199322ShellsheCote
Synopsis
An extrodinarily oridnary girl believes in many things. She believes in life, and also death. She believes in dreams, both good and bad. She believes in a world above her head and one beneath her feet. She's believes in the power of a dream catcher.
When her dream catcher begins to fail, more and more creatures begin to arrive. Soon, she finds herself thrust into a very real, yet unreal, and frightening dream. When she awakens, she'll learn something that will change everything she thought she believed in.
Excerpt
The tall rose bushes grow around Clarice Welis, as she walks through the garden. The clouds are heavy, and waiting to drop rain on her entire world. A crash of thunder rang through the sky, and rain began to pour upwards.
Around her feet, the rain came from the ground, pouring into the clouds. She looked at the rose bushes closer, staring at the soft petals and jumped back in shock. The leaves were petals, while the petals were leaves.
This was the dream world that Clarice visited in her sleep. A different, upside down world to the one which she really lived in. Almost as if it was her own special quiet place, there were no people in her dreams and few animals. There was an absured amount of illogical activities in these dreams, yet Clarice was much to focused on the colors of this strange world.
Clarice thrived on science and looked for the logical explantion of anything. At eighteen, she had grown accustomed to many people referring to her as a scientist, among many other things. She questioned the world around her like most kids never did. The teachers appreciated her love for knowledge, though it cost her many things in life. Clarice walked along the path in her dreams, the rain going up towards the clouds in a slow motion, while Clarice stayed completely dry.
She walked along the path until she came to a clearing with which sat only a single chair. The grass grew up past the chair and Clarice was nervous. She had read about the many different bugs and snakes that could reside in tall grasses. But something told her she was supposed to sit in that chair.
Slowly, Clarice walked over to the chair, taking small baby steps and matching her feet to the same places. She kept looking about her, searching as if someone was readying to attack her.
Preposterous, she thought. No one could be waiting in my dreams to capture or harm me because they are my dreams. I control my dreams.
Clarice walked out and slowly, nervously, she sat on the chair. Her hands clenched the edge of it and she began to relax. The chair seemed steady enough. She moved her hands to her lap, and looked around her.
She wasn’t alone.
The eyes in the tree glowed like that of a cats eyes, in the middle of the night. They blinked slowly and opened again. The tree leaves began to rumble and the person jumped down from the tree. His knees were all that was visible, as the person was very tall. His shoulders disappeared in the leaves of the tree.
Clarice watched in a mixed feeling of fear and curiosity.
How Peculiar that someone could be so tall… Who could ever be that tall, she wondered.
But before Clarice ever got the chance to find out, her chair disappeared. The ground faded in the seconds after that and she suddenly fell.
Clarice fell for a long while, wondering when she would land and wondering what she would find when she did land. She watched the walls of the hole, noticing that it was a very long hole. Clarice wondered then if she would ever hit the bottom of the hole or if she would fall forever
