Game Credentials: The Queens Word

"Isn't Joey in a deeper layer of dreaming? Do you think he's in mine or in yours?" I asked Ethan, the moment the door shut. The rest the family had left to get something from the cafeteria, seemingly purposely, like they wanted us to talk. Well, like Mom wanted us to talk, and had forced the rest of the boys out on her own with whatever nonsense excuses she could think of. She must've known something was on my mind.

I fluffed my pillow trying to make the hospital bed more comfortable, but it didn't have any success. If that's the cushion to blame or the fact I've been told that I'd be going into surgery soon, either way, I felt I was laying on rocks.

"I-I d-don't kn-know, A-Ate." Ethan admitted with his stutter on every word, as he inherited out of the power's stress symptoms, climbing up on the bed to snuggle in beside me, after strategically avoiding the wires I was hooked up to. "B-But if Papa is in yours, it has to mean he wants a second chance at life on earth, and you have to get him out at any cost."

I placed my arm around him, his head rested on my shoulder. "How can you be so sure that's what he wants?"

"I-If he chooses my head, that means he's accepted his fate. We're on the same side, so it'll be the easier choice and he can rest easy. Plus, because I'm younger, my brain is still developing, and because I don't have as much hard history as you — the ancient beast that has collected in her years — his responsibilities will be even easier. My brain can actually handle more than yours can. If anyone says anything different to you, they're lying to make you feel better," Ethan explained, bluntly.

I brushed off the remark, "And if it's mine?"

"I-If i-it's y-yours, that means he's taking a risk for both him and you. Everything will be harder for him because it's technically enemy property, and there's more going on for you making you fragile-r. He wouldn't risk either of you for no reason, but there's more of a chance you'll have to end up there than I would. He knows that. If you run into him, you have to take him back here no matter what."

"Hm," I acknowledged, taking it in. I rubbed my chin with my thumb as I pondered his point. He's right, definitely, I didn't doubt that, but going through it was a big task. "I'm sure they're not going to let me take him so easily. If he's there, he's locked up somewhere and getting him out is going to cost me a lot; more than I have maybe. How can I manage to do that?"

"E-Easy. I-I'll c-come w-with you to back you up," Ethan said without having to think a lot about it. "I can't stay with you too long in a deep layer of your dreaming, because I can get sick. It's like breathing a new kind of oxygen for me because it's not my head. It's yours, and we're, in power terms, not friends, but foes. I can join for a short period when Papa shows up."

"And how are you going to know when I see Joey?"

"I-I'll st-stalk y-you from the OR gallery, and watch your reactions. I can read those pretty well. You've seen that, and I'll be there to help you once you need it."

I laughed. He talks like he's medical personnel that's allowed in that gallery. They'd never let him in. I followed it for the fun of it, inside not believing we had a plan. "You're going to get into the OR gallery, are you?"

"Y-You th-think i-it's funny. You think I'm being naive, but you've liked to say it to me a lot; 'Ethan you're only five'," he smirked mischievously. "Five year olds get away with a lot because we're cute and little."

"I think you're crazy."

"Wh-When d-did y-you ever not do crazy, Ate?" He answered, slipping off the bed. "So game?"

"Yes, game," I decided to trust him, whatever it meant I was getting into, because one thing was important now. One. "Let's get your Papa back."

~

"What did I say? Five year olds get away with everything," Ethan spoke, making funny, but obnoxious faces. As always, in the dream worlds, he didn't stutter, and he expressed himself without anything to hold him back. He was free, and more confident. His brows raised up and down again to be humorous, and when got tired of that look, he found something else. His hand was held in his dad's hand, and Joey was over the moon to see us again. I'd go through it all again if I knew it came to this. "And to think that you didn't trust I could do it."

I ruffled his hair, his childish giggle a light to my soul, and I chose to pass over his jokes when I talked. "Does this mean you fell asleep in the OR gallery to get into my dream?"

"Yep!" He popped the 'p', shrugging without a care in the world. How nice would it to be five again? "There were three medical people in there that didn't even try to get rid of me. They probably will now that I'm sleeping. I'll wake up in a brand new place."

"Mom's probably freaking out by now if she didn't know where you went off to."

"Yeah, probably."

"Oh, come on now," Joey said in a light scold. "Don't stress out your mother."

"I'm so glad you guys are here! You made it, Ellie! I'm so proud of you! Congratulations. What a prideful win for the sun. You and Ethan's teamwork is no joke! Joey is going home and Camdyn is staying alive," my grandmother squealed happily, formed in what I'll call the 'flesh-in-the-mind' like the rest of us were. It made her more personal to us, instead of seem so much higher up with authority. When she was in that form, it was hard for me to talk to her, and I'm her granddaughter. We each turned to her when we heard her speaking, but I was barely able to move to face her before she had embraced me in her arms. "How do you feel? Its an achievement to celebrate!"

"I can't believe it's over, but I'm so glad it is." I answered her truthfully, using the closeness of the hug to my advantage. She began stroking my hair, and it made me wish I had more time with her on earth before she had to rule the Kingdoms for my brother and I, and allow us to be trained. I don't get much time with her then. As she started to loosen the grip, I talked again, stopping her from releasing so soon. "Why did I have to go through all of that? The knocks on the doors from people I couldn't see and didn't know, they still give me chills, and the ones that came in to cut open our skin, even worse. I can't believe this can develop in my head. Who did that to us? It's unsettling."

"Oh, sweetie. I'm sure you know all too well that the truth hurts. Your mom likely said those words to you before, and it's me that always used to say that to her, but that doesn't mean you can hide from it. You know the truth, deep down, and just don't want to cope with it," she let go, her hands on either side of my arms so that she can look me in the face. "That was you, Ellie. The biggest enemy you can have here is yourself, and you're learning that sometimes, when you're in a dark place, you don't only hurt yourself, but other people too. Not because you wanted to, but because some stuff just happens. The important thing is, you know whose real and whose not. Camdyn is still standing beside you after all this trickiness. He's a good man. Keep him."

I smiled at him, which he returned, our hands interlocking the way they've always belonged, even when I didn't want to think so, and I saw in it, that he was bound to have felt the same way this entire time, but he trudged right along through, falling deeper in love because of the tests, the trials, and the burdens.

I always wanted to consider myself the main character of my story, but even if I got that, I could still end up the villain in somebody else's or my own. Really, at the end of my chaos of a book, I was everything. I didn't play one role. I beat myself down and I lifted myself up. I did the same thing to other people. The monsters in my head, only a select few people can back me up when I say I do mean it when I want to jail those sinners, but at the same time they're part of me. They're violent. They hurt people including myself, but the person I'm capable of being — the person I really am is totally innocent, and I like to say kind, and sweet.

My own head wants to kill me, but I can fight to stay alive by the will within me and the strength of the people I love. People are going to continue to say that my hurt is "all in my head" and truthfully, they're correct. That is where it is, and they are weeds that I didn't plant, and guests that I didn't invite that can be overcome with the right people, places and time. After all, that's half the fight. If you believe you're defeated for long enough, it usually becomes a fact. Believe you're a victor, and things are looking up.

"And since we're talking about a good man, there's a good woman we've all missed recently. Blake, I'm sure you'd like to see her," my grandmother brought out. She clapped twice, and out appeared a beautiful lady that helped me out from the start of knowing her, that I couldn't ever pass by. A red dress hugged her curves, and her make-up was done to bring out her eyes. Her hair cut to a pixie after the hair cut she tried to do on our own, was stunning. Different, but there's no better word to describe it than stunning, and her dark chocolate skin would make anyone want to stare. She's blessed with beauty, that's for sure.

I wanted to run to her, and ramble on about whatever words I can make out, not because I didn't have anything to say to her, but because I had too much. I had to apologize and I had to thank her, but that list can go on so much further than that. Still, I anchored my feet to the floor, peeking over at Blake. I knew this was a moment for them, and not for me.

"Shyrene!" He shouted, taking off after her, to touch that skin of hers again, like he's had to have been longing for. "I've missed you so much."

"I missed you too," she answered him. They shared a kiss, so intimate and fiery out of not lust, but the purity of love, and no one would think for a second that they didn't have anything for each other. Catching one glance of the eye when they looked in each other's direction said it all, more than words ever could.

Her shiny white pearls were proof she was satisfied than majority of people could be, and she couldn't conceal them, her hands delicately at touch with the back of Blake's neck. Though their lips separated for a moment, it was evident they both wanted back in, but Shyrene wasn't so quick to follow their matching desire. "Didn't I tell you to trust them? I was right, wasn't I?"

"You always are, too right for me even. Too perfect for me that I can't begin to think of what a miracle it is that we were alive at the same time, and that our paths collided directly into each other's," Blake answered her, clearly taking it much further than she was expecting him to. He couldn't complained; he could've made a big deal about me and start a love quarrel between the two of them, but he didn't want to ruin the moment. He was building it up for something special. No one could deny.

He pulled a small box out from his polo pocket, clicking it open to reveal a silver diamond ring, or a hologram of one would be a better description. Again, he couldn't pick a ring out of the box that I was given at the beginning of the game. He wanted it to be special, and he had to construct it himself, even if it wasn't the real thing. Not yet, anyway.

I listened closer from then on. There had to be a story behind it, didn't there?

"We go way back, Shyrene. Back before this place that we're living in was even born, we were living in a physical world, best friends from day one. Once we were walking home from a night shift, and we passed by this old jewelry shop. They were advertising a gold necklace in the window, and with the way the light shined on it, it was the only thing that everyone would notice, but you're not 'everyone'. You're Shyrene, so what you noticed was a ring on the back corner of the shelf by the window and you joked—."

"'If I'm not proposed to with this ring, then I don't want it's man'," she chuckled, finishing off his sentence with her line, but she couldn't hold down her surprise. She had to gasp at his amazement of bringing that back, but especially when she got a closer look at the ring-hologram to find that they had the same pattern. "Oh my gosh. You remembered?"

"Of course I remembered, Shy. I thought about it here and there from then on, and sometimes I purposely went by the store to look at it again. One day, I bought it. I don't know why, or what I was going to do with it. I was too timid to give it to you because it's not like we were anything then, but someone else buying it disturbed me. I considered you to be the rightful owner. When our world vanished and we ended up here, it was disappointing that I could only come here with the clothes on our backs and the rest was whatever the mind had to give us. It was in my thoughts since then, that I had to recreate it, and this was the best I could do, so I tried. On earth, I'll have it made exactly this way. Promise."

Blake got down on one knee. "Shyrene, you're the only one who has made me more in the areas I didn't know I was capable of becoming more in, and the only one who was able to put up with my shortcomings and turn them into something at least more tolerable. Because of that, I knew I owed you, and I told myself that if I ever got the gut to propose to the most beautiful girl in every universe that ever existed, I wanted it to be perfect. I thought I had to say everything just right, be in a place that had this peaceful serenity that this place didn't have, and I panicked over the 'how', because I wanted it to be much better than ordinary when you're much above ordinary, but I realized that being with you and without you make me an entirely different person, and it's only with you that I can be happy. I can only pray that you believe me, and consider that enough.

"I tried to get as close as I can to the ring. I hope that you can accept its man. Will you marry me?"

"Oh, Blakey. I want the man more than the ring, and that's the most honest thing I've ever said in my whole life." She told him. As Blake stood up, they met again to share a quick peck, arms around each other like the princess whose found her Prince Charming. "Yes, a million times yes."

We applauded for them, cheering and whistling for the blessing of true love. My grandmother chimed in cheerily, still clapping for their binding. Turns out, today was one they had a lot to celebrate. "Congrats on your engagement, and congrats on completing your tasks. You've worked and trained hard. Blake Lee Qirmiz and Shyrene Novah Rosen, you are granted permission to life on earth. You are both destined for great things."

A person couldn't be happier than the two of them were right now. "Thank you, Your Majesty."