Chapter 11: The Lord of the Grey

James opened his eyes to the ring of the doorbell, with no shattered glass in sight. He got himself out of his chair, and walked sleepily to the door. He stumbled here and there, holding the frame of the bunk bed for support halfway through his tedious journey. When he opened the door, he found Arthur on the other side, "Sorry, James. I forgot the keys here, so I needed someone to open the door. Thank god you are here." "Yeah, yeah." "Don't worry, I won't be too long. I know you're entertaining your girlfriend tonight." James nodded in despair, and walked to his chair to sit down. The dark of the night sky shined through the window, but no white paladin was to be seen behind the transparent screen.

Arthur left, and James got submerged into his thoughts. For the first time in his remembered life, he didn't know what to do. He hoped he could say nothing to Kate, burying this incident in the dirty dirt. He was sure she loved him, didn't she? But he also knew that he had to wake up. Rose tinted glasses seemed to turn him blind, and rainbows and unicorns did not fill the world he was put in. He had to confront her, even if his heart and head didn't want to. He just wanted to kiss her, love her. But what he wanted didn't matter in this cold, dark world. She had betrayed him, that was the end of it. The doorbell rang, and James straightened his blue shirt, slicked his hair, and walked to the door. Before opening it, he made sure a poisonous frown decorated his face. He opened the door to Kate, who was dressed in a red dress that reached her knees. Her brown hair was untied, flowing lush and long behind her. Her eyes were deep pools to drown in, and her face as beautiful as the sunset before a starry sky.

"James," she said. James replied meanly and sullenly, "Kate." "What happened." "You told him." "Him?" "Michael! You told him about my pathetic attempt at leaving this world. I thought that was 'our' secret." "I wanted to help you. But I didn't know what to do." James, in his childlike rage, raised his head, and struck his backhand across Kate's left cheek, "Leave my sight, you treacherous wench!" "I just wanted to help you!" Kate's cheeks were streaming with stray tears now, ruining her makeup and sending black streaks of eyeliner down her fair cheeks. James didn't care how much she cried, "Get out, get the hell out! If I ever see you again, I'll, I'll do something you won't like." Just as that James closed door on Kate, and locked it. He walked back to his chair, and could still hear fists softly pummelling at the door, beckoning him to forget this, bury the hatchet. But he stood his ground, and sat down on his chair. He felt tears stream down his cheeks in their thousands, filling his face with water. He looked into the window, to see the dark, cold night sky outside. His reflection was faint on the glass, but he stared into it, losing himself in the black shade and the stars decorating the sky behind him.

"You were right," James heard a voice say in the back of his head, "She didn't deserve you. No one on this ungrateful earth does." James replied, devastated and depressed, "You said I didn't deserve a smile on my face. Are you happy now, are you smiling?" "Yes." Just as that, the voice stopped, and James continued staring into the dark sky. He felt a smile creep onto his tear-drenched face, even though he wanted to grimace, as absolution filled his brain. James smashed his head down onto his wood desk, again and again, to the beat of Kate's pummels outside the door. As his head wandered, the sound of his head smashing into the wood and the soft punches were the only sound he heard, accompanying each other. When he stopped, he set his head down on the table. There was no blood on the table, huh, James was not even strong enough to break his skull. Despaired, James closed his eyes, even though he could still hear the fists hitting the door.

James opened his eyes. The ground below him was curved, and filled with black grass. It spanned a few metres around him, and a black void was around it. James walked to the edge of the curved cliff, and looked down below. Water spewed from below him, two small streams of grey water. They splashed on the ground far below him. When he strained his neck, he saw into the sources of the two waterfalls, and found two unresponsive eyes, moist with tears. The face that adorned them was a lot like Kate's. As James bent his back to see the giantess, he slipped, and fell off the forehead of Kate. As he fell, he could see Kate's entire body, dressed in red. He closed his eyes, ready to splatter onto the ground when he felt a gust of wind surround him. When he opened his eyes, he saw a white knight, standing on a grey cloud, just as James was resting on the same mist. The paladin raised his helm, to show a chiselled face with blue eyes, not unlike James' own.

"Idiot," the spectre said. "What is this place," replied James. "My kingdom. Grey, isn't it?" "Why am I here?" The cloud the duo were on ascended, up and up, till it was in front of Kate's crying face. The shade had a smile on his face, "Beautiful, isn't it? At least I feel it is." "She's crying." "Astute observation, James. She is crying. But isn't it beautiful. She deserved it, lets be sure of that, at the least. But the water. If you could have imagined a more fertile ground, anything but the grey desolate wasteland you are so enamoured by, the world around us would be as lush and green as a rainforest. But alas, we live in a dark and grey world, don't we?" "I want to go back. I want to apologize. I want to do something, anything, to stop her crying." The paladin walked slowly towards James, and slapped him on his face with a gauntleted backhand. Then, it laughed, "That's what you did. Off course, you didn't have metal when hitting her, but do you think she wants you after that. I don't even know how she ever wanted you." "You hit me!" "Astute observation, Einstein. Are you just telling me what I am doing at the present. Because if you are, I'm gonna smack you again, and this time, this time it won't be a goddamn love tap. Now listen, if you don't want your ears rung, it's no use trying to care about those around you. They don't matter. They never did, they're ants, peasants, and we are giants." Once the knight said his words, Kate shrinked. By the end, the giantess was as small as James and the spectre.

James walked towards Kate, who was on the same cloud as him. He reached out to touch her cheek, and saw the red imprint of his palm on it. He saw tears streaming down her cheeks, grey things muddying up her pretty face. He felt a stray tear roll down his cheek. The spectre had a smile on his face when he opened his ugly mouth, "You still give a sh*t about that wench. Gods, you really are a gullible, little, dumb idiot, aren't you? Clean your ugly face." "I want to leave this godforsaken place." "You dare call my grey sh*theap godforsaken. Hah, how dare you?" The shade japed. James was not amused, "I shall leave now." he removed his hand from Kate's cheek, and walked up to the knight, "You shall let me leave." "Why should I?" "Who created you, pray tell? Who wrote your name on a piece of paper and mailed it to his publisher." "You did." "True. So tell me, if I were to forget about you. Unimagine you, let's say, what would happen to you, Oh lord of the grey." "Why, I would say the power of imagination runs deeper than the whims of an useless manchild, and if you tried to, as you say, unimagine me, nothing would happen. What has happened can't be changed. You wrote a children's protagonist, and your 'wrath' doesn't concern him. But if you want to leave, all you have to do is wake up. Do it, and you shall be back in that droll, dark, depressing world you call home. The grey may be boring, but it is orders of magnitude better than the waking world." "I would rather be there than here, so bye."

Just as that, James closed his eyes to the smirking paladin, and to the crying Kate.