Dream Job (The Dreamwalker Chronicles Book 1)

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Dream Job (The Dreamwalker Chronicles Book 1) Page 35

by Pettit, Gregory


  Epilogue

  ***Julian***

  I wasn’t surprised that I didn’t wake up normally from that pain. What did surprise me was that I woke up at all. I looked around, but instead of seeing my body, I was in an undefined, gray void. I began to think that maybe the stories of limbo that I’d been told in church as a child had been right. At least I wasn’t in the “other place.” I don’t know how long it took me to form those thoughts, but almost as soon as they had coalesced, I saw a vision.

  A dark sky, speckled with just the faintest dusting of old, red stars formed in front of me, and in that vision, there were throngs of slightly amorphous creatures, dark like the landscape around them. My point of view shifted, and I saw behind me a strange purple light glowing in the distance. I had an un-thought that could best be translated as, “I’d almost left this too long,” and, as many of the other creatures around me faded from view, I shifted my perception and stepped through the gate and into the place that had been made ready for me by my master, the first pangs of hunger gnawing at my consciousness.

  That was followed by a procession of further scenes: some weird and unexplainable, featuring tall, thin giants that lived under a huge orange sun, and others of the puca’s more recent victims, but most of which featured three young women from Ireland. I watched for a period of time that might have been dozens of years or a split second. I watched the memories that the puca had devoured from the OMG partners, and lived the experiences myself as each scene unfolded, hearing their innermost thoughts and sensing their motivations.

  They hadn’t started out maliciously, and regardless of what she’d said, Ena hadn’t always known what was going on. I felt pity as I saw the moment that greed overcame her humanity and she decided to keep going, even after she had come to understand what was really happening, and I saw the even worse moment when she decided that her friends weren’t necessary after all. Finally, I watched in fascination as the three young women saw the diary for the first time, nearly a decade younger than they had been when I met them. As I’ve said, I didn’t have a body as all of this was happening, but if I did, then I would have sat up at that point. The book hadn’t simply been found, as Kelly had told me.

  I watched raptly as two men, one in nondescript brown trousers, a white button-down shirt, and black shoes with white skin, dull brown hair, and dull brown eyes walked into the room. The girls froze in what they were doing, and he placed the book on the table while the other man walked over to Ena and whispered in her ear: “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” The voice was unmistakable, and Father Michael O’Hanrahan nodded to his colleague, turned on his heel, and left. Darkness came again.

  I opened my eyes. Interestingly, I seemed to have a body again. And a coat. And a sword. This was good, because I was back in the puca’s nightmare realm. Maybe it was the tendrils of the thing that had invaded me at the end that had drawn me here, or perhaps it was guilt that had brought me here, or maybe this was just where God thought I deserved to be. But whatever had caused it, I shook with rage and howled my frustration into the moonless, sunless sky.

  ***

  The hand-spiders and fleshpiles are still afraid of entering the clearing, and I haven’t known hunger or thirst while I’ve been here. I can’t say how long I’ve inhabited this place, but everything I’ve tried so far to escape has met with abject failure. I do know that I’ve been here long enough to compose this tale, and that’s certainly too damned long. I also know that I have to get out of here because the three simple words that Dana said to me weren’t anything so cliché as, “I love you.” No, my wife said, “Come find me.”

  And I will.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Gregory Pettit was born in rural Wisconsin and is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin – Madison. He immigrated to London to live with his Finnish wife in 2005, and has been trying to find good ribs and someone to install air-conditioning ever since.

  To hear about his future projects, sign up to his newsletter at http://eepurl.com/b-2Ckv or at www.gregorypettit.com

  * * *

  [1]All waiting is long.

  [2]If you want to be a leader, be a bridge.

  [3]The best knowledge is to know yourself.

  [4]The world is wide to everyone!

 

 

 


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