“Oh my God! What happened in here?” Mrs. Johnson gasped in shock.
Blinking her eyes and trying to get them to focus, Katie noticed the look on her mom’s face. “Nothing, Mom," she mumbled. "Why? What’s wrong?”
Mrs. Johnson opened her mouth to reply, but nothing came out. The only thing she could manage to do was to point in Katie’s direction.
Not exactly sure what her mom was pointing at, Katie began to look around. At first, she only saw the state of disarray that her bed was in. The sheets were lumped in a pile at the foot of her bed and her pillow was hanging half off the edge ... then she noticed that absolutely everything was covered in what appeared to be dried mud.
“How did my stuff get …” Katie's voice trailed off as she caught a glimpse of her the clothes, which were ripped in several places. Underneath the torn sections of her clothing, she saw a multitude of cuts, scrapes, and bruises. None of her injuries were bleeding anymore, but dried blood stained her skin.
Finally finding her voice, Mrs. Johnson frantically questioned her daughter, “Who did this to you? Was someone in here last night?”
“I ... I honestly don’t remember. The last thing I recall is going to bed because I didn't feeling good. I think I passed out pretty much immediately.”
“Then, how do you explain this?”
“I can’t.” Out of nowhere, Katie’s dream suddenly surfaced in her mind. A look of concentration crossed her features as she attempted to recall the details.
“What's wrong? Do you remember something?” Mrs. Johnson considered sitting down next to her daughter, but stopped beside her instead and placed a hand on Katie's shoulder.
For a few seconds, Katie looked like a fish out of water. Her lips moved, but she was having difficulty making her mouth work. “It was really bizarre,” she replied in a cracked voice. “I thought I was dreaming. I had no idea that what was happening was actually real.”
Mrs. Johnson waited nervously for her daughter to continue, not entirely sure she wanted to hear what Katie was about to say.
Seeing the worried frown on her mother's face, she continued, “It was strange. I remember having goose bumps because I'd heard a noise outside, but when I looked out the window I could only see fog. I know it was pretty stupid, but I crawled outside through it so I wouldn’t wake anyone.” After a slight pause, Katie began again, “I remember crossing the yard to the shed and finding out the noise was being caused by tree branches that were scraping against it in the wind. I was getting ready to come back inside when I got the feeling that I was being watched. When I turned to check, I saw someone standing about twenty feet away.”
By this time, the look of distress was more than evident on her mom’s face. Gathering her courage, Katie added, “It was a woman, I think.”
“You think?”
“Well ... It’s hard to explain. The figure looked like a woman, but oddly enough I thought I could see through her, as if she were a ghost or something. I got the impression that she wanted me to follow her. Though I don’t remember actually moving my feet, I seemed to glide through the air behind her as if I were on some sort of leash. I'm not sure how long I followed her through the woods, but I do recall hearing a noise like a car door closing before everything went dark. The next thing I remember, I was waking up to you knocking on my door.”
“That’s quite a story,” Mrs. Johnson confessed. “I probably wouldn't believe a word of it were it not for the state I found you in when I opened your door. Although, I have trouble believing that there was a ghost involved.”
“I don’t know if it was a ghost or not, Mom. That’s just the best way I could describe it.” Interrupting their conversation, a loud horn suddenly blared outside, making both of them jump. A few seconds passed before it sounded again and Katie realized what it was. “Oh crap! It’s the school bus. I’m gonna be late!”
“I’ll take you to school later, sweetie. I think I should probably take you to the emergency room so we can get those cuts checked out first,” Mrs. Johnson insisted.
“I feel fine, Mom,” Katie argued. “This is my last week of school before graduation. I don’t want to miss my exams.”
“I won’t take no for an answer," she stated in a stern voice. "I can always call the school to let them know I have to take you to the doctor. That way, if you do miss anything, they should let you make it up.”
"Okay, okay. You win, Mom," Katie conceded, throwing her hands in the air in exasperation.
“Gather up the clothes you want to wear for school. That way you can change after the doctor sees you.”
“Why can’t I change now?” Katie complained, her frustration mounting.
“Because ... the doctors will need to see you just as you are. I understand you not wanting to go out in public dressed that way, but it will probably get you seen quicker.”
“Okay, fine. I see your point, Mom." She sighed. "You win again. Can we get this over with, please?”
Chapter 19
Katie returned to school later that day, just before her lunch period was scheduled to begin. Before sitting down to eat, she visited the teachers from the classes she had missed, showing them her note from the emergency room and rescheduling her exams in those classes.
After arranging the new times and dates with her teachers, Katie headed to the cafeteria. Immediately upon entering the lunchroom, she saw Julie at a table on her right, frantically waving her over. As Katie approached, she noticed the distraught look on her friend's face.
"Where the hell have you been all morning, Katie? I've been freaking out, thinking you got kidnapped or something!"
"Calm down, Julie! I'm here now, and I assure you I'm fine."
"You don't look fine. You're as white as a sheet, almost like you've seen a ghost." Julie paused for a moment, pointing toward Katie's arms. "And what's up with all the scratch marks?"
"It's a long story ..." As Katie related her tale, she was surprised by the amount of restraint Julie was showing. Normally, she would have interrupted nearly every sentence, but this time Katie managed to get through the entire account.
The lunch bell rang and they rose from their seats. As they gathered their things, Julie finally spoke up. "Wow! No wonder you look the way you do. It sounds like you might really have seen a ghost."
"It sure seemed that way," Katie remarked.
"Hey, I just thought of something," Julie grinned, her growing excitement obvious.
"I'm almost afraid to ask." Katie raised an eyebrow, expecting something outrageous to come out of her friend's mouth.
"Is my Ouija board still at your house?"
Katie frowned in concentration, trying to recall if she had seen it. "If it is, more than likely it's under my bed. I could have sworn you took it home with you, though."
"Maybe I forgot it in my dad's car because I haven't seen it since I got back from spending the night with you," Julie confessed. "I'll check when he gets home from work later."
"And I'll check under my bed when I get home from school. Are you thinking what I think you are?"
"Probably," Julie laughed. "I was thinking that maybe we could try to contact your ghostly guide."
Suddenly, the next bell rang. "Oh crap!" they said in unison, bursting out in laughter for a moment then running in opposite directions down the hallway to get to their next class.
Chapter 20
Across town, Mrs. Johnson was turning on the television to watch her afternoon soap operas. Within minutes of sitting down on the couch, her show was interrupted by a special news bulletin. Frustrated by the interruption of her program, which on Mondays was always a continuation of the previous Friday's climax, she considered getting off the couch and finding something to do until her show came back on. The first sentence out of the reporter's mouth quickly changed her mind.
"The gruesome remains of another young woman were found in a local park about an hour ago. By the way they were displayed, it would suggest they were discarded by the same per
son who previously left a human skeleton in this very same park. The local authorities have not yet confirmed this speculation, and so far have not identified either of the victims. Conformation that these two victims are related to the recent abductions in the area has not been established at this time. If we obtain any new information, we will interrupt programming to pass it along. This is Lisa Myers reporting."
Mrs. Johnson fainted.
Chapter 21
George slept soundly through the news bulletin, but not dreamlessly. In his subconscious, everything around him seemed somehow familiar and yet alien to him at the same time. Although he didn't see a single, living creature nearby, he got the distinct impression that he was being watched.
Sitting with his back against an enormous tree that was perhaps twenty feet in diameter, he gazed across the tall grass of the plains before him. From his place at the edge of a forest, the open field seemed to stretch to the limits of his vision. Above, wispy clouds rolled from right to left. Something about them didn't feel right either. For one thing, they appeared to hang too low in the sky, like fog. Mesmerized, he watched the sun poke out from behind the clouds, noticing something off about it as well. "It looks bigger than it should," George mumbled to himself, cocking his head slightly and raising a questioning eyebrow.
Standing up to stretch, he brushed off his pants. Noticing that the material didn't feel right under his palm, he glanced down. His jaw unhinged in disbelief as his eyes relayed what they saw to his brain. Instead of the blue jeans his mind insisted that he was wearing, he appeared to have on some sort of light leather pants, which were held up by a belt made of rope. A large knife was tucked inside a scabbard that hung from his waist. Dumbfounded, he removed the blade from its sheath to inspect it and saw that it was more like a short sword than a knife. After turning it this way and that in his hand, George replaced it in the scabbard. As he did, he noted that his T-shirt had also undergone a transformation. In its place, an open-throated leather vest hung from his shoulders. Contemplating his current appearance, he surmised that his dream was placing him into some sort of screwed up movie scenario; one which contained an odd mixture of the old west and the Knights of the Round Table. At any moment, George expected King Arthur to come riding across the field on a buffalo wearing full armor, except donning a cowboy hat upon his head where a medieval metal helm should be resting.
Laughing out loud at the absurdity of this vision, he heard the echoes of his mirth reverberating from the trees. The noise carried back to his ears, sounding alien and somehow corrupt, sweeter than he knew his own voice to be. His senses reeled. George felt like he could see for miles, like he could hear a cricket chirp from a great distance away, like he could smell a sweetness in the air that had never been there before. Why can't the real world be like this? Even if it were, he was sure that the people in this place would treat him the same as the ones in the real world did.
Suddenly, a booming voice echoed in his head, startling George from his thoughts. "I've been watching you. I admire your work and want you to be my right hand man. Together we can unmake the world and recreate it in my image."
"Who are you?" George shouted into the still air, looking around in confusion.
"I have many names, but in this world I am known as the Black Knight, or the Lord of Darkness," the voice replied.
"The lord of a dream world? What is the point in that?"
"I assure you, George, you are not dreaming. This place does exist. It is a world that runs parallel to the one you consider real, and physical travel between the two is possible."
Maybe I need to lay off the alcohol. I feel like I'm talking to myself. Shrugging his shoulders, George indulged the self-proclaimed lord. "How?"
"There are many portals between the two worlds. All one needs to know is where to find them, and to walk through." As if to attest to this fact, George heard a groaning, cracking noise coming from the woods behind him. As he whipped his head around, he saw the bark literally peeling back from the tree he was leaning against, creating a door-sized hole. "Walk through and see what I mean, George," the Black Knight encouraged.
Taking a hesitant step toward the opening, George contemplated what would happen to him if he went inside as instructed. Would he suddenly wake up in his recliner at home? Gathering his courage, he decided to find out. After all, he was only dreaming, right? What's the worst thing that could happen?
Upon entering, the darkness enveloped him and he suddenly felt weightless. He could feel his legs moving forward, but there were no sensations coming from his feet that he could associate with walking on solid ground. After what seemed like only seconds had passed, George stepped out into bright, shaded sunlight. A grove of trees surrounded him, much like the ones from the dream world, only these were significantly smaller. Expecting to see the strange gateway tree behind him, he turned around and saw a small cave in the hillside, the entrance of which seemed to waver like a mirage.
The voice in his head was gone. As George studied his surroundings, he realized he had no idea where he was, but it was definitely somewhere on Earth; the smell in the air told him that much.
Chapter 22
George instantly jerked awake, and in the process nearly fell out of his recliner. It took him a few minutes of checking his surroundings to realize he was in his house and no longer dreaming. "Wow! That was one hell of a dream," he muttered to the empty room. At the same time, he found himself wishing that the alternate reality hadn't been a product of his subconscious. At least in the other world he had felt like he could do anything, almost as if he were a god there. Here, it seemed he was only worthless old George that nobody gave a rat's ass about, feeling that he needed to kill in this world to be noticed at all. In the dream world, killing seemed like it would be more enjoyable, not driven by need.
The voice of his new friend intruded on his thoughts, booming within his skull, "When you are ready, I will show you how to get back to my domain." Startled, George glanced around the empty room, searching for the owner of the voice and wondering if he was truly awake. Maybe a walk in the woods will clear my head, he thought, knowing that his most recent display should keep the police occupied for a while. He could afford a little down time to enjoy himself. After all, there was nothing more satisfying than watching the public squirm.
Chapter 23
When the telephone began to ring, it brought Mrs. Johnson back into the land of consciousness. As she attempted to focus her blurry vision on the clock hanging on the wall above the television, she noticed two hours had passed. Vaguely, she recalled the shock of the news update earlier and assumed that her mind had shut down her body as a coping mechanism. Groggily, she picked up the handset and answered the phone. Julie was on the other end of the line, inquiring about Katie. "She isn't home yet, but she should be here in the next ten or fifteen minutes. I'll let her know that you called."
Returning the phone to its cradle, she blankly stared at the television. At least it's just a soap, and not another one of those grim news reports. As if the mere thought had somehow summoned it, the program was interrupted by another bulletin.
"We reported to you earlier on the finding of the remains of a young woman in a local park, and now we have acquired further information. Police have positively identified these remains as belonging to Tina Blackwell, and confirmed the possible link between the recent abductions with these brutal murders. The bones of the previous victim have not yet been identified, but due to the manner in which both of the corpses were displayed, the police feel confident that the same individual was responsible for both crimes. The only additional information police officials are releasing right now is that both victims were discovered without their heads, indicating the perpetrator may be a serial killer. No further information is available at this time. We will keep you up to date on any new developments as we receive them. This is Lisa Myers reporting."
Bracing herself, Mrs. Johnson felt the room begin to spin. Wanting to relieve her nausea,
she glanced down the hall toward the bathroom, but remained seated on the couch because she didn't think she would make it more than a few feet without fainting.
The front door swung open and Katie called out, "Mom! I'm home!" The house seemed oddly silent. "Mom?" She listened for a reply, but the only thing she heard was the sound of voices on the television, coming from the living room. Maybe she fell asleep watching one of her shows. As Katie entered the room, she saw her mom sitting on the couch, looking as pale as death itself. It was almost as if she had just come from the set of some zombie horror flick like Night of the Living Dead. Rushing across the room to where her mom was sitting, staring blankly at the television screen, Katie shook her gently, trying to snap her out of the daze she was in. "What's wrong, Mom? Mom? Mom?"
"I feel like I'm going to be sick," Mrs. Johnson replied weakly. "Can you help me get to the bathroom? I'm really dizzy."
"Sure." Bending down, Katie put a shoulder underneath her mother's armpit. Standing slowly, she tried not to overbalance her in the process. It took most of Katie's strength to keep her mom upright and moving in the right direction, almost like attempting to balance a cube of Jell-O on a toothpick. After delivering her to the bathroom, she eased her mom to the floor beside the toilet. "I'm going to be right outside if you need anything, okay?"
Mrs. Johnson managed to look up at her daughter. Smiling weakly, her voice just above a whisper, she croaked, "Thank you."
Katie closed the door softly and returned to the living room to grab her school books. Carrying them into the hallway, she sat on the floor outside of the bathroom door. Might as well get some studying done while I wait, she thought, opening her math textbook. The way her mom looked it could be a while before she would need her for anything.
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