Malcolm shot him a look. “In your dreams, Cat.”
I chuckled at their arguing but decided to change the subject, as I could tell that it was only going to get worse. “So you guys have been looking for me for a while then. You have been at school for a month now.”
“Yes. We had to make sure you were the right person. We can’t just bring any human here,” Malcolm answered.
I stopped and watched them carefully. “Why, what happens?”
“They don’t accept the change and well...” Malcolm trailed off.
“Well what?”
“They die,” Chase answered as a matter of fact.
“Die?” I exclaimed.
Chase nodded and smiled as if it were some kind of game. “Yes, their bodies don’t accept this world and they disappear, both from here and the real world. It’s as if they never existed in the first place. No one remembers them, except for those here. But in the real world, there is no one there to remember them, no one to mourn them. It’s for the best, really, as no one in your world will know the truth. It’s better that way.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. How many people had disappeared? How many people didn’t accept the change and simply ceased to exist? I had accidentally arrived to this place after getting pushed in the locker. Does that mean I could have died if I wasn’t the one they were looking for?
“Speaking of which, how is your head?” Malcolm asked.
I placed my hand on my forehead. I had forgotten all about it. “Fine. There’s no more pain.”
“Good, you don’t have anything to worry about then.” He smiled, as if trying to reassure me. It didn’t work, I still worried that I would suddenly disappear and everything would be gone. My existence would be no more.
But in the back of my head, I wondered if that truly would be a bad thing. My family didn’t like me, I only caused them trouble. I only had one true friend, and if I were gone, she was sure to have other friends, as she already had a lot more friends than I ever did. Would anyone really miss me if I was gone?
It was only a slight thought, a doubt really, and it passed as soon as it came. Even though my family disagreed with me, I knew they still loved me and Kate was my best friend and neither of us would have it any other way.
I turned to Chase. “You mean I could have died if I wasn’t the correct person?”
“But you are so you’re fine.” Chase placed his hand on my shoulder. “So don’t worry about it. I wouldn’t have brought you here if I didn’t think you would be fine.”
“But why did you erase my memories? Why didn’t you just explain all of this earlier?”
“Because we weren’t ready. We still aren’t ready but the White Rabbit found you and made the first move.”
“White Rabbit?” I questioned. “Like the creature that Alice follows into Wonderland?”
“Yes, that little kid that tried to kill you was the White Rabbit,” Chase explained. “So in a way, he brought you to Wonderland just like the original Alice.”
The little kid, I had almost forgotten. “That little kid was the White Rabbit?”
“Yes, don’t let appearances fool you, he is a dangerous person. He is the Queen and King’s right-hand man.”
“Which brings me to another question, why do you all look so young? I mean you look older than you say for school but you can’t be more than twenty and that is pushing it.”
Chase shrugged. “Age doesn’t matter here. Most people are young here because the dreams that reside here are those of younger generations. Most of them disappear when they get to a certain age, others stay but it’s rare. Most people let go of their dreams. They don’t think they are as important when they are older.”
“You mean people give up on their dreams? And therefore their existence here is gone.”
“Yes, and they disappear into nothing. The problem now is that Morpheus is destroying dreams that haven’t been forgotten yet, causing chaos on your side. People are becoming depressed, losing their vision, and even losing reality.”
That made sense, in a way. I did feel like I was seeing less people my age really pursuing what they wanted. There was a sadness that was spreading through my generation. “And somehow I am supposed to fix it all.”
He winked. “Something like that.”
“And how in the world am I supposed to do that?” I asked because truly I had no idea what I was doing there. And on top of that, I really believed I was still asleep. When was this dream going to end? It all felt so real though and was quite strange.
Once we approached the castle, Malcolm and Chase escorted me inside. I gasped at how grand it was on the inside just as it was on the outside. Although the rooms were high and mighty, there wasn’t much left in the way of decor. It seemed to me that it all had been raided, taken away for some other use or exchanged for money, if money existed here, I really didn’t know how this world worked. There was a hierarchy and that was all I knew.
The castle was quiet, footsteps echoing through the hallways. It felt like walking through an old church during the week when no one was there. Very eerie to say the least, especially since the only lighting came from the dirt-covered windows, making the room dim enough that it was nearly impossible to see what was in front of me. I grabbed Chase’s hand, mostly because I couldn’t see anything around and knew with his cat eyes that he indeed could. I noticed that Malcolm glanced
