The Dreamer's Curse

The Final Passing

[Chapter 34]

A great white flash caused the forest to fade away, and Draco along with it. I shielded my eyes from the blinding light, but it seemed to pierced through skin and bones, and therefore it made its way through my eyelids. I gripped the hilt of my sword tighter when I felt something brush against it.

“Who is there?” I whispered.

But no response came.

“Hello?” Danny called out, proving himself braver than he himself knew.

But again, there was no response.

Perhaps there was no one there.

I poked my sword forward, wondering if flesh would meet the other end. Sure enough, there was a body at the other end that yelped like a whimpering puppy. Danny gripped my hand tighter. I heard him suck air into his lungs. The blinding light subsided, and before my eyes, there was a silhouette of a man. His hair stuck out in odd places, and he leaned heavily on his cane.

“Jasper!”

“Who in the bloody blazes gave you a sword, Jane?”

I smiled. “I’d have you know I’m quite old enough to use it, thank you very much.”

“Doesn’t mean you know how to use it. Give me that. What brings you here? And whose child is this? It can’t be yours—unless”

“No, Jasper, I was never pregnant. This is Danny—your half-brother— and we’re here to stop the war,” I said matter-of-factly. 

“My half—bloody—I’ll have a word with her when this war is over and—”

“Hadn’t you seen it in the old library? And shouldn’t you be fighting in it?”

Jasper’s eyes sighed as if I’d run him through with my sword. “Of course I did, but time is a tricky thing, and I thought he’d be older by now. Oh. And yes, the war is going on upstairs. All the Kingsleighs are in full armour, joined by a handful of Pure Dreamers. Cripples can’t fight, I’m afraid. I’ve been sent to guard this place. To make sure anyone who attempts to go or come through it is stopped.”

“Well, I’m here.”

Jasper grinned. “I’m doing a lousy job then.” 

“Yes, yes you are.”

Jasper bent his back and propped his chin on his cane. “You must be Danny.”

The little boy, with his raven hair gazed back into clear blue eyes much like his own. 

Jasper extended his hand and gave the young boy a devilish ‘this-ought-to-be-fun’ sort of smirk. “Nice to meet you. I’m Jasper.”

Danny looked at me hesitantly, as if to ask if it was alright to shake this new stranger’s hand. I nodded, patting his head. 

“Hullo,” Danny said finally, after a figurative eternity of silence. 

“Now that we’re acquainted,” Jasper shrugged and straightened up. “Let’s solve the riddle of this war. Theoretically, if we destroy these doors, and all these,” he waved his hands, gesturing to some unseen spirits, “Dreamers are returned to their bodies in whatever world their bodies are in.”

“But your body—”

“Has decomposed, yes, but our family is Cursed, we’ll be staying right here.”

“What about Danny?”

“He’s got his body with him, and since Mother is his, well, mother, then I suppose he’ll remain in whatever world Mother’s from—or, since she’s technically dead, he’ll remain here.”