Sign of the Sandman

by Tom Turner

  Charlie smiled. Plug looked up at the castle.

  “So how long before they realize we’re gone?”

  “Not long,” gulped Charlie. And he didn’t care to stick around to find out.

  Rustam charged into the chamber where he had stashed Charlie and Plug. It still had the details and characteristics of Charlie’s bedroom. It was all so human. The only thing out of place was the black sand-covered faces of two sunken guardians.

  Rustam’s brow tensed.

  He unsheathed his sword and, with lightning-quick strokes, disarmed the other guardians, knocking the bows from their hands.

  “Stand back! All of you!” he screamed.

  One guardian approached.

  “Rustam! What are you doing?”

  “Back!” Rustam commanded again, thrusting the tip of his blade toward the guardian’s throat, forcing him against the wall. “The only way Moloch could roam the castle without detection would be to possess the body of another.”

  “But how?” asked the confused guardian. “Not even Moloch has the power to—”

  “Yes! He does,” said Rustam, cutting him off. “With every dream Moloch overtakes, he gains power. And like the nightmares he creates, he has the ability to transform and even possess those who allow their fear to overwhelm them.”

  “And you think it is one of us?” asked the guardian.

  Rustam held his gaze and motioned toward the full-length mirror that hung from the closet door.

  “Step in front of the mirror,” he said. “All of you.”

  The guardians hesitated.

  “Do it!” insisted Rustam.

  He watched as each guardian took his place in front of the mirror, making sure each reflection that stared back was the guardian’s own. Once satisfied, Rustam lowered his sword.

  “I’m sorry. I had to be certain. For the protection of…”

  Rustam’s words trailed off as the mirror that hung from the closet door vanished from sight. In fact, everything around him slowly faded away — bed, lamps, books, toys. The room returned to a simple, four-walled, empty chamber. Rustam knew what that meant. Charlie! He had been so concerned by the results of Moloch’s evil that he had completely forgotten about Charlie and his friend.

  “Where’s the boy?” he asked.

  “Wherever he is, he must be found,” replied Unity, appearing like a phantom in the doorway.

  CHAPTER TEN

  LOST IN THE FOREST

  “If Moloch has infiltrated the castle, then his power is growing,” said Rustam, as he led Unity through a dimly lit corridor and down a sweeping set of stairs. Their pace was swift, but Unity lagged a few steps behind. As he passed a large, gilded mirror that hung from the wall, he turned toward it, but a wicked beast with unblinking red eyes and tangled fangs glared back.

  “I swore to the Sandman that I would protect his son. I will not forsake that promise. Not now. Not ever,” continued Rustam, gliding down the steps two at a time.

  Unity gripped the hilt of his dagger and eyed its blade. “But if the boy has fled the castle, he could be anywhere.”

  “True,” replied Rustam. “But I can find him. That is all you need know.”

  Unity released his dagger. This changed things. Rustam could steer him right to the boy.

  “Then, by all means, lead the way,” he said, disguising his tone as one of concern. “I will join you in the search.”

  Rustam stopped and faced him.

  “No,” he said. “Moloch could still be within the castle walls. The Archetypes must be protected. If he were to infect them with his evil, every dream would turn instantly to nightmare. The Dreamscape and the waking world would be consumed by fear. Crushed by his evil. You know this.”

  “Yes. And Moloch knows the boy could stop him,” replied Unity. “If we do not find him first, the Archetypes will never be safe. No one will.”

  “I hope you are correct, my friend,” said Rustam, continuing down the steps. “For all our sakes.”

  “The Dreamscape? Really?” said Plug, as he and Charlie hustled across the open desert. He looked around, unimpressed. “I don’t think this place is so dreamy. Even I could dream up something better than this. And it certainly wouldn’t involve people trying to kill us. What was up with that maniac?”

  “Beats the heck out of me,” replied Charlie. “I’ve never seen the guy in my life!”

  “Well, what about that Rustam guy?” said Plug, pressing further. “You know him? I’ve been your best friend for like… forever! I don’t remember you ever talking about some dude with wings… named Rustam.”

  “It’s hard to explain,” said Charlie. “It’s kinda like looking through a bunch of old photos, and he’s in a lot of them with me… but I don’t remember ever actually meeting him. If that makes sense?”

  “Nope. Not even a little,” said Plug. “But neither does anything else around here. The other side of dreams? I don’t even know what that means. If you ask me, it’s more like the other side of nightmares.”

  “Could be worse,” said Charlie.

  “Yeah,” said Plug. “If we were knee deep in horse poop.”

  Charlie laughed. “There’s still time.”

  They made their way over a large sandbank and into a small patch of desert forest. Its floor was littered with strange, iridescent sagebrush and shrubs that crackled like campfire embers. Old trees with craggy limbs and canopies of glittering leaves swayed in a mystical breeze. Shapes, colors, and smells Charlie never knew existed surrounded him. It took his breath away. They stopped for a short rest.

  “Weird thing is,” said Charlie, plucking a small flower, “This place is kind of pretty.”

  “Sure,” replied Plug, ducking behind a tree. “If it wasn’t for the whole tired, hungry, lost, and almost-getting-killed stuff.”

  Charlie laughed again. Then even harder when Plug reappeared, plastered with twigs and leaves. His entire body was covered. He looked like a human garden ornament.

  “What’s so funny?” asked Plug.

  “You,” said Charlie, yanking a stem from Plug’s head. “I think you can lose the camouflage.”

  “Better safe than sorry,” Plug replied.

  He had just tucked a purple leaf into his tube sock when colored balls of light started to appear all around them. They burst from the darkness one after the other, like kernels of popcorn dotting the forest floor. Each ball had a unique color and was about the size of a small car.

  “More mini-stars!” Charlie shouted. Within a matter of seconds, hundreds had emerged. “Look at them all!”

  “I’m trying,” said Plug, shielding his eyes. “Bright suckers, aren’t they?”

  Charlie grabbed Plug’s arm with excitement.

  “This could be our chance! Our way home,” he said. “One of those things spit us into this crazy place. One should spit us out.”

  “Makes sense. But which one?” asked Plug. “They’re everywhere.”

  Charlie scanned the forest, hoping to spot the one that dropped them into the Dreamscape, but there were so many. It would be like finding a needle in a haystack.

  “I say we just pick one and go,” said Charlie.

  “Fine by me,” replied Plug. He didn’t budge. “After you.”

  Charlie stepped toward a lime green ball of light, but Plug grabbed him, jerking him back by the hood of his sweatshirt.

  “Wait!” he shouted.

  “What? You want to go first?”

  “No. The ground just moved.” Plug teetered forward, off balance. “There it goes again!”

  Charlie felt it too. The sand hiccupped beneath his feet, and when he glanced down, the forest floor was moving.

  “It’s those monster things!” said Charlie.

  He spun around, checking behind them. But the creatures were approach
ing from all directions. Charlie pointed to a nearby tree.

  “We gotta hide! Quick! Up there!”

  They pulled themselves up by a low hanging branch. Plug first, followed by Charlie, who heard a peculiar ripping sound.

  “What was that?” he asked, alarmed.

  “Dang,” said Plug, grabbing his shorts. “I split my pants.” He stopped and tugged at the seam. “These were brand new.”

  “Plug!”

  “But my mom’s gonna kill me.”

  “So will those things if you don’t hurry!”

  He and Plug scurried higher and tucked themselves into a nook formed by two adjoining branches. Through the leaves, they watched the gruesome creatures rise from the sand, like zombies from graves. They traveled like moles, burrowing beneath the surface, honing in on the mini-stars like hungry predators picking up the scent of fresh prey.

  “Those things are nasty,” whispered Plug. “What are they?”

  “I’ve never seen anything like them,” said Charlie. “They’re like wolf-bats.”

  “Wolf what?”

  “Bats,” replied Charlie. “You know, part wolf, part bat. Just a lot bigger… and meaner.”

  “Wolf, bat, kangaroo, whatever,” said Plug. “I don’t like them! You don’t think they can fly too do you—”

  Charlie slapped his hand over Plug’s mouth, shushing him.

  “Let’s hope not,” he whispered, pointing down.

  A creature lurked just beneath them. Its bone joints poked through beefy layers of muscle as it grunted, circling the base of their tree. Charlie motioned with his head in an upward direction, and they quietly inched higher.

  From their nest, Charlie heard a rabid howl that made his skin crawl. He sensed a mass of movement below. The creatures vaulted at the mini-stars in gravity-defying sprints. The attack came fast and furious, unlike anything Charlie had ever seen. He watched the creatures spit dark, vapor-like streams of venom into the unprotected mini-stars, causing their glow to fade from brilliant colors to murky gray. A few mini-stars burned brighter and were able to deflect the venom, but they seemed few and far between.

  “They’re killing all the mini-stars,” said Charlie.

  He felt an inexplicable sadness come over him as he witnessed their destruction, wondering what exactly they were and why it was these bizarre creatures were attacking them to begin with. Then, from the corner of his eye, Charlie thought he saw something scamper from one of the gray mini-stars. It was misty and ghostlike — but gone in an instant.

  “Did you see that?” he asked Plug.

  Plug was unresponsive, spellbound by the creatures’ relentless and horrific attack. Not that it mattered, since Charlie wasn’t sure what, if anything, he actually saw, or how to explain it. He pushed back a thicket of leaves and cautiously peeked out to get a better look. He instantly wished he hadn’t.

  “Oh no,” he said, glancing skyward. “We got company.”

  A group of guardians was in a steep nose-dive. Charlie’s instinct was to flee, fearing the guardians had spotted them. But they jetted past the tree, and he soon realized they weren’t here for him at all but, rather, for the mini-stars, to protect them. Charlie was astonished by the skill and speed with which the guardians fought. All of their weapons seemed to be made of a gleaming, unearthly crystal. Their broadswords cut with laser-like precision, and their bows produced light arrows that struck with the force of a lightning bolt. Charlie was now certain he had seen these weapons before — although it still made no sense to him where, why, or how the crossing guard, school janitor, or pigeon man would have gotten them.

  “Check it out,” a whisper came from Plug. “Their arms glow!”

  It caught Charlie’s eye, too. The crystal gems encrusted into the guardians’ forearms burned bright white, and Charlie watched as a guardian fired a beam of light into the desert floor. The sand reacted like metal filings to a magnet. The guardian whipped his arm around in a circle, and the sand and light joined to form a shield. The guardian raised it to deflect a creature and then, just as quick, whipped his arm again, releasing the shield to form a lash, which he used to rope the creature before striking it down with a mighty swing of his sword.

  “The light controls the sand,” said Charlie, amazed.

  The guardians fought with courage, but they were outnumbered, with creatures appearing faster than they could be destroyed. Worse, after the creatures infected the mini-stars, they tackled the guardians, sinking their fangs into them, infecting them with their poisonous venom as well. The guardians were paralyzed and sucked into dark pits of black sand, much like the two Charlie saw attacked by Unity in the castle.

  When the last of the mini-stars was destroyed, the creatures retreated as quickly as they had advanced. They scattered back to the desert, where they burrowed into the sand, disappearing from sight. Charlie and Plug were left speechless by the ruin. Charlie could hardly stop his teeth from chattering, but he pushed back his fear and was first to speak.

  “Should we have done something?” he asked.

  “Like what?” said Plug. “Surrender? Those things would have slurped me up and saved you for a snack.”

  “I guess you’re right.”

  “I know I’m right,” said Plug. “When I said stand up for yourself — Joe Santiago is one thing, but at least he wouldn’t eat us. Live to fight another day.”

  Charlie agreed. He wondered if it was finally safe to leave the tree and was about to descend when he heard a slight scuffle below them. His heart skipped a beat.

  What was that?

  He was afraid to find out. There were too many things it could be, and he preferred to avoid them all. But when he finally summoned the courage and looked down, all he saw was a tiny bird. It was pale, gray, and ghostlike, dragging itself across the dusty battleground. Not at all what Charlie was expecting.

  “That’s weird,” he muttered. “I knew I saw something.”

  “What? Let me see,” said Plug.

  The deadened mini-stars were all ejecting ghostlike objects. No two were alike: a dog, a motorcycle, a tiger, a wagon, and a bird. It went on and on. Then, before Charlie’s eyes, each object morphed into a human form, twisting, turning, and stretching, until they were able to rise to their feet and walk like wounded soldiers. Charlie did a double take.

  “That’s even weirder,” he said.

  “Come on! Move! Let me see!” Plug pushed his way forward, accidentally elbowing Charlie in the nose — a nose that still stung from its encounter with Joe Santiago.

  “Ouch!” said Charlie. “Watch it!”

  “Sorry,” Plug apologized as he craned his neck to get a better view. “I just wanted to see what you’re— GHOSTS!” he shouted, knocking Charlie’s nose again and almost falling from the tree. “It’s an army of ghosts! Monsters and ghosts! This place is worse than a haunted house!”

  “Would you relax,” said Charlie, rubbing his now throbbing beak. “I’m not sure what they are, but they don’t seem scary.”

  “Speak for yourself,” said Plug. “I’m pretty familiar with ghosts, and they’re always scary.”

  But to Charlie the mysterious apparitions seemed frightened and confused, not hostile. He watched as they tried to re-enter their now-grayed mini-stars, but the darkness repelled them — bounced back like kids from a trampoline.

  “Maybe they just want to go home,” said Charlie. “Like us.”

  The apparitions looked up into the tree, toward him.

  “I think they heard you!”

  Their expressions were vacant, like children separated from parents, or pets from their families. Charlie wondered if it was a silent cry for help. But then, without warning, the apparitions backed off into the shadows and vanished.

  “They’re gone,” said Charlie.

  “Good!” said Plug.

  His wor
ds were greeted by a ferocious snarl that curled the bark from their branch. Plug turned to Charlie and froze.

  “Did you hear that?”

  Charlie nodded as a droplet of blood trickled from his still-smarting nose and ran over his lip. He licked it away, reminded of Joe Santiago, wishing to face him once more instead of whatever created that sound. And he hoped against hope that whatever it was, it couldn’t smell blood.

  Just then, another mini-star formed by the trunk of their tree. It was blue with streaks of orange and yellow. The glow, while beautiful, unfortunately revealed the snarling red-eyed beast perched just above them. Dark venom dripped from its fangs, and its matted fur was twisted into knotty spikes. It growled, ears pressed flat against its skull.

  “Monster!” screamed Plug. “Go! Go! Get down!”

  They scrambled down the tree. The creature pounced. It knocked into Charlie. He screamed and toppled, grasping for a branch.

  “Got ya!” said Plug, grabbing Charlie’s hand. “Hold on!”

  Charlie dangled from the tree. Just below him, the creature bounded toward the mini-star, but two guardians appeared from the sky and swooped in to block its path.

  “Man, those guys are fast!” said Plug. “They must have ESP or something. Do you think that’s how they know when those star things appear?”

  “I don’t know, Plug! Pull me up!” cried Charlie.

  The creature spewed a stream of venom toward the mini-star, but the guardians deflected it away with arm-generated shields of sand and light. Another creature attacked from out of nowhere. And then a third. One of the guardians trumpeted a crystal horn, sending an intense S.O.S. across the forest.

  Charlie clung for dear life, but he was losing his grip, finger by finger.

  “Plug, I’m slipping!”

  “Quit squirming!”

  “I’m not!”

  Plug pulled with all his might, but Charlie’s grip slipped further and further. He couldn’t hold on.