Authors: T. R. Briar
Rayne scrambled out of the way as the chain hit the earth behind him with a loud
clank
, sending torrents of mud up into the air. He ran before he could be struck by the rusted links. Several times, his foot plunged into the sinkholes that covered the land, but rather than allow himself to be sucked down again he wrenched his feet up and jumped forward. The beast lumbered behind him, throwing the whip with surprising speed, and it was all Rayne could do to dodge its attacks. All around him, he became aware of more of these beasts, also wielding similar metallic whips, and as they became aware of Rayne’s presence they joined in pursuit, lashing their weapons at him.
In the distance, he saw an outcropping of what looked like rocks, something to break up the featureless slush, and he rushed towards it. To his horror he saw not rocks, but a mass of writhing figures, what had once been people, now naked and bound together in a tortured form. Turning around, he could still see the gargantuan beasts chasing after him, though their large, lumbering bodies slowed their movements. The mud-covered plain slowed Rayne down as well. He dashed closer to the strange formation, which stretched far into the sky as twin columns of twisted beings.
At the base of one column Rayne saw another figure, and stopped dead in his tracks again. This one didn’t look quite like a brute. Checking behind him, he could still see his pursuers. He turned back to the pillar.
“Who goes there?!” Rayne cried into the darkness.
“Stay away!” he heard a voice yell, shaking with fear. A normal, human-sounding voice. Abandoning caution, he approached and, beneath the red light of the sky, he found another man. He looked to be in his late thirties, very haggard with short black hair swept off to one side, rustled and filthy. He wore a suit that must have looked very stylish at one point, now ripped and mud-covered. He looked out over the sludgy plain with immense suspicion clouding murky, haunted, but very alert eyes. He did not even waste a moment to size Rayne up, drawing his fist back and slinging it forward right into Rayne’s face, knocking him back.
“
I said stay away you goddamn monster!
” the man screamed.
“
Ow!
” Rayne howled in pain. “Bloody hell! That hurt!”
The man froze as he realized he’d assaulted a fellow human without thinking. He looked Rayne over, scrunching up his face in thought as he pondered whether or not to trust him.
“A-are you real?” he asked, shaking.
“Are you?” Rayne countered back, rubbing the sore spot on his face. The stranger appeared frightened, but he also shook with rage, grasping his arm to restrain himself from acting out again. “You strike real enough.”
“You’re human,” the man whispered. He composed himself, looking Rayne right in the eye. “Good. Tell me how to get out of here.”
“I haven’t got time here—”
The man glanced past Rayne, noticing the pursuing monsters off in the distance. He grabbed Rayne’s hand and led him around the pillar.
“I’ve encountered those things before. If they lose sight of you long enough, they forget and go back to their tasks.”
“Tasks?”
“I’ve seen so much disgusting shit here. There’s lots of creatures. I think some of them are people. But it’s not like I want to know for sure. When those guys over there see you, they try to keep you in line, and they start whipping. When they forget you, they go back to whipping everything else. They like to push people into those pits, like they’re mouths or something.”
Rayne peeked around the base of their hiding place through a wall of waving limbs, and as he watched, the hulking monsters stopped moving, and just stood there looking around in confusion. Then they turned and walked back the way they came, until their silhouettes diminished over the horizon. Rayne wondered just how far he’d run.
The man continued. “You’re the first guy I’ve ever seen who was like me. Everything else here is like some kinda nightmare. I keep coming here and coming here and every time I’m somewhere different. I get all these monsters chasing me and only a few things that look like people, but they’re like zombies or something! They don’t see me, they don’t respond, they just moan and shuffle. They’re disgusting, and none of them will help me!”
“So, you don’t know where this place is either.” Rayne crossed his arms over his chest and looked down into the mud. “What is wrong with me? You’re probably just a hallucination. Maybe I made you up so I’d have someone to talk to. Not sure why I’d make you a Yank, though.”
“What? No, no. You’re a figment of
my
imagination, because this is
my
nightmare. The same goddamn nightmare I’ve been having over and over again every night for the last four months! You’re the one that’s not real! God knows why I’d imagine some English guy. I guess I thought this place wasn’t classy enough.”
Rayne snorted. The man’s attitude touched at his nerves, but still, he was the most normal thing about this place. He reached his hand out.
“Rayne Mercer. Pleased to make your acquaintance, even if you’re not real.”
“You Englishmen, always being so proper about nothing,” the man scoffed. He grabbed and shook Rayne’s hand. “Gabriel Baines, New York State Senate. And I’m damn sure I’m real.”
Rayne slumped back against the column behind him, forgetting for a moment just what it was made of.
“So you’re a politician?” he asked. “I’m a solicitor, from Langfirth, Essex.”
“Really?” Gabriel remarked. “Do you sell vacuum cleaners? Or appliances or something?”
“No! My firm provides legal counsel to company interests. I’m not a bloody tout!”
“Oh, you’re a lawyer?”
“Yes. Probably should have said that to start with.”
Gabriel ran a shaking hand through his mussed hair, dispelling flakes of dried mud. “Are you sure you can’t tell me where we are? I’ve seen lots of seedy crap back at home, but nothing like this.”
“You’d know better than me. Didn’t you say you’ve been coming round here for months?”
“Like hell I’d know. Every night when I go to sleep, I end up in this crazy place, and I stay here until I wake up and it’s like none of this happened. I’m back in my bed and it’s all just a bad dream. You?”
Rayne brushed aside a groping arm that kept pushing up against him. “This is my second time here. The first time, I met this gargantuan black beast with a flaming purple eye, and it had these massive black tentacles. It grabbed me, but then, well, I suppose I woke up.”
“Well, isn’t that something? A black beast? I’ve seen all kinds of things but nothing like that. But I try to keep away from anything that doesn’t look human.”
“Well, if you do see it, I’d suggest you run. Not because it’s dangerous, which, it probably is, but because—”
“Because?”
“I don’t know. It’s like that eye gets inside your head. It stares straight through your soul, and you start going mad. And that voice. It’s a massive voice for a massive creature. I can’t even describe it. All I know is that thing was truly beyond comprehension. Maybe it’s the lord of this place. Maybe this is that creature’s kingdom.”
Gabriel turned and walked a ways away, staring into the distance. “Like I’d believe some dumb animal could rule this place.”
Rayne blinked as he watched him, having trouble believing his eyes. From the waist down, he saw right through his new companion.
“Baines, you’re transparent!” he exclaimed. Gabriel looked down.
“Well, seems you’re right. I guess it’s time for me to wake up. I’m safe for another day.” Gabriel offered a half-smile as his visage grew fainter and fainter. “You’ll probably wake up soon yourself.”
Rayne looked down at himself but his form remained opaque. “I do hope so. I’d rather not be stuck here.”
“It doesn’t matter.” Gabriel’s voice faded now. “You’ll be back again. So will I. Night after night after night, until we go crazy.” Rayne saw him as a faint outline now, washed against the dim crimson of the horizon, below the shrieking creatures in the sky. “But since you’re just part of my dream, you’ll disappear when I’m gone. That would make you much luckier than me, wouldn’t it?”
“Wait! Please!” Rayne cried. But it was too late; Gabriel was gone.
He felt a hand on his shoulder just then, touching him in an almost reassuring way. He turned around, hoping to see another human being, but he only saw the pillar, mindless limbs reaching towards him. Their cold clammy hands made his skin crawl, hands covered in white flesh with scarred red patches that stretched over the skin like spiderwebs. These people didn’t react to him at all. Their eyes were void of substance, just black holes burned into their faces, and their jaws hung slackened. The waving limbs crackled, like their bones broke with every movement.
“I’m still here,” Rayne muttered. “So that makes him my dream. Not the other way around.”
A low, steady grunt rumbled behind him, and a heated breath brushed against his neck. Rayne turned, and found himself face to face with a mouth full of jagged teeth jutting from a lurking creature’s gut. Its dark, rancid breath smelled like a rat had crawled into its mouth and died. The rest of it didn’t smell so good either. It snapped at him, but he moved his head back, just as a massive chain flew right toward him. It struck him square in the chest, sending him flying into the column, where broken hands clutched at him. Every mouth shrieking, the monster reared up and swung again. Rayne couldn’t free himself from the clawing hands, but managed to duck as the chain smashed into the pillar, where it became caught. The monster screamed and pulled the chain to free it. Struggle as he might, Rayne couldn’t wrench himself loose, unable to run, and could only wait there for his foe to make its next attack.
He stood still, wishing, hoping for something to save him. He did his best to try to calm down, and sucked in a deep breath of cold, stagnant air, breathing it back out as a white smoke. He noticed more smoke all around him, like a heavy fog rolling in. It grew thicker and thicker until Rayne could barely see his own nose. He could hear the monster grunting, and the rattling chain it was still trying to pry loose, but he could no longer see it, and assumed it could no longer see him. Sure enough, the creature’s shrieking faded, as did the clanking metal. The moaning and cracking of the pillar behind him also quieted, and Rayne felt their grips on him loosen. He realized then, it wasn’t because they were letting go of him, but because he was fading, and their hands could no longer grasp him. A sense of relief rushed through him, and he felt a sick joy swelling in his chest, as laughter escaped his throat, a slight chuckle at first, and then a full rolling cackle, almost maniacal in tone, so overjoyed to be free of this world.
“Oi, you there, what’s so funny?”
Rayne opened his eyes to see Miranda standing over his hospital bed, a syringe in hand.
“Ah,” he stammered. “Sorry?”
“You’ve been having some dream there. Started rolling over giggling while I was about to draw blood. Gave me quite a start.”
“Yes, well, I suppose I was happy about something.”
“Nice to see you’re in good spirits for once. Now hold still so I can finish up here.”
She jammed the needle into Rayne’s arm, and he watched it fill with dark red liquid, wincing in pain.
“Care to tell me what you were dreaming about?” she asked.
“Sorry,” Rayne said with a sheepish shrug. “I’m afraid I’ve forgotten.”
Chapter 3
School bells rang through the streets late on a Thursday afternoon. Levi, book bag slung over his shoulder, walked down the cobblestone pathway to the front gates. David stood there, leaning against the stone column of the gate, wearing an un-tucked shirt and slacks under a brown coat. Levi ran to him, smiling.
“All ready to go home then?” David asked him.
Levi nodded without a word, and the older man took him by the hand. Unlike Rayne, David owned a car, negating the need for a bus. It was a beat up, old, green thing, but still reliable, as David took good care of it. Levi tossed his bag into the back seat and climbed into the passenger side while David started the car up. It was still cold out, but the snow on the streets had melted enough for a safe drive.
After they’d driven a few blocks, David took a sudden right turn, and Levi looked concerned.
“Aren’t we going to see Daddy?”
“Not going to the hospital right now. I’m to bring you straight home.”
“But-but I’ve been looking forward to it all day! You promised me that we’d see Daddy every day until he got better!”
“I know I did. And I assure you, a promise is a promise. But today, we’re going home first. You’ll see your father soon, all right? I promise.”
“You’re lying! I want to see Daddy!”
“I’m not lying, really! God’s honest truth, you are going to see your father today.”
Levi kicked the dashboard in front of him, a scowl on his small face.
They pulled up to the building, where David parked the car right in front. Levi hopped out of his side and walked around the front to the sidewalk, and stormed inside without waiting. David locked up and dashed after him.
“Levi, wait!” he yelled, running up the stairs after the hastened footsteps. He reached to top to find Levi with arms crossed outside the flat, glaring at him.