Lisa the Legend - Chapter 52 up!!
Chapter 51 here at last! It's only a short one, but I had to do it. Otherwise Chapter 52 makes no sense!
Cheers!
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Chapter 51 – The Dream.
Lisa’s sleep was filled with one main dream – a very strange dream that she had never had before in her life. It was also the most vivid she had ever had, for upon awakening she could recall everything she had dreamt, and could visualise everything in her head. Even more strangely, it was as if she had control over her movements and actions in the dream – yet at the same time she knew she was dreaming.
It began in her bedroom at night. She was at her desk, working on a pokédex entry for Lunanine. She was frustrated because something in her entry wasn’t working properly, though she couldn’t work out what it was. There was something missing in her information on the beast … and yet, she needed to hurry up, because Professor Westwood was expecting her entry by morning …
I don’t have to do a pokédex entry. That was months ago, her subconscious told her.
She stood up and slammed the file on Lunanine closed. She glanced around her room. There were two mattresses on the floor, though both were empty. She moved over to her own bed, aware that the clock on her bedside table said it was past midnight, but she found she was not tired at all. Instead, she focused her gaze on a strange box at the foot of her bed. It was made entirely of rosewood, but it was only the size of a loaf of bread. Lisa tentatively clutched the groove in the lid and pulled the box open.
She gasped – both in her dream and in her sleep. A person was emerging from the box as through freeing themselves from a prison; he struggled and writhed like a snake shedding its skin, until, somehow, the complete form of Gavin Luper had appeared. He had no scar.
Gavin?
He stood directly beside Lisa, motionless, standing with his weight balanced perfectly between two feet and his empty brown eyes staring straight ahead. It was as though he had no mind of his own. Lisa scrutinised him for a moment, but he did not move a muscle. A flash of light turned her attention back to the rosewood box. Another shape was emerging from the box, though this one was much smaller. It was a luminous object; a golden key encrusted with emeralds and garnets, giving off a shimmery, resplendent light. Lisa reached for it, but it hovered out of her grasp. Instantly annoyed, she went in for another grab, but this time the key fluttered up into the air, did a flip and ended its acrobatic display by hovering above her shoulder protectively. Lisa wanted to reach out and take hold of it but she had a feeling that would be futile.
Gavin’s stationary, scarless form still had not moved an inch as Lisa turned her attention to the strange box for the third time; something was emerging from it again, though in a less radiant display than before. It was a second box, with a far more forbidding appearance than the first one. It was smaller and rectangular, made of ebony and silver hinges. A silver crest had been worked into the box’s lid, giving it a striking, foreboding appearance. The box hovered over the rosewood box for a moment, as though begging Lisa to pick it up – so she did. Her hands closed around the wooden box and she felt something roll around inside.
This is really, really strange.
The rosewood box seemed not to have completed its mission, though. It did not appear to be willing to regurgitate any more disparate objects or people, but it now snapped itself shut and it too hovered through the air, suspending itself magically over her other shoulder.
All of a sudden, Gavin sprung to life, though his eyes retained their glazed look. Mechanically, he began to walk toward the closed door that led into the carpeted vestibule of the upstairs. He pulled the door open robotically and walked very slowly out into the hall, taking no notice of Lisa whatsoever.
Follow him.
Lisa stepped out into the hall to see Gavin descending the stairs methodically; she raced down after him at once, catching up quickly and maintaining a steady pace two steps behind him. It did not occur to her how odd she must look; a mesmerised boy followed by a girl holding a dark ebony box, with a shining key and a rosewood container bringing up the rear.
She kept her eyes on Gavin. He moved, zombie-like, from the base of the stairs toward the large open space that was the living room, adjacent to the kitchen and dining areas, apparently intent on reaching a particular destination. Lisa followed obediently, occasionally shooting glances around the deserted house. Finally, Gavin led her to the sliding door of the linen closet. She stared in uncertainty as he slid it open and walked straight through. She gaped and cast a glance around her, unsure of whether she should follow him into the strange closet.
There was something within her mind – or heart? – that was trying to tell her to do something. She needed to do something in the house. She glanced around wildly, looking for something that she was supposed to find or use: her gaze fell on the sofa, the bookshelf, the Christmas tree, the stereo – none of which would be of any strategic benefit, she deemed.
Her gaze fell on the evil-looking ebony box in her arms. She had not looked inside yet, but now she suddenly felt compelled to do so. Her small hand reached tentatively for the silver latch, but, just as she went to flick the box open, something like an electric spark surged through her from nowhere. Not now, it told her strictly. Not now. She relented, and turned to follow Gavin’s path into the linen closet only to hear a loud cry beside her.
A black-clothed woman stood directly beside her, holding a silver gun to her throat suddenly. Unable to struggle for fear of her own life, Lisa let her body go limp as the woman ordered her to her knees.
Help. Help!
All of a sudden, the rosewood box at Lisa’s left shoulder geared itself into life, thrusting itself through the air and colliding with the woman’s skull. She lurched backwards as the gun in her hand went spinning across the carpet. Lisa lunged for the gun but somehow it had disappeared.
The woman regained her footing quickly. She glared at Lisa with mixed fury and desperation. She looked vaguely familiar.
But I have never met her before.
For the first time, a sense of sound entered the odd dream, as the woman spoke slowly. “ Don’t you try to do anything now. Your life is at risk.” Suddenly she was a friend. “ Remember this: ‘when there is nowhere else to look, look behind you’.” Instantly, she disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving Lisa alone in the hallway.
The key and box at her shoulders still, the ebony box still under her arm, she turned now to the linen closet and began to step into it. Her foot had only just passed over the threshold when the back wall of the closet simply vanished into thin air, opening up a strange new room.
Lisa entered the room silently. It was a cold, metallic place: stainless steel benches and floors that suggested a laboratory. An air conditioning vent lay dusty and still above a metal wall clock. However, the room was empty, and there were no doors whatsoever in the room. Concerned, Lisa spun on her heel to go back into the closet, but it had vanished; there was only a bare white wall behind her.
Where did Gavin go? What do I do?
As if in reply, the rosewood box at her shoulder leapt to life and propelled itself toward the bench, where it landed. For the fourth time, something was emerging from the box; like the first time, it was slithering out almost painfully; bushy aqua hair, petite, well-formed features, slender frame – Marina Frost emerged into the room.
Like Gavin, her eyes were unseeing, but she burst into action immediately. She strode across the room and picked up two sceptres. Handing one to Lisa without looking at her, Marina charged at a thick tapestry which had appeared when Lisa wasn’t looking. She swiped the gold sceptre at the tapestry; the yellow jewel on the end glowed as it tore the tapestry in two to reveal an old passageway.
Follow her.
Lisa pelted after Marina, who, like Gavin, was walking robotically. Lisa clutched her sapphire-encrusted sceptre as she followed Marina into the dark, empty passageway; the rosewood box flew through the air after her. Marina charged onwards, down the tunnel which seemed to have no distinct end.
Finally, Marina stopped at a plain wooden door that was set discreetly into the wood-panelled walls. She gestured her hand for Lisa to open it and this time made eye contact fully. Her eyes were still not right; they were golden in colour, but they suddenly held a goldmine of knowledge. Marina pointed at the door again, urging Lisa to open it. Her eyes communicated an urgent need to understand.
Open it.
Mystified, Lisa reached for the handle, pulled the door open, and gasped in utter horror at what she saw.
“ No more! Don’t – it wasn’t –”
“ Wrong answer! Tell me the truth, boy!”
Gavin Luper lay half-naked on the stone floor, yelling out in pain; a bulky man stood over him with a heavy wooden plank, before throwing it aside. Blood was pouring down Gavin’s back in rivulets, his entire body covered in deep gashes and bruises. He was twisted in an awful way; the bulky man pulled him back by the hair, so that his head and neck had to follow, and then slammed a fist into his throat, causing Gavin to go sprawling. His screams caught in his throat – as did his vomit – as he collapsed jaw-first on the stone ground.
Lisa screamed, soundlessly, paralysed with fear. But it was not over.
The man had moved over to Gavin’s sobbing, choking form. The boy was covered in blood, sweat, vomit, urine and tears. He was screaming in pain, trying to clutch at his back with his hands.
“ Get up and TALK, boy!” he roared, grabbing a fistful of hair and dragging the boy back to his knees. “ Tell me where they are and why you took them!”
Gavin coughed up blood and vomit. “ I don’t know –” his voice was scarcely present.
“ Wrong answer again!” the man gave a savage grin and drove his foot into Gavin’s solar plexus. He yelled out again in pain, choked, and retched, but nothing came out except blood.
He collapsed again on the wet stone floor, moaning in pure pain.
His captor did not beat him again; this time, he dragged him up again mercilessly and pulled a sharp metal tool from his pocket. He held his face an inch away from Gavin’s, his austere eyes locked with Gavin’s terrified, beaten ones. He held up the metal tool, which itself looked cruel and evil.
“ One more time.” His voice was of deathly neutrality. “ Where are they?”
Saliva and blood were oozing from Gavin’s mouth as he answered, pitifully, “ I don’t know, it wasn’t me –”
“ Third strike,” said the man cruelly. His left hand grasped tightly around Gavin’s neck, and his right pulled the sharp metal instrument up to Gavin’s face, and, in one swift, savage movement, sliced down Gavin’s face.
The most bloodcurdling, tortured scream erupted; one of agony; Lisa herself screamed, only this time, it made a sound; the stone room was spinning around her … she was leaving … leaving this sick place …
And then she awoke in bed, drenched in a cold sweat and feeling sick to her core. She had just seen Gavin being tortured; she had seen him at his most vulnerable, inches from death.
And, unless she was very much mistaken, she had just seen into the past.
Originally Posted by mr_pikachu
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