Thicker Than Water....

Chapter 6 - The Analogy

   Kula's revelation had staggered me. Rooted me to the spot. Had I been talking aloud in my dream?  Surely I didn't do a narrative of the whole thing.   "How could you possibly know that?" 

Kula smiled and waved her hands matter-of-factly.  "I can enter people's dreams."

I didn't know whether to be offended or relieved at this development. Yet it all sounded so impossible.  "How?" was all I could manage to say.

She shrugged.  "I don't know how.  I just can. But you!" she said, pointing a perfectly manicured finger at me.  "You have a been little tricky to access, 'cos we have never been in de same room before when you been sleeping."

   "But," I added, more to myself than her,  "I've never had  nightmares up here.  Until last night."

   "Yeah, little sista. Remember though, you were unsettled after yesterday, so I t'ought it might transfer to your subconcious.  I knew you suffered from dem dreams, Peter told me.  I apologise for taking advantage."

In a flash, I recalled some of the things Peter had told us about Kula's origins.  He had seemed to take it in his stride, and not once had he dismissed them as hocus-pocus.   "I guess Peter knows you can do this....dream invasion thing?"

She laughed. "Yes. I didn't  tell him to begin wit'. But, when some of his dreams were too.....risqué, I slapped him awake."   A second's silence followed until the penny dropped in my brain.  Then both of us giggled like school girls.  It felt good.  It had been a long time since I had laughed.  Our mirth gradually subsided, and once more Kula observed me with her questioning stare.

   "So... " I cautiously opened the conversation again.  "You are a spectator, a voyeur.  Are you able to...I don't know....stop the dreams? Apart from slapping the dreamer, that is."  I gave another little chuckle but  Kula's eyes were serious.

   "Stop dem?" she mused.  "No, I can't do dat.  I have no control over someone's subconscious meanderings.  I can only try to... interpret dem."

   "Oh!"  That had never been explored before.  The so-called professionals who had probed my mind, my past, my beliefs, my fears, had only ever tried to find out why my mind concocted such terrifying visions and they attempted to  relieve me of them, through various therapies, techniques and drugs.  They had all failed, of course.   But, no-one had actually tried to tell me what the dreams meant. This was a new, exciting but unnerving angle.  "What do think they mean, then?"  That was the only time I thought I saw a flicker of trepidation in her eyes. 

She took a deep breath, causing her beaded plaits to slide down over her shoulders, framing her exquisite features.  "If you were still a little girl, Sienna, I would have t'ought dat you had heard stories or seen scary TV programmes , and dat dey simply re-played in your mind as you slept.  But dat would be a simple summary, not based on anyt'ing ot'er dan how a child's mind might work."

I understood that analogy, it was common enough.

   "As it is," she continued, "you are a grown woman, and dees...terrors, have remained, fastitiduously, by your side all dees years."

I felt a shiver run down my spine and shakily, I reached for my drink.  She allowed me time to take a sip and replace the glass before she continued. " I t'ink dey are bound to you, Sienna.  And now, de ugly one has presented himself to you on dat hilltop."

   "It could have been as Peter suggested though," I said, trying to rationalise it. "A tourist?"

Kula slowly shook her head.  "No sista, he frightenend you because you recognised him.  You did not see him on dat hill first , and den dream of him.  It was de ot'er way around."

This time, it was my head moving in the negative.  "Nah," I said, dismissively.  "Now you are talking ghosts and fairytales.  Yes, my dreams terrify me, but that's all they are. Dreams!  T-to say that they are, what...real? I don't buy that."

   "There are some t'ings in life, Sienna, that may seem impossible, but yet dey are der, watching us, living among us.  T'ings which society, our culture and our scientific brains refuse to acknowledge."

   "No!" I stood up, defiant and angry.  Was she mocking me? After all these years of  being friends,  she dared to actually come into my home and ridicule me? "Enough of this nonsense!"

She rose to her full height, and boy was she an imposing figure to behold.  "De o'ter one," she said determindly. "Vittorio.  He wants you.  And listen carefully, Sienna. He is de one to fear, not his ghoul!"

  Ghoul?  This was becoming absurd.  "Stop it!" I clasped my hand over my ears, like a child trying to block out horrible noises.

   "Oh, yes!  It is he who wants you.  And he will not rest until he gets what he wants.  Beware little sista. You are being hunted by de ultimate predator.  A vampire."

  "Get out !" I screamed at her.