The dream maker

chapter 8 : sandman's offer

This is it ... the end , im dead now... , thought Klaus , but if he was thinking , how would he be dead ? can a person be dead and still have the ability to think ? , if the opposite of this sentence is true , why can't this be true as well ?

Slowly and faintly , he opens his heavy eye lids and looks around with the sides of his eyes , he found himself sitting on a chair , , unable to stand , as darkness surrounded him from each angle , there were absolutely nothing to be seen , a while have passed and Klaus's breath that gradually grew to mad panting was the only thing he could hear , The place was so quiet , he could even hear his heartbeat clearly as well ! this kind of silence drove him crazy , he shook himself from side to side trying to get out of the chair but it was no use , even though there were absolutely no ropes or anything chaining him , he screamed and asked for help , but nobody responded , the darkness was dead as a grave ...

Suddenly ,from inside the deep suffocating darkness , glowed a pair of irises of bright yellow , then a fire light came obvious from what seemed to be a smoking pipe , and finally , a fire was lit up gently beside Klaus's chair in a neat intricately decorated fire place , the darkness was finally lifted , and the room was revealed with its details , it was a tidy , luxurious , old fashioned wooden room with not much furniture , and some weird pictures hanged on the walls ,

In front of Klaus , sat a man with the pipe , he was dressed like a shabby clown with a big black spider tattoo on his hole face ,a malicious smile drew on his lips as he sat cross leged against Klaus staring at him without a word ,

Klaus grew fear for him , not only because he was like dressed like a clown , or the spider tattoo on his face , or the fact that big black spiders roamed the wooden floor , but mostly of that sadistic evil smile of his ,

He pulled himself together , gathered some courage even though his throat was dry from fear , and asked " who.. who are you ? , what is this place ? "

" can you guess ? " spoke at last, the pipe man with a deep voice

" I .. I don't know .. I .. am I dead ? .. where am I ? "

The pipe man grinned , adjusted his posture then said " you are in a place where all people on earth , from the very beginning of time , spend half of their miserable lives in "

" what do you mean ? " asked Klaus curiously

" you are in the other world , son "

" what ? what are you talking about ? is this a joke ? who are you ? " asked Klaus , " answer me ! " he demanded while the pipe man let out a long giggle ,

" ah so many questions ... that's why I picked you .."

" picked me ? ! i never even met you ! , for the last time ,who are you ? ! " he shouted a bit too boldly for his position

" lower your voice , Klaus ! " shouted the pipe man as his smile turned into an ugly frown , and all the sand that was covering Klaus from head to toe suddenly blew off of him in every direction as if it had exploded

"I am the one who had been sending you all those dreams , son ... I could have just showed you the truth , you know .. but I wanted to know exactly how much you believe in your dreams , and how far would you go to satisfy your curiosity and your faith , or if you would give up or not , I was testing you , but not only you ... I've been testing people all over the world for many years now , but none of them followed the thread of their sub consciousness , only you did , I knew you will since you were born .. " explained the pipe man smiling again

" w..what do you mean ? "

" c'mon Klaus ! you're a smart young man ! think of it this way , I held a competition worldwide throughout so many years to see who deserves to take my place ... out of billions , one ... just one ! in four hundred years ! followed my clues , " said the pipe man enthusiastically then grins with increasing laugh and claps his hands loudly and saying with the pipe in his mouth " well done ! well done , son !! , though you seemed hesitated at the end , I gave you a little push , a sign , because I like you , I believe in you .. "