For the second time in thirty years, the entire world has fallen asleep...
Thirty years after the Greymen caused the decimation of her people, high school drop out Rain Collins spends her days learning to pickpocket and hold her booze. Yet she long...
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The desert disappeared along with Billy and, in their place, a line of towering skyscrapers surrounded me. Flat-faced and uniform, a bland reminder of home. In fact, it was home. Miss Becky's bakery, a narrow, eleven-story building that was once some important manufacturer's headquarters, stood directly in front of me. My head pounded and my thoughts blurred as I wondered at the dark sky behind the buildings.
As she usually did, the baker herself stood by the small stand she had erected outside of the front door where she displayed her choicest goods. Today, the bread was blue and black with mold. Next door to Miss Becky's loomed Dr. Farrah's office tower, the tallest in the city at over forty floors. For some reason, it's dark face and intricately carved stonework did not look beautiful today. Instead, it seemed imposing.
As I took in my surroundings, I was bustled about by flowing streams of people. More people than I'd ever seen pushed their way through the streets.
I made to call out for my companion, but I couldn't remember his name. I scanned the faces of the crowd for a moment before I realized that I couldn't recall his face either. What was happening to me?
My head was still reeling and I couldn't grasp reality or dream. My breath came short and staggered. I spun and collapsed in a heap of tears in the middle of the street.
"Young lady!" I heard a high voice behind me. Miss Becky. "Are you alright, girl?"
Her hand was on my shoulder. I looked up at her and bared my teeth the way the wolf had at my friend (what was his name?) so long ago.
"Rain Collins!" Miss Becky was taken aback. "My, my. You are not alright at all, are you?" She put her arms around me and lifted me off the ground. "Come now, I'm taking you to see Dr. Farrah. She'll fix you right up, yes?"
I mumbled a response, though even I wasn't sure if it was of assent or dissent. Miss Becky apparently took it as a sign of agreement though, because she wrapped an arm around my waist and started guiding me down the street, toward the architecturally complex monster that was Dr. Farrah's office.
As far as I could recall, Dr. Farrah was the only resident or worker in her enormous building. There were always rumors around town that she experimented on citizens, but they were mostly just stories to spook the kids. The population was too small and close for anyone to do anything so devious without getting caught. I always though the doctor was just an anti-social woman singly dedicated to her research.
We arrived to find the doctor sitting in an armchair in the lobby, smoking a long wooden pipe. Her glasses were set low on her nose and she was thumbing through a thick medical textbook. She looked positively astute.
"Miss Becky." Dr. Farrah smiled as she pushed her glasses up her nose and closed the textbook. "Rain. An odd pair. Hello. How are you two today?"
"Rain's not well," Miss Becky answered for both of us. "I found her crying in the street, all alone."
