CHAPTER 48

1917

JESSE

The next few days consisted of me going back to school. It was as boring as I had expected it to be, but I think the excitement of what I had been shown would have caused even the most exciting of days to be dreadful by comparison. I passed by Isa on our morning walk and almost let slip the secret of the mysteries of space. I didn't know much about it, but the fact that it's actually possible to go and visit this strange place was a story of itself. Unfortunately, I must keep my secrets. I wonder how many days it will be until I get to find out the truths of the out-there. I'm sure I could sit down and count it out, but the thought of missing a day and miscounting terrifies me, and then to have all of that time wasted. I think that wasted time would be worse than a near-disconnected eye. At least the eye can heal.

There are times when I dream of weird things without names. They are creatures without shapes, but their presence stares me down, breathing their hot stench onto my face, frozen to my bed. They can appear out of anything—the candle beside my bed, the stool beside my desk, or even the quill beside my books. Each of them has the equal opportunity to transform into some creature, hellacious eyes grasping for anything to tie them to our corporeal world.

Sometimes they speak, uttering languages I do not comprehend, saying curses I'm sure that must wish for my eternal damnation. At least, that's what my father tells me that they do. I'm sure he has no clue about the origin of the creatures, or if that he believes that they're even real. I wouldn't have believed they were more of a specter of my sleep until I met Friedrich. A lot of things could be real now that I met him. I get to go back in a few hours once school is over. I don't know how I'm going to get to space, but I find myself thinking about it more and more.

I just hope these creatures that haunt me stay away long enough for that to happen. Maybe I'll find something to drive them away in the coming time.