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 morphed before our eyes, the sunset stained sand brightening, disappearing in a harsh white light. Then, the desert was gone. The convenience store replaced with sterile white walls that shot up beside us, forming a long hallway. All along the hall, little red doors popped up.
"No," I groaned. "Dr. Farrah's office. Not again."
"Paging Dr. Farrah," the voice came again.
The sound of heels clicking on linoleum echoed through the hallway. "Coming," Dr. Farrah's voice came from around the corner.
"Hide," I whispered, terrified.
"Where?" Beth squeaked.
I looked around us. There was nothing but white, sterile walls and red, locked doors.
"Unlock one of these." I pointed frantically at the nearest red door.
Beth hurried to the door and held her hand over the lock as she had done in the convenience store moments ago. A click, and the door swung open. We hurried inside, securing the lock behind us. I held my breath. The clicking footsteps grew louder, then passed the door and continued down the hallway without slowing. I exhaled hard as I took in the small room around me, not surprised to see high ceilings, two wooden chairs, a card table, and a lone light-bulb.
"I'm back here?" I wondered out loud, forgetting Beth for a moment.
"You've been here before?" Beth looked up at me, twirling her hair casually. She seemed to feel safe outside of the convenience store, at my side. She was comfortable now, her usual self. I was glad to see the horrors of her nightmare hadn't broken her spirit. I hoped the same was true for me.
I sighed. "Yes. I've had quite a time finding you."
"What happened?" Beth sat in one of the chairs.
I sat in the other, resting my elbows on my knees and my head in my hands while I considered the question. The events that led me here were disjointed in my mind. I wished I wasn't stuck in that horrible place again. "What happened? A lot. It's confusing. I can feel the memories; they're vivid at the edge of my thoughts, but when I try to focus on them, they slip away and fade into each other. I was with an orange lion, which was good, but there was a wolf and that was bad. Then I was in town again. Someone brought me here and I was trapped for a long time. I remember the doctor. She tricked me. Tortured me."
Beth nodded. She seemed poised in that chair, listening attentively. A memory tugged at my mind.
I went on, piecing together what I could. "Something happened and I woke up in the Green City with Dad and Kayle and Billy. I was hurt, so they wouldn't let me come and look for you. But I got better and I practiced and I found you in an old man's eyes. We went to the desert and the nightmare tried to trick me, but I found you anyway."
Crossing her arms, Beth nodded again and the memory flooded my mind. Dr. Farrah the nightmare sat like that, in a chair just like that one, listening to me with equal poise and attentiveness.
