Shards of Kairos

XI - Into the Storm

No one talked about the hours spent in the woods lighting the squad car on fire and burning the police officer's body inside of it.

They smelled like gasoline and exhaustion, Evie hadn't stood idly by and just watched. She'd helped.

Because at this point, they were all in it together. At this point, Evie had already buried one body in the woods. But at least it wasn't getting any easier. Evie was going to take that as a good sign.

But even though the drive between one stop and the other was somewhat short - they hadn't wasted time leaving the motel behind - the silence in the undercover cop car tangible and heavy.

Julian was following behind them on his motorcycle and it was just her and Mitch in the front of the car but Evie didn't feel like they were alone. Even in the breaking daylight of early morning, Julian seemed to carry shadows with him wherever he went. And as he followed on his motorcycle behind the car, his presence almost felt like a heavy shadow. Not exactly uncomfortable - it was more comforting than Evie would admit to out loud.

She was getting used to the solid weight of his presence.

Evie's eyes fell away from the rear view mirror to Mitch, smiling just a bit a the former sheriff - who was well and soundly asleep in the passenger side of the squad car. Finally.

As emotionally exhausted as they all probably were, Mitch wasn't outright fending off Evie's concern anymore or pushing Julian so hard. He'd let her drive and take the wheel, relenting to that much at least. But on the other hand... Mitch also seemed resigned to whatever path they were on and Evie could relate because she'd gotten to that point none too recently herself. Not feeling like she was crazy anymore was nice. But sometimes Evie was almost wishing she was.

Because the reality was far worse.

They stopped at a diner to eat and though Mitch was apparently struggling to find his appetite, Julian was eating with all the restrained politeness of a man starving - who also happened to have rigid table manners.

When Evie had asked Julian what he'd wanted to eat, just before they'd left to respective bathrooms to clean up as much as they could - Julian had replied with 'everything'. He'd been so serious that she'd obliged him by placing their orders ahead of time.

And Evie's mind immediately flickered back to the trance like waking dream she and Julian had been lured into by that... that 'creature' while they were sleeping.

"I'm tired." Julian said. "I'm starving."

"And sleep isn't helping. And there's nothing for you to eat."

Evie remembered all too clearly the memory. She could only guess at a deeper, ulterior meaning. And it troubled her, especially now. Julian's appetite seemed to echo those very words spoken...

"Here." Evie opened the book to the page she'd marked in the car and pushed it over to Julian. "'Oniero Trogon'. The 'dream eater'. At least that's what my grandfather called it. So little of this is in English and I'm probably maiming the pronunciation. But it's noted here that it's a mythological creature in a lot of cultures, with many different interpretations. A lot of myths have a different idea of what it looks like but it 'eats dreams' and 'devours the souls of the living through telepathic suggestion'. While they're asleep."

Julian paused between the three plates he had in front of him, narrowing his eyes at the drawing and description in the journal, the scrawled notes. He had his sunglasses on now, securely, and Evie could only see his brow furrow around the dark shades but she was guessing he'd had the same reaction she'd had.