**********
Rob took a taxi back to the railway station; his rapidly beating heart had now slowed down to its normal rate, his mind trying to make sense of what had just happened. He did wonder if he was losing his mind, for never had he ever heard of such a thing happening before, but then maybe the last victim was now in an asylum, drugged to keep him quiet. Once at the train station he caught the first train back to London, arriving at Paddington station in a little over an hour and ten minutes. He was followed by Moira as he walked briskly through the station towards the taxi rank, and approaching him at an angle was a young woman, she was also walking towards the taxi rank.
Moira once more meddled with Rob`s brain as she uttered her words of magic.
“As you two near one another so you will enter the nightmare world of Saturday night`s nightmare.” Moira whispered.
Suddenly the scene changed before Rob, he found himself once again walking across the burnt and blasted land of his nightmares, again it was filled with the burnt remains of trees and animals, the heat of this terrible land burning his lungs. From the now black sky above him a terrifying thunderstorm suddenly exploded into life, lightning lighting up the land while the accompanying thunder almost deafened him yet again. Hot rain now began to beat down upon him, in seconds he was once again drenched through to his skin; desperately he looked around for shelter. The young woman who had been innocently approaching Rob was terrified by her sudden relocation, she too was running for shelter and it was now that their paths crossed and she looked across at Rob, and then she screamed in terror.
One second before she did so Moira ended her spell. “Let the nightmare world disappear, let Paddington station reappear.”
With the woman`s scream ringing in Rob`s ears the scene changed back, once more they were standing within Paddington railway station, and although Rob could have sworn that he heard a final peel of thunder, the scene was of the normal hectic movement of people rushing to and fro and his clothing was perfectly dry.
“Please, I beg of you, leave me alone.” The woman pleaded and ran for her life, dropping her handbag as she went.
Rob, although stunned by this second event, bent down and picked up her bag and made to follow her. Unfortunately a police constable appeared before him and stopped him from following after the terrified woman.
“I will take that sir.” The constable said taking the woman`s handbag from Rob. “Now perhaps you would like to tell me what you have been up to Sir, have you been stalking that young woman?” The constable asked.
Rob pulled out his ID card. “No, Constable, I fear that the woman has become embroiled in a new SIS case, although what sort I hesitate to say.” Rob replied.
The small crowd that had stopped to watch the real life arrest slowly moved on, now that they realised that nothing else was likely to happen. Rob took the handbag back from the constable and opened the handbag, and he soon found the woman’s credit card which gave him her name, Mildred Lang; a quick search of the other items within the handbag also gave her address, Weeping Willows, East Grinstead.
“I will see that the woman gets her handbag back, although maybe one of my colleagues had better be the one to return it, something about me really terrified her.” Rob said in a quiet voice, the constable nodded and after taking a few details down he said goodbye and left a dazed SIS officer. As Rob went looking for a taxi he heard a group of people talking, and as Rob walked past them he heard one woman saying rather angrily that she had seen bolts of lightning crackling under the canopy of the station, and if they had not then they must be both deaf and blind. Not wanting to become embroiled in the heated discussion Rob increased his pace, and he was soon sitting in a taxi heading for the SIS headquarters.
“At least I am not the only one whose sanity is being questioned.” Rob said to himself.
Dreamscape Page 13