Jehan
Hope's Shadow
Location: Unknown
Jehan wrinkled his nose, his cheek irritated by being pressed against the sand, but the still gently snored as he refused to let such trifles interfere with his well deserved sleep. His fingers clenched and tightened, digging into more sand as his palms attempted to brush away the sand stuck to his cheek. This though quickly roused Jehan to wakefulness, his mind suddenly raced with thoughts and questions of where he was and more importantly a question; why was he alone. But from such sudden deep slumber he still couldn't process everything clearly, he added two and two together and got five as answer, but figured that was close enough and stood up in a sitting position.
“Anika?” Jehan called out, but got no response, he frowned and this time with some trepidation he called out louder, “Anika?!” but no sound accept his own voice was heard.
“Anika!”
The call went out but as before, no one responded. Jehan began to panic but as he went to grasp for something to help him stand up, his hands landed on nothing but more sand. This only confused him further as he was certain that he had not slept on any beaches, or if he had his next question; why couldn’t I smell the sea air or even hear the crashing waves? Even if I'm still blind, Jehan was confident with his other senses to figure out such things.
There were no deserts on his home planet and to further add to the confusion, Jehan was sure it would be a lot hotter if he was on some desert. He extended his hands and gently rolled up his sleeves but the heat of the sun was not felt and wondered if he was beneath some shade or inside some sort of building. This was disconcerting to Jehan, perhaps he was kidnapped but his limbs were free and no kidnappers have yet shown themselves.
“Hello? Anyone here? Anika?” Jehan called out, but just as his first few attempts to call for someone, no voice answered back.
Am I dreaming? Jehan finally asked himself. His blindness had bothered him some before, but whenever he dreamt, his sight would always return. Perhaps another nightmare. . . Jehan paused, normally his nightmares would start with screams and horrors, leaving him blind would simply remove a portion of the nightmare’s ability to torment him. Not that Jehan would mind being unable to see his nightmares anymore, but something felt off about this current nightmare or even if he could label it as such. For starters, I don’t hear screaming and this feels all too real.
Gingerly, Jehan crawled for a few inches with his hands spread out to feel for any obstruction, than his fingers rested against something solid. The surface felt cool and rather smooth, his fingers continued to trace the height of the hard object, Jehan pressed more of his weight against the object and slowly picked himself straight up. Now standing, Jehan guessed he was up against a wall of sorts, perhaps some smooth stone wall and with his confidence growing, Jehan walk along the path set by the Wall itself.
Jehan continued to follow his hands that slid against a truly smoothed wall, it had no indents or anything but as he continued for about a minute’s time he paused and wondered how long the wall was in its entirety. Slightly miffed at the idea that perhaps he had been walking for almost no reason, to no end, he gently slid down the wall with his back and sat back down on the sandy ground.
The boy wondered about the odds of waking up soon, eventually he figured, as the prospect of remaining here had lost all its appeal. “What a silly dream.” Jehan muttered out loud, his hands gently rubbed his forehead as he further put more thought about the possibility of taking a nap within a dream.
“Who’s there?” Jehan asked, but the Voice came rather sudden and he wasn’t sure why but it sounded awfully familiar.
Jehan turned quickly stood back up and strained his ears to hear for any approaching footsteps or anything.
“What do you want?” Jehan asked, demanding an answer from the Voice.
Jehan raised an eyebrow, “-What do you mean nothing? And why are you in my dream?” Jehan asked, this time annoyance stained portions of his tone.
“You seriously will have me believe that I’m not dreaming and you are just a spirit? Really?” Jehan nearly spat back, he was being robbed of his sleep and found the Voice’s answer very distasteful.
“I am dreaming and-” Jehan was interrupted before his frown further deepening, “-So what if I can’t see! That doesn’t mean I’m not dreaming!” Jehan shouted back to the disembodied Voice.
This whole charade was beginning to wear on the poor boy’s nerves, having nobody to impress or to inspire, Jehan pouted “-Well aren’t you a bully. Calling me names isn’t exactly nice. . .and yes even if you meant it in an endearing way.”
Jehan sighed and wondered about simply ignoring the Voice and laying back down on the rough sand. “H-hey! I’m not scared of anything! And why should I leave the comfort of the wall behind me?” Jehan asked.
The Voice gave no real answer that answered Jehan’s questions but it mattered little as the taunts continued, “-You really think I’m going to listen to you after all that?” Jehan asked in disbelief.
Jehan’s eyes narrowed, his face contorted to a rather angered countenance. “Apologize.”
He stated his demand darkly but suddenly it sounded as if the Voice was right in front of him and without a second hesitation Jehan lunged forward to tackle the Voice but met nothing but air. He quickly landed on the sand but this time his body began to slide downwards and with frantic limbs attempting to stop Jehan from rolling down, it only caused him to slide down faster before stopping on top of more sand beneath him. With several coughs and angrily brushing some sand from his hair he sat back up.
Warmth flooded across his body, partially due to his own embarrassment, but mostly because Jehan felt the sun across his exposed skin. This was certainly a surprise and Jehan scrambled himself up and walked forward a tad and was certain it was the sun’s light, a gentle breeze soon enveloped him and much of the sand that was stuck on his body were blown off. Jehan now wondered a bit more of the development like about the sudden breeze but sighed as the Voice returned.
“What do you want now? Another joke?” He was not at all amused with his dream’s voice. But Jehan raised both his eyebrows and looked rather incredulous, “-Give me my sight back? Why do you sound so prophetic all of the sudden? Honestly I wish you just let me wake up in peace.” Jehan responded rather courtly.
Something though was different, in fact the darkness that Jehan was accustomed to; looked strange as if sparks of light attempted to break through and it all appeared fractured with a strange blue hue. Jehan quickly rubbed his eyes and in doing removed the blindfold that he had worn since his sight had been taken from him, and suddenly the burst of sunlight entered his vision and Jehan tumbled backwards. Blinking furiously, Jehan groaned and looked around, his sight had returned and finally he was able to see his dream completely. He was sitting near the bottom of a sand dune, his eyes traced the path of which he fell from and spotted the wall that he had walked alongside of and saw its towering height.
It was made of some very light colour stone and stood nearly ten meters tall with the shade it cast nearly reached Jehan near the bottom of the dune even. His eyes blinked and he turned around to see what else was around him and far as he could see he only found more dunes of sand and with the wall that seemed to be just as endless. Jehan found himself in some sort of desert, and the sun only seemed to be gentle with its heat, much to his own comfort.
“So is this what you wanted to show me all of the sudden? A desert?” Jehan asked out loud, but by now he knew better than to assume a straight answer from the Voice.
“Oh, okay, just believe that some sort of warp portal or tear in my reality sucked me in and tossed me here. . . as I’m hearing voices in my head, because me dreaming is such an impossibility.” Jehan shook his head but ultimately didn’t bother with another retort, his own patience was wearing surprisingly thin but he attributed this to the Voice’s fault in its entirety.
Jehan took a few steps further out and continued to strain his eyes for anything out there in the distance but couldn’t see anything past just the sand dunes and the wall itself. “Now what do you want?” Jehan asked, his bitterness returning back to his voice.
“Oh is that so? Listen to your directions?” Jehan wearily shook his head turned towards the opposite direction that Voice had told him to walk towards, “-Why should I ever listen to you? You’ve been nothing but mean.”
Suddenly the darkness returned to his sight and Jehan was once more returned to his blind state. A terrible sigh exited Jehan’s clenched teeth, and perhaps with more self control than Jehan thought he could have at that moment in time, “-Which direction did you want me to walk towards?”
“. . .”
“You know, for a Voice, you’re talking a lot without saying much.”
