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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I awoke I don't know how much later in a domed room. Pale, green walls arced upward, curving toward a circular window in the center of the dome, right above me. I stared up at the blue sky, the first I'd seen since the Big Sleep began. A feeling of calm settled over me. The fear and panic from my captivity, from battling the Greyman, from nearly dying--it was gone. The haze was gone, too. I remembered everything.
"She's awake." Was that my father's voice?
I turned my head slowly, painfully toward the sound and burst into tears. There, clad in a forest green tuxedo, was my father.
"Daddy." I laughed, reaching in his direction.
He hurried over to my side, face tight with worry. "Rest, dear. You've been through a lot."
"Am I dreaming?" I asked him, knowing the answer.
"Yes, honey." He stroked my hair. "This is all a dream. But I'm here now. You're safe."
I pulled away from his hand, suddenly wary. "Safe? Sure, and you aren't a Greyman's idea of a classic joke. I mean, we've done Beth already. It's getting old, right? Time for me to kill my dad."
"Your father's telling you the truth." A woman's voice came from my other side as a hand pressed on my shoulder, pushing me back into the bed. I turned too quickly and hurt my neck. Blinking away the tears that came, I saw Dr. Farrah standing over me.
"You," I hissed and flailed my arms toward her face, scratching at her eyes.
I managed to knock her glasses off before she grabbed my wrist and subdued me. To my surprise, my father grabbed my other arm and held me down.
"Stop it," I shouted. "She's the one."
"That wasn't Dr. Farrah. That wasn't her office, Rain. Remember? It's a dream."
"It was her!"
"Not me," the doctor said. "It was a projection. A nightmare."
"You won't trick me again." I tried to summon a weapon, any weapon, but all that I could produce were bouquet after bouquet of fragrant roses.
Covered in flowers, I looked up at my father. He scratched his beard thoughtfully, smiling. "The whole city is green and pure. Everyone is safe there. No goblins or bogey men or monsters will appear."
He opened his arms wide, gesturing at our surroundings. The room was a pale, cool green. Round windows lined the dome all the way to the top, revealing the blue sky and glimpses of ornate emerald buildings outside. I felt a certain calm in the air, not like I had experienced in my last nightmare, but a genuine, safe calm.
"Welcome to the City of Safe Dreaming."
"I'm safe?" I looked into his eyes. They were his. I was sure.
"Yes, Rain." He stroked my hair again. This time I leaned into his hand. "You're safe."
Tears rolled down my face again. I had made it. "Where's Billy? And Beth?"
