The limit of the light

When he opened his eyes to the field of endless grass all around him, Perry didn't try to speak. He didn't even try to move or look for the figure in yellow. 

He stood there and waited. Waited for the sky to darken, for the sound to split the air, and for the darkness to pull him away. He just stood there and waited. 

But there was something different about the way the grass swayed. It was almost too uniform, too… symmetric? He didn't know if that was the right word, but he couldn't find a better way to explain it. 

Instead of brushing against his hands and arms, the blades of grass clung to him, cold and damp. Perry shifted to the side, but there was no escaping them. 

He moved again and noticed that the breeze seemed to move with him. Something cold and uncomfortable slithered down his spine. Perry whirled around, but he was still alone. 

He felt like he was being watched. He turned. Then turned again. Every time, the gras swayed in his direction, like thin fingers reaching for him. He was still alone. 

It started to snow. Light snowflakes that floated down in spirals and and came to land on him. It stuck to his skin, his clothes, his hair, even his eyelashes. Perry tried to shake it off, but there was too much of it. More and more kept falling. 

In his previous boring and ordinary life, Perry had seen the snow many times. He had suffered through some pretty brutal winters. So when he raised one hand and caught some of the snowflakes on his palm, he immediately knew something was wrong. 

Because it wasn't snow at all, it was ash. Perry rubbed it between his fingers, frowning down at his own hand. He turned in a slow circle, looking for the source of the ash. But there was nothing burning. 

There was just the endless field of grass and the mountain in the distance. The ruins lay scattered at its base, still and silent. 

No, that wasn't right. The mountain seemed almost… taller. It loomed larger than Perry remembered. Did he remember? Its peak disappeared into the gray sky high above. No, that also wasn't right. The mountain wasn't taller, the sky was lower.

It felt heavy, and oppressive, as if it might keep getting lower and crush Perry under its weight. Perry stepped back and the grass followed his movement. 

The ash kept falling. It was coming from the sky itself. 

What was going on? What was that place and why did it seem so different from all the other times Perry had dreamt about it?

Was he even dreaming? He couldn't remember falling asleep. He couldn't…

"You should not be here."

Perry turned at the sound of the voice and, sure enough, there stood the figure in yellow. 

Perry tried to speak but, of course, he couldn't. 

"Your mind finds the pathways to this place when it is near the brink, but now-" The figure stopped speaking abruptly and snapped their head to the side. Perry followed their line of sight.

There was someone else there - and not just anyone. Perry recognized the white hair, the too-smooth skin, and the strange eyes with shifting colors. 

It was the strange woman who had talked to him at Lucky Fries. 

"There you are. I've had enough of this place, what about you?" Without so much as sparing a glance in the direction of the figure in yellow, she snapped her fingers and Perry felt his body being yanked back. 

The world spun and he felt like he was falling before his back hit something solid. And soft. Perry pushed up on his elbows and glanced around. 

He was in bed, in the same bed he'd fallen asleep in. He had fallen asleep. The world outside the windows was dark and silent. The single lamp in the far left corner made soft shadows dance and play on the walls. 

Perry exhaled heavily and was about to lie back down when a soft chuckle caught his attention. 

Sitting in a chair Perry was almost sure hadn't been there a second before, was the woman. 

"Don't give me that look, sweetheart. Would you really rather have stayed there?" Her voice was even and light. The low-light made her eyes look bigger and completely black. The contrast of that with her white hair made her look like some kind of apparition. 

"I… I don't even know what that place is." Perry's voice was raspy and he cleared his throat. 

Was this a dream? The bedspread under his fingers felt real. The faint breeze that filtered through the curtains ruffled his hair and made him shiver. 

Everything felt real, but… was it?

How was he even supposed to tell? 

And if it was real and not a product of his strange imagination, where was the bodyguard who promised to keep him safe? Should Perry call for him?

"I wouldn't bother," the woman said, as if reading Perry's thoughts. Wait, could she do that? "Your… companion is occupied right now. Troubling him will probably not end well for either of you. But if you want to call him and find out, be my guest. It'll be an interesting exercise for both of us."

Seeing as she was the reason he was in this whole mess in the first place, Perry didn't trust her by default. But he hesitated, unsure if calling Mal was the right thing to do. Assuming this wasn't just a dream. 

"Why are you here?" Perry sat up when a thought occurred to him. "Are you here to take me back?"

"Oh, no." The woman chuckled softly and shook her head. "I'm afraid you'll need to stay here a while longer. No, I'm here because I thought it was about time we met properly, wouldn't you say?"

Honestly, Perry could've gone the rest of his life without seeing this woman ever again. But, seeing as he wasn't being given any choice, he might as well try and get some answers out of her.

"Why did you bring me here? Did you bring me here? I'm assuming you're the one who made the deal with the Queen." 

The woman studied him for a moment. "Aren't you curious about how I found you? They were very thorough when they hid you."

Perry felt like his mind was moving at a different speed from the rest of the world. "What does it matter how you found me? I want to know why you would bring me here in the first place."

The woman extended both hands, gesturing to the room around them. The movement wasn't smooth or natural. To Perry's brain, it was like taking a series of still images and stitch them together, each one slightly out of place. "You're the prince. Not bringing you back would leave things… unbalanced."

Perry sighed and rubbed his face. Great, another one who spoke in riddles. "Would it kill any of you to actually answer any of my questions? Or to let me speak?"

"Don't take it personally, the living can't speak in that place. Well, unless you go into the city itself, but I would advise against it. Touch the wrong thing and you risk all the prisoners running free." She lowered one hand but waved the other in the air, as if mimicking a bird. 

Shadows shifted on the walls, as if following her movements. Perry's brain tried to make sense of it, but thinking too hard on it made his mind ache.

City? Was she talking about the ruins at the base of the mountain? And prisoners? 

"Is that… why you took me there?" Maybe if Perry asked questions that didn't make any sense she might give him some real answers. 

"I didn't take you there, no one can take you there. You either know where the island is or you don't." In the dim light, he thought he saw her shrug. Or maybe that was just her shoulders getting bigger. That would make about as much sanse as any of what was happening. 

"Okay, so you can't take me there, I have to choose to go there. Got it." He didn't really get anything, but that was at least somewhat of an answer. "Why? Why would I choose to go to that place?"

She paused. "You know, I couldn't see it at first, but now I think I'm starting to understand."

"That makes one of us," Perry mumbled.

"Don't worry, you'll see it too. Look over there." She pointed in the direction of the bedroom door. 

Perry turned his head and froze when he saw that the door was half open. Hadn't he closed it? He remembered closing it and talking to Mal about the magical lock. Or had someone opened it? Was there someone else in the room with him?

The single lamp barely touched the edges of the darkness on the other side of that half open door. Perry's muscles tensed and his mouth went dry. 

He should get up, he should run. He should-

"Can you see it?" The woman asked, her voice barely above a whisper. "Right there, just beyond the limit of the light. Can you see it? There's something there, there's something right there…" Her voice got even quieter and unease skittered over Perry's skin. His eyes were glued to that half open door, unable to look away. "There's something there. Sharp claws scratching at the floor, hollow eyes hidden under a torn hood. A king's faded shroud surrounds it, yellow teeth bared and waiting for just the right moment. Can you see it?"

He couldn't see, but he heard… something. His entire scalp prickled with awareness. It was a skittering sound, like bugs running or… fingernails scrapping over a rough surface. 

"There's something there, just there, beyond the limit of the light. There's something there. Can you see it?"

"No," Perry whispered, voice unsteady. He hated this feeling of helplessness. Hated feeling that whatever was hiding in that darkness could jump out and-

"Or there's nothing there." The woman's voice returned to a normal volume and Perry tore his gaze from that menacing half open door. "Can you see it?"

"No. I can't see anything." Frustration made Perry close his hands into fists. 

"You will. When the stars are right."

Unease gnawed at Perry's insides and that half open door tugged on his awareness. He couldn't not glance back at it and at that impenetrable darkness that seemed almost inviting. 

"I had a vision, which was not a dream. A universe, once bright, entombed in a sky more dead than night. No cloud did dare to mar that void of perfect black. And in that darkling space, strange stars rose and phantom moons keened dirges out of sight. Strange faces cloud the waves over the lake, and strange cities rise in their wake. Each step rings out like judgment's final bell, in realms where neither light nor shadows dwell. Strange are the days and nights to come. But stranger still is…"

Perry pulled his gaze from the darkness and glanced at her. She sat there, quiet and unmoving, her dark eyes just as strange as whatever lay beyond that half open door. 

Perry waited, but she stayed silent. He counted his heartbeats. Out of the corner of his eye, something moved. He turned to look, but the half open door was still there and everything beyond it was silent. 

But he thought he saw… there was almost something…

"This has been lovely." She didn't make a sound as she stood and blocked out part of the faint light from the lamp. "I'm sure we'll see each other soon."

She circled the chair and headed for one of the windows. 

"Wait." Perry tried to extend one hand, but found his muscles refused to cooperate. "Aren't you…"

He wanted to ask if she wasn't going to leave through the door, but couldn't bring himself to acknowledge it with his words. 

"Oh, no. Can't you see what's out there?" She pointed casually to the half open door and Perry found his attention pulled back to it. 

But when he looked, it wasn't that all-encompassing darkness hiding just outside the limit of the faint light.

A pair of blood-red eyes hovered close enough to his face that he could feel cold breath ghosting over his skin.

A scream lodged itself in his throat and Perry found it hard to breathe. His muscles unlocked and he scrambled back. His head hit something solid and-

"Your Highness!"