Genie and the Sandman

by Julie Parker

  “I will not do away with her,” Logan snapped.

  All of them obviously knew I had a gift…or a curse. This wasn’t like the last two worlds where my abilities had been a secret, at least to most people. No, here it was blown wide open. Well, in this room it was. There’d be no beating around the bush.

  “Why are you all so afraid of a little dream invasion?” Seemed pretty harmless to me. A bit peeping-Tom-ish, perhaps, but harmless all the same.

  The brave man regarded me with disdain. “It’s not just the sleep invasion part. You know very well what you do to us.”

  “Enlighten me, please, it seems to have slipped my mind.”

  “Is this some kind of trick, girl? You know very well that your nighttime hijinks don’t stay where they belong, locked safely in one’s head. No. They become reality.”

  What the heck did he mean? Was the other Payton not only putting people to sleep and jumping into their heads, but also making their dreams come true? That would be bizarre. I’d been in Logan’s dreams today…should I expect at any moment that Space-me and Tiny would march into the room and start to boogie?

  There was a knock at the door.

  Everyone’s gaze snapped toward the sound. Glancing around the room, I noticed the looks of dismay on faces and, in some cases, downright fear. Baldy backed away, refusing to open the door. I was about to ask what was wrong when it suddenly sprang open.

  In walked Space-me and Tiny, just as I’d imagined.

  They strolled calmly into the middle of the room, the others giving them a wide berth. Space-me raised her hands into the air and music began to play. When she and Tiny started dancing, everyone panicked. They all rushed for the door at once.

  “Damn.” Logan grabbed me and practically tossed me to the nearest wall. He placed himself against me for protection.

  It’s a good thing he was so big.

  Once the coast was clear, Logan released me. We both stared at the couple bopping around the room.

  “How the hell…?” Logan began.

  “I’d just been thinking about them walking in here and dancing, and then, there they were.”

  “Like my dream.”

  “More like a nightmare,” I said, glaring at Space-me’s skintight duds.

  Logan grasped my arm. “Payton. That’s what the guy meant. You bring people’s dreams to life.”

  “You think?” There was that sarcasm again.

  Flashes of terrible nightmares I’d had, especially of late, tumbled into my thoughts. Images of Sir Gregor as Calibos, and the fed, returning from the grave, all bloody and super creepy, bombarded me. A shudder ran down my spine. If those frightful things became real I’d be terrified. It was no wonder everyone here was anxious to do away with me. I could only imagine what awful things the other Payton had brought into being.

  I kept a fearful gaze on the door.

  “Don’t worry. I have a feeling you can only make other people’s dreams come true, not your own.” He must have read my mind.

  “So what do we do now?”

  “I suppose with all the chaos we could just slip out.”

  Sounded like a plan.

  Unfortunately, when we got into the hallway, Baldy was waiting there for us. And he wasn’t alone.

  “I don’t know what you’ve done to my lord, but I intend to stop you.”

  I think he meant the giant goons behind him at the far end of the hall, who were heading in our direction, intended to stop me.

  Logan pushed me behind him. “This has gone on long enough. I demand you get out of our way.”

  Though Logan’s broad shoulders hindered my view, I could see past him if I jumped up and down. What I saw made me grasp the ends of my blanket around myself even tighter. Those two goons carried what appeared to be weapons resembling battle-axes in their hands.

  “Oh no, Logan,” My fearful cry made him spring into action. As they approached Logan lunged forward, leaped up into the air, and kicked one of the men right in the chest, knocking him to the ground, the wind knocked out of him. The other man, who was just off to the side, raised his weapon. Before I even got a chance to scream, Logan spun and grabbed the battle-axe just as the goon brought it down.

  Baldy was hysterical. “No! You idiots. Kill the girl. The girl.”

  The goon and Logan wrestled over the axe for a moment. Then suddenly, Logan let go, which made his opponent stumble. Before he could correct his footing, Logan punched him in the face. Then he used a fist to jab him in the belly. When the goon keeled over, Logan used both fists to hit him in the back of the head. The man fell to the floor in a heap. The other goon was regaining his breath and began to climb to his feet. Logan used a roundhouse to knock him out cold beside his cohort.

  When Logan turned his sights on Baldy, I did too. What we saw made us both jump back in fright. Baldy had brought up his hands, which more resembled claws with long dagger-like fingernails, before his body. But worst of all was his face. His expression was contorted as though he was in pain, and his teeth…were bared into fangs.

  “Holy crap,” I hollered. “Logan. He’s a friggin’ vampire!”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Baldy hissed at us—well, I think it was more at me—though he didn’t lunge. Instead, he held his ground. Logan and I both backed up.

  “I’ll engage him, and while he’s distracted, I want you to run. Don’t stop until you’re outside,” Logan said.

  “I think I have a better idea.” Before Logan could stop me, I barreled past him and made a run at Baldy.

  Baldy was startled by my attack, and while I was in a mid-air jump he tried to turn his body away from me. It all happened as though in slow motion. When I came down, I had hold of his lapels. “Sleep,” I yelled in his face.

  A moment later, as the expression on Baldy’s face turned from shock to exhaustion, he dropped to the floor. I fell with him, but got to my feet as soon as I saw his eyes were closed and he was asleep.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” demanded Logan.

  I plucked my blanket off the floor and flung it back around my shoulders. “You did your part with the goons. I thought it only fair that I do mine.”

  He wasn’t pleased, but I got the feeling he knew arguing with me would be futile. We were a team. I think I’d more than proved I could handle myself when push came to shove.

  “Let’s go. We should be okay now,” I said.

  “As long as there are no more surprises waiting for us. What the hell was that?” he demanded, waving his hand at the sleeping man. “A vampire?”

  “Looked like it.”

  We crept down the hall, and when we got to the end we paused. Logan peered cautiously around and gave a great sigh as he leaned back against the wall. “We have a problem.”

  When I snuck a peek, I saw what he meant. The open area we had to pass through to get to the front door was crawling with guests. “Great. What if they’re all vampires?” I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised. We were, after all, in the middle of what resembled a horror picture…the gothic house, the creepy butler. Still, enough was enough. I’d had it with this place, and I wanted to leave.

  I thought for a moment before an idea came to me. “Let’s go back to Baldy.” I began stalking in his direction.

  Logan caught up to me. “Wait. Why?”

  “All I have to do is gather a little ammo. And I know where to get it.” We came up before Baldy’s resting place and I knelt on the floor beside him. The two goons were still knocked out on the floor. Logan kept a close eye on them in case they showed any signs of recovery.

  “I don’t like this. God only knows what he’s got going on inside that head of his,” Logan said.

  “I don’t see that we have a choice. Relax, okay? It’s only a dream…for now.” I smiled wickedly and then placed my hands on Baldy’s chest. After a moment or two of concentration, I saw the hall begin to grow foggy. I knew then I was slipping into dreamland.

  When I looked down, Baldy
was no longer lying on the floor. I climbed to my feet and took in my new surroundings. Logan was gone, and so was the hallway. In fact, I wasn’t even inside any longer. I was in a thick forest, the numerous trees standing tall and close together. The sun shone overhead, and as I looked down I noticed I stood upon a trail clearly marked on the forest floor.

  “Come out, come out, wherever you are,” I sang lightly, anxious to find my prey, but also hoping to catch him unawares.

  Dreams occasionally allowed people—maybe vampires as well—to act out scenarios uncommon in their real lives. Baldy may enact his hopes, or, more especially, his fears, which I was counting on. I needed to find and then bring forth something to scare off the guests. Considering the brightly shining sun, he may be dreaming about a time before he was a vampire; that is, if the whole “vampires are burnt by the sun” thing was true. Or maybe he’d just sparkle.

  When I heard a snap of a branch to my right, I froze and strained my senses to hear or see what was lurking about. It may not be Baldy; he had a bit of a lead on me, so really, he could be anywhere, and that noise could be anything. When I heard another snap, I headed off the trail and went in the direction of the sound. A flash of black darting through the trees caught my attention. I took cover behind a thick solid oak and waited. Baldy was probably running around the woods enjoying his freedom. He was a doorman, a servant to the upper crust, so breaks like this were probably few and far between. Or maybe he was hunting…a dear or a rabbit perhaps? Considering those huge choppers of his, he probably required a good deal of blood to survive.

  A blood-curdling scream suddenly sounded in the air and echoed eerily around the trees. What the hell was that? I began to question the wisdom of my decision to leap into Baldy’s dream. Despite my awareness that it was in fact a dream, I was not master here. I was subject to the whims and fancies of a man I did not know, and I didn’t know the rules. What if the myth, if you die in your dreams then you die in real life, was true? This wasn’t even my dream, so would I be immune to the consequences?

  Carefully I snuck a peek around the tree I hid behind. What I saw made me quake in my sneakers. Peeking back at me from behind an equally large tree was Baldy. But he now had a full head of hair. The strange thing about hair is the drastic way it changes a person’s appearance. Now I could see the whole picture, whereas before I had only seen half. The man who I’d mocked, dismissed as a lowly servant, was familiar to me. Perhaps not here in this place or time, yet in my world I knew him. Knew him quite well, in fact.

  “Mr. Draker?” He owned the pizza joint in Trent. Why had I not recognized him before? Even without a full head of hair it should have been obvious to me. I was ashamed to say it wasn’t.

  “Shhhh.” He put his finger to his lips. “He’s coming.”

  I looked around cautiously before making a break for Baldy’s tree. When I settled in next to him my first thought was I’d better come up with a better nickname for him.

  “How’s it going?” I asked. Did he know he was dreaming? If not, then why wasn’t he wondering about my sudden appearance? Although, I’ve discovered that as crazy as dreams can get, they don’t seem bizarre until the moment you wake up. You could be riding in a car in the middle of your living room with three talking monkeys, and not think anything strange about it at the time. Dreams were weird that way.

  “We’re doomed.” He obviously meant by someone other than me. And here I thought I was the prime enemy. He’d said it to Logan back at the big house enough times.

  “What’s coming?” I ventured. Glancing around, I didn’t notice anything. Although, there had been a scary scream.

  “The Maker,” he hissed as though I was an idiot.

  The Maker? Well indeed, it sure sounded scary. Just what did this thing make? Make you into a bald guy perhaps? “What’s a Maker?” I just had to ask.

  “Foolish girl. Do you think you can put him to sleep? Is that why you’re not afraid? Don’t you know the Maker never sleeps? Never rests? Never stops? All he wants is blood. His appetite is voracious, and he cannot be destroyed. Not even by you.”

  “Bummer.” I guess that cleared everything up for me. A Maker was on the loose. He never slept and was unstoppable, with an unquenchable thirst for blood. If I wanted to use this thing, pull it into reality to scare the living daylights out of the crowd of guests, then I’d have to set eyes on it first. But would it scare them now? They’d all been turned into vampires by this thing—I was assuming—so maybe if he showed up he’d be treated like a guest of honor.

  As I pondered these thoughts, another scream ripped through the air. Mr. Pizza—new nickname—began to shake. I could hear his teeth chatter and his knees knock together. He ran a trembling hand through his hair, and I saw it come away with more than a usual amount of strands.

  “We must run. Must hide.”

  “But you said he never stops, never rests,” I reminded him. Besides, I knew how this was going to end. Subconsciously, Mr. Pizza must have played this scene out over and over again, thinking if he were to do things differently, he may escape this time.

  “I have a diversion.”

  “A diversion?” Before I knew what he was about, Mr. Pizza shoved me with both hands. I landed in an unladylike heap on the forest floor, exposed and unprotected. “You’re an ass,” I shouted at the fleeing traitor. “Run all you want. He’s still gonna find you, and he’s still gonna eat you!” A little cruel and sadistic perhaps, but he’d started it.

  Goosebumps suddenly formed all over my body, and I had a terrible feeling I was no longer alone. Slowly I turned. From my position on the ground my first glimpse was of a pair of knees. They were covered by trousers—black ones—and a swirl of a cape for a backdrop.

  “Payton?” said a raspy voice I thought familiar, but couldn’t quite place.

  There was no way around this; I had to look up.

  Slowly my gaze traveled the length of those long legs, along a smartly cut, but very old-fashioned suit jacket. I had a sneaking suspicion the back of that jacket sported a pair of tails…suit tails, not real tails, although, you never knew.

  Finally, my eyes reached their destination and came upon the face of the Maker, and the owner of that raspy, familiar voice.

  It was Logan’s dad.

  I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. After all, Logan was the lord of the manor. Albeit, probably the “Little Lord,” while this man, or whatever he was, before me was the “Big Lord.”

  A pale face stared at me in recognition. “What are you doing on the grounds?” I noticed he kept himself in the shade, his gaze darting around to the sunny spots on the forest floor between us.

  Was a nightmare memory from Mr. Pizza’s dream actually questioning me? For real? I wanted to disappear. I needed to wake up, needed Mr. Pizza to wake up. But first I had to find him. I needed to escape the Maker.

  Cautiously I climbed to my feet, keeping as much distance between Logan’s dad and me as possible. The fleeting notion of running off was quickly discarded. Judging by the look of those long legs, he could probably catch me in no time, even dodging the sunny spots.

  I suddenly remembered something.

  This was dreamland. And anything can happen in dreamland.

  Chapter Seventeen

  “I’m afraid I don’t know how I got here. Do you have any idea?” I asked Logan’s dad. The entire time I was speaking I was also slowly backing up and scanning the area for a large stick, or something to brandish as a weapon. Then, off to my left, I spotted something I could use.

  “You remember our agreement, Payton. You stay away from us, and we’ll stay away from you.” He flashed me a smile I think was supposed to be friendly. I caught sight of those fangs, and I wasn’t fooled. If this weren’t a dream I’d be in grave danger. Hopefully, I’d be immune to any mishaps.

  “Where does Logan fit into all of this? Have you changed him yet?”

  “Leave my son out of this.”

  I shrugged my shoulders and bent d
own on the pretense of tying my shoe. It appeared I was still wearing my modern clothing, minus the warm blanket. There was no rain though, so I didn’t really need it. When I stood up, I held the stick in my hands.

  Logan’s dad raised an eyebrow at me. “You think to use that upon me?” Was that a note of challenge I detected in his sneer?

  I held the stick before me, my hands about two feet apart. I bent my knees slightly, the way I’d seen Logan do in tournaments. Awake, I may not be able to match his speed or technique, but I took a chance my subconscious mind could replicate his moves. “Let’s see what you’ve got.” I realized if this didn’t work, I could probably just fly away.

  Quickly he sprang, claws bared. Dodging the sun, he was upon me in an instant. I was unprepared for the fury of his attack. Though he held no weapons, he wielded his limbs as the mightiest of swords. It took all I had to fend him off and deliver even the faintest of blows.

  That’s when I kicked it into high gear.

  I’d had dreams in the past, ones that at first weren’t turning out too well, when suddenly, I would just decide I’d had enough. It was then that the magic would begin. Things would happen. Exciting things.

  With only the mere thought of it, my body became light as air. Rising up, I became the same height as my opponent. With feet that danced on air, I was able to spar with accomplishment, driving Logan’s dad back, closer to the thinning trees. Keeping up the offensive, I drove him into areas of the light, which made his skin burn and blister. He raged and howled, but kept up a valiant fight. This was dreamland, so I did not tire. My speed and skill increased with every swing I took. Despite the fine match we made, I began to grow bored of the game. Deciding to end things, I leapt up and spun around, my weapon tight in my grip. As I descended—in slow motion, of course—my aim for his heart was precise. Easily I slay the beast, who fell to the ground with my wooden stick protruding from his heart. It was nicely done.