Shine

I didn't know what time it was. The lights were low. Static blared from my radio, as I stepped out of the range of the police coms I had been listening in on. Their urgent voices were slowly overcome by cosmic background radiation and interference from all the other invisible airwaves crackling with life above me. The sky was largely a dark blue but light pollution from the distant, inhabited parts of the city leaked in a subtle orange, keeping the outdoors from ever being truly dark.
I approached a decaying, unlit, apartment building looming amongst a nest of them sprawling on the fringes of the city. As I approached, the static emanating from my radio got louder, as if the building was the broadcast's source. The address seemed to match the one I’d been told on the phone. The front was unlocked. The building, and many others around it, had been abandoned long ago and left for scavengers as the city moved on from these once integral housing structures to new industries needing new workers and new housing locations. I walked out of the dark blue of the night and into the black, lightless lobby, igniting my flashlight briefly to make sure the coast was clear. Then, I switched it back off and waited for my eyes to adjust to the pitch darkness.
Silently, I made my way across the lobby to the main stairwell. I clicked off my radio before creeping up too many flights of stairs and down a long hallway. Checking the doors along the way, I eventually found the one the informant had mentioned. Apartment 1218. I didn’t bother knocking. The door took two kicks but still gave way to my boot. I pointed my revolver out in front of me. It was an old gun, largely ignored and kept in a display case until it ended up in my possession. It cleaned up nice though and looked imposing, even among the typical arsenal on the streets these days.
I peeked around the door frame into the apartment. I wasn’t sure what I was looking for but I figured I’d know when I saw it. My mysterious informant had been vague outside of the address. The entryway was clear so I slunk inside, keeping my weapon ready. The rest of the building had been silent, but now I noticed this barely audible sound. Almost like someone humming a melody of a song that's so elusive. It was definitely coming from within the apartment though. Against my better judgment, I called out to it.
“Anyone here?”
The noise stopped.
“I’m a… let’s say private investigator. I’m here because I’m… looking for someone.”
Why was I here? A mysterious, anonymous phone call alleging I could find Faye here? It’s not like it was a small story. Buckets of unidentifiable blood, a destroyed apartment, a missing woman? Mainstream channels couldn’t help but lap up a mystery like that. There was a national hotline for tips. Nobody ever had any real info.
There was just something about that call. The time. Exactly 3 years later. Maybe it was just coincidence but there hadn’t been a lead in so long even a questionable tip felt like something I should chase. I held on to the slightest hope she was still alive out there. I didn’t bother telling the police about the call. I was honestly more qualified than them to look into it anyway.
A door I hadn’t noticed before slowly creaked open in front of me and I could see the slightest amount of light leak from the doorway. Cautiously, I peeked into the hallway. It was empty and seemed to stretch endlessly into the dark, outside of a single, barely-visible room. It seemed to be the source of the very small amount of light I was seeing.
“I wanna let whoever’s here know that I’m armed,” I shouted, “but I’m not in the mood to shoot anyone tonight, so let’s not have it come to that.”
I waited for some kind of response but none came. Slowly, I made my way to the door, stopping just outside.
“Last chance for whoever’s there to say something.” Silence continued. I swung around and kicked the door open pointing my revolver into the empty room that stood before me. Empty other than a table with a lamp on it anyway. I took a few steps into the room and the door slammed shut behind me. I spun around and fired a couple rounds through the door.
There was a moment of silence before I attempted to turn the doorknob. I jiggled it to no avail, grumbling a few expletives under my breath. Looking around the room, I got a closer look at the table with the lamp. A flyer was set upon it. It read “Come and join the Brotherhood of Man!” Of course, it was some cult, I thought. I reached down to pick up the flyer and examine it closer but before I could, a voice called from beyond the bullet-ridden door.
“Remember when you were young?”
“Who the hell are you?” I called back.
“I am a Representative of Man.” I tried to catch a glimpse of the so-called “representative” through the holes in the door but it seemed like the hallway consumed the little amount of light streaming out, leaving it entirely imperceptible. “Do you remember? As a child, you… We all shone like the sun. But now… there’s this look in your eyes. Too old to lose it… yet still too young to choose your own path-”
“I chose my path perfectly fine, thank you.”
“And yet, you are here. You think your arrival is accidental? The Church of Man is such a holy place to be.”
“You talking about the shitty cult this flyer is advertising?”
“A cult?” The Representative chuckled. “We found an ancient miracle. Something that proves the divine. All the gifts of life are held within these walls. The people should all see its light.”
“I have no need for whatever ancient thing you think you’ve found, charlatan. Open this door.” I kicked the door. He laughed again.
“He doesn’t think you should leave, nor do I.”
“I don’t care what you or ‘He’ thinks I should do. I’m looking for a missing person.”
The Representative was silent. Silent just long enough that I began to worry he left. As I went to speak up, his voice returned.
“He would like to come and meet you, but he thinks he’ll blow your mind.”
“The fuck are you talking about?”
Silence.
I tried the door again. It still didn’t work.
Silence.
“I’ve taken care of everything,” a new voice whispered from behind me. I spun around again pointing my firearm in the direction of the new voice. “The world is doing fine.” I wanted to squeeze the trigger and perforate the figure in front of me, but the muscles in my hand had gone stiff. I couldn’t seem to focus on Him. Images of broken light danced before me like a million eyes. At one moment, He was a shine. Then just a blur in the light. Seemingly pure darkness and the whole rainbow all at once. Straight light moving and removing sharpness of the color. I closed my eyes and backed away until I hit the door.
“What the hell are you?” I barely choked out, my throat so dry it was difficult to speak. Despite my eyes being closed, they still burned looking in the direction of Him. I dropped my weapon and used both of my arms to cover my eyes.
“I was nothing once. Then suddenly I was everything. Until eventually, I was just one of many things. As I explored those many things, I found that I could be anything. I've seen suns that were freezing and lives that were through. I’ve watched the ripples change their size. Yet, in all of those things, all of that time, the one thing I couldn’t find was why. It never troubled me much until I looked out one morning and a star was gone. I felt a deep yearning to know why. Over many millennia somehow that yearning brought me here to Earth and thus to you.”
“Me? What do I have to do with any of this?”
“Breathe. Breathe in the air. Don’t you feel it?” Involuntarily, I took a deep break. I felt very still. Tense. Suddenly, the voice was closer, as if right next to both ears. “Look.”
…
My eyes were forced open. The dim orange lamplight I expected had been replaced with stark fluorescent white. I stood atop a spiral stair. It led down into an area that I instinctively knew was a hallway on a starship. Humanity had built no such thing as far as I knew. It reminded me of the setting of some novel I’d read. Or maybe it was a TV show. My memory had grown hazy. I made my way down the staircase. Or at least my body did. I didn’t feel wholly in control of myself.
I felt a strange itch in my mind as if something was wrong, but I pushed it down. I wandered seemingly endless, identical hallways until finally finding a room with a number I recognized. Room 1218. Faye and I stayed in this room. I swiped my crew ID by the door and entered. Faye sat at a small vanity, organizing our makeup before getting up, smiling, and running to hug me.
“Gyn! That took longer than I expected. I was worried we weren’t going to launch again.” Something felt wrong about her. She was visually Faye but in my hazy, faraway memories, she wasn’t like this. My train of thought was interrupted by her kissing me and grabbing my hands, leading me to bed. There was a laugh in my voice.
“I just got here, Faye,” my voice continued, “I was gonna sit for a moment.” She shook her head and smiled wider.
“Oh no, you’re not,” she giggled, “you made me wait far too long for this.” She kissed me again. This time it felt far away, as if…
Before I could think on it further, she began to undress me and my hands began to undress her. It wasn’t long until some woman who looked like Faye and some woman who looked like me had slipped under the sheets, seemingly finding themselves in the throes of passion.
I felt nothing.
Something was very wrong about all of this. Something that was right in front of my eyes but I couldn’t quite see far enough behind the curtain to catch it.
Suddenly, a bloodcurdling scream echoed down the hallway, startling Faye and me from our moment and snapping me back from my extreme out-of-body experience. I jumped out of bed, grabbing for the weapon on my bedside table before I did, and placed myself between Faye and the door. I noticed the weapon I had grabbed. This wasn’t my revolver. As my body moved toward the door, my mind was stuck on this thing in my hand. I couldn’t even conceive of it as a gun. I carried an antique Smith & Wesson Model 29. I got it back when I was a…
A loud crash echoed from the corridor, followed by a bang on the door that caused a frightful squeak from Faye. A few more bangs hit the door before a creature broke on through to the other side with a purposeful grimace and a terrible sound. Out of the debris, I saw a man-sized wolf creature, its claws and teeth bloodied with strips of a uniform caught on them. Its fur was brown but dark enough it was almost indistinguishable from black. Its eyes shined but held no sign of thought, just a primal, deadly darkness that looked past me and directly to Faye.
“A werewolf!” she cried. A… werewolf? The creature bashed a monstrous arm against the interior wall, seeming to prepare to charge. My body readied the weapon it held.
“Can't you see that I am not afraid of you?” the sound of my voice stated.
The creature charged but not at me, rushing towards the bed. Towards Faye. I quickly fired off as many blasts as the weapon held. The werewolf stumbled back, collapsing in the doorway. A werewolf? And wait, hadn’t it charged? How did it fall back into the doorway? My body made its way up to the creature and kicked it once. There was no response.
My body then stepped out into the corridor. Red emergency lights flashed on and off, making it difficult to distinguish exactly how much blood had been splattered all over the walls from down the hallway to the right. Scraps of fabric and bodies in various states of dismemberment were strewn along the way. The nearest one just a few feet away, at least the majority of it was. I assumed the remains of a chewed-up arm lying across the hallway from my door belonged to this body. It was also missing both legs, the left one entirely and the right one from the knee down. Its face, screwed up in pure terror, looked strangely similar to that operations technician from earlier. My body gagged at the bloody mess that took the place of where the body on the floor’s throat should have been. I looked away.
To the left, I saw in the distance a few people running both away and towards me. Full sensation then returned to me. The corridor was extremely cold. I was squeezing this gun in my hand. When I looked at it, my revolver was there this time. The people down the hallway were calling out to me but I couldn’t distinguish what they were saying. I realized I was still nude and stepped back into my room. I stared at Faye for a moment and then looked down at the beast. It really was a werewolf. A werewolf? That wasn’t right. I looked back at the gun in my hand. Once again, it was that unrecognizable thing.
What was all of this? Lately things, they didn't seem the same. Faye wasn’t the way I remembered her. I wasn’t who I remembered being. Things… objects… The makeup of the whole world was different. I looked around, examining the world around me for what felt like ages. The longer I looked, the longer I thought, the closer I got to the meaning of all of this, and the closer I got to the meaning, the sooner I knew I was dreaming.
That was right. I was dreaming. None of this was real. Nothing was real. The apartment. That… entity. That was my reality. This was not Faye in front of me, it was some apparition, seeking to trick me into living this manufactured life within this dream. I looked down at myself. This wasn’t even my body. It was more like a body I had once dreamed of having, long before I accepted who I was, the way I was born, and all the scars I had accumulated over my life. I looked around, hoping to see anything that helped me distinguish this from reality. The dream had seemingly frozen around me. Just a picture, an image caught in time. Eventually, I found what I was looking for.
The radio was still clipped on my belt, in the pile of clothes on the floor. I reached down and grabbed it, staring at it. It was hard to look at, as if barely real. A shine. A blur. A rainbow in the dark.
Almost like Him.
I increased the volume on the radio, and the static from before came streaming in. The room around me warped and twisted. I kept staring at the radio, my eyes burning as I clung to the last remnant of reality. A voice crackled through the static. Him.
“Just think of what your life might be in a world like you have seen.”
“I don’t want a life like this.”
“I’ve seen into your mind, Gyneth.”
“What did you do to Faye?”
“You wish this vision might come to pass and not fade like all your other dreams.”
“WHAT DID YOU DO TO FAYE?”
“I’m sure we will all miss her so but you know she does not have to go.”
“You…” Faye’s terrified visage exclaimed in fear, the facade’s last attempt to seduce me. The other me rushed to her side.
“Gyn, is it dead?”
“I think… I hope so,” other me said, still pointing her weapon toward the dead beast that lay in the doorway.
“Please, don’t leave me alone in here.”
“I would never,” other me replied.
“You promise?”
“I promise,” other me reassured.
“Is this truly not your desires made real?” He asked.
“Let me out of here.”
“Is this not all you’ve ever dreamed?” He chided.
“Let. Me. Out. Of. Here.”
“I’ve seen within your mind. I know what you-”
“LET ME OUT OF HERE NOW, DAMMIT!”
…
I woke up on the floor in the room. He was gone. Or at least seemed to be. The door was still closed and still had bullet holes. My firearm was on the floor across the room. It took me a moment to notice the radio was still blaring static. I clicked it off again. My body ached. The sleep was still in my eyes. The dream was still in my head. My mind was whirring, trying to decipher what was real. Within it echoed memories of a life that could have been and the life that was. I struggled my way into a standing position and slowly shambled the room to retrieve my weapon.
After some effort, I finally reached my revolver lying on the ground and picked it up. As I did, the door to the room gently slid open. I crept into the hallway, my revolver ready, and looked back toward where I had come in earlier. Where there had once been a door, there was now just a wall. Suddenly, the door to the room I exited slammed closed, and a sharp pain shot through my head. I stumbled up against a wall, eyes closed, grasping my head in one hand and my firearm in another.
“Shit,” I murmured, “is this still a dream?”
“The door to dreams was closed,” a new voice spoke. Gritting my teeth through the pain, I pointed my revolver in the direction of the voice and opened my eyes as wide as I could bear to see what appeared to be a man in blue hooded robes, his face largely obscured by the darkness. He seemed annoyed that I pointed my weapon at him. “There is certainly no need for that here.”
“I think it’s perfectly necessary after what I just went through.”
“So you are here to drag our dear Faye from her rightful place in The Universal Dream back out there to the world where they fill your head all full of lies?” he scoffed, “What a foolish assertion when someone so godlike has personally spoken his will to you. This is not our fate. Especially not hers. She could spit in the eyes of fools and make them see the unattractive truth that their world is merely the beginning. He can show us-” It was my turn to scoff.
“He has shown me quite enough,” I called back, head still aching, “My mind is not for rent to any god. Or government, for that matter. ‘He’ promises what? She walks through a sunken dream for what? So he can control her and everyone else? I forge my own path. I will choose free will.” Without aiming, I fired off a gunshot. I didn’t hear it hit anything. “Get out of my way or the next one goes through your middle.” He laughed.
“You fancy yourself a modern-day warrior?” he chuckled, “You've seen right through distorted eyes and still you come to the conclusion your Faye needs to be saved?” The headache grew more intense and I couldn’t muster the strength to pull the trigger again. My brain was squirmin' like a toad.
“Perhaps you're smiling now,” I growled, collapsing to the ground in pain, “smiling through this darkness but if you don’t take me to her, you won’t have a mouth left to smile with you-” The pain grew too much for me to speak and the world seemed to fade somewhat around me, blinking in and out of existence until it was all gone. In the darkness, I heard screaming and bullwhips cracking. Then a cacophony of other, indistinguishable sounds swallowed up what I had briefly been able to make out until the moment seemed lost in all the noise.
…
Everything stopped. The noise, then the darkness, the pain. The man in blue was no longer there. My revolver was also not in my hand. A dim light hung from the ceiling flickering and as I regained my ability to recognize things, I saw a wall made of bars to my right. Out past the bars, many figures clad in dark maroon robes knelt in front of some kind of stage. Curtains hung around it. The room seemed to be an auditorium and was mostly lit by firelight. I wasn’t able to determine the source.
I looked back to the cell around me and noticed an immobile figure lying on the floor, shackled to the wall. From where I sat, it appeared to be a woman. She was a bit emaciated, as if somewhat malnourished but familiar. I dragged myself across the floor to examine her closer and confirm my fears. It was Faye. I checked for a pulse and was relieved to find one, albeit weak and slow. I tried to shake her awake to no avail.
“Passionate, bright young things,” a familiar voice spoke from outside our cell, “I don't know why nobody told you that you are not a victim here.” The blue-robed man from earlier stood just outside the bars. There was a ring of keys hooked to the decorative belt he wore. I could tell from his voice he was grinning. I spat in his direction and continued tending to the unconscious Faye, my head still spinning too much to speak. He chuckled once again. “What civilized behavior,” he joked, “Exactly what I’d expect from someone like you. You do realize that the body you hold is no longer your precious Faye? She has ascended far beyond our feeble-” I uttered a loud grumble to cut him off from his incessant rambling.
“I don’t care what you think has become of her,” I shouted, “She defines herself. Not you. Not me. Her.” Her body stirred somewhat in response to my shouting, to the disturbed surprise of our captor. Her eyes opened briefly and I saw what he was talking about. Right now, she wasn’t quite Faye. She was a girl with kaleidoscope eyes lost in the dark waters of an endless dream. Then, for a moment, her eyes cleared and she saw me.
“Gyn?” she whispered, “Change my life again…” and then she fell back into the dream.
“Do you see what I mean now?” the blue-robed man said, “Even conscious she’s barely sure what’s real. She's lived every moment of her life ten times or more at this point.” The cultists behind him suddenly began to chant. It sounded like a chorus of something like “We've been livin' in the flames. We've been eatin' up our brains.” I felt the headache begin again, though this time starting very dull. Faye’s previously peaceful, unconscious face began to look like she was in pain too. I looked at the man still standing outside the bars.
“Who the hell are you anyway?” I asked. He seemed to think a moment about whether he should bother to tell me.
“You can call me Reverend,” he finally said, “not that you will need to address me much longer.” He seemed so sure of himself. The headache suddenly spiked and I could tell he was feeling it too. He glanced behind him towards the empty stage, as if expecting something. The chanting had grown louder. Through the headache, I could no longer make out what they were saying. The wind began to howl and the stage seemed to rumble. Then there was a shine. A blur. Darkness.
The curtains flew and then He appeared. He swooped like a song out from every color at once taking center stage. His presence was just as immense in this auditorium as when it was just the two of us in that small room. It was silent for a moment except a crackle, which seemed to emanate from Him. Then, He spoke.
“There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke,” He started, “There’s a lot of people saying we’d be better off dead.” Reverend fully turned his back to us to listen, leaning up against the bars of our cell. As I tore off a strip of my shirt, He continued his ramblings. I wrapped one end of the cloth strip around one hand. On the stage, He just kept saying meaningless things. I crept up right behind Reverend and snatched the cell’s keys from his hip, hoping he was too entranced by Him to notice. “I have seen every moment of this world and history shows again and again how nature points up the folly of man. The time to hesitate is through. Every one of us has all we need. It’s time for us to emerge and tell the world ‘We have assumed control’ and let them see The Universal Dream.”
I tossed the strip of cloth over Reverend’s head, wrapped the other end around my other hand, and pulled, kicking his legs out from under him at the same time. The Reverend fell to the ground, struggling, as I tried my hardest to strangle him. He grasped and kicked and gurgled, trying to call for help, but I kept pulling with all my strength. I stood back up, yanking him back to his feet to ensure he didn’t get used to being in one position long enough to remember if he had any sharp objects on him. Reverend’s struggles were quickly noticed by Him. His voice filled the auditorium so completely that I felt it with all five senses.
“Stop.”
I gasped for air and fell to the ground, my hands releasing the cloth strip. Reverend took a deep breath and scurried away from our cell, he absently checked his side for the keys and silently swore when he didn’t find them. I struggled to my feet and rushed to Faye, trying keys on the keyring until I unlocked her shackles. Faye started coughing. I sat her up and patted her back. She was suddenly very troubled in her sleep. I could somehow feel her calling out to me. I grew dizzy suddenly and backed away from Faye slightly so I wouldn’t fall on her. Everyone was watching from outside the bars. I couldn’t see any of their faces from where I was but I knew they were looking at me. My breath became ragged and heavy. Once again, His voice filled my every sense.
“Sleep.”
…
A familiar voice called me. It was a comforting, safe voice but the tone was urgent, maybe panicked. It faded in and out. I couldn’t really make out any of the words. It was dark. Or were my eyes closed? I wasn’t sure. I couldn’t move but I felt like I was following the voice. Or it was moving closer to me? It was hard to tell through the darkness. It grew closer and closer until it felt right next to me. Then, I lost it entirely.
“Gyneth!” Faye shouted.
I bolted upright and looked around frantically until my eyes met hers.
“F-Faye?” I stuttered out, still out of sorts.
“Gyneth!” she exclaimed, hugging me, “it’s really you this time, isn’t it? I can tell.” I slowly began to register the world around us, or, more accurately, the lack of one. We were in an endless black void. There seemed to be plenty of light. I could see Faye with no issues. There was just nothing but darkness around us.
“Where are we?” I asked. Faye looked around.
“I don’t know,” she replied, “I’ve been trying to find where I've been for a long time. Trying to find you. Those cultists they took me… a long time ago. They were stalking me. I tried to run. Tried to hide but couldn’t get away. How long have I been gone?” She looked very troubled and… healthy. This was definitely Faye but her body was not the one I had just been carrying.
“You were gone for three years,” I said, “I’ve come to take you home.” Faye hugged me tightly and then pulled away. She looked determined.
“There must be some kind of way out of here,” Faye said, looking around. I looked around too then looked down at myself. It clicked together. Another dream.
“Faye, this is going to sound a little crazy, but this all might be a dream right now,” I said, “A shared dream.” She looked like she wanted to call me crazy but then her expression changed. She was no longer looking at me. I followed her gaze and found she was staring at a person approaching us.
“You've been down too long in the midnight sea, you two,” the person said, “but one thing I can tell you is you got to be free.” As they approached, I could make out more of their details. They had long, messy hair, and their eyes seemed to be many colors but they never matched one another. Their outfit seemed to be endlessly shifting every moment. I spoke up before they got too close.
“Who are you?” I asked.
“It’s not that important, but you may call me Time,” they responded. They gestured and a door appeared in the void. Time opened it. Inside was a dingy, dimly lit office. It was well lived-in. “Come in here, dear gals, have a cigar. Or cigarette. Or whatever you prefer to smoke.” I declined the offer.
“Trying to quit,” I said. Time looked amused.
“Even in a dream?” they said, “That takes dedication.”
“Well, I could use a cigarette,” Faye said. Time took a cigarette, put it in her mouth, and with the snap of their fingers lit it. Faye looked at me bewildered. “This is definitely a dream.”
Time gestured for us to sit in the two chairs in front of the desk while they sat behind it.
“What is the point of all this?” I asked, “We need to wake back up ASAP. We can’t be wasting-”
“Time? You are not evicting Time from their moment,” they stated, “And this is certainly MY moment.” The room rearranged around us. The dingy, dimly lit space was replaced with a sterile, bright white one. “Now, the two of you seem to be at the center of all this going on with Him and I don’t think even He knows why. Do you want to know?”
“I’ve been trying to figure that out for years,” I rolled my eyes, “Nobody will ever let you know when you ask the reasons why. They all play coy and talk in riddles. You telling me you aren’t gonna do that too?” Faye sat silently. Time pointed to her.
“She is a deep dreamer, capable of much more than you think,” they explained. Then they pointed at me. “Your park was real and dreamless,” they continued, “The only reason you can be here is because you don’t dream and she dreams deeply, so deeply someone like Him can-” Faye stood suddenly, interrupting Time.
“What does any of that matter right now?”
“My point is you, Mrs. Faye, are the conduit to all of the cult’s power,” Time huffed, “Removing you from The Universal Dream would render them incapable of doing anything and may even kill Him.”
“Then let’s do it!” Faye shouted.
“Faye, please listen to what Time has to say first,” I said. She crossed her arms and sat back down.
“Removing you from The Universal Dream will cut you off from all of your power,” Time continued, “and once you're gone you can never come back. Your dreams affect reality. They can ripple and bend the real world. That’s what makes you so valuable to Him and the Church of Man.”
“If this is what I need to do to kill Him and escape this cult, I am willing to do it,” Faye responded. The dream rumbled. My head throbbed.
“Ah, well, speak of Him and He shall appear,” Time chuckled. The shine, the blur, the rainbow, the dark. There He was.
“I see Time itself works against me,” He accused. Time waved a hand and the office dissipated back into the void.
“I work against no one,” Time stated, “but nothing's gonna change my world without my consent.”
“Well, I've always had a deep respect and I mean that most sincerely,” He replied. Then, another familiar voice spoke. Just behind Him was a figure in black which pointed at me. The Representative.
“You were only waiting for this moment to arise,” he accused, approaching me, “You corrupter! You destroyer! We simply seek to mold a new reality! A better one! And you-” The Representative had made the mistake of getting too close to me. I grabbed the Representative by his robes and threw him at Him. Time looked at me, appalled, as the two beings collided. A soul-shredding screech echoed across the dreamscape.
“You-” Time started, “Do you even slightly understand what you’ve just done?” Faye and I stood in stunned silence at Time’s outburst. “Of course you wouldn’t,” they continued, “you may have just doomed your world.” Time waved their hands and the dream cut.
…
Faye and I both woke with a start on the floor of the cell. The first thing we noticed was the screaming. Through the bars, we could see chaos unfolding. Cultists rushed around the auditorium, some on fire. Periodically we would see a shadow jut across and impale one then consume it whole. The brief glimpses I could catch of that shadow made me feel immediately ill. It wasn’t just inhuman, it wasn’t supposed to exist anywhere. Its head was jagged and backward. Its limbs were bent at every angle at once. Just under the screams, I could hear this noise that wasn’t in this space before. It was a gurgling and a clicking all at once. Some glimpses of the creature were as though a void had opened up in the world, whereas other times it almost looked human. Broken and barely recognizable, but human. Our minds were so entranced and horrified by the scene that we didn’t notice the other figure in the cell.
“The two of you looking to die here or should I point you towards the exit?” Time said. We were both surprised to see them. “I brought you both your things from where they were keeping them.” They set our things on the floor. “I can’t help much but that hallway will lead you to a means of escape.” They pointed at the hallway to our right. “Just straight down that way. That’s all the help I can give you. I need to get out of here myself now.” Time gestured and disappeared.
The cultists were thinning out which was bad for us. Less to distract the terror that was hunting the area. I went through our pile of things and suited up, helping Faye to her feet and her portion of the goods.
“We need to be quick, direct, and efficient here,” I said to her, “I’ll need you to listen to me closely and stay by my side. If we get separated, neither of us will make it.” Faye nodded.
“If you say run, I'll run with you and if you say hide, we'll hide.” I hugged her and then went up to the bars, using the keys to unlock the door. Eviscerated and half-eaten bodies lay strewn all over the room. I couldn’t hear the creature anymore. I hoped that meant it was gone. I turned to Faye and grabbed her hand.
“If you need me to carry you, I can do that,” I said, “just let me know.” She shook her head.
“I’m fine. I can run.”
“Good.” I gripped Faye’s hand and took a deep breath.
I threw open the door to the cell and we took off running straight towards the hallway Time had pointed out to us. I took my free hand and pulled my revolver from the holster because I knew I’d need it. How many shots did I have left before I ran out of bullets? I had only brought the six shots I’d loaded into the thing before I left home. I hadn’t figured I needed more than that. Guess I was mistaken. We stepped over and around corpses in various states of dismemberment, trying our best not to look too closely at any of them or think too hard about any of this.
I kept an ear out as we ran for that sound I’d heard earlier, the one I swore was the creature. That creature, I had to assume, was my fault. Some kind of vicious fusion of Him and The Representative. I didn’t think pushing them together could cause something like this. Something so brutal and destructive. Faye started dragging behind, bringing me out of my thoughts and back to what was going on. Faye was pointing out in front of us. Reverend was crawling across the floor towards us. Faye insisted we stop to help him.
I approached and flipped him over with my foot. I immediately took a step back. His tongue dangled where his chin used to be and there were two dark holes where I expected eyes. He gurgled and hissed and clawed out with his one remaining arm. His crawling had left a blood trail behind him that seemed to run endlessly into the distance. On a whim, I glanced behind us. A broken, twisted shape stood silhouetted by the fire in the distance. We started running again.
…
The corridor seemed to repeat endlessly. The only thing showing that we were making progress were the different mangled bodies strewn everywhere. How long were Faye and I in that dream? This creature seemed to have done a lot of damage in a short time. Every time I looked back, it was still close behind us, never giving us a chance to slow down or take a break.
Faye eventually started dragging again and this time requested I carry her. I holstered my revolver and picked her up, continuing our way down the ever-repeating, carnage-filled hallway until the hallway gave way to a hanger. The hanger was all-white and lit so that it looked like neverending whitespace. We almost didn’t notice the all-white structure that sat in the center. I looked back and the creature was the closest it had been. I could almost hear the noise from before and it was growing closer. I hoped the ground ahead was flat and mustered all I could to sprint the remaining distance.
About halfway there, I tripped. I grasped Faye close as I fell and spun in the air so that I would land on my back and she would land on top of me. I hit the ground hard. Faye landed on top of me just as hard, knocking the wind out of me. Faye scrambled to her feet, seemingly unharmed. She moved to help me up but screamed and almost fell over. I looked towards where we came. The creature was almost standing over me. I reached for my gun as the creature brought a prehensile appendage down and grabbed my leg.
“Gyneth!” Faye shouted. I tried to wave her on.
“Get to that thing! That’s our way out!” I shouted. The creature started to pull me. “Go!” I yelled, “I’ll be right behind you, I promise!” Faye hesitated a moment and then ran. The creature reacted to Faye’s running, letting go of my leg and rushing to follow her.
“No!” I shouted, scrambling to my feet to chase it, “I’m what you wanted, right?” It didn’t respond. Frustrated, I aimed my revolver and shot it, hitting one of its upper limbs. Then, it turned to me. I got a clear look at the thing. It was more a writhing mass of flesh and bone than a being. Limbs were attached willy-nilly and the head really was on backward, with a connected hole for eyes. It flickered between flesh and void and neither were particularly pleasant to see. It lunged at me. I jumped back, firing another shot, this time adding another hole to its head. It staggered back. I just needed to get around it. Faye had almost made it.
The creature lunged at me again and this time after dodging, I ran past it, being more careful now that I knew the floor wasn’t necessarily flat. I could hear the creature gurgling, clicking, and stomping behind me but I didn’t dare look back. Faye made it to the structure and disappeared inside. My body was burning but I knew I had to give it one last push. I went for the full-on sprint. The creature kept up with me but it couldn’t quite reach me. I took long, high strides so that I could avoid tripping again. I was going to make it and nothing was going to stop me.
Except the structure didn’t open.
I spun around and pointed my revolver at the creature but it was already upon me. I ducked as it grabbed for me and unloaded the rest of my revolver on it. I knew I only had a few bullets left but it was all I could do.
BANG. Another shot, another hole in the head. The creature staggered back.
CLICK. Damn, I thought I had at least one more.
The structure remained closed. This was it then, wasn’t it? I took a deep breath. At least Faye was safe. The creature lumbered back towards me, making a new assortment of sounds thanks to the new holes in its head. I closed my eyes and braced for the pain. It's better to burn out than it is to rust, isn’t that what they say?
“Gyneth!”
I looked up. Faye was reaching out to me. The creature was readying a swing. I grabbed her hand. She pulled me up into the structure. I heard the creature slam the ground outside and then go silent. I looked around.
The structure seemed to be a two-story pod home. One story for living quarters and the upper floor for…
“Gyneth, it’s a spaceship!” And it was. I made my way up the ladder to the cockpit and sat down in the pilot seat. “Do you know how to pilot it?”
“No idea but I’ll try.” I looked over the console and found a manual in a nearby drawer. I opened it and went through it, looking for a way to get the ship going.
“You know, I had so many dreams but you were always fake in them. This time I know it’s really you but what if this is another dream?”
“It’s not.” I flicked some switches and pushed some buttons on the console.
“How do you know, Gyn?”
“I just know.” The ship started up. “Faye, I think you should sit down somewhere.”
One moment we’re in some hangar. Then we’re so deep in space that the Earth is no longer in sight. I put the ship on autopilot.
“Will it be okay if we go back down below?”
“I think the spaceship knows which way to go.”
Faye led me back down the ladder and into one of the rooms on the bottom floor. A bedroom. A small piece of paper sat on the center of the bed.
“I saw this earlier but didn’t look closely at it,” Faye said, hopping into bed. I picked up the note. It was short.
It read:
Shine on, Space Cowboy. Take care of the ship.
I don’t think it was for us.
I climbed into bed with Faye. She smiled and kissed me.
“I missed you,” she said.
“I missed you too,” I replied.
I held her close and drifted off into a dreamless sleep.
Special Thanks to Rush, Bowie, Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Yes, The Beatles, Blue Öyster Cult, and all the other bands that inspired this story.
Category:RTWC23
Category:Space
Category:Dreams/Sleep
Category:Monsters
Category:Beings
Category:Music
Category:Reality
Category:Dismemberment
Category:Disappearances
Category:Weird