Story: Oneiromancy, IX

(Part O , VIII , X)

In the shared dream, Helen and Stanley were caught up in something inexplicable to their sleep numbed minds. The shambling figure from the hut was a woman, a tweedy old-fashioned looking lady. Loose tendrils of coppery hair kept popping out in front of her ears, and being absently thrust back again.

"Prison. I've been here forever, trapped, lost and isolated from the rest of the dreamline. And it was my own fault, you see." The figure giggled a little, a little manically. "Now you're stuck here too, just because I will it."

Helen was quaking, waking, but remaining. Her mind moved up to full consciousness, paradoxically in this dream world. Her eyes goggled at the abstractions around her. "This can't be, we can't be awake in a dream world." She looked at Stanley, who was still mostly in a deep sleep state.

"Oh, it certainly is. This is barely the beginning. I've been awake in this dream land for ever and a day, long past the death of my body far, far away. There is no escape. I have imprisoned and deleted more visitors to this place than you can ever know, just for fun!"

"You're a warder or a monster."

"I am neither!"

"You've killed almost everyone else who can do what we do."

"Not so much killed, as 'deleted'!"

"Your will power is keeping us here..." Helen was thinking out loud by this point. Stanley was beginning to become agitated by her side as the reality penetrated further into his now-waking mind.

"Yes! Oh, is your boyfriend finally waking up? How lovely. He looks nice, if a bit plain."

"I'm afraid you're going to have to wait for next time before you find out how nice he is. And he's not my boyfriend."

"What are you --" The tweedy lady spun and hit the floor. Helen nursed her astral hand for a moment, and then she pushed Stanley back onto the raft and started pushing it off the beach and then kicking frantically to move it away from the shore and into the light.

Stanley looked bemused for a few more moments and then joined in with the kicking. Once they hit the broad sunlight away from the island, he managed to ask the inevitable question. "What on Earth is going on?! And what happened to your hand? And did you see the shells on the--"

Unfortunately that was when they woke up, and any more answers will have to wait until next time...

To be continued...