Invisible, part 4

"My..f..f..father?" Sarah stuttered.

"Of course, why else would we come here, you want to see him don't you?" Jeff smiled innocently.

Sarah hadn't thought of her father in quite some time. She remembered that day, 10 long years ago that her father had been ripped from her life. It was in early November when the freak snow storm hit. Her father had been driving back from his job after working late that night. The road had been icy and her father had been driving a bit too fast. His car spun out and crashed into a barricade. It took a long time for the ambulance to get there because of the bad weather, and by the time they arrived he was already gone.

Sarah had been awoken that night by the phone ringing, then her mother crying out in grief. She climbed down the stairs and saw her mother holding the phone sobbing into it. She ran to her mother and cried with her without even know what was wrong. She cried because she had never seen her strong mother cry before. She cried because she didn't know what was wrong. When her mother calmed down enough to tell her that her father was gone, Sarah felt she couldn't possibly have any more tears left, yet she did. Everything that happened after that was such a whirl of events, yet all Sarah could really remember was the sick feeling in her stomach that nothing could ever be the same again. Perhaps that she could never be happy again.

"I...do what to see him again." Sarah finally managed to say. She felt almost as if she was going to cry just at the thought of seeing her father's warm smile again. The chance to say goodbye to him, the chance to tell him how much she loved him. It almost seemed too good to be true.

Jeff took her hand immediately and they took off into the tunnel, except for now the tunnel didn't seem to be so dark. They entered into the tunnel and all at once it didn't seem to be a tunnel anymore. It looked more like a parking garage. Sarah turned back to see if the entrance had changed but Jeff reached towards her face and said "We must never look back, only forward."

The parking garage they were in was empty except for an door at the very end. When they reached it, Sarah saw stairs leading down. These stairs didn't look like stairs one might find in a parking garage, they were clean and they spiraled downwards majestically. It was much brighter in here than it had been previously. Jeff had already started down the stairs, and Sarah had no choice but to follow him ever downwards.

The stairs seem to last forever, and Sarah almost felt dizzy climbing them down. As they got closer to the bottom the air felt like it was getting colder, and the lights where almost imperceptibly getting darker. Sarah started to feel scared, something she wasn't used to in her dreams. Normally they were happy dreams, playing with Jeff, visiting her other friends. This however felt oppressive. Even the walls seemed like they were moving in closer on the two of them. Trapping them in side. Sarah almost wanted to scream but she stopped herself.

At the bottom there was another door. "Almost there Sarah dear." Jeff opened the door for Sarah, and Sarah walked through.

On the other side was not something Sarah had expected. It looked like the dark murky halls of some high school. Scattered everywhere within the halls were bodies, hundreds of bodies all in varies stages of decay. Sarah felt the bile in her stomach rising, but forced it back down. "What..what is this?"

Jeff didn't answer. Jeff was no longer with her. Sarah turned around to see where he went, but the door was gone. Sarah had no choice but to trudge forward. It was terrifying, Sarah could swear she could hear some of the bodies moaning, and some slight signs of movement. Sarah broke out into a panicked run.

There was a door at the end of the long hallway. It looked almost like her the door to her mother's bedroom. Sarah burst through the door. She quickly slammed it behind her and stopped for a moment to catch her breath. She was in what looked like a theater. About halfway down the there was a what looked like a young man sitting in one of the seats, staring at the empty stage. "Hello?" Sarah called out meekly.

The young man turned around and smiled. Sarah stood there for a second, feeling deja vu for a moment. She knew that face, she had seen it before. Recognition dawned on her as she cried out "DADDY!"

Her father stood up and opened his arms. Sarah ran into them and they hugged for the first time in ten years. "Oh Sarah my precious girl. I've missed you so much."

"Oh Daddy." Sarah said, her mind blanked of all the things she had wanted to say to him. Now she felt that those things probably didn't even need to be said. All that needed to be said was said in their embrace. Sarah looked into his face, remembering those eyes that looked so much like her own. Seeing him again was almost too much for Sarah to bare, but she didn't cry she was too busy smiling.

They didn't talk for a long time. Sarah was happy just to be able to be close to her father again, and didn't feel much need for words. Finally she managed to say "I love you daddy."

"I love you too my Princess." He smiled softly. He released their embrace and stared back towards the stage. Sarah looked towards it as well. She could almost swear she could hear some music playing. "Isn't it a beautiful show?"

Sarah looked at the stage, and although it was still empty, she could swear she could see a young woman dancing on it. It was something she could only catch faint glimmers of, but it seemed to be there.

Sarah couldn't think of anyway to really answer her father, so she just nodded. "Where is this? Why are you here?" She managed to say after awhile.

"I'm waiting."

A loud noise sounded through the theater. Sarah closed her eyes tightly, and when she opened them she was laying back in her bed. She sat up quickly and saw her mother standing in the doorway. "Oh I'm sorry Princess did I wake you up? I was just checking to see where you were."
Sarah's mom quickly and quietly closed the door.

For a few moments Sarah relived what had happened in her dream in her head. She was sad that the dream had ended so quickly, and she wanted to hold onto the memories. She went to run her fingers through her hair when she felt something hard. "Oh yes!" Sarah exclaimed out loud remembering the Dreamsight she had been wearing. Sarah quickly got up and plugged in the recording part of the Dreamsight into her computer. The file quickly uploaded and she was given three options, one to save it to her computer, one to upload it directly to Dreamtube, and a third to edit it. Sarah didn't want to upload it quite yet, so she just clicked on the option to save it.

Sarah rewatched the video. She felt strange watching her own dream, but it was amazing how much of the feelings were captured onto the device. The strange transitions from room to room, the oppressive nature of the staircase, the horrifying whispers from the bodies in the hallway. When Sarah finally got to the part where she saw her father, she started to cry the tears she could not shed in her dream. After the video ended Sarah sat there in silence for sometime.

That's when she got a strange idea in her head. Her mother! She would probably want to see this dream as well. Sarah noticed it was almost 1am, but she figured that her mother would probably still be awake. Sarah decided it would probably just be easiest to upload the file to Dreamtube so they could watch it together on her mother's computer. Sarah went to upload it and was prompted for her log-in. Sarah created a new account under the name of SarahsDreamDiary. The file uploaded quickly and Sarah hurried into her mother's room to show her the dream.

As Sarah knocked on her mother's bedroom door, she felt nervous about showing her mother the file. She didn't know how her mother would react to seeing it. Well she thought that at least it would remind her mom of the good times they all used to share.

"Ma, there's something I want to show you." Sarah said after her mother let her in her room. "I had a dream while you were at work. I think you want to see it."

"Well ok," Tina agreed and let her daughter on her computer. "So you already broke in the Dreamsight eh?" She smiled down at her daughter. Tina wondered if Sarah remembered what today was. Well she might not, she was so young at the time.

Tina watched at the video started to play. It was a surreal dream to be sure, although some of the dialogue going on between her daughter and the young man in the dream was strange. Going to the afterlife? To see Sarah's father? Well it was a dream, let's just see what happens, she thought to herself.

When Sarah got to the theater Tina let out a gasp. When he turned around she said, "That's him! That's exactly what he looked like!" Tina couldn't believe it, it was her husband. He looked exactly like he did the first time she had ever laid eyes on him. She watched the rest of the video, crying silently. When the view focused on the stage, Tina swore it looked very familiar as well. The video ended, and Tina sat down on her bed, wiping the tears from her eyes.

"You know Sarah," she said patting her bed beckoning Sarah to sit beside her. "It's been ten years exactly now, since that day your father passed away. I think you must've remembered that, that's why you had that dream."

Sarah sat beside her mother. She hadn't really remembered, but maybe somewhere in her memories she really had. Tina went on "Did I ever tell you the story about how I met your father?"

"Well no, not that I can remember." Sarah said sheepishly, slightly ashamed that she had never asked her mother for that information.

"It was back when I was in high school. Did you know I used to be a dancer?" Sarah shook her head no. "Well I was until I broke my ankle in college, well anyway. I was performing in a stage show of the Nutcracker. I had worked so hard and I think I danced very well that night. I must've because after the show a young man came up to me and asked me for an interview. he was reviewing the show for his college newspaper. That one interview turned into a lot more, that man was your father."

Sarah sat silently, realizing how close her dream had been to reality. Sarah's mom went on "We dated for a long time, and your father came to all my shows. There was nothing he loved more than to watch me dance. When I broke my ankle and realized I would probably never be able to dance again, he just held me in his arms and cried with me. That's when I realized that I loved him." Tina felt the tears coming towards her eyes again. She quickly wiped them away and smiled at Sarah. "Thank you for sharing that dream with me Princess." Tina hugged her daughter tightly, and remembered all the good times she used to share with her husband. That dream, something that would normally be a fleeting memories, was now a treasure shared between mother and daughter.

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