The person in the door frame stepped forward, lantern in hand.
A woman.
Not old, maybe in her early thirties. There was something about her eyes, they were sharp and silver white, glowing faintly in the dark. Casting soft reflections off her high cheekbones. She had unblemished dark skin and long white dreadlocks flowing down past her shoulders like a shroud of moonlight.
She was beautiful.
He blinked, her hair throwing him off. Not just because it was striking, but because he felt like he was used to seeing it tied back. But where did this familiarity come from?
Her figure was slightly lithe, yet toned. Her gown had no sleeves, accentuating her athletic form.
Just then a memory of this woman flashed in Leo's mind, one of her during the daytime, with her long dreadlocks pulled back. She was standing on the sand overlooking a beach. A long sword resting over her shoulder as her back was turned to him. Then she looked over and smiled.
By now more and more memories were flooding in, names, people, places, and all unfamiliar. It only added to his ever growing disorientation, panic, and fear. He clutched his forehead as he stumbled back, a panicked scream was beginning to rise in him.
But before he could do that the woman grabbed his arm, and yanked his entire body up, throwing him over her shoulders like he weighed as much as a pillow. The air left his lungs in a gasp.
"Let's go." She muttered with an unamused sigh.
She then took him and left the long rectangular room filled with children, slamming the wooden door behind her. The other kids shook their heads as they climbed back into bed and tried going back to sleep. It seemed like, maybe this was a common occurrence around here, or at least for the boy that was just taken away.
"It's over for him..."
Rowan said with a sigh as he also got back into bed.
Selene, the mint-eyed girl, slightly shook her head with a sigh as she did the same.
"He is so annoying sometimes."
Meanwhile, back in the hall where a panicked Leo was being carried over the shoulder of this terrifyingly strong woman.
"L-Let me go! Hey!"
He shouted out helplessly as he tried pushing off her. But her grip on him was too strong.
"Cut it out brat or I'll kill ya."
She said with a yawn, turning down the long corridor into a room.
Leo gulped slightly as he decided to remain quiet for the rest of the ride. Entering the room, it wasn't big or small. A medium sized square room. A theme could be noticed about this whole foundation they were in, the walls were seemingly made out of old dark wood, but still in good condition. The floors are all the same cobblestone, except for the one in her room, where there were wooden floorboards.
She entered the room and slammed the door shut, inside there was also a bed that looked like the ones that the kids slept on, only wider and larger. Two nightstands on either side, a long sheathed sword resting at the end of the bed in between one of them.
What stood out the most however was the large window at the end of the room to the right of the bed, the night sky could be seen outside. Ethereal moonlight poured into the room from this window. Outside it looked like an island, but this room, the foundation, everything seemed like it was situated on a hill. Overlooking the tropical island below that was illuminated by the moonlight. The beach could also be seen from here.
The sight was so beautiful that it caught Leo off guard, but this awe was short-lived as his body was suddenly flying through the air, as if it was tossed, and landed nicely in a wooden rocking chair situated in the corner of the room. It took him a while as he rocked in that chair to gather his thoughts, emotions, and soul.
The woman sighed as she sat on the foot of the bed in front of Leo.
"Alright, what's wrong?" She said softly with a sigh.
Leo looked at her in silence for a while. Strangely enough if it wasn't for her, he felt like he might have had a psychotic break. This was because in the core moments of his panic and memories flooding in, she had come in and knocked the wind out of him. Then after that threatened to kill him. Then after that threw him across the room like a doll as he somehow landed perfectly in a chair.
Everything for him felt weird right now. It all just felt so… wrong. Because it wasn't just this boy named Cain, who's memories and mind were fusing with Leo's, it was also this boy named Leo, who's memories and mind were fusing with Cain's. The two opposing voices in that head were slowly meshing together, forming one voice.
As Leo was finally able to calm down out of his panic attack, he slowly realized that this process was happening slowly but surely. But it was still terrifying nonetheless.
'How do ya think I feel? All of a sudden I've got memories from the future, but then that future gets destroyed by dragons…??'
'Was that the future? What was that? What is a car… What are these words?! Phones, planes, uh-'
"Can you stop being so loud…"
Leo muttered aloud as he clutched the side of his head. The woman raised an eyebrow in confusion.
"What?"
She said, but Leo didn't hear her, because right now, he was staring at his hand. His hands, arms, feet, hair, body, everything— it was all unfamiliar.
'This isn't my body!?'
He thought as he felt around. Then he suddenly stood up from the rocking chair and turned around to the window behind him. And what he saw in the faintly blurry reflection took his breath away.
A boy, who also looked to be about ten years old, with dark brown wavy hair with length that rested just barely on his nose. Not the white, almost clear like hair he was used to. The celeste-colored eyes were gone as well, and instead replaced with orange ones. Almost like Rowans but the orange glowed more.
"Wh-Wh-Who is that…?"
'Can you stop freaking out? I know we're handsome but jeez…'
"Huh? Who keeps talking!? Why are you in my head!?"
"Your head? You're in mine!"
The orange eyed boy spoke loudly in confusion and anger to himself as he stared at the slightly blurry window. Suddenly the woman grabbed him by the shoulders and sat him back down.
"You better start talking or I'm gonna start hitting!"
The boy instinctively gulped.
'Do what she says!'
'Okay!'
"Okay!"
They said out loud in unison. Or, well, one person said, the two minds just agreed.
Just then as he was looking at her silver eyes, a name popped into his head, a familiar one.
Maevis.
"Maevis?"
The woman perked up a little upon hearing her name. She raised another eyebrow.
"That's Miss Maevis to you."
As Leo and Cain's memories were fusing together more and more, things slowly started feeling more natural, but at the same time more terrifying. Because this was unnatural, why was it that another person's entire life and memories were pouring in?
On Cain's side there was a ten year old orphan boy who had lived a life of hardship and adventure in this place alongside his fellow orphans. However, this world was unlike modern earth. At first, Leo's consciousness thought that wherever he had woken up, dreaming or not, that it was way in the past. Because of the swords, pirates, kingdoms, and all the knowledge that came with those things.
But once the knowledge of magic and dragons became known to him, he was able to put two and two together. This was another world. Or at least, he was having a nightmare of another world.
There was one headmistress running the orphanage, and that was Miss Maevis. She was strong, blunt, rude, and unwavering. Yet almost at the same time kind, intelligent, and even warm.
This island had a name, Rathshaw. It was inhabited by pirates… Quite ridiculously actually, this entire island seemed to be some pirate utopia that ran on their loot… The orphanage settled on a hill outside the city of Rathshaw, for some reason it seemed like the pirates had a tacit agreement and contentedness with its existence. Cain could never understand that.
Then on Leo's side there was a ten year old boy who lived a life back on modern earth, before it was invaded and seemingly destroyed by dragons. A technologically advanced society that had gone through many ages. People that little Leo loved, cared about, their names and the memories that came along with them flooded into Cain's mind. Jason, his older brother, Everyn his mother, Ethel, his father. But they weren't his family? Cain didn't have a family, he was an orphan.
'I don't know em… stop flooding my mind with this bullshit! But… no, wait, I do, I know who they are…'
Cain's body trembled as he held his head tightly, hot tears running down his face as he rocked back and forth, his chest steadily rising higher and higher as he began to sob.
"Shit… Jason… Mom… Dad…" He said softly with a pained voice.
And in those moments of deep pain and sorrow… Something shifted in both of them. The cracks became whole. Leo and Cain's consciousness fused together, becoming one.
There was only one voice here.
One boy.
One mind.
One life.
But could this ten-year old boy accept that?
"Please go away, don't be real, please go away, don't be real, please just be a dream, please just be a dream-"
He muttered softly in terror as he continued to rock.
The truth of what happened, the loss, the pain, the terror… this wasn't a dream, or a nightmare. It was real, all of it.
"No…"
Maevis, who had been watching this with a now worried expression, reached out a hand to touch Cain's shoulder. But then he suddenly screamed out while pulling on his hair.
"WAKE UP ALREADY!"