Restless

The shrine was one of Jacqueline's favorite places. There was an otherworldly beauty to it that had always stuck with her, despite it being little more than ruins. The forest had grown in thick around the temple, sending out creeping vines and moss in an effort to reclaim the fieldstones for itself. The ceiling had collapsed at some point, sending stones and debris into a chaotic, impenetrable jumble within. Often times, Jacqueline would peer through one of the remaining windows, her gaze searching through the rubble and her mind at work imagining what the temple must have looked like when it had been in use. Were the long stones the remnants of altars or benches? Was this one big room, or had there been more? What had it been used for and why was it abandoned? In all the time she had come here, these questions had never been answered.

The outer gardens still held a small collection of basins with pools of water gathered within them. At times, rays of sunlight would filter through the thick canopy of trees overhead, dancing across the surface of the water and causing it to glitter like hidden treasure. The thick green leaves of the trees held a magic of their own, lending the area an eerie green illumination most of the time which made her feel as if she had stepped into one of her grandmother's fairy stories.

A pedestal still remained in the middle of the garden, entirely untouched by the elements over time. Whatever rested upon the pedestal was dark and squat, and had some manner of curvy silhouette to its appearance. This part of the garden was always shrouded in golden light and was easily the most beautiful part of the shrine as far as Jacqueline was concerned. It was also the place which she disliked the most.

For as long as she could remember, she had explored every part of the ruins in the woods. She had played along the fieldstones and splashed rocks across the surface of the pools of water. She had danced through the rays of sunlight, while the clack and crunch of her boots on the grimy stonework echoed throughout the shrine. She had even spent countless hours observing the figure on the pedestal from a distance, tantalized by what it might be, what secrets she could glean from it. Yet every time she had tried to cross the distance to investigate the lone altar, she would wake up.

Jacqueline lay awake in bed in the last remaining hours before dawn. While her eyes were adjusted to the darkness, she was barely aware of her sparsely furnished bedroom. Her mind's eye was still going over every detail of the ruins in the woods that had plagued her sleep since she was a little girl. The dreams were becoming more frequent lately. She was finding it harder and harder to avoid knowing what the statue was, and where this shrine could be found, and was this even a real place or was it all in her mind?

“Tomorrow,” she murmured to herself trying to reign in her thoughts, “Tomorrow is an important day. I need to sleep.” She blinked back the dream and refocused her attention on the darkened, shuttered window to her left. “I don't have time for dream temples anymore. Probably. At least not for now. And besides,” she yawned, “we've planned too much to back out now. Josie's counting on me...tomorrow...”