Radicle (Terminal trilogy #2, can stand alone)

Another night

I met Tecie again in the lower lobby.

"This is not around the corner."

"If we want to get real dramatic, isn't everything around the corner from something else?"

"Yes, but this is downstairs."

"But is it not around the corner?"

"Stop that."

"Okay. So, you chat with Moll? Because I was with her on the elevator ride down, and I don't think you had enough time to ask her out."

"No, I've having something arranged."

"Wow, how little time did you need?" She whistled, a noise I took to mean she was being sarcastic. "Anyways, they stuffed you up in a nice high-rise rich-end building for the night. But I figure there's no point in you getting comfortable there when you're moving to my place tomorrow. So we're just going straight there."

"Okay." I kept my eyes peeled as we walked. How was Stacy Baruth supposed to figure where I lived? How many demons acted as his eyes? I made a conscious choice not to enlighten Tecie to my deal with the Cancer. If she noticed I was acting odd, she made no notice of it.

"Are you excited for your new life in Hell?" She asked. She seemed to be much happier about it than I was.

"Not particularly. It is an honor, but not a pleasure."

"We'll see if we can change that around." She said slyly.

"...You want it to be a pleasure, and not an honor?"

"On second thought, maybe a little bit of both."

Her house was in a part of city that seemed to be extra dirty. It may have been the setting sun though. All the buildings, tall as they were, were of an off-white color and flecked greatly by dust.

She led me inside one, marked with a series of unimportant numbers that must have been her address. It wasn't purely her building, as expected, but one shared with a number of other people. She lived on the second floor. Her home was one of three.

"It's fairly dingy." Tecie warned as she turned on the light. She was telling the honest truth. The walls were beige and the floor was a creamy orange. The only art on the wall as a foul painting of a stern looking woman. Ceramics littered the floor. And her bed had yet to be made.

"Normally I spread my stuff out between two rooms, if you can believe it, but I figured you'd want your privacy." She took me to what was to be my room, and I felt initially attacked by the onslaught of- blue?

There was something odd about the place. Perhaps it was the stark cleanliness of it compared to her own living space. Or perhaps it was the dust on the shelves, and the photos of explosions on the wall. This place had been arranged for me, alright.

I examined the shelves with something hanging on my mind. There was an old camera. Some cards with photos on them. A small stature of a garishly fake looking cat.

Tecie was looking expectantly at me. I was looking nervously at her. Her face fell within seconds.

"You heading to bed then?"

My bed had thick quilts with planets on them. They were hand-made. I was beginning to feel uncomfortable.

"Yeah. I'm very tired." I needed to rest my mind. It wasn't really that late, but I could use the rest. I was probably going to face a long day tomorrow- no matter what happened.

Tecie turned off the lights as she left, and I saw that the walls were covered in faintly green dots that glowed- like stars. And they helped ease me into a sleep, a least after I tried very hard for a very long time.

Another dream. More stars this time. What was Michael angry about now? Was it my deal with the Cancer?

I thought at first that I was floating in a sea of nighttime stars. But I soon realized I was in bed- this bed, almost. I had had this sort of nightmare before. The kind where everything looks like morning, but is not.

Likely one of the demons had placed this curse onto me while I had been walking through the streets. I got up of bed on my toes and drew my sword- but of course, no sword came to my hands. Instead I picked up a blunt instrument that sat on the foot of my bed.

It was heavy and solid. I tossed it about in my hands as I walked. When was the succubus going to show her wretched face? When was I going to beat her dead?

I stepped out into Tecie's room, but found it to have changed into a hallway. I followed the stairs down to the living room, and started outside. My nerves were starting to calm. Where was I? Was it really a bad thing if I allowed myself to relax?

It was the middle of the night in a great farmland full of brown grasses. There were so many stars out, like the ones we saw in Heaven- but somehow, even more. And the night seemed to stretch on and on.

I walked over, quickly losing control of my body, and settled on a fence. There was a child there. The same small child. Was she the demon of these dreams? Why would she haunt me like this...?

She smiled, missing a tooth. I tapped her on the shoulder. A falling star streaked across the sky- a sign of imminent misfortune.

Was this a warning? I laughed despite myself. Did Michael want me to kill this child demon, and rid myself of these nightmares? Was that it?

I looked at her, trying to learn her face so I could find her in the waking world. But she was suddenly blank to me. I couldn't look at her face. It was like she was constantly spinning around and around, always out of sight- but I could still hear her laugh.

I concentrated as hard as I could. And it's very hard to concentrate in a dream. And at last, when I awoke, I had a name:

Tegan.