Chinks and Chasms - A Collaborative Story You Can Join

[knightofnarnia]

Evelyn answered hesitantly, "Cascalynne, when I first got there there was a lot of light. I couldn't see anything then I heard it... The water it spoke." She stopped. Would even they believe her? Dared she continue?

[kristi]

Her heart was still full of the memory of little rivers and babbling brooks, of dancing in high summer under the spray of the Great Waterfalls. Of chats with a neighboring rivulet and the shimmer of broken light falling on rock, of little mosses between rivers that made a bed for her wherever she found herself. And other memories, some deeper and brighter and some more dreadful. The memories were at odds with this world, as she had learned too late. Her parents hadn't believed her. These children seemed like they might, and, oh, how she longed not to be alone in this world.

[Ariel.of.Narnia]

(Ooh. I wonder what kinds of things happen in a world literally populated by talking water and dancing light.
Cutting now to Matthew because thematic timing seemed right.)


I did it again, Matthew’s inner voice blubbered. He wished it was only his inner voice: his actual voice made a racket all its own. He hated it. It was too loud in his own ears and that meant anybody could hear it.

“It’s alright, just let it out,” Miss Plummer said.

He hated that too. It’s not alright, it’s not! It never is here. He pulled at a handful of hair. “Pleased” to meet him. What a thing to say! What a thing to dream! Nobody had been “pleased” to meet him since - since….

Miss Plummer’s thumb ran circles on his shoulder. He tried to straighten himself, to undo the fresh tension, but she wasn’t so easily fooled. “I’m here, Matthew,” she crooned, “I’m right here.”

Thank the Unseen One she was, or else he might really lose his mind. He let her hold him a minute more before he pulled away and wiped his eyes. “Sorry,” he croaked.

Miss Plummer waited patiently while he sniffled and brought his breathing back to normal. “Do you want to talk about it?”

He did. But not about the new girl. Or why he knocked her down - especially not that.

Without a hint of impatience, Miss Plummer asked, “Do you want to show me?”

Matthew kneaded a palm under his thumb. And she hasn’t told the others. She promised to understand. But not… that part. Not yet. I can’t tell her that yet.. He sighed in resignation and retrieved his sketchbook for Miss Plummer to see. He tracked her place in the half-finished drawing as her eyes roved over it. A sitting room - this very one - from the perspective of the wingbacked chair. A few people, indistinct and spread out over the scene. Miss Plummer herself - or as close as Matthew’s pencil could render her - with an expression of concern. Next to her, the vague shape of a woman. Or a girl, he supposed. And, of course, the most defined portion of the sketch: the shattered windows. A spot amongst the spray of glass he’d left empty, to be filled in later with a wholly different object. The artwork was, as much as his skill allowed, a reproduction of last night’s visions.

“Who is this?” Miss Plummer asked, indicating the female shape beside her likeness.

“Evelyn,” he answered quickly. She gave him a questioning look. “I mean… I guess. I don’t remember what she looked like. But you brought her up to me and she… she said she was pleased to meet me. And then I felt scared and she stepped back. In my dream, I mean. And then in….” And then in real life.

“And the windows?”

“I… I don’t know. It’s just what happened next.” Matthew hoped desperately that the heat he felt in his face wasn’t visible.

Miss Plummer studied the sketch a moment longer before returning it.

"Why does it keep happening?" Matthew asked.

"It's hard to say," Miss Plummer said in a voice laden with sympathy. "Everyone's journey is different and God knows what He's doing every time."

"But why does He keep giving me these? I just look mad when they don't come true like they did in Marus!"

"Not all dreams do. And no one has truly come to understand déjà rêvé yet, but we will help you overcome all of it so you can live peacefully in this world. I promise you that."

“Are you… going to tell her?”

“I think that is up to you,” she said while she handed back the sketchbook, “but she at least deserves some peace of mind.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he mumbled.

“Would you like to find her now?”

“No! I mean, no. C-can I do it later? Please?”

Miss Plummer nodded. “The next time you see her, be sure to do it.” When Matthew nodded, she said, “I must catch up with her now myself. Will you be alright?”

“I think so. Thank you, Miss Plummer.”

The matron laid a kindly hand on his shoulder before she left the sitting room. Matthew gathered his things and made his way to his dormitory wing, where he hoped to remain undisturbed for a while. He sat on his bed and considered the sketch. Though he truly could not remember the identity of the girl from his dream, he penciled in Evelyn's features. Then in the blank space amidst the jagged glass, he drew the one thing he absolutely remembered, the thing he had tried to protect Evelyn from: a single bullet.



(Note: Matthew's "other world" is Marus from Paul McCusker's "Passages" series and thus his "powers" while there will follow the rules of the series, including the fact that they do not carry back into this world, regardless of what he himself may think (ie: they are not at all prophetic apart from the phenomenon of déjà reve).)

[knightofnarnia]

Not at all aware of the danger she had just escaped. Evelyn had decided to trust the students around her and begin to speak about the world where she had went. And once she started she couldn't stop. Only she didn't speak about the Great Waterfalls, not just yet.
(I'll leave it to the next persons to decide who the Great Waterfalls is and whether good or bad)

[kristi]

@knightofnarnia Great Waterfalls, plural. (No, they're not Aslan.)

"I was visiting my aunt Ruth--well, she's Mother's cousin, really, not her sister--in the Lake Country during hols, and her boys and I were exploring this island on the lake. They're still young, so Aunt Ruth was along with us to camp overnight. In any event, I was exploring along the stream just at dawn, when the rising sun flashes across the surface of the lake. The light through the trees nearly blinded me, but as I kept following it eastward, I saw that the trees, which should properly have continued thick and dense, had grown sparse until they vanished altogether, leaving me standing on bare stone, where before the ground had been covered with damp fallen leaves. Up ahead of me was a land of gray stone shot through with little rivers like veins of silver. When I turned to look back the way I'd come, the wood and the island were gone."

[cleander]

Ariel: OK, THAT is a cliffhanger! Matthew was really trying to protect Evelyn from unseen bullets? I must hear more!
-------------------

"Strange?" echoed the Professor. "How so?"
"Well, his eyes, for one." said Joseph. "The moon was so large I could see his face quite clear. His eyes looked- well, a bit mad. Only it wasn't the silly, loony sort of madness you normally hear about. He just looked like the sort of fellow that might do absolutely anything, and wouldn't give tuppence what anyone else said. His face was powerful-looking. And a little cruel. I remember he was dressed in white. White robes of some kind. And his hair was long and black."
"Did he speak to you? " asked the Professor.
"Not at first." said Joseph. "At first we just stared at each other. He was probably wondering how I got there. But if he was, he didn't show it. He just said "Boy, come and behold." And his voice was- oh, I can hardly describe it. It was cold, and low, and made my flesh creep. And I had to follow him."
"Where did you go?" asked the Professor, now thoroughly engrossed.
"Up." said Joseph. "Higher up in the mountain. We came to a little pool right under two big peaks of stone- I think it was the very top of the mountain up there. But the man didn't go up there. He went to the pool. A little waterfall came running down from between those two peaks, and he stood there watching it, ignoring me. Then, still not looking at me, he said, or shouted rather, "Behold the dawn of my revenge!" That's when he stooped and drank from the pool. And when he stood up and looked at me again, his face had changed completely. For the worse."

NOTE: The waterfall has nothing to do with Evelyn's world. Although the river connected to it may possess certain powers, it cannot speak.

[Ariel.of.Narnia]

@Kristi: Oooooh….
@cleander: Haha, thank you! I’ll get around to more answers eventually. I likewise want to know more about Joseph’s story. As if suddenly showing up in another world wasn’t startling enough, the very first person he met there was a villain? Scary!
Cutting back to Evelyn now.


To Evelyn’s surprise, no one interrupted her. No questions of “Are you sure you weren’t dreaming?” or “What do you mean ‘gone’?” or “Where did you read this story?”. No exclamations of “You’re a good storyteller; you almost had me there!” or “What a wonderful imagination you have!” or “That’s enough!”. Her audience here listened with rapt attention and allowed her to speak at her own pace.

“I panicked,” she confessed. “I ran in the direction I’d come in hopes of finding the camp the same way I’d found this new place. And when I couldn’t….” She stopped herself before blurting out that she’d burst into tears. It wouldn’t do, not when there were boys present. “Well, I sat down by a creek to think. I’m not really sure how long I sat there, talking to myself to keep company. There’s no sun, though I didn’t find out about that till later. Cascalynne has these… shimmering lights. Like fireflies, but they’re not flies or fairies or anything. Just light. They’re everywhere in huge swarms, so it was like daylight if you were among them. Anyway, I began to hear voices. Just a murmur, but very, very close. I couldn’t make out what they said or where they came from, no matter how hard I listened. I wondered if I’d maybe hurt myself exploring the wood by the camp and was just dreaming, but something told me otherwise.”

She paused to assess her audience. Everyone had either taken a seat or else leaned on a desk, but every eye was on her, every face eager, as though to ask, “What next?”

“‘Oh, this is all very real,’ a voice told me, and a couple others let out a bubbly laughter. I stood up to look around until the voice said, ‘I’m down here.’ I looked down, but saw nothing but my shoes on the ground and the creek. ‘There we go. Greetings, stranger. My name is Churni, and those giggling gurglers you hear are my sisters Nimay and Rya. If you don’t mind our asking, what kind of lifeform are you?’”

[knightofnarnia]

Evelyn paused then said, "That is when I realized the water was speaking and I thought, 'Wake up' I was convinced for a second that I was dreaming. So Churni asked again, 'Dear what kind of lifeform are you?' Then I heard a voice say, 'Are you sure she can speak?' Churni answered, 'I think so sister, there is something about her that seems to indicate it. But maybe I was mistaken.'"

[kristi]

"I can speak!" I blurted. "I'm lost and I can't find my way back and I don't know where I am." The water--I couldn't readily tell which was which yet--rippled in interest. "We can take you to Celendie. She may know what you are and where you belong."

"Who is Celendie? Is it very far?" I asked.

"She is our mother," Rya said.

"And how shall I follow you?" They looked like quite ordinary little streams to me, all flowing in one direction. "Can I follow your voices?"

Churni laughed. "Follow our voices! And follow us!" One stream, and then two others, began flowing backwards, and laughing, and before I knew it I was following them upstream, running alongside, darting across stone and leaping over little rivulets when no other way presented itself, for it seemed bad manners to step into the streams themselves."

Evelyn stopped, blushing, as if she felt she'd gone on a bit too long. "What-what about the rest of you?"

[Lil]

OOC: MK is an original character by me.

"Well..." Said one of the girls (who called herself M.K.) "Once, I was sitting in my room and I just blinked and suddenly I was in another world. It kept happening. Took me a while to figure out how to get back home without sending myself somewhere else." She took off her glasses to clean them on her shirt. "That's why I wear these." She replied, sliding them back on.