The Dream Catcher's Daughter (27 page)

Len ducked her head, blush fanning across
her cheeks. “Just come back, okay?”

“Why wouldn’t I?”

He took a deep breath. Then plunged his
head inside the nightmare’s mouth.

It was like the pit of
Talshe’s
gut, but not at all: He never fell but slid, the slimy walls around him quickly
pushing him down. He didn’t even realize he’d stopped until he opened his eyes.
He was standing on a narrow strip of rock-hard flesh, which stretched forward
and sloped down into the distance. Despite the lack of a viable light source,
Jason saw tall plateaus off in the distance. The stomach growled and moaned all
around him.

The ridge Jason stood upon branched off in
five directions, four of which linked to the plateaus. He inhaled deeply and
broke into a fit of hacking. He doubled over gagging and dry-heaving. While
bent over, he glanced down, far down. The vomit pushed up past his throat, and
spewed out of his mouth. Down below, in the deepest pit of the nightmare’s
stomach, rested a muck of half-melted bodies. These bodies ranged from
everything that resembled human children to centaur to nymphs, all matted
together in a slimy heap. It almost seemed like the floor was moving, writhing.
Perhaps the moans around him were actually their cries and pleas for help. The
stench rushing up from their half-decayed bodies—their still-
alive
bodies—made Jason hurl, again, and again until his throat felt raw, until he
felt dizzy and had to sit, gripping the side of the fleshy ridge for balance.
He wrenched his eyes shut.

It seemed brighter. Warmer. Jason heard something:

Sniffle. Snort.

He opened his eyes, clutching his stomach.
Floating just above him was the orb of light, the one that had escaped from
Sirin and plowed into Shemillah. The one Jason had seen the King of Dreams
carry away from Shemillah’s prison. It hovered there, sniffling and snorting.
To Jason, it sounded almost like the poor thing was crying. But Jason couldn’t
decipher its cries.

He stood, holding out his arms for
balance. His head threatened to spin out of control, but he reined it in. He looked
up at the orb of light. “Do you know where I need to go?”

The orb replied with a quick snort then
floated down the walkway. Jason followed it slowly, careful to glance at his
feet and make sure they were on track. As he went, the slope turned into stairs.
At the bottom of the steps, the five-way fork appeared. Four of the paths
ascended up to plateaus. The fifth one disappeared into a wall of shadow
straight ahead. Jason was glad his little companion, the orb of light, took the
path to the far left.

The plateau was small and circular, with
nothing atop it except a large throne. In the throne sat a chained figure. As
the orb closed in on the shadowy figure, it illuminated everything: F was
sitting in the throne, her eyes to the floor. Bandages lay in a heap at her
feet, and her skin was covered in lesions and rashes. Her eyes were bloodshot.

“What the hell do you want?” she said.

“It’s not about what I want,” said Jason.

F scoffed. “It’s always been about what
you want. Hasn’t it? That’s why I exist. That’s why E and D and S all exist.
We’re part of what you wanted. But the Queen is the worst.”

“I’ll set you free, if you want.”

“Freedom? No such thing. You can’t feel
freedom. You can only feel the things you touch.” She moaned, another cut
opening on her forearm.

Jason kneeled before her, looking up into
her eyes. He took a hold of her bloody-raw hand. “Feel this? Feel my touch.”

F didn’t rip her hand away, but the look
in her eyes said she wanted to. At first. After a few moments, the icy glare in
her face melted, and she stared at their hands, touching. The look on her face
reminded him of the one Gelen wore at the Visonia train station.

“
Whaddya
feel?”
he said.

She only looked at Jason. And as she
opened her mouth to speak, a light enveloped her body. Her eyes fluttered shut,
and she tilted her chin upward, her lips half-open and trembling. The light
faded, and F disappeared.

***

The light led Jason back to the five-road
fork. As soon as he descended the stairs, something split and shook. He turned
back toward the plateau. The staircase had broken away and now plummeted to the
bottom of the fleshy gorge, splattering in the muck. Jason shivered before
following the light up the second set of stairs—the one farthest to the right.

Halfway up these steps, Jason stopped. He
felt the heat of something on the back of his neck. Like a pair of eyes boring
into him. He looked back, only to meet with empty space. Heaving a sigh, Jason
turned forward.

Two red eyes hovered only inches from his.
And the dry, chapped lips were already upon his before he could scream. Shades
wasted no time in wrapping itself around Jason, undulating and squeezing all at
once. Jason’s heart pounded as the pressure in his head grew. It felt more like
a knot than a pressure now.

“
i
know you want
me you want to feel me pressed against you
you
want
to feel my heart beat in time with yours
i
want it
too.

“
and
something
else
i
want you to feel something else.

“
it
was a mistake
before after all last time
i
died.”

Jason ripped his eyes open, and found
himself laid out on top of the plateau. The orb sniffled above him, hovering
next to his cheek. He sat up and shook out his head. The light floated away
toward the other side of the plateau, where another throne stood. In this
throne sat D, hands clasped over her ears, her mouth and eyes twisted in
concentration. Upon Jason’s approach, D jerked her head up and stared wide-eyed
at him. She pressed her hands harder against her skull.

“Don’t say anything,” she whispered. “Please.
I don’t want to hear it. You or anything else. Especially not the cries. All
the cries from the bottom of this pit. It’s too much. Too much!”

He leaned in, so close that D could taste
his breath. And he whispered, as gently as possible, “But if you don’t listen,
who will? Who will listen to the cries for help? If you try to shut it out,
then won’t you just drown in the silence?”

“You’re one to talk,” she said, her voice
rising above a whisper. Her hands squeezed around her ears. “Just shut up.”

He leaned in closer and whispered, “You
don’t want to shut them out, do you? You’re confused, just like I was. I did
something stupid. Just like you’re doing right now.”

Jason felt the presence at his shoulder.
He knew it wasn’t the orb, which floated a little above his head, sniffling and
snorting. Shades stood behind him, menacing him. But it was okay. He didn’t
mind.

“You may not like what you hear, but trust
me, it’s not okay to shut down like this. It just isn’t. You’re a knight,
aren’t you? One of Gelen’s guard! You should have a strong constitution.
Besides, you listened to me. You truly did. And you believed me when the other
guards didn’t. So why don’t you listen?”

Her eyes flicked up to Jason. He grinned
at her. A goofy smile, to be sure. And this made her grin. As she lowered her
hands, the same light that had enveloped F now covered her. Jason blinked, and
she was gone.

“
digusting
.”

Its hands were on his shoulders before
Jason could do anything. It spun him around and glared at him with accusing
eyes.

“
how
dare you lie
traitor bastard coward.”

He could feel the liquid stone now,
seeping into his hands. He tried to say forth, but his mouth wouldn’t move.
Shemillah wasn’t just near him, but all around him. Fear ripped through Jason
like lightning in the night sky. Shades jerked on his shoulders.

“
you
were never
sorry never you did it because you truly didn’t mean anything you said none of
it.

“
but
i
mean everything
i
say and
i
mean it when
i
say you will be
mine forever here in this stinking black pit.”

Its cloak ripped open and revealed a
gaping maw with black, tentacle-like teeth. The teeth wrapped around Jason’s
arms, then his legs. Jason’s head was halfway toward its throat when the orb of
light darted down, embedding itself into Shades. The shadow sizzled, and a
rusty, inhuman screech erupted from it. Shades retreated, melting into the
darkness. The orb of light returned to Jason, floating chest-level with him,
snorting and sniffling. He looked into the ball of light, squinting his eyes.
He still couldn’t understand what the orb was saying, but something about the
orb felt familiar.

Suddenly, the pressure dissolved; the
stone drained out of his hands and evaporated. He glanced down at his hands,
then back up to the light, which had already begun to move onto the next
plateau.

“Did it just say...?”

But he couldn’t finish the sentence. His
deal with Shemillah prevented it.

***

The same thing happened: The staircase
collapsed, and the orb of light continued on, not even leaving Jason time to
consider what might be happening to Gelen’s guards. Where did they go, once
they disappeared? He had a good feeling they were in a better place than this
grotesque pit.

The next plateau was under the watch of E,
the first of Gelen’s knights he’d met.
E
still wore
the bandanna around her eyes. Unlike the last two, she sat proud and tall in
her chair, staring straight at Jason as he walked toward her.

“Jason McKinney,” said E. “You came. I
thought you would.”

The orb floated closely to Jason’s right shoulder,
as though hanging off it. He nodded in response to E. “You seem very calm. F
and D were shook up pretty bad.”

“Being the queen’s eyes has its benefits.”
She stood and strolled toward him. “There are drawbacks, of course. Like
remembering who you are, when no one else can. Even though you look different,
I’d recognize you anywhere.”

Jason grunted. “I’m not him. Not anymore,
at least.”

E
stepped up to
Jason, their eyes exactly level. She leaned in, and the warmth of her breath
washed over him—a refreshing change from the heavy, rotten smell in the air.
She held that pose for a moment, and Jason was certain E must be looking him up
and down, even though her eyes were wrapped up.

“No. Not at all. But at the same time, you
are. Before and after, you’ve always wanted to ease the pain of others.”

“You’ll be the only one to say that” he
said.

E
smiled, leaning
her head against Jason’s chest. “Because not everyone truly sees a person for
who they are.”

E glowed brightly from head to toe, and then
disappeared. Jason basked in her warm after-aura. In the pit of his stomach he
felt Shades would appear any moment now. It’d appear and criticize everything
E
had said. He turned, but Shades wasn’t there. Jason moved
toward the staircase when a pair of hands seized him by the hair. The cold,
callused hands eclipsed his eyes. He could feel its rotten breath on his neck.

“
yes
let’s truly
see you
mckinney
let’s see you at work.”

The parade returned, except there were no
people. No parade. Only Jason. He blinked, and he and Tara appeared in front of
him.

“
i
hope you watch and pay attention watch and see the real you.”

He and Tara wore the largest, happiest
smiles. Then a look flashed across Tara’s face, and she leaned down. She
whispered into Jason’s ear, a smile mixed of mischief and anxiety across her
face. Had she looked so anxious? Jason couldn’t hear it in her voice. Without
noticing, the pressure started growing in the back of his head. The Jason
holding up Tara had this expression creeping across his face. His smile slowly
fell, curling downward.
That’s about the time,
thought Jason.

Jason’s face screwed up, then he screamed,
letting go of Tara and, flailing, she fell from his shoulders. It looked like
she’d fall on her head. Maybe her neck. But she was more agile than that, and
so twisted through the air and landed on her arm—mostly her wrist. Jason
turned, and the horrified stare on his face made the bottom of the real Jason’s
stomach fall straight to his feet. The real Jason shook his head, while the one
in front of him did the same.

“You...you said you’d love me! No matter
what! Traitor! Bastard! Son of a bitch!” said Tara.

***

And Jason woke up. Somehow, he’d ended up
on the fork, with only two paths remaining. Had the creature not tried to swallow
him? Or did the orb of light save him again? Jason rose to his knees and looked
around, pressing a palm to his throbbing head. The orb wasn’t in sight and he
couldn’t hear its sniffles and snorts.

He considered the remaining paths: One was
a staircase, the other leading straight ahead. He felt weak, almost dizzy. He
wasn’t sure if trying the stairs would be wise. Then again, he didn’t know what
lay at the end of the path straight ahead. What if Shades was there, waiting
with open arm and mouth? He had to move. If he didn’t make a decision, who knew
how much longer his friends would last? If they were even still alive, that
was. Jason’s throat tightened. He breathed deeply through his mouth, not
wanting to smell anymore of the putrid air. But tasting it wasn’t much better.