Desolation [manxman] DRAFT

Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Oh great. Dream me was back in the black, vast nothing, floating around, being bored. I was flailing around with my arms in order to gain enough momentum to helplessly paddle somewhere, anywhere, but all it did was flipping me upside down and making me look like a retarded seal. I huffed annoyed. This was just stupid.

I gave up after a while and just kept hovering, pissed off and hoping I would wake up soon but my dumb ass brain was fast asleep. What frustrated me the most was not knowing when this would end and having nothing to do. And I could still feel someone watching me. Now that was just weird. Who infiltrated peoples' dreams in order to stalk them? Actually, I wouldn't want to know.

I was getting uncomfortable and begged for my brain to decide it was time to wake up now, but instead I could feel someone's warm breath skimming over the back of my neck and making the hairs there stand up. A cold tingle shot up my spine and I whirled around only to see nothing. Literally nothing as far as I could see. Definitively nothing to worry about there.

Okay, there were two options. One, I was bored and my brain decided to play games and made up threats that didn't exist or the second option was that something or someone was in my dreams. I'd really prefer if my mind were playing games since Hypnos and his children, the Oneroi, refused to guard my dreams and I had to protect myself which was hard to do once you were asleep, actually. That's why they were created in the first place.

I could feel something pressing itself against my leg just like a cat would but as I looked down there was no cat. In fact there was nothing. I hissed and drew my legs to my chest but that didn't stop whoever or whatever from brushing against my arm and again there was nothing there.

"Fuck off, I don't like this." I snarled, closing my eyes to block out the dream.

I could feel it hesitate and then it recoiled. How weird that it would actually listen to me. Maybe it was my brain making up things and my subconcious decided to help me out this time. Not that it helped because I could feel it hovering close to me and radiating heat. It wasn't like the body heat of an animal or a god's vessel, instead it pulsated.

I still kept my eyes closed. If I shut off visual input in my dream it couldn't manifest itself outside of the area I could perceive it with my other senses. Since it didn't make any sounds it had to stay close for me to feel it. That limited its form and its ability to attack me. The weird thing was it hadn't so far. And I still wasn't sure whether it was something from my imagination or an actual threat.

"Thank you, I think?" I tried being nice for it being so kind as to respect my boundaries.

Of course it didn't answer and we cofloated for a while but it didn't do anything besides hovering next to me and keeping a steady rhythm with its pulses.

"If I'm going to open my eyes are you going to attack me?" I asked but I just received silence.

Curiosity got the better of me and I opened my eyes. At first I saw nothing but in the corner of my eye I could see something indistinct hovering there, blacker than the black of the surrounding nothing. It seemed to swirl and twirl around kind of like an octopus but if I tried to concentrate on it, it would disappear.

I woke up sweaty, short of breath and covered in goosebumps, blankets kicked of the bed. I grunted and rolled off the bed. No offense to my furnishing but my sofa sucked for sleeping on it and I highly appreciated having a real bed with a matress again. My back didn't hurt any more and my bones didn't crack with every movement.

I snuck out the room and made my way across the corridor towards the bathroom we all shared together. I gave the door a quick knock, not wanting to risk busting in on someone. After receiving no answer I entered to take a quick shower and then stopped as I saw the bottles of shampoo and oils. The dragon had seriously brought his stupid care products to our mission. There was a time and place for everything and this was neither the time nor the place for playing dress up.