River of Stars
The sky is black; the ground is a thin layer of water that looks like it's a deep as the ocean but barely comes above your ankles, and it's flat and featureless as far as the eye can see. No noise permeates the air.
Charlie closes her eyes and concentrates, feeling what this 'world' is made of, or if there's anything in any direction.
There's no fabric to this place. It's empty.
Gently, slowly, carefully, Charlie starts to imagine a light above her, made of two key elements; hope and happiness, and representing life.
It starts with a flicker, but quickly forms, twisting wreaths of glowing ivy wrapping around the light to solidify it in place.
She feeds it slowly, giving it images of Seb.
And it begins to pulse.
Some are crystal clear, like the day she saw him from a distance, happily dancing down the street listening to his headphones. Some are less pictures and more concepts, like the warm feeling you got when he smiled, or the safety he gave others when he was around.
She then lets it sit there, and instead starts to imagine it lighting a path for someone lost.
The light... drifts away from you, out towards the horizon.
Slowly and carefully she follows it, senses spread out, looking for any sign of well, anything.
You walk... for what feels like.. hours... days? through the same featureless landscape. You are rapidly disconnecting from any sense of time. For a moment you find yourself asking.. "Where am I?" "What am I doing again?", but then a surge of strength pulls you back on focus.
Items start breaking the nothingness, like monuments and dioramas out of place. A nice country house in a southern style. A kind faced woman with Seb's eyes cooking at a hob, a small boy in a red hoodie helping her bake. Stone statues in vivid detail, standing like monuments in an ocean as smooth as glass.
Charlie keeps following the light, but feeds it a little more as she walks; this time, the memory of Charlie and Seb the night he talked to her about leadership.
It flickers and leads you on.
You pass a statue of two young men holding on to each other like the other is the source of life itself; clearly Andre and Seb once they were reunited.
Next, a statue of yourself but.. well you're not sure that's how you see yourself. Taller. Stronger. Features clear and perfect, radiating compassion.
Another of Claudia and the statue makes her look strong but.. smaller, gentler.. something he dearly wants to protect.
A statue of Dean Staves that is only partially painted but that which is painted is in vivid detail. The features that are painted are warmer compared to the stark bastion in the unpainted sections.
She keeps walking and gives the light love, pure love.
It moves along, and what feels like more days pass. Your feet are sinking deeper in the water, and the .. reality seems to be eroding too, statues floating around partially assembled.
Andres face but it's cracked down the middle. A gravestone. Thousands of other small details.
The water is at your hips now, and you realise it's not water - it's trillions of small musical notes, barely bigger than a grain of rice.
Charlie reaches down and scoops up a handful, concentrating on them.
The notes are dead. Lifeless.
But they feel like they shouldn't be.
She starts to concentrate on the light and the notes at the same time, trying to spread the light to the notes, and starts humming.
Pinpricks of light appear, and a small scattering of notes reverberate with the sounds.
Charlie isn't musical, but she's not tone deaf either; she's humming bars of Welcome Home to start with. In her mind she imagines Seb glowing, not in a fight, but in joy, flying through the air, and tries to capture that image in the music and the light as it spreads
Nothing happens.
She picks up the volume and starts singing, imagining Sebs voice along with hers filling the air.
Nada; and you are up to your chest in the notes.
Changes the tune, gently, trying to bring the light in over her head.
You try, but it's settling about 5 paces in front of you and bobbing over the surface of the "water".
She follows it, humming gently under her breath, the soft opening notes of Fix You.
You are sinking and distantly you feel... someone calling out in despair.
Thinks, desperately, knowing that singing is right but her tune is wrong.
You sink some more and your foot bumps against something.
A... hand. An arm, buried deep beneath the notes.
She takes the hand in her own instantly and starts pulling.
It's dragging you down. The hand is cold, and weighs about as much as a mountain.
She's still pulling, still running through songs in her mind..
An agonised scream of "Charlie" rips through your mind from light years away.
With effort she pushes down the whimper that tries to escape and instead, realising what she needs to do, starts humming The Song, in the tones and intonations Claudia does, like a lullaby and a comfort.
As The River Runs Through You comes from her lips she pulls harder on his hand, trying to mentally amplify the sound as much as she can, sending it into the light, into the notes, out as far as she can.
The notes become more fluid; moving, humming, vibrating.
She concentrates on the melody and his hand, not letting go.
The hand starts moving - but you are still being pulled under too.
In a moment of desperation she tries to push the music through her hand into his, then realises the mistake she's making and reaches out with her telekinesis and starts pulling him up that way.
You have aligned yourself with the area, and your telekinesis strikes down and grabs him, drawing him up. He looks dead, pale and starved, a shadow of himself.
She makes the music swell louder and reaches out mentally with her healing, trying to show him it's there for him.
The music notes start to rise and shoot up, settling into the empty sky. They form constellations, each playing their own songs that are all somehow separate and distinct at the same time, and the sea of music drains until you are standing under a brilliant sky. All the constellations are joined by a single thread of music.
Charlie is still holding his hand, still softly humming, just looking at him and holding the mental healing open gently.
His eyes flick open.
"You.. came."
She lets the hum taper off softly.
"Of course."
"I knew you would", and he gets to his feet.
"How could I not?" as she reaches out and taps his heart gently with her free hand "You're part of that."
He smiles and looks around him. "How.. how do we get out of here?"
She takes his other hand, saying softly "Hold on tight to me. I have a plan."
And she closes her eyes and reaches out, far out, looking for that distinct feeling, that a few minutes or hours or days or seconds, she doesn't know, was a cry in her mind. Softly she says "Think about Claudia with me."
It's so so faint, you only have a general direction.
From a distance one of the statues is walking towards Seb; a woman with kind eyes. She holds her arms to Seb who looks dumbstruck, and he falls into them, holding on tight. She holds him with equal ferocity.
Charlie watches, a soft smile on her face, but doesn't stop concentrating on the direction for a split second.
And a voice, in a warm familiar Scots accent whispers in your ear;
"Hope can never be given away Charlie, it can only be shared. Now show him the way home."
Her ears prick up immediately, and warm, happy tears slide down her cheeks.
You become quite aware of an item in your pocket.
Her hand slides in to hold it instinctively, and she reaches her free hand out to Seb, offering it for when he's ready.
He steps away and the statue falls away into more musical notes, rising up to the sky. He watches it a moment then takes your hand
Charlie, softly "She has kind eyes."
"She really does", his voice a whisper.
She squeezes his hand "Let's go home, Seb."
A nod, and "Lead the way".
She wraps her fingers around his, doing the same around the brick, and concentrates, following the direction she found earlier.
Seb looks down at it as it starts to glow brightly, tugging like it wants to be free.
Slowly Charlie holds up her palm and opens it, letting the brick sit freely.
It rises up a moment. Then streaks out into the dark, exploding into light on the horizon...
And you know.. that's where she is.
Charlie has a wide smile on a face once again streaked with tears. "That's where we're going."
"I think so.. wow... it's beautiful".
And you both start walking, peaceful, yet covering thousands of miles in each step.
You arrive at the lighthouse and there's a door. It looks like the door to a rustic cabin, with ivy and vines growing over it.
Charlie's face splits into a wide smile as she sees it.
"Is this it? Do we go through"
"It is. This is my front door." squeezing his hand happily "This is home."
"Well.. I can't wait to go inside"
Before you open the door, you look overhead to see this view for the last time…
Every constellation a song you can hear by focusing on it.
Pauses for a moment, then opens the door carefully.
It opens and you see a wall of light. And you want to go to it.
Charlie, still holding his hand firmly, "Ready?"
"Ready"
And they step through, together.
