Nine
Needless to say, after such a traumatizing night, the possibility of falling asleep and having pleasant dreams was pretty slim. So when I awoke in the foggy haze of Psitharis I wasn't surprised. Instantly I decided to check around for the soldier. "Hello? Are you out there?" I called. "Can you hear me?"
It wasn't long until I was greeted with the harsh sound of a man calling back, "Where are you?"
"Just follow the sound of my voice." I called back. "You'll find me." It was funny. The first time he held me at bay with a sword it scared the crap out of me. The second time he apprehended me it was painful but not wholly unexpected. And now I was actually seeking him out. I guess the recent events in my real life allowed me to accept my fate in the dream world. They say if you die in a dream then you die in real life. Maybe I was thinking that wouldn't be such a bad way to commit suicide. Death in a dream, which probably looked like a heart attack in real life. Maybe I was resigned to that fate. Who knows?
I felt his hand reach out and grab me on the shoulder, saw the sword come up to my chest as he grabbed me in a tight embrace. "Honestly, is this necessary?" I asked. "After all, I let you know where I was. It's not like I tried to run or anything."
"Why do you keep disappearing?" he demanded. "Are you some sort of sorceress?"
I was getting tired of this guy. "Kind of hard to explain, especially when somebody is holding you so tight you can barely breathe." He loosened his grip on me slightly, lowered the sword but kept it at the ready. "I don't know how to explain this. Long story short, I'm kind of stuck between two worlds, this one and the one I usually live in. When I disappear from here I wind up back there. I don't know what kind of time elapses when I'm gone from here. By the way, how long was I gone?"
I don't think he was entirely convinced. "Days." He responded. "I sat here and waited. You said we would meet again. So I waited. What else could I do, report to the queen I had lost you twice?"
"Well, I'm back. I don't know for how long, but I'm back. And I don't see any real point in running until I get this whole deal straightened out with your queen, because I've never met your queen, much less plotted any acts of treason against her. But me disappearing, well that's going to happen...a lot."
"You will try to escape again?" he pulled the sword back up to my neck.
"I can't help disappearing." I replied, exasperated. "But I also don't see any point trying to get away from you either. So if I do disappear it won't be long until I return. So your only choice in this matter is to stay where you are and wait until I reappear. But while I'm here I won't try to flee. This is all just a stupid dream anyway, so what the hell?"
"A dream?" he was bewildered.
"Yeah, it's pretty much a dream to me." I answered. "Sorry to bust your bubble, but you're little more than a figment of my imagination. It's not like you could actually hurt me or anything. I sleep, here you are. I wake up, you're gone. Simple as that."
I think I made him angry, because from out of nowhere the jerk produced a tiny knife in his other hand and sliced my arm. It wasn't deep, maybe just a little deeper than a paper cut, and only about an inch long. But he proved his point. I grabbed my arm, crying out in pain, swearing up a blue streak. Some of the words he had never heard, but from the tone he could tell they were not nice.
"So, I cannot hurt you, eh?" He was gloating. Seriously, I hated this jackass. He handed me a cloth to tie around my arm so it would stop bleeding. My imagination was working overtime. I actually felt that. Guess I had to be cautious in this dream world from now on. I took the cloth, mumbled something akin to "Thanks, jerk." and we moved onward.
We walked for a mile or so in complete silence. I was pissed because he cut my arm, he was cautious because I was the amazing disappearing girl and he kept a keen eye on me. But when my arm finally dulled to a slight ache I finally broke the silence. "Guess we're even, huh?"
He walked on undeterred. "What do you mean 'even'?"
"Well," I began, "you gave me your cloth to fix my arm, and I gave you my paper towel to fix your forehead a long time ago when we smacked heads in Dream Land. So, not only did you wind up cutting me like I accidentally cut you all those years ago, we helped treat each other's wounds. So we're even."
He stopped. One hand involuntarily went to the scar on his forehead. "I don't know what you're talking about. I got this cut in a training exercise from my sword master. I was too slow with a parry and he nicked me. I have never met you before, of this I am certain."
I was confused. I was quite certain he was that boy. They had the same unmistakable eyes. "My mistake." I felt my cheeks flush with crimson. Maybe this entire world was populated with blue-eyed boys. But obviously I was mistaken about this man being the boy from my childhood. "So, am I going to have the privilege of knowing my captor, or is your name a closely guarded secret?"
"There is no point showing favor to a traitor like you." He was determined to wear on my last nerve.
"Aww, come on." I pried. "Consider it the last request of a dead girl."
He was quiet for a long time. I was getting angry; after all, it was just a stupid name. Then I heard, "Roland."
I didn't push the issue. I just said, "Thank you Roland. I'm Medora." He walked on without acknowledging my attempt at an introduction. Realizing he had no interest in getting to know a criminal, I marched on in silence.
By the time we got to the entrance of Dream Land I was tired. I didn't remember the entrance being so far away. I was very shocked by the sight that greeted us. The gates had been destroyed; the lights that illuminated the words "Dream Land" were burned out or broken. One or two brave bulbs continued to glow, but the sign itself was basically dark. The fog started to lift and our visibility improved greatly. I could see the roller coasters at this point, as well as some of the lights from the interior of the park. They were still running, but the people standing in line looked as if they were awaiting their slaughter. They used to be happy and talking while they eagerly waited. Now they seemed to be zombie-like in their appearance, as if all the life had been drained from them and now they were just going through the motions. The line inched forward, and each person shuffled forward in the same fashion, heads down, faces pale and grim. The people on the rides sat in grim silence, not a scream or delighted squeal emanated from anywhere in the park. More people joined the lines, some prodded on by soldiers carrying weapons. The people wandering through the park walked with heads down and feet dragging the ground. Children walked aimlessly through the thoroughfares, no parents to hold their hands. Every now and then a child would look up to see the new soldier and his prisoner making their way through the crowds. It was a basic childhood curiosity that, if seen by a soldier, was greeted with the sharp sting of what looked like a cattle prod. "Hey! Don't do that!" I shouted out.
One of the guards actually approached me, stunner at the ready, but Roland waved them off. "Urgent business for the queen." He announced. The other soldier backed off. We continued on our way.
"Um, where are we going?" I asked. "I thought we were heading for the palace?"
Roland didn't seem too talkative. "It's quicker to go through the park than around it. I thought you knew this place? You said you've been here before."
I was embarrassed. I didn't want to admit to him this world was my creation, he was my inadvertent creation, and I didn't know my own way about it. I thought I would sound even more suspect to him if I admitted it. Also, I didn't want to confess to him, or myself for that matter, that as a child I thought myself unworthy to go any further than the confines of this park. It was a massive park, probably miles in diameter, and I had made it that way for a reason. I wanted plenty to do that didn't involve progressing past its gates to the mystical palace I deemed myself unworthy to visit. "Hey, it's been a while. Things have changed since I was here last." He seemed to accept that excuse. We walked on, avoiding the downcast patrons who didn't look up long enough to watch where they were going. The journey, as well as this dream, seemed to be dragging on forever.
By the time we got to the far end of the park we had been walking for a couple of hours. I'd honestly forgotten just how big I had made this place. If going through was shorter, how far around the fence would we have traveled to reach the base of the mountain? Just then another guard, a larger and more imposing guard than Roland, approached us.
"Halt, little man." The soldier scowled at us. "You tell me where you're going with this one. I could use another prisoner for the underground."
"Official business for the queen." Roland responded, suddenly nervous. The other soldier didn't wear the same uniform he wore. He seemed very dirty and unpleasant both in mannerisms and in his stench. I looked at him; he was bald and was either missing one eye or squinting it shut for reasons I could not fathom. Most of his teeth were missing or blackened horribly. His arms were muscular, but the rest of him was a gigantic blob of flesh. He looked like a trademark badass, and I couldn't figure out why in the world I would ever come up with a character like this.
"The queen ain't my boss." The badass smirked. "I work for Calperal, not for her. And I'll be taking that prisoner with me." Roland was instantly on the defensive. Sword drawn, he pushed me behind him to guard me, and I fell into a hedge. I watched the big man lunge at Roland, saw Roland slice a huge gash into the man's side. It seemed to be only a slight scratch to the other guard, because he merely smiled and gave me a knowing look. "Don't you think of going nowhere. You'll make a tasty morsel for Calperal." I didn't want to know what he meant by that. Several times the man lunged for Roland, trying to get him in a death grip. He had no knives or swords, he worked with brute force alone. But Roland was quick, able to dodge the lumbering idiot every single time. And after a few moments of this impasse, the giant realized he couldn't match Roland's speed, so he changed his strategy. He got Roland to move away from his quarry, and the next thing I knew a massive, stinking mass of human was barreling right toward me.
I panicked, looking left and right for some way to run. I was backed into the hedge; I had nowhere else to go. So I resigned myself to my fate, but I was going to fight as hard as I could first. Aw hell, why not, I figured. I ran at the man full speed. I was going to kick him in the crotch, but his overlapping belly gave his private parts more than adequate protection from attack. So I lowered my head and rammed him with my shoulder in the stomach. The only thing that resulted from that less-than-brilliant move was a mind-numbing pain in my shoulder and the nausea that came smelling the reek of this man as he easily hoisted me up on his shoulder and started on his way.
Roland tried for one last attack, one more lunge with his sword, but my new captor simply reached out and knocked Roland to the ground as if he weighed nothing at all. Roland's head hit the pavement with a loud thud, and he was knocked out cold. I started screaming his name, which in the back of my mind seemed odd because they were both trying to put me in horrible fates so why was Roland better than this guy, why did I trust him more? Before I could reason that out in my head I could feel the first tendrils of consciousness pulling at me, and I could see the entire scene in front of me disappearing in the confusion of the light assaulting my closed eyelids. The brute grabbed at me, desperately trying to keep his grip, but I was already gone, getting one last glance at Roland's lifeless form as I dematerialized. And when I woke up, smelling like the goon who tried to kidnap me, I looked around on my bed, knowing I would find some sign that I had been in Psitharis. And there it was, right under my pillow, several bloodstains sustained from a cut on my shoulder. I touched the spot where Roland had cut me; there was a scabbed over cut on my arm. I quickly put my sheets in the washer and jumped in the shower to wash the smell of the prison guard from my body. And I hoped when I returned to Dream Land I would find Roland alive.
