Infernal Father of Mine (11 page)

He shrugged. "I knew exactly when the change
hit you, and most of what was going on in your life during your
adjustment."

"Adjustment?" I shouted. "My girlfriend almost
cut my throat because she thought I was abusing my sexual
superpowers to take advantage of her!"

"Her love won out in the end though, didn't
it?"

I opened my mouth to shout something back but
only angry sputtering noises emerged. David grinned. The world
flashed red. I dove into him. His back hit a brick mailbox. We
bounced off it and landed on a grassy lawn. I wrestled him beneath
me, straddled his chest, and reared back my fist. He looked up at
me, one eyebrow raised.

"I can see you're upset, son—"

I punched him in the face. "You're damned right
I'm upset, you lying bastard!" I lined up my fist for another punch
when he pushed me off. I somersaulted backwards and flopped on my
stomach. Anger burned behind my eyes. I rolled to my back and
sprang to my feet.

"Let's stop with the hitting for a while,"
David said. He narrowed his eyes. "I don't want this to get
ugly."

"You're not my father. You're dead to me." An
angry grow rose in my throat. "Why did you make me go through hell
when you could have told me everything?" I heard knuckles crack as
my fists clenched tight.

"I'm dead to you?" He sighed. "That hurts." His
easy smile returned along with a shrug. "I knew you weren't ready
for the truth." He nodded down the road. "We should keep
going."

"Not until you tell me why," I
growled.

"Because I wanted to see what kind of man you
were," he said.

"It was a test?" I heard my knuckles crack.
"You son of a—"

He sighed. "I knew you weren't ready." With
that, he resumed jogging in the direction of the Grotto.

I let out a frustrated shout and, seeing no
choice, followed him, anger boiling as I thought about how cruel
his little test had been.

As we passed through a residential
neighborhood, I heard laughter echoing from nearby and detoured
down a side street. A guy about my age stood in the midst of
several pretty girls. He said something I couldn't quite hear, and
the girls burst into laughter. One of the girls kissed him. The
others broke into arguments about kissing him next. One took off
her shirt and—the scene vanished.

"Another dream," I said.

A screaming girl raced around the corner of the
house at the end of the street, arms waving frantically. Before I
could wonder what she was running from, I heard a strange honking
noise. My heart froze in terror as a clown appeared, ghoulish leer
on his face as he raced after the girl, shoes honking with every
step.

"Now that," David said, "is scary."

"I hate clowns," I said with a
shudder.

The clown erupted with evil laughter and dove
at the girl. She screamed one final time before they vanished.
David looked at the skyline to get his bearings, and we resumed
course. Dreams and nightmares sprang up all around us. One man
stood screaming in his front yard as his house grew a mouth and ate
him.

"Guess he can't afford the mortgage," David
said.

I watched in horror as a young boy set a dog on
fire, clapping and laughing with glee. I made a note of the
address. S
erial killer in the making.

As the number of dreams grew in density, more
and more minders appeared, drifting down the streets, tentacles
touching the people who I figured must be doing the actual
dreaming. Far overhead, I made out people flying like superheroes.
It seemed to be a popular dream. Further down the road, I watched
as a young girl saved her family from a burning house, only to
witness her parents and little sister crumble to ashes before her
eyes while she cried in anguish. Before we'd gone far, the scene
reset itself and the girl repeated the rescue.

"Talk about trapped in your own worst
nightmare," I said with a shudder.

"We need food and water," David said some time
later. He wiped sweat from his forehead. "I don't know about you,
but I'm thirsty."

We'd made good progress, but I needed a break.
"Me too."

David headed toward a nearby house. He tried
the doorknob, but it was locked.

"We can't break in," I said. "Remember the car
on the railroad tracks? I couldn't move it."

He lined his elbow up with the window and
smashed it in one blow.

I felt my eyebrows rise. "How'd you do
that?"

David shrugged. He reached through the window
and unbolted the door. We went inside the seemingly empty house and
into the kitchen. He stopped. "You hear that sound?"

"That low humming?"

He nodded. "The fridge is working." He opened
it and looked inside. "It's cold." Grabbing a gallon of milk, he
took a swig, set it down on the table and waited.

"I hope you didn't just kill yourself," I said,
unsure how safe Gloom food was.

"I don't think we'll survive long without the
necessities." A shrug. "Nothing to be lost by trying."

"Unless it gives you diarrhea."

He laughed.

After a fifteen minute wait, nothing happened,
so I took a drink of milk myself. It didn't taste quite right—in
fact it didn't have much taste at all. As if that was the cue to
pig out, we devoured a basket of fruit in the middle of the table.
None of it had much flavor, but at least it was filling.

"I couldn't smash the window of that car in the
first nightmare, but you smashed the window to this house." I
picked up a pencil from the table and broke it. "It doesn't make
sense."

"It makes perfect sense," he said.

"Please explain." I had to hear
this.

"The nightmare was a constructed dreamscape
with a series of events determined by the mind of the dreamer." He
took a swig of water. "It was recreated here, maybe by the minders,
and followed the exact sequence of the dream."

The logic made sense to me. "So a dream
sequence is set in stone. We can't do anything to alter any part of
it."

"Exactly." He waved his hand at the kitchen.
"The environment here mirrors the real world when there's no dream
sequence."

"We can affect the normal environment," I said.
"If we break something here that's not broken in the real world, I
wonder if it resets back to normal after a time."

"A good question," David said. He opened the
pantry and dug around inside. "We just have to hope the food is
nourishing."

"It certainly doesn't have much
taste."

He removed a backpack from the pantry and
started shoving food inside it. "Yeah. Everything here is like a
pale shadow of the real world."

After filling the backpack, we resumed course
for the Grotto, dodging dreamscapes as we went.

We trudged down residential roads for at least
another hour, though it was impossible to know the exact length of
time without a phone or watch, and finally connected with a main
road leading into Buckhead. I managed to restrain the nearly
overwhelming urge to ask my father about his past or why he'd lied
to me all his life about who he was.

What if I'm really not ready for
the truth?

I had no way of answering such a question. The
secrets my family kept tended to be a lot more shocking than the
average fare. Instead of, "Your uncle is an alcoholic," I might
expect something along the lines of, "Your uncle destroyed a
parallel dimension by accident." It was clear my father was no
ordinary demon spawn. If he'd told the truth about being the first
Daemos, how had he come into being?

I remembered the vision of my father telling
Mom I would serve and die, and not to grow attached. The sick
feeling returned in my stomach, like a knife in my gut. I wanted to
throw up. I wanted to shout at him and demand respect and love from
my own damned father.

He never loved me.

A realization punched me in the gut. I knew
what David meant about me not being ready for the truth. If knowing
what he knew felt like this, I never wanted to hear it. I didn't
want to know everything was a lie. I didn't want to know my
wonderful, sheltered childhood was pure fantasy with my father and
mother as the main supporting characters.

"You two, halt," said a commanding
voice.

I raised my head from troubling thoughts to see
a man riding a velociraptor guide the creature to a halt in the
middle of the road. "Talk about a whacked out dream," I said,
steering clear of the creature in case it started salsa
dancing.

"I said halt!" the man roared.

"Justin," David said, eyes locked onto the man
and his beast. "I think he's talking to us."

I stopped dead in my tracks and stared at the
man. He looked young, maybe in his thirties, though he wore a
tailored suit and bowtie.

"You're real?" I asked. We'd seen so many
dreamscapes, finding another person was almost surreal.

He displayed a wicked set of vampire fangs.
"Oh, very much so."

"How did you know we're not dream
people?"

"I've been following you for quite some time,"
he said. "Do you know how hard it is to find fresh blood in the
Gloom?"

I backed away and saw David doing the same.
"I'm sure you could find blood packs at a hospital," I
said.

"I said 'fresh'." The vampire nudged the raptor
toward us. Razor-sharp claws flashed.

"Cool dinosaur," I said, using peripheral
vision to find a safe place to run. Businesses and high-rise
condominiums lined the road. We might be able to get inside, but
would the elevators work? "Did you find him at a pet
shop?"

"When you've lived in the Gloom as long as I
have, you discover a few useful tricks." He sniffed the air, as if
discovering a wonderful aroma. "You're not human."

"Correctamundo." I bared my teeth. "So don't
mess with us."

He laughed. "Don't even pretend you still have
preternatural abilities. I know you don't."

"And neither do you," I said.

"Do you have a velociraptor?" He raised an
eyebrow in challenge.

David and I exchanged looks. I shrugged. "You
have a point."

"We're looking for a way out of the Gloom," my
father said. "There's no reason for you to stay trapped here
forever. Come with us."

"Escape? Escape?" the vampire said in a
high-pitched whine. "There's no escaping from the Gloom." He leaned
over his mount, eyes wide. "There are people here who kidnap others
from the real world. I was abducted while taking an Obsidian arch
nearly two decades ago. I've been trapped here ever
since."

I thought back to the men who'd come for us
earlier. "Those people tried to kidnap us too. Join us. Maybe we
can all find a way out."

"I said there is no escape!" he shouted. He
drew in a long deep breath, eyelids fluttering with what looked
like ecstasy. "I have no more patience for this talk. I must feed.
Follow me or Gloria Richardson will tear out your guts."

"Why did you name your raptor Gloria
Richardson?" I said, preparing myself to make a break for a nearby
gym I'd spotted nearby.

"She's the bitch who turned me into a vampire
and broke up with me. I was on my way to see her, to beg for her to
take me back when I was kidnapped." His eyes flashed. "Now,
come!"

The vampire had obviously been trapped here far
longer than recommended by the Surgeon General and was absolutely
bonkers. Something about an insane vampire in control of a raptor
terrified me beyond belief.

"Simmer down," David said, seemingly calm as
ever. "Gloria obviously didn't know what kind of a man she was
losing when she broke your heart. Lead on. We'll follow
you."

The vampire regarded us a moment longer before
spinning his raptor around and heading down the road. I nodded
toward the gym. David winked. We bolted toward the sidewalk and
jumped a metal railing.

A screeching roar sounded behind us. I turned
my head to see the raptor leap.

"Help me with this!" David said, pushing on the
glass door to the gym. It didn't budge.

I rammed my shoulder against it and bounced
off. Sharp talons sliced the metal railing behind us like butter.
Metal clanged on the sidewalk.

"On the count of two," David said, aiming his
foot at the door.

It took everything I had not to run screaming
as I heard claws on the concrete behind us, waiting for an ebony
talon to spear one of us in the back.

"One! Two!"

We kicked. The glass shattered. David shoved me
through the opening. My head clanged on the metal push handle on
the inside. I crawled through and rolled onto my back in time to
see a claw slash at my father. He juked left. The talon sliced
through the door's metal framing. I gripped his arm and jerked him
all the way into a lobby leading to a hallway which seemed to end
in offices. From what I could see, the only way out was a red metal
staircase.