"Leopold!" she called out. "Leopold, get your little ass out here!"
A round faced popped up over the dashboard of the Durango. Its insect eyes covered most of its face and it smiled at her with rows of jagged, sharpened teeth. From behind him, a tail rose and slowly waved back and forth in an S motion.
She walked to the truck and looked inside the pick-up to see what the rascal was up to. Leopold held a wrench in his hand. At his clawed feet were several bolts. She looked at Leopold and shook her head.
"What are you doing?" Corine crossed her arms and stared Leopold down.
He was the first creature she had met in the university. He had stumbled on her hiding place and was curious on why a boring ghost was showing emotion. They had a long conversation about the university and what transpired there. Leopold at first did not hold her in any regard. He considered ghosts a nuisance, but another creature, a minor demon, went into a frenzy and began attacking weaker creatures. It went after Leopold and would have killed him but Corine was afraid of not having any conversations anymore.
She lunged at the frenzied beast and began to scream. She did not know how she did it, but she flung loose metal debris at the creature. It became frightened. Never had it faced an angry ghost that had not turned into a poltergeist, and fled. Leopold became grateful to her and they developed what could be a bizzare friendship.
Leopold gave her a childish wide grin.
"I like to screw with the mechanic department. It takes the professor days to figure out the problem, which is something he always overlooks."
"Why? What has the teacher ever done to you?"
"Nothing. I just don't like his face," Leopold chittered in that weird squeaky pitch he had.
"Are you going to just mess around in here for the night?"
"You got something better in mind?" Leopold sat up straight, his tail sliding over his rough scalp as if he had hair and was feathering it back.
"Not really. I did want to go to the towers and take a look around," Corine shrugged.
"No! I would not do that tonight, my friend. The Belly has been seen there twice this week. It is hunting and you know how it likes ghosts as an appetizer." It was not a question; he was making a statement to get through to her.
She was swift as a ghost, but the Belly was an entity with no restrictions on the campus. There was a small sect that worshipped the monster. What name it held was lost to history, and it wanted to remain undisturbed. In the realm of the dead and mystical, knowing a true name held power and the most powerful fought to keep that knowledge hidden. If a human was close to finding the truth, that human was either driven mad or the knowledge eradicated in some heinous way.
"Crap!" Corine pursed her lips crookedly. She had no ideas of what to do. She shooed him to go ahead and continue his assault on the truck frame.
"Join me." Leopold reached down and began to loosen a bolt that held the seat. He was the size of a Bassett hound but there was immense strength in his arms. He could crush a full beer bottle with little effort.
Corine wandered around the garage for a bit, casually knocking down small items. She had taken years to learn to focus her mental faculties to penetrate the living world and move items. She was far from being able to sling a chair across the room or even a paperback book, but she could knock them down. She liked to hear the way glass shattered on the floor. She scared the janitors plenty of times with her pranks when she was feeling no remorse for the living and wanted to vent.
It was harmless fun to her as long as she did not think about the mental repercussions the individual suffered later. Most people blocked the supernatural elements from their lives with finding a logical explanation. There were those who crossed paths with the darker creatures here that meant real harm and walking away unscathed was not an option. The scars left by those creatures were not just mental, but physical and deeply spiritual.
Leopold stopped his destruction and hopped out of the vehicle.
"I almost forgot to tell you a little secret I heard."
"Hmmm. What is it?" Corine figured it was a rumor going around about one of the ancient entities, since they were the most mysterious and interesting ones roaming between worlds.
"There is a dark one upset at one of the students."
"Oh! That is not good. Hopefully it's just rumors."
"No. Not this time. It has to do with that relative of yours."
Corine stopped her vandalism and stared at Leopold. Rumor or not, this did not sit at all well with Corine. When it involved family she was not so flippant.
"Tell me exactly what you heard, Leopold. Remember every word!" She stood in front of Leopold and eyed him, which made him a bit uncomfortable. He knew Corine had ways to cause him physical pain and he would be helpless fighting a ghost.
"Your relative. The Lynn girl is searching information that is most dangerous. If she does not stop she will anger the hungry one."
"What information?"
"The one in your book."
Leopold jumped out of the way as Corine rushed out of the building. Corine saw nothing as she maneuvered through the buildings. Thinking about the book gave her tunnel vision, and she kept fighting to convince herself that Leopold was wrong and the book he spoke of was mistaken for hers.
She had kept watch over the book for a full decade, day after day, but eventually gave in and allowed herself to be convinced that the book would always be secured. She took to checking on the book two to three times a year just to satisfy the need to know it was safe.
She was berating herself as she glided across the surface of the sidewalk and lawn, her feet never touching the surface, as her supernatural prowess took immediate affect with her bursting emotions. A cat cruising the edge of a building in hopes of stumbling upon prey to devour acknowledged Corine with a hiss and a couple of spits and scrambled away to safety.
Corine never heard the cat or even glimpsed it, so focused was she on getting to her old classroom. She acted as if she were human again, acting without thinking. The pair of eyes looming above the trees watched her until she entered the main hall to the classrooms. When she taught, she had to share her classroom with another professor because of budget costs and, instead of teaching six classes a day, she taught two. Yet, the classroom had been her real home. Professor Fiskins had taught money management for three classes, but he always rushed out of the classroom to get down to the pub. He was a half-ass teacher who liked to pass his students instead of maintain his paperwork. He was let go two years after her death.
She entered the classroom and went to the corner of the room farthest from the front door, where a wall shelf was permanently fixed. Her hiding space was at the base of the shelf where a board could be pried loose with long fingernails. She examined the hiding spot and noticed the board was lopsided. She wanted to scream and punch everything around her. How could she be so stupid! She knew Leopold was not lying. The book was probably turned over to her niece because Corine's name was written in the front with the words "This book belongs to".
Her legacy of screwing up was now handed over to her niece and she was in mortal danger. Damn it, Corine! Why are you so thoughtless? She put her hands to her face as she kneeled on the floor, her emotions so overpowering she was manifesting her form between corporeal and insubstantial. The transition was ephemeral as her angry emotions waned and were replaced by guilt and defeat.
"Damn you, Corine! You should have had that book destroyed." She rose and walked blindly outside and wandered back to her hiding spot. There she curled up. She tried to revert to her human state and sleep. She was not able to manage sleep. She reluctantly mulled over her mistake. How in the hell was she going to retrieve the book? The holidays had just begun and, knowing how dedicated Lynn was to research, it would just be a matter of time before she cracked the hidden truth and put herself in extreme danger.
She needed to find help. There were other creatures she could speak with but none were able to doing anything but simple hau
nts or make a person feel if they were watched. She needed the assistance of the dead who traveled through white noise or technology. The danger there was those dead were unpredictable and became violent. Yet, she had to get a message to Lynn or warn her away. The problem was retrieving the damn book.
She wanted to keep beating herself up but knew it was a waste of energy. When she emerged from the building, she was surprised to find it a bright day. She had lost time cooped up in hiding. How much time was a problem. There were times she wasted just sitting as days flew by. Now she was in a panic, adding to her need to find help.
There were only a few spirits lingering during the day, ones she had never tried to reach out to. She did not know if it was too late, but she had to try. The older spirits would only ignore her, trapped in an endless cycle of wandering, so she was left to find a newly died. The newly died were hard to convince that they were dead, though. In the past few years, the deaths around the university were either failed health or accidents, nothing violent. It was the violence that trapped souls in this plane, or if the soul did not choose the exit from this world. Refusal to acknowledge death was the main contributing factor to those trapped souls.
She realized she had been stuck in the inbetween for way too damn long.
Leopold would have returned to his realm. Where he came from, she had no idea. He had tried to describe it to her but she made him stop because all she could imagine from the description was a place that was nothing but a gigantic intestine. He had described an endless flow of mixed fluids at the bottom of the tunnels he inhabited, tunnels upon tunnels, but none of it made from earth or rock. Leopold's best guess as to the material of his home tunnels was like the feel of wet leather, which was where Corine made him cease his sharing.
She wandered the entire campus and could not find any spirit to respond to her. The few demons she did spot fled into the shadows. She was becoming frustrated. If she failed, it would not be a loss she could just learn to deal with, it would be a loss staring her in the face and would most likely hate her.
She had tried to pray once to God, but here her words found themselves dead in the air, choked off by the energy present. She knew about the different entities that found connection due to worship, yet it was the slumbering emperor of the ancients that was the true power here. She had no idea when she first joined the staff at the university that there was even a remote connection with such beings. She figured most of the names used in the buildings were foreign and she would learn the dialect later. She would have been better off living with ignorance.
Then she remembered an entity called Sueno. She assumed it was a creature from either Mexico, or Spain, since the name was Spanish for dream. Yet, it was not a creature that anyone would accept in their minds while sleeping. It had no true body. It was shaped like a tick fattened on blood, with a head protruding from one end on a thick, broad neck. Its glob of an eye was opaque and colorless, as if it were blind. From the neck hatched miniature versions of itself from pores lining the entire lower half its neck. They would scuttle out into the host's dreams, devour some of the essence and return to Sueno, re-inserting itself into the cavity, storing what it took deep inside the body. Whatever demented god had dreamed this monster into creation was no friend to humanity.
She needed to find out how she could use the creature to hitch a ride into Lynn's dreaming mind and warn her of the dangers that came with possessing that shitty book. She had only one chance to warn her niece and she absolutely could not fail. Yet, she had a history of falling short of her goals. If she did fail, there would be no kicking and screaming as she went to Hell. It would be strictly voluntary.
She sat and planned her strategy of getting to Lynn. She was going to have to find Sueno first. The creature did not travel the world as did most. Where the creature emerged into the world was a mystery to her. She hoped Leopold would be able to shed light on that.
Leopold arose from the dead tree at the far end of the university. The power of the entry made the wood of the tree cry in agony and shiver from the abuse. Seeing Corine right before his entrance was a surprise. He stood up straighter and shifted his eyes quickly around to protect himself from being jumped.
"Relax. I just need your help," Corine said, settling down on the ground cross-legged.
"You just surprised me. Are you angry with me?" Leopold asked. He refused to allow his guard down.
"No. I am pissed off at myself. You told the truth about the book and now my niece is in danger. I royally fucked up again." She hung her head and fought to maintain control of her shifting emotions.
"It was not your fault. T'was fate. It was a pencil that fell and rolled away freely into the niche's area. Things hidden are bound to be found eventually. It is the way of things in this world."
"I guess you're right. It was not as if I could destroy the book in this form."
"True. Though you are clever for a dead human." Leopold laughed, sitting on his haunches.
"I need you to help me find a Sueno."
Leopold blanched at her request. He lifted his head to the sky as if he would begin to howl, an ugly urge he picked up from his world, but in this world his howl sounded like a bullfrog letting off an over-extended croak. People who heard that sound could not help but run away with their hearts pounding, their blood literally turned cold in their veins. Leopold's howl could slow the course of blood in the body.
"Can you help me Leopold?"
"I am."
Corine stared up at the stars and tried to grasp what Leopold was saying. She almost felt as if he were having fun with her but then the sky shifted in places as if it had cracked. She watched as portions parted and several objects fell from the openings.
"Come on!" Leopold bolted from his spot and raced toward the dorm rooms.
Corine had never seen the world act in such a way over the university. She was still learning how to deal with death and how not be devoured by demons. Corine knew that Leopold would not slow to allow her to catch up so she spurred herself harder on. She chased Leopold between shrubbery and low hanging branches into the manicured lawn of the dorms. She almost ran past Leopold, who had stopped by a generator. He was looking up at the closest building. Corine matched his gaze and took a step back. Along the side of the building was a Sueno inching past windows. It was in no hurry, searching patiently like an old woman for the best fruit in a pile.
"How can I enlist its help?"
Leopold looked at her like she was crazy. He began to saw his lower jaw, the teeth clicking. It was an irritating way Leopold used to think, but she really needed his assistance and refused to allow her pettiness to ruin her chances.
"I would assume just to ask it. These creatures are not very demanding. As long as you direct it to a mind that dreams abundantly, it would be happy to oblige you."
Her niece was a very intelligent girl and Corine had no doubt that even in sleep her mind was constantly at work. She just hoped that she could hitch a ride and lay her seed inside Lynn's over-curious mind. If the Sueno needed an encephalon to empower it, then it would be satisfied with Lynn's.
She raced into the building and followed the course she believed the creature was heading. There were only a few students who had remained during vacations, the ones who had ignored their studies and were having to attend tutoring to raise their grades.
She found the Sueno entering a window left ajar to help rid the smell of dope that had penetrated the walls and furniture. What people did not know was smoke in any form did not just disappear. It remained, light as a breath, visible to the dead who were lighter in substance still.
The Sueno eyed her as she approached, the disgusting cavities in its neck giving off hollow honks and wheezes.
"Can you understand me?"
"Of course it cannot, dummy," Leopold said, coming to her side.
"What do I do?"
"You must write it down. It learned human language from dreams and can read."
Corine gave it a quick
thought and realized how it was possible for it to have learned to read languages. The brains of these students it visited were constantly filled with information and dreaming of their studies was normal.
The occupant of the dorm room was passed out on his bed, half naked and completely oblivious of the transaction taking place next to him. She envied him at that moment, wishing she was alive again and taking a different direction in her life, positive she would indulge in smoking a few joints to ease her mind. She walked to the desk and found a pen and a nice size notepad. She focused her energy and lifted the pen. She had practiced moving objects but never directed her skill at a single task. At last she was done and called the Sueno over to see what was written.
It looked at them and then at the young man asleep. Corine could not lose its interest. She jabbed a finger toward the notepad, feverishly. The Sueno slowly walked to the desk and looked at the pad and then at her. She had written:
I NEED YOUR HELP TO GO INTO DREAM CAN YOU HELP
YOU WILL HAVE MORE TO EAT IN THIS BRAIN AS IT IS VERY SMART AND DREAMS A MILLION DREAMS
YOU WILL BECOME MORE POWERFUL
Corine had no idea if the creature would agree at first, then its head nodded. Now she needed to know how to accomplish taking a ride with it into her niece's mind from here. The creature shambled over to the young man and vanished into his cranium. Corine let her shoulders sag. She was screwed!
The young man sat up, stared at her and spoke.
"I can help you but to do this I must have contact with her body or something from her body in order to find her and go to her. Take me to her room."
Corine smiled and knelt down and gave Leopold a hug.
"Thank you so much for helping me!"
"Get off me! You want to get me killed? You are over-sensitive," Leopold cried taking a step back and launching himself up to the window seal. He turned and growled at her, but gave her a wink before turning and leaping into the night.
Miskatonic Dreams Page 18