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Welcome to the City of Glennville

Copyright © 2022 by Dell Sweet. All rights reserved foreign and domestic.

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In The Sunlight of Another World:

Bad Dreams

Robert

I sat on the low curving wall and watched the Moon ride the sky. My hand stole to my coat pocket and felt the small silver ball there. A chain ran from it to my belt loop. It went where I went.

A new thing had happened; I had made it into the city without losing the van. Without losing myself. I wasn’t sure what to make of it.

I had left the driveway of the house earlier than usual. I didn’t debate. I believed the van would be there and it was. I got in and left. No traffic at all until I reached the city and then it was only sporadic. It had left me nonplussed. Where to, I had asked myself. And so I had driven to Locust Street, parked the van nearby, and come to the wall and sat, when I could think of nothing else.

Sitting on the low curving wall reminded me of another wall. Down by the docks. Nearly the same wall, I realized. I tried to picture it in my mind, but I could not. I debated for a few minutes and then walked to the van, convinced it would not be where I left it, but it was. I drove to the docks. Even less traffic.

The wall was not similar it was exact. I wondered why I hadn’t noticed that before. But I had no answer for myself.

I sat on the wall and looked around. The view was not exactly the same. It was different in many aspects, similar in others.  As I watched a sparrow flew to a nearby Elm, settled on a branch and watched me carefully. I checked the wall, there were no initials carved into this wall though. I lifted my eyes to the sparrow. My sparrow, I wondered? No way to know. We watched each other for a few minutes, and that was how Abignew nearly killed me.

I was so caught up in wondering about the sparrow, that I paid no attention to the old man wandering slowly up the path behind me. The grit of a footstep at nearly the last second was all that alerted me. My hands came up reflexively and caught the edge of the wire as it came down to circle my throat. It bit into my hands momentarily before I was able to duck, roll off the bench; pulling myself free, hanging onto the wire with one hand. Pulling Abignew with me over the top of the bench. Catching him by surprise.

Blood ran down one of my hands from the bite of the wire, but both of my hands closed around Abignew’s neck, my thumbs on his windpipe, crushing. Squeezing. I suddenly shot forward into empty space, off balance as Abignew vanished before my eyes. But I caught his scent, closed my eyes and followed.

My feet touched down in a new world. One I had never seen before. One I had not even known existed. Tall, gray pines. A worn path snaked away and I could see Abignew’s shaggy head disappearing into the woods off the side of the path not far from me… Slowing… Not yet aware that I was following. I crouched, left the path, laid my dreamer body down into the tall grass, as hidden as I could make it, and began to follow with my Dreamer’s Eye. My body remained off the side of the path, barely into the woods, but safe for now I hoped. My spiritual self hovered close by… Watching… Back in the real world my physical self lay in the bed in the Motel room. Light creeping around the edges of the heavy drapes. Lost in the Dreaming… Breathing shallowly. Waiting to be awakened…

My Dreamers Eye sped along the air currents, found Abignew, slowed, and began to follow him as he made his way deeper into the trees.

In The Moonlight:

The Pigeon on The Ledge

Abignew

Abignew had never made himself into a bird before. He didn’t like it. He felt too vulnerable. Too small, to insufficient to the task at hand.

All he had to do was sit on the sill, watch and learn. Was there an action to take? Probably, but it hadn’t been decided yet, or if it had, it had not been made known to him. It was not his decision to make. He carried out tasks. Followed orders. He didn’t always like it, but he would never disobey.

He moved his claw like pigeon feet and shuffled across the stone window ledge. No one yet. He didn’t know what exactly he was watching for, but there was no one with her. She slept… Soundly it appeared… He shuffled back and forth… Peering through the glass periodically as he did… Waiting…

In The Moonlight:

The Bathtub Revisited

Gizzel

I had yet to meet Robert. It seemed that all he did was look at the number, trace the name with his index finger and that was all. I could do the change. I could be me. I could walk right up to him and introduce myself, but I wasn’t sure what he was.

I don’t mean to say that I didn’t know whether he was a Dreamer. Obviously he was. But what kind of Dreamer? Who did he worship? What was his purpose?

I understood purpose. I knew my purpose, at least I thought I did. Who could be one hundred percent sure? Not me.

He was a Dreamer. I just didn’t know enough to trust him with my life. If he was good then the name and the number on the wall would be enough for him to find his way to me. I sat and waited. Occasionally changing the grip on the twig of the limb I was perched on. Robert sat, one finger or another worrying at the name, the number… At the very least I had caught his attention.

Morning came. I could feel the pink edge on the horizon plucking at something primeval in  my bird spirit self, while my other self prepared to leave.

I closed my eyes and thought, and when I opened them once more I was falling through the pink void, faster, faster, the light chasing me, my heart hammering against my tiny chest.

I hit the gray morning light several hundred feet up in the air. I fell briefly, plummeting towards the ground, pulled myself together, slowed and drifted on an air current towards my building.

Still, in the dream state I passed easily through the window that fronted my bedroom. I hovered gently, my body changing. A drift of feathers floated down around me as I lowered my spiritual self back into my physical body.

My eyes began to move behind their lids a few seconds later… My breathing began to pick up… Seconds later my eyes fluttered open and I awoke to the early morning semi-darkness of my bedroom. It was so much easier coming back under control rather than in a rushed panic. I sat up slowly, yawned, stretched. A sudden sneeze caught me and I doubled over with the force of it. I waited for another but it did not come.

Reluctantly I swung my feet over the side of the bed, headed for the kitchen to start the coffee, but changed my mind. Deciding on a hot bath first.

I collected clean clothes, a towel, and made my way to the bathroom. As the water ran I rubbed at my temples… A headache coming on, I thought… Great…

In The Moonlight

The Alley

Abignew

“What is it I want you to do,” Abignew asked?

“Okay, Man… Okay, you want to give me some money to go off some chick… Somewhere, I don’t know where… No… Sixth floor…“ His eyes shot up to the sixth floor of the building “Is that about right, Man?” The young man’s eyes were red road maps as he stared back at Abignew. The left side of his face twitched. He blinked rapidly.

Abignew shuffled his feet. He hated this body. A human body. Too big. Too uncomfortable.. Too… Too pretentious, he decided. But, he told himself, when in  Rome….

“You got most of it,” Abignew agreed.

The kid nodded his head rapidly. “So, like, where’s the green, Dude?”

“The green… Dude, is in my pocket. In my pocket is where it will stay until you do what I need you to do… A little job.. The little job we spoke about… A little pleasurable job… Big money… All the shit, as you say, that you could want after it’s done.” Abignew told him. “Except you can’t seem to remember the details and get them right.”

“Yeah… Yeah,” The kid nodded his head rapidly. “But see, that’s where it’s fucked up, see? See, the money’s got to come first… Otherwise, well.. Otherwise, how will I even know you got it? Right, Dude? How will I know?” The kid’s eye’s shone as though he had just solved all the mysteries to the universe after years of study. On his drug addled level of thinking, Abignew thought, that was probably exactly what he did think.

Abignew pulled a large roll of cash from his pocket. The kid’s eyes jumped in his head. “Right here,” He told him. “And right here in my pocket is where it will stay until you are done.” He pushed the wad of cash back into his pocket, fished around in the opposite pocket and pulled out a small twenty-two caliber pistol. A cheap pawn shop item. Likely to cause more harm to the shooter on any given shot than to the shoo-tee. “You take this. You do the job,” he thrust the small gun into the kid’s hands. “Then you get the cash… Get it?”

The kid licked his lips. His eyes swiveled to the building, shooting back up to the sixth floor windows again. “Up there, huh,” He asked? He looked back down at Abignew who only nodded. He seemed to think a second. “Okay, Man. It’s a bet. It’s a bet.” His fingers closed around the gun. He looked at it for a second as if surprised to see that it was there and then he stuffed it into his pocket. “You’ll be here, right? Like, you’ll be right here when I’m done?”

“Right here,” Abignew assured him and smiled. “Waiting.”

“Six oh Eight?”

“Six oh Eight.”

“A fuckin’ Bazillion dollars, Man… A fuckin’ Bazillion.”

“An even five grand, as you say,” Abignew told him.

“That’s… That’s like a Bazillion… That’s…” He lost his words. His lips moved, eyes closed. A second later his eyes opened once more. He looked at Abignew. “Later, Bro. I’m off.” He spun and walked off down the alley toward the rear fire escape.

“Yes you are,” Abignew chuckled to himself. He leaned back against the greasy alley wall to wait.

In The Sunlight of Another World:

More Bad Dreams

Robert

The Forest closed in around me quickly. Even as a spiritual presence I could feel it: I began to worry about my body where it lay at the edge of the woods. Hidden, but hidden well enough? I could only hope that it was. Abignew was setting a fast pace and I was drawing farther away from my dream self, splitting my spiritual self to do it. I didn’t like it at all.

There was no moonlight here. A pale silver disc graced the open sky above the trees. Sunlight then, I thought. The time here in this world must be completely different. This had to be more than a shift or a slip sideways.

I kept one part of my mind on the silver ball in my pocket. A large part. Not as large as it had once been, but still large. Another part was watching over my physical self. The sounds of the day-quiet motel drifting at the edge of everything else my mind was processing. Occasional rattles of keys, a far off argument. The sounds of a scuffle. An aluminum can rolling down the steel steps from the floor above. Hollow, metallic ‘Pong’ sounds as it fell from step to step. A breeze sighing over the low rooftop. A crows’ raspy call as it overflew the motel roof and winged its way into the city.

Another part of my mind was with my dream self, watching the area where my spiritual body lay. And my vision skated over the forest floor watching Abignew as he walked fast along an old worn path.

I sensed the wolves before I saw them. Nothing concrete. A scent on the wind. A rustling in the grasses. I broke away from my travel and slammed back into my dream self fully.

The wolves were on me before I could gain my feet. The lead wolf, nearly pure white with smudge gray markings that were barely there. Glowing pale-red eyes, launched himself through the air, his teeth finding and closing on my throat. I fought my way up to a sitting position. My own hands came up automatically to his throat, but even as I squeezed I willed myself to end the dream. I focused all that I had as a second wolf slammed into my back, claws hooking into the skin, clawing for purchase, riding me as his jaws bit deep into the back of my neck.

The black came fast, closing down my sight, pulling at my soul. The battle lasted less than a second. The wolves were no match for the power I had developed. My soul leapt into the void. I felt myself falling faster and faster.

I hit the bed so hard that it felt as though I had broken it. Within seconds someone began to beat on the thin Motel room wall from the room next door.

“SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP, MOTHERFUCKER!” A shrill screaming. Someone barely holding onto their sanity, at least it sounded that way to me.

I tuned it out and struggled to breath, finally pulling enough air into my lungs to get them going again. I pushed myself off the bed, struggled to my feet and then promptly bent double and vomited.

It took precious minutes to get myself in some semblance of order. Slow my breathing. Get my heart beat under control. Time that I could not get back. I finally staggered into the bathroom: Washed my face.

The eyes that stared back at me when I looked into the mirror were shot through with red. Puffy. Wild looking. I dried my face, walked back into the main room, picked up my duffel bag, set it on top of the scared dresser top and began to rifle through it. I found the soap carrying case. Cheap plastic. Hinged on one side. A thick plastic lid and sides. Solid blue plastic. No see through unit. I’d made sure.

I opened the case. Looked at the gray shapeless blob inside for nearly a full minute. Then closed it and shoved it into the front pocket of my shirt. That was when I realized the silver ball was gone. I nearly went to my knees once more.

How? I questioned myself. How? I took a deep breath. Another. I closed my eyes and tried to focus.

“Nothing for it… Nothing for it,” I muttered under my breath.

I walked quickly to the bed. Sat on one edge. Swung my feet up onto the mattress where they had been. A split second later my body fell back onto the cheap spread that covered the mattress. My eyes fluttered and then closed. My body went rigid. My hands closed into vein popping fists and then just as suddenly relaxed. My breathing slowed. I was gone from that place again… Falling into the black once more…

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Gizzel, you take too many chances, I told myself. Too many. But my hand continued to rub Bear’s head and scratch under his jaw… #Dreamers #ShapeShifters #Mythical #SciFi #Horror #Fantasy

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