The Decipherment

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  Isabelle felt the same cold, damp feeling wash over her again. She hadn’t fallen in the sea. She landed on hard floor. She was there again – in her dream land.

  She got up on her feet and looked down. Her clothes were completely dry, a sign that she hadn’t drowned after all. She turned to look at the pictures that were her dreams. She couldn’t believe it . . . the bridge dream wasn’t there anymore.

  Guess I did face my fears after all.

  And maybe that was the reason the dream itself had just vanished, because she didn’t feel the fear she felt whenever she saw that dream – mainly because she faced that fear. The possibilities were great, but Isabelle didn’t want to think about them, afraid they might put her in some worse situation.

  She heard the gurgling sounds coming from her stomach and realized how hungry she was. Her throat was parched too. But she wasn’t about to give up just yet. She knew there was more to this world. And she was determined to find out.

  As she moved closer, all the dreams became more distinct, more visible. She wanted to visit each of them, to know what it would feel like in the places they might take her, but she thought better of it. All that glitters is not gold. They were dreams after all, things that take you to places far from reality, and the only thing she needed right now was a glimpse of some real aspect of this whole world she was stuck in.

  One image did catch her eye, though. It was in the midst of all the glimpses of light just taking shape as she neared each of them. It was also one of her dreams, one she had quite often, and one that always left her puzzled at the end of the night. She had searched for a long time for its meaning, but all the interpretations she found didn’t satisfy her. She somehow felt that there was more to it. Maybe now was the time to find out.

  Isabelle ignored the feeling of growing unease building up within her as she neared the image. The tiny globules of light dancing around it took full shape and Isabelle saw how real and intricate every detail in it looked like, just as it did when she dreamt it. It was a simple imagery if one looked closely – yet its meaning didn’t seem all that simple.

  There was a large chess board, floating in mid air, like in space, with darkness all around it. The board was lighted somehow, as if the light was coming from up above or down below, but it could be seen clearly. The most intriguing thing about it was what was on the board.

  Instead of chess pieces, there were people, live humans, standing on it. And they weren’t just scattered here and there on the board. Each white and black tile had either a man or woman standing on it. They were all standing there patiently, not moving a limb, as if waiting for something. Each person standing on the black tiles spoke something, and then he/she disappeared, just like that, vanishing completely into thin air.

  Everyone kept disappearing like that; everyone but the people standing on the white blocks. At the end, only a few remained, standing on the white tiles smiling to themselves.

  Isabelle had tried hard to find some meaning out of it, to understand what the chess board represented and why it had people on it instead of chess pieces. She always ended up getting more confused. Whenever she had this dream, she always woke up feeling . . . hollow, like a shadow of the person that she once was. She never heard anything in her dream, just saw those standing on the black tiles disappear one by one, the shimmer of life draining from their eyes.

  But now, with the world of her dream right before her, all it would take was one step forward into it to make her understand what she hadn’t for so long.

  She didn’t know if she could get out of the dream once she entered it, like she in the previous one. But she had to take the chance. Just as Isabelle inched closer, the hazy and distorted colors and shapes morphed into exactly the precise visuals as in her dream; and just as she raised her hand close to it, she was whooshed right into it.