A Phantom Vision

As I lay in my bed failing to fall asleep, I began to think about all the secrets I knew my mother and everyone else must be keeping from me. I knew what they thought of me. But am I really what they say I am? Am I really going to go there?

Cutting off my own thoughts, I heard a creak from outside. Instantly, I got up to go see. When I peered out my window, I felt a sudden urge to go outside as if the world was tugging on my sleeve. I placed my cold, pale hand on the windowsill. My fingers drifted toward the icy latch. They flicked it open without any confirmation from my brain. I gazed glossily down at the entire floor I would have to jump. I could make it, couldn’t I? I put one leg out the window and then the other. I took one last look inside to make sure no one was coming after me. Without thinking, I jumped.

The cold air grabbed at my skin giving me loads of bumps. But for some reason, I just didn’t care. The feeling of anything other than being up in my room was exhilarating. I knew my family kept me in my room to ‘protect me’, but I didn’t need that! I quietly and quickly shuffled through the forest. I had never liked living out in the county, but now I was grateful for the trees to cover me. The moon shone brightly, almost guiding me to where I was headed. Owls hooted, frogs croaked, leaves rustled, and the wind howled as my bare feet ran through the woods. Oh how good it felt to be free!

Then I tripped and fell on a branch on the ground that I had not seen. I brushed my long, red hair out of my face and picked myself up. Then I heard something far off in the thick of the forest. I turned my head and squinted my eyes to see what it was. Not in a million years would I have thought that I would be able to see anything that far away or even be able to make out what it was, but I tried anyway. And I did. I saw something and I could tell what it was. Mostly. They were almost in the shapes of humans, but at this distance it was hard to make out limbs such as arms and legs. They were all completely blood red, a shade that haunted my step. Their faces were a void of dull, grayness.

There was something so unsettling about the empty faces like a lagoon that appeared harmless, however, monsters lurked beneath the surface. There was a group of them, but I couldn’t tell how many. Their red bodies stealthily slinked across the forest floor, never turning their faces fully towards me. However, I was intoxicated by the vacancy of life in them. As I looked at them, something about the way they acted frightened me. It appeared as if they were hiding, and waiting for someone or something. Perhaps a time to strike? The mere feeling that they were invaders on our land terrified me. What was going to happen? What were they doing here? What did they want?

I was shell shocked as I watched these beings, these aliens, walk through the forest. Of course, I was scared to death, but confusion also penetrated my thoughts. How was it that I was able to see them? That didn’t make any sense. Not after what had happened. I turned away for a moment and when I looked back in the direction I had seen the red figures, they were gone. My heart pounded as I moved, now a little quicker, in the direction back towards home.

The only thing on my mind was how much I needed to warn my family about the red creatures. What if they had planned an attack on the town? How far would they go after that? What was it that they wanted? I knew I had to do something and it had to be soon. I had to tell people and just pray that they believed me. But if I told them, I knew there was a good chance that I would never be let out of the house again. Unless, of course, it was to admit me. I had to pick whether I wanted to protect myself or do my best to warn everyone else. My heart raced from the adrenaline flowing throughout my body. When I got to the door, I paused.

But I knew I had to tell them. Even though it felt as if sometimes my family didn’t love me as much as they used to, I still loved them. They were all I had and I had always been one to cling to anything I could get my hands on. By choosing not to tell them, I was choosing freedom only for myself and not freedom for quite possibly everyone else.

Freedom.

What an interesting, overused word it had become. I had heard it over a thousand times in my life and always applied what everyone else had to say about it. Now though, it held a whole new meaning to me. To me, I think of it as the ability to make my own decisions, being able to leave my room, and talk to the people I wanted to. Freedom was no longer a popular thing to ask for but instead it was what I needed.

Coming up to my house, I crossed the imaginary threshold of the decision I was making. I pushed back the door and stepped inside. At first, I considered waking them up, however, I decided that I would go up to my room and talk with them in the morning. As quiet as a breeze in the night, I crept up to my room. Not too thrilled to be greeted by the dullness of the space, I sat down on my bed. Knowing there was no point trying to fall asleep, I waited until dawn when I would expose the truth that the enemy was near.

However, I did not have to wait too long because my sister came in soon after I had returned. Seeing her, I called out, “I need to talk to you.”

Taking a clumsy step backwards, I could tell the last thing she wanted to do was be alone with me.

“Please,” I asked, my voice oozing with desperation, “this is really, really important.”

Moving away from the door, I watched her slowly come over to me and sit down at the end of my bed. There was a good amount of space between us which I completely understood. Truthfully, I didn’t feel comfortable having people too close to me anymore. She stayed quiet, clearly trying to decide what to say next. She considered it for a moment, but eventually her curiosity got the best of her as I knew it would.

“I know you, Mother, and everyone thinks I can’t do anything anymore,” I said, letting my words sink in, “But I escaped for a moment earlier tonight and out in the woods, I saw these creatures hiding in the forest. They were sort of shaped like humans from what I could tell and they had these void, gray faces. They were hiding behind the trees and I don’t think they saw me. What I am trying to do is warn you. I think they might be some kind of otherworldly invaders. We have to do something! I know this sounds insane, but I’m not making it up! I saw them with my own eyes!”

“With your eyes?!” She asked me; her voice raised. She sprang up from the bed. “And that is supposed to reassure me?! I don’t know if you’ve noticed, Scarlet, but your eye witness accounts don’t carry much weight. I don’t believe you. But what I do believe is that you have gone mental!”

Seeing as she was about to make a break for it, I dashed over to her, taking hold of her arm. She squirmed wildly, trying to break free of my concrete grasp. Her eyes blazed with fear as she looked at me. I had to admit, I probably did look insane.

“There are creatures that are coming for us! Red, horrible creatures, from beyond time and space! I’ve seen them! I’ve seen them and they are coming for us!” I felt my grip on her arm tighten.

Fiona screamed, tears now in her eyes. She was absolutely terrified and yet my mind wasn’t working properly, therefore, I did not let go.

“Fiona, focus on what I am telling you!” I shouted at her. I took her shoulders and shook her. “They are coming for us! You must believe me!”

Huffing, screaming, and crying, she wailed mother’s name through the house. Within a second, mother was beside us with horror written on her face as she looked at us. She then yanked me away from her. The second she was free, she ran down the stairs, crying profusely.

“Scarlet,” Mother said, sounding out of breath. Oh how much I hated that name! Out of all the names in the world, mine had to be Scarlet! Now, my mother was terrified of me. There were so many, thousands probably, of questions in her eyes. However the one that escaped her was, “What have you done?”

And then, all of a sudden, my knees buckled down and I fell to the floor. My hands were shaking and hot tears began to fall down my face. A wave of heat washed over my body, drowning me in an angry sweat. I knew there was nothing I could say to make my mother believe me about the red creatures and I knew there was nothing I could say to make her believe that I was still sane. Truthfully, at that point I had to agree with them. I was insane and I knew what was going to happen to me.

“Go, mother!” I told her, still sobbing onto the floor.

Now tears began to well in her eyes, and with her hand over her heart, she cried, “Scarlet! Oh, Scarlet, what has happened to you?”

She ran down the stairs, probably to call on a doctor or tell someone what had happened to me. I then lay completely on the floor, my back hurting against the hardwood. I could hear mother and Fiona frantically discussing me downstairs. There was nothing left for me to do. The red beings would come for us and take over our home. But first, the day I knew was coming had arrived. I knew I was to be admitted to the institution.

⇷ ⇹ ⇸

It has been four days now since I was admitted. The room that I was to call home was duller than anything I had ever seen which was really saying something considering my state. Everything in there, the walls, the curtains, the bed, the dresser, all of it, was a cloudy gray tone. I spent most of my time sleeping, but even then, I couldn’t escape my own mind. That was the most dangerous thing at the moment. My own thoughts. It was the only thing I couldn’t get away from and the main factor of my proposed insanity. When I arrived, I thought that my family would come to visit me. However, I was foolish to ever engage in such fantastical thoughts. I should have known that they would not bother with me. Besides, when they looked at me, all they saw was the crimson stain in the family’s pristine record that was their pitiful, now insane, daughter.

Snapping me out of my horrific thoughts, I jumped when I heard the door open. Whipping my head around to see who had come in, I brushed my red hair out of my face. Standing in the doorway was my mother. Though I had only seen her just four days ago when she dropped me off, she looked like a completely different person. She wore sleep on her face as though it was going out of style and her eyes were cherry red. Under her eyes, were dark circles and it even looked as though her hair had grayened over the past few days. Truthfully, I felt sick as I looked at her. So much of me felt absolutely awful that I had caused her so much heartache and restless nights. I knew that her new appearance was my fault. Yet on the other hand, she finally understood what it was like to be me.

“Mother.” I said with no emotion in my voice.

“Oh, sweetheart—” she started, however, I cut her off.

“I don’t want your pity. What I want is for you to listen to me. There is a threat to our home, to our nation, that is out there unchecked! If we could strike before they knew we had discovered them, then perhaps we could win! Isn’t that what you want? Isn’t that what everyone is talking about? Freedom for all?!”

In a wobbly voice, she said, “You don’t know what you are talking about.” She then used her sleeve as an attempt to wipe away a few tears that had broken free.

Indignant that she would not even consider listening to me, I pleaded with her. “Mother, please! I saw them! I—”

“Stop!” She shouted, her body trembling. “You didn’t see anything! You couldn’t have! The fever made you blind, Scarlet. Blind!”

The blood in my veins was boiling now and my heart felt like it was going to burst out of my chest. She had told me over and over about how when I had gotten Scarlet Fever, I had become blind. However, that was simply not true! Yes, I had failed portions of the vision test, but mainly the portions when they asked me to identify what color something was. Ever since that horrible sickness, my vision has been impaired but not gone. I could still see shades of red and though things appeared fuzzy, I could usually still make out what they were for the most part. But they had never heard of something like that before.

Alongside that, I had started talking about the strange things I was seeing, however, they were only simple remarks about how things looked so different now. But they had taken them seriously. One time I had told Fiona that the trees looked like people dancing. She had then proceeded to tell my mother who did not understand that this was only me making a comment about how things appeared more blurred now. Therefore, I was labeled insane and here I was now, sitting in the institution.

“No, I saw them!” I screamed at her, my face on fire.

“I’m leaving, Scarlet. I pray these people can do something to save your mind! If they can't, you will have to be here forever.” And without another word, not even a goodbye, the door slammed behind her as she rushed out of the room.

⇷ ⇹ ⇸

Realizing that the shouts I was hearing were not from my dreams, I sat up. I opened my eyes and ears to the sounds that were coming from outside the building. Getting up, I looked out the window. Immediately, I spotted a bright, fiery red torch that was being carried by a young man. He was running wildly through the town and people began to emerge from their homes, still dressed in their nightclothes. Then I saw men with rifles come out and follow the younger man down the road. Having to know what he was saying, I pried the window open just a sliver to hear what they were saying.

The young man yelled the same thing over and over again, loud enough for all to hear. The simple words that came from his mouth were chilling and made my heart stop. As clear as day, I could hear exactly what he was saying. In a strong voice he repeated the chant over and over.

“The redcoats are coming! The redcoats are coming!”

And then it hit me.

Everything made sense.

What I had seen were not creatures from another time or space. They were the talk of the town, the thing that no one could stop thinking about. They were the reason why freedom had become such an overused word. What I had seen that day in the forest had been a troop of British soldiers scouting out the place. They were hiding and waiting for the right time to attack. Though I had been wrong about what they were, I had been right about what their goal was.

To take over our home.

And there was nothing I could do about it.

For so long everyone was discussing when the British would come and now they had their answer. In sheer terror and utter disbelief, I watched as chaos erupted knowing that I had tried to stop it. As the shouting continued, I couldn’t help but wonder what my family was thinking about at this exact moment. Were they putting the pieces together that their poor, sick Scarlet had actually tried to save them? Did they realize that they had wrongfully admitted me to the insane asylum?

No, I thought, probably not.

So with the future creeping closer and closer, and the present crashing down on me, I watched as I became a witness to the beginning of the Revolutionary War.