Bridging Worlds- Alice and Oliver's Timeless Bond

Alice lay in bed, tossing and turning. The full moon shone brightly through her window, leaving her room lit up like day. She shifted uncomfortably, trying to find a more comfortable position that would allow her to drift off. The blankets were tugged off of the bed and Alice sighed. She sat up and reached for them, when she noticed something odd. A wet feeling on her hands.

Alice looked down at the blanket in her lap, then back up at the ceiling. Her eyes struggled to adjust to the light as she stood up, leaving the blanket where it lay on the floor. She moved towards her door, and opened it slowly. She gasped and nearly let out a scream as she fell against the wall behind her door, clutching her chest.

Standing in front of her was a man covered in blood. He wore red robes with a hood pulled over his head so only his eyes could be seen. His face was twisted into a crazed grin as he stared at her with all-white eyes.

"I will have you!" he said, raising a gloved hand towards Alice's face. Before he could touch her, however, his hand passed right through her body, as if she weren't there at all. The man jerked back in surprise and his hood slipped from his head just enough for Alice to see his scalp underneath what remained of his hair. Without thought, Alice reached out for him with both hands, grabbing hold of the edges of his robe before he could pull away and ran forward with him at her heels.

Her feet touched ground again just before she could reach the water outside their house and the man disappeared from between her hands only inches from the edge of their dock into the water below them. Alice turned towards their house and walked inside calmly. Her brother Oliver was standing by their window looking out into the night sky when Alice entered the room through his side door without making any noise at all. He jumped when he saw her standing there before calming down quickly and asking "What are you doing here? I thought you went to bed hours ago."

"I did," Alice replied with a yawn "But I can't sleep." She paused before adding "And apparently neither can you." Oliver turned away from the window to look at her carefully before replying; "I'm practicing my flying." They each smiled broad smiles that showed their missing teeth and Oliver left his window to walk over to sit next to Alice on her bed just as they always did when they wanted to talk after being separated most of the day while they went about their chores around their home on their isolated island home far out in the ocean on which they lived together with their mother who had been gone for many years now but whose name no longer seemed important enough for either of them to remember anymore than any other person or thing in their lives at this point besides themselves anyway but even that wasn't entirely true because there was one person who had held more importance than themselves in their lives since before either of them could remember who had been present in every memory they shared together as long as they had existed; an elderly woman whom neither of them really knew or understood who arrived one day sitting on their doorstep one morning when they were children who had helped raise them ever since then without fail until this very day without fail just like someone else had once done for someone else long ago though neither of them knew how or why or even when exactly this was which made it very difficult for either of them to truly understand why anyone would do such a thing but they were too young to understand these things anyway so that didn't matter much anyway because what mattered now was nothing except perhaps survival itself which was getting more difficult with each passing day especially now as Alice pushed herself off of their bed to stand up straight because every step she took now felt like she was walking into quicksand which made it hard for either of them to make it anywhere anymore which often left Oliver alone inside while Alice wandered outside searching high and low for food while wishing they could afford another cow so that maybe then she wouldn't have to worry about starving whenever she walked outside alone but instead had time enough left over after milking one cow all by herself for whatever else might need doing around the house like fixing their leaky roof or maintaining their gardens or chopping firewood or washing clothes or anything else really because sometimes those chores got put off too long until it seemed impossible that they would ever get done but somehow always managed anyway but no matter how hard either of them worked it never seemed like enough anymore because life lost its luster long ago along with its meaning which made surviving not worth living anymore especially not while carrying such heavy burdens upon your shoulders every single second of every single day without fail without fail without fail without fail without fail without fail without fail without fail