Dreams of Imahken

Grief, known to none other than her.

Illus thrashed in the water, reaching every which way for something to hold. His sister's screams disappeared beneath the river's roar. With all sense of direction gone, dizziness swelled through him.

Amidst his panicked attempt to swim, something underwater curled around Illus's leg. Something tugged the rope around his waist and slowly the water ceased pushing him away.

He was too exhausted to resist the pull, too weary to fight the current, and too shocked to look away from the wave of blue mist swirling on the opposite side of the river.

A blue rose broke through the water before Illus's eyes. It curled around his shoulders and under his arms, pulling him ashore. More vines collected him, dragging him further up the hill, to the edge of the labyrinth of roses. The last thing Illus heard was the woman's voice. His arms fell slack, legs released from hold, and mind disappeared into darkness.

Blaring horns echoed in the distance, the continental trains departing early this gray morning.

A boy of eight years with short white hair and pale gray eyes darted through the smoggy alleys of a brick industrial complex. The thick air slogged through his lungs, but a wide smile spanned his face. A younger girl with long pure white hair and dark eyes trailed behind him. She held a jagged lead pipe, dragging it along the sooty cobblestones as she ran.

"I'll smack your face off!" The young girl chased her brother, who taunted the slow seven-year old with a mischievous grin and waving hands.

As his eyes turned away from where he was running, he failed to notice an older man fresh out of his assembly job. Young Illus slammed right into the man's stained tawny suit coat and stumbled back. The man's angry gaze scared Illus to run around the man, but a hand grabbed Illus and the man leaned down, his rotted teeth and sweaty face grimacing. He reeked of soot, coal smoke, and foul body odor.

"Who d'ya think yer runnin' into kid?! Ah?!"

The man's saliva spatted Illus's face as he tried pushing off.

Then a loud clank rang through the alley. The man dropped Illus in light of Tyza whacking his shin with the lead pipe.

"You li'l gremlin!"

The man grabbed Tyza by the scruff of her coat and then whacked Illus against the alley wall. He dragged them both toward the street. They thrashed to break free, but that only led to the man slamming them together, heads bonking off one another every time they resisted.

After a dizzy drag through the streets, he threw Illus and Tyza onto the mucky floor of the local police station.

"These hellions have just assaulted me with a lead pipe! I want 'em thrown away!" The man raised his pant leg to show an apathetic officer the nasty bruise Tyza gave him.

"He hit himself!" Illus yelled to the officer. "He just hates us because we're living next to him! He wants us gone but we've done nothing, honest!"

"You lyin' bugger!" The man whacked the back of Illus's head and Illus played it up, falling to the floor and crying.

Tyza faked a limp to Illus and broke down next to him. "Please! Help us, policeman!"

"Oy," the malnourished policeman tried getting their attention, "oy, oy!" He blew his whistle, piercing everyone's ears and stopping the man from grabbing the kids again.

Two more policemen rushed over and threw the man out, then carried Illus and Tyza into a cell.

"What are you doing?! He attacked us!" Illus's facade fell away at the shock of the metal bars locking them in.