In her room, Sonoko could unwind and let her emotions wash over her. She lay on her bed, staring at the ceiling. The application envelope that sat on her desk stared at her. Mr. Yamada had handed it to her over a week ago, yet it sat unopened, taunting her. Inside could be her way off the farm and towards something that could really help her family. But that would mean actually leaving all of it behind. Sonoko didn’t know which she preferred.
Outside, rain began to whisper at the window. Wind blanketed the house. The dream she had the previous night resurrected in her mind. The rain had reminded her that she dreamt of something at all. It was one that had been recurring to her around this time of year ever since she was a young girl. Not a dream, a nightmare.
It always started the same; Sonoko was outside on the edge of a forest. The very same forest that remained in the Makino’s backyard, beyond the farm. There, the last place in Arcadia where wild plants still grew. It was the only place of Sonoko’s childhood that held any true mystery. Her imagination ran wild, picturing an oasis of plants lost to time. She saw spirits running free and drinking water from the cleanest creeks. Of course neither Sonoko nor her brother, Shin, ever found anything like that in the woods. No one had seen a spirit in generations. Either way, the forest, just like in her youth, called out to her in the dream. Only the sky in her dream (nightmare) was wrong. There were dark, swirling clouds above her and looming over the woods. At this point in the nightmare, Sonoko always seemed to know what would come next. She could hardly remember the first time it had come to her, only the relentless repetition of it. Against her every will, her feet would carry her into the woods like she was a doll being pulled on a string. Who was on the other side, Sonoko hoped she would never find out. The sky seemed to get darker as the trees surrounded her. The randomness of the trees, the sporadic nature of their placement was not comforting like normal, but chaotic and ugly. The strange force carried her along to a familiar clearing where she would play as a girl. At the center of the clearing was a tree. Not just any tree, a Luminaeon tree. Neon. The very same that they grew on their farm. The very same that produced the substance responsible for powering all of Arcadia. Except the Neon tree that stood before her in her nightmare was nothing like the ones they farmed. It was fully grown. Sonoko, and no one else alive, had ever seen an adult Luminaeon tree. The Neon secretions from its flowers was much more potent during the tree's first bloom as an adolescent. Her brain filled in the gaps of what the adult tree would look like based on descriptions that she had read in school. It was the only part of the nightmare that didn’t feel as such. She used to look forward to this part when she went to sleep each night.
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Then, that awful feeling would settle in. A horrible sensation that she only ever felt once in her entire life. Devils walked up her spine sending a chill that froze her in place. The grass became black as if all the water had been sucked out of it. The grand Neon tree shrivelled into a dusty corpse. It shrank into the ground, crumpling into a pile of black soot. The soot blew away in the wind, revealing a flower underneath. It was the flowers that bloomed from the Neon trees under the waning moons of summer. Then the flower, like the grass, would have its life sucked out and wilt right in front of her. As Sonoko recalled this imagery from her bed, she realized that the wilted flower on the ground in her nightmare was identical to the ones she had seen on the dead trees that morning.
A ghostly echo would then float past her ear. It was a voice. A voice that became harder to hear each time the dream recurred.
“Hana…” the voice said. It spoke like it meant to call out to her but couldn’t find the strength. It was calling for her help. Against her wishes once again, Sonoko would turn around and see what she already knew was behind her. Her older brother, Shin. He stood with a pale face and dripping wet clothes. His black hair stuck to his forehead just parted enough to see the oblong birthmark stamped above his eyebrow. His eyes were sunken and hollow. Pleading.
His mouth opened to say more, but before he could, a larger mouth would appear from the trees behind him. Sonoko never saw its body or face, just an impossibly large mouth that opened to swallow him whole. Its rotten, crooked teeth and cracked lips were the last thing she saw before waking. She would jolt up, her arm outstretched, trying to save Shin.
Alone in her room, she thought of this nightmare. The eight year anniversary was approaching soon. She could feel the house sinking the closer it got. The air felt heavier every day, acknowledging the extra soul on the wind from the day that Sonoko couldn’t save her brother.
She cried with the sky.
