey-” Elis lifted his hand to silence Kleio, throwing him a slightly menacing look.

He turned his face back towards me, and smiled kindly. I wouldn’t have noticed Kleio’s startled face if he wasn’t standing so close to me. I turned and smiled at him to try and ease the tension I was beginning to sense. Moments like these made me so uncomfortable. Especially since I didn’t know them. Maybe I could ask them where Maia was; she was always so calm and collected...

My thoughts got confused when I noticed Elis staring at me. “Thanks...” was all I managed to say, eyeing him shyly. I had trouble looking straight into his piercing eyes.

“It’s okay K; I’ll keep her with me for a day or two just to be sure it doesn’t happen a third time; I’ll probably run some tests too, you know, boring stuff. You can leave.” Elis smiled courteously, but Kleio did not return the smile.

“You know what? I think I’ll stick around. Didn’t have any plans today anyways.”

“I need to be alone to concentrate on my work Kleio, I don’t want someone watching over my shoulder” Elis retorted, his teeth clenched.

Their confrontation was starting to make me anxious. It was clear by the quick escalation that there was a history between the two of them that didn’t involve me in any way. Coward as I was, I used an excuse to get away.

“Um...Can I use the bathroom?”

Elis turned towards me, seeming almost surprised to see me there, as if he had forgotten my presence over the short disagreement with Kleio.

“It’s right near the end of the corridor, to your left,” he said.

I made my way through the long corridor, trying to escape the muted whispers behind me. I noticed a white swing door, which was left ajar. I paused, driven by curiosity, and slowly pushed it open. There was a small bed with a red comforter and light blue pillows pushed against the far wall that was painted in a light shade of pink. Heavy pink curtains bordered the windows and the white blinds were shut all the way. The floor of the room was cluttered, there were all kinds of objects that I did not recognize, but it felt like it was still occupied. That was until I noticed the shattered mirror, the pieces scattered all over the floor. Not to mention the coat of dust covering everything in the room.

I closed the door behind me as I left, and spun around to walk into the bathroom. It was quite large, light blue walls; it looked exactly like the one we had at my apartment. I splashed my face with fresh water, and then sat on the counter for a moment or two-as long as I figured it would take for them to calm down-before heading back into the office.

When I got back, Kleio was gone and I stood facing Elis, not quite knowing what to do or say. I stared at him closely. I watched him shuffling papers around and trying to tidy up the office; time suddenly seemed still, Elis was moving slower. Standing against the rays of light coming in from the window, he looked like he was glowing. The calm that he exuded was soothing. He hadn’t seen me until-not knowing what to do with myself-I leaned against the desk trying to look casual and knocked a pencil down with my hand. He turned towards me and I caught a glimpse of his expression before blushing and looking away. His face seemed curious, as if he was expecting something of me.

I was prepared to answer any questions that he had. My only secret from him or anyone would be that this was all a dream. They would think I was crazy; maybe I was.

He broke the silence first.

“You can sit down, Max. I’ve got a couple of questions for you, and I have to run a quick test. I’m guessing you’ve never had a needle stuck in your arm before? Well, it’s not very comfortable, but let’s just say it’s the fastest way to take a blood sample so we can find out what is happening with you. May I?” he lifted a round metal object that hung around his neck by a plastic tube that divided into two; he was placing both ends in each ear. I had no idea what this was but I trusted him, so I nodded.

He lifted his hand and hesitated before placing the “stethoscope”, as he had called it, on my heart. Involuntarily, my heart rate started accelerating. He moved it to my back, and slid it under my shirt. He asked me to take a deep breath, and I did, but stop mid-way when I noticed there was a distinct tremble in my breath. His face was inches away and I tried to hold his gaze without success. He removed the cold metal from my back and laughed nervously. “Sorry” he said. There was a light tremor in his voice; he had surely noticed how fast my heart was beating. I wanted to crawl under the chair.

“Now for the fun part,” he said, grabbing what I could only guess was the needle he was going to take my blood with. “Ready?” he asked.

“Sure, go ahead,” I replied, suddenly scared that this would really hurt.

“Take a deep breath.” I controlled every part of my face not to show any sign of pain when he stabbed my arm with the needle. I stopped breathing. Ouch. But I’d felt worse.

My eyes widened because I didn’t expect it to take that long, but he didn’t notice. He looked like he was trying to formulate something in his head, his eyebrows furrowed, and he looked at me with that curious expression again: “What were you doing out there, on your own, when they found you? How did you find us?” He pulled the needle out, to my greatest relief. Blood was pooling around where the needle had left my skin, and now he did notice my eyes widening again. I didn’t see blood very often, and I always felt a little woozy when I did. He took a cotton ball, placed it over where the blood was, and secured it with a tape before taking my hand in his. “Are you ok?” he asked. I was looking at my hand in his, and wishing he would keep it there. It felt warm and comforting. “Yes, I’m... fine.” All of a sudden, it wasn’t a lie.

He followed my eyes to our hands, and got up swiftly, letting my hand go like it was fire. I frowned: “I... I was wandering, on that afternoon, and I just... got lost,” I was able to lie, quite convincingly I thought, to my great astonishment. He started to run his tests on my blood, not seeming so convinced. Dang it.

“First of all, ‘on that afternoon’ was yesterday.” So, their time was not the same as mine. I continued my dreams from when they had ended last time. “And second-wandering, Max? We’re on an island; the nearest coast is twenty-five hundred miles away from here. How can you have just wandered off? Even if you meant to come here, the only ones who know our location are those ten women of yours, but you can’t be one of them. I mean, you’re too young, right?” he asked, anxiously. He had almost mockingly mentioned the Advisors, with a lot less respect than what was usually expected.

I stared out the window, puzzled. And then, it dawned on me; how did he know about the Advisors? I opened my mouth in shock. This meant that I was not dreaming of the past, but of the present. These people lived in 2981 and they knew that outside their world stood ours, with the technology, with the social awkwardness, with the Advisors. But this was all in my head, right? It was just a dream, a making of my imagination. But what if it were true? What if there were people that still lived in a community like this, someplace on our planet? The world is so big; it could be a possibility, and I wanted to believe in it. I was suddenly aware that my eyes were widening and a smile was hovering around the edges of my lips. I straightened out my face promptly before he could notice it too.

I had to find out more; who cared if they learned the truth about me and think I was crazy? I was in a dream after all. All of a sudden nothing mattered anymore, I was no longer afraid to look into Elis’ eyes; I wanted answers and no distractions were going to stop me.

As I turned to face him, I froze in place for a second. A last thought was still lingering in my mind. My psychic lapses, the way I can predict certain things-and the way I am conscious in a dream, and that no reports were ever made of this kind of behavior-could it all mean something? Was I able to predict the future? Was this dream real in any sort of way? Maybe my brain wasn’t just making this up. I remembered the series of strange dreams I’d had before I started to have those lapses. Could it all be connected somehow?

I shook my head and closed my eyes; I couldn’t start mixing the unearthly with the reality. It was pure madness.

Barely seconds had passed through all this brain racking.

I looked up at his face to give him an answer, but with my last thoughts my defense had faltered and I lost my train of thought for a second. I muttered, still looking into his eyes: “No...I’m not one of them, but, where are we? And how come those women know about this location, and I, I mean we don’t?” I was going to play along, pretend everything was real and figure everything out when I would wake up. Maybe that was best to get all of my answers. Plus, there was always this sort of haze that was blocking me from thinking 100% clearly.

“They sure know how to keep a secret, don’t they?” he answered, flashing his shiny white smile. My heart skipped a beat.

“Those women,” he went on, turning towards the window, “are trying to integrate us to your way of living. They think that we, living like our ancestors, will fall upon the same wars and tragedies, and destroy ourselves; maybe bring down some of your people as we go. They think we are not as civilized as they are and will, therefore, crumble apart. We’ve been living like this for so long, it’s just a different lifestyle, nothing is wrong for us, everything is perfect. And even if it wasn’t, it’s up to us to learn from our own mistakes, not the ones made a thousand years ago. They’re insisting on converting us, and each time our resistance turns into anger, and more anger. As we have become downright bitter to their offers, I fear it’ll soon turn into violence. That’s what they want, I think, to prove their point. Instead of letting us live happily and letting us be, they will eventually make us unite with their society.”

“Make you?” I whispered, bewildered. This story was starting to freak me out. My mother was going to be a part of all this. Did she actually know what she was getting into? Or did these women tell you about their evil plans only after you became a part of the team? I shuddered at the thought. “It’s just a dream,” I had to remind myself.

“Yes, make us. You see, before the whole ‘moment of consciousness’ thing, people were forced to do what others wanted, by the means of weapons and violence.” I knew that. “We’re pretty sure that’s what they’ll use to come and get us; they’ll probably destroy the island on their way out: less evidence. They know it will take nothing less to make us leave and become a part of their society. Some will even still resist, even facing death. So that’s what they’ll give them. Taking down a few rebels on the way out won’t stop the Advisors. They look at our city as an entity.” He was too calm for what he had just said. Though I had sensed despise when he mentioned the Advisors, he was perfectly composed.

“Did you say... rebels?” My breathing was accelerating, this was becoming senseless.

“Yeah, they think we are planning to overthrow them and rule like our ancestors, restoring mass wars and fear on the planet. I mean, c’mon, who would want that? Pretty deep stuff, isn’t it? Truly the only thing we want is to be left alone.”

“But...wait. There are ten of them, against how many of you?”

“Well, we’re a lot, but, we’re not an army. The word going around right now is that they’ve created one for themselves. Which is... really fun for us.” Humour? Really?

“A...an...an army?” I was horrified. Weren’t they supposed to be peaceful? Wasn’t that the whole point? Were we just slowly going back to the savagery of ancient times? Of all the things we’d lost and forgotten with time, this had to be the one we brought back? I couldn’t believe it.

“They don’t seem to wise anymore, huh?” he continued, chuckling darkly at my terrified expression: “In our community, or you could call it a city, men and women decide together. The head of the counsel is a man. It was a woman last term, and who knows who it will be next term. The point is only one person, one trusted person manages the votes, the fast decisions, one person we can officially look up to. Those ten women say that a man in ruling was bad. Men were too vain; they had too much pride and anger inside of them to judge properly. They once said that when men were in power, the power itself consumed them. Women, on the other hand, wanted peace and could take more sensible decisions. The earth has recovered well, considering the state it was left in when they arrived, but as every human in the possession of power, the women eventually became greedy, and wanted everybody to be under their influence: no exceptions. The problem, I’m sorry to say, is human.”

He gave me a second to process everything he had just said. My head was bubbling with a thousand questions, but only one was really troubling me: “You said: ‘when they arrived’. When who arrived? Who were you talking about? And what do you mean exactly when you say humans are the problem? Didn’t we clean up our own mess? Aren’t we also the solution?” My accusing tone seemed to have bothered him more than I wanted to. He just stood there, eyes wide, as if he wanted to take back what he had just said.

He turned around and I started to feel wobbly.

Not again.

My eyes felt heavy and they closed right before I caught a glimpse of who I thought was Maia entering the room. I fought hard to reopen my eyes and when I did, I was in my bedroom, staring at the ceiling.

I still felt sleepy so I closed my eyes again, hoping to continue my dream, and tried to concentrate on Elis, on his voice, on his face. I finally opened my eyes, and was standing in front of him. I couldn’t clearly remember what had happened before I had momentarily woken up.

There was an awkward silence that was reigning in the room. I was staring at him, and he was staring at me. I finally looked down, and figured he would start noticing that I couldn’t hold his eyes. They seemed to see right to my core. They were piercing and intense and I couldn’t help but feel too intimidated for any confidence to come through.

He broke the silence first: “I know what you must be thinking.” Oh my! Did he really? My cheeks turned ten shades of crimson.

“How do they, our leaders, manage not to succumb to the mind control of power?” Yes, of course, that’s exactly what I was thinking... “Well, the answer is simple: the leaders do not lead.” He started laughing, but stopped abruptly when he saw I wasn’t. I didn’t really get his humour. He pretended not to notice: “See, the counsel I was talking about is composed of 100 people. We all cast our votes on the solutions for specified problem. The head leader is there only to announce the final voting decision. He has no power whatsoever at the moment of the decision.”

He paused, proud of the way their community handles issues, and obviously waiting for me to answer.

“Yeah...Hmm... I don’t really know much about politics; we’ve never really learned about it, just the basics in history. But it makes sense, the way you make decisions. It seems fair, and sounds logical. Having 10 people decide for the whole world is less complicated, granted, but it just always seems like your life is controlled by someone else, someone you’ve never even seen before. Like your own life isn’t really yours.”

“Don’t worry Max, sooner or later you guys will realize what you’re doing wrong,” he said, with a tone of mockery. He turned away, shaking a small red vile in his right hand. “Your blood sample turned out fine; there is nothing wrong with you.”

I didn’t answer right away. Not only did I not know what to answer-except that there probably was something wrong with me other than my blood composition-but I also didn’t want to ruin the silence. I was still perplexed. For now, I decided I would take everything seriously because it felt so real. And because it was easier this way. Real life right now seemed clouded and far away.

Elis walked back towards me, and leaned on the desk in front of me. He stared at me for a moment. “You know you’ve got beautiful eyes,” he said, quietly. I looked down, but he kept his eyes on me. “Let’s go someplace else, talk about something else,” I muttered. He smiled and reached out for my hand: “C’mon, I’ll show you around.”

My heart accelerated. I felt like he was really talking to me for the first time in the past hour. I got up and followed him out of the house

We got into a car very similar to Kleio’s, except Kleio’s was bright red, and his was a flat dark grey. I bit my lower lip. I didn’t want to get nauseous again. Especially not in front of Elis. Although, he was a doctor after all... I looked at him and smiled wryly. He noticed and smiled crookedly in turn. My smile widened, my cheeks flushed, and my eyelids fluttered. I instantly felt idiotic, and shook my head quickly to try and get my senses back, straightening my face and turning my head away.

“So...any guesses on why you faint all the time? ’Cause I sure can’t figure it out.” He snorted. I chuckled out of nervousness. Wasn’t he the doctor?

Whatever; there was no way I was going to tell him the reason I kept fainting. Or rather, waking up. Not that I could scientifically explain why.

“I don’t faint all the time...” I didn’t dare to look at him flashing his brilliant smile. I had always been a pretty bad liar. “You did twice already, and it’s only been a couple of days,” he said. I just smiled, not able to form any coherent hypothesis, and shrugged. I felt silly, because most of the answers he was getting out of me were brainless. Not only could I not think straight around him because he made me nervous, but I couldn’t lie to his face without him knowing. Nor did I want to.

I couldn’t help myself from gazing at him when he was looking at the road. He was without a doubt the most gorgeous man I had ever seen. Masculinity radiated from every inch of his body, and I thought that could be why I felt so intimidated when I was around him. I started to get chills, so I shook every thought out of my head again. I didn’t want him to catch me daydreaming.

Daydreaming in a dream: more irony. The minutes were ticking by very slowly, and I started to wonder if I would have to endure being around him much longer. I had to get a grip and start acting like a normal, smart human again.

How long could a dream last anyway? This one had definitively lasted longer than the last two. I felt like I was covered in bubble-wrap when I was in my dreams. Like nothing could hurt me, nothing could go wrong. I still wanted to be careful about what I said and what I did just in case I really was a psychic, and this was my future. I chuckled at the thought. “As if,” I thought.

“What are you thinking about?” I jumped. He had interrupted my train of thought and I lost all focus. “Um... I was just wondering... where you were taking me. And, if we’re getting there soon ’cause last time I was in a car, I felt a little, uneasy.”

He snickered and said: “You’re fine. Your skin is still a wonderful shade of pink, and we’re just a couple minutes away.” He paused.

“I’m taking you to my house.”