The Castle of The Mind (Audio)

Narrator: There didn’t always use to be dragons in the valley….

Esse: Come on Faye! Please be strong, you are so much more than what your mind can see, please…I need you here with me!

Faye stands helplessly, looking lost beyond her wondering years as the event horizon nears, chaos swirling around her- yet silence filled her quiet atmosphere, making it hard to be heard.

Esse was on top of a remnant of a building that was in a frozen state a few feet from the ground where Faye was at. At this point, she couldn’t understand why Faye wouldn't climb on the building pieces. Yes, they were suspended in the air, but they also provided the perfect stepping blocks to the reset. All she had to do was climb and then they could reach the spherical light together. In fact, they both had gotten so far and endured worse challenges than a simple climb, they were so close. Why would Faye stop now? How could the cries of people in the distance being burned alive not be enough to want to escape this tenacious nightmare?

Esse: Come with me to the light! Things will be better...I promise! Things will get better, and we can start anew!

Esse whispered frantically hoping that some word would awaken a renaissance within her friend.

Esse:...Faye?

This did little in breaching Faye’s mind, she couldn’t hear her friend Esse. Instead, she stood wrapped around her memories. Alone Faye felt, muddled and absorbed by the weight of her own thoughts, despite the iridescent nature of the dragons in the background.

The atmosphere was heavy and damp as ashes from the burning houses began to cloud the reddened sky. Streaks of lighting would jolt through followed by thunder causing the ground and nearby buildings to shake.

The world felt as though it was on a tilt as mysterious music weaved through the cascade of rain.

“Crystal tears, they fall and they spin in Earth’s atmosphere, edge in looming fear, illuminating me my dear.” (A song from the 1900’s classic rock band Time degrades).

Esse begins to tremble calling out to Faye while getting drenched in water.

Esse: Faye! Faye! Are you here with me? Please respond!

Even when snapping her fingers and waving frantically to snap her friend out of the embodiment of a trance, did little to no good. Instead, she stood reluctantly ambushed with her mind. To Faye she wasn’t in any adherent danger, no- for Faye she wasn’t 23, instead, she was 7, playing house with her little toy Dragons.

(7yr old Faye talking to her toys)

Faye: Oh, so you wish to be the King of the castle then? Hmm, well I am not sure if your daughter Dragonallie would like that very much. She has been quite troubled lately.

Dunesday Father Dragon: Why is that?

Faye: Because she is upset, and something is on her mind.

Dunesday Father Dragon. Well, are you going to tell me?

Faye: I don’t know much but from what I do know, she suspects and feels as though the castle is a prison. But I will give her something to make her happy!

(Faye pulls out tulips from her pocket that she picked earlier in the day)

Faye: Here you go Dragonallie! This should cheer you up!

Sad Dragonallie: How so?

Faye: You can cover the castle in tulips and make it pretty! That way your home won’t feel so dark, because you will be making it your own!

Sad Dragonallie: But how can I sit in my castle making it look nice when people outside our being murdered by my father...the King's order? How can I enjoy things like this?

Faye: You just have to imagine, imagine a world of your own creation so that the outside seems less daunting and scary, that's what I do.

Dragonallie: Thank you my friend! This has helped to cheer me up!

(Faye pauses from playing with her friend and slightly looks up, she thinks she has heard a voice similar to her friend Esse, but it sounded more mature. It was hard to hear, so she looks back at Dragonnallie and Dunesday).

Faye: Do you guys hear the sounds of the white noise? I can’t be the only one who hears things like this.

In the toy castle, Faye decorates Dragonallie's room with flowers as she begins to sing to herself.

Faye: “ When you look deep inside your mind, you will be able to see…”

(7yr old Faye begins to fade away as current-day Faye inherently whispers to herself)

Faye: "…All the pretty side of things."

Faye looks around as her gaze meets the panic look of Esse whose tears have yet to dry and quite consequently appeared to still stream down her face.

Faye: What? You tremble before me, a sign of fear, an ask of plea…

Esse hysterically: Come on Faye, snap out of it!

*Faye smiles for a second before continuing*

Faye: You look me in the eyes, and you ask me why I’m not reacting? Are you kidding me?

*She looks at the sphere of light one level above Esse, and then back at her friend*

This has not- this has never been real for me, times and times I’ve gone through yielding, crying begging to be set free. And I have given up all hope…

*voice begins to crack*

...because I know that there is no way out. I know that the world is never this kind…to the gentle being that lays inside me. That is why refuse to see. Because I’ve been lost for all these years, so why start now? Why see the world around me?

Before Faye’s mind failed her she remembered picking tulips with a stray kitty cat that accustomed itself to her on a warm Summer’s day.

*Faye picks up the kitty*

Faye: Please don’t ever leave me kitty, you help keep me grounded.

*Nuzzles up to the kitty*

My family all got murdered in front of me but at least I still have you.

*Cat meows and begins to purr*

Faye (quietly): Please don’t let me go.

Faye could feel herself slipping from reality as heartbreaking scenes play before her. She remembers being told to stay covered and hidden as warlords busted through the door to the family house killing her parents and 6 siblings. She was soon found but the soldiers figured that the trauma would be enough to finish her off and left her in the darkness of her bedroom.

*Faye holds on to the kitty a little tighter and tries to shut her eyes in hopes that everything will fade away*

Back to what appeared to be the present moment Faye looks up to see that Esse is now standing next to her.

Esse: Please I need you here with me, you are so much more than what you can see. Your mind does not define you Faye.

And with that Esse gave her dear friend a hug, it took Faye a second to register what was happening. She blinked a couple of times before falling into her friend’s embrace and began to silently weep. For a mere second, she felt grounded although it didn't last for long, for the dragons had arrived.

The ground began to break from under Faye causing Esse to stumble backward as the piece of ground that Faye stood on started to rise with her on it.

The dragons who were twice the size of the Eiffel tower seemed to ignore Esse and completely focused on Faye. They were finally getting what they came for.

The sky begins to shift in an unsettling tone as clouds swarmed around Faye, that's when everything came to an abrupt halt.

Being elevated in the sky Faye looks around her seeing the destruction of the same valley that she use to pick tulips in as a child. Sorrow filled her as she looks back at her friend who looked helplessly back at her from the ground. She looked, one last time...

Faye: “I’m sorry…I-my mind doesn’t know how to be kind to me.”

Within seconds the clouds and the horrors all vanished, along with Faye and the dragons, circumference to the weight of her own sins.

Although there were no true crimes or acts of sin in Faye’s history. She subjected herself to that way of thinking, as a reflection of the guilt she had for being the only one to survive in the murder of her family, years prior.

You see, there didn’t always use to be dragons in the valley, in fact, there were never any dragons, to begin with. Instead, they were Faye’s guilt and fears cloaked in the disguise of her own imagination that ultimately failed her.

The doctor looks at the heart monitor hooked to Faye’s bed as he is describing the journey that Esse underwent inside of Faye’s mind.

Doctor: Thanks to this new technology we are able to better understand what goes on inside the mind of a coma patient.

Esse: What lead her to get to this point?

Doctor: Due to multiple deaths she saw within her family, her mind began to fracture, and she began to slip away from reality over a long period of time. To the point that led her into this fragile state, where she is no longer responsive.

Esse: The hand I was holding of Faye’s was trembling before I entered the headset that would let me see Faye’s mind. Now as I squeeze her hand, I am not getting a response back. Is there anything else that I can do to better help her?

Doctor: No, these sessions are the best we can do to try and guide her to the light, other than that, there isn’t really anything else that can be done. She relied solely on her mind to help her to see, but at the end that is what failed her.

*Esse looks at her dear friend*

Esse: I don’t know how anyone can be expected to be stronger than their own mind when it’s the very thing creating their own sense of reality.

*Doctor nods in agreement*

Esse: I never would have foreseen that it could get so bad over a quick period of time...since that last visit she seemed alright.

Doctor: Unfortunately she was distracted by her mind to the point that she could no longer see her true reality.

Esse lays tulips next to her friend’s bed and gives her a kiss on the forehead, and then softly whispers to her.

Esse: My dear friend, so young and so true, I hope that you may find the light from within...to shine above all due ends. Rest easy Faye.

And from there the dragons were never to return again as the heart monitor slowed to a stop- and silence was met with peace.