Worried Dream

"Howlin'" Cover

## Variant Covers

* "Wish You Were Here" Variant
* "Dastardly End" Variant

## Creator Details

### Other Titles

War Never Changes, Dastardly End, Isolationism, The Only Difference Between Suicide and Martyrdom is Press Coverage

### Creators

Morpheus

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## **Synopsis**

There was a charming town in Texas. It was quiet and rural. On the surface, immediate thought processing would lead cynics to believe this was a sundown town or a racist part of Texas. Contrary to popular belief, it was not. It was only a small town, and its name was Marble Falls. There was a local, a corn farmer named Alec Stone. He was an honest, hard-working man. A Vietnam veteran who had scraped and saved all his money from the army to buy land in his hometown alongside his wife, Lorraine. She was a good woman, lovely, until she died in 2006, and Alec was alone with his own mental anguish and misgivings. His two children did not visit as often as they should, nor did they get him the help he needed. Alec had an extreme case of PTSD, for you see.

It was a well-known fact that Alec had post-traumatic stress disorder. Marble Falls locals knew, as did land mogul Terry Keys. Terry wanted Alec's land and had wanted it for years, but this time, Terry was tired of the constant rejection and run-around that Alec did with Terry. It was not intentional. Alec did not want to sell his land but cherished the moments with Terry because Alec would go days without talking to anyone. Using his ill-gotten contacts, Terry enlisted a few men who would do anything for a paycheck—including but not limited to terrorizing a sweet, innocent old man in the dead of night.

Alec was doing what he usually did at night. He watched his corn on his front porch with a rifle and a beer. Alec was a Southerner; this was his peace. Then the corn moved, yet there was no wind. Rustles were heard in the middle distance. First was his heart rate, followed by sweat from his balding scalp. His hands shook. The corn fields were not a field. They were a jungle, and "the enemies were coming from the trees." Alec armed himself. He was young again; his hard hat had an Ace in the upper flaps, and Alec went to war.

By the time Alec had finished, he had not killed the Vietcong, and it was not his CO talking. He had murdered the entire group of people, and it was Terry, begging for his life moments before Alec splattered his brains across the golden corn. And as every reporter and journalist who covered the story would undoubtedly note, it was all downhill from here.

The media were vultures, relentless and unfeeling. They told the story of a deranged serial killer in Marble Falls, Texas, killing civilians over land. No mention of Alec Stone's history or background or how Alec was left to deal with his struggles alone in a backwater rural town. There was nothing as **Chas Constantine** ignored his television in his office. He knew of the story, but it was not something he investigated, and as heartless as it may sound, Chas did not care. He did not until his friend, Joseph Michaels from high school, called him. Joseph had become a reporter in his time and asked Chas to help him uncover the truth about Alec. Initially, Chas was going to decline, but his girlfriend at the time, Asteria Locke, forced him to say yes. She was attempting to make Chas more altruistic, so Chas and Joseph were on a bus heading to Marble Falls.

The long bus ride allowed for the situation to become dire. It transitioned from a simple war over land to Marble Falls, becoming a DMZ as it caused riots over who was right and wrong. The sweet, quiet, and rural town of Marble Falls was burning, forcing the Military Police to come in. Finally, Alec's background was released, but this only added gasoline to the fire burning the south. When asked by Joseph what his thoughts were on it, Chas expressed that the only difference between suicide and martyrdom was press coverage.

Chas and Joseph made their way to the quaint and subtle motel when the dreaded bus finally stopped in Marble Falls. It was the only one in the town that had not been vandalized or burnt down. Almost immediately, Joseph fell asleep, but Chas rarely slept. Between his demon blood and nightmares, Chas had not fully slept since he was eighteen. Instead of letting his girlfriend know that he was safe or to research or do anything else, Chas astral projected to Alec's farm. It was always a bad idea. Chas and magic led to more pain, trauma, or death for Chas or those around him. Asteria had convinced Chas that maybe this time would be different. It never was. It was always the same. Asteria had good intentions but the pathway to Hell and all that.

Chas was not surprised and showed no emotional range from what he saw. Chain-link fences held the strung and scalped corpses of the people that ventured too close to Alec's land. As Chas approached Alec's home, the bodies became deranged and mutilated. The original men that invaded Alec's home were strung upside down with their feet cut off and their hands stuffed into their mouths: guerilla warfare and fear tactics. And it grimly reminded Chas of The Levees.

Entering the home, Chas found Alec crying in a corner. Alec's crazed mumbles told stories of Vietnam. How Alec did not sign up for this and only did what his CO told him. Alec had donned his Marine garments, and Chas somberly left Alec's home, knowing that tomorrow would be a bad day. When Chas returned to his body, he awoke Joseph and attempted to force him to leave. The two argued and fist-fought and then geared up to investigate the home after Joseph's stubbornness led to Chas agreeing to protect him magically.

Joseph threw up. The sight of what Chas saw last night was more grizzly in the daylight, and Joseph threw up again as they inched closer to the home. A reasonable distance away, Joseph raised his camera to take pictures of the carnage and bodies. Just before Joseph realized that it was a mistake coming here, that Chas was right, Joseph's brain matter exploded on the face of Chas. For Alec, they were a two-person Vietcong patrol, but in real life, they were two adults. However, when the camera dropped to the ground, and the flash was seen in Alec's scope, this gave the man pause—a moment of clarity amidst the chaos. Alec realized he had just killed a man, not much older than his son, and saw as Chas ran toward the house to stop Alec.

When Chas got to the porch, Alec stumbled backward and dropped the gun, retreating inside. The rifle fell to the ground and misfired, shooting Chas in the stomach and sending him flying off the porch steps. Chas was dying. It was an inescapable truth that Chas was dying. Sadly, Chas had magic to escape this situation, but Joseph did not. Chas used a black curse to transfer his wound to a nearby corpse, healing himself. After moments of letting the shock wear off from being shot for the first time, Chas slowly entered Alec's home with extreme caution.

Alec was sitting on the couch in the living room, sobbing, weeping. Alec was hurting. He had just a little too much and lost just a little more. Chas approached the man and sat next to him. Alec told Chas that his mental demons were too much to bear and pleaded for help, but Alec asked for the one thing magic cannot do. Magic cannot heal a damaged soul or a fractured mind. The two sat in silence, staring at nothing and doing nothing. They stayed like that for a while. It was long enough for Chas to know this was the end of the line for Alec. As the sunset, Alec told Chas that he remembers being under the barbed wire in Vietnam and that his friends were on fire. Alec told him it would come to him in a dream and claimed he was worried about what it meant.

Quietly, Chas lit a cigarette and did not jump when the gunshot went off or when Alec's fresh blood mixed itself with the dried blood of Joseph on his face and clothes. He stared at the setting sun until it disappeared beyond the bloody rows of corn and mutilation. Chas dialed 911 on the landline and stepped into the bathroom.

Instead of doing the right thing when something traumatic happens, Chas did not go to his girlfriend. He did not go to Demetrius; he did not go to Dr. Joana Hendricks. Chas went to The Forever Lounge with blood on his face and ordered a beer, quietly shifting through his case files as Worried Dream played on the Jukebox in the corner. Silently raising a glass for Alec Stone and the war in his mind.

## **Notes**

* Alec Stone (Debut)
* Joseph Michaels (Debut)