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it would seem that my dream WAKE has a sequel.
here you are, pami.

i awaken in a world i've seen before, yet have never truly beheld. at least, not this part. i look down and my seemingly dead heart skips a few beats--opaque violet skin? winged wrists, a trademark of my memories, but now they're stronger and sharp, like merciless blades, blooming from my skin like cruel flowers. i run my fingers over each individual feather, cold and smooth under my long fingers.
This was his world. Anaiya was my name here, right? it had been so long. i blinked my eyes a few times, trying to rid the sleep from my eyes. the last i can recall is the explosion of my heart, my final act of breathless beauty in the world with impossible shapes and colors, with the gorgeous seraph that had become my best friend...where was he now? i rubbed my eyes and searched the blank room. there was nothing significantly beautiful or odd--i was in the same place i had "died". but my friend was nowhere to be found. i stood up, shaking off feathers and dust that had collected on my frozen body.
i stood still and straight, trying my hardest to recall his last words to me--but try as i may, i don't remember a thing. in fact, i'd completely forgotten how his array of voices had sounded, the shapes of his many faces...the more i tried to remember, the harder it was to bring him back into the sieve. it seemed like blasphemy, forgetting such a unique and gentle creature, cryptic and riddle-addicted as he may have been. each second that passed, another glorious or grotesque face was lost.
with a hint of panic in my softer figure, i flit about the blank room, searching for him, the angel with the many faces.
"Jeal--!!"i called, but i froze. What was the rest of his name? i stood perfectly still, pondering it furiously. my memories were fading, easing into the monochrome monotony of these four walls. i knew i'd said his name just before, knew it! so why wouldn't it pass my lips? how could it be...?
the face i thought i'd never lose, the heart that had literally touched mine...gone forever? i wouldn't have it!
in a frantically formulated plan, i dashed back to the furthest wall and took a deep breath. i was afraid of what would happen, where i would end up once i flung myself forward, but the idea of losing him was by far more frightening to me...
i rushed towards the blank wall, jutting my shoulder forward and bracing myself for the worst--when suddenly, as if being born again, i broke through, as easily as water through paper, into the brilliant world of lofty, orbular transportation and rising rain.
My cruel wings slice me downward, spiraling down to the cobbled street where we first met...

for the first time since I’d arrived to this strange world, I crashed sideways on to the unforgiving cobblestone, my head cracking sickly as my body jerked. I was quickly swept up into darkened arms, and rolled around so that I gazed dizzily at the pond sky. It was a murky brown, sickly and polluted. My heart throbbed to life, aching for the beauty…
“You…you’re like him! Lady Angel, please, tell me where he is!!” a deep voice demanded of me before I could gain my bearings, so I only opened my mouth in acknowledgement. He sighed, and I was suddenly staring into black eyes. He glanced up at the pond sky—no, his eyes weren’t black. They were the loveliest shade of midnight blue I’d ever seen. They sparkled and shone with a mysterious determination that I’d never seen, not here, not anywhere. I stared at him blankly and felt my cheeks burn—he was undeniably handsome and so very….human. how strange.
“Lady Angel, please…are you alright? You’re the only one who can lead me to him!”
“You’re human!” I squeaked, kind of in awe. A human being was the last I expected of this world—I was waiting for a punch line or a random explosion of color and transformation. But he stayed, kneeling in the street, soft and warm and so very, very….human.
“Yes. And I don’t know where the hell I am, but I’m looking for him. Where is he?”
“He? The One That Changes?” that had to do; his name still evaded me. I looked closer at the man that held my womanish frame, my faintly glowing skin bouncing off his gorgeous russet. He looked so familiar. His proud cheekbones held his strong jaw in such a way that he looked both gentle and dangerous, and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to reveal anything I knew about the lost friend of mine.
“Yes! I don’t know his name here, but I need to find him!!”
“Why? What have you to do with him?” I demanded, sitting up and wiggling out of his grasp. He touched the blade-like wing on my wrist and watched as his lovely skin was sliced, the precious blood oozing from the cut. He looked at it curiously, but bit back an obvious surge of questions.
“He’s mine. End of story. I’ve known him for years, and he’s mine.” He insisted. I frowned, hating the possessiveness, the desperation in his voice. What did he mean, my friend was his? I pressed my back to the wall and cringed—what was it that hurt me so badly? The human man grabbed me to him, my almost naked flesh to his.
“Whoa, don’t do that. Your wings are too raw.”
My wings? I glanced back to see two sticky appendages, bent and flecked with feathers of unknown, opal-like colors. When had I…? I ran one long finger over these feathers too, unsure if they’d be as vicious as the ones on my wrists, but was surprised to find that they felt like nothing—like wisps of smoke from the butt of a cigarette. He cleared his throat at me to bring me out of my wonderment and back into the conversation, so I jumped a little and stared at him sheepishly.
“Sorry…I didn’t realize…I’m new to this world, I suppose.” Sort of. I didn’t even really know what I looked like now, since my last encounter with the angel. His strong face fell into one of disappointment.
“So…you’ve never seen him either, huh? Just another legend?” he sighed, his shoulders slumping forward. I stared at him a little; appraising his very soothing air and his perfectly ordinary clothes…he absolutely did not belong in this abnormal world. It made me wonder how true the sense of my own belonging was…but for the time being, I filed that old story in the back of my head, and took the human’s hand.
“No, I know him. I can’t recall his name, or any of his faces, but I know him. He was with me when I became….this.” I motioned to my free hand to my body and my gory wings. “I’m new here, but I’m not. Do you understand?”
“You know him? The hermit, at the edge of the woods…you know him?” his words came out in a breathless slur, and I stared at him for a second to try and register everything.
“Yes. My memories are slipping more and more, but I think I remember the way to the forest from here.”
“He’s not at his home…I waited, I went in…”
“You may not know…he can be anything, I think.” with my whispered words, we looked on to the horizon, where the murky pond-sky and the unearthly world met. he took my hand, pulled me to my feet, and with an assurance i thought only mages and saints had, he spoke very softly.
"Then we'll go find him together."