Make Willing the Prey (Dreams by Streetlight) (12 page)

All the candles were dripping
now.  Red streamed against white.  This wax would not harden.  It would clot. 

Sweat beaded on Jina’s forehead. 
With renewed vigor, she dug the pen into the page. 

With every verse, the lights grew
dimmer, so that near the end, she could hardly see to write.  She paused to rub
her fingers, and saw that the flames were not smaller.  They were black, like a
photographic negative of black candles burning yellow flame.  Instead of giving
off heat, they seemed to pull it in.  The candles made the room feel cold.

Undaunted, she continued.

At the end of the song, she held
the page up triumphantly.  The room was completely dark now, the flames
completely black.  A sudden draft ruffled the pages, then a blinding white
flash flared from each candle. 

In seconds, all but one burnt
out.  The remaining one still flickered, low in a mound of wax.  The others
stood, candle-shaped pillars of gray ash.  Exhausted, Jina collapsed in sleep.

S
andy
slipped into the blackened swirls of slumber.  Fog covered her as she floated
from dream to dream.

A whispering fell to her ear. 
She strained to listen.  The voice sounded familiar.

“Hello, Sandy.  You are mine, and
I am yours.”

All was blackness.  She struggled
to turn, to see anything in this dark, but she could not.  Whose voice was
that?  It began humming some song she’d never heard before.  Maybe it was no
song at all.  It sounded like something Jina would write.

A rose fell at her feet.  A light
shone on it, but nothing else.  She moved to pick it up, but she couldn’t move.

“So what do you think of the game
so far?  Fun?  Exciting?  Adventure and romance?”

Something about a game felt
distantly familiar.  She felt the rose stem between her fingers now.

“You will have another turn in
the game soon.  You’ll have to wait a little longer than the rest, but it’s
coming.  Just be patient.”

A far off light appeared.  This
experience had all the qualities of a dream.

That was it, she was sleeping! 
Relieved, she let go of the rose.

But the rose didn’t fall.  It
floated next to her hand.  The light came closer.  A shadowed figure stood in
the middle.

“You seem to have a hidden fear
of spiders, my dear.”

Panic sprung within her.  She
struggled to free herself, but she felt bound.  It was still too dark to see.

“You hide it well, but it’s
there.  I apologize if I have misused this tool with you.  From now on, I
promise I will only use them when I need to.”

The light and the figure moved
steadily closer. 

“You know, I think that Jina and
Lewis are falling in love.  Jina seems perfect for Lewis, don’t you think?”

“Well, actually, I think Lewis is
a little unstable—”  She could now see the figure.  Pallid translucent blue
face, tattered clothing, top hat.  S.A.

She remembered the horrific
events she’d experienced while waking.  This had to be a dream.  Was S.A.
really here, or was her mind sorting out the events of a very confusing and
traumatic day?

Two choices: She could either
wake up now or wait it out.  It could be good for her psyche.  Dreams actually
only last a few seconds anyway.  And if S.A. were really here, inside her mind...
Well she knew a little more about his nature now.

She relaxed.

An ambient light grew until she
could see her surroundings.  It was a closed room, small, dark.  Her back
pressed against wood, her hands and legs were held tight against it with silver
bands.

Panic filled her again.  She
struggled against the shackles.  Mentally, she railed against this reality. 
This was merely a dream, and she could resist him.

“Don’t be afraid,” he cooed, his
voice deep and tender.  “I promise not to hurt you here.  And as I promised
before, no spiders.”

He stepped close to her.  Now the
dream was lit with firelight.  The room closed in, transforming into a cell.

“My love,” he whispered while
caressing her face.

Sandy could see his face
clearly.  His eyes held softness for her, yet a kind of wildness lurked behind.

She looked him right in the eye. 
“Leave me alone,” she said.  “You’re in
my
head. 
I
make the
rules here.”

S.A. stumbled back a little.  Her
bonds vanished.

“Rule one.  Don’t tie me down.”

S.A. chuckled in a low guttural
voice.  “I like rules.  Ok, what next?”

“Rule two, no crazy stuff.  No
bugs, lizards, blood, birds, or anything like that.”

“Easy enough.”

“Rule three.  No fairy food.”

S.A. frowned.  “But you need to
eat sometime.”

“Not in a dream I don’t.”  Sandy
stepped towards him and S.A. backed away a little.

“Are you through with making
rules?”

“No. Rule four.  I get to make up
new rules later if I want.”

“That hardly seems fair.”

Sandy laughed a little too
forcefully.  But she continued.  “
You
get to make up rules as you go
along.  And you don’t even give me the courtesy of telling me what they are. 
At least I’m giving you that.  So fair’s fair.  Now, I have a few questions. 
If you don’t
mind
.”

S.A. beamed, almost as if he were
proud.

“First question.  What is your
name?”

He laughed.  “Clever girl.  But
you don’t get to know my true name.  S.A. has been good enough so far.  Let it be.”

Sandy squinted her eyes at him,
but continued.  “Second question.  What. The. Fuck?”

He took on a very serious
demeanor.  “What do you mean?”

“What the fuck is going on?”

“I thought you’d figured that
out.”

“Have I?”

“We’re betrothed.  You’re mine to
do with as I please.  That’s what the fuck is going on.”

“I’m absolutely
not
yours.  I accepted this ring under duress!”  Sandy held up her left hand and
took another step towards him.  He glanced at it and took a step back.

“No.  You stop there.” 
Nevertheless, he stepped back again.

Sighing, she closed her eyes and
imagined a brick wall behind him.  When she opened them, satisfyingly a wall
blocked his egress.  She approached him again, reached out her hand, and
touched the ring to his face. 

S.A. screamed and collapsed to
the ground.  Smoke rose from a tiny wound on his face.  Sandy loomed over him
in triumph. 

“You’re just a little man, little
inside, nothing but a weak, scared, insane freak.”

“I love you dearest,” he
whispered.  “You don’t have to love me.”

“You don’t love me!  This isn’t
love!  This is fucked up.”

He whimpered a little, and Sandy
backed up.  He wasn’t going to hurt her, not here.  No sense in berating him
more.  She would do better to learn more about him.

“Get up.”  He crept up the wall
slowly.  “Next question.  What are you?”

“Misunderstood?”

“Don’t try my patience.”

“Have it your way.  You guessed
correctly.  I am fae.”

“What kind of fae?  Brownie? 
Leprechaun?  Korichaun?  Puca?”

“Imp.”

“Ahhh... of course.  Vile
Prankster type, right?  I’ll look you up in that book when I wake up. 
Fitting.  Unfortunately, not my type.”

“I only wanted your attention.”

“You could try... just dating
girls.  Asking them out, treating them to a nice dinner, a movie, say nice
things to them.  The creepy crawlies are a real turn-off.”

S.A.’s eyes turned downward,
sad.  He took off his hat.  She saw that his hair was sparse, even though he
seemed young.  And his ears... No longer held down under the hat, they stuck up
above his head a good two inches, ending in thin points.

“What’s the matter?”

“I can’t date girls.  I’m trapped
here in this house.  Forever.”  His voice sounded lost, forlorn.

Sandy paused for a while.  She
almost regretted mistreating him.  Almost.  “I’m the victim in this situation,
not you.  Tell me, why are you trapped here?”

“I was cursed to live here when I
was born.”

“When was that?”

“When the house was built.  They...
they beat me, starved me.  I was just a little boy.  And I could never leave,
never go outside, never go to school.”

Sandy started to feel a little
sorry for the creature.  “Who beat you?”

He did not answer her.  Maybe she
just needed to help him, free him.  “Those curses and spells.  In the stories
they all have a way of being broken.  How can this one be broken?”  She already
had an inkling of what the answer might be.

“I... I have to marry a girl.”

“Beauty and the beast kind of
thing, right?”

“Something like that.”

“Well if that’s all it is, maybe
I could marry you just to break the spell.”

S.A. grinned at her.  Only an imp’s
face could make such a smile.  He stepped towards her.

“L-Look it would just be a
marriage of convenience, right?”

“No!
Mine!
”

Sandy backed up.  He seemed
taller than he had before. 

“Stay away...”

He continued grinning and ran his
tongue across his top lip.  Sandy felt the power shifting, and she desperately
tried to order her scrambled thoughts.  What was it she had done before?  The
dream lost lucidity, becoming more dreamlike.  Shadows and shapes loomed around
her.  What was it again?  Something had stopped him before...

He reached his hand out and
touched her face, almost violently.  “Mine.  My... little... fiancé.”

Fiancé.  Engagement.  That was
it.  The ring.

She held up her hand and he
shrunk back.  She had to remember where she was.  This was her world, her
dream, all the power was hers if she could only remember it.  The ring anchored
her, filled her with a feeling of reality, strengthened her resolve.  It
leeched the energy from his illusions, grounding the dream once more.

“No, I’m not yours!  I’m ending
this now!”

S
andy sat
bolt upright.  The dim light of the last burning candle stub gave the room a
pale orange glow with elongated, twitching shadows.  Lewis lay still along the
wall.  Jina was slumped over the desk, asleep at her post.

Memories of her dream flashed
back through her mind.  Sandy’s eyes narrowed.  That sadistic, psychotic,
love-starved game master was not going to get the best of her.  She wasn’t
going to let him win.

Sandy leapt to her feet, yanked
open the closet door, and began throwing things into the room. 

Jina stirred when an old boot hit
the wall with a crash.  She wiped her eyes and watched Sandy for a moment.