Dead and Horny

Safe Harbour

Lily gazed across the water, her eyes trying to find any sign of land. She was floating in the ocean, the technicolor clouds above her tumbling about like cotton candy in a dryer. She was unable to get enough lift out of the water to fly, and the dark depths below shifted as if alive. She was in the Dreamscape, of that she was certain.

"Lily..." It was Dana's voice, but it sounded impossibly far away. She had been hearing Dana for a couple of days now. At first she had tried swimming toward the sound of her voice, hoping to escape the dream she was stuck in, but to no avail. The last thing she remembered was getting into a car with Dana, her mind a jumbled mess.

Looking inside of the dreams of the beast in the pit had been a terrible mistake. It had been like trying to swallow the ocean in one big gulp, an apt metaphor considering her current situation.

But oh, the things she had seen there! Terrible cities buoyed up by shadows that sat high in the clouds. Oceans of darkness filled with stars, strange ships made of the bones of long dead behemoths; it had been a visual cornucopia of madness itself.

And then they had found her. Her mind had crumbled when they came for her, and then she had awoken. Somehow, despite being far away, the thing had kept whispering to her even after they were disconnected, whispers that made it difficult to think.

Sitting in the car next to Dana, silence had finally come, and with it the sleep of the Damned. Quite literally, because Lily was fairly certain the Dreamscape she was in was her own.

Which should have been impossible. She could pop in and out of someone elses Dreamscape with no trouble, but having a Dreamscape meant having a soul capable of generating one, which she certainly did not. And while she was, in fact, in possession of many souls, those had been devoured and were now a part of her, incapable of dreaming.

And so she swam. Time had no meaning here, either, and she would occasionally hear Dana above the roar of the waves. Lily knew that they were heading to Oregon, but that was about it. Mike had property in Oregon, and Lily hoped that his land in Oregon was magically protected much like his home was.

Mike.

Now there was an enigma. It wasn't just the fact that her new master was kind to her, or that a piece of her now lived inside of him. No, it was the fact that she wanted to hate him, but couldn't come up with a good reason why.

She touched the necklace on her chest. When she had fought with Cyrus, he must have gotten it off of her. The fact that it was in here with her now meant that she was probably wearing it in the real world. She took a break from paddling to tread water and look at the clouds.

There was a splash behind her, and when she turned around, she was surprised to see a figure swimming her way. She waited for the figure to approach and was surprised to see that it was, in fact, Mike.

"Okay, Romeo, this is a surprise," she said, but he got close enough to grab her by the wrist and then pulled. As he yanked on her body, she felt the whole world shift and split apart, revealing a small island with an old Victorian home on it. The house was only ten feet tall and looked like it would be better suited for a miniature golf course than habitation.

She swam with him and the two of them crawled onto the beach. Mike helped her stand, and she could only gaze at him in awe.

"We're...is this your dream?" she asked. "Like, you're standing in front of me, but I don't feel like that's really you."

"No idea. Been stuck here for a bit though. It's kind of peaceful. Watched you swim around the island for a few hours so figured you might be stuck." He stuck his hands in his pockets. "If I'm being honest, I think it's your dream."