The Nightmare Within

by Glen Krisch

  Furious with the Grand Opening of Lucidity, Gage had given Maury the menial task of clearing the museum of straggling customers. Lucidity had been open for a total of two hours.

  Who would've thought there would be a stampede?

  The police promised a swift investigation. A pair of officers were still conducting interviews in the foyer. No charges were immediately filed after Gage insured the museum wouldn't reopen until the conclusion of the investigation. At least no one was permanently injured. Maury searched the corners of the museum, feeling like he was being punished for something he hadn't done.

  To leave something to look forward to, he didn't visit Juliet's area until the end of his inspection. When he entered the narrow hall of the Nightmare Wing to see Juliet, he was surprised to see Sophie Marigold. She clutched her sketchpad under her arm and greeted him with her welcoming smile.

  "Some night," Sophie said.

  "The Grand Opening didn't go exactly as planned, no. I'm afraid I'm going to have to chase you out now. Mr. Gage has decided we should close until we can regroup, if that is at all possible."

  "That's too bad. Can I come back tomorrow? I'm working on sketches for a new mural Nolan wanted painted in the Nightmare Wing."

  "I don't know. With all the craziness tonight, I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't want anyone around for at least a little while. You know, to let the dust settle."

  "How could that creature have come from that boy's mind?" Sophie asked, indicating Mr. Freakshow's nearby enclosure. The glass was cleaned of the woman's blood who had suffered a broken nose in the rush to get away.

  "I don't know, Sophie. I thought he would be our star. I guess the world wasn't ready for this."

  "I better go then before you call the cops on me."

  "I would never do that."

  "Just teasing. I should go, regardless. I can see you want to see your new friend anyway."

  "What…?" Maury looked at Juliet for the first time since coming across Sophie. The dream-woman looked like she had been expecting him. "Oh no, I'm just making sure the museum is empty."

  "It's okay, Maury. You can like her if you want. She won't bite. Some dreams will if you get too close, but not Juliet. She's like you and me. Dreamers."

  Maury sighed as if resigned to the fact that he was interested in the dream behind the glass. He wouldn't fully accept it though. Something inside him was fighting the urge to let loose and feel emotions as freely as Juliet did.

  "You might learn something from her."

  "All right, Sophie, I really need to lock up."

  "I know, I know," Sophie said, shuffling away from Maury. She paused before returning to his side. She carefully tore a sketch from her sketchpad. "Why don't you take this?"

  Maury took the thick sheet of drawing paper. Sophie waved to Juliet as she left the Nightmare Wing. Juliet returned the wave and watched with affection as the old woman left. He was alone with the dreams.

  Maury was momentarily speechless. The sketch was of Juliet. Sophie had captured the delicate beauty of the dream-woman. Her soft lips, the gentle curl of her auburn hair. The crazed energy she gave off like sunlight.

  He looked at Juliet and could do nothing more than stare. A slight updraft swirled her hair. Low white clouds hovered around her legs. He remembered the night when his lips touched her forehead. She had said she was like him. That's why she had a habit of blowing her brains out. That's why she smiled the whole time the dream-rainwater poured through the hole in her skull. Because she was just like him.

  Can she see my violent past just by looking into my eyes?

  "Out of all the people to see me today, why are you so interesting?" Juliet asked. Maury didn't see her telltale gun, or the hint that her mood might suddenly plummet. Not since the moment he deflected the gunshot off her skull. Every time he saw her, she seemed more human, more normal and stable. "You don't like your suit."

  "It makes me feel claustrophobic." He noticed how tight his tie felt on his neck. He loosened it while trying to place her lyrical accent. He wondered if it originated in the non-dreaming world or was just a fabrication of her dreamer. "So… where are you from?" he asked as if he had just met her in a bar.

  She laughed. Her joy was contagious and soon Maury couldn't help but join her.

  "Do you know you are a dream?"

  "Of course I do. Do you know you are a human?"

  "Well…"

  "Yes, I know who dreamed of me. A delightful woman from Milwaukee named Barbara."

  Maury marveled over Juliet's self-perception. "I've met Barbara, and she's not a delightful person. She's actually rather gloomy."

  "Well, even so, she created me. She is, in a way, my parent. I should respect that."

  "I never thought of it in that context."

  Juliet sat on the park bench, the clouds parting at her presence, and Maury continued the conversation with her. He felt like he was talking to any woman, that is, if he had any practical experience talking to women. She asked him about the city, about the things he liked, about his favorite foods. He asked her reciprocal questions, and not long into their conversation, Maury realized she was more than just a physical embodiment of a dream. She was a real person, albeit a slightly flighty person. She had a tendency to speak in a sing-songy cadence, and with her melodic accent, it made for a hypnotic combination.

  He didn't know how long he stood outside her enclosure, learning more about this dream-woman. He remembered he was supposed to be making sure the museum was empty. Then he had a meeting with Nolan Gage later on. Maury glanced at his watch. "I need to get going."

  "Too bad." Juliet frowned. A smile filtered through her frown. Her eyes glistened.

  "Can I come back and talk to you?" Maury asked, as if he needed her permission.

  "Why don't you come here," she said mischievously.

  "I have to…" Maury stammered. "I just… what do you mean?"

  "Come here," she said nodding toward the access door in the corner of the room.

  Maury looked around--Sophie was obviously gone--and the rest of the museum was, for the most part, empty. He hurried his keys from his pocket before he could have second thoughts. He opened the door and she was in his arms before he had the door closed. Her lips enveloped his, and he clumsily kissed her in return. She pulled off his Cubs cap and ran her fingers through his patchy swaths of hair. He self-consciously pulled away from her touch.

  "It's okay. I like how you are." Juliet took his disfigured hand and kissed each fingertip, continuing along the path of his deformity, pulling away his clothes as she went. She kissed every inch of his disfigurement, and even if he shouldn't have been able to feel the gentle pressure of her lips through the nerveless tissue, somehow he did. Like the warmth of swallowed brandy on his skin.

  The sight of the enclosure glass and the open hallway beyond still distracted Maury. As if reading his thoughts, Juliet funneled the low white clouds at the glass until they collected like tumbleweeds, giving them all the privacy they needed.

  Chapter 14

  His dress shirt wrinkled, and his discarded tie forgotten, Maury left Juliet's enclosure with mixed feelings bandying about his brain. He had never been with a woman before tonight, and had never actually come close. It confused him to think of her. He had never felt this way before. The fact he had to leave her behind and seal her up inside that confining area like a penned animal… he felt like more of an animal for turning the key to keep her there. It wasn't possible to let her out. What exactly would that accomplish? Would he run off with her, go into hiding from Nolan Gage's far-reaching influence?

  He imagined looking through a big picture window to a cozy living room. Their living room. He saw himself with a trade journal on his lap, Juliet sitting on a sofa across the room from him. On the floor, a child, indiscernible in age or sex (because Maury had never imagined ever having a woman to share his years with, let alone having a child with her), crawled around an oval area rug that covered the floor in front of th
e blazing screened-in fireplace. His imagined self looked up from the crawling child to see Juliet with a handgun in her hand, her smile unwavering. She lifted the gun ever so closer to her head and…

  Maury turned the corner at the top of the stairs, reentering the Nightmare Wing. He had absently wandered through the museum since leaving Juliet, making sure the place was empty. But he couldn't stay away from her. He had to see her again.

  What he saw in front of him sharply focused his attention. The sight turned his stomach.

  He took an unconscious step back.

  "I don't think you should leave right now," a gravelly voice came from inside the first enclosure. Mr. Freakshow's enclosure.

  What drew Maury's attention away from the thought of Juliet was the sight of Juliet, her face smashed against the inside of the glass. Fearful, wide-eyed, trembling. Maury took another step back and wondered how any of this was possible. For one, Juliet escaping her enclosure, and two, for her to wander into Mr. Freakshow's clutches.

  Mr. Freakshow left the shadows, joining Juliet near the glass. It was now evident that the beast's claws were buried through Juliet's back and had expelled her insides to the floor.

  "What the… how the hell?" Maury didn't know what to do. It had to be fake, an illusion of some sort. Juliet hung off the ground, suspended by the Freak's impaling claw, but she was still alive. Frothy blood gathered at the lips he had minutes before fumbled his way through kissing passionately. Her mouth sputtered gobbets of blood-streaked spit against the glass as she tried to form words. Her whole body writhed, struggling against the enormity of her pain.

  "I've got an idea. Your friend here, your lover, is in immense pain. You know she can't die at my hand, not truly and forever, and so does she. Look into her eyes," Mr. Freakshow commanded in a grating yet soft voice.

  Maury looked into Juliet's eyes, and the emotion and longing he saw, the connection he felt for her breeched the glass, the boundaries of their varied existences. This was no illusion. Somehow, however improbable, Juliet had unwittingly put herself in the gravest danger possible.

  He must have forgotten to lock her enclosure. Of course. His mind had been so muddled. Still was.

  This is all my fault. I can't do anything right.

  "Maury, please. He won't hurt me, anymore… he won't hurt you. He just wants his freedom," Juliet said, the melodic lilt of her voice melted away. Only cold edges accompanied her pain-addled words.

  "Let me out of here," the Freak said, leaning over Juliet's shoulder, his breath steaming the glass. "I'll let her go, and maybe in time, her pain will go away."

  The other nightmares were howling in their enclosures. Glancing down the walkway, Maury saw oozing flesh pressed against the panes of glass, bloodshot eyes leering. They all wanted to get a better view of the Freak at work.

  Mr. Freakshow turned his wrist and his claws tore deeper. Juliet's legs twitched uncontrollably, her summer dress torn and stain with blood and urine released from her ruined insides. "Time's running out. Choose or lose. She is about to bleed to death. Then, of course, I will have to start this whole process over again."

  The tension seeped from Juliet's body. She slumped, hanging limply on Mr. Freakshow's hand. She was gone. Dead for the moment.

  Mr. Freakshow whipped her lifeless body into the corner of the enclosure. Her head slammed into the wall before she hit the ground. She didn't move.

  "She's going to come back in a few minutes, then I will begin again. I have so many ideas I will try out on her. One worse then the one preceding. I have no mercy. You should know this, Doctor. You can insure that I would never hurt her again. Open the fucking cage!"

  Maury gave in and pulled out his fistful of keys. His shaky fingers couldn't find the right key, and Mr. Freakshow quickly became impatient.

  "Come on, come on!" Mr. Freakshow growled, his face up against the glass.

  "Just give me a second." Maury fumbled with the keys. The other nightmares slammed their dream-fists against the glass of their enclosures.

  "Fuck your second."

  Maury found the key and unlocked the door, stepping as far away as possible from the opening. The monster emerged from his confinement, shoving Maury into the tiny room.

  When Maury steadied his eyes on the interior of the enclosure, Juliet was gone. She was never there. Mr. Freakshow had tricked Maury.

  As soon as this realization sunk in, Maury's brain shifted to figure out how to fix this mother of all fuck-ups. But by then, of course, it was too late. If he hadn't come back to see Juliet… and if he hadn't gone into her enclosure in the first place… his mind wouldn't have been so messed up. There was no other explanation. I should have known. Juliet would never be so foolish…

  He took a hesitant step toward the door. The last thing Maury saw was the furrowed scars cross-hatching the back of Mr. Freakshow's forearm. The blow connected with Maury's temple, lifted him off the ground, sending him flying into the nearest marble wall. He slumped down in a disheveled pile, and as his mind receded, he didn't even dream.

  His ploy had been so easy to execute--so much so, that Mr. Freakshow was surprised it had even worked. Why didn't Bennett realize he would have done a lot worse to that little dream-nymph if she had really entered his enclosure? Gut her and wait for someone to show up? Come on.

  The repulsive stench of humans was overwhelming as he strutted down the stairs. He lifted his nostrils and breathed a lungful of soupy human misery. If his senses were accurate, there were currently four humans in the building. The largest concentration was below ground. How typical. Damn sniveling vermin--they would cower underground. Blood coursed through his veins, and when he glanced at his swaying wings, he could see the purple rushing fluid filling their thin skin.

  He quickly descended the steps, and when he reached the basement, he paused, sniffing at the air. He followed his senses down a hallway, through a couple of twists in the underground tunnel. When he reached a dead end with three doors, he kicked the first one. A human let out a surprised cry.

  The room held two humans and a horde of dreams. The dreams scattered like shot marbles as he pushed through the battered remains of the door. He was enraged and wanted to tear apart every dream he came across, every dream willfully coming in contact with a human.

  All in due time.

  The old man with the graying red beard threw himself atop the unmoving body covered by a drab pink blanket. Nolan Gage, the man who had earlier sized up Mr. Freakshow like he was some piece of meat and had run away, gagging. The dream creatures hid in cubbies and shadows, but the Freak could sense beady little dream-eyes still trained on him, frightened little dream-eyes that he would gladly pluck from their pathetic little heads if he had any say in the matter. And did he have a say in the matter? He chuckled to himself.

  Mr. Freakshow closed on Nolan Gage, a malicious smile parting his lips.

  "Please don't. I'll give you anything you want… just… just, please don't." Gage's face flushed crimson. He was trying to cover the girl's face with the blanket, but it was useless; the Freak had already seen her, and had known she was in the room even before he charged through the door.

  "Who is this senseless mass of human decay?" Mr. Freakshow kicked the frame of the bed.

  "Don't you touch her!" Gage stood up, trying to meet his gaze. The Freak snatched him off the floor by the back of his neck and held him with his curled claw mere inches away from tearing apart his spine.

  "How adorable." Mr. Freakshow caressed the girl's cheek with the back of an extended talon. "What's wrong with her? Why does she not stir? What are these machines?"

  "She was in an accident. She's in a coma. Harmless," Gage said, trying to rationalize with the Freak.

  "Ah, you simple twit. She's gone, dead. Can't you sense that; smell the death on her skin? Can't you just let her finish moldering away to dust and bones?" He waved his free hand over her prone body as if vacuuming up details of her condition with his palm.

  Gage groped at Mr.
Freakshow's wrist, trying to pull himself free. "She's… alive. She still dreams. These dreams all around you, they are my daughter's dreams."

  "In that case, I shall take pleasure in ending their lives as well." Mr. Freakshow glared at the wooden headboard, and two elfin creatures skittered out of hiding, skimmed down the side of the bed and then squeezed under an equipment cart.

  "No, you can't! She did nothing wrong. You don't even know her. She may seem dead to you, but my Nika is still somewhere inside. Tonight, she even squeezed my hand." He was crying, struggling in Mr. Freakshow's grasp.

  "She's not alive. If she were alive, she would fight for her life." Mr. Freakshow went to a bank of machines and smashed Gage's face through one of the monitors. He was conscious, but deeply cut. His scalp spread in a wide smile across his forehead.

  Mr. Freakshow threw him into the chair where he had spent countless hours watching his daughter. The chair pushed back a couple of feet, and Gage's head was tilting from side to side, spilling blood into his eyes.

  "Oh, I'm sorry. I almost knocked you out. What a shame that would have been and you wouldn't have seen the grand finale!" Mr. Freakshow went to the first cart of machines and tipped it over. He watched Gage's blood-filled eyes widen with his every move. A monitor shattered and broken glass slipped along the floor like thrown ice cubes, making a mound of dream-puppies dart away, whining. The Freak laughed. He destroyed the other machines just as easily, one actually shooting sparks as he yanked the cord from the wall.

  He then grabbed the back of Gage's head and forced him nose to nose with Nika. "See how she has failed to struggle for her life. She doesn't even convulse. Those damn machines offered more of a protest when faced with their own destruction."

  With an almost gentle hand, Mr. Freakshow took hold of Nika's neck. He pressed his fingers into her flesh, and still she didn't move. The monster locked eyes with Gage while he tightened his grip, strangling his daughter.

  Nika continued to breathe, but it was shallow and getting weaker. From his hiding place under the bed, Rupert lunged at Mr. Freakshow and gouged at his eyes with his sock-puppet hands. He had no fingernails and no bones in his hands. His attack was a minor irritant.