Dark Dream

Dark Dreams, Part 6: Destiny's Number

Dragged by his broken leg along the tarmac, Charley was in a world of pain.

"What do you think, Charley, do you think they will come to save you? Maybe; maybe not. Seems likely they would have done it by now if that was their plan." He seemed satisfied with this answer and continued, "They'll most likely find someone else to do their dirty work. Time waits for no man, Charley. Though I must confess, time is running out."

He found it hard to follow the words that left the man's mouth. He could just make out that he'd just become very chatty, almost friendly. The heavens had chosen this moment to open the floodgates. He had to blink back the rain that filled up his vision. A welcoming peace descended on him. Maybe this was what death felt like, he thought calmly – too calmly.

"Do you believe in eternal damnation, Charlie?" the man said reflectively. "I do, you see? I'm what you'd call the old school. I prefer the vengeful God of the Old Testament. Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, that kind of thing. Call me old-fashioned; it's just the way I am."

Charley choked and coughed as something warm seeped from his mouth. Rain mingled with it and took away its warmth. Despite this, his eyes fixed on the clouds and the moon. Like some pale marshmallow, the moon seemed skewered on the tip of the church steeple, ready for the fire and the gaping mouth of creation.

To his mind, the strangest thing about this picture was the bat-like wings that grew large and proud from the steeple's steep, almost sheer, sides. It was odd that they should be there, spoiling the clean lines of the steeple. Odder still, they seemed to move in the storm like leather sails on some hellish rig.

"You're an important guy but we can't have you meddling with human affairs. No, Sir, we have to put an end to this before you fully awaken to your purpose.

All men and women are equal in the eyes of God, and we can't have you fucking things up." The owner of the voice came into his line of vision and hovered just above him. Now the large bat wings poked out either side of its head, making him look like a fiendish Mickey Mouse.

Charley would have laughed but he didn't have the strength. "You're not leading my gentle flock astray. They're going to the slaughter, and that's the end of it."

He watched the wings displace from the voice's head. Against the light of the moon, its shape was black.

"I'm going to kill you slow, because that's my way," the man said as he shook his head, sending a fine halo of water into orbit around his deathly silhouette.

Charley heard sirens; he was sure of it this time. He saw the creature's head tilt, as if it heard them too.

"Or maybe I'll do it fast. Something's coming, and I don't think it's the police."

Something was coming. It swooped around and around its head, like a hungry vulture that had found a choice piece of carrion.

Charley felt a deadly purpose, chilling and immaculate in its execution. Tighter and tighter the circles wound inwards, like a spiral tail of a newly forming galaxy. Finally, two clawed hands appeared and fully enveloped his tormentor's head like a child picking up an unloved doll.

"Shit!" the man said as his skull and brain were swiftly unscrewed from his spinal cord and vertebra. Charley heard a dull crunch as its eyeballs popped from broken eye sockets. As if trying to speak some last farewell, the mouth opened and closed on their futile last words. It appeared that the mechanics of speech were beyond its grasp.

"Fuck," it said, and its lifeless body was thrown to one side.

"Here we are at the crossroads, Charley," a new voice rasped. "It's a shame you have to go through all this. We would have helped you sooner, but this is your destiny. This is your path and no one else can walk it."

He was trying to make out its features as it came down to his level. Its red eyes glowed in their sockets as they hovered above him. Mottled with orange and yellow, they seemed like miniature gateways to hell itself. Its features were delicate and pleasingly symmetrical. The blackness of its skin appeared as smooth as silk, with an inner glow that made it shine and glitter from within. It reminded Charley of obsidian.

Its voice continued, rasping and deep but strangely feminine: "Now is your time to endure. Destiny has chosen this path for you — you have chosen this path for yourself. The isolation of self will soon be your world. No one will enter but us, and only at your bidding. Great times are ahead, times that will turn this world upside-down and inside out. Just remember this time as a fleeting phase, soon to be transplanted by a greater reality." The words sank into Charley's mind and became his world.

He heard sirens, very near now. They were mournful and ghostlike. Rain came in waves, hitting the upper-part of his body. He felt as if he'd been lying here forever. Caught between the folds of life-and-death, everything else receded.

"I must go now, my work is done and they are coming to help you. Good luck — we'll see you on the other side of morning."

With this, the world advanced on Charley. The sirens came with blinding lights. He heard voices, one familiar, shouting his name. The figure that had spoken to him was still there, but the headlights shone through it. It was looking at the source of the light protectively.

Before it disappeared, it looked down at him and smiled. More angel than demon, he wondered if he'd ever felt such acceptance and love outside the crib. Air rushed into his lungs as his body came back to life. Charley realized he'd just been dead without knowing it.

"Charley, what was that thing?" Janet's voice rang close by but he couldn't answer her. She was beside him on the wet tarmac, holding his arm and kissing his forehead. Sheets of water coursed round them like small rivers. Big burly men with reflective coats moved in on them and Jennet moved away to answer their questions and give them room to work.

"Sir, what happened? Who was that with you?" He heard the fear and uncertainty in their voices but again he could not answer.

He could only smile.