Unnatural Instinct: Wish
7

‘You-you were watching me?’

‘Only when you were watching me.’

Your fingertips are tingling. Your heart is racing. Then you remember where you are. Shaking your head, you turn back to the mountains. ‘Why am I reacting? This is just a dream.’

‘Is that what you really think? Who can admit to knowing all of life’s mysteries? Remember the picture? The one you’ve never seen before? How do you explain that?’

‘I guess I just missed it.’

‘After all these years?’

‘The pages must have stuck together.’

‘Sounds just as unlikely as my being real.’

He’s leaning his hip against the railing, his arms folded as he watches you, a knowing smile on his striking face.

‘I’m surprised at you,’ he continues. ‘Haven’t you always wanted to believe in magic? Haven’t you always dreamed of something like this?’ He looks around the balcony. He gestures at the mountains. ‘Aren’t you happy that I’ve answered your wish?’

‘I-I don’t know.’

He raises a perfect eyebrow. ‘You don’t know?’

‘Yeah.’ You try to swallow but your mouth is like sandpaper. ’You scare me. As much as I love the thought of you, your reality scares me.’

His voice falls to a whisper. His fascinating eyes keep your gaze pinned. ‘What exactly is it about me that scares you?’

‘If you really are the Dark Prince, then you can’t be trusted. He fools Louise. He traps her.’

‘Is that so?’

You open your mouth, then close it. ‘You’re not real.’

You both turn at the sound of a thud.

‘What’s that?’

The Dark Prince doesn’t answer, though he’s frowning. A second thud follows. You jump as the thudding turns to banging.

‘Is someone at the door?’

You hurry inside, using any excuse to get away from him, away from his piercing eyes and daunting presence. The knocking continues, louder now. You hear a voice, a female voice, but whatever she’s saying is muffled.

You reach the door. You turn the handle. It’s unlocked! You wrench the door open and freeze, bewildered, feeling like the world has upended. There’s a wall several feet away. And in the middle of that wall is a lightbulb. A familiar lightbulb. You blink. Where’s the person knocking? Where’s the hallway of mirrors? It’s your lightbulb, you suddenly realise. Your bedroom’s lightbulb! And that’s not a wall. It’s your ceiling. You’re staring at your ceiling! You blink rapidly as your mind struggles to catch up.

The banging continues, much louder now. ‘Open the door!’ comes Sarah’s voice. She yells your name. ‘Open the door!’

And you suddenly realise—you’ve woken up.

‘Hold on!’ You voice comes out in a scratchy croak.

Feeling strangely heavy and dizzy, you slide from the bed. Your eyes keep sticking together and your throat is so dry it’s painful to swallow. You stumble and suck in a breath at a sharp pain in your ankle. Another sharp pain in your pelvis makes you double over.

Staggering to the door, you wrench it open.

‘It’s about time! Are you all right?’ Her eyes dart over your face, her mouth thin. Her glasses are askew.

‘What do you mean? I was asleep.’ Hanging off the door, you rub at your eyes.

‘Asleep? All day?’ She looks at her watch. ‘I haven’t seen you for ages. I thought you were dead or something.’ She straightens her glasses.

‘Why would you think that?’

She pauses, suddenly looking awkward. ‘I know you lost your job …’

‘You do?’

‘I have friends that work there, remember?’

You frown. ‘They should mind their own business.’

She shifts on her feet.

‘I’m not about to kill myself, if that’s what you think,’ you say a little too sharply. You grab at your abdomen with a grimace. ‘I need the toilet.’

You rush past her down the hall. Entering the bathroom, you throw the door shut behind you. Sitting on the toilet with a groan, you lean over your lap as you urinate endlessly. A throbbing headache is building.

After you’re done, you get up and wash your face, staring at your reflection. You’re pale and your hair looks like it’s been through a wind turbine. There are shadows under your eyes. Turning off the water, you turn to exit, only for the pain in your ankle to stop you in your tracks.

Your dream! The Dark Prince! It all comes tumbling back. You look down at your ankle, feeling shaken. Calm yourself. It’s not real. You must have hurt it in bed, or maybe even at work, and you’ve felt the pain in your sleep and just dreamed about it, not the other way around.

Definitely not the other way around.

You leave the bathroom to replace your roommate waiting outside in the hallway. She raises her eyebrows.

‘Just … overslept, I think.’ You squint against the light pouring in through the window. ‘What time is it?’

‘About quarter past three.’

‘Quarter past three?’ You struggle to think. ’In the … in the afternoon?’

She nods.

‘I slept twenty-four hours!?’

‘I told you.’

Shaking your head, you grab at your abdomen. ‘I’m hungry. I’m getting something to eat.’

In the kitchen, you force some food down because you know you must, though you hardly taste what you’re eating, your mind on your dream, prompted by the continuing pinch in your ankle.

There are goose bumps all down your arms as you approach your door. It’s ajar. Tentatively, you push it open. Your room is empty, the sheets of your bed rumpled. Auburn light fills your room as the sun begins to set.

‘It can’t be real,’ you tell yourself. ‘I’m just stressed and having bizarre thoughts.’

Your eyes turn to the book on your bedside table. With a shiver, you race inside to snatch up your phone and a set of clothes before racing outside again and slamming the door shut.

You spend the rest of the evening looking for jobs—or at least trying to look for them; the Dark Prince’s face keeps popping up in your mind. The thought of his smile makes your heart twinge. You can almost feel his heat as you sit on the couch with your feet on the coffee table, your laptop cradled in your lap. You turn the volume on the T.V up.

It’s deep into the night when you finally give up on your search. You stand and stretch, feeling a little sick. If you can’t replace a job, what are you going to do? Where are you going to live?

It’s two o’clock in the morning. You grimace as that headache kicks hard at your temples. You took tablets for it earlier but you need more. You pull open the medicine drawer and reach for your box of Panadol, only to pause at the sight of your bottle of relaxants.

It couldn’t hurt to get your sleeping pattern back on schedule. You look back towards your room. It wasn’t all that bad—the castle, those strange women, the mysterious and daunting Dark Prince. It’s not half as bad as reality, in fact.

What are you so worried about? It’s got to be better than this.

‘It’s just a dream anyway.’ A great dream. It seems so distant now—the fear, the uncertainty. Anything is better than why lies ahead of you: replaceing a job, paying your rent, being sane. Why were you so scared? And who’s to say you’ll even dream about him again anyway?

Though you hope you do.

You take two pills. This time, you approach your door with much more courage. Entering, you flick the light on.

You just need to make sure that you wake up at a reasonable hour this time. Your brother has invited you over for afternoon tea and you can’t miss it. You pull out your phone and set your alarm for two pm. Not that you’ll sleep that long. Whatever happened yesterday was an inexplicable one-off. It couldn’t happen again.

Sitting down on the edge of the bed, you pick up the book and open it at a random page.

‘You cannot leave me,’ he said as he touched her cheek. ‘Not when you don’t want to.’

‘I will,’ Louise whispered back.

His hand was too warm, too wonderful. Closing her eyes, she pressed her lips into his palm.

She snapped her eyes open with a start. ‘I will!’ She stepped back.

The Dark Prince was frowning. A distinct air of malice began to fill the gap between them. His voice was a hiss.’There’s nothing you can do. You’re mine.’

Your head starts to feel fuzzy as the tablets start to work. You try to put the book back but it slips to the floor, falling open on that peculiar picture that shouldn’t exist.

His eyes gleam lifelike against your bedroom light. You fall back into the pillows as the ceiling spins. You close your eyes. The spinning continues as you fall away.