by Steven Fox
“His name’s Jason,” said Tara.
Gelen shook her head, grinning. “I cannot even call him that. This is why it is better if I become part of you, S.” Jason’s jaw dropped. Tara stared deep into Gelen’s face. Gelen continued, “You have led a new life separated from me. He would be unhappy with anyone but you.”
“But what about Visonia? It needs a queen.”
Gelen shook her head. “It never needed a castle. Visonia is a place for those who dream to come and do so. The rest is up to Jason.” She looked up at him. “With his mystical sleeping sand and dream umbrella, he will ensure they have good dreams.” Gelen turned back to Tara. “So, please, let me join you. We are still part of the same whole. Instead of me, though, you will be the whole. As it should be.”
For a long moment, Tara only stared into the eyes of her queen, like staring into a mirror. The brave look in her face was like the one Jason remembered when they wrote Tale of the White Knight. It had been something strange. New. But Tara took to it.
With a small grin on her lips, she held out a hand to herself.
TWENTYSIX
Len fell back, her head thudding against the cement floor. Blood bloomed on the back of her skull. Her lips peeled back, teeth bared. Her eyes swam in their sockets, trying to focus on the green figure approaching her. But her vision was blurry. To her, Shemillah looked like a giant green smear on the canvas of her vision.
Something white cut through the green smear—Shemillah’s second mouth, smiling.
“I was going to melt you inside me. But killing you sounds so much more fun!”
Len struggled to sit up, clenching her mouth tight with the effort. The red warmth spread down her neck and covered her shoulders. The pain throbbed in time with her pulse. Each beat of her heart made her wish everything would just stop. But it pumped life into her. Despite the aches in her joints and the possible concussion, she reached her knees.
Her eyes cleared a little, and she could better make out Shemillah. The green amazon with six arms and a mouth spread across her stomach. She towered over Len by nearly three times Len’s height. But this didn’t bother Len. Not in the slightest. What bothered her was Darlene, unconscious, being held by two of Shemillah’s six arms. Toward Shemillah’s left, near the platform, lay the crumpled heap of the Guardian. Not dead, but curled up and murmuring to himself. His hood was pulled back, and Len could see the back of the Guardian’s skeletal head.
Not too far behind Shemillah, stewing in a puddle of her own blood, was the Dream Catcher.
Len’s gaze flicked back to Shemillah and then to Darlene. Her hands clenched.
Shemillah grinned. “Missing your flute? Well, it wouldn’t have done you any good. Look what it did for your mistress. Soon, you and this bitch will join her!” She shook Darlene, her head whiplashing.
“Stop that!” said Len. “I’ll fucking kill you!”
One of the tree trunk-like arms smashed into Len. She floated for a few moments, then landed on her side. Her elbow crunched beneath her. Her lips peeled back as she screamed.
She rolled onto her belly, trying to get her arm out from under her. It took effort, for her arm now bent the wrong way. She bit back another scream before heaving bile onto the floor. She tried to catch her breath, but Shemillah’s tumultuous footsteps cut her short. She looked up and saw Shemillah had turned her attention to one of the sleeping crowd members. She leaned over and, with one of her six arms, picked the crowd member up. She opened her second mouth.
“I’m a little famished. I think I’ll down this poor sap before I kill you.”
Len tried to scream, but her stomach rocketed more bile up her throat, and it spewed onto the ground. When she lifted her head, the sleeping man’s legs disappeared between the lips of Shemillah’s second mouth. It sighed, and Shemillah rubbed her stomach. She turned to Len, and for a moment, Len thought she’d be next to slide down that monstrous throat. But Shemillah only smiled. Then held up Darlene, dangling her by one ankle, just like the sleeping crowd member.
“I’m still a bit hungry. Why not her? I’ll bet she’s juicy. Let’s crunch her between my teeth and find out.”
Len stood now, rushing Shemillah, only to be swept away like a measly fly. Len hit one of the seats, her back crackling as it bent over the steel of the headrest. Burning pain zippered up her arm and spine. She nearly blacked out, but somehow kept her eyes open. She looked up at Shemillah. And the green amazon grinned back.
“Don’t worry. I’ll let you say goodbye after I’ve chewed her up. I might even spit her head back out for you to kiss before I kill you.”
And she lifted Darlene high into the air.
Len clutched at her right arm with her left, clenching her teeth, almost gritting them. She wanted to get up, but her legs wouldn’t listen. Slowly, Shemillah lowered Darlene closer to her second mouth. Darlene’s hands touched the large, flat tongue. Its drool hung in a strand like a glistening pendulum from it bottom lip.
Where the fuck are you, Jason? she thought.
Darlene’s head entered Shemillah’s mouth when as Len passed out.
***
A light flooded the inside of Shemillah’s mouth. And the giant monster jerked, dropping Darlene. Luckily, she landed on her side, which yanked her out of unconscious bliss, her eyes fluttering open. She first saw Len, and the unnatural angle of Len’s arm and back. Calling Len’s name, Darlene stood and ran to kneel beside her. The gray-haired girl still breathed, but just barely. Darlene could see the blood caked on the back of Len’s neck. She reached for her cell phone. Shemillah’s roar made her teeth clatter.
Shemillah twisted and wheeled about, her arms gripping her stomach. Her second mouth clenched shut. It looked as though something might be trying to burst through, and Shemillah tried to stop it, to swallow it back down. But her mouth burst open, and a rainbow light flooded the Arena. The light hung in the air, crystalline sparkles floating through oscillating colors. The strange light filled Darlene with a warmth she could truthfully say she’d only felt in her dreams. Perhaps this was all a nightmare. And now it was turning into a dream.
Something emerged from the rainbow light. They floated down like two snowflakes, growing larger and larger as they reached the earth. By the time they touched down, Darlene was fairly convinced this was a dream.
Jason and Tara stood together, side by side. Each wielded an umbrella-shaped sword, and they pointed them at Shemillah, who was still vomiting all over the floor.
Jason turned back to Darlene, and smiled. “Yo, Smokey. Thanks for waitin’ up.”
Darlene grunted. “Just hurry up. I think Len needs a doctor.”
“Just make sure to carry her there. We can tease her later.”
Shemillah staggered, trying to stand. Her eyes came into focus, and she saw Jason and Tara standing before her. She scowled, and her second mouth did as well.
“I had a feeling you’d give me indigestion,” she said.
“Always. And look! I brought a friend.”
Tara gave Shemillah a little wave.
“You may have escaped, but I’ve still attained greater power just by having you in there.” A pitch black aura emanated from her flesh, hovering inches around her. Darlene could feel the pure evil inside the aura.
Jason pointed his sword at Shemillah. “You may have great power, but you have a weakness. One that I had only realized too late.”
“Fool. I have no weaknesses.”
Jason stabbed his sword into the ground, a grin spreading across his lips. Shemillah raised all six of her arms, readying to smash them down. Jason said something under his breath, and he braced himself. Shemillah hammered her arms down, but before she could connect, she was tackled to the ground.
Darlene couldn’t believe her eyes. She shouted at Jason, “Jason, run! Get outta here!” She stood, her eyes flicking back to Shemillah. The Dream Caller rose quickly to her feet. Across from her, quite a few feet taller, stood Talshe. As she was about to run to Jason, Darl
ene watched in wide-eyed amazement as Talshe tackled Shemillah again, grappling with the mighty six-armed monster. Darlene stopped dead in her tracks. She had to be dreaming. How else could she explain Talshe attacking Shemillah?
Shemillah tossed Talshe away, and Talshe rolled along the ground, but she stopped herself and stood. She spat into the floor and grinned. Darlene realized something: Talshe’s flesh was no longer gray, but a healthy pink. Shemillah wheeled around, facing Tara and Jason. Except, where Jason and Tara should be, she found another boy and girl looking up at her, grinning. The girl looked to the boy and pushed on his shoulder.
“Hey, wonder how long it’ll take her to figure it out?”
The boy shrugged. “Well, she’s pretty clever. I’m sure she’ll have a good idea once we’ve got her surrounded.”
Shemillah lunged at them, but they dodged at the last moment and ran down the length of Shemillah’s body, all the way to her ankles. As Shemillah stood, the two grabbed her ankles and held her in place.
“Now, Talshe!” shouted Bootelia.
Talshe sprinted forward, and with each step she doubled in size until she was nearly too tall to fit inside the Arena. She kneeled behind Shemillah and clasped her hands around the Dream Caller, locking her fingers tightly together so that only Shemillah’s head was exposed. Shemillah thrashed and grunted, her eyes darting about.
“You dreams! Listen to me! I call upon you! Release me!”
But the giantess only smiled. “You’re not our boss.” And she gave Shemillah a little squeeze, which elicited a hiss. “Be thankful I don’t crush you.”
Darlene then noticed Jason and Tara. Where had they gone? This had to be a dream: nothing made sense.
Jason crossed his arms, and glared at Shemillah. “Well, Dream Caller. I’m afraid it’s time to take back what’s rightfully mine.”
“Rightfully yours? Ha! Just because you have me restrained doesn’t mean you can extract the nightmare from me. Even if you are the King of Dreams!”
Jason clucked his tongue, shaking his head. “Tsk, tsk. You shouldn’t get so full of yourself. That’s the problem with that nightmare. It rots you from the inside out. First you start thinking you’re better than everyone else. Then your skin turns green. Then you start devouring everyone else, because you want everything they have. Because you want to feel like you did before the nightmare. That’s how the nightmare feeds.”
He pulled his umbrella sword from its spot in the ground. “But I’ve known this for millennia. And I’ve had ample time to think about it. As Jason McKinney, I had a problem remembering. Bootelia and Amor there, at your legs, said the dreams were just trying to help me. It took me a while to realize that they were. Talshe was trying to get me inside so I could see you had somehow broken your chains. And another part of it was that you controlled her. But you had no control over the twins or my other guards. They simply followed their instructions. Just as your servant, Sirin, served his mistress.
“But my guards were turned violent by your corruption. And I’m certain one of them will be happy to see you.”
Shemillah’s eyes widened.
“The funny thing about leeches…they suck things out. Like blood. Or nightmares.”
A shadow extended from Jason’s figure, trailing along the ground toward Shemillah.
The Dream Caller shook her head. “No! You shouldn’t be able to call them! You shouldn’t be able to! I made that deal with you. You shouldn’t be able to say that word!”
Jason shrugged. “You made that deal with Jason Ole McKinney. Not the King of Dreams.”
He pointed a finger at her, and said, “Forth!”
And out from the shadows leapt the giant hound Leech. But he wasn’t hairless or crimson: His fur was a bright gold, and it shimmered in the light as he soared through air. His brown eyes honed in on Shemillah’s face. His mouth opened, and he angled it sideways. Shemillah jerked, then went still. A loud slurping noise echoed through the air. Leech’s fur changed from gold to black, then gold again as the blackness seeped out of his fur and distilled into the air. Jason held out his left hand to Tara, and she put her umbrella sword in his hand. He now held up this sword, the sword of life, and pointed it at the darkness.
And he said:
“Darkness, o darkness,
child of my longing,
come to your new home
where space so wide
will let you stretch
and have time to think.”
The darkness snaked through the air, converging on the point of Jason’s sword. Shemillah’s screams occasionally punctuated Leech’s slurping, but soon she went quiet, and by then the darkness was all but contained within Jason’s sword. Once no darkness remained in the air, Jason lowered his blade. He nodded at Talshe, who released Shemillah. Leech and the twins scattered as the ex-Dream Caller stood there, staring blankly at Jason.
Shemillah extended one foot forward, and fell, crashing on her side, face in the dirt.
Darlene ran to Jason, opening her mouth to say something, but Tara held up a hand. Jason pointed to Shemillah.
The ex-Dream Caller shrank, her flesh changing from green to pink. Her hair pooled about her, covering half of her nude body. After her body stopped shrinking, Jason handed his regular umbrella sword to Tara.
“Here,” he said. “Won’t be needing one. Not after this.”
Tara took the untainted sword, nodding. Jason walked toward Shemillah. Darlene called out his name, but he didn’t stop. He kneeled down next to Shemillah, examining her side.
“Jayce, you perv!” said Tara. “Stop looking at her boobs!”
He cracked a grin, glancing over at Darlene. “Want a look? It’s pretty good.”
Darlene was speechless, especially when Tara jogged over to join Jason. Not wanting to be the odd one out, she followed and stood just behind them, looking to where Jason pointed: Shemillah’s stomach. It was flat and smooth. No mouth, no anything. Jason looked down at the sword of life in his left hand, which pulsated with the original nightmare.
“Shemillah’s all normal now,” he said. “Just as Lukoje had planned.”
TWENTYSEVEN
Things didn’t end happily ever after. They never do. A funeral was planned. It would be joint, held in the memory of Arthur and Tanya McKinney, and the Dream Catcher. After Shemillah was defeated, Len woke up to paralyzed legs. Darlene helped carry her over to the Dream Catcher. Len didn’t cry. But she would, when the funeral came around.
Shemillah awoke but didn’t speak much. She often wore a shocked, doe-eyed expression. Everything to her was new and wonderful, but terrifying. The last thing she remembered was sneaking into her father’s room at night and stealing the nightmare from his sleep.
Jason worked hard in the following month: He cleaned out the shed, filled his room with all his old, childish things, and built a wheelchair ramp in both the front of his house and the back. Then he went to Len’s house and did the same. He offered to figure something out for the basement, but Len rejected the idea. She did ask he build a door, to block off the basement. Then to draw a chalk circle in Len’s room. Len could still play the flute; she would still help the children with bad dreams and nightmares.
Darlene and Len started dating. Jason provided Len, upon request, with a notecard of cheesy pick-up lines. They were Darlene’s favorites. And with the collapse of the corrupted paladins, the Guardian had to appoint new ones. Darlene was one of the first, and with this duty came a nice, big paycheck. Len had never tasted a richer meal. Not even on the train to Visonia.
The day before the funeral, Jason prepared a picnic. It was a celebration: his birthday. Except he told everyone to bring nothing but food and themselves. Jason was in his backyard, spreading out his father’s favorite table cloth on a picnic table he’d found in the shed. The tree in in the corner by the fence was heavy with apples. Jason checked his cell phone for the time.
With a sigh, Jason shook his head. Of course he understood why everyone might b
e moving slow. There was a lot to take in. A lot to do. In such a short time, everything had changed. Jason opened his phone and shot Darlene another text, then snapped his phone closed. The door squeaked open behind him. Two arms encircled his shoulders and trailed down his chest, hands rubbing the top of his belly.
“Hey,” said Tara.
“Hiya.”
Jason leaned back into Tara, and she into him. Their breathing fell in rhythm with each other. The corners of Jason’s mouth pulled up. And he snickered.
“What’s funny?”
“It feels like something worse should be happening.”
“Things aren’t always terrible.” Her tone was flat, pinched.
“I know. But…I feel like I got off scot-free, you know?”
“Your dad’s dead. Your mom’s gone. Len’s in a wheelchair.”
“I’m immobilized, not deaf.”
They both turned to the gate, where Len and Darlene stood, smiling and waving. Darlene opened the gate and let Len wheel herself in. Darlene and Len shared a kiss before Darlene walked over to Tara and asked her to follow her into the kitchen. Tara looked up at Jason and smiled. He smiled back. After they had gone, Jason sat down on the steps. Len wheeled up next to him.
A breeze brushed past the backyard, the leaves in the tree and the grass swaying gently. The sun was low and amber in the sky, coloring everything a shade similar to apple juice. Jason shook his head.
“What?” said Len.
“You seem pretty calm. You’re okay with not having legs?”
“I’ve been through worse. Besides, there’re advantages to being in a wheelchair. Darlene’s always eager to help me out.”
They laughed. Birds chirped far away. A rabbit skittered down the alley outside the fence. Jason opened his mouth to say something, but the words didn’t come. Tears stung at his eyes.
“Y’know, this is nice,” said Len. “Just sitting here, not saying anything. ‘Cause I know what you’re thinking, Jason.” She turned her head and grinned. “It’s okay if you don’t go to the funeral. You have your thing you need to do.”