Gatekeepers

by Sam Ferguson

“Susan,” Carter said. “I’ll always be here for you and Tommy. I can take care of you.”

  Yeah, until the crap hits the fan, and then you’ll run away like the pansy you are.

  “Carter, you’re a nice guy, and I know you care, but—”

  Carter leaned in and kissed her. The urge to punch the slick lawyer rose up in a way that wasn’t going to be put down easily, but to my surprise, Susan took care of it for me. She pushed him away and slapped his face.

  “I told you I’m not ready for that!” she said loudly. Tommy woke and sat up. I smiled wider, now I didn’t even have to get into Tommy’s dreams, and I got to watch Carter get put in his place.

  “We’ve been going out for weeks, and you called me your boyfriend on the cruise,” Carter said as he scooted away from her and rubbed his cheek. “I thought we were moving to the next stage.

  “I only said that because I wasn’t sure how to explain who you were to the staff on the boat. I’m there on a cruise with a toddler, and they see me spending time with you at meals, I just thought it made it less awkward. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that.”

  “You still love him?” Carter asked.

  “How could you ask that?” Susan replied hotly. “Of course I do. I always will. Just the thought that he could come up the driveway any second and see you here with me scares me.”

  “That isn’t love, that’s fear,” Carter said smugly.

  “No, I fear it because I wouldn’t want him to think that I have moved on. I haven’t, and I don’t know that I ever will. Look, I thought it would be okay to hang out as friends, and I needed some support, but I don’t have those kind of feelings for you. I never have. You’re a good friend, but that’s it.”

  Ha! Take that fancy pants. Now hit the bricks!

  “You’ll never be able to have a good life with him. He killed his own father. That’s no way to raise Tommy.”

  “I think it’s time for you to leave,” Susan said. “I don’t need any man to raise Tommy. I can do it myself, and Josh didn’t kill his father.”

  “Susan… I’m a lawyer, anyone could see he was guilty. He got off on a technicality.”

  “Good-bye, Carter,” Susan said as she turned and picked up Tommy.

  “Are we still on for tomorrow?” Carter asked.

  Susan shook her head and grunted. “No, not tomorrow, not next week. Not ever. I needed a friend, that’s it. Since you can’t be that, then I don’t need you around.”

  “Come on, even your mom—”

  “Even my mom what, Carter? How could you possibly finish that sentence without making things worse between us?”

  Carter put his hands up and turned to look away. “Sorry,” he said quietly. “I’ll go.”

  I was smiling from ear to ear, happier than I had ever been since going to Dallas. My wife still loved me, and better yet, pencil-neck Carter was just shown the door. I followed her into the house and down the hallway to a small bedroom with a window overlooking the back yard. Susan gently laid Tommy down and covered him with a small quilt that she had made for him for his first birthday. Tommy blinked at her a few times and then turned over silently.

  “Love you Tommy,” Susan said as she stroked his hair.

  “Wuv you too,” Tommy said.

  She bent down and kissed his cheek and then stood up and put her hands on her hips as she looked out the window. I watched as a tear fell down her face.

  “Mommy cwying,” Tommy said as he pointed to her.

  “No baby,” Susan said as she wiped the tear away. “Mommy’s fine.”

  “Mommy fine?”

  Susan nodded. “Yep. Now you get some rest.” Tommy turned to his other side and closed his eyes tight. Susan walked out of the room and flicked off the light. I thought to follow her, but as I looked at Tommy, I realized that he was right back on the verge of falling asleep.

  How do I get into that cute little head of yours? I knelt beside the bed and watched my boy as his breathing changed. I stood up again as Tommy began snoring lightly and I still hadn’t figured out how to get inside his dreams.

  As I rose to my feet, I saw a dark-furred monster outside the window. I drew my sword as it sneered at me and then glanced to my son. The harbinger wolf began laughing and stepped through the wall as easily as I could.

  “You don’t know how to save him, do you dream walker?” the animal taunted.

  “Doesn’t matter,” I said. “You’ll die here!”

  “But the other will kill your son while I slay you,” the monster retorted. I looked beyond the creature to see the third out in the yard. It stood on its hind legs and smiled at me as it drew a red sword. It then disappeared. “He is inside already, and your son will soon be dead,” the harbinger wolf said.

  I let out a feral yell and charged the harbinger wolf in front of me. We tumbled through the wall and out into the backyard. The creature tossed me aside easily and then lunged for me. I somersaulted backwards and then came up with a diagonal slice that caught the creature in the shoulder. I knew I had to press the monster as best I could. If I hesitated, then Tommy would run out of time. I came in with a thrust that nailed the monster in the shoulder. It recoiled and slapped my sword away. It then lashed out with a savage kick that sent me flying backward. I bounced along the ground and skidded to a stop.

  I looked up and saw a pair of dark-skinned legs towering over me. I followed them up to see the warrior from the council who carried the muzzle-loader. He brought the weapon to bear and fired. The harbinger wolf yelped and then fell to the ground.

  “About time you showed up,” I said. “How do I help Tommy? He’s sleeping.”

  The warrior yanked me up with an unearthly strength and then threw me back to the ground, only I didn’t hit the dirt this time. I fell through a doorway of sorts and landed in a new place altogether.

  “Go, save your son, I will hold this one here, brother.”

  I looked up and saw a doorway to the real world close. All around me were giant stuffed animals. Some I recognized from TV shows and movies that Tommy liked, others looked like toys we had bought for him. I heard a howl to the left and leapt out from behind a massive Toothless toy from How to Train Your Dragon.

  My heart leapt in my chest as I spied Tommy, running on his tiny toddler legs. Behind him by some fifty feet was a massive, black-furred harbinger wolf. I rushed in.

  The wolf tore through a host of over-sized Toy Story figures and snarled. Tommy tripped, but I got to him before the wolf. I scooped up my boy and jumped into a pile of stuffed toys as the harbinger wolf landed where Tommy had just been.

  “Stay here, Tommy, Daddy will stop the bad wolf!”

  “Daddy!” Tommy shouted happily.

  “So, Daddy has come to hunt the monsters under his child’s bed, is that it?” the harbinger wolf snarled.

  “I wouldn’t be so smug if I were you,” I replied. “Weren’t there three of you when you first threatened my family?” I looked around with mock confusion and the held up a finger. “And, I think there was an alp too.”

  “You want to face the nightmares?” the harbinger wolf growled. “I’ll make you scream.”

  The wolf disappeared.

  I spun around as Tommy screamed. The wolf was rushing in from behind us. I jumped over my son and landed a kick on the beast’s jaw. We tumbled to the checkered floor together and the harbinger wolf clawed and snapped its maw. I deflected the fangs with my sword, but the claws raked my right thigh. I sliced the monster’s mouth at the back and then it disappeared once more.

  So did the toys.

  I rushed to Tommy and snatched him up just as the light winked out and left us in total darkness.

  “Can you see me, dream walker?” the harbinger wolf snarled.

  I wheeled around and swung my sword, but I hit nothing.

  “I’m here!” the wolf roared from the other side. I spun again but missed a second time.

  Tommy was wrapping his chubby arms around my neck and crying, makin
g it hard to concentrate on my foe.

  Something came toward us, snarling and growling, so I turned and thrusted my sword. I struck something that resisted at first, but then gave way and absorbed the sword. I then heard a gasp that filled me with horror.

  Light filled the room once more and Susan stood before me with my sword in her belly.

  “NO!” I shouted in horror. “Suzie!”

  She looked at me with great, wide eyes filled with terror and betrayal. I set Tommy down and ran to hold her as she stumbled backwards. “J-Josh!” she gasped. “Why?”

  “Suzie, no, I didn’t know you were here. Please, this can’t be real.” Her body went limp in my arms and then she broke into a thousand pieces, like a porcelain doll. Each piece skittered across the floor and I realized that I had been had. I jumped to my feet and turned to find Tommy, but then each piece from the shade of my wife burst into flame, erupting in tall columns that blocked my way.

  “And now you lose,” the harbinger wolf snarled as it closed in on Tommy. It growled low, baring its fangs.

  Tommy screamed and filled my heart with dread. The fires grew and pushed me back, licking my skin and searing any part of me that I didn’t pull away.

  “Daddy!” Tommy cried.

  The harbinger wolf laughed.

  “No!” I said. I rushed toward the columns of fire and jumped through the first. The heat went up my pants and burned my legs much more than I had anticipated. I hit the ground on the other side of the fist barrier and rolled to put out the flame before jumping to my feet once more and half-sprinting, half-limping to the next wall of flames that was unfurling before me.

  “No!” I shouted once more as I rushed toward the flames. I slashed at them with my sword, hoping that my magical weapon would put the flames out, but in the distance I could hear the harbinger wolf laughing at me.

  “As the sword is your weapon, so the fire is mine,” he said. “You will not live through the next fire.”

  I staggered through the wall of flame and fell to my knees, coughing and sputtering a mixture of thick smoke and blood. My skin was burned away in several spots on my arms, revealing red, squishy flesh beneath. Flames sprouted on my pants and shirt. I slapped at them and looked through the final barrier of fire to see my boy. My toddler was sitting, surrounded by fires on three sides, with a harbinger wolf stalking up to him from the fourth.

  My heart pounded like a drum in my scorched chest. My lungs could barely expand for breath, and my legs were too weak to put me back on my feet. I watched as the harbinger wolf slowly padded on all fours toward my son.

  “Watch, dream walker, and know the power of the nightmare,” he said as he licked his lips.

  My sword vanished from my hands as I lost my focus. I fell forward and barely managed to catch myself with my hands before face-planting on the ground.

  Tommy’s cries grew louder. I looked up and saw the wolf was now only ten yards away, and coming ever closer. I could see that I was only half the distance away, but my limbs were shaking and turning cold. The wolf was too much for me. This last fire was even wider across than the last, though I could see through the flames enough to see my son, I knew that the moment I tried to cross them, the flames would stretch up and out to prevent my interference.

  Tommy then turned and looked at me. “DADDY!” he shrieked. A surge of energy rushed through my body as I saw his eyes. His face was red from crying, and his toddler-sized fists were shaking with fear.

  “I’m coming,” I mouthed. I pushed up to my feet and ran toward the fire.

  The harbinger wolf stopped and looked up at me. “Fool. You are a dead man either way.”

  “You first!” I shouted as I jumped through the fire. The flames rose up as I had expected. They tore and ripped at my flesh, but I had set my course. I held up my right hand and called my sword to me once more. It appeared with a burst of lightning that dissipated the flames just enough for me to sail out the other side of the barrier.

  “Impossible!” the harbinger wolf snarled.

  “Surprise mother—” my sword came down point first and ripped through the beast’s side as it tried to lunge for my son. My momentum knocked us both to the side. I cocked my left arm back to swing a fist, but as I punched forward, I saw only blackened bones sailing toward the wolf’s face. I struck him hard and knocked his head into the ground. The wolf growled angrily and tried to shake me off, but my right hand held fast to my sword, which was buried to the hilt in the monster’s flesh. It shook to the side, and I rode it as it thrashed and jumped about. Seeing that my left hand was nothing but bone, I jabbed my index finger into the monster’s left eye and pressed until the orb popped.

  The wolf howled and fell to the ground, thrashing about once more. My sword came loose, so I yanked on it to open the wound more. Blood coursed out over me and the harbinger wolf howled and raged against me once more. It bit my left arm and ripped the bones free, crushing them to dust.

  I was so incensed that I felt no pain anymore. I pulled the sword free and rolled away. The wolf and I got to our feet about the same time and stared hard at each other.

  “How is it possible?” the wolf snarled.

  “You can bring the fires of hell itself if you like, Tommy is my son, and I will not let you touch him,” I spat. The wolf lunged forward once more. I spun around and brought the sword down hard as the hulking mass of fur sailed by. The symbols on my sword glowed brightly, and the blade cut through the harbinger wolf’s neck like butter. The monster fell to the ground, and the flames died down.

  Tommy was still crying, but he was safe.

  “Sorry, my boy,” I said breathlessly as I fell to my knees once more. “I’ll try to get Indyrith to erase this nightmare from your…” I fell forward before I could finish my sentence. I hit the ground and was about to give in to death when a pair of hands scooped me up.

  “Come, brother, it’s not your time to die yet.”

  I looked up and saw the vague outline of the warrior with the rifle.

  “Help…Tommy…” I coughed.

  “Your son will live, I must see to you.”

  I don’t remember much of what happened next. The warrior shook me a few times to keep me awake, I suppose, for I caught glimpses of a forest as he carried me. Eventually, I opened my eyes and found myself lying under the dogwood tree on my mountain.

  The five council members were sitting around me, singing and raising their hands to the sky.

  “You are awake,” the old man said as I tried to sit up.

  I looked down and saw that my body was whole once more. “How did you do this?”

  “Repairing the body of dreams is not always easy, but it is possible.”

  “But I was sure I was dead,” I said as I raised up my left hand. My left hand! “You fixed my arm.”

  “You must be more careful,” the old man said. “We have used our magic twice now, but we will not be able to do this forever.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “First, we healed your leg when you fought against the werewolves on the great seas, now we have used another gift to heal you from the harbinger wolf’s flames. As there are only five of us on the council that support you, you can only have five gifts. There are only three left.”

  “Oh,” I said. “Well, that might have been good to know before, but honestly I am not sure how either case could have been avoided.”

  The old man nodded. “I understand, but now we are called to rest. The other three will remain here for you, brother, but we must leave.”

  “Wait, what do you mean?”

  The old man and the warrior with the rifle stood up and turned away. “I will not see you again. Be brave, brother, and fight well. There is still much evil to fight.”

  “Wait, I thought you said there have to be six of us to form a full council. If you two leave, doesn’t that break it?”

  The old man nodded. “The council is now weaker. When you have used the rest of our gifts, then you will be
left alone. Be careful, brother.”

  “I don’t even know your name,” I said.

  The old man smiled. “I am your grandfather.”

  I frowned. “No, my grandpa is named Corbin. I think I would have recognized you if you were my grandpa.”

  “No, I am several generations before your time. I mean that I am your ancestor. I am Oconostot Moytoy. My daughter, Ani Waya, is the mother of A Li Onai, she was a great dream walker. Go, make us proud. Bring honor to our names, son.” With that, he turned and walked toward a mountain off in the distance. I watched as the lush vegetation changed from green to the colors of autumn. The leaves then fell to the ground, leaving barren trees upon the mountain, and Oconostot vanished from view.

  The warrior with the rifle bowed to me. I bowed my head in return. He vanished then, without walking away or saying another word. After his departure, a second mountain shed the leaves from its trees and turned barren.

  “So, only the three of you remain,” I said to the others.

  They looked to each other and then back to me. None of them spoke.

  “Why did their mountains only lose their leaves on the trees, but this mountain was burned when I came here?” I asked.

  Again, they glanced to each other in silence.

  “Guys, give me something, please. The man with the gray hair leaned forward and smacked me on the forehead.

  The next thing I knew, I was back in the safe house on my cot. I glanced at my watch and saw that it was only six-thirty.”

  “Are they safe?” Flint asked.

  I looked up and saw him, Katya, Dan, Mack, and Indyrith standing at the far side of the room. “Yeah, the harbinger wolves are dead. Susan and Tommy are safe.”

  “Well, great,” Dan said as he clapped his hands together. “You made it back just in time for dinner. Let’s go see what Marcus is rustling up for us from the M.R.E. stash, shall we?”

  CHAPTER 19

  The others all followed after Dan, all except for Indyrith. The elf king remained behind and bade me to stay with him. He asked for an accounting of what had happened, and was more than a little relieved when I assured him that the monsters were in fact dead.