A World of Love (Revised, 1)

A World of Love

~
         Dross lay on an open plain thinking.  Why had she run?  What was in him that scared her?  Why couldn’t she just love him?  He grumbled softly, his throat dry and filled with dust.  He had searched so long for Alliana that his love was the driving force that sustained him.  He couldn’t remember the last time he had something to drink, couldn’t remember where he had spent last night, Dross couldn’t remember from day to day, an affect of malnutrition he was sure.  The only constant in his live was Alliana, he could always remember her.
~
         Davin awoke with tendrils of sunlight coming through the open blinds of his small apartment.  For a while he just lay there, wishing he could rid himself of Dross and his endless search.  The dreams just would not stop, every night the same thing, Dross toiling endlessly to find Alli, Davin had begun to call her Alli, such was his familiarity with the woman that filled his dreams.  All these dreams, some in which Dross had a different face and others where his face changed in mid-stride, were becoming too much to bear.
~
         While Davin showered he thought over the latest dream.  This one like the rest except for Dross’s feeling of being so close to Gabby that he could sense her direction.  Under real circumstances Dross would surely have died, but within those dreams, he was an immortal, feeling pain and exhaustion, never death.  Within those dreams he had the ability to cross endless expanses in a single day, cross time itself.  One day he would fight with wild animals in a vast plain with no sign of civilization, the next day would find him chained beneath a Romanesque stadium awaiting his turn to fight to the death for his freedom.  Once, he had to fight in a war that was not unlike World War I, dug into a trench with German snipers waiting to pick him off.  Davin had never been known to have a vivid imagination, so why now did it decide to rear its ugly head.  Maybe he should see a doctor or get some sleeping pills that would allow him a dreamless sleep.
~
         The mountains loomed, sentinels challenging his very existence.  He knew he would fight them, knew he would prevail, he had no choice.  Somewhere on the other side was Alliana.  He could close his eyes and point to where she was.  With a methodical, ground-eating pace, Dross started toward the pass that would carry him through the mountains in a few days.  He glanced up and saw thunderheads, a storm was coming.
         ~
         Davin opened his eyes to darkness; the weak hours before dawn were always darkest.  At least he wasn’t screaming, stuck in a desert or in the middle of the ocean.  He stood and walked to the window, stared out over the city below, she was out there somewhere; he only had to find her.  The hair on his neck stiffened, a writhing snake formed in his stomach.  What is happening to me?  The dreams were beginning to take over his waking life.  There must be something he could do.
~
Davin decided to accept the dream as that, a dream.  He took some over the counter sleeping pills and decided to see how deep the rabbit hole went.  He lay down on the couch and readied himself to face his demons.

~
         Where is he? She thought.  Gina dialed Davin’s house.  The phone rang six times before he picked up.
“Hello.”
“Good morning sunshine.  Did we decide not to come to work today?” she said.
“Oh my God.  What time is it?” he said, spinning round to find a clock.
“Only 10:30.  Where are you?” she asked.
“Yeah. I’m not coming in today.  I’m um…sick.  Yeah sick.  See you tomorrow.”
“Ok.  Well, see you tomorrow then, hope you get to felling better.  Is there anything I can...” there was a click on the other end.
~
         That’s odd she thought he never acts that way or misses work, ever.  Oh well probably some bug or virus.  She decided to leave early to go by and see if he needed anything.  They had become good friends over the last year since Gina had started at the office.  She thanked God for him every night, without his witty banter and almost lackadaisical approach to life she would have quit a long time ago.  Somehow Davin made her able to get out of bed every morning.  They had tried the dating thing but it didn’t work.  Not for the same old reasons, but because they had both felt a strange kind of violation.  Like the two of them were not supposed to be together romantically.  So they decided to stay friends and that had worked out wonderfully.
~
         She feigned being sick and left the office early and headed to Davin’s apartment.  On the way she thought about some home remedies and turned in at the liquor store then stopped in for some chicken soup.  She would do anything for the man that made her life easier, even feed him soup.  She pulled into his complex and started up the stairs, stopped to listen at the door to see if maybe Davin had a girl over, she didn’t think he would since they had both expressed the same feelings of betraying one another even though being together felt the same way.  She knocked twice and let herself in.
~
         Davin lay sleeping on the couch.  She set down her cures and walked over to where he lay sleeping.
“Davin are you awake?  Are you feeling any better?  Wake up.” he would not rouse.  She decided to have a seat in the recliner and read while he slept.  She pulled out her book and delved in.
~
         Dross stood staring into the mouth of the pass through the watchful mountains.  He had crossed the world, and time, to find his Alliana.  This small storm would not stop him.  Snow swirled around him so thickly that he could not see ten feet in any direction.  He slowly waded through snow that threatened to drag him down, a pack of wolves in the chase.  He stumbled once, righted himself and then lost all balance.  The last thing he saw was white before blackness.
~
         Dross awoke lying face down in the snow.  He had regained some strength, but he knew he needed days to fully recuperate.  He felt a tickling at his back, like some one was watching him.  He looked around trying to find the silent watcher.  He turned and looked up, there in the heavens was Alliana watching him.  He saw her more with his mind’s eye then in reality, but she was there all the same.
~
         Davin began mumbling and shifting on the couch.  Gina sat down her book and waited.  Suddenly Davin’s eyes popped open, but they were not his eyes.  Davin’s eyes were an intense blue while the eyes that now stared at her were green with brown around the edges.
“Are you ok?” she asked.
“Yes my love, I am perfect.  How long have you been watching me?” he asked.
“I let myself in about two hours ago.  You looked so peaceful, I didn‘t want to wake you.”
“Peaceful, lying in the snow while a blizzard rages around me and you say I’m peaceful.  All that doesn’t matter now.”
Dross began to see more of Alliana in this strange vision. 
“So, you are holed up in a cave.  Tell me where it is.  I will never let you go again.  I was a fool.  I pressed too hard.  I know that now.  I will wait for you to love me.  Never will you have to run in fear again.  Never will you need to feel threatened.  I will love you for always.  Please don’t leave me again.  I crossed the boundaries of time to find you.  That must prove to you my love.”
~
         Gina realized that Davin must be talking in his sleep, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that she was talking to another person entirely. 
“Davin what are you talking about.  This isn’t funny.  You are scaring me.” she felt frozen.
~
“Who is Davin?  Alliana, call me by whatever name you wish, just love me.” he trailed off.  Something was wrong.
~
         She couldn’t breathe.  There was a tight band around her chest.  Who was Alliana?  Who did he think she was?  What was wrong with him?  What was wrong with his eyes?  Images floated just out of reach.  What about this seemed so familiar?  So, right.
~
         Dross looked at her, his love.  Why did she think he was someone else?  He began to feel so sleepy.  He could no longer keep his eyes open.
“My love, I feel very tired.  My journey across the plains and through the pass has left me exhausted.  I must rest now.  Please show me where you are.”
~
         Davin stood, waiting to be shown the way.
~
         Dross stood in the snow, waiting for Alliana to show him the way.
“Ok.  Let’s go to your bed.” Gina said.
“You knew I was coming.  You have made me a bed.” Dross said.
~
         Gina helped him to the bed and eased him down.  His hands were freezing.  Davin kissed her cheek as she reached over him for the covers and she froze.  With that kiss a spark had ignited something in her mind.  She lay down beside him with her back to him.  Davin’s body was very cold, as though his dream of lying in the snow had a physical effect.  She lay quietly until his breathing deepened and she knew he was asleep.  Gina lay thinking about the whole episode and what Dross could possibly be dreaming about.  Did I just think of him as Dross?  Why would I do that?  She thought until she drifted off.
~
         Alliana stood transfixed, looking into the swirling pool.  How could the man keep coming?  She had thrown obstacles in his path at every turn.  She had crossed the very fabric of time itself and still he had somehow found a way to follow.  He had developed someway to leap from his body to another.  Alliana thought she knew how he did it.  Somehow he entered the dream world and picked a strong willed host and took his body.  He would lie down to sleep and sometime in the night his body would flicker and change to his new host.  Twice now he had almost pulled her with him, she had fought instead, bringing the new body back here to this world that she had created.  Her intent was to trap him here and leave him.  The plan had backfired horribly.  She was the one trapped.  At the beginning of her imprisonment she thought she could win this little struggle.  After all, she had created the world, why could she not control it.  But instead every time she tried to throw some stumbling block in his path he overcame it and trudged on with renewed vigor.
~
         She cursed herself forever having used the boy.  At the start she had seduced him and used him as a plaything.  But then his commitment grew.  She had heard of it happening once or twice.  You implant a thought in a person with a “latent ability” and the thought became the ability, so to speak, manifesting the hidden power and harnessing it to bend the will of those around the victim.  Dross had been one of those rare occurrences.  Now she had to struggle for her very existence.  Secluded within her small cave she felt safe from her captor.  Alliana turned away from the swirling pool.  She lay down and floated into dreams.
~
         Gina awoke in a small cave with a crackling fire.  Where was this place?  She must be dreaming.  But people didn’t know when they were in a dream.  She looked down and saw that she wore a flowing silk dress that clung to a body that wasn’t hers.  This had to be a dream.  Never in real life could she think of being so beautiful.  She walked over to a small pool in the center of the cave.  The woman that stood there was breathtaking.  Never before had she seen such a beautiful form.
~
         Suddenly the water shimmered and she was looking at a man lying face down in the snow.  The water shimmered again, no just the man’s form and then she was staring at Davin standing in the snow.  He was staring into her eyes.  Those eyes were the same eyes that had looked at her in his apartment.
“Will you show me the way?” he asked
She realized he was talking to her.
“Yes, but I do not know where I am.”
“Find the entrance, look out and tell me what you see.” he said.
“She began to feel a very strong connection with this man, Dross.  She knew that he was no longer Davin.  Davin had disappeared somewhere in the in between.  She didn’t care.  She only longed to hold the man in Davin’s body, Dross.
~
         Gina looked around for an entrance.  In the corner of the cave was a small ray of light.  She went to it.  The light was coming in around a large rock.  She turned and raced back to the water.
“I can’t get out.  There is a rock blocking the entrance. “
~
         Dross stood staring at her with crinkle of amusement painted on his face.
“Surely you jest.  Alliana Lynnol, Mistress of Shadow, greatest sorceress in all of Lydar, cannot move a small pebble from her path.” he laughed and tossed his hand.  “Yes the rock has its own power and it wards you in the cave.  Come now, you don’t expect me to believe that lie?” 
~
         He was mocking her.  How dare he?  Dross, whose love was infinite, was mocking her.  I am the Mistress of Shadow, no one mocks me.  She turned and stamped to the entrance and with a wave of her hand, exploded the rock outward.
~
         Dross dove into the snow as the wall to his left exploded outward, raining dust and gravel.  When he looked to the center of the blast his breath caught.  There before him stood the woman he had searched for all these years, a mask of fury over bewilderment.
~
         Gina stared at him, determined to make him regret…how had she done that?  What had she become?  Where was this place?
He has allowed you to take over my body.
Gina spun looking for someone standing next to her.  There was no one.
I’m here in your mind.  I’m the real Alliana.  Your soul has jumped from your world to mine.  He used my mind as a conduit through my dreams to bring you here.  I didn’t think his will was so strong.  He has no idea that he has done it.  You can undo the change by allowing me to have control.  I will send you back to where you came from.  Just sit down and relax and I will take over.
~
         Gina found a place to sit.  She leaned her back against the wall and tried to relax.  She heard Dross enter the cave and looked up.  He was smiling down at her.  Those eyes made her melt.  She felt her mind shift; she was now looking at Dross through a haze, a haze of someone else’s consciousness.  She didn’t want to go back.  She wanted to stay here with Dross.
~
         Dross walked into the cave and saw Alliana leaning against the wall.  She looked up at him with big blue eyes.  Pools of dark blue that made his knees week.  Then her eyes changed to a deep brown, so deep it was almost black.  Her smile turned to a snarl.  She bolted up, grabbed him around the neck and slammed him into the wall.
~
“You little bastard, you will not keep me here.  I will leave this place and leave your body behind.  I will cast your little woman’s soul into the in between.  I’m done with you chasing me.  Today you die along with this nightmare you have turned my life into.” she tried to snap his neck but couldn’t. 
“No, Alliana, you won’t.  I will not let you.” said a voice in her head.
You cannot control me.  You are not strong enough.  You have no power.
“I have all the power I need.” said Gina.
~
         Alliana felt Gina take control.  She watched her end unfold through a haze, a haze of someone else’s consciousness.
Gina let Dross down.  She hugged him as tightly as she could.
“What is wrong Alliana?  Why would you wish to kill me?”
“That wasn’t me.  It was an imposter, someone that took over my body and ran from you.  But your will brought me back and I will never leave you.”
Gina heard a small voice screaming in her mind and then it was gone.  Only Dross remained.