by John Corwin
He nodded. "The fridge is working." He opened it and looked inside. "It's cold." Grabbing a gallon of milk, he took a swig, set it down on the table and waited.
"I hope you didn't just kill yourself," I said, unsure how safe Gloom food was.
"I don't think we'll survive long without the necessities." A shrug. "Nothing to be lost by trying."
"Unless it gives you diarrhea."
He laughed.
After a fifteen minute wait, nothing happened, so I took a drink of milk myself. It didn't taste quite right—in fact it didn't have much taste at all. As if that was the cue to pig out, we devoured a basket of fruit in the middle of the table. None of it had much flavor, but at least it was filling.
"I couldn't smash the window of that car in the first nightmare, but you smashed the window to this house." I picked up a pencil from the table and broke it. "It doesn't make sense."
"It makes perfect sense," he said.
"Please explain." I had to hear this.
"The nightmare was a constructed dreamscape with a series of events determined by the mind of the dreamer." He took a swig of water. "It was recreated here, maybe by the minders, and followed the exact sequence of the dream."
The logic made sense to me. "So a dream sequence is set in stone. We can't do anything to alter any part of it."
"Exactly." He waved his hand at the kitchen. "The environment here mirrors the real world when there's no dream sequence."
"We can affect the normal environment," I said. "If we break something here that's not broken in the real world, I wonder if it resets back to normal after a time."
"A good question," David said. He opened the pantry and dug around inside. "We just have to hope the food is nourishing."
"It certainly doesn't have much taste."
He removed a backpack from the pantry and started shoving food inside it. "Yeah. Everything here is like a pale shadow of the real world."
After filling the backpack, we resumed course for the Grotto, dodging dreamscapes as we went.
We trudged down residential roads for at least another hour, though it was impossible to know the exact length of time without a phone or watch, and finally connected with a main road leading into Buckhead. I managed to restrain the nearly overwhelming urge to ask my father about his past or why he'd lied to me all his life about who he was.
What if I'm really not ready for the truth?
I had no way of answering such a question. The secrets my family kept tended to be a lot more shocking than the average fare. Instead of, "Your uncle is an alcoholic," I might expect something along the lines of, "Your uncle destroyed a parallel dimension by accident." It was clear my father was no ordinary demon spawn. If he'd told the truth about being the first Daemos, how had he come into being?
I remembered the vision of my father telling Mom I would serve and die, and not to grow attached. The sick feeling returned in my stomach, like a knife in my gut. I wanted to throw up. I wanted to shout at him and demand respect and love from my own damned father.
He never loved me.
A realization punched me in the gut. I knew what David meant about me not being ready for the truth. If knowing what he knew felt like this, I never wanted to hear it. I didn't want to know everything was a lie. I didn't want to know my wonderful, sheltered childhood was pure fantasy with my father and mother as the main supporting characters.
"You two, halt," said a commanding voice.
I raised my head from troubling thoughts to see a man riding a velociraptor guide the creature to a halt in the middle of the road. "Talk about a whacked out dream," I said, steering clear of the creature in case it started salsa dancing.
"I said halt!" the man roared.
"Justin," David said, eyes locked onto the man and his beast. "I think he's talking to us."
Chapter 9
I stopped dead in my tracks and stared at the man. He looked young, maybe in his thirties, though he wore a tailored suit and bowtie.
"You're real?" I asked. We'd seen so many dreamscapes, finding another person was almost surreal.
He displayed a wicked set of vampire fangs. "Oh, very much so."
"How did you know we're not dream people?"
"I've been following you for quite some time," he said. "Do you know how hard it is to find fresh blood in the Gloom?"
I backed away and saw David doing the same. "I'm sure you could find blood packs at a hospital," I said.
"I said 'fresh'." The vampire nudged the raptor toward us. Razor-sharp claws flashed.
"Cool dinosaur," I said, using peripheral vision to find a safe place to run. Businesses and high-rise condominiums lined the road. We might be able to get inside, but would the elevators work? "Did you find him at a pet shop?"
"When you've lived in the Gloom as long as I have, you discover a few useful tricks." He sniffed the air, as if discovering a wonderful aroma. "You're not human."
"Correctamundo." I bared my teeth. "So don't mess with us."
He laughed. "Don't even pretend you still have preternatural abilities. I know you don't."
"And neither do you," I said.
"Do you have a velociraptor?" He raised an eyebrow in challenge.
David and I exchanged looks. I shrugged. "You have a point."
"We're looking for a way out of the Gloom," my father said. "There's no reason for you to stay trapped here forever. Come with us."
"Escape? Escape?" the vampire said in a high-pitched whine. "There's no escaping from the Gloom." He leaned over his mount, eyes wide. "There are people here who kidnap others from the real world. I was abducted while taking an Obsidian arch nearly two decades ago. I've been trapped here ever since."
I thought back to the men who'd come for us earlier. "Those people tried to kidnap us too. Join us. Maybe we can all find a way out."
"I said there is no escape!" he shouted. He drew in a long deep breath, eyelids fluttering with what looked like ecstasy. "I have no more patience for this talk. I must feed. Follow me or Gloria Richardson will tear out your guts."
"Why did you name your raptor Gloria Richardson?" I said, preparing myself to make a break for a nearby gym I'd spotted nearby.
"She's the bitch who turned me into a vampire and broke up with me. I was on my way to see her, to beg for her to take me back when I was kidnapped." His eyes flashed. "Now, come!"
The vampire had obviously been trapped here far longer than recommended by the Surgeon General and was absolutely bonkers. Something about an insane vampire in control of a raptor terrified me beyond belief.
"Simmer down," David said, seemingly calm as ever. "Gloria obviously didn't know what kind of a man she was losing when she broke your heart. Lead on. We'll follow you."
The vampire regarded us a moment longer before spinning his raptor around and heading down the road. I nodded toward the gym. David winked. We bolted toward the sidewalk and jumped a metal railing.
A screeching roar sounded behind us. I turned my head to see the raptor leap.
"Help me with this!" David said, pushing on the glass door to the gym. It didn't budge.
I rammed my shoulder against it and bounced off. Sharp talons sliced the metal railing behind us like butter. Metal clanged on the sidewalk.
"On the count of two," David said, aiming his foot at the door.
It took everything I had not to run screaming as I heard claws on the concrete behind us, waiting for an ebony talon to spear one of us in the back.
"One! Two!"
We kicked. The glass shattered. David shoved me through the opening. My head clanged on the metal push handle on the inside. I crawled through and rolled onto my back in time to see a claw slash at my father. He juked left. The talon sliced through the door's metal framing. I gripped his arm and jerked him all the way into a lobby leading to a hallway which seemed to end in offices. From what I could see, the only way out was a red metal staircase.
We descended into a room with punching bags hanging from me
tal railings, each one spaced about every square foot from its neighbor. A boxing ring sat near the back corner.
I heard a crash and an animalistic screech from upstairs accompanied by heavy feet clanging down the stairs. David and I ran through the forest of punching bags desperately looking for an exit.
"What if it dead ends?" I asked.
"I'm sure there's another way out," he said, shoving past another row of punching bags.
I heard ripping and thudding, and turned to see the raptor shredding the vinyl casings with its claws, hissing and smashing them so hard the exercise equipment flew off its chains and smacked into the walls. Timothy rode low, eyes shining with fury.
"There!" I said, pointing across an open area with artificial turf. Beyond it was another glass door. We raced across the padded surface. The thudding of bags and the hissing of the raptor grew closer.
"Nobody escapes Timothy Burkmeyer!" the vampire cried. "There will be blood!"
"Stop being melodramatic!" I shouted as I slammed my hands against the door handle. It swung open, depositing me in a courtyard surrounded on all sides by several stories of apartments. I spotted another metal door at the far end of the sidewalk and sprinted toward it. Glass shattered. Metal shrieked. I looked behind to see the raptor skidding on the concrete as it made a sharp turn to follow us.
David reached the door and opened it. A parking garage lay beyond.
"Oh, crap," I said. The raptor would be on us in two seconds in that place.
"Here," David said, jerking open another metal door to our right, revealing stairs.
We ran through. I slammed the door shut and raced up the stairs to the first landing, huffing and puffing. Sweat poured down my forehead, stinging my eyes. Something slammed into the door, leaving a three-toed dent. Just as many talons speared through the metal and sliced it to ribbons.
"Don't just stand there," David shouted. "Run!"
We climbed halfway up the four-story stairwell when the sound of metal slamming into concrete announced the raptor's entrance. I tested the door at each landing, but all were locked.
"Why didn't he just get off the stupid dinosaur and open the door himself?" I said, sucking in each breath.
We reached the top floor. There were two doors. David opened one. It led outside to the top of the parking deck. The doormat on the opposite one had folded inside the door jamb, preventing it from latching closed. I jerked it open and saw a hallway lined with doors.
"Which way?" I asked.
"We're dead if we go outside," he said, and ran down the hallway.
I pushed the doormat away and latched the door behind me.
David was already checking every door, but none opened. He stopped at a window halfway down the corridor, unlatched it, and poked his head out. I looked at a four-story drop and gulped.
"Safe to say the other doors are locked," he said, looking out the window. "But there's a balcony on either side. We might reach one."
I examined the balconies. "The one on the left is a little closer, but I can't grab the railing from here."
He nodded. "I can hold onto the waist of your pants. You can lean out and grab it."
My throat constricted. Even with supernatural abilities, the drop to the hard concrete in the small courtyard below would probably break my legs. In the real world, I'd heal. Here, I'd splat like a bug. I looked at him. "That would require me trusting you."
He pshawed. "Really now, do you think I'd let you die?"
"Maybe once I've served my purpose." I narrowed my eyes. "After all, I will serve, and I will die."
He flinched, eyes full of surprise. "Who told you that?"
"Nobody told me, David. I heard you saying it to Mom when I was an infant."
"How could you remember something from that age?"
I shrugged. "Does it matter? You said it, I heard it."
He released a grim sigh. "We have no choice. If you don't trust me, I'll go first."
Already the sounds of the raptor slamming claws against doors echoed down the hallway. I wasn't sure if it was the one leading into this hallway, or the one outside.
I shook my head. "I'll do it. After all, if I die, you'll be trapped in the hallway and Gloria Richardson will tear you apart."
"That's a rather cynical way to look at it."
"Here goes nothing." Taking a deep breath, I perched on the windowsill, holding the top half of the window for balance.
He gripped the waist of my jeans with one hand and the window frame with the other. "Good luck."
My butt cheeks clenched. "Don't drop me."
"Wouldn't dream of it." He smiled. "After all, you haven't served your purpose, Cataclyst."
Without further ado, I ducked under the top half of the window and stood on trembling legs. The balcony was just out of reach by a foot. A ledge with a gutter inches above my head prevented me from jumping. I had to trust my father. I leaned forward. For a brief instant, it felt as though I was falling. Panic sent my arms flailing. At the last instant, my jeans tightened at my waist, and I stopped, suspended above the deadly drop. David eased me forward a little more, and I grasped the railing in a white-knuckled grip.
"I'm letting go," he said.
"Okay," I wheezed through a tight throat. My legs swung off the windowsill. Wasting no time, I pulled myself up and over the railing.
David crawled out the window, holding on as I had. "Grab my arm."
The railing came up to my chest so I couldn't lean over too far. Our fingers were inches apart. "Can you reach any further?" I asked.
"I'll have to let go." His face looked pale. "You'll only have one chance to grab me."
I steeled myself. Nodded. "I won't let you down."
"Pun intended?" he said, offering a weak smile.
I showed him my teeth. "You haven't served your purpose yet either."
"Fair enough." He stood, leaned forward, and fell.
My hand gripped his forearm. All his weight jerked hard, and I thought my arm was about to come out of the socket. He slipped until only his wrist remained in my grasp. I groaned, clenching tight as I could. His other arm swung up, gripped my forearm. I released my hold on the railing, grabbed him, and pulled with all my might. His face turned red with exertion. My shoulder ached with the strain and it was an effort not to cry out. Doing so would alert the vampire. Using my feet as leverage, I leaned back, teeth clenched tight. His hand found the railing, and suddenly the weight eased from my body.
David pulled himself over and lay on the concrete, breathing heavily. "That was scary."
I was panting too hard to reply and simply nodded.
We were safe, but for how long?
Chapter 10
The sliding glass door on the balcony was unlocked so we let ourselves in. A television mounted on the wall hissed with white noise. Occasional images flickered onto the screen too quickly for me to discern what they were. I turned off the television. "This place creeps me out."
"I wonder if it picks up signals from Eden, or if those images are something else entirely."
"Eden?"
His lips parted. "That is our name for the human realm."
"Sure as hell doesn't live up to the reputation," I said, looking around the room. The apartment was obviously a bachelor pad. The couch looked like a relic from the eighties. Worn, shabby furniture crowded the small space. Gun magazines littered the coffee table. In fact, the only nice things in the room were the huge plasma television and the game consoles hooked up to it.
"This place could use a housemaid," David said, thumbing through one of the gun magazines.
I stepped inside the bedroom and found a metal locker against the far wall. I tested the handle. "Locked," I said with a groan. "Considering all the gun magazines lying around, I'll bet there are weapons inside this thing."
"Keys," David said, pointing to a hook on the wall near the door. The key ring was attached to a retractable chain like the kind someone wore at their waist. He tossed it to me.
"You know how to shoot?" David asked.
"Just like a video game." I shrugged. "Point and click."
He chuckled. "Maybe you should go with the small revolver."
I picked up the six-shooter and examined the cylinder. "Any idea which ammunition it takes?"
David picked up a box of twenty-two caliber bullets. "It won't stop a velociraptor, but it might stop a vampire." He gripped a hefty silver pistol and slapped a clip into it. "Ah, now this is more like it."
I felt my eyebrows rise. "Do you know how to shoot?"
He pulled back the top part of the gun—whatever it's called—and flicked a lever on the side. "I've learned a few useful things in my years in Eden."
"You keep mentioning the mortal realm—Eden—like you weren't born and raised there."
"I've been a few places," he said, grabbing a spare bullet clip from a box.
I regarded my measly pea-shooter and nodded toward a long black rifle. "How about I take that too?"
He took it out of the cabinet, examined a slot on the side of the barrel. "You think you can handle a shotgun?"
"I've used them lots in video games."
"Just remember, you're not super-strong here." He grabbed a box of red shells and showed me how to load the gun.
"Looks easy enough," I said, and took the weapon. I loaded my revolver and grabbed a satchel from inside the gun cabinet so I could load it with ammo. Within a few minutes we looked ready to take on a small army. "I can't wait to blow Gloria Richardson's head off."
"I think we should avoid Timothy and pal altogether," my father said, peering out the bedroom window.
"How does he even have a dinosaur?" I scratched my head. "Unless they still exist in the Gloom, it just doesn't make any sense."
"If people in the real world can project dreams in this reality, it's possible Timothy dreamed up his raptor."
I considered the theory. "Sounds legit."
"It's the only thing I can think of," David said.